Unseen Academicals: A Discworld and Terry Pratchett Podcast

By: Joshua Bulleid
  • Summary

  • An intermittent examination of Terry Pratchett's Discworld book series from an academic perspective, hosted by Joshua Bulleid. Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com Support: patreon.com/unseenacademicals
    Joshua Bulleid
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Episodes
  • 15B - Small Gods, Part 2 - Books and New Sons
    Sep 17 2024

    The second episode examining Terry Pratchett's 1992's Discworld novel, Small Gods, examining the role of books and memory in fantasy fiction, comparisons to Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun sequence, contemplations of genre and what it means to be a "comedy", and seriously considering whether I even want to do the show anymore.

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    1 hr and 51 mins
  • 15A - Small Gods, Part 1: Consider the Tortoise
    May 26 2024

    The first episode on Terry Pratchett's thirteenth (and best) Discworld novel Small Gods (1992), looking at religious and folkloric depictions of tortoises, the idea that gods need belief to survive as a trope of fantasy literature through influential works like those of Fritz Leiber and the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as the early Dungeons and Dragons handbooks, the use of explicitly religious language in fantasy, comparisons to Philip Pulman's His Dark Materials series and, finally, an examination of religious animal ethics.

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    2 hrs and 17 mins
  • 14C – Pyramids, Part 2b: Egyptian Representations
    Apr 4 2024

    The third and final episode tangentially related to Terry Pratchett's 1989 Discworld novel Pyramids, providing a crash course in Egyptian fantasy and science fiction—as in written by Egyptians, rather than simply about them. We go all the way back to the beginning, talking about traditional fantasy precursors and the origins of the modern Egyptian science fiction tradition, talking about its development throughout the later part of the twentieth century and providing some (overly) close analysis of Mustafā Mahmūd's The Spider (1965) and Nihād Sharīf's The Conqueror of Time (1972), before jumping forward to the allegedly more "authentic" post-2011 Egyptian Revolution era and the currently available English translations by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, Mohammad Rabie and Ahmed Naji, among others.


    Contact: unseenacademicalspod@gmail.com



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    1 hr and 45 mins

What listeners say about Unseen Academicals: A Discworld and Terry Pratchett Podcast

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The best researched pod I’ve come across

Fantastically detailed analysis of the books, their themes, origins and position in the genre and society more widely.

Quite academic and rabbit hole-y, which he freely acknowledges, but give the man credit, he’s clearly putting weeks into each monster episode and gives you an insight into the frameworks and lenses through which you can view these classics. Warning: he might not summarise the plot or tell you if he likes it until about 5 hours in! Well done

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An excellent podcast!

Only discovered this gem a few days ago searching for my next listen.

I have be a Pterry fan all my life and very much enjoying the Academical analysis! *

* The reviewer would like to warn the Author
they should they say anymore negative comments regarding Cosgroves Weird Sisters, I will be travelling to four X to have “words” **

** And his Figgin

Keep up the top work!


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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Self indulgent crap.

Desperate attempt to validate the presenters own ‘look at me, I know stuff’ without offering anything decent. Doubt Pratchett would think much of them.

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