A series of smart, funny video essays from PBS Digital Studios about their favorite books and why they love to read. Host Lindsay Ellis delves into topics like the evolution of YA, how science fiction mirrors our own anxieties, and why the book is sometimes just a _bit_ better than the movie.
| Title | Air Date | Duration | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | Episode 1 | When the Book is Better than the Movie | 2018-06-04 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 2 | The Evolution of YA: Young Adult Fiction, Explained | 2018-06-25 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 3 | The Evolution of Science Fiction | 2018-07-16 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 4 | An Ode to the Romance Novel | 2018-07-30 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 5 | How Fantasy Reflects our World | 2018-08-13 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 6 | Why Did They Make Me Read This in High School? | 2018-09-04 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 7 | Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover? | 2018-11-21 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 8 | Fear of GhostWriting | 2018-12-07 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 9 | Who Can You Trust? Unreliable Narrators | 2018-12-17 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 10 | Food & Fiction: Memorable Meals in Literature | 2019-01-11 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 11 | Death, Personified | 2019-01-24 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 12 | How Greek Mythology Inspires Us | 2019-02-07 | min |
| Season 1 | Episode 13 | The Beauty and Anguish of Les Misérables! | 2019-04-18 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 1 | The Case for Fan Fiction | 2020-02-27 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 2 | Afrofuturism: From Books to Blockbusters | 2020-03-19 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 3 | How Fictional Pandemics Reflect the Real Thing | 2020-04-29 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 4 | Why We Still Love Little Women, 150 Years Later | 2020-05-27 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 5 | The Byronic Hero: Isn't it Byronic? | 2020-06-24 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 6 | The Constructed Languages of JRR Tolkien | 2020-07-16 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 7 | War and Peace and Everything Else | 2020-08-07 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 8 | The It's Lit! Musical Episode | 2020-08-27 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 9 | The Fiery History of Banned Books | 2020-09-21 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 10 | The (Stephen) King of Horror | 2020-11-05 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 11 | Are Graphic Novels... Novels? | 2020-11-25 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 12 | Dune, The Most Important Sci Fi Series Ever? | 2020-12-17 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 13 | Anne Rice, The Queen of Literary Monsters | 2021-01-06 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 14 | Literary Icons You NEED to Know From the Harlem Renaissance | 2021-02-26 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 15 | How Do You Write a Bestseller? | 2021-03-18 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 16 | Unraveling the Myth of Ernest Hemingway | 2021-03-31 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 17 | What's in a (Pen) Name? | 2021-04-21 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 18 | How Manga Took Over American Bookshelves | 2021-05-12 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 19 | Jane Eyre: Why We Keep Reading It | 2021-06-17 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 20 | Octavia Butler, The Grand Dame of Science Fiction | 2021-06-29 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 21 | The Unappreciated Female Writers Who Invented the Novel | 2021-07-14 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 22 | Don't Know Much About BEOWULF? Nobody Does! | 2021-08-06 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 23 | To Kill, To Kill a Mockingbird? | 2021-08-25 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 24 | Why Do People Think Huck Finn Is Racist? | 2021-09-23 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 25 | What You Don't Know About The Father of Sci-Fi | 2021-10-26 | min |
| Season 2 | Episode 26 | Why We Keep Retelling the Classics | 2021-11-17 | min |
| Season 3 | Episode 1 | The Women of Jane Austen | 2022-01-06 | min |
| Season 3 | Episode 2 | Inside the Absurdist Mind of Kurt Vonnegut | 2022-01-27 | min |
| Season 3 | Episode 3 | Why Edgar Allan Poe Isn't Just a Sad Boy | 2022-03-10 | min |
| Season 3 | Episode 4 | Why Magical Realism is a Global Phenomenon | 2022-03-31 | min |
| Season 3 | Episode 5 | Toni Morrison's Opus About Confronting a Terrible Past | 2022-04-28 | min |
