Lit on Fire

Elizabeth Hahn and Peter Whetzel
  • 5.0 (2)
  • BOOKS

“Welcome to Lit on Fire — the podcast where literature meets controversy, where banned books, silenced voices, and dangerous ideas refuse to stay quiet. From classrooms to courtrooms, novels to news cycles, we explore how stories challenge power, expose injustice, and ignite social change. Our logo — a woman bound atop a burning stack of books — isn’t just an image. It’s a warning and a promise. A warning about what happens when voices are erased… and a promise that stories, once lit, are impossible to put out. So if you’re ready to question, to argue, to feel uncomfortable, and to think deeper — you’re in the right place. This is - Lit on Fire.

  1. 1D AGO

    Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

    Send a text A blade that sings. A chorus of mouths that try to drown it out. We dive into Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark and trace how horror and history intertwine to reveal the real machinery of white supremacy—from Stone Mountain’s ritual power to the propaganda engine of The Birth of a Nation. We unpack why casting the Klan as literal monsters isn’t exaggeration but precision, and how Black Southern spiritual traditions turn music, memory, and community into weapons of defense. We spend time with Maurice, Sadie, and Chef—three Black women monster hunters whose distinct voices and wounds shape the heart of the story. Guided by Nana Jean and the ring shout, they face a resurgence of terror that feeds on fear. Maurice’s shattered sword becomes a turning point: when Night Doctors force her to confront the buried trauma that fuels self-protective hatred, she reforms the blade and reclaims power. That journey opens a larger question we wrestle with: what separates righteous anger, which moves us toward justice, from hatred, which corrodes and empowers the very forces we resist? Along the way, we connect the novel’s supernatural frame to concrete history: the Klan’s 1915 revival, Stone Mountain’s monument politics, and the textbook wars that reframed the Civil War to sanitize slavery. By reading the symbols against the record, we show how myths become policy, how monuments shape memory, and how communities fight back with ritual, song, and stubborn joy. The takeaway is clear and urgent: joy can be strategy, memory can be armor, and anger can be disciplined into action without becoming the poison it opposes. If this conversation moved you, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves bold fiction, and leave a quick review—what image from Ring Shout will you be thinking about tomorrow? Support the show

    31 min

  2. FEB 16

    Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman

    Send a text What if war were a livestream with unlockable skins and an insurance plan for infinite respawns? We dive into Matt Dinniman’s Operation Bounce House and pull back the curtain on a future where corporations sell conflict as content, gamers pilot mechs against “terrorists,” and a quiet farming colony is rebranded as the enemy. It’s satire that hits like shrapnel—funny until it isn’t—and it dares us to ask who profits when chaos becomes policy. We walk through New Sonora’s world: a community built by generational labor, adapted DNA, and small rituals that make life worth living. Then Earth arrives with a script. Propaganda reframes colonists as subhuman, AI laws bend when convenient, and Apex seeds the battlefield with humanoid bots to create the enemies their footage requires. We explore how class power shapes the plot—who owns the platform, who gets commodified, and how capital turns outrage into revenue. From streamers-turned-soldiers to premium mech “insurance,” every mechanic exposes a market that would rather monetize empathy than practice it. Along the way, humor becomes a scalpel. An AI hive mind stuck in tutorial mode delivers zingers and truth. A child pilot screams at his mother while leveling a farm. A desk full of sex toys sits beside a refugee crowd. These moments aren’t just gags; they reveal what distance and scale do to us. We talk about media bubbles, algorithmic grooming, and why a small documentary shot by Rosita might be the most radical act in the story: a plea for relation in a system built to erase it. Roger’s final speech lingers—tribalism thrives at scale, empathy shrinks without connection—and we weigh whether satire can still break through the noise. If you’re drawn to sharp worldbuilding, political sci-fi, and critiques of surveillance, propaganda, and late capitalism, this conversation is for you. Hit play, subscribe, and share your take: did the humor sharpen the critique for you, or did it make the brutality harder to see? We want to hear where the story cut deepest. Support the show

