Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: A Romance Novel Podcast
2009-2026 Smart Bitches Trashy Books, LLC1
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SubscribersDylan MarcAurele is the writer and composer behind The Heated Rivalry Unauthorized Musical Parody, and I am extremely excited to share this interview with you!We’re going to talk about writing musical...
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- 1 week ago
59:15
It’s RT Rewind time again! This month, we’re going back to July 1992 to check out the new releases reviewed in…the 100th issue of Romantic Times magazine! Yup, the cover is memorable, and so are the b...
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- 2 weeks ago
01:04:05
The re-release of The Luckiest Lady in London has arrived, and Sherry Thomas joins me to talk about the writing of that book more than 13 years ago, how romance and historicals have changed, and how t...
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- 3 weeks ago
54:50
Hey, where are you going? Get in the time machine – we want to bring you back to March 2009 to check out the ads & features from Romantic Times Magazine.We’ve got:Snippy letters to the editor!Cove...
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- 1 month ago
01:20:55
Jo Piazza is my guest this week to discuss her new book, The Parisian Heist. This book is a dual timeline story weaving together a 1990s heist at the Orsay museum with the story of Jo van Gogh, Vincen...
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- 1 month ago
58:08
We’re back in the time machine heading to March 2009 to check out the new books reviewed in Romantic Times Magazine.We’ve got:Hot dog shrinesAlpha heroinesPT CruisersAllegories for the siege of Lening...
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- 1 month ago
01:37:43
A few months ago, Kayleigh Donaldson joined me to discuss Oscar predictions and other pop culture stories, and we decided to connect quarterly to discuss popular culture.We discuss the misogyny attach...
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- 1 month ago
01:19:56
My guest this week is Kirsty Greenwood, whose new book Romantic Hero is out now everywhere, all over the world.Kirsty writes what she calls “speculative romantic comedy,” and I really loved her first ...
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- 1 month ago
52:54
The time machine is all charged up, and we’re headed back to May 1996 to take a look at the ads & features from Romantic Times magazine. It’s the late 90s, so you know that means Incredible Cover ...
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- 2 months ago
01:19:05
My guest today is bestselling author Ashley Poston, whose new book, The Someday Garden, is out this week.The Someday Garden was inspired by The Secret Garden, so we’re going to talk about inspiration,...
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- 2 months ago
01:16:17
We love the 90s, and that’s where we’re headed this month, gazing at the impossible mullets from Romantic Times magazine.We’re talking about the newest books from May 1996, including the second book i...
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- 2 months ago
01:08:16
Martha Wells is back, and we are taking a deep spoilery dive into Platform Decay.I want to be clear here: if you haven’t read Platform Decay, we are about to spoil the dickens out of it. Yes, Charles ...
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- 2 months ago
01:02:11
We’re back in the time machine, heading to December 2012 to look at the ads and features from Romantic Times magazine. This episode features a high amount of extreme zany. We’ve got so many treat...
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- 3 months ago
01:18:50
We’re sampling Tropetails cocktail mixes, discussing what we’re reading and playing, and what books we’re looking forward to in the coming months.We were not paid to promote them, but we did receive f...
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- 3 months ago
01:05:12
We’re back in the time machine, heading back to December 2012 to see what new books were reviewed in Romantic Times magazine.We’ve got “multicultural” books, beefy paragraphs, big thorns, Schroedinger...
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- 3 months ago
01:32:22
Nalini Singh is back to talk about Archangel’s Eternity, which I have been calling “Archangel’s Finale.”We’ve got questions from readers and listeners, and some behind the scenes details about ho...
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- 3 months ago
01:24:35
Programming note: this week's episode is dropping on 30 April 2026. Smart Bitches Trashy Books, LLC, is withdrawing our labor on May 1, 2026, alongside other companies, school districts, and activists...
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- 4 months ago
01:37:23
Thanks for Geoffroy in the podcast Patreon (merci, Geoffrey!) my guest this week is Claire Trottier, owner of Joie de Livres, a romance and speculative fiction bookshop in Montreal, Can...
