Bryce Kelly, Podcast Creator

I’m a transmasculine nonbinary podcaster who creates podcasts about children’s and young adult literature. My first podcast, Unfortunate Associates covers various works related to the YA author Daniel Handler/Lemony Snicket. It is hosted by myself and my friend Mia Marchant who is a trans woman. My second podcast, Radio Camp Half Blood focuses on Percy Jackson and other works by YA author Rick Riordan. It is hosted by myself and my friend Zachary Sokol.

Both shows analyze children’s and young adult literature from an inclusive perspective. Representation is at the forefront of our minds, whether that representation is of LGBTQIA people, disabled people, people with mental illness etc. Notably, Radio Camp Half Blood was sponsored by Penguin Random House this past October and was given the opportunity to preview an audio book clip from the Rick Riordan book 9 From the Nine Worlds: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. The chapter featured the character Alex Fierro who is canonically genderfluid. Our choice to feature this character’s chapter was an intentional gesture, meant to emphasize the importance of trans and gender nonconforming representation.

I studied children’s literature during college, as I personally feel that these books have both the power and the obligation to help young people feel understood. My greatest career success has been the heartfelt response both my shows have received from people of all ages. Messages from parents, teachers, and children have shown that discussion of these books can also make people feel less alone.

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Hazel & Therin Stapp (Orc Zone), Podcasters

Hazel Stapp is from a small town in Arkansas, but moved north to Rhode Island for love. She finally came to the realization that she was a trans woman at the age of 32, and has been living her best life since. Hazel has a degree in creative writing, but helps pay the bills by working in a factory. Hazel loves tea, writing, and playing RPG’s both on the computer and on tabletop. She is very dedicated to producing queer content, and helping other Transgender people when she can.

Therin Stapp is a native Rhode Islander. She is on the ace specturm, and started coming to terms with her queer identity around the same time as Hazel. Therin works hard to provide visibility to asexuality, and to help her asexual peers. She enjoys playing RPGs, knitting, and cats. Her day job is as a reference librarian, which she loves dearly, despite the ways it reveals everyday injustices.

Therin was the one who wanted to start a podcast. She had been a player on the Dungeons & Dragons Actual Play “Roll Like A Girl” for a couple of months, and wanted to start a project of her own. After talking about it for a while the two of them decided that they were going to do an audio drama about two worlds colliding. And so Interference was born.

Interference is a story about  Jacq, a human woman on present-day Earth, and Geneva, a trans orc woman on a world called Chel.   It is a slowburn paranormal romance with adventure elements. It tells the story of an interplanar glitch that brings two women together, and their struggle to keep it that way.

Legends of Chel is a Dungeons & Dragons 5e actual-play podcast, set in the same universe as Interference.  In each episode, we follow the adventures of a farmer named Waylon Virur, an apprentice Druid called Day, and a student of the College of Avarn, Ichabod Pike. These unassuming folk from the tiny, secluded town of Bell’s Run find themselves on a quest to save their hometown from destruction and starvation.  

orczone.com
Twitter:
@theOrcZone
@Hazel_da_Basil