In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Robert Tally about his new book The Mismeasure of Orcs: A Critical Reassessment of Tolkien's Demonized Creatures, out now from McFarland Books.

Robert Tally is a Professor of English at Texas State University. He's written extensively about Tolkien and Marxist literary criticism.

More Rob:

Representing Middle-earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology

JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit: A Critical Companion

Let Us Now Praise Famous Orcs: Simple Humanity in Tolkien's Inhuman Creatures

Demonizing The Enemy, Literally: Tolkien, Orcs, and the Sense of the World Wars

The Southern Phoenix Triumphant: Richard Weaver, or, the Origins of Contemporary U.S. Conservatism

Also mentioned:

Bould/Mieville (ed.) - Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction

Croft et. al (ed.) - Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey

Fonstad - Atlas of Middle-Earth

Jameson - Archaeologies of the Future

Jameson - Fables of Aggression

Jameson - The Political Unconscious

Lukas - The Historical Novel

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

Mohler (Existential Comics) - The Council of Elrond

Sofge - Orc Holocaust

Stuart - Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-Earth

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Stephen Yandell about Beowulf and the many ways it inspired Tolkien.

Steve Yandell is a medievalist and Tolkien scholar who has been a Professor of English at Xavier University since 2003. He regularly teaches courses on both Tolkien and medieval literature, including Beowulf.

More Steve:

"A Pattern Which Our Nature Cries Out For": The Medieval Tradition of the Ordered Four in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien

Cruising Faery: Queer Desire in Giles, Niggle, and Smith

Selection from Math Son of Mathonwy, from the Mabinogi

The translations:

Tolkien - Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary

Heaney - Beowulf: A New Verse Translation

Headley - Beowulf: A New Translation

Primary sources:

Tolkien - Beowulf: The Monsters and The Critics (PDF)

The Lord of the Rings

The Silmarillion

Also mentioned:

Howarth - 1066: The Year of the Conquest

Leyerle - The Interlace Structure of Beowulf

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam take a break from actually discussing Tolkien and instead do a deep investigation into the life and times of a certain Tolkien fan.

Harrington - Brief reflections on the politics of Dune

The legendary Wikipedia article

Carolyn Gallaher -- After The Peace

The Third Way (the "wills and bequests" page is here)

Solidarity Union

Great UK Products You Can Buy

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In this EMERGENCY EPISODE, co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance's love of Tolkien. When the Entmoot Podcast wished for a Tolkien fan in the White House, the monkey's paw curled. This episode is a sequel to our 2022 episode Hard Right Hobbits, which you can find here.

Sources:

Adam Wren (Politico) - How Lord of the Rings Shaped JD Vance's Politics

Simon van Zuylen-Wood (Washington Post) - The Radicalization of JD Vance

Salvador Rodriguez (CNBC) - Why Silicon Valley is obsessed with 'The Lord of the Rings'

Jack Butler (National Review) - Does The Left Really Want To Argue That Enjoying Lord of the Rings is Far-Right?

I won't include a link to Vance's book, but if you want to read it for some reason make sure to buy used.

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1967 novella Smith of Wootton Major.

Primary sources:

Smith of Wootton Major (PDF) | Tales From The Perilous Realm (includes SoWM as well as all of Tolkien's other "minor works") | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | On Fairy Stories (PDF)

Secondary sources:

Kocher - Master of Middle-earth (out of print)

Webb - The Lives of the Saints (contains KT's favorite version of the Voyage of St Brendan)

Calvino - Invisible Cities

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1949 comic short story Farmer Giles of Ham.

Primary sources:

Farmer Giles of Ham (PDF) | Tales From The Perilous Realm (includes FGoH as well as all of Tolkien's other "minor works") | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Kocher - Master of Middle-earth (out of print)

Link to the Alan Lee illustration of Farmer Giles and his blunderbuss

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1939 essay "On Fairy Stories." Part 2 of 2.

Primary sources:

On Fairy Stories (PDF) | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Le Guin - The Dispossessed

For discussion of "Man and the Machine" in Tolkien's work: Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's 1939 essay "On Fairy Stories." Part 1 of 2.

Primary sources:

On Fairy Stories (PDF) | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

For discussion of Tolkien and race/culture: Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

For discussion of Tolkien's arguments with Christopher Wiseman: Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

For discussion of "Man and the Machine" in Tolkien's work: Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's experience fighting in World War I and the ways it informed his worldview.

