Advertise on podcast: Austen Chat

In this episode, Dr. Patricia Matthew sits down with guest host Dr. Anne Fertig to discuss Mansfield Park, in all its beauties and complexities, as well as Matthew’s experience editing a new edition of the novel. They also unpack the ways in which Jane Austen weaves social commentary into her novels, and how what Austen doesn’t say is sometimes just as important as what she does say. In the wrap-up, Matthew also shares a reading list of some of her other favorite eighteenth-century novels. Dr. Patricia Matthew is associate professor of English at Montclair State University, specializing in nineteenth-century British literature, Regency culture, and abolitionist literature. She is the editor of the Penguin Random Deluxe Editions of Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey released for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, as well as the forthcoming Norton Library edition of Mansfield Park. And she is currently writing a book on sugar, gender, and British abolitionist culture for Princeton University Press. Matthew also co-edits the Oxford University Press series Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, and her work has appeared in the journals Women’s Writing, the Keats-Shelley Journal, and Texas Studies in Literature and Language, as well as in The Atlantic, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Times Literary Supplement, and Slate. A plenary speaker at JASNA's 2024 Annual General Meeting, Matthew is also the director of The Race and Regency Lab. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep40 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Rereading Jane Austen’s novels with an understanding of the literary conventions of her time can reveal new layers of meaning that modern audiences may miss. In this episode, we sit down with Austen scholar Elaine Bander, author of Reading with Jane Austen, to explore how Austen used and deliberately played against the conventions of the romance fiction of her day, as well as forms such as the “two-heroine” novel and the “female Quixote.” Along the way, we’ll gain fresh perspectives on Fanny Price, Marianne Dashwood, and Elizabeth Bennet, and discover how Austen took familiar literary traditions and turned them in unexpected directions. Dr. Elaine Bander is retired from Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, where she taught English for three decades. She has published numerous essays and book chapters on Jane Austen and other Georgian writers, including contributions to JASNA’s journals Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. A frequent speaker on Austen, Elaine has also served as president of JASNA Canada and of the Burney Society (North America). For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep39 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

“The first one, the very first one, is like opening a door to another portal somehow.”  —Laura Piani on reading her first Jane Austen novel. Join us for a conversation with Laura Piani, writer and director of the romantic comedy, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life. In this episode with guest host Janet Saidi, she shares how Austen's novels and life choices, Austen fandom, and her own experiences inspired the development of the heroine, Agathe, and her journey. Laura Piani studied film and literature in Paris and Rome, then worked as a bookseller at Shakespeare and Company in Paris while studying screenwriting. She went on to write for French film and television before making her feature film directorial debut with Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2024/2025), distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep38 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

As if we'd pass up the chance to talk with Clueless writer and director Amy Heckerling! We're delighted to share this conversation about the making of her totally awesome adaptation of Emma. In this episode, Amy takes us behind the scenes to discuss how she reimagined Austen's novel for contemporary Beverly Hills—from the film’s characters and plot to its casting, costumes, distinctive visual style, memorable soundtrack, and now-iconic Clueless lexicon. She also reflects on her experience as a female filmmaker and the creative choices that helped make Clueless a modern classic. (This conversation was recorded during JASNA's members-only Clueless watch party, held in celebration of the film's 30th anniversary in July 2025.) Amy Heckerling is an acclaimed writer, director, and producer whose work spans film, television, and theater. In addition to writing and directing the Clueless, she also wrote and directed Look Who’s Talking, Look Who’s Talking Too, Loser, I Could Never Be Your Woman, and Vamps. Her directing credits include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Johnny Dangerously, and National Lampoon’s European Vacation, and she produced A Night at the Roxbury. Amy’s television work has included executive producing, writing, and directing episodes for the series Clueless and Fast Times, and directing episodes of The Office, Gossip Girl, The Carrie Diaries, Red Oaks, Weird City, and Royalties.  Amy also wrote the script for Clueless, The Musical, which opened at London’s Trafalgar Theatre in the West End in March 2025. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep37 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

It's Austen Chat's third anniversary! To mark the milestone, we're delighted to share "Jane Austen: Material Girl"—a conversation between authors Paula Byrne and Hilary Davidson recorded at JASNA’s 2025 Annual General Meeting.  Both have written extensively about the significance of material objects in Austen's life and work. Tune in for their lively discussion of ordinary things—toothpick cases, lace cards, muslin shawls, flannel waistcoats, and more—and their extraordinary importance. ********* Paula Byrne is a best-selling biographer, literary critic, and novelist. She is the author of The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, which explores her life through the objects around her; The Genius of Jane Austen: Her Love of Theatre and Why She Is a Hit in Hollywood; and the novel Six Weeks by the Sea, which blends fact and fiction to imagine Austen’s visit to the seaside in 1801. As an Austen expert, she has also frequently appeared on television, broadcast on radio, and consulted on period dramas. Beyond her Austen scholarship, Paula has written best-selling biographies about Dido Elizabeth Belle, Mary Robinson, Barbara Pym, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh, and Thomas Hardy. Hilary Davidson is a dress, textile, and fashion historian and curator, and Chair and Associate Professor in the School of Graduate Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She has curated exhibitions, lectured widely, and published extensively. Her books include Dress in the Age of Jane Austen: Regency Fashion, Jane Austen’s Wardrobe, and A Guide to Regency Dress. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep36 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

"Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation & vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted." —Jane Austen, 1796, letter to Cassandra on arriving in London Jane Austen was very aware of life’s darker side, and beneath the genteel polish and decorum of her novels lurks a world of adultery, theft, seduction, dueling, poaching, smuggling, and more. In this episode, guest Susannah Fullerton, president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, guides us through the sordid underbelly of Georgian and Regency society and explores how Austen uses various crimes and wrongdoing to advance her plots, shape her characters, and add color to her narrative landscapes. Susannah Fullerton, a literary historian and author, has been president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia (JASA) since 1996. She has lectured extensively on Jane Austen’s life and novels, and her books include Jane Austen and Crime, A Dance with Jane Austen, Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Jane & I: A Tale of Austen Addiction, and Great Writers and the Cats Who Owned Them, among others. Fullerton holds the Order of Australia Medal and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. She is also Patron of the Kipling Society of Australia, a founding member of the NSW Dickens Society and of the Australian Brontë Association, and a Lady Patroness of the International Heyer Society. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep35 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Jane Austen's novels feature a number of characters we might describe as "hypochondriacs" today: Mr. Woodhouse, Mary Musgrove, and Mrs. Churchill, to name a few. Although she never used the word herself, Austen was adept at exploring how the worries and complaints of individuals preoccupied with their health affected the people around them. Professor Sarah Marsh joins us in this episode to discuss health and medicine in the Regency era, the parallels between the health of individuals and the health of the British nation in Sanditon, and Austen's reflections on her own declining health during the final months of her life. Sarah Marsh is an associate professor of English at Seton Hill University and director of the Jane Austen Summer Program. She has presented and published extensively on Austen, literature, and medicine, including the article “‘All the Egotism of an Invalid’: Hypochondria as Form in Jane Austen’s Sanditon.” Her forthcoming book, Novel Constitutions and the Making of Race: A Literary and Legal History of Slavery in the Anglophone Atlantic, 1688–1818, will be published by Oxford University Press. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep34 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

"Elizabeth took up some needlework, and was sufficiently amused in attending to what passed between Darcy and his companion." —Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen often wove needlework and other domestic crafts into her novels in thoughtful and meaningful ways. In this episode, Professor Jennie Batchelor joins us to discuss Austen’s own skill with a needle and explore how she used such “women’s work” to reveal her characters’ strengths and flaws, illuminate their social and power dynamics (think Mrs. Norris and Fanny Price), and reflect their thoughts and feelings. Jennie Batchelor is a professor of 18th-century and Romantic studies and Head of English and Related Literature at the University of York. She was also the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s Writing (1660-1830) at Chawton House Library and the University of Southampton. She has published widely on women writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, on early magazines, and on women’s work, dress, and craft. In 2020, she published Jane Austen Embroidery with Alison Larkin, which includes 15 stitching projects based on 18th-century patterns.  For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep33 ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

"My dearest Cassandra, The letter which I have this moment received from you has diverted me beyond moderation. I could die of laughter at it, as they used to say at school." —Jane Austen, September 1, 1796 It's been speculated that Jane Austen may have written nearly 3,000 letters in her lifetime. While only 161 are known to have survived, that small collection offers a wealth of information about her daily life, her friends and family, her writing, and her voice. In this episode, historical sociolinguist Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade shares insights gained from her study of the language in Austen’s letters—from her vocabulary and spelling to her many instances of linguistic playfulness and clues about her dialect and accent. Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is professor emeritus of English Sociohistorical Linguistics at Leiden University's Centre for Linguistics in the Netherlands. A member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and a knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, she has published widely in her field. Her works include In Search of Jane Austen: The Language of the Letters (2014), an in-depth linguistic analysis of Austen’s correspondence. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep32. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Happy 2026, listeners! To kick off the new year, we’re sharing something special: Austen Chat’s first episode recorded in front of a live audience.  Jane Austen lived during a remarkably dynamic period of British history and was well aware of the forces shaping her world—colonial expansion, booming global trade, revolutions in Europe and the Americas, and slavery and the abolition movement. It was also a world that included people of color whose lives were far richer and more influential and varied than often assumed today. In this episode, we talk with author Vanessa Riley, who is eager to share their stories.  Join us as we discuss Miss Lambe—Austen’s mixed-race heiress in Sanditon—and meet some notable Black figures from Austen’s time, such as Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, who was born enslaved but went on to build a Caribbean business empire. Vanessa also shares some of her experiences behind the scenes (and on the screen!) of the 2024 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility as Hallmark's historical consultant.  Dr. Vanessa Riley is the author of over 25 novels across across the genres of historical fiction, romance, and mystery, including a trio of books based on the true stories of extraordinary women during the Regency era: Island Queen, Queen of Exiles, and Sister Mother Warrior. Her works spotlight hidden narratives of Black women and women of color. Vanessa was the historical consultant for Hallmark’s 2024 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and the 2024 Georgia Mystery/Detective Author of the Year for Murder in Drury Lane. With a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and other engineering degrees from Penn State, she brings a research-oriented approach to her inclusive storytelling about the Caribbean and the Georgian and Regency eras.  For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep31. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

