This is the sixteenth episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

The crocuses are up, the cherry trees are in bloom, and Snufkin is tramping back to Moomin Valley - it must be time for our spring miniseries!

We're kicking off with this beautiful, perfectly formed gem of a short story from the collection Tales from Moomin Valley. It's a story about creativity, inspiration, song writing, and how big you need to be to get a name.

We namecheck a lot of books in this one! A non exhaustive list: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes.

Our Spirits of the Moomins are The Girl Who Helped Thunder and Other Native American Stories by James Bruchac and Joseph Bruchac, and the songs of Regina Spektor. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Song by Song.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode 16: The Spring Tune

This is the 3rd bonus episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

We're popping in with something a little different for you this week, it's a video game review! That's right, we're almost topical!

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a beautiful, relaxing, not quite open world exploration of Moomin Valley through the eyes and musical instruments of Snufkin. We discuss the way it feels, the way it looks, the way it sounds. Dave has some nitpicks. We wonder how canon the good ship SnufMin is to these game developers. Did the Groke really break Nina's Switch?!

 Our Spirits of the Moomins this week are games. Nina's is Untitled Goose Game and Dave's is Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna). Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is The End of the World Book Club.


The Podgoblin's Hat Bonus Episode 3: Melody of Moominvalley

This is the 4th bonus episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week we've got a special guest in to talk all about the music of Tove Jansson, and the game we talked about last week (Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley) AND the short story that kicked off this miniseason (the Spring Tune). Martin is a musician, a podcaster, a player of games, so he is ideal for all this!

 If you would like to listen along to the music, you'll want to start with this advert composed by Robert Farnon. Then visit this lovely Autumn Song by Tove Jansson and Erna Tauro. Henry Kathman's translation and cover of Snufkin's Spring Song can be found here. The video essay Dave was referring to is here. Finally, wrap your ears around the not unchallenging Moomin Voices album.

Martin's Spirit of the Moomins is The Wind by Fil Corbitt. His Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Noah Caldwell-Gervais. You can find his own music at Pale Bird. His podcasts are Song by Song and Neutrino Watch. 


The Podgoblin's Hat Bonus Episode 4: Martin Zaltz Austwick

This is the 5th bonus episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

To round off our spring miniseason we've got a final (for now) look at The Spring Tune, with special guest Matt Miller, a poet and theatre maker.

 Matt's take on this story is fairly different from all the other takes we've heard so far! It's about smoking, doing the washing up, procrastination. We play a round of our unofficial but recurring game: which Moomin character do you feel painfully called out by? And have a think about what kind of participant Little My would be, if you put her in school and made her be in a poetry workshop.

Matt's Spirit of the Moomins is Impro by Keith Johnston. Their Spirits of the Podgoblin's Hat are Rusty Quill and Mark Can't Rap. You can find Matt on twitter @mattmiller2805 and on their website mattmillertheatre.com. 

 The Podgoblin's Hat will be back later this year, when we will be continuing our read-through of the short story collection Tales from Moominvalley. The next short story will be A Tale Of Horror.


The Podgoblin's Hat Bonus Episode 5: Matt Miller

This is the seventeenth episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

Carrying on with our read-through of Tales from Moomin Valley, our story this week is A Tale of Horror! But don't get too excited. The scariest thing about it is the Whomper's daddy.

This story, despite not being our favourite, gave us lots to yap about. We talked about how stories about lying affect children's truthfulness, shifting standards in kid lit regarding discipline, in particular corporal punishment, and shared some stories about our own flexible relationships to the truth as children.

Our Spirits of the Moomins are The Sister Who Ate her Brothers by Jen Campbell, and the film Turning Red. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is The Newbery Tart podcast.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode Episode 17: A Tale Of Horror

This is the eighteenth episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

This week we're reading The Fillyjonk Who Believed in disasters, certified banger no matter who you ask! It's a melancholy, funny, poignant story that feels almost too real.

Join us as we relate a little too closely and discuss the anxiety and depression of this poor Fillyjonk. We talk about the beauty and liberation of destruction, bombed out cathedrals, and monastic lifestyles. Do we ever really learn from these experiences, or is it an endless cycle? Plus special Natural History Investigations.

Our Spirits of the Moomins are Stories by Firelight by Shirley Hughes and Campaign 2 of the actual play D&D show Critical Role. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Bookwandering with Anna James.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode 18: The Fillyjonk Who Was Afraid Of Disasters

This is the twentieth episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.



Is this the underrated best story in this collection? We really think it might be.

What can a Hemulen tell us about work under capitalism? Will any of us ever get to be pensioned off? This is a beautiful story about introversion, access needs and the dangers of sharing your most secret desires with your relatives. IT BANGS LIKE A DRUM. And it generated a lot of conversation for us, during which we referenced Shy Radicals by Hamja Ahsan, Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, and The World Is Not Ending by Sophie From Mars.

Our Spirits of the Moomins are Moira's Pen by Megan Whalen Turner and The Rob Auton Daily Podcast. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Wilder.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode Episode 20: The Hemulen Who Loved Silence

This is the 7th bonus episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

Our guest Lou has been a Moomin fan since childhood, and the character ey relate to is the Groke (iconic).

This chat is lots of things, and one of the things is a couple of autistics marvelling over the Hemulen Who Loved Silence, with a sideshoot through Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence. It's also Brian Blessed as Edward the Booble impersonations. It's a really good time!