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- 4 months ago
55:40
When you subscribed to this podcast, I bet you thought, “When is Sarah going to interview an expert on theoretical physics ?” Today is your day!My guest is Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein author of the b...
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- 4 months ago
01:18:01
My guest this week is podcast community favorite Alisha Rai! We start off catching up on our history of podcasting together, our life changes, and the challenges of making children wear coats.Then it’...
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- 4 months ago
01:16:20
You’ve been hearing me talk about this book for awhile, and I am so excited to share with you my conversation with Fortesa Latifi, author of Like, Follow, Subscribe: The Cost of a Childhood Onlin...
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- 4 months ago
01:06:12
We are back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 to check out the Ads & Features from Romantic Times Magazine!We’re going to talk about Geocities websites, author research, and Hands.Lots of ...
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- 5 months ago
01:23:03
Riss M. Neilson joins me today to talk about her new romance, The Bridge Back to You. This is a second chance love story between two exes who unexpectedly inherit shares of the same restaurant – the r...
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- 5 months ago
01:03:57
We're back in the time machine, heading to July 2000 - for real this time - to check out the reviews in this issue of Romantic Times magazine!We’ve got anthologies, Carpathians, and several books wher...
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- 5 months ago
01:05:58
Thank you for joining me for a “from the vault” episode! This is episode 147, originally aired June 26, 2015, so almost 11 years ago.Drs. Jen Lois and Joanna Gregson did a multi-year study on the comm...
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- 5 months ago
58:18
Amanda and I are traveling back to June 1997 to discuss:Touring inside author’s homes and whether we think it’s kinda intrusive and uncomfortableNeverending reader hate for “the F word”The fans used t...
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- 6 months ago
01:27:38
Kate Quinn’s new book, The Astral Library, is out this week and I was so excited to not only get an advanced copy but an opportunity to interview Kate Quinn.We talk about the inspiration for this...
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- 6 months ago
01:15:52
Amanda and I are back, deep diving into romance and pop culture history with issue 1997 of Romantic Times Magazine. The cover reads Love, Lust, Laugh, and we’ve got some vintage books to talk about. T...
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- 6 months ago
58:00
My guest this week is Julia Quinn and we are talking about, of course, JQ Editions, a new subscription service creating special limited editions of historical romances. I’ve been writing abo...
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- 6 months ago
01:00:47
Kayleigh Donaldson is back! She is the guest on some of the most popular episodes, and I know what that is: she’s brilliant. We recorded this just before the Oscar nominations were announced, so ...
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- 7 months ago
59:37
Candy recapped Heated Rivalry, and is that enough? No, of course not. We had MANY things we wanted to exclaim at each other about, so why not podcast about it?We’re going to talk about the show, ...
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- 7 months ago
01:24:02
It’s never too late for Holiday Wishes, right? We had such a record number of interviews for the Holiday Wishes episodes this year, and I truly love doing them. Thank you.But many of you asked about A...
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- 7 months ago
56:05
Happy 700th Episode!! Amanda Matta is a debut author (her book is coming in 2027!), media commentator, royal analyst, and an art historian. I’ve mentioned Amanda, and her podcast Art of Hist...
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- 7 months ago
02:00:50
Happy New Year!This week we are talking with Katie, Kate, and Adam – we’ve got book recs, wishes, spreadsheet discussions, dungeons, and some wishes that don’t violate the Hatch Act.There’s also rathe...
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- 7 months ago
43:55
This week we are talking with Jenna Grinstead, Stephanie Violet, Lisa, and Bull! Yup, we’re visiting Norway this week. Bring a hat.As always we have book recs, including one from the 1500s, wishes, an...
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- 8 months ago
53:40
This week we are talking with Shana, Sue, and Rhonda about book recs and wishes, plus fantasy and magical bureaucracy, grief in romance, schtupping by volume, and inventions for readers to find even M...
