Bad Lit Friends

Bad Lit Friends
  • 5.0 (10)
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  • Updated Weekly

Bad Lit Friends is a writing podcast that barely knows what it's doing. And that’s the point. Hosted by fiction writers Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty, this show is equal parts craft discussion, existential despair, ego massage, and wildly unsolicited hot takes. Each episode blends honest conversations about the creative process, the publishing industry, and the messiness of trying to create highfalutin art, with hot-and-occasionally-right takes, and a dash of internet drama. If you've ever felt like you're writing into the void, you're not alone — grab a seat, bring your worst draft.

  1. 6d ago

    Guilty Until Proven Human... AGAIN?

    Part two of our ragefest and a content warning: extreme capitalism is afoot. Yes, we're back in the AI detection mines, and things have gotten WORSE since last we blew a gasket about Pangram, the Atlantic, structural racism, and the dumpster fire formerly known as traditional publishing. We have some good news about Daggermouth, a legal update about Jerry Falade, and Meagan reads a law review article that makes us both want to burn the whole system down to a crispy char. Turns out nobody knows what AI-assisted means legally (yet), authors are somehow the villains (especially if they’re not saving every draft and note!), and if you can’t document your writing process in a time-lapse video, congrats, you might be a witch, so get ready for your witch trial, babe! Hope you got your hair did before they put you in the dock. And in Hot Goss: some total reprobate who actually DOES use generative AI is feeding books into a video generator and sticking the results behind a Patreon paywall. Super duper cool! Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.  Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Show notes – we’re including all the ones from last week: Stony Brook preprint: ⁠https://arxiv.org/html/2510.13939v4⁠  First bubbling on Threads: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@thewellreadnurse/post/DbUNQgikTM5⁠ The Atlantic piece: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@theatlantic/post/DbUB1ZClON-⁠ Writers contacted by the preprint authors: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@bykenziejames/post/DbUi6pKFlAW⁠; ⁠https://www.threads.com/@authorleighmiller/post/DbUfWoCDYzP⁠  The supposedly telltale phrases sound awfully familiar: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@dianaurban/post/DbUVaMiAHSU⁠  Reddit enters the chat: ⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1v8jy52/comment/p07ke6k/?share_id=jWP7w6W-aaJ82WnwPzDSy⁠  An article promoted by the author of the Atlantic piece which coincidentally was written by the person who wrote the Mia Ballard takedown: ⁠https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/books/ai-bookselling-amazon.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1VA.TUP9.b3IGCF6Kum1h&smid=url-share⁠ Falade’s deal falls apart: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@dianawallachauthor/post/Dbb5nvSCEV3⁠  Publisher’s Lunch does cool shit: ⁠https://www.threads.com/@authorpenncole/post/Dbb3M0wjGTA⁠; ⁠https://www.threads.com/@fatedlovesreturns/post/Dbb5pQwjz1t⁠ (screenshots included of article) The Bookseller weighs in: ⁠https://www.threads.com/share/_nf25Ylhd/⁠  Quotes from Falade: ⁠https://www.theinsneider.com/p/ai-scandal-rocks-publishing-world-and-hollywood-black-author-minotaur-macmillan-auction-uta-tv-show⁠  Substack x Pangram: ⁠https://mediacopilot.ai/substack-ai-detection-pangram/⁠  Yale Law article: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6761720  Hot Goss 2: DON’T MAKE SLOP: https://www.threads.com/@twisteddreamland

