Episodes

  • Redemption Arcs // Comics // Resident Alien
    Jul 8 2025

    Come journey into Realms Unknown with Alice Fraser and US comedian and podcaster Jackie Kashian for a whole world of sci-fi and fantasy recommendations, tropes and news!


    NEWS

    Isles of the Emberdark - Brandon Sanderson

    Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson

    Elantris - Brandon Sanderson

    The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss


    WHAT ARE YOU INTO?

    GAME Clank!

    GAME Lords of Waterdeep

    Sabriel - Garth Nix

    Lirael - Garth Nix

    Abhorsen - Garth Nix

    Sinister Booksellers of Bath - Garth Nix

    Dragonsong - Anne McCaffrey

    Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey

    Dragondrums - Anne McCaffrey

    The Dolphins of Pern - Anne McCaffrey

    A Forbidden Alchemy - Stacey McEwan

    COMIC The Uncanny X-Men - Gail Simone

    COMIC Ironwood - Bill Willingham

    COMIC Jack of Fables - Bill Willingham

    COMIC Oglaf - Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne

    COMIC Giant Days - John Allison


    TROPE ON A ROPE

    COMIC Thunderbolts

    COMIC Lucifer

    COMIC Secret Six

    COMIC 100 Bullets

    COMIC The Boys


    DEEP DIVE - redemption arcs

    The Chronicles of Severian the Torturer - Gene Wolfe

    The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

    Illusions - Richard Bach (Messiah story)

    Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A Heinlein (Messiah story)

    MOVIE Thunderbolts*

    MOVIE Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

    Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

    COMIC - Lucifer

    TV Lucifer

    Going Postal - Terry Pratchett

    Hogfather - Terry Pratchett

    TV Resident Alien

    COMIC Irredeemable - Mark Waid

    COMIC Incorruptible - Mark Waid


    MINES OF URRGH

    FILM You’ve Got Mail

    FILM Pillow Talk

    FILM Casablanca


    📯 Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    💰 Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    📚 Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Jackie Kashian.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    41 mins
  • Flintlock fantasy // 28 Years Later // Culturepunk
    Jul 1 2025

    Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 24 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    Episode 24

    This week's news covers the Squid Game USA spinoff, Disney suing AI image generator Midjourney, and a mother suing Disney after a Stormtrooper scared her child, causing injury. Hear what Tom and Alice have been enjoying recently, men slaps and silly old women with health issues are the tropes on the rope this week and they venture into the 'mines of urrgh'. The sub genre deep dive is flintlock fantasy - combining gunpowder-era warfare with magic!


    And hear the EXCLUSIVE breaking news as Tom coins what may be a brand-new genre - culturepunk. You (possibly) heard it here first!


    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion


    News

    TV Squid Game USA


    What have you been into of late?

    FILM 28 Years Later

    Gods of Blood and Powder - Brian McClennan

    FILM M3GAN 2.0


    Sub genre deep dive - flintlock fiction

    TV Sharpe

    Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - K. J. Parker

    The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne - Brian Staveley

    GAME Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer

    TV Shadow and Bone

    Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo

    The Cardinal’s Blades - Pierre Pevel

    The Phoenix Guards - Steven Brust

    Five Hundred Years After - Steven Brust

    GAME Assassin’s Creed


    Mines of Urrgh

    FILM 28 Years Later

    FILM Severance

    FILM Predator

    FILM Snow White


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    42 mins
  • Side characters as leads // Final Fantasy // Magician
    Jun 24 2025

    Alice Fraser and James Nokise bring you episode 23 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    Episode 23

    This week's news covers The Odyssey, Masters of the Universe and the Highlander remake, and James and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. The sub genre deep dive is all about side characters as leads!


    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

    James Nokise - PODCAST The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior


    News

    FILM The Odyssey

    FILM Masters of the Universe

    FILM Highlander


    Ads

    GAME Hero’s Quest

    GAME Police Quest

    GAME Space Quest


    What have you been enjoying?

    GAMES Final Fantasy

    Lirael - Garth Nix


    Sub genre deep dive - side characters as leads

    PLAY Rosencratz and Guildenstein Are Dead - Tom Stoppard

    TV Dollhouse - Joss Whedon

    The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold

    GAME Final Fantasy XII

    Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold

    FILM Solo

    The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolf

    TV Star Trek: Lower Decks

    Redshirts - John Scalzi

    Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

    The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

    Magician - Raymond E. Feist


    Mines of Urrgh

    The Belgariad - David Eddings

    FILM The Sword and the Sorcerer

    FILM Close Encounters of the Third Kind

    FILM Popeye

    FILM Masters of the Universe


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and James Nokise.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    39 mins
  • Translated works // Under The Skin // Bikini armour
    Jun 17 2025

    Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 22 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    Episode 22

    This week's news respectfully looks at buff geek Henry Cavill's forthcoming Highlander movie, and Tom and Alice dive into all manner of good things sci fi and fantasy. This week's deep dive is all about translated works!


    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

    Alice Fraser - Calm World: Introduction to Meditation

    Tom Neenan - Zeroes - David Reed


    News

    FILM Highlander

    APP Zombies! Run!


    What have you been enjoying?

