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Evil Genies, automatons, and magical rings abound when we revisit the stories from 1001 Nights!

In a podcast full of problematic and wildly different original tellings of popular adaptations, this might be the most different and most problematic. It's the original tale of the nutcracker.

Two (originally children's) tales that underscore the shocking brutality of the world in which these stories were told.

Xu Xian is dead. He discovered the truth about his wife and he died. I mean, yeah, he's dead...but he's also unwittingly married to a 1700 year old magical demon snake on a redemption arc, so...you know...something might happen. Seriously, though, this is a packed episode. There are magical (if not wholly unexpected) resurrections, crustacean armies, [...]

The legend of the White Snake is one of the four great folktales of China. Today, we start that with an act of kindness, demons lurking in the places we can’t look, and a (misguided?) monk hoping to bring justice. When the creature this week has time off, it prefers crashing funerals and projectile vomiting on [...]

There's a surprising amount to the story of Hansel and Gretel. There's your average fairy tale weirdness, like load-bearing cake and aquatic duck Uber, but there's an unexpected humanity in the story that I think is overlooked. I hope you like it. The creature is punyaiama, from India, and she's the reason you can't get drunk [...]

47 ronin (samurai without masters) lead one of the greatest revenge stories ever told.

The stories of a lost dumpling and two young people finding love among the ashes.