Untold Legends: The Podcast Zoraida Córdova & Natalie C. Parker

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.

Natalie and Zoraida are welcoming in the new year by chatting with Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Preeti Chhibber! This episode navigates honesty in storytelling, figuring out who the real monsters are, and how different iterations of Peter Pan—specifically the enchanting and sometimes terrifying mermaids from the tale—inspired their stories.

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author of Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad, illustrated by Lisa Sterle, and Love in the Library illustrated by Yas Imamura with more books forthcoming.

She can be found on Twitter @emteehall.

Called “Spider-Man super fan and author” by Publishers Weekly, Preeti Chhibber is a YA author, speaker, and freelance writer. She has written for SYFY, Polygon, BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, The Nerds of Color, and The Mary Sue, among others. She also co-hosts the podcasts Desi Geek Girls and Tar Valon or Bust. She’s appeared on several panels at New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con, and on-screen on the SYFY Network. Honestly, you probably recognize her from one of several BuzzFeed “look at these tweets” Twitter lists. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice.

She can be found on Instagram @runwithskizzers.

Additional media mentioned: The Abyss (1989), Peter Pan (1953), Peter Pan (2023), Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, The Little Mermaid (1989), Jennifer's Body (2009), and Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein.

Follow Zoraida Córdova @zoraidasolo and Natalie C. Parker @ncparker on Instagram.

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.

Join our dynamic duo as they're joined this time by the wonderful Darcie Little Badger. Together they discuss some fun (and deadly) marine facts along with what inspired her story in the anthology from the perspective of a horror and fantasy lover.

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a Ph.D. in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

She can be found on Instagram @dr.littlebadger.

We also found Darcie's magical octopus! The Octopus Squid has bioluminescent arms and can drop one as a distraction as it escapes predators. Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for more on this critter.

Additional media mentioned: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Lighthouse (2019), Dagon (2001), The Shape of Water (2017), and Love, Death + Robots "Jibaro" (2022).

Follow Zoraida Córdova @zoraidasolo and Natalie C. Parker @ncparker on Instagram.

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.

This time around we dive into an empathically poignant conversation about the radical transformation that comes with the exploration of gender and what happens to us when we face storms both physical and emotional.

Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with their feline overlords and their addiction to chai lattes. They are the author of the critically acclaimed This Rebel Heart, The Girl with the Red Balloon, a 2018 Sydney Taylor Honor Book and 2018 Carolyn W. Field Honor Book, as well as The Spy with the Red Balloon. They are the co-editor and contributor to This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them and Us, which had three starred reviews and made Kirkus Review’s Best Middle Grade of 2021 list, as well as It's A Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes and Other Jewish Stories. They also contributed to Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens and Out Now: Queer We Go Again. They are the author of picture books Bedtime for Superheroes, What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns, and Being Friends with Dragons.

They can be found online at KatherineLockeBooks.com and @bibliogato on Twitter and Instagram.

Additional books mentioned: The Seafarer's Kiss by Julia Ember

Follow Zoraida Córdova @zoraidasolo and Natalie C. Parker @ncparker on Instagram.

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.



For our third episode, we're joined by Rebecca Coffindaffer and Julian Winters! Get to know the authors and their tales on asexuality and acceptance in MERMAIDS NEVER DROWN: TALES TO DIVE FOR as we dive into a discussion of Splash following a recent rewatch. We'll chat about its nuances and whether it aged well... or not.



Follow Zoraida Córdova (@zoraidasolo) and Natalie C. Parker (@ncparker) on Instagram.

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.



Our first episode introduces our new anthology, our mermaid origin stories, Trojan War bros, (almost) drownings, immigration, Disney's The Little Mermaid, and more of the mermish things that shaped us.



Follow Zoraida Córdova (@zoraidasolo) and Natalie C. Parker (@ncparker) on Instagram.

Welcome back to the UNTOLD LEGENDS podcast hosted by Natalie C. Parker & Zoraida Córdova. We've had a little bit of a rebrand, so if you remember VAMPIRES NEVER GET OLD, we are still the same editors and writers, we've just expanded.



Our second episode brings in two awesome guests: Julie C. Dao and Gretchen Schreiber! We revisit the original short story "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, how embedding your culture into fantasy storytelling can be cathartic, and dismantling generational trauma, one mermaid tale at a time.



Follow Zoraida Córdova (@zoraidasolo) and Natalie C. Parker (@ncparker) on Instagram.