Shelved By Genre

Three hosts with serious critical chops sit down biweekly to talk about genre literature, and the results are consistently excellent. Cameron Kunzelman, Michael Lutz, and Austin Walker -- the latter known from Waypoint and Friends at the Table -- bring academic knowledge without academic stuffiness to their discussions of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and comics. The current big project is a full read-through of Tolkien, starting with The Hobbit and now working through The Fellowship of the Ring chapter by chapter. But the back catalog is wildly varied: Alan Moore's From Hell, Junji Ito's horror manga, Promethea, Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta. They treat comics and graphic novels with the same analytical rigor as prose fiction, which feels refreshing in a literary podcast space that often ignores visual storytelling entirely. With 74 episodes and a remarkable 4.9 rating from over 510 reviews, Shelved By Genre has built a loyal audience fast. Episodes run on the longer side and the discussions get genuinely technical -- expect talk about narrative structure, genre conventions, and the historical context that shaped specific works. Multiple listeners credit the show with getting them back into reading after years away. The Ranged Touch Patreon offers bonus episodes including commentary on film adaptations. This is the podcast for readers who love genre fiction and want to think harder about why it works.