Primary sources:

The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | The Fall of Gondolin

Secondary sources:

Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

Garth - The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-Earth

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Loconte (for NYTimes) - How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front

Collins (for The Collector) - Lewis, Hemingway, & Tolkien: Three Authors of the Great War

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters seven and eight of the Quenta Silmarillion, including Feanor's creation of the Silmarils, Melkor's first plot to steal the Silmarils, Feanor's exile from Valmar, and Melkor's destruction of the Trees.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam continue their discussion of a posthumously published essay by Charles W. Mills on the subject of race and racism in Lord of the Rings. Part 2 of 2.

Primary sources:

The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto | Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Further reading:

Mills - The Racial Contract

Jamelle Bouie for NY Times - obituary for Mills

Jared Anthony Loggins for Dissent - obituary for Mills

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss a posthumously published essay by Charles W. Mills on the subject of race and racism in Lord of the Rings. Part 1 of 2.

Primary sources:

The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto | Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Further reading:

Mills - The Racial Contract

Jamelle Bouie for NY Times - obituary for Mills

Jared Anthony Loggins for Dissent - obituary for Mills

Ian Frazier for The New Yorker - on the debate between Du Bois and Stoddard

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 15 and 16 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the founding of Gondolin, Thingol's abolition of Quenya, and the tragic tale of Eöl, Beleriand's palest and weirdest elf.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Also mentioned:

The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

Butcher's Crossing - John Williams

Alchemy is real

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters three, four, and five of The Silmarillion, including the origin story of the Elves.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Mentioned in this episode:

A helpful diagram of the Elven "family tree" | Price - Children of Ash and Elm

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters one and two of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the creation of the Trees and the origins of the dwarves.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss leftist interpretations of Tolkien's work, and take some detours along the way.

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Landa - Slaves of the Ring: Tolkien's Political Unconscious

Curry - Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien: Myth and Modernity

Jameson - The Political Unconscious: Narrative As A Socially Symbolic Act

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the Valaquenta, our formal introduction to the Valar and the Maiar.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the Ainulindalë, the creation myth of Tolkien's universe.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the hard right's obsession with Tolkien, particularly through the figures of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and tech financier Peter Thiel.

Sources:

Hobbits and the Hard Right: How Fantasy Inspires Italy's New Leader -- Jason Horowitz, New York Times

Of Hobbits and Tigers: The Unlikely Heroes of Italy's Radical Right -- Tobias Hof, Fair Observer

How 'Hobbit Camps' Rebirthed Italian Fascism -- John Last, Atlas Obscura

In Italy's Deserted Democracy, Far-Right Giorgia Meloni Has Emerged Victorious -- David Broder, Jacobin

Why Silicon Valley is obsessed with 'The Lord of the Rings' -- Salvador Rodriguez, CNBC

Giorgia Meloni's Neo-Fascism -- Know Your Enemy podcast (bonus episode, to listen subscribe to their Patreon here)

Links to relevant news articles:

Bannon calls Trump supporters hobbits

Musk thinks the Rings of Power Amazon series is too woke

Bezos as a Tolkien nerd

A primer on Berlusconi's sex parties

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss The Hobbit Party by Jonathan Witt and Jay W. Richards, and slightly lose their minds in the process. Part 2 of 2.

Primary sources:

Witt/Richards - The Hobbit Party | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography | Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good | Konczal - Freedom From The Market | Graeber - The Dawn of Everything (for discussion of state-created markets) | Belloc - The Servile State | more on Malthusianism | Jay's Twitter | Jonathan's Twitter

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss The Hobbit Party by Jonathan Witt and Jay W. Richards. Part 1 of 2.

Primary sources:

Witt/Richards - The Hobbit Party | The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography | Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good | Dreher - Crunchy Cons | Jay's Twitter | Jonathan's Twitter

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss sex and sexuality across Tolkien's legendarium, particularly in the story of Beren and Luthien. Please be advised that this episode contains non-graphic discussion of sexual assault.

Primary sources:

Beren and Luthien (contains all verse read on the show) | The Lays of Beleriand (contains the full text of The Lay of Leithian) | The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the influence of The Lord of the Rings on the 1960s counterculture. Later, Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College, talks with Kenny about his own experience discovering The Lord of the Rings and what it meant to the subculture that he belonged to.

Maurice's latest book is The Winter Army: The World War II Odyssey of the 10th Mountain Division, America's Elite Alpine Warriors, out now in paperback from Mariner Books.

Also by Maurice Isserman:

Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering | The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington | America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s (w/ Michael Kazin) | Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes (w/ Stewart Weaver) | If I Had A Hammer: The Death of the Old Left and the Birth of the New Left (out of print)

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion

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Secondary sources:

Ciabattari - Hobbits and Hippies: Tolkien and the Counterculture | Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Robin Reid about feminist and queer Tolkien scholarship and fandom.

