Explore every episode of the podcast Hugo, Girl!
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 83 - The Diamond Age: Ending Needed | 06 Aug 2025 | 01:10:06 | |
This month we read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. It was long! DM: Lori Music by Pets of Belonging Links: | |||
| Happy Hour 3 | 14 Jul 2025 | 00:40:19 | |
A pickle lemonade tasting, hot sauces we have loved, and happy things. After you listen, head over to our Happy Hour story highlight on instagram to see video of Petey romping around his shop! | |||
| Episode 79 - Moby-Dick at the Opera | 01 Apr 2025 | 00:56:17 | |
We're an opera podcast now, and you get to come with us to New York to see Moby-Dick at the Met! Bonus content: a Shamrock Shake tasting, boat facts at the South Street Seaport Museum, and documentation of every dog in Manhattan. Music by Pets of Belonging Transcript library - Many transcripts have not been edited. Anyone can edit them and make corrections, and we appreciate anyone who does!
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| Episode 14: The Windup Girl: Six Springs a'Kinking | 06 May 2020 | 01:07:13 | |
On day 5,000 of shelter-in-place, we discussed The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel in 2010. We would have voted differently. CW: rape, rape, and more rape, sexual slavery, colonialism Music by Eon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss | |||
| Episode 13: Bloodchild - Mademoiselle T'Gatoi (and a special announcement!) | 01 Apr 2020 | 00:55:42 | |
This month your podcasters discuss Bloodchild by Octavia Butler, winner of the 1985 Hugo Award for best novelette, and a boatload of other awards. We also make a special announcement at the top of the episode. CW: forced pregnancy/birth, colonialism, giant insects Music by Eon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss | |||
| Episode 12: Station Eleven - Social Distancing Special | 23 Mar 2020 | 00:46:27 | |
We got together (remotely!) to responsibly record a pandemic special for these weird times. We discuss Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2015 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Toronto Book Award), elephants, and why you should stay inside! CW: mention of rape/sexual assault
Music by Eon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss | |||
| Episode 11: Speaker for the Dead — Bugger Duggars | 04 Mar 2020 | 01:06:45 | |
In this month's episode, we revisit Ender Wiggin, perennial Mary Sue, 20-ish (but also 3,000-ish) years after the events of Ender's Game. Ender is thirty(-five), flirty, and thriving in his career as an intergalactic funeral director. But drama abounds when Ender gets caught in a love rhombus with an adolescent AI, a troubled teen on a faraway planet, and his own sister. Will Starfleet blow up an innocent planet? Has Haley learned how to say Valentine? Listen to find out! | |||
| Episode 10: The Man in the High Castle — This Could Have Just Been Bullet Points | 05 Feb 2020 | 00:59:40 | |
February's selection is Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. You've probably seen the Amazon TV series, which is based loosely on this novel.
Ever wonder what would have happened if Germany and Japan had won World War II? You can kind of find out in this novel, in between lengthy discussions about the state of American antiques, Colorado shopping trips, and awkward dinner parties. | |||
| Episode 9: Dune — Lowbacca | 01 Jan 2020 | 01:12:28 | |
Happy 2020! This episode, your three favorite space witches tackled Frank Herbert's magnum opus — Dune! This book has everything: jedi ladies, poop suits, misogyny, and a main character from the year 10,191 named JESSICA.
Show notes: | |||
| Episode 8: Rendezvous With Rama — Big Dumb Object | 04 Dec 2019 | 00:49:24 | |
This one was a classic, y'all! December's selection was Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama — a meditation on the power of awe, ancient alien life, gravity-defying space boobs, genetically engineered monkeys masquerading as house elves, and more. | |||
| Minisode 1: The Unboxing | 20 Nov 2019 | 00:15:58 | |
Presenting our very first minisode! We had forgotten a few things and had some extra news to share, so voila! Salient points include: -follow-up snake research -our Robert J. Sawyer mail correspondence -a shout-out to Hugos There, our counterpart podcast Enjoy! | |||
| Episode 7: Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire — Snake milk, or, non-dairy snake beverage | 06 Nov 2019 | 01:03:01 | |
It's here! The day everyone who doesn't read a lot of obscure sci-fi has waited for! Your favorite space crones read J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire. Listen as we delve into our Hogwarts houses, patroni, and wand types. We'll also get into some incredible tangents about magical contracts, house elf legal statuses, and why Haley thought Nagini had boobs. | |||
| Episode 6: Hominids — MOON! | 02 Oct 2019 | 00:58:45 | |
This month, we read Robert J. Sawyer's Hominids, the first in his Neanderthal Parallax series. (CW: discussion of sexual violence from an early scene in the novel.) This book is a wild ride — it asks the question "what if Neanderthals became the dominant human species?" that no one ever asked. Neanderthals are all bisexual, take care of the environment, and don't eat any grains. Also, it's unclear if the author has ever met a real-life woman based on some of his characterizations, which we unpack with a hearty laugh.