    27 min

  3. FEB 15

    James by Percival Everett

    Send a text Ready to question tidy endings and comfortable myths? We dive into Percival Everett’s James—a bold reimagining that shifts the center of gravity from Huck to Jim as James—and uncover how language, law, and narrative shape who gets to be seen as fully human. From the opening pages, we wrestle with why this isn’t a simple retelling: Everett keeps the river but strips out the wishful thinking, replacing it with a more honest ledger of costs, choices, and the brutal calculus of survival under slavery. We unpack how the novel treats language as a shield and a strategy. James teaches his family a public voice that meets white expectations and a private voice that preserves intellect, dignity, and trust. That code switching is not performance for approval; it’s counter‑control, a way to reclaim agency in a world that demands visibility without consent. Along the way, Huck’s famous “All right, then, I’ll go to hell” gets reexamined. For Huck, hell is theoretical; for James, hell is daily life—separation, threat, and the constant risk of erasure. The contrast exposes how moral drama can comfort privilege while injustice persists. We also tackle the myth of “free states,” tracing how borders promised liberation that practice often denied. Everett’s depiction of mob impunity, dispersed blame, and legal loopholes feels uncomfortably current, echoing debates about systemic racism, accountability, and the politics of delay. And we confront the critique that James “loses the moral high ground,” asking who gets to define morality when systems block redress. Sometimes survival narrows choices; sometimes refusing neatness is the most honest act a story can perform. If you care about banned books, critical race theory, language and power, or how literature challenges the American canon, this conversation will stay with you long after the credits roll. Hit follow, share with a friend who loves challenging fiction, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—we want to hear where the novel changed your mind. Support the show

    29 min

  4. FEB 9

    The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

    Send a text A charming neighbor moves in, the casseroles come out, and the danger starts where polite society refuses to look. We crack open The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires to examine how a suburban horror story exposes patriarchy, gaslighting, and the quiet machinery that protects predators. From PTA meetings to police briefings, we trace how institutions prize male comfort, dismiss women’s intuition as hysteria, and treat marginalized communities as expendable until harm crosses the cul-de-sac line. We dig into the power of niceness as a silencing tool, the emotional labor women perform to keep families afloat, and the chilling ease with which a charismatic man joins the “good guy” club. Mrs. Green’s perspective anchors a candid look at race and class: missing Black children labeled runaways, a nurse reduced to housework to be heard, and the unequal risks borne by those outside the old village. As the evidence mounts, we ask what it actually takes for fear to be believed—and what accountability looks like when law, medicine, and neighborhood respectability close ranks. Along the way, we wrestle with uneasy catharsis, the cost of collective action, and why horror can tell social truth when polite narratives won’t. We also talk about reading as a practice of empathy in an era of shrinking attention and viral certainty—how books stretch our moral imagination and help us notice the people our systems are built to overlook. If you’re drawn to feminist critique, Southern Gothic vibes, book club dynamics, and stories where the real monster is the structure that enables him, this conversation will hit home and raise your heart rate. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves thought-provoking horror, and leave a review telling us: who do you think the real villain is—and why? Support the show

    31 min

  5. FEB 8

    The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova

    Send a text A summons arrives without a stamp, the house grows its own defenses, and a family gathers to witness a matriarch who refuses to explain herself. We dive into Zoraida Córdova’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina to explore how magical realism becomes a clear language for what families cannot say out loud—trauma, migration, race, and the ache of not knowing. As hosts, we unpack the novel’s bold choice to make miracles feel ordinary and silence feel heavy, showing how that tension mirrors real experiences of immigrant otherness and generational pain. We trace the book’s central images—seeds coughed up, roses blooming on skin—and how each mark lands differently: a bud at the shoulder that won’t open, a rose at an artist’s hand that guides his craft, a bloom on a child’s forehead like an awakened third eye. These symbols turn inheritance into something living, not legal, and raise the questions that drive our conversation: Does silence protect or wound? Is truth freeing even when it breaks things? Do we choose identity, or does it choose us? Along the way, we examine Orquídea’s agency and erasure through a feminist lens, the pressures of assimilation, and why some descendants transform pain into purpose while others burn out on bitterness. We close with sharp takeaways—silence tends toward harm, truth frees through disruption, inheritance is negotiation, healing needs knowledge and choice—and a look ahead to our next read. If you’re drawn to stories that braid myth with memory, if you’ve felt the pull of a past you were never taught, this conversation will feel like standing on a threshold with the door finally opening. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves magical realism, and leave a review telling us: is inheritance destiny or a deal you strike with yourself? Support the show