  2. Aug 7

    Guilty Until Proven Human

    In this episode, we celebrate 50 episodes (!!!!!) of Bad Lit Friends by doing what we do best: yelling at the internet. First, Kirk has actual writing-career news, and Meagan's book remains perpetually one chapter away from being finished, but this time she means it, seriously, no joke, fingers crossed. Then we return to one of our favorite recurring nightmares: AI detection, literary witch hunts, and (what the actual hell?) the massively disturbing idea that writers should have to prove they wrote their own books. Meagan dives deep on a university preprint about AI-generated fiction, Pangram's AI detector, The Atlantic's reporting on H.M. Wolfe's Daggermouth, the implosion of Jerry Falade's seven-figure book deal, and the extremely convenient timing of Pangram's shiny new model and fresh pile of venture capital. We also dig into what AI detectors actually measure, why genre fiction is particularly vulnerable to false positives, what "rare expressions" do—and absolutely do not—prove, (oh no, I used em dashes!) and why asking one probabilistic machine whether another probabilistic machine wrote your book might not be the forensic slam dunk the tech bros are trying to convince you that it is. Meagan also brings receipts from her own deeply semi-scientific Pangram experiment, in which (spoiler) actual AI-generated writing was confidently declared 100% human. Whoops. This is only Part One. There is, unfortunately, so much more. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.  Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ Show notes: Stony Brook preprint: https://arxiv.org/html/2510.13939v4  First bubbling on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@thewellreadnurse/post/DbUNQgikTM5 The Atlantic piece: https://www.threads.com/@theatlantic/post/DbUB1ZClON- Writers contacted by the preprint authors: https://www.threads.com/@bykenziejames/post/DbUi6pKFlAW; https://www.threads.com/@authorleighmiller/post/DbUfWoCDYzP  The supposedly telltale phrases sound awfully familiar: https://www.threads.com/@dianaurban/post/DbUVaMiAHSU  Reddit enters the chat: https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1v8jy52/comment/p07ke6k/?share_id=jWP7w6W-aaJ82WnwPzDSy  An article promoted by the author of the Atlantic piece which coincidentally was written by the person who wrote the Mia Ballard takedown: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/books/ai-bookselling-amazon.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1VA.TUP9.b3IGCF6Kum1h&smid=url-share Falade’s deal falls apart: https://www.threads.com/@dianawallachauthor/post/Dbb5nvSCEV3  Publisher’s Lunch does cool shit: https://www.threads.com/@authorpenncole/post/Dbb3M0wjGTA; https://www.threads.com/@fatedlovesreturns/post/Dbb5pQwjz1t (screenshots included of article) The Bookseller weighs in: https://www.threads.com/share/_nf25Ylhd/  Quotes from Falade: https://www.theinsneider.com/p/ai-scandal-rocks-publishing-world-and-hollywood-black-author-minotaur-macmillan-auction-uta-tv-show  Substack x Pangram: https://mediacopilot.ai/substack-ai-detection-pangram/  The woman who wants writers to prove it quote-threaded by Kirk: https://www.threads.com/@kirkraff/post/DbY1iCGmQug

  3. Jul 31 ·  Bonus

    Minimum Episode, Maximum Shame

    Hi. We're Bad Lit Friends and we messed up. Again. Because Kirk is on vacation not last week, but THIS week, and because calendars are hard!!! So the special guests we promised you aren't here. We're sorry. Kirk is sorrier. (Or he should be.) But! Next Friday, August 7th, we're back with a real episode: we're diving into the H.M. Wolfe / Daggermouth AI allegations from The Atlantic, why this keeps happening to debut authors of color with big deals while established authors who brag about AI use get a pass, and the uncomfortable parallels to Mia Ballard's Shy Girl situation earlier this year. It's A Lot but come on, it's us. We're a lot too for a couple of middle-aged weirdos. Links to the Atlantic piece and the underlying preprint study are in the show notes below — consider it homework. Yes, we're giving out homework because this is summer school, I guess? See you next week. Blame Kirk. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Show notes: Is This What Comes After AI Slop?" The Atlantic, July 27, 2026 (paywall): https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/07/daggermouth-novel-bestseller-ai/688067/Chakrabarty, et al., "Readers Prefer Outputs of AI Trained on Copyrighted Books over Expert Human Writers," arXiv, March 17, 2026: https://arxiv.org/html/2510.13939v4

  4. Jul 24

    Closing Time: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Ending Your Book

