A new podcast will take a deep dive into Octavia Butler’s Parable novels

Today would have been Octavia Butler’s 73rd birthday, and to commemorate the celebrated author, Adrienne Maree Brown and Toshi Reagon have launched Octavia’s Parables, a podcast that will take a deep dive into the author’s two Parable novels, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.

Hosted by Octavia’s Brood co-editor and activist Adrienne Maree Brown, and Parable of the Sower Opera creator Toshi Reagon, the project will go through Butler’s novels chapter by chapter each week until the November election. The first episode launched today.

In the trailer for the project, the pair say that they’ve been rereading the two novels, and wanted to examine the books in light of the current state of the world. In each episode, they’ll summarize that week’s chapter and will provide a bit of commentary about it, and will also pose some questions for listeners to prompt them to internalize the book’s lessons in their own lives.

To support the podcast, Brown and Reagon have launched a Patreon account for the project, as well as a dedicated Twitter feed for users to follow along with.

The first episode of the project is now available, and can be found on a number of podcast platforms, including Anchor FM, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.