The Sillymarillion Ep 03 - Of Elves and Stewed Curses (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in August 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.

Let us talk about Men, but not too much -- for many elves have returned to Middle-Earth! Let us instead pass the time with talk of the Noldor and their curse: the Doom of Mandos. Morgoth may yet hold the Silmarils, but he is surrounded by Fëanor's Large Adult Sons and their kin. A peace (of sorts) is achieved (sort of).

Also, Tolkien gives us one heck of a geography lesson.

The reading list:

Ep 1 - Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion Ch 1-3

Ep 2 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 4-10

Ep 3 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 11-16

Ep 4 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 17-20

Ep 5 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 21-24

Ep 6 - Alkallabeth, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Appendices

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The Sillymarillion Ep 03 - Of Elves and Stewed Curses (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

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Ep 756 - Private Rites, by Julia Armfield

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day—oh. You're never going away? You're going to flood the world and make it very damp for a trio of sisters as they parcel out their dead father's legacy a la King Lear But Wetter? Sounds like you're the rain from Julia Armfield's Private Rites, an intimate novel about familial traps that happens to have a horror card or two hiding up its sleeve.

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Ep 756 - Private Rites

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Ep 755 - Audition, by Katie Kitamura

Have you ever read a book where you haven't been entirely sure what happened in the book? Where you haven't been sure what's "real," and if you can tell what's "real," you can't tell who the book is "real" for? Have you ever felt like the whole world is a stage, and that we are merely players? If you answered "yes" to all these questions, you might be the target audience for this one.

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Ep 755 - Audition

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Ep 754 - Legend of the White Snake, by Sher Lee (w/ Heaving Bosoms)

Here we go again: another collaboration with Heaving Bosoms! Buckle up for a supersized episode on this folklore inspired YA fantasy by Sher Lee. Special thanks to our guests Melody and Sabrina from Heaving Bosoms for joining us to discuss snakes, lost contacts, love, and Chinese myth. We have a lot of questions about snakes! Do we get all the answers? Listen along to find out.

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Ep 754 - Legend of the White Snake (w/ Heaving Bosoms)

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Ep 753 - You Are a Millionaire, by Jay Leibold (Choose Your Own Adventure #98)

Living in our age of elite impunity made us want to imagine what it must be like to have one million US dollars (approximately $2.6 million, when adjusted for inflation). Luckily, there's a book series that lets you choose to be anything you want to be, as long as what you want to be exists within one of several scripted narrative paths of steadily escalating goofiness.

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Ep 753 - You Are a Millionaire (Choose Your Own Adventure #98)

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The Sillymarillion Ep 02 - The Choices of Master Fëanor (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

For this show-within-a-show, Craig and Andrew learned about the world of Middle-Earth by reading J.R.R. Tolkien's posthumously published legendarium THE SILMARILLION. This episode posted first for our Patreon supporters in July 2025. If you want to hear our current longread project TOKYO DRIFTERS (and a bunch of other stuff besides), visit Patreon.com/overduepod.

The Elves are here, and it's time to learn all about them! Because there are a whole bunch of different sub-types of them, mostly sorted by whether and how quickly they decided to heed the summons to come party with the gods on their paradise island.

The most important one we meet is Fëanor, who forges the book's MacGuffins and then instantly gets super weird and possessive about them, in a way that ensures lasting misery for all involved. Hooray!

The reading list:

Ep 1 - Ainulindale, Valaquenta, Quenta Silmarillion Ch 1-3

Ep 2 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 4-10

Ep 3 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 11-16

Ep 4 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 17-20

Ep 5 - Quenta Silmarillion Ch 21-24

Ep 6 - Alkallabeth, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Appendices

Support the show! Buy the book on Bookshop.org.

The Sillymarillion Ep 02 - The Choices of Master Fëanor (J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion)

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Ep 752 - Daisy Jones and The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

In 2019, author Taylor Jenkins Reid released her sixth novel Daisy Jones & The Six, a fictional oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-esque 70s rock band. In May 2026, Andrew and Craig from Overdue recorded a podcast about the author, her novels, the themes and points of inspiration that helped make Daisy Jones a bestseller. This is an aural history of that recording.

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Ep 752 - Daisy Jones and the Six

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Ep 751 - Annie Bot, by Sierra Greer

Less a story about AI, and more "what if that Star Trek episode about whether Data was a person was also exploring the concept of domestic abuse?" Greer writes a short punchy novel that is occasionally uncomfortable but thoughtfully constructed, not unlike a sentient humanoid robot might be.

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Ep 751 - Annie Bot

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Ep 750 - Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

In the not-so-distant future, Andy Weir will write a novel about a Competent Man getting into trouble and then getting himself out. Then it will be made into a major motion picture starring a relatively bankable movie star. Then Overdue will (probably) read the book. That's what happened with The Martian, and that is what's happening this week with Project Hail Mary — a novel about a science teacher on a mission to save Earth (and maybe some other planets) from an otherworldly threat.

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Ep 750 - Project Hail Mary

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Ep 749 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and Other Stories), by Eric Carle

To celebrate this year's Children's Book Week, we're discussing the work of children's author and illustrator Eric Carle, whose colorful art and innovative prints have delighted our children (and us!) for years. Since they're each pretty short we decided to talk about a bunch of them, including:

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (with Bill Martin, Jr.)

3. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? (with Bill Martin, Jr.)

4. My Very First Book of Numbers

5. My Very First Book of Colors

6. The Grouchy Ladybug

7. The Very Lonely Firefly

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Ep 749 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and Other Stories)

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