Show notes: https://www.sfwriter.com/hoforde.htm http://www.sfra.org/resources/sfra-review/258.pdf | |||
| Episode 78 - The Vor Game: Jackson's Whole Grimussy | 05 Mar 2025 | 01:04:58 | |
| Episode 5: The Left Hand of Darkness — TOO MALTY | 04 Sep 2019 | 01:01:27 | |
Howdy fair Hugonauts! This week, we dove into the sci-fi classic "The Left Hand of Darkness" by reigning queen of the genre Ursula K. Leguin. This book won both the Hugo AND Nebula award in 1970, proving that Ms. Leguin is, indeed, the GOAT.
Be sure to look out for diversions into horses and hardtack and Arctic expeditions, oh my! | |||
| Episode 4: American Gods — We Didn't Quite Understand Everything Here | 07 Aug 2019 | 01:06:56 | |
Our August selection was Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." This book has everything: numerous strange classifications of boobs, trickster gods, overwhelmingly polite midwestern courtesy, and coin tricks.
Show Notes: https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/neil-gaiman-american-gods-adaptation-starz-bad-idea.html http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/11/04/the-appropriateness-of-appropriation/ | |||
| Episode 3: The Demolished Man — Crossing the Peep Streams | 02 Jul 2019 | 01:02:41 | |
Welcome to Episode 3 of Hugo, Girl! This week we discuss Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man," the inaugural Hugo winner from 1953. We also reveal our Hogwarts houses, too. Notes: Great review of TDM and "The Science Fiction Project" elsewhere on this blog is otherwise a delight: http://lovehistory.net/blog/2012/07/21/the-demolished-man-by-alfred-bester-1953/ Howard Chaykin (artist): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Chaykin Link to our book edition: http://www.ibooksinc.com/pages/book.php
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| Episode 2: Binti — Those Malevolent Jellyfish | 05 Jun 2019 | 00:45:40 | |
Welcome to Episode 2 of Hugo, Girl! This time around, we read Binti by Nnedi Okorafor. This book has everything! Space shrimp, malevolent jellyfish, gelatinous rice pudding love, and more!
Notes:
https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/11/world/africa/himba-namibia-inside-africa/index.html https://www.tor.com/2015/09/21/of-jellyfish-otjize-and-afrofuturism-binti-by-nnedi-okorafor/
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| Episode 1: Ender's Game — In The Bunner Tuggles | 27 May 2019 | 00:52:12 | |
Welcome to the inaugural episode of Hugo, Girl! — Ender's Game: In The Bunner Tuggles. In this first outing, we're venturing into the world of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Hugo, Girl! is: -Amy Salley -Haley Zapal -Lori Anderson and Kevin Anderson does our editing/audio.
Follow us on Instagram at @hugogirlpodcast.
Music by Eon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVbvE0PJyss Sources: BOOK-A-MINUTE on rinkworks.com by David J. Parker and Samuel Stoddard Jessy Randall - https://heydeadguy.typepad.com/ | |||
| Second Anne-ual Hugo Quiz Show: Eight Monster | 17 Feb 2025 | 00:56:00 | |
Officially now a tradition, friend of the pod Anne joined us for another quiz on past episodes! | |||
| Episode 77 - The Wanderer: Horniest Hugo Winner | 08 Feb 2025 | 01:03:52 | |
When you get to the end, you'll wander why you even read this. Terrible! DM: Amy Music by Pets of Belonging An unedited transcript is available in our transcript library. Anyone can edit it and make corrections, and we appreciate anyone who does! LINKS | |||
| Interview with Ann Michelle Harris | 13 Jan 2025 | 00:51:26 | |
Podcast bestie Ann Michelle Harris joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about her debut novel North, and all things publishing and writing. If you've ever wondered how stray thoughts can become a novel, now is your chance to find out! Ann Michelle is a published author, lawyer, and contributor to the Hugo-winning fanzine, Nerds of a Feather. Want a signed copy of North? Join us for the book launch on January 18th from 2:00pm-4:00pm at Eagle Eye Books in Decatur, GA! Links: Purchase North by Ann Michelle Harris Ann Michelle on Nerds of a Feather Halfway to Life Day Cookbook Special Follow Ann on social media: | |||
| Episode 76 - A Deepness in the Sky: That's Just Like, Your Opinion, Cobber | 01 Jan 2025 | 01:30:31 | |
Y2K Hugo winner A Deepness in the Sky sure is long! And oh hey, happy new year! Skip ahead about 9 minutes from the start if you want to avoid a discussion of neighbor parking drama. DM: Lori CW/TW: SA Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 75 - Red Mars: Other Effluvia | 04 Dec 2024 | 01:21:42 | |
Hey, you know what? This wasn't so bad! There's about 20 extra minutes of chitchat at the end, mostly about Endurance (the Shackleton Expedition). Feel free to ignore it! DM: Haley CW/TW: we discuss animal death in Endurance during the post-episode chitchat Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 74 - Better Living Through Algorithms | 04 Nov 2024 | 00:41:24 | |