    Choo choo! BLF boards the express train this week, destination: Writing Your Damn Ending Already Station. In this ep, we reckon with endings: the part of your book where your promises come due and your readers find out whether you've been paying as close attention to plot and character as they have. (They will let you know if you haven’t!) We cover Chekhov's guns, Chekhov's motifs, random rifles, what the Star Wars medal ceremony has to do with your novel (more than you'd think, and Chewbacca deserved better), and the sad, sorry syndrome in which a writer knows they have an ending for their book, has ALWAYS had an ending, but keeps writing one more chapter anyway. Because when you don’t write an ending, you never have to say goodbye! Very good work, writers, very good work.  We also get into the grief of finishing a book you've been living in for a while, because it is grief, even when it's also relief, and why the words write you just as much as you write them. And in Hot Goss: the people of Threads—our Thriends!—have declared that sprayed edges indicate bad writing, and they have THOUGHTS, and they believe they are right. We also have thoughts, and ours are actually right, encompassing bookbinding history, the female-coding of entire genres (spoiler: laydeez be reading wrong AGAIN), and a gentle suggestion to go outside. Unless it’s a bajillion degrees out there and you’re a bog person, like Meagan. In which case, may we recommend a sunblock of at least SPF 30? Also: we’ve moved podcast platforms because Riverside finally pooped in the proverbial. Please bear with us as we work out the kinks in our new platform. Not that kind of kink, weirdo. (No offense to our weirdo listeners, we love you too!🫶) Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Show notes: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid final sequence (SPOILER!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geOqbM03Hf0  JUSTICE FOR CHEWBACCA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixG8pfncOs

  5. Jul 17

    Hot Gos Summer!

    In this episode, we're celebrating "Hot Goss Summer" with our biggest haul of book-world nonsense yet. We wade into the polluted Oceans of PDF, and break down (loudly) why your arguments in favor of piracy sucks. We also cover the "Honey, I Slopped the Book" saga, where a small press's anthology pick turned out to have some very suspicious AI fingerprints, and a fanfic-plagiarism scandal that actually ends with a genuinely good apology, which, if you know Threads, you know is rare. Plus, a heartfelt recommendation for anyone who wants to understand Marx without reading Marx because why not. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: badlitfriends@gmail.comBluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.socialThreads: @badlitfriendsInstagram: @badlitfriendsWebsite: https://www.badlitfriends.com/ Show Notes: Queer Liberation Library: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/ Bona Books and the steampunk, anti-colonial fantasy that wasn’t written by a human: https://www.bona-books.com/news/we-bought-an-ai-story Bona Books AI study: https://www.bona-books.com/news/the-machines-are-coming and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ELIAJ0oVdStfn4qUt5N2-nmbokrpZneI/view Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove” (which we discussed before) won the Commonwealth Foundation prize despite having mind-bogglingly clear markers of AI writing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/01/judges-claims-ai-use-commonwealth-short-story-prize-jamir-nazir  Valley of the Moms controversypalooza: https://www.threads.com/@olivia.tildon/post/DaOzGBqGcJa https://www.threads.com/@druishamericanprincess/post/DZ904BAkQFxJmsuUOlmNWc9EbPQl93_UWHu-1E0 https://www.tiktok.com/@ogbread.wifey/photo/7657483673670913293?image_index=5; https://www.threads.com/@rachelle_literary_agent/post/DaSlh4QDm2x https://www.nycourts.gov/Reporter/3dseries/2015/2015_51161.htm Stolen fanfic apology tour: https://www.threads.com/@andimcclanewrites/post/DaYMATYlnzW?xmt=AQG0Yd-LBesM-hy2jvCXG49grNZYQhNR6ZPbsMThTu8uSb1L39mIJEr81pajIfIGkQTHN23k&slof=1 https://www.threads.com/@redpenromance/post/DaYG7GIGxuQ