Robin Reid is a Tolkien scholar who was a professor of English at Texas A&M University until her retirement in 2020. She is currently working on a book that will be a feminist reception study of women and non-binary readers of Tolkien, with updates posted on her Substack here.

More Robin:

Women & Tolkien: Amazons, Valkyries, Feminists, and Slashers

J.R.R. Tolkien, Culture Warrior

Thrusts in the Dark: Slashers' Queer Practices

Sources/mentions:

Brown - “Éowyn it was, and Dernhelm also”

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Craig - Queer Lodgings: Gender and Sexuality in The Lord of the Rings

Crowe - Power in Arda: Sources, Uses, and Misuses

Donovan - The Valkyrie Reflex in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Fimi - Tolkien, Folklore, and Foxes (YouTube)

Kisor/Vaccaro (ed) - Tolkien and Alterity

Merrick - The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms

Queripel - The Mariner (and his wife): Rethinking Aldarion's (A)sexuality

Rateliff - The Missing Women: J. R. R. Tolkien's Lifelong Support for Women's Higher Education

Smith - At Home and Abroad: Éowyn's Two-fold Figuring as War Bride in The Lord of the Rings

Timmons - Hobbit Sex and Sensuality

Vaccaro - “Dyrne Langað”: Secret Longing and Homo-amory in Beowulf and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Walls-Thumma - The Inequality Prototype: Gender, Inequality, and the Valar in Tolkien’s Silmarillion

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss formal democratic institutions (or lack thereof) across Tolkien's legendarium.

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien |

Secondary sources:

Nardi - Political Institutions in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth | Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography | Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good | Fonstad - The Atlas of Middle-Earth | Wills - Lincoln At Gettysburg

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the economic philosophy of distributism and how it influences Tolkien's depiction of life in The Shire.

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien | Rerum Novarum | Quadragesimo Anno

Secondary sources:

Imbert - Tolkien's Shire | Nardi - Political Institutions in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth | Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography | Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth | The Children of Hurin | Beren and Luthien | The Fall of Gondolin | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien |

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography | Hren - Middle-earth and the Return of the Common Good

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 13 and 14 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the death of Feanor, the reuniting of the Noldor, and a very long description of a map. To make "Of Beleriand and Its Realms" a bit easier to digest, here are a couple maps: this one by Tolkien himself, this "cleaner" one by Sirelle on DeviantArt, and this political map by u/tolkien_erklaert on Reddit.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Also mentioned:

Atlas of Middle-Earth - Karen Wynn Fonstad

The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien - John Garth

The Verge - Patrick Wyman

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including King Thingol of the Sindar, the creation of the sun and moon, and the coming of men (finally).

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss Tolkien's love of trees and the environment.

Primary sources:

The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Curry - Defending Middle-Earth

Kocher - Master of Middle-Earth

Hull (Reactor Mag) - The Long Defeat: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change

Wikipedia - Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings

More reading:

Pope Francis - Laudato Si

Demsas (The Atlantic) - The Culture War Tearing American Environmentalism Apart

Solis (Nevada Current) - Solar power project threatens prime desert tortoise habitat, conservationists warn

Ruhl & Salzman - The Greens' Dilemma: Building Tomorrow's Climate Infrastructure Today

Our earlier episode on Aule and Yavanna

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Gerry Canavan in a far-reaching conversation about loving Tolkien as leftists. Topics include Tolkien's racial politics, the political valences of science fiction and fantasy, Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel, and of course, Huan the talking dog.

Gerry Canavan is the Chair of the English Department at Marquette University where he also teaches a class on Tolkien. His essays on Tolkien include Tolkien Against The Grain in the Winter 2025 issue of Dissent Magazine and The Eowyn Mystique, a review of the new animated film "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

More Gerry:

Octavia E. Butler (University of Illinois Press)

Imagining Utopia (article for Verso on Fredric Jameson)

The lesson of JRR Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel (article for Washington Post)

Grad School Vonnegut/Achebe podcast

Twitter

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss the history of adaptation rights to Tolkien's work.

