About Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen
Whether you're an aspiring writer, an established author, a story professional, or just a story junkie, Unedited is a behind-the-scenes trip into all facets of the global story economy. Join us for a discussion of all things story, from idea to manuscript and shelf to screen with the globe's best writers, book professionals, booksellers, and adaptation stakeholders. We’re going to keep it informed, unfiltered, and unedited—not a salon, think a bar, whatever your drink or genre of choice.
Before he was published, Tom Clancy sold insurance. Stephen King worked in a laundromat. J.K. Rowling was a secretary. Wherever you work and whoever you are, welcome to Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen.
Harlequin Rising, Dad Books Falling, and the Automation of the Slush Pile
Unedited is back! After a summer devoted to editorial and book-to-screen conversions, the Inkshares team returns to discuss some of the biggest news and trends in the global story economy in 2026.
Joined by the ever-insightful Will Gish, we examine Harlequin’s partnership with Dashverse, an AI company, to create “microdramas” inspired by the romance publisher’s vast catalog. But would a rose by any other name still smell as sweet when masticated and regurgitated by an LLM?
Speaking of AI, some lit agents fear publishers are now using artificial help to sort the slush pile. Besides the privacy concerns, does this reduce fiction to a fraction solvable only by a supercomputer? And on the topic of homework help, what is happening to the books our dads read? Some say podcasts are responsible for the fall of certain strands of nonfiction, but we aren’t so sure.
Join us and catch the full discussion, out now on all platforms.
30 Apr 2026
Stupid, Part Three: How Historical Fiction Can Save Our Brains
Today on Unedited, three authors of historical fiction join us to parse the state of modern entertainment and ponder whether we’re really living in a uniquely stupid era.
We as creatures have been weaving epic fictions since at least the Iron Age—and authors have been called out for their overuse of sex and violence since at least Herodotus. But with millions of books being published (or self-published) each year, and a disproportionate number of those books trying to out-Scoville each other, can any prior century claim as stupid a literary legacy?
Writer of historical thrillers Marjorie DeLuca, master of Golden Age mysteries Christopher Huang, and award-winning Western novelist and returning Unedited guest Chase Pletts help us understand what publishing houses today are asking for, why we don’t remember much of the stupid fiction from prior eras, and how stories set in other times can help us more accurately understand our own.
30 Mar 2026
The Road to Dumb: The Long March from Faulkner to Fifty Shades & Walter Cronkite to Tucker Carlson
If you, like Theseus, got trapped in a maze with a Minotaur, how would you escape? Except in this case, the maze is made of video games, nonstop TV, and the 3.5 million books published on Amazon KDP in 2025. And you don’t have a ball of string to retrace your steps.
Last week on Unedited, we began a discussion of stupid. Where have all the smart books gone, and, maybe more importantly, where has the appetite for smart gone? This week, Adam diagnoses our entertainment culture sickness by examining a string of symptoms: the fall of boredom, the saturation of stimuli, and the erosion of institutional guardrails.
But guard rails against what? Is stupid something with an actual lineage, or just a matter of changing tastes? To answer that, we explore the “thought-terminating cliches” of our time and contrast what the authors of today are trying to do when compared with those of yore. Join us, if you dare.
Who has been a guest on Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Will Gish
Noah Broyles
Matt Harry
Sarah Elizabeth Hill
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
18
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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