Lou's Spirit of the Moomins is My Neighbour Totoro. Eir Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Saga Thing. Their most recent audio drama is Eeler's Choice.

The Podgoblins Hat Bonus 7: Lou Sutcliffe

This is the twenty-first episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.



This week we're reading one of Tove's most famous short stories: The Invisible Child. It's a pretty bright and funny story with very dark themes. We both like it, but it doesn't quite live up to the hype, for us.

Little My is picking poisonous mushrooms (what else is new?), Moomintroll is an ass, and Moominmamma is a confirmed witch. It's a good one for cameos of Too-Ticky, and vengeance on fathers. We've got quite the fungus-based Natural History/Translation chat. We talk about whether bashing coldly ironical types in the head is even any use. Justice for people with hair colours that aren't black or yellow! There is a deep dive into Nina's ginger experience, and the way gingers, particularly ginger girls, are represented in kids' fiction.

Our Spirits of the Moomins are The Little Prince by Saint Exupery, as read by Peter Ustinov, and Where the Wild Ladies Are, by Matsuda Aoko and translated by Polly Barton. Dave's Spirit of the Moomins is The White Pube website and podcast, particularly their video game reviews.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode Episode 21: The Invisible Child

This is the 8th bonus episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

Our guest Ali Baker is a researcher in children's literature with a particular interest in children's voice and children's rights, so it's no surprise she chose to come on and talk to us about The Invisible Child!

Ali makes a strong case for Bjork as a Spirit of Little My and reminisces about finding the Moomins in her local library as a kid. We situate the Moomins as a type of fantasy, and Ali recommend's Dr Farah Mendlesohn's Rhetorics of Fantasy.  We talk about the mixed up class elements of the Moomin family, and go on a long tangent about femme-shaming (#JusticeForTheSnorkMaiden), with reference to Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet. 

Ali's article about the the sensitivity edit's to Roald Dahl's work is here. Her Spirit of the Moomin's is Bjork's album Vespertine, and her Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is her podcast Fantasy Book Swap.

The Podgoblin's Hat Bonus Episode 8: Ali Baker

This is the 22rd episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

How many times has Moominpappa gone off with the Hattifatteners? Are they really as wicked as they're cracked up to be? What does the birch bark scroll mean? Hop along and find out none of the answers to these questions!

This is supposed to be a story about the Hattifatteners, but it might more appropriately be named: The Feelings and Projections that Moominpappa has about the Hattifatteners. Which is a bit disappointing for Hattifattener fans but it's still a pretty good story!

Dave's done some serious research into queer species in the Moomins, and Hattifatteners as cyborgs in particular. Nina's got a super bumper natural history corner about birch bark and parthenogenic mothers, with additional rustling sound effects. There's a maths corner too, which is unlikely to happen again. Have we all got our little pieces of birch bark in hand? Good, now we'll begin.

Our Spirits of the Moomins this week are Thistle & Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas, and The Dark Crystal, Age of Resistance on Netflix. Our Spirit of the Podgoblin's Hat is Research Hole.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode Episode 22: The Secret Of The Hattifateners

This is the 23rd episode of The Podgoblin's Hat, with Nina and Dave. You can find it on it's own feed wherever you get your podcasts.

And just like that, it's the end of the season! We're going out on a story that actually shows us what happens when someone has a problem and wonders "What would Snufkin do?"

Sniff is inconsolable over the loss of his favourite toy, a small dog called Cedric, with bejewelled eyes (?!). Even Moominmamma can't help him, so he wanders down to Snufkin's camp and gets told a story. It's a very classic story-shape about belongings not making you happy, but you know what we say? There's nothing wrong with playing the hits well!

This story is a real two-hander between Snufkin and Sniff. It really wouldn't be the same without Sniff's many, pertinent, exasperating interruptions. We have a go at filling some plot holes, like: when did Sniff get back from wherever it was he went? Who gave him the toy dog, and why did this put jewels in its eyes?

Next season we'll be reading the Moomin comics, so dig out your copies if you want to read along!

Our Spirits of the Moomins this week are The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit by Julius Lester. Dave has sneaked three (three!) Spirits of the Podgoblin's hat in this season finale to keep you going until we get back: Cane and Rinse, Girl Mode and Rainbow Road.

The Podgoblins Hat Episode Episode 23: Cedric

Björk - The Comet Song (Million Holes Reprise)

Mörkö otti tänä iltana hieman liikaa kamaa ja pisti bileet pystyyn

MÖRKÖ JA SEN KETAMIINI SETIT (MAKSUHÄIRIÖ BOOTLEG RMX)

Sanpo (Moomins Theme)

A weekly podcast: Join Dave Pickering on his journey to get better acquainted with the people he knows. Part interview show, part oral history project and part autobiography through conversation.

British Podcast Award 2017 winner (bronze in Best Interview category)

GBA was nominated for a 2012 Radio Production Award, aired for 3 seasons on Resonance 104.4 FM and was featured on BBC Radio 4's In Pod We Trust, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Helen and Olly's Required Listening and has been recommended by The Guardian, Time Out and the Financial Times

DRK RBR, whose real name is Mariusz Turajczyk, is a Polish electronic music producer and DJ. He specializes in melodic house and techno, often incorporating vintage synth sounds into his productions. DRK RBR began his DJ career in 2009 and later pursued formal education in music at a Music College. As an independent artist, he released his first single titled "My Friend Roland" in 2019.

New tracks tagged #Moomins