A great book (which Amanda hated) featuring both Poirot and Colonel Race, and Agatha Christie taking (apparently obvious) shots at romance author Elinor Glyn. Portia shouts "boobs!" while Amanda faces her feeling for butch Maggie Smith in the 1978 film adaptation. Many questions come up including: if you are Bernie Madoffing--does that make you boulder-pushy?
This episode was recorded half in-person, and the book HAS A DOG which seems to be the main reason Amanda loves it, while Portia is forced to identify with the victim before the murder, so that loses the book points on the Portia Scale. Agatha Christie falls on the right side of colorism (for a change!) but uses marginalization of women to manipulate us (it worked). Bobby gets a sandwich while watching home improvement shows, and Portia recommends two new books: The Thursday Murder Club and A St...
This book is murder in a bottle, featuring a Scooby-Doo gang of all our fav detectives solving the murder of a mephistophelian poseur during a bridge game. It registered only a 6 on The Portia Scale, but Amanda thinks it's peak Poirot and thinks would be a great first book to introduce a new reader to Agatha Christie. The episode is super rambling with "Bobby got a sandwich" tangents including: mercury retrograde, boobs, challenging conversations about language in the context of African American...
Hercule & Arthur go to WhiteCastle to catch a (faux) serial killer. Hastings and Poirot both shine in this ingenious plot which is not, in fact, poo poo pants. Also Portia Scale catch up and a Rupert Grint tangent.
The Mystery of the Missing Episode! We recorded this back in the summer, but somehow missed it in publishing. The book is bringing big Chimneys-sequel energy with hilarious writing, questionable plot elements, and a realistic love story.
Special In-Person episode #thankyouvaccines !!! This book is another murder in a bottle (you gotta rub me the right way) for which Oedipus is *not* a good analogy. Could you reunite with an ex without knowing it? Poirot is a mentor and not an a**hole again (yay), but the villain has been catch-me-if-you-can-ing for a *real* long con and we don't buy the twist/solution. Then, we, like, introduce, like, Elocution Pod!
This book is a Poirot-y Poirot mystery that casts him as a more likable mentor, but leaves Portia and Amanda at odds on who conspired in the murder. Our discussion features searching for the terms "Québécois" and "bottle episode," as well as a discussion of penis bees. This episode's "Bobby got a sandwich" is "Lady Horbury does some more coke."
This episode's conversation got us to come up with the... *Parker Pyne Fan Fiction Contest! Email your modern Parker Pyne story to poirotpodcast@gmail.com! What are the modern reasons for discontentment, and how would you fix them in a PP way?* This second half of the book is Parker Pyne ROAD RULES, where Ms. Christie seems to have lost interest in the agency, so PP goes on the road and does Poirot and Satterthwaite impressions, complete with racism. Featuring just your typical Agatha Christie c...
Parker Pyne pod! Covering the 1st half of Parker Pyne Investigates. Topics include: different racism edits in different versions, including Asian fetishism, is sneezing the covidtimes farting? getting one's groove back: can you get healthy on your own, or do you have to engage in life to move forward? We discuss PP's approach to manipulation instead of therapy to address "unhappiness," consent, cat fortnite, the monotony of responsibility that the pandemic has taught us, and how PP is a precurso...
The redemption of Hercule! Agatha and Amanda are both back on Team Poirot in this masterful, dark-*ss book which is a reverse Rodger Aykroyd, and future-reverse And Then There Were None featuring Italian stereotypes. The "Bobby got a sandwich" nonsense tangents in this episode features spoilers for Knives Out, discussion of antepenultimate syllables and other (mis)pronouncing, the sexiness of various languages (with wildly offensive impressions and generalizations), Raymond Burr/Perry Mason. And...
In this episode, we discuss this delightful lesser known mystery, which brings up privilege, class, and birth order (spoiler: younger siblings are murdering psychopaths). Portia and Amanda get distracted by their discomfort with domestic service and then by Michelle Obama's flawlessness, while the protagonists get distracted by sexy murderers. We get on track to discover that Evans made the sandwich, but of course we don't find that out until later because patriarchy.
We are back with Hercule Poirot in this 1933 book! In terms of plot, it is brilliant while Poirot isn't. In terms of writing, Portia's 1980's version had racism and anti-semitism which were edited out of the 2012 version Amanda listened to. Follow along as we get into Vulcan brain stabs, Fibber Mcgee and Molly, Kimmy Schmidt, and American dialects.
