Claire (she/they) and Han (it/any) reluctantly tackle chapter 25 of Gideon the Ninth. In our production notes this chapter summary read ":((((((("

Content Warning: dead dove do not eat. I cannot emphasize enough how much we're going to talk about child death this week. Also general colonial violence, torture, psychiatric abuse, war, other killing, child soldiers, sexual violence against children and adults, at least passing reference to cannibalism.

Further Reading:

Frantz Fanon (1961) The Wretched of the Earth

Han (2025) Canaan House as a Strategic Action Field

Aimé Césaire (1950) Discourse on Colonialism

bell hooks (2005) The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

Lana & Lily Wachowski (1999) The Matrix

Alok Menon in Conversation with Paul Holdengräber (2023) Oxy Live!

Alan Moore (1986-1987) Watchmen

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (it/any) dissect Gideon the Ninth Chapter 24. The Tridentarii have a Moment. Babs does Not have a moment. A coalition forms. Claire and Han have questions about the Ninth soil biome. Also like, what is Silas's whole deal?

Content Warning: emotional abuse, incest, genocide, death

Further Reading:

Aja Romano (2019) The Archive of Our Own Just Won a Hugo. That's Huge for Fanfiction.

FanLore (2025) Dead Dove: Do Not Eat

Aimé Césaire (1950) Discourse on Colonialism

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (it/any) welcome guest Cyd (she/her) from Resting Glitch Face to talk about Gideon the Ninth chapter 23. Our big bad arranges a convincing tableau as our dubious heroes split their time between investigating mysterious remains and absolutely back stabbing one another all to heck. And front stabbing. Han doesn't like gooshy magic. Everybody has questions about Teacher's whole deal. Necromancy is stored in the... nervous... system? Claire has questions about Cam's background.

This week's cover is courtesy of guest Cyd. You can find Resting Glitch Face on your favorite pod catcher, and access bonus content and join their Discord on Patreon!

Content Warning: murder, death, human remains, blood, Ianthe "mild cannibalism" Tridentarius, child soldiers,

Further Reading:

Benjamin Davis (2021) Decolonizing Anthropology: I'm Not Indiana Jones, and I Don't Want to Be

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (it/all) discuss Chapter 22 of Gideon the Ninth. We're coming to the end of Act III and the stakes are higher than ever. The teens call in assistance, but the adults are a disaster.

It turns out we're wrong about cremains in this episode! They're not ashes actually, they're more like sand, and they're mostly calcium phosphate.

Content Warning: death, human remains, gaslighting, implicit reference to harm against children

Further Reading:

Tracy Harmon (2025) Worried You Received Fake Cremains?

Locked Tomb Wiki | Harrowhark Nonagesimus

Doki Doki Literaturę Club

Boyfriend Dungeon

Martha C. Nussbaum (1995) Objectification

Absolute History (2020) How the Tudors Did Their Laundry (with Ruth Goodman)

Miranda Fricker (2007) Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing

Arlene Lo (2023) Hermeneutical Injustice and Child Victims of Abuse

Philosophy Tube (2020) Ignorance & Censorship

Victoria Law & China Martens (2012) Don't Leave Your Friends Behind

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (all pronouns) dissect chapter 21 of Gideon the Ninth. The scions make an unsettling realization. The Third and the Second attempt to bargain with the Sixth.

Content Warning: death, cannibalism,

Further Reading:

Peter Jackson (2001) That Scene from Fellowship of the Ring

Guy Gavriel Kay (1984-1986) The Fionavar Tapestry

Pierre Bourdieu (1984) Distinction [Note: I absolutely butchered the pronunciation]

Shawn Tribe (2020) The Sedlec Ossuary Chapel in the Czech Republic

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Claire Beans (she/they) and Han Koehle (any pronouns) welcome back Caro (she/they) to dig into chapter 20 of Gideon the Ninth. The Ninth and Seventh team up for a tricky challenge deep in the Facility. It's rough.

Today's cover art features guest Caro as Cytherea. Check out Caro's cosplay on TikTok and Instagram.

Content Warning: injury, degloving, death, torture, pain, childbirth, intimate partner violence

Further Reading:

Julie A. Patterson Fago (2000) Physical Aspects of Dying

George Miller (2015) Mad Max: Fury Road

Ulla Waldenström and Lars Irestedt (2006) Obstetric Pain Relief and Its Association with Remembrance of Labor Pain at Two Months and One Year After Birth

Martine E. Lokker et al. (2012). Awareness of Dying: It Needs Words

Philippe T. Gilchrist and Blaine Ditto (2015) Sense of Impending Doom: Inhibitory Activity in Waiting Blood Donors Who Subsequently Experience Vasovagal Symptoms

Anonymous (2025) Thoughts About Community Support Around Intimate Violence

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Claire (she/they) and Han (any pronouns) welcome Kit (she/they) to dig into chapter 19 of Gideon the Ninth. Harrow experiences a positive emotion. Gideon finds a weird note. All of us remain confused about the symbols outside X-203.

Today’s cover art is our lovely guest Kit as Harrowhark. You can find Kit on TikTok, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.

Content Warning: COVID-19, child abuse, death

Further Reading:

Tamora Pierce (1983-1988) The Song of the Lioness Quartet

Guy Gavriel Kay (1984-1986) Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy

Carl Lungman (1991) Dictionary of Symbols

Ghost in the Shell

An Sionnach Fionn (2018) The M1921 Thompson Submachine Gun, the IRA and the War of Independence

Emmeline May and Blue Seat Studios (2015) Tea and Consent

MSPA Wiki (n.d.) Quadrants

Nun Pod With Left Grief is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike International License. Find us at NunPod.com and get our attention with #NunPod.

If you’d like to support our show with your voice, share NunPod with a friend or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you’d like to use money to support us, we encourage you to think of the amount you’d like to send us on Patreon each month and then instead send it here. Let us know that you did!

Claire (she/they) and Han (any pronouns) examine Gideon the Ninth, Chapter 17 with hard-hitting questions like what's happening with inter-House rankings? Why can't dead people do murder? Can we commission fan works in the middle of our podcast?

Content Warning: murder, child soldiers, torture, criminalization of children under occupation, slavery

Further Reading

Kinka Usher (1999) Mystery Men

Mikko Joronen (2016) Minor(s) Matter: Stone Throwing, Securitization, and the Government of Palestinian Childhood Under Israeli Military Rule [Note: we normally make sure scholarly work that we share is open-access. Don't pay to read this! Ask your library for access if you don't have a relationship with a university.]

R. F. Kuang (2018-2020) The Poppy War Trilogy

Kathleen Stokker (1995) Folklore Fights the Nazis