  6. Jul 10

    The Writer's Toolbox

    This week, Bad Lit Friends gets all practical-like as we whack our way through the writing tools jungle: the good, the bad, and the ones that should absolutely come with a content warning. Up for dissection are the big hits and some notable misses across the full writing ecosystem: platforms, organizational tools, and book formatting software. Google Docs, Scrivener, and Vellum all get their moment, along with some tools that are doing genuinely useful things (we love you, Calibre!) and a couple that have made some deeply questionable choices about sticking your creative process into their Easy-Bake AI Oven. What, you didn't want to sit back and let your writing app take the drafting wheel while you get your nails did? Are you some kind of Luddite? (Actually, you should totally be some kind of Luddite when it comes to this.) And in Hot Goss this week: the Heated Rivalry fanfic community on Archive of Our Own (AO3) has been rocked by a 25-page PDF naming writers accused of using Claude to draft their fic. What followed was predictable and ugly, and raises some thorny and uncomfortable questions about spell check, translation tools, hypocrisy, and where exactly everyone falls on the AI spectrum. Also: bullying people off the internet is bad, full stop. Don't do it, or we'll talk about you on Hot Goss. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.  Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Show notes: ⁠⁠Scrivener⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Dabble⁠⁠ (hit Meagan up for a coupon code on Bluesky -- a completely overhauled Dabble 3.0 is dropping 7/13/26!) ⁠⁠Reedsy Studio⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Calibre⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Vellum⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Atticus⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Kindle Create⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Adobe InDesign⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Novel Crafter⁠⁠ (boo hiss) ⁠⁠SudoWrite⁠⁠ (boo hiss again!) Freya (boo hiss redux) ⁠⁠Archive of Our Own (AO3)⁠⁠ (huzzah!)

  7. Jul 3

    Art for Art’s Sake? When the Author Is the Problem

    In this episode, we wade into one of the filthiest pools in the bookish world: whether you can separate the art from the artist—and what supporting a problematic creator says about you, your values, and where your money goes. We wrestle with the complicated legacies of J.K. Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, and several other writers whose work has meant a great deal to readers despite their reprehensible words, beliefs, or alleged actions. We talk about whether death changes the equation, and how consuming something you already own is different from buying it today. There are no easy answers here. Mostly, we ask you to think about your consumption, and accept that the line between art and artist may be different for everyone. In Hot Goss, we cleanse the palate with less horrifying (but still infuriating) story of literary agents feeding querying authors’ manuscripts into AI. Content warning: This episode includes discussions of racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, sexual harassment, sexual assault, abuse, and other distressing subjects. We keep the most graphic details out of the conversation, but please take care of yourself and skip this one if you need to. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: badlitfriends@gmail.comBluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.social
Threads: @badlitfriends
Instagram: @badlitfriends
Website: https://www.badlitfriends.com/

  8. Jun 26

    Real Talk: Writing Dialogue Without (Too Many) Tears

    We're back from our unplanned hiatus with most of our brains intact! This week we're diving into dialogue: how to make your characters sound like real live humans talking to each other as opposed to two robots exchanging plot information in a robot factory (beep boop). It’s not an easy nut to crack, and we’re not promising to hand out any nutcrackers, but we have a few clues. It is also, when you get it right, one of the most fun things you will ever do as a writer. Way more fun than writing your name in a form at the DMV, for just one example! PLUS Hot Goss: an AI platform promising to write your query letter for you (absolutely do not do this), a book title that gave us a small (tiny) pause, Meagan gets the name of an awesome Bay Area bookshop wrong (that cat is SLEEPY, not lazy!), and a Threads discourse about a single word that somehow, inevitably, became about ableism. The internet remains ungovernable, as do we.  Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.  Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com⁠⁠ Bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Threads: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@badlitfriends⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠badlitfriends.com⁠⁠⁠ Show notes: BBC Radio 4 Dramas playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJmAFKECAKUgRkbhCEgO95Rl2F7LQQjA1  Sleepy Cat Bookshop, Berkeley (yes I know I said Lazy Cat!): https://www.sleepycatbooks.com/ Oxford University Online creative writing courses (where Meagan honed her dialogue chops): https://lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/course-subject/creative-writing/

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5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Bad Lit Friends is a writing podcast that barely knows what it's doing. And that’s the point. Hosted by fiction writers Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty, this show is equal parts craft discussion, existential despair, ego massage, and wildly unsolicited hot takes. Each episode blends honest conversations about the creative process, the publishing industry, and the messiness of trying to create highfalutin art, with hot-and-occasionally-right takes, and a dash of internet drama. If you've ever felt like you're writing into the void, you're not alone — grab a seat, bring your worst draft.

Information

  • Creator
    Bad Lit Friends
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Bad Lit Friends
  • Show Website
    Bad Lit Friends

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