STORYBEAST

STORYBEAST
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A podcast for story lovers, Storybeast explores how we weave tales and why we love them. Co-hosts Ghabiba Weston and C. Shack chat with each other and legendary guests about different elements of various books, tv shows, plays, and other modalities to explore this fundamental aspect of humanity. Come for the story, stay for the snacks.

  1. 4D AGO

    Episode #115: On keeping your darlings, with Legendary Vajra Chandrasekera

    Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Vajra Chandrasekera. Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His novels THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and RAKESFALL have between them won the Le Guin, Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and Otherwise awards, been selected as New York Times Notable Books of 2023 and 2024, and been nominated for many others, including the Hugo. He is one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.In this episode, you'll hear about: how Vajra conceptualizes storylistening to your instincts and not killing your darlingsleaning into your strengths the inspiration behind THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORSusing the full fantasy toolkit For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    59 min

  2. FEB 26

    Episode #114: Tips to make your query shine

    Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story. In this episode, you'll hear about: making sparkly listsquery word economymirroring truths from query to novel and backtension, stakes, and enticing character traitstapping into and reflecting your own joy For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    49 min

  3. FEB 19

    Episode #113: On inspiration, space operas, and 100-dollar grapes, with Legendary A.D. Sui

    Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary A.D. Sui. A.D. Sui is a Ukrainian-born, internationally raised speculative writer. They are a Nebula winner, and an Aurora, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist. They are the author of The Dragonfly Gambit (2024), The Iron Garden Sutra (2026), and more than two dozen short stories. A failed academic and retired fencer, they spend most days wrangling their two dogs and tending to their myriads of tropical plants. In this episode, you'll hear about: the inspiration behind THE DRAGONFLY GAMBITA.D.'s writing journeyTHE IRON GARDEN SUTRAnavigating the author branding spaceDrive to Survivewhere to find inspirationhow A.D. studies story100 dollar grapes For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    1 hr

  4. FEB 12

    Episode #112: Welcome back: updates, recs, and teasers

    Welcome to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story. In this episode: Courtney shares her cool new name.the beasts discuss adapting writing realities to life changes.you'll hear about the values, lessons and real talk behind not writing the story of your heart.Courtney shares her tip for revisions progress (be ready for girl math).Courtney and Ghabiba share their top most recent book recs.you'll get some light teasers for 2026 epic Storybeast workshops.Ghabiba requests your help in breaking her curse.the beasts give a special welcome to its new Storybeast team member.For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    44 min

  5. 11/20/2025

    Episode #111: What makes a satisfying ending

    Welcome to the final installment of our spoiler filled breakdown of Arcane Season 2! In this episode, Ghabiba and McKell discuss that "WHAT JUST HAPPENED??" ending. In this episode, you'll hear about: McKell's aquamarine teathe conflict of happy endings for conflicting charactersthe two elements Ghabiba thinks make for a satisfying endingthe role of fairness and the shaping of villains in allowing viewers to extend grace to other charactershow specific character endings allow us to categorize the show's antagonistscreating towards a feeling For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    1h 14m

  6. 11/13/2025

    Episode #110: How to fight write with Carla Hoch

    Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Carla Hoch. CARLA HOCH is the author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes as well as Fight Write, Round Two: Crafting Chaos, Combat and Crime. Carla has been teaching the craft of writing fight scenes, action and violence since 2017 and is an instructor for both Writer’s Digest University and Writing Mastery Academy. Her award-winning blog, FightWrite.net, has been named in Writer’s Digest 100 Best Sites for Writers five years in a row. Carla is a world champion jiujitsu player and has experience in almost a dozen fighting styles. She lives outside Houston, Texas with her family and judgmental cats. In this episode, you'll: hear about Carla's research processfind your new weapon mottodiscover whether your character should store their second weapon in their bootlearn what your two most important considerations in a fight scene should behear how to teach yourself to write a fight scenehear how to pace a fight sceneface the question of what's more useful in storytelling: being realistic versus authentichear about Carlas's top pet fight scene peeveshear about Carla's consultation sessions on fight scenesuncover "dating" advice from Carlahear therapist Courtney talk about the power of enclothed cognition For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    1h 30m

  7. 11/06/2025

    Episode #109: What makes us who we are: An ARCANE study

    Welcome to the second installment of our SPOILER FILLED breakdown of Arcane Season 2! In this episode, Ghabiba and McKell discuss what makes us who we are through the lens of analyzing Arcane's characters. You'll hear about: the alternate reality what-if episode that made our hearts achethe tool of using a character who reflects our feelingsthe types of grief that shape uswhere we situate the selfhow the shape of your world shapes youthe influence of time on characterthe constant state of becoming For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    1h 15m

  8. 10/30/2025

    Episode #108: On vampires and villains with Kalla Harris

    Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Kalla Harris. A full-time daydreamer, KALLA HARRIS has wanted to be an author since she was eight years old--although she's now traded her composition notebooks for a computer. When she's not writing high-stakes young adult books with lots of kissing, you can find her curled up with a good story, perfecting her mac and cheese recipe, or rewatching The Vampire Diaries (Hi, Damon!). Kalla resides in the Upstate of South Carolina with her husband. In this episode, you'll hear about: the inspiration behind the vampires in THE GROUND THAT DEVOURS USthe Vampire Diaries as core lorewhat makes a monster, what makes us humanadvocacy in publishing spaces as a chronically ill writerAaron Warner AndersonHow to change your life without (literally) losing your head The importance of frozen grapes For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks! A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify. As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast. Be brave, stay beastly!

    1 hr
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5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

A podcast for story lovers, Storybeast explores how we weave tales and why we love them. Co-hosts Ghabiba Weston and C. Shack chat with each other and legendary guests about different elements of various books, tv shows, plays, and other modalities to explore this fundamental aspect of humanity. Come for the story, stay for the snacks.

Information

  • Creator
    STORYBEAST
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    116
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © STORYBEAST
  • Show Website
    STORYBEAST