In which co-hosts Kenny and Sam talk to Professor Gerry Canavan in a far-reaching conversation about loving Tolkien as leftists. Topics include Tolkien's racial politics, the political valences of science fiction and fantasy, Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel, and of course, Huan the talking dog.

Gerry Canavan is the Chair of the English Department at Marquette University where he also teaches a class on Tolkien. His essays on Tolkien include Tolkien Against The Grain in the Winter 2025 issue of Dissent Magazine and The Eowyn Mystique, a review of the new animated film "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim" for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

More Gerry:

Octavia E. Butler (University of Illinois Press)

Imagining Utopia (article for Verso on Fredric Jameson)

The lesson of JRR Tolkien's abandoned Lord of the Rings sequel (article for Washington Post)

Grad School Vonnegut/Achebe podcast

Twitter

Primary sources:

The Hobbit | The Lord of the Rings | The Silmarillion

Secondary sources:

Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

Garth - Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth

Mills - The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto

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