It's a(nother) stressful week, so you can have little an early episode, as a treat. Hang in there. This month we read and discussed Naomi Kritzer's Hugo-winning short story, Better Living Through Algorithms. You can read it for free or listen to it thanks to Clarkesworld! This is a wide-ranging discussion where we used the story as more of a jumping-off point to talk about a lot of other things, from sailing to crossfit to facial recognition software. | |||
| Spooky Special: Beetlejuice/Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | 30 Oct 2024 | 01:06:02 | |
It's showtime! Happy Halloween, listeners! | |||
| Episode 73 - The Dispossessed: Stop Saying T1tties! | 02 Oct 2024 | 01:27:12 | |
This month we read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. We were joined by special guest and delightful person and ambitopia expert, author Redfern Jon Barrett! We had so much fun chatting with Redfern that this is a bit of a maxisode. Digressions abound. DM: Haley CW/TW: brief discussion of SA Ambitopia: Futures Beyond the Binary Amy's guest appearance on Picture Me Coding Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 82 - A Desolation Called Peace: Outright Feminism! | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:13:04 | |
This month we read A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. We had a ton of listener mail, so the book discussion starts around 10 minutes in. DM: Haley Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Glasgow Worldcon Report | 08 Sep 2024 | 00:23:16 | |
It was fun! It was windy! Lori and Kevin tell all. Boring warning: at about 17:45, you're gonna hear like 5 minutes of voice notes about dogs. Feel free to turn off the podcast. Eating noise warning: if you make it this far, at 22:05-22:25, Lori will loudly eat a tea cake, so skip that if you can't stand mouth noises. Want a mug? A sticker? How about a shirt? Check out our Redbubble shop. | |||
| Episode 72 - A Fire Upon the Deep: Scrotum Riders | 04 Sep 2024 | 01:10:29 | |
Well, what else were we supposed to call it? This month we read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, suggested by listener Raj. Thanks, Raj! Amy is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging Links: | |||
| Episode 71 - This is How You Lose the Time War: Blue & Red's Excellent Adventure | 01 Aug 2024 | 01:01:58 | |
Being gay and doing crime, all across space and time! Our long-awaited, most cursed episode is finally here. Requested by Haley and Raj. Lori is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging Links: Strange Horizons Review - Adri Joy The Joy of Reading Books You Don't Entirely Understand The 12 Days of Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood
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| Episode 70 - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas: The Pilot | 03 Jul 2024 | 00:30:54 | |
Over five years ago, we test drove this thing. It's rough, but we hope you'll enjoy it! For various reasons, we had to push back our planned schedule. This is How You Lose the Time War will drop in August, followed by A Fire Upon the Deep in September. | |||
| Episode 69 - Mirror Dance: Res-erection | 05 Jun 2024 | 01:00:51 | |
Another attack of the clones. We liked it! DM: Haley CW/TW: rape, sexual abuse, transphobia, intersexphobia, fatphobia Music by Pets of Belonging Links: The Extractivism of Setting and the Traitor's Text - Vajra Chandrasekera
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| Episode 68 - The Fountains of Paradise: Battery Dingleberry | 01 May 2024 | 00:57:38 | |
This month we read Arthur C. Clarke's perfectly fine novel, The Fountains of Paradise. It is fine! And it has an admittedly banger ending, if you can stand the first 200 pages. Recommended, maybe? Amy is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging Links: | |||
| Episode 67: Hugo Girls Gone Wild: Twilight: OnlyFangs | 01 Apr 2024 | 01:05:46 | |
| Episode 66 - The Wind Whales of Ishmael: #NotMyIshmael | 06 Mar 2024 | 00:58:38 | |
This month we read Philip José Farmer's extended fart joke The Wind Whales of Ishmael. This episode is kinda ridiculous, which is fitting for a book which is also kinda ridiculous. We chatted for 15 minutes before we got into the book, as follows: 0:00-7:00ish - general chat and update on Haley's fava beans, as requested by listener Amber Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 65 - The Sparrow: Trigger Warning | 07 Feb 2024 | 01:09:48 | |