“Jane was so admired, nothing could be like it. Everybody said how well she looked; and Mr. Bingley thought her quite beautiful . . . .” —Mrs. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice Jane Bennet, the eldest of the five Bennet sisters, is an undisputed beauty, but Austen tells us Jane also “unite[s] with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper, and an uniform cheerfulness of manner.” In this episode, we sit down with Susannah Harker—beloved by Janeites for her portrayal of Jane Bennet in the iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice—to explore the nuances of Jane’s character and Susannah’s experiences bringing her to life on screen. We also touch on Susannah’s theatrical heritage, the enduring appeal of the 1995 adaptation, and her plans for a new comedy-drama project, Jane Bennet’s Second Spring. Actor and writer Susannah Harker is best known to Janeites for her role as Jane Bennet in the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries. Her extensive television work also includes many roles in mystery series and contemporary and period dramas, and she received a BAFTA award nomination for her role as Mattie in the original House of Cards. Among her film roles is that of Titania in A Caribbean Dream, an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. On stage, she has starred in Abigail’s Party, The Glass Menagerie, and many other plays. Harker is currently writing a script for a new comedy-drama project, Jane Bennet’s Second Spring. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep30/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Join us for a chat with noted Austen scholar Kathryn Sutherland about Jane Austen’s surviving manuscripts and what they reveal about her writing process and creative confidence. Kathryn also shares the story behind the ambitious digital project that brought Austen’s scattered manuscripts together in a virtual archive and talks about some of the material objects she included in her book Jane Austen in 41 Objects—reflecting on how tangible artifacts can bring us closer to the writer we think we know. Kathryn Sutherland is Professor Emerita and a Senior Research Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford. She is the author Jane Austen's Textual Lives (2005), Why Modern Manuscripts Matter (2022), and Jane Austen in 41 Objects (2025). She is also the editor of many editions of Austen's works through Oxford World's Classics, including Teenage Writings (with Freya Johnston, 2017). Sutherland was also the Project Director and Principal Investigator for Jane Austen's Fiction Manuscripts, a website that houses the digitized files of all Jane Austen's known fiction manuscripts. She is a patron of Jane Austen's House in Chawton, a trustee of Friends of the Nations' Libraries, and a trustee of the British Library Collections Trust. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep29/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Bath bun. Bobbinet. Poor basket. Vanity-bait. These are just a few of the words the Oxford English Dictionary credits Jane Austen with using for the first time in print—and almost all are words related to domestic and everyday life. In this episode, we sit down with scholar Charlotte Brewer to explore the Dictionary’s 19th-century origins, its reliance on volunteer readers, its ongoing digital evolution, and the literary biases that shaped whose words were recorded. A must-listen for word nerds!  Charlotte Brewer is Emerita Fellow in English at Hertford College, Oxford. She began her career as a medievalist, subsequently turning to the history of the English language and in particular its record in the Oxford English Dictionary. Her publications include studies of Jane Austen and Shakespeare in the OED, and she is currently working on the Murray Scriptorium, a co-edited edition of the letters of James Murray, the first chief editor of the OED. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep28/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

"She has many rare & charming qualities, but Sobriety is not one of them."—Jane Austen, Jack and Alice Drunken brawls. Cannibalism. Heroines behaving very badly. Such mayhem may seem worlds apart from the sedate drawing rooms of Austen's novels, but it is par for the course in her teenage writings. In this episode, we welcome Lesley Peterson for an exploration of the whimsical world of Austen's juvenilia—the hilarious and often absurd stories she penned in her youth. Along the way, we’ll see how young Jane, growing up in a lively, intellectual household, was already testing boundaries and sharpening the wit that would one day captivate readers everywhere. Lesley Peterson is the editor of the Journal of Juvenilia Studies and, before her retirement, was Professor of English at the University of North Alabama. She has published numerous articles in JASNA’s journals, Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line, and is a frequent presenter at JASNA's Annual General Meetings. In 2024, she served as a JASNA Traveling Lecturer and was awarded a fellowship through the JASNA International Visitor Program. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep27/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]

Think you know Jane Austen? In this episode, we explore the wild side of Austen’s writings, life, and legacy with noted scholar Devoney Looser, who makes the case for Austen as a far more daring and unconventional figure than her prim Victorian reputation suggests. Whether you're new to Austen or a longtime Janeite, this episode offers a lively take on the beloved author—and reminds us why we’re all a little wild for Austen. Devoney Looser is Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, a Guggenheim Fellow, an NEH Public Scholar, and a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow. She is the author of Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës, The Making of Jane Austen, The Daily Jane Austen, and her latest, Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, which will be released September 2, 2025. A life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and frequent speaker at JASNA conferences, Looser has also skated in roller derby under the name Stone Cold Jane Austen. For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep26/. ********* Visit our website: www.jasna.org Follow us on Instagram and Facebook Subscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channel Email: [email protected]