When you hear of a podcast about Jane Austen, those words conjure images and sounds of a stodgy book review podcast where the host and an academic guest dissect Jane Austen’s collected works. It’s literary criticism at its best, but also potentially at its most boring.
There is nothing boring about Austen After Dark. In fact, the podcast is like this multi-dimensional force, with vibrating energy in literature, erotica, history, romance, and women’s rights.
I’ll let the show explain: “Austen After Dark is the literary sex history comedy podcast that asks: What were Jane Austen characters like in bed? From Pride And Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility to Northanger Abbey, we go between the sheets with Dr. Alice Nagle and a host of celebrity guests to uncover more.”
“Your host and intrepid Jane Austen slag” (a British slang for promiscuous or sexually loose woman) is Dr. Alice Nagle.
Dr Nagle begins with, “Is there any sexier than a Jane Austen novel?”
Right in the beginning, Dr. Nagle poses the presumptive question that defines this show about sexuality in Jane Austen’s time. “What about the fucking? Getting freaky in their four-poster beds.”
With that provocative opening, let’s begin with: Who the fuck is Dr. Alice Nagle? Sorry, I’m getting carried away. Alice Nagle is a freelance Anthropologist and social researcher who attended Fordham University in New York, then Oxford University for her Master’s degree, and then the University of Edinburgh for her PhD. She is a Community Manager at Playable Technology and the co-host of another podcast, Fetch The Smelling Salts, with Kimberly Marsh. Ear Worthy will be reviewing that show next week. The podcast explores period dramas from around the world.
Austen After Dark is an immersive show in which Dr. Nagle plays the role of a Victorian host to her guests. In the episode about Pride & Prejudice, for example, Nagle welcomes the comedy duo of Amy Greaves and Christian Brighty and allows them to feed her pet peasant Bertram.
Each episode begins with a lyrical flute introduction that sets the tone (after a lengthy pre-roll ad segment). As a host, Dr. Nagle is totally in character, and somehow her university career must have been more than just anthropology studies, because she is terrific as a host and as the guide to the Austen universe. She also talks in each episode about all the fucking, which, if Miss Austen were still alive and heard such words, would certainly get the vapors and faint straight away.
In the first episode (To set us up for our horny close reading of Jane Austen) listeners receive historical context from historian Dr Robyn Atcheson to “Sploosham Abbey.”
Dr. Nagle asks, among other queries about the author and the era: How were people doing sex in Georgian Britain? What would Jane Austen have known about it? And what rules should we set when thinking about her characters getting it on?
In the second episode, Dr. Nagle tells us: “Y’all, Jake Philips, AKA The Cultured Bumpkin, has flown all the way from Mississippi to join us at Sploosham Abbey for a chat about Sense & Sensibility. Dr. Nagle asks The Cultured Bumpkin: “Is Colonel Brandon Austen’s most skilled lover? What happens when Lucy Steele finally snares her man? What’s really going down at an evening party with the Middletons?”
The show began in June 2025 and ran for nine episodes.
In the ninth episode, Dr. Nagle says as salaciously as possible, “Well, skanky listeners, it’s the Georgian era but make it gilded because we’re talking all things queer in Jane Austen’s world with Dr Anthony Delaney! He wrote a book, and now he’s going to lay some historical knowledge on us, but he promises to be gentle. We will ask the following questions.
“Were same-sex attraction and gender non-conformity totally hidden away in the Georgian period? Did history’s favourite lesbian couple have their own Austen-esque story in Ireland? How much did Jane Austen know about queerness, and did it show up in her writing?”
Austen After Dark is produced by Podomedy, a UK-based, independent podcast comedy network founded in 2023 by Damien St John. It is designed to support independent comedians and creators by providing production, mentoring, and monetization services to help their shows thrive.
Podomedy acts as a “hub” for independent comedy, offering a supportive community for creators to avoid having their work lost in large, algorithm-driven platforms. The network hosts over a dozen shows covering various genres, including stand-up, geek culture, true crime, fiction, and lifestyle. Partnerships: It works with creators to develop both audio and video formats.
At Ear Worthy, we applaud podcast networks that collaborate with and support independent podcasts.
Anyway, Austen After Dark is defense exhibit # 17,000,000 that independent podcasts are far superior to network-supported shows. The show is a wonderful mix of historical research, social and sexual commentary, bawdy and saucy chatter, and deliciously wild humor, and it remains informative and insightful about Jane Austen, her works, and their impact on the world.
Plus, Dr. Nagle uses the F word so many times that I lost count. You gotta love it!
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