This month we read Mary Doria Russell's divisive novel The Sparrow. It's got a bit of everything - Jesuits, space travel, food, friendship, sexual assault, victim-blaming, and child murder. Amy is DM. Did we mention trigger warning? Yikes! CW/TW: see description above, and it's really serious so skip this one if you need to! We like you! By the way, we did a LOT of chatting at the top of this one, so skip to about the 12 minute mark if you want to get straight into the book discussion. | |||
| First Anne-ual Hugo Quiz Show | 15 Jan 2024 | 00:52:09 | |
Friend of the pod Anne joined us and quizzed us on past episodes! We also discussed our favorite reads of 2023 and what we're looking forward to reading in 2024. Happy New Year, and thanks for listening! | |||
| After Hours | 16 Jun 2025 | 00:44:09 | |
Not exactly a Happy Hour (times are tough, y'all) but we kept recording after our Double Star episode. We tried a weird Capri Sun and talked about stuff. Thanks to Raj for sending us his list of happy things! | |||
| Episode 64 - Spin: Eating Disorder Lawton | 03 Jan 2024 | 01:04:03 | |
Jason is a genius, Diane is a diamond, ED is a Lawton, and Carol is drunk. Our narrator - He's just Tyler. This month we read Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. We liked it! Lori is DM. Note: There is no actual discussion of eating disorders in this episode or in the book. One character is named ED, and his name is repeated one million times. Music by Pets of Belonging Links: | |||
| Episode 63 - Lord of Light: We Get Slizzard | 06 Dec 2023 | 01:04:57 | |
This month we read Roger Zelazny's classic Lord of Light. We did not like it, and we are sorry. DM: Haley References: Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 62 - Blood of the Dragon: Dugs Talk | 01 Nov 2023 | 00:54:23 | |
This month we discussed Blood of the Dragon, which won George RR Martin the Hugo Award for best novella in 1997. Blood of the Dragon consists of the Daenerys chapters from Game of Thrones. You can read it here or here. DM: Amy CW/TW: It's Game of Thrones, so you know the deal: SA, SA, and more SA. Music by Pets of Belonging
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| Your Feminist Favorite | 30 Oct 2023 | 00:16:11 | |
WE WON A HUGO AWARD! | |||
| Episode 61 - Carrie: Dirtypillows Talk | 04 Oct 2023 | 00:57:45 | |
Hold on to your dirtypillows and don't forget to plug it up - spooky season is here! We read Carrie, Stephen King's 1974 debut novel. Lori is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging Links:
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| Episode 60 - The Snow Queen: Kind of a Janet | 06 Sep 2023 | 00:54:35 | |
This month we read The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. We liked it. No further analysis! DM: Haley NOTE: Sound quality is bad. Amy was sick so we recorded remotely, and your friend Lori did a bad job adjusting the gain. For best results, use your crummiest headphones. Also, it's come to our attention that Joan's last name might be pronounced Ving-ee, or maybe Vinjee. If we said it wrong, we're sorry! Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Episode 59 - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: Funny-Once | 02 Aug 2023 | 01:15:45 | |
This month we read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, and boy howdy is it ever a Mojo Dojo Casa House up there on Luna. We'll stay here on Earth, thanks. DM: Amy CW/TW: every expression of misogyny! Music by Pets of Belonging LINKS: 7 Fictional Characters that Changed the World | |||
| Episode 58 - To Say Nothing of the Dog: Technical Difficulties | 05 Jul 2023 | 00:58:34 | |
While we were discussing Connie Willis's 1999 Hugo winning novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, our memory card went kaput. We hope that you enjoy this somewhat disjointed discussion with an awkward break in the middle, because when we thought we'd lost the whole discussion, we almost abandoned ship! It must've been the net causing slippage. Lori is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging | |||
| Scream warning! Also, the cake was shaped like a rocket! | 03 Jul 2023 | 00:08:43 | |
Turn down the volume because we're Hugo finalists again so it's about to get loud!! Hear us drink champagne and talk for 5 minutes about the special rocket-shaped cakes Lori made without ever actually describing them! Yay!! Congratulations to all the finalists! Check out the full list here. | |||
| Episode 57 - The Sword in the Stone: Cheeky Fantasy | 07 Jun 2023 | 01:01:02 | |
This month we read T.H. White's retro Hugo winner for best novel, The Sword in the Stone. Digressions abound! Haley is DM. Music by Pets of Belonging
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| Episode 81 - Double Star: Barely Science Fiction | 04 Jun 2025 | 01:01:13 | |
This month we read Double Star by Robert Heinlein. Of all Heinlein's books, it was one of Connie Willis's three favorites! DM: Amy Music by Pets of Belonging Links: | |||