Tender Is The Flesh is not simply the vegan allegory some readers assume it to be. The horror here serves a more unsettling purpose: it shows the power of language. Like Marcos himself said in the book: "Words carry the weight necessary to mold us, to suppress all questioning."

Today's episode discusses how can language make violence palatable, and why does it reshape ethics and morality.

Find the transcript and citations: https://liviajelliot.substack,com

What do Blade Runner and Dune have in common?

Both revolve around the same mechanism: scarcity creates demand, and demand turns possession into prestige... but here is the twist.

Prestige is not just about wealth, because status only emerges when wealth is tied to something else: an ethical meaning. In this episode we'll explore one unique possibility: what if prestige requires morality?

Full transcript (and links): https://liviajelliot.substack.com

In this discussion, we dive into the layered deceptions of Dune — a “faint within a faint within a faint.” We explore whether free will can survive foreknowledge, how cycles shape history, and whether heroes are truly liberators… or traps. We also ask a bold question: is religion a belief system, or a technology engineered for power?

My guests: K.D. Marchesi, Sarah K. Balstrup, and Henry Nielsen.

My Substack: https://liviajelliot.substack.com

Dune is, by no means, a simple book. It examines how an environment shapes a society and its politics, how political and economic power intertwine, and how resources can both provoke or deter war. It speaks about the consequences of scarcity, and how differently we treat abundance when it overflows.

With that in mind, this episode will focus on two key threads—details often smoothed in adaptations: the geopolitics of Dune's universe, and how religion and myth are leveraged to manufacture authority.

Let's get this book undone.

Check my latest book, The Omens of War: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNN94R17

Embassytown is one of the most extraordinary linguistic thought-experiments in modern SFF. This episode explores how Miéville uses language—not just as a tool for communication, but as the very architecture of consciousness, politics, and power.

We look at how signs and symbols shape meaning, why the Hosts can't lie, Avice’s role as a living simile and the moment language evolves into something new.

If you love stories where words remake the world, this is for you.

My substack: https://liviajelliot.substack.com

My book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNN94R17

Watchmen: the greatest graphic novel ever written, a Rorschach test on morality where every character’s goodness is afflicted with greyness and nuance. Join me in a terrific group discussion with Jarrod (from The Fantasy Thinker), and Britton (from smectite).

My Substack: https://liviajelliot.substack.com

Get The Omens of War: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNN94R17

Joe, like Plato's escaped prisoner, is forced to confront a possibility that his world is not the 'real' one at all. In this podcast, I analyse Ubik's layered realities.

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"The goal that led him on was not impossible, though it was clearly supernatural: he wanted to dream a man." This is the premise of another mind-blowing, reality-bending short-story by Jorge Luis Borges: The Circular Ruins.

Join me in a Guests Talk with a dream cast of guests: Jarrod (from The Fantasy Thinker), Kris (from A Fictional Escapist), P.L. Stuart (author of A Drowned Kingdom Saga), Jose (from José's Fantasy Worlds), and Dr Philip Chase (author of The Edan Trilogy).

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Books mentioned (in order):

• "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R. Hofstadter
• "Stop Doing That Sh*t: End Self-Sabotage" by Gary John Biship
• "A Drowned Kingdom" by P.L. Stuart
• "The Way of Edan" by Phillip Chase

Movies mentioned (in order):

• "Inception" by Christopher Nolan