EPISODES

A chapter heavy with Marcus. Octavia revisits the politics of attractiveness. Lauren asks Marcus for help finding Larkin. He can’t hear her, he won’t hear her. Lauren gets a vital clue, but at a deep cost.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 18 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.revisits the politics of attractiveness. Lauren asks Marcus for help finding Larkin. He can’t hear her, he won’t hear her. Lauren gets a vital clue, but at a deep cost.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 18 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Once again, we travel with Lauren and with Larkin. Larkin searches to understand her mother. Lauren searches for Larkin, alone despite herself. The children of Acorn are still missing, almost all of them. Lauren braves a Christian America shelter, navigating her terror and trauma. And she sees a familiar, unwelcome, hypocritical face.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 17 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Big, deep questions this week.

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After the storm. We gain insight into Larkin’s childhood in the Christian America children’s homes, in their vicious brutality. Lauren and her band find a lost friend, as they rebuild and survive. The first post-Acorn formation shifts, dissipates, reconfigures. A rich, dense, textured chapter.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 16 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Including, what is your alter ego name?

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This is the document of collected questions a listener, Mo, kindly generated and allowed us to share with the community. Thank you, Mo!

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TW: Mention of rape, childhood sexual abuse

Camp Christian is ashes. The story shifts back to Larkin, and her strategies for survival. Quiet was good, and questioning was bad. We rejoin Lauren, as she reclaims her agency. Earthseed disperses, with intention and grief.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 15 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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A dense, bruising, painful chapter.

A year has passed. A year of enslavement at Camp Christian. With an escape attempt, and its consequences. And a brutal, wasteful, pointless war.

We learn more of Larkin’s childhood life in her adoptive family, with its cruelties and violations.

Sickness strikes Camp Christian. A betrayal. A storm. And liberation.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 14 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Trigger warnings: sexual violence, rape.

We learn what happened to Larkin, and where the children went. We learn how the women of Acorn survive, day by day, and how they maneuver. New alliances are cautiously forming, at great risk. And the sexual violence is a constant presence. We grapple with the pleasure of power, and its consequences.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 13 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 12 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Trigger warnings: sexual violence, rape, death.

We learn more about life after Acorn is seized. The children are gone. The violence is constant. The hypocrisy is deep. The living save what little they can, and begin to plan while they try to survive.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 12 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Trigger warnings on this episode: death, suicide, mention of sexual violence.

Acorn is overrun. Unspeakable, unthinkable losses. Loss of family, loss of life, loss of freedom. How to go on?

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 11 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Our narrator is born, and named, and welcomed. Lauren and Bankole discuss a move, again. Assessing danger, seen and unseen. Bankole tries to understand, again, how he and Lauren can shape the unknown. She shows him more of her self, this far in.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 10 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.

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Marcus leaves, with the Peraltas. Dan Noyer returns, chased. A fierce battle. Lauren speaks words she can’t take back. Jarrett is ascendant.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 9 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.

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Lauren and Bankole visit Halstead. Some in Acorn encourage them to move; Lauren remains adamant. Marcus preaches, and finds out.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 8 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, offer questions for you and your people to consider, and dream of some fan-fiction crossovers.

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We hear Marcus’s own Parable, his journey, and meet his religion. We get a perspective on the early life of Lauren. Bankole continues to press a move away from Acorn.

And as always, Toshi and adrienne offer questions for you and your people to consider. You’ll want to sit with these ones.

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The Acorn community searches for Dan Noyer’s sisters. But find another, unexpected sibling. The reunion is heavy.

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 6 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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We learn about access to news, access to water, and mechanisms of control. The climate keeps changing. There’s life on Mars, and there’s life formed in a Petri dish. War is very popular these days.

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 5 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Acorn welcomes a baby. They hold ceremony. They assess the impact of the house truck, and we get a window into Acorn’s decision-making structures. They navigate the survival of ambiguous loss. God may be change, but some still fear it.

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 4 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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We hear the horrible ordinary story of how the house-truck family came to Acorn. And with Acorn, they bury their dead. Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 3 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And come with many questions for you and your people to consider.

TW: this chapter and episode include mention of rape.

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A battle nearby. Acorn acquires a vehicle, and new children. And the community is split by a right-wing politician. Promises of order and stability are so sweet. Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown break down chapter two of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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We're back! We rejoin the Earthseed community at Acorn. They have held the land, they have made a home. But they are in the slow apocalypse. And we have a new, unnamed narrator. Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown launch us into Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

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Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, the sequel to Parable of the Sower, continues the story of Lauren Olamina through her own voice and that of her estranged daughter. We see all that Lauren loses on the path of destiny, and all that she learns about our survival beyond apocalypse.

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