Sources:

The Tolkien Trust and their finances

The Times - Tolkien sold film rights to Lord of the rings to avoid taxman

John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg - Screenplay for The Lord of the Rings (1970)

The Guardian - The saddest story in rock (The Zaentz/Fogerty scandal)

Dan Olson [VIDEO] - An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings

Open Culture - The 1985 Soviet TV Adaptation of The Hobbit: Cheap and Yet Strangely Charming

Charlie Rose (ew) [VIDEO] - 2002 Interview w/ Peter Jackson

The Guardian - Tolkien estate sues Hobbit producers over video and gambling games

Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - Weinstein brothers sue Time Warner over Hobbit films

The Hollywood Reporter - Warner Bros prevails over Weinsteins in Hobbit profit fight

Ars Technica - Amazon will run a multi-season Lord of the Rings prequel TV series

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapter nine of the Quenta Silmarillion, including Feanor's ascendancy to Noldoran leader, the death of Ungoliant, and the First Kinslaying.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk about the US and Israel's war with Iran, and are later joined by Danny Bessner of the American Prestige podcast to discuss his (now quite relevant) 2022 piece The Rings of Power is a Saga for a War-Hungry Nation.

Danny Bessner is an Associate Professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He co-hosts the American Prestige podcast, which you can find here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Stephen Yandell about CS Lewis and his complex relationship with JRR Tolkien.

Steve Yandell is a medievalist and Tolkien/Lewis scholar who has been a Professor of English at Xavier University since 2003.

More Steve:

Queer Approaches To Tolkien: Essays on the Many Paths to Middle-earth [co-edited with Robin Anne Reid and Christopher Vaccaro)

"A Pattern Which Our Nature Cries Out For": The Medieval Tradition of the Ordered Four in the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien

A Book-by-Book Guide to C.S. Lewis' Spiritual Themes

The Trans-cosmic Journeys in The Chronicles of Narnia 

Also mentioned:

Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia

Lewis - The Gods Return To Earth [review of Lord of the Rings]

Lewis - Till We Have Faces

Lewis - The Shoddy Lands [the story where a man is inside a woman's head]

Lewis - It All Began With A Picture [essay]

Lewis - Surprised By Joy [spiritual memoir]

Lewis - That Hideous Strength

Lewis - The Pilgrim's Regress

Tolkien - The Bovadium Fragments

Williams - The Place of the Lion

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Bret Devereaux about the Siege of Gondor and the Battle of Helm's Deep, including discussions of pre-modern logistics, cavalry charges, flails, command structures, battle speeches, and much more.

Bret Devereaux is an ancient and military historian who currently teaches as a Teaching Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University. You can find him on Twitter and Bluesky, or at his blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry.

More Bret:

Blog series on Siege of Gondor

Blog series on Helm's Deep

Blog series on logistics

Interview with Patrick Wyman on the Punic Wars

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Ali Mirzabayati about death and mourning in Tolkien's work. Ali published his thesis Death as a Gift: A Heroic Celebration of Life in The Lord of the Rings in December 2024.

Ali Mirzabayati is a scholar of medieval literature and modern fantasy, including Tolkien's legendarium.

More Ali:

Mourning and Melancholia in The Lord of the Rings

Sounds of Battle and Battle of Sounds: Belliphonic in Tolkien

Beowulf and Théoden: Differing Teaching Methods of Hrothgar and Gandalf

Further reading/listening:

Amendt-Raduege - The Sweet and the Bitter: Death and Dying in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Vaninskaya - Fantasies of Time and Death

Freud - On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Lee Konstantinou about Tolkien's right-wing (or neo-reactionary) fans in Silicon Valley. Lee's essay Mythic Capital: How Tolkien is Whispering in the Ears of America's Most Powerful Men, is out now from Arc. Long-time listeners will know that this is our third time talking about this subject -- our first episode on the subject, from November 2022, can be found here, and our second, from July 2024 about then-VP nominee JD Vance, can be found here.

Lee Konstantinou is a Professor of English at the University of Maryland whose writing has been featured in Slate, Arc, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.

More Lee:

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Strangers in a Strange Land: Science-fictional Notes on the "Abundance" Agenda

Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction

Something is Broken In Our Science Fiction

Further reading/listening:

Tally (Spectre, 8/24) - Tolkien's Deplorable Cultus

Canavan (Dissent, 1/25) - Tolkien Against The Grain

Kakutani (NYT, 5/25) - Why Silicon Valley's Most Powerful People Are So Obsessed With Hobbits

Douthat (NYT, 6/25) (audio) - Peter Thiel and the Antichrist

Gellman (The Atlantic, 11/23) - Peter Thiel is Taking A Break From Democracy

Alexander (Substack, 5/25) - Moldbug Sold Out

Gabor (Phenomenal World, 2/25) - How To DOGE USAID

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 17 and 18 of the Quenta Silmarillion, including the coming of men into Beleriand, the death of Fingolfin, and Hurin and Huor's visit to Gondolin.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapter 22 of the Quenta Silmarillion, which includes the release of Hurin from captivity, the fall of the kingdom of Doriath, and (most importantly), the death of Entmoot Podcast All-Star Mîm the Petty-dwarf.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam look back at the year that was, look ahead to the year that's to come, and answer (excellent!) listener questions. Topics include the status of democracy in absolute monarchies like Gondor, connections between Tolkien and Lovecraft, the history of Galadriel, our favorite movies of 2025, Reddit comments about the podcast, and our predictions for 2026 elections in the US and abroad.