Stressed about democracy? Ignore reality and listen to the rambling conclusion to our discussion on the Mr. Quin stories, we discuss remembering choreography years later, the idea of death as a character and even lover, outsiders to love being insightful observers, the idea of one true love, and the gender spectrum. Amanda says "whoa" like Joey from Blossom a lot as we manage to compare the ideas of Mr. Quin to every 90s movie ever.
This second episode discussing the Mysterious Mr. Quin was recorded in November of 2020 (we were so young and innocent then)... The stories of The Man from the Sea through The Dead Harlequin follow Mr. Satterthwaite as he steps into his role and the discussion gets into f*ckboys, finding love in your 40s, sister violence, the dangers of being too beautiful, Rihanna, violence of men against women, and the mystical insight of artists.
We are excited to have a guest on this episode, our mother! We discuss this short story collection as well as the mechanisms of different poisons, "the quiet assurance" of white privilege, problematic Swedes, and Pamela comes in with a counterpoint to our cousin love stance?
Agatha Christie forays into the supernatural in this fascinating collection of stories (Amanda's Favorite!) which has a singularly positive portrayal of feminine traits in a man and brings up themes of the magic of non-binary gender! Listen to Amanda struggle to pronounce Satterthwaite as we wonder about the relationship of Mr. Quin and Mr. S to Mr. Snuffleupagus, Joe Black, the Sixth Sense, and Ed Norton/Tyler Durden. If Tommy and Tuppence are Kimmy Schmidt, The Mysterious Mr. Quin is the Good ...
Recording episode 13 during 2020 retrogrades and before the US election was called leads to a weird timing delay in the recording about halfway through the episode (apologies for that to our decades of listeners)... in which Portia TALKS ABOUT SEXUALITY and brazenly ignores the 'u' in aunt. Agatha Christie has updated her stance on consanguinity in this great mystery that brings up frienemies and envy within partnerships. Come hate-listen as Portia and Amanda spiral into their past marriages, an...
We start this episode by catching up on The Portia Scale, then: Poirot gets conned, Hastings glows up, questions about Agatha's criminal justice framework, toddler zoomies, and plans for American(s) In England.
After a couple month recording hiatus, Poirot Pod is back! We discuss how the obvious suspects did it in a very non-obvious way, Agatha Christie's evolving stance on killing murderers, and spinstererotisism (or lack thereof).
More Tommy and Tuppence! Is the Blitz the McDowell's of London? Also randomly featuring spoilers for "The Prestige".
The Problem with the Swedish Chef: Tuppence manifests a secret spy detective agency, Portia manifests a microphone, and Tommy and Tuppence try on the personalities of different fictional detectives. Featuring: lots of pod wine, terrible accents, and a giggling fit.
Is Katherine hot or not? Can Derrick put his player days behind him? Do Portia and Amanda have to learn new stereotypes? We discuss Kitty Kidd's short but lethal drag performance while mispronounciation continues to abound. Also literal fireworks.
Agatha tries to write Poirot and Hastings into an international crime organization caper, with a side of Asian stereotypes and fetishism 🤦♀️. Spoiliers: fake death, fake twin, curare cigarette, evil lair, everybody dies.
We learn to never trust a narrator and somehow we're surprised that a story about murder is sad. Also, Queer Eye For the Belgian Detective?
In this episode of Drunk History... er... Poirot Pod... Amanda copes with reading a great book with some seriously problematic language with way too much pod wine and Portia holds it together. Bonus: excessive background noise. One tipsy epiphany: "American racism is the psychopathic grandchild of British racism."
A murder, a spy mystery, ice cream sodas, blood diamonds, racism, war profiteering, and some sexy choking.
Amanda and Portia do a better job of describing the plot and Portia almost says most words correctly. Trip at the end as we discover sentences cut from the ebook that were in an older physical copy.
Our second attempt; Portia gives historical context, we love the heroes but think the villain is stupid. We add music but there might be technical glitches. Portia still can’t say “Poirot” and we both want to grow up to be Tuppence.
Portia and Amanda try to figure out this whole podcast thing, we think Agatha gets everyone’s ages wrong, Portia can’t say “Poirot,” we veer off into Harry Potter for a while, Amanda fails at inserting Lesbian subtext, and sometimes we talk about the mystery.
