Interview: Oh No! Lit Class

Oh No! Lit Class is a semi-educational comedy literature podcast that’s here to tell you all the strange and sexy things you never knew about the books you had to read in school.  Hosted by two former English grads, ON!LC is a fun, foul-mouthed Sparknotes for your ears, mixing plot summaries, author bios, and trivia with bad impressions, worse singing, and occasionally even financial advice…For some reason. Learn who called Alexander Dumas “Daddy” (everyone), why the author of The Scarlet Letter got stuck shoveling poop (Ralph Waldo Emerson made him), and what Agatha Christie got up to when not writing mysteries (catching gnarly waves).

What inspired you to start Oh No! Lit Class (or, what's your origin story?)

Megan: I (Megan) started the show because I had this literature degree just sitting there, not doing anything especially useful, and figured I may as well podcast with it. In all seriousness though, I mostly just wanted a fun creative outlet and the entry bar for podcasts was comfortably low, and if there was anything I knew I could talk about forever and that not many others were talking about, it was classic literature. RJ got involved because we learned, after I recorded my first pilot, that being solo on the mic was not a talent I was lucky enough to have, so he stepped into the much-needed role of co-host.

Cliche question, but what are your favorite books?

Megan: Trying to choose favorite books is like trying to pick a favorite child...except I don't have any of those, so I guess I can give it a shot. In no particular order:

  • Kit's Wilderness by David Almond

  • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

  • Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

  • Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

  • Neuromancer by William Gibson

  • The entire Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

(RJ, as he will happily tell you himself, doesn't read, and may not actually know how to)

Tell us your favorite literary fact/anecdote so we can all look a little smarter at cocktail parties.

Megan: The literary fact that I find most fun to bust out to folks is that Agatha Christie, when not writing mysteries, could be found hanging ten and catching sick waves. It's great because it sounds absolutely bonkers but there are pictures and everything.

You mentioned that people should start with Episode 13: Hamlet! REVENGEEE! What about it makes it such a good place to start with your podcast?

Megan: Episode 13 aka The Hamlet episode, I think it's late enough that we don't sound quite as rough as we do in the first few episodes, it's a play we both really enjoy, there's some really good historical context, and it has what are still some of my favorite jokes in it. Also, we talk about Oscar Isaac's butt a whole lot. I swear it's relevant. It's just (I think) a solid introduction to what we do.

If you could have tea with any author, living or dead, who would it be?

Megan: The tea question is TOUGH but it would probably be between Ray Bradbury and William Faulkner, just based on the fact that they would definitely have great stories and be fun to talk to (although with Faulkner it would absolutely not be tea we’d be drinking).

Tell us a little bit about your process to prep for each episode - do you have to read the book multiple times?

Megan: Episode prep for RJ, since he has the biography end mostly involves research and synthesizing that to notes and terrible jokes. I’ll read the book since I’m doing the summary, I take notes as I go so I only have to do it once. Sometimes, if it’s something I have a pretty clear recollection of because I read it in the past few years, or it’s a Shakespeare play that I’ve read multiple times, I’ll use Sparknotes as a refresher (meta!). I’ll also research adaptations, if there’s a movie version that seems interesting sometimes we’ll watch it before we record.

And that’s what we go in with, and also why we only put out episodes every other week. Because we’ve, y’know, got jobs.

Any interesting episodes/special content/live shows coming up? Where can people find you on the internet?

We're working on trying to get a live show off the ground at the local college we both used to teach at and then seeing where we can move things from there. Apart from that, we're getting dangerously close to episode 69, and...well, it'll be about what you would expect from the show that purports itself to be the premier podcast for classic literature and wiener-based humor.

In the meantime, you can find us:

Victoria Krauchunas