    24 min

  6. FEB 2

    Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

    Send a text A slur on a subway platform, a sister lost, and a ghost that won’t stop knocking—our conversation digs into how Kylie Lee Baker’s Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng turns horror into a blade for truth. We trace Cora Zeng’s journey through pandemic-era New York as she navigates grief, crime scene cleaning, and the sickening rise of anti-Asian hate, asking what happens when other people’s fear tries to decide who you are. We talk about the hungry ghost as a ferocious metaphor for unresolved grief and denied heritage, and how ritual becomes a language for survival. Along the way, we unpack why undesirable labor so often lands on immigrant communities, how media narratives massage data to minimize patterns of violence, and where slow-burning female rage becomes a form of agency rather than spectacle. The episode probes the politics of naming—how slurs scapegoat, how anglicized names help some vanish in plain sight, and how words shape who is mourned and who is blamed. If you’re drawn to literary horror, Asian American identity, cultural memory, and the way stories challenge power, this conversation offers a clear, candid look at how genre fiction can outpace think pieces by making trauma visible and undeniable. We close by asking the question the book plants with care: is the monster a person, or a system that decides which lives matter? Press play, then share your take, subscribe for more fearless book talks, and leave a review to help others find the show. Support the show

    28 min

  7. JAN 29

    Red Rising by Pierce Brown

    Send a text A color-coded empire tells its workers to love their chains, and a miner learns how deep the lie runs. We take you inside Red Rising’s brutal hierarchy to examine how propaganda, spectacle, and masculinity prop up a system that rewards obedience while punishing dissent. Starting with Eo’s defiant vision and Darrow’s infiltration of the Golds, we unpack the moral trade-offs of fighting a rigged game from the inside and the lingering question of whether true change requires reform or a clean break. We dive into the Institute’s dark experiment in leadership, where violence is normalized, women’s bodies are treated as battlegrounds, and status is measured by who can dominate. That lens opens a broader conversation about gender, power, and why patriarchy so often survives revolutions. Mustang emerges as a counterweight to Darrow’s competitive instinct, showing how coalition, perspective, and shared authority can expand what leadership looks like and who it serves. Along the way, we map Brown’s world to our own: laurel quotas as KPI culture, mobility myths that mask rigging, and nationalist narratives that sanctify sacrifice for the “greater good.” Historical echoes from abolition to modern wealth worship complicate easy answers and force us to ask what comes after the fall. Can a system built on domination be redeemed without replicating its logic, or does justice require starting over? If you’re hungry for sharp literary analysis that meets real-world stakes, this conversation is for you. Press play, then tell us where you land: careful reform, or light the match? And if you’re new here, follow the show, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend who loves big questions and bigger books. Support the show

    25 min

  8. JAN 25

    The Road by Cormac McCarthy

    Send a text Ash falls, trees stand like burnt ribs, and a father tells his son to carry the fire. We dive into Cormac McCarthy’s The Road not just as a survival story, but as a sharp mirror reflecting who gets to be called human when every system fails. We wrestle with the novel’s treatment of women—the mother’s contested agency, the near-total silencing of female voices, and the brutal imagery of bodies reduced to utility—and ask what it means when the narratives that endure in catastrophe preserve only certain kinds of power. From there, we track the book’s braided symbols of faith and ethics. Is the boy a messiah, or is he conscience made flesh? We unpack biblical echoes, Eli’s provocation that “there is no God and we are his prophets,” and the stubborn instruction to “carry the fire” as a portable moral code. When institutions collapse and scripture loses authority, the story suggests the only commandment left is what we practice: care, restraint, and responsibility that costs us something. We also connect the ash-gray world to our own: environmental collapse, cannibalistic capitalism, and the thin line between survival and savagery. The road becomes a ritual of movement that refuses despair—keep walking, keep the flame, keep the code—while the ending hands that fragile hope to the next generation. If you’ve ever wondered whether hope is naïve or necessary, or how literature can expose the price of outsourcing morality, this conversation offers a rigorous, compassionate guide through the smoke. If the episode resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review telling us what “carrying the fire” means to you. Your notes help more curious readers find the spark. Support the show

    26 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

“Welcome to Lit on Fire — the podcast where literature meets controversy, where banned books, silenced voices, and dangerous ideas refuse to stay quiet. From classrooms to courtrooms, novels to news cycles, we explore how stories challenge power, expose injustice, and ignite social change. Our logo — a woman bound atop a burning stack of books — isn’t just an image. It’s a warning and a promise. A warning about what happens when voices are erased… and a promise that stories, once lit, are impossible to put out. So if you’re ready to question, to argue, to feel uncomfortable, and to think deeper — you’re in the right place. This is - Lit on Fire.

Information

  • Creator
    Elizabeth Hahn and Peter Whetzel
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Lit on Fire
  • Show Website
    Lit on Fire