Jo's Boys: A Little Women Podcast

Wedding march or funeral dirge? We're joined to discuss the penultimate (and Peyton's least-favorite) chapter of Little Women by film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay. Willow is a film critic for publications like The Village Voice, Roger Ebert, Vulture, Little White Lies, Cleo Journal, MUBI Notebook, and many, many more. She has done freelance work with Netflix and the Academy of Motion Pic...

We're joined today by Claire Forrest, the award-winning author of Where You See Yourself, to chat all about the two youngest members of the March family -- well, the Brooke family. It's perhaps the most heterosexual chapter of this book to date, but we soldier on, and we also chat about Claire's outstanding debut novel and her publishing journey as a woman with cerebral palsy. 

Our cover...

Amy and Laurie play the newlywed game, smear the Irish, and invent Reaganomics. What a whirlwind! With us to discuss everyone's favourite (?) femme4femme couple are sister duo Mel and Teghan Hammond, authors of the forthcoming novel Lucy Uncensored. The novel stars a trans theatre nerd named Lucy who faces challenges when her school board bans her queer adaptation of “The Tempest.” Mel a...

Jo falls asleep fantasizing about becoming a literary spinster with a pen for a spouse. What follows had better be a dream sequence. Here to heap vials of wrath on the head of one Lou Alcott is legendary Dickinson scholar Martha Nell Smith. Dr. Smith is the Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities...

In the wake of her sister's death, Jo decides to take up Beth's mantle and become the angel of the house. When that doesn't work, she heads over to Meg's place to hear the pitch for motherhood. When that doesn't work, she wonders if she made a mistake turning down Laurie's proposal. (Little does she know that Laurie and Amy are presently boning down in a rowboat in the Alps.) Whose path ...

This week, Amy and Laurie consummate their love in a rowboat. Their romance has mystified readers and scholars for over a hundred years, but here, today, right now, award-winning author Torrey Peters will help us get to the bottom of it. (Spoiler alert: Laurie is the bottom.)

Torrey is the author of the novel Detransition, Baby, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Best Debut Novel. It ...

As we mourn our dear, sweet Beth, we sit down with author and journalist D.L. Mayfield to discuss what her story means. Why does Alcott portray Beth as "a little saint" and "the angel of the house?" What message is she sending? Is it anything like the messages little girls hear in high-control evangelical Christianity? 

D.L. Mayfield is an author and journalist who writes about neurodive...

Good night, sweet Beth, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Here to mourn the most meek and mild of the March sisters is disability scholar Saul Leslie, a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool who studies portrayals of disability in 20th century literature. Is there anything to admire about Alcott's depiction of this poor #invalid? Does she tick every box of hurtful disab...

As things heat up between Amy and Laurie, we're joined by Alena Smith, creator and showrunner of Dickinson, a television show for the exact demographic of this podcast. Like, have you ever wept openly at a Mitski concert? Can you not shut up about how every 19th century literary figure was part of the #RainbowCommunity? Do you have feelings for Chloe Fineman despite her associations with...

Who better to chat with us about this Meg-centric chapter than Meg herself? On June 28, 2023, before the SAG-AFTRA strike, actor Willa Fitzgerald chatted with us about Meg's marital woes and her own time playing Meg in the 2017 Masterpiece adaptation of Little Women. You can see Willa this fall in Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher, the thrillers Desperation Road and Strange Darlin...

Bestie of the pod James Frankie Thomas is BACK this week, on the heels of the release of his critically acclaimed debut novel Idlewild, to discuss Laurie and Amy's newfound romance, in which Amy wields the reins and the whip and Laurie delights in submission. We also offer our official statement on Kylimothée's public début at the Renaissance World Tour. Our cover art is by Mattie Lubc...

Beth's Secret: Strong contender for gloomiest lingerie brand of all time. As Beth and Jo head to the seaside to convalesce, science and health journalist Hannah Seo joins us to break down the history and utility of the beach as medicine.

Hannah was recently a fellow for the Well Desk at the New York Times, reporting on science, health, and the environment. Their work can be found in Wir...

An Alcott protagonist even more trans than Jo March? It's more likely than you think. Lou's 1876 sensation story "Enigmas" features a young man who's hired to spy on another young man - a man who is short and delicate and rather young-looking, all things considered. (See where this is going?) Our spy is swiftly overtaken by sexual attraction to the man he's been hired to report on. Befor...

Jo gets really into true crime and starts writing cool horror stories. Professor Bhaer, the Ana Mardoll of the 19th century, accuses her of Causing Harm through her writing and suggests she take up a new career as a street sweeper.

This episode could have been an hour-long anti-Bhaer hate rant, but our special guest, Andrew Leland, instead leads us into a wide-ranging discussion about t...

Jo narrowly skirts a marriage proposal by jetting - or carriage-ing - off to the Big Apple! There, she settles into boarding house life and gets to know her roommates: a couple of jerks who trash her fashion sense, a cultivated old spinster who takes her out to shows, and (sighs, groans, wailing and gnashing of teeth) Professor Bhaer.

Here to walk us through it all is JP Brammer, a.k.a....

This week on As the March Sisters Turn: Laurie's ready to pop the question. Jo would really rather he didn't--not least of all because she's sure Beth is in love with him. Why else would she gaze at him through the window all the time, sighing longingly? What a tangled web!

Here to help us with detangling are acclaimed author Katie Heaney and journalist Lindsey Weber, co-host of Who? Wee...

Amy March's Hot Girl Summer is in full effect! This week, for Amy's whirlwind tour through Europe and flirtatious encounters with the dashing Fred Vaughan, we're joined by legendary trans scholar Susan Stryker. Dr. Stryker is professor emerita of gender and women's studies at the University of Arizona. She is a founding editor-in-chief of Transgender Studies Quarterly and the author of n...

Hey, hey, let's go, Wakakusa monogatari! In this episode, we explore the ways Little Women and Louisa May Alcott have been represented in anime, from the long-running children's TV serials of the 80s and 90s to Louisa May Alcott's more recent turn as an anime heroine.

Our guest and guide for this episode is Lio Min, author of the novel Beating Heart Baby. It was named one of the best bo...