Further reading/listening:

Our episode with Rob Tally

Our episode with Lee Konstantinou

Our episode with Ali Mirzabayati

Konstantinou - Mythic Capital: How Tolkien is Whispering in the Ears of America's Most Powerful Men

Semley (Wired, 10/25) - Elon Musk Really Doesn't Get The Lord of the Rings

Pagliarini (Dissent, Fall 25) - Lula's Unfinished Democracy

Hartrich (Journal of Social History, Fall 24) - The Boundaries of Popular Control in Late Medieval English Towns

Hill - The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714

Livingston - Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War

Tooze - The Wages of Destruction

Kenny's Letterboxd | Sam's Letterboxd

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to William Fliss about Tolkien's manuscripts and life as an archivist.

Bill Fliss is the Manuscripts Archivist at Marquette University, which places him among the foremost authorities in the world on Tolkien's manuscripts for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. He runs the Anduin Project at Marquette which is an invaluable tool for Tolkien researchers.

Add your voice to the Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection and tell Bill we sent you!

More Bill:

“Things That Were, and Things That Are, and Things That Yet May Be”: The J.R.R. Tolkien Manuscript Collection at Marquette University

(Documentary) The Muster At Marquette: Preserving 6,000 Fan Voices

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Jyrki Korpua about the Kalevala and the inspiration that Tolkien drew from it. This episode is a companion piece to our previous episode on chapter 21 of The Silmarillion, which you can find here.

Jyrki Korpua is a researcher and lecturer of literature at the University of Oulu in Finland. He has published extensively on both the Kalevala and Tolkien, and we are here primarily discussing his 2024 book Tolkien and the Kalevala.

More Jyrki:

The Mythopoeic Code of Tolkien: A Christian Platonic Reading of the Legendarium

“Master of Fate, yet by fate mastered” – Tolkien’s Túrin Turambar and Kalevala’s Kullervo

Also mentioned:

Lönnrot (Bosley translation) - The Kalevala

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapters 20 and 21 of the Quenta Silmarillion, which include an account of the Fifth Battle and the tragic tale of Turin Turambar.

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

Books we've been reading:

The Wages of Destruction

Ride The Pink Horse

The Long Goodbye

Gilead

The Sot-Weed Factor

The Fort Bragg Cartel

The Age of Empire

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam joined friend of the show Ethan Colburn for an episode of the Cineflek Podcast about Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.

For a great documentary with more information on the making of the movie, check out "An Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings" from Folding Ideas on YouTube.

For more on adaptation rights to Tolkien's work, listen to our episode from earlier this year "State of the Estate."

For more of our opinions on movies, you can follow each of us on Letterboxd: Ethan (an actual Letterboxd influencer), Kenny, Sam.

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Cami Agan about the 2018 volume Beren and Luthien and about the textual history of the tale. This episode is a companion piece to our previous episode on chapter 19 of The Silmarillion, which you can find here.

Cami Agan is the Distinguished Professor of Language and Literature at Oklahoma Christian University and a prominent scholar of Tolkien's First Age.

More Cami:

Lúthien Tinúviel and Bodily Desire in the Lay of Leithian

Cities and Strongholds of Middle-earth

Hearkening to the Other: A Certeauvian Reading of the Ainulindale

Also mentioned:

Moore - A Song of Greater Power: Tolkien's Construction of Lúthien Tinúviel

Whitaker - Corrupting Beauty: Rape Narrative in The Silmarillion

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam discuss chapter 19 of the Quenta Silmarillion, the incredible story of Beren and Luthien. Included is also a discussion of current events affecting Sam as a resident of Washington DC -- listeners with an allergy to that sort of thing can skip to 17:25 to get to "the good stuff."

Primary sources:

The Silmarillion | The Lord of the Rings | Beren and Luthien | The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Tom Hillman about his book Pity, Power, and Tolkien's Ring, and specifically the motif of pity throughout Tolkien's work.

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In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam explore the state of online Tolkien fandoms, including the main three Tolkien subreddits and some (still kicking!) online forum sites.

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