I’ve guest starred on a number of podcasts over the years, but here are original podcasts that I host or cohost. If you love books and deep conversations about them, you may just love what we do.

If you’re looking for writing specific podcasts and con panel recordings, check out the links over at the page Writing & Writing Advice.

Resistance Reads

Literature is a conversation about the human experience. One important facet of that experience is the relationship between power and resistance. In this podcast, Matt Wellstrom and Michael Kilman explore a variety of works of literature pursing questions about the nature of power and how people live with, or fight back against systems of power. So far we’ve covered books such as 1984, V for Vendetta, The Ministry for the Future, and Passing. Our discussions are grounded in social science, history, law, philosophy, and activism.

Episodes are initially livestreamed on YouTube and we love audience questions and thoughts. A few days after the livestream, episodes go up on all your favorite platforms. Come join us at the next livestream here! or listen to the replay of past episodes here.

Resistance Reads Podcast E19 Paradise Lost – Resistance Reads

Matt and Michael dig into John Milton's Paradise Lost, the 17th-century epic poem that tells the story of the Fall from Satan's perspective. They explore why Satan reads as the tragic hero, how Milton's own political defeats and blindness shaped the work, the structural impossibility of free will in a world with an omniscient God, and why Eve gets a far more sympathetic treatment here than in almost any other retelling of the Eden story. The conversation moves into the Lilith midrash, the historical roots of Satan as a concept, and how the Jewish experience of oppression shaped the God of the Torah. They close with the Denver Gay Revolt as a model of effective resistance, and what Milton's Satan can teach us about working inside a broken system rather than just protesting outside it. Next up: Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

1. Resistance Reads Podcast E19 Paradise Lost 01:20:50
2. Resistance Reads E18 A Gentleman in Moscow 01:34:29
3. Resistance Reads Podcast E17 Let the Right One In 01:09:04
4. Resistance Reads Podcast E16 Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut 01:15:15
5. Resistance Reads Podcast: Episode 15: James by Percival Everett 01:27:50
6. Resistance Reads Podcast Episode 14: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin 01:20:30
7. Resistance Reads Podcast Episode 13: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter 01:30:20
8. Resistance Reads Podcast: Episode 12 Heavenly Tyrant 01:25:05
9. Resistance Reads Podcast Episode 11: Babel by R.F. Kuang 01:50:15
10. Resistance Reads Episode 10: Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (1818 edition) 01:49:56