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- 8 months ago
01:00:07
We’re back with more Holiday Wishes! This week we’re talking with Rae A., Josephine, and Sneezy!This week we are talking romance bookstores and road trips, luxurious bidets, webtoons, and, of course, ...
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- 8 months ago
58:20
We’re back with more Holiday Wishes! This week we’re talking with Garlic Knitter, Claudia, Christine, and Jo.A few notes:First, my voice is not great. Some of these were recorded when I had a dreadful...
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- 8 months ago
59:07
Ready for more wishes and recs? And bad jokes? I bet you are! This week we’re talking with Agnes, Emily, Sarah Jane, and Jenn – and Min the cat.And in the outro, you’ll hear from ShoesforAll, aka Sara...
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- 9 months ago
44:00
It’s time for our annual Holiday Wishes episodes!Every year I connect with listeners around the world, where we talk about books, wishes, and bad jokes. So this time of year, my guests are…all of you!...
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- 9 months ago
53:33
Amye Archer, host of Little Miss Recap, was a guest on a recent paywalled episode of Fixing Famous People talking about soap operas. I was entranced. Amye is a fan of soaps, going way back, and I was ...
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- 9 months ago
01:30:39
After mentioning Heather Graham, one of the Grande Dames of RT, so many times while recapping issues of Romantic Times, I got to sit down with her to talk about her career, the way the industry has ch...
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- 9 months ago
01:10:12
My guest today is Lux Raven, author of the Siren’s duology that starts with Siren’s Mark, which came out – together – in early October. Lux wanted to join me on the podcast to talk about disabili...
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- 10 months ago
01:04:30
We’re going back to May 2016 to look at the Ads & Features in Romantic Times magazine. The kilts are kilting and the abs are ab-ing, and we’ve got some questions.How do we feel about the terms “bo...
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- 10 months ago
01:01:23
I’m bringing back a classic episode from the archives of the show, and because she has excellent taste, Amanda said it should be this one. When I originally published this episode, I focused on how si...
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- 10 months ago
01:02:56
Grab your carry on, your snacks, and a blanket, because we’re hopping in the time machine again to go back to the May 2016 issue of Romantic Times to look at the new releases and reviews!This issue ca...
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- 10 months ago
01:00:16
Alexandra Vasti is back, because her new historical romance Ladies in Hating is out this week!We are going to talk about:Good angsty yearningWhen a character is their love interest’s bitch e...
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- 11 months ago
58:05
It’s the 90s so the Ads and Features from the August 1996 issue of Romantic Times are a treasure trove of confusion. We’ve got:A tour of Jude Deveraux’s Grade II Listed Home in SuffolkBarbara Cartland...
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- 11 months ago
01:05:48
The second book in Holly Black’s Night duology, Thief of Night, is out now, and I was so excited to talk with her about it.We start right off by talking about creepy places – like, what kind of m...
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- 11 months ago
58:42
We’re going back to August 1996 – that’s a bit of distance – to take a peek at the new releases and the book reviews in Romantic Times magazine.We’re back in the era of time travel, a scifi imprint na...
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- 11 months ago
56:24
Description
Each week on Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, Sarah Wendell interviews authors, readers, reviewers, bloggers, publishing professionals, editors, and librarians about romance novels, which are among the most popular genres in fiction worldwide. Popular guests include: Ilona Andrews, Robin Bradford, NPR's Barrie Hardymon, Chuck Tingle, Sarah J. Maas, and Rachel Aaron. Amanda Diehl, co-pilot of the SS Smart Bitches, makes regular appearances with maximum silliness, especially during our Romantic Times Rewind episodes, where we take a look at old issues of Romantic Times Magazine (1981-2018). Frequent topics include romance novels, the way the genre is changing, and the brilliant and interesting people who read, write, and produce it, and issues common among romance readers. Plus, we always recommend some books we're reading and really enjoying. Learn more at SB-TB.com/Podcast.
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