Since moving to London I have become a podcast girlie. I listen on the tube, while cleaning, doing dishes, doing laundry, and cooking. A generous portion of my day involves podcasts. As a literature person, I tried audiobooks first but there is one clear weakness of audiobooks for me, the voices make me want to fall asleep. The readers are always so chill and calming, which is great for some people, but I need the conversational tones of a podcast to keep me moving sometimes. Enter the literary podcast. I had just finished a rewatch of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, I had just moved to a new country by myself, I lived alone for the first time, and I needed the comforting vibes of Pride and Prejudice to continue on. So I did what anyone would do and typed "jane austen podcast" into Spotify. That was the day I met (read: formed a para-social relationship with) Becca and Molly, the hosts of Pod and Prejudice. When I tell you I played this podcast constantly until I was entirely caught up, I mean literally every. waking. hour. Was it healthy? No. Was it a darn good podcast? Absolutely.
The premise of Pod and Prejudice is that Molly has never read Jane Austen before and Becca grew up reading and watching Jane Austen stories. They go through the books chapter by chapter, discussing cultural differences, feminist and queer interpretations, and generally giving the audience the chance to vicariously reread these books for the first time. They started with Pride and Prejudice before covering Sense and Sensibility and are now (as of early 2023) working through Emma. There is something so delightful about listening to Molly meet some of my favorite characters for the first time, to follow along as she falls in love (or hate) with them. Becca does the hard work of trying to guide Molly's reading by giving her helpful information while not spoiling anything for her.
I had already read all of these books when I listened to them, but I think that this podcast would be a fantastic way to tackle Jane Austen's novels for the first time. Her stories can be confusing to modern readers and it can be challenge to appreciate her brilliance without a bit of guidance. I read the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice about three different times before I finally made it through the novel after about a year of being an English Major. When I finally studied Pride and Prejudice in a college course, the entire story came to life for me in a completely different way. What I thought was a clever romance novel, was also a commentary on the fact that women had very little financial freedom in England in the early 1800s and marriage was one of their only true acts of financial independence. If they married rich they would be set. If they married for love, they could live in poverty. If they didn't marry, they would be a burden upon their families. Pod and Prejudice calls this, the economics of dating in Jane Austen and offers great discussions about topics like this without getting overly dull or academic.
I will warn, though, that this podcast has an explicit tag on Spotify, so if your sensibilities are more like Austen's herself, you may want to ignore this recommendation, but for those of you who don't mind your classic literature with some colorful language, Pod and Prejudice is a must listen.
Here is a link to their website and their page on Spotify.
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