Welcome to Radio 831: A Romance Podcast <3
On the first ep: The most hotly anticipated summer releases and the ultimate rules of romance.
Radio 831 Is Here!
And we’re all in great hands: Starting today, hosts Sanjana Basker and Tyler McCall will be bringing you a new half-hour podcast episode every Thursday, dissecting and discussing the culture of romance as two true-blue, dyed-in-the-wool genre fans, along with some very special guests.
Sanjana Basker (you might remember her from our billionaire romance panel) is a doctoral student studying sex, gender, intimacy, and health through a critical feminist lens—a perspective she also brings to her work as a romance reader/reviewer/enthusiast. Tyler McCall is the author of the forthcoming romance novel People Like You (Little, Brown, Spring 2027), she wrote the fan-favorite Quinn Originals The Queen’s Guard and The Trials, and she was formerly the editor-in-chief of Fashionista. You can also follow both of them, all the places, at @baskinsuns and @eiffeltyler, respectively.
In their first episode, Sanj and Tyler dive deep into their own romance origin stories and make the case for why romance is fiction’s most underestimated genre. Then they sit down with Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast, to break down what actually makes a romance a romance: the HEA, the theory of change, the unspoken rule that love has to make you better. Plus: what they can’t wait to read and watch this summer.
Listen to the full episode below, subscribe to the feed for more, and as for next Thurs.—it’s a date?
This week:
Sanjana Basker’s romance origin story: period pieces and Lisa Kleypas’s historical romances.
Tyler McCall’s romance origin story: The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (and Harry Potter fanfic) and Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (related: this Jezebel article).
Four examples of romance at its best, from Jen Prokop, co-host of the Fated Mates podcast: The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and Indigo and Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins.
Summer releases Tyler and Sanj are hotly anticipating: Rivals Season 2 (May 15), Score by Kennedy Ryan (May 19), Just a Highland Fling by Naina Kamar (July 21), Extracurricular by Rachel Lynn Solomon (July 14), The Invite movie (June 26), I Want Your Sex movie (July 31).
yay!!!! i love this