150 episodes listed below
Black fantasy, story by story, twist by twist.
Bayana Davis, Robyn-Renée Jordan and Porshèa Patterson trade story picks, then go through plots, magic systems and character motives in close detail. Alongside the book talk, authors including Alechia Dow and Alexis Henderson join to discuss their novels and the writing of them.
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#WizardTeam: A Black Fantasy Podcast is built around a clear brief: magical fiction written by and about Black people, read closely and talked through in detail. Bayana Davis, Robyn-Renée Jordan and Porshèa Patterson do the reading. They open with a set greeting that frames each episode as a stop on a journey through those stories. Then the talk gets specific. A mini-series on the Untold Legends anthologies shows the method well. Each reader picked one story from a different volume: Robyn-Renée from 'Faeries Never Lie', Bayana from 'Mermaids Never Drown', Porshèa from 'Vampires Never Get Old'. Each pick comes with a pitch. The fairy story is offered to anyone drawn to the darker side of folklore. The mermaid story goes to anyone who dreamed of marine biology as a child, or who wants contemporary mermaid lore with commentary on cultural appropriation, allyship and climate change. The recaps follow plots closely, like a teen searching for his brother who haggles with a fairy until the price lands at a year and a day. Magic systems get practical scrutiny. One conversation stays with saltwater as the trigger for a transformation, and with a mermaid who swims to work carrying her clothes in a waterproof backpack. Character motives are fair game too, including speculation about how a vampire mother kept her daughters uninformed for so long. The wrap-up, '#WizardTeam Episode 385 - Untold Legends Wrap Up', is looser: vampire reading recommendations, characters recast as vampires and a riff about a mermaid stuck on a reality TV show. It opens by teasing listeners who, in the trio's view, did not vote correctly. Author interviews form the other strand. Alechia Dow describes Until the Clock Strikes Midnight as the story of a fairy who helps people toward their happily ever afters and an agent of misfortune, and she names the character she most enjoyed writing. At the close she says how much she values talking about her books with Black characters in a community of readers. In 'Bonus Episode: An Academy For Liars Interview with Alexis Henderson', Henderson calls her novel a magical dark campus book, set in a hidden pocket of Savannah, Georgia, where the main character learns a magic called persuasion. She also recounts reworking the idea for years after an early science-fiction version never felt grounded. For a first listen, the Untold Legends episodes work well because the story picks and the wrap-up hang together as a set.
Made for: Suits a listener who reads fantasy by and about Black people and wants stories talked through plot point by plot point, including how the magic works and why characters act as they do. It also fits anyone curious to hear authors explain how their novels took shape.
What sets it apart: Rather than surveying fantasy broadly, it stays with stories by and about Black people and gives each one a detailed read, with each of the three readers championing their own picks. Author interviews run alongside those discussions, so a listener hears from readers and writers alike.
#WizardTeam is a Black magical podcast for Black magical stories. Fantasy enthusiasts Bayana Davis, Robyn-Renée Jordan, and Porshèa Patterson do a close read of magical books written by and about Black people. Join us on #WizardTeam Wednesdays wherever you get your podcasts!
A mermaid's waterproof backpack gets the scrutiny your fantasy book club might have missed.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A bright, affectionate conversation about Black fairies, ordinary ever afters, and characters who make trouble beautifully.
A fairy who helps people toward happily ever afters meets an agent of misfortune who trades in ordinary ones, and their rivalry over a mentorship leads to a small kingdom where a store owner could find either her best life or her worst.
A relaxed wrap-up that lets vampire lore and Love Island anticipation share the reading conversation.
Untold Legends closes with the loose, lived-in feel of friends following the thread wherever it leads. Bionna, Robin, and Portia mark the end of the mini-series, then shift toward the Love Island USA season seven reunion, folding cast anticipation into the same easy rhythm they…
A fairy bargain turns a brother's rescue mission into a promise with a curse attached.
Fairy bargains come with a family-sized price tag in Wizard Team's discussion of Fairies Never Lie. Bayana, Robin, and Portia take up Robin's pick, "Revelry" by Kwame Mbala, following a teen rescue mission that slips out of anyone's control.
A grounded discussion of mermaid lore, climate change, and the practical headaches of swimming to work.
A teen mermaid, a dying sea turtle, and a cute new girl in town give this episode a clean throughline: contemporary mermaid lore caught in the pull of climate change, cultural appropriation, and allyship.
Bayana and Portia follow how one vampire household turns withheld history into family power.
Bayana and Portia treat Donyell Clayton's "The House of Black Sapphires" as more than a vampire tale. Their review keeps returning to the household at its center, where a formidable mother controls what her daughters understand about the world and the family's apothecary…
Classic books, explored where they were written and set.
Alechia Dow discusses her book 'Until the Clock Strikes Midnight' about a fairy and an agent of misfortune competing to help a store owner.
Alicia Dowell talks with Brianna, Robin, and Portia about Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, a fairy mentorship story built around 'happily ever afters,' 'ordinary ever afters,' and a 'very cute little kingdom.' Dowell says Darling is a rainbow-colored Black fairy who is plus size, bipolar, ambitious, and inspired by Whitney Houston's fairy godmother in Brandy's Cinderella.
#WizardTeam Episode 385 closes the Untold Legends anthology run and uses Love Island U.S.A.
Bayana, Robin, and Portia use Wizard Team to unpack Revelry by Kwame Mbala from the Untold Legends mini series Fairies Never Lie.
Wizard Team discusses Kaylin Bayron's "Return to the Sea" from Mermaids Never Drown, following Keisha, a mermaid living openly in Catalina and working around the ocean.
Bayana and Portia revisit Danielle Clayton's "The House of Black Sapphires," Portia's pick from "Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with a Fresh Bite," and trace how Portia first found it through NetGalley in 2020.
Vianna, Robin, and Portia introduce their #WizardTeam mini-series on the anthologies Vampires Never Get Old, Mermaids Never Drown, and Fairies Never Lie.
Bayana, Robin, and Portia close their discussion of BB Austin's Amari and the Despicable Wonders with games about characters, magical groups, and places.
Bayana and Robin recap Amari's battle with Dylan at the bureau and the destruction of the crown.
Alexis Henderson discusses her dark academia novel 'An Academy For Liars' about a woman who discovers a magical persuasion power at a hidden university.
Jordan Ifueko discusses her upcoming YA fantasy novel The Maid and the Crocodile, a romance and adventure about a disabled teen domestic worker who can change fates by cleaning.
Hosts Bayana and Portia interview author Kalynn Bayron about her new book Sleep Like Death, a loosely connected story in the Cinderella is Dead universe.
Author Suyi Davies Okungbowa discusses his science fiction novella Lost Ark Dreaming, describing it as a vertical Snowpiercer set in a post-climate-change West Africa.