    FILM Under The Skin

    Under The Skin - Michael Faber

    Behooved - M. Stevenson


    Trope on a rope - bikini armour / warrior maiden vagina chokehold

    Jill Bearup - Just Stab Me Now


    Sub genre deep dive - sci fi and fantasy in translation

    The Odyssey

    The Iliad

    Beowulf - Maria Dahvana Headley

    Beowulf - Seamus Heany

    Asterix & Obelix

    The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem

    The Melting - Lize Spit

    ANIME Neon Genesis Evangelion

    TV Dark

    The Night Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko

    FILM The City of Lost Children


    Mines of Urrgh

    FILM Elysium

    FILM Mountainhead

    Mr Men - Roger Hargreaves


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • Deep Dive: Tamora Pierce
    Jun 11 2025

    Alice is joined by Chris Skinner to discuss the work of Tamora Pierce. They also chat about Murderbot and Sarah J Maas - is Romantasy sexy enough?


    Search for Chris’s show Mildly Informed in your pod feed now.


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Chris Skinner.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    36 mins
  • Neurodivergent heroes // Murderbot // Guillermo del Toro
    Jun 3 2025

    Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan bring you episode 20 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    This week, it's all about neurodivergent heroes in sci-fi and fantasy!


    Episode 20

    This week's news features Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein movie, the new Predator: Killer of Killers movie and is gravity proof that life on Earth is actually a simulation?


    Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.


    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion


    Tom Neenan - The Hauntening

    Tom Neenan Is Not All Men


    News

    FILM Frankenstein

    FILM Predator: Killer of Killers

    FILM Mountainhead


    What have you been into?

    TV Rick and Morty

    Blood Song - Anthony Ryan

    Witch King - Martha Wells


    Sub-genre deep dive: neurodivergent heroes

    Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

    TV Bones

    Temperance Brennan series - Kathy Reichs

    A Drop of Corruption - Robert Jackson Bennett

    TV Star Trek

    TV Red Dwarf


    The mines of urrrgh

    FILM Passengers


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Gender // Scholomance // Honor Harrington
    May 27 2025

    Host Alice Fraser and author Patrick Lenton bring you episode 19 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    This week, we're looking at gender!


    Episode 19

    This week's news features The Wheel of Time getting cancelled, Lilo and Stitch doing surprisingly well at the box office, and a fantasy author caught using AI to write in her own style!


    Hear what Alice and Patrick have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.


    Host books

    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion

    Patrick Lenton - In Spite of You


    News

    TV The Wheel of Time

    FILM Lilo and Stitch


    What have you been into?

    Scholomance Trilogy - Naomi Novik

    Blood over Bright Haven - M.L. Wang

    TV Andor


    Trope on a rope

    TV Charmed


    Sub-genre deep dive: gender

    The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon

    The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin

    Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

    The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells

    The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan

    TV Rings of Power

    TV Xena: Warrior Princess

    Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster Bujold

    The Honorverse - David Weber

    TV Deep Space Nine

    Terry Pratchett Discworld series

    Lady’s Knight - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

    The Bright Sword - Lev Grossman


    The mines of urrrgh

    Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson

    Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows https://www.youtube.com/@BuglePodcast

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/RealmsUnknown


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Patrick Lenton.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    44 mins
  • Sinners // Experiments in Form // Guards! Guards!
    May 20 2025

    Host Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan (The Mash Report, The Hauntening) bring you episode 18 of Realms Unknown: your one-stop show for speculative fiction tropes, news and recommendations!


    This week, we're looking at experiments in form!


    Episode 18

    This week's news features the Highlander remake moving to Amazon, Sinners continuing to tear up the box office, and the sad introduction of AI-narrated audiobooks.


    Hear what Alice and Tom have been enjoying recently, which tropes they love or hate, then take a deep dive with them into early sci-fi and fantasy, and hear the things that they used to love but now make them feel a bit urrrgh.


    Host book

    Alice Fraser - A Passion for Passion


    News

    FILM Highlander remake

    FILM Sinners


    What have you been into?

    FILM Sinners

    The Blacktongue Thief - Christopher Buehlman

    The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells


    Trope on a rope

    Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett


    Sub-genre deep dive: experiments in form

    The Book of Good Times - Hank Green

    The Ship of Theseus - VM Straka

    This Is How You Lose The Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

    SCP-3008

    Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

    Subcutanean - Aaron Reed

    PODCAST - The Last Post

    PODCAST - Revolutions

    WEBCOMIC - xkcd

    WEBCOMIC - Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

    PODCAST Beef and Dairy Network

    PODCAST Welcome to Night Vale


    Convince Me

    The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

    Redshirts - John Scalzi


    The mines of urrrgh

    FILM Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

    FILM Wall-E


    Subscribe to The Bugle YouTube channel for episodes of all of our shows

    Support Realms Unknown by becoming a Team Bugle subscriber https://thebuglepodcast.com/donate

    Help your local bookshop by buying the books mentioned in the show in our Bookshop affiliate store


    🔔 Subscribe, like, and comment!

    🦋 Follow us on Bluesky!

    Produced by Chris Skinner and Ped Hunter. Hosted by Alice Fraser and Tom Neenan.

    📧 Got questions, feedback, or suggestions? Email us at realmsunknown@thebuglepodcast.com

    🌐 Visit thebuglepodcast.com to support us and find more!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Show More Show Less
    46 mins