Gom Jabbar: A Dune Podcast

Princess Irulan gets a long-overdue character deep dive, from her royal childhood and uneasy Bene Gesserit training to her role in the conspiracy against Paul. The discussion questions the biased historical record, explores her hidden writings and creative works, and traces how a complicated political thinker became the mythic Saint Irulan. It also looks ahead to Florence Pugh’s future portrayal in Dune: Part Three.

Two early Frank Herbert stories reveal the strange ideas brewing before Dune. One follows human exterminators battling insects that have evolved to mimic people, raising questions about ecology, power, slavery, and dependence. The other turns an alien standoff over Washington into a sly bureaucratic twist about humanity’s hidden past and possible occupation.

Abu and Leo examine two strange Dune Encyclopedia manuscripts: a stolen Sardaukar training manual built around Freudian psychology, and a study of Baron Harkonnen’s warped personality. They explore brutal childhood conditioning, engineered warrior culture, family history, ego distortion, and how Freud, Jung, and Rogers map onto Dune’s factions. Spoilers for Children of Dune.

The Ithaca’s endless voyage, Duncan’s obsession, and the ghola children take center stage as the hosts dissect the saga’s chaotic back half. Murbella battles the Honored Matres, while Face Dancers, Tleilaxu secrets, grotesque experiments, and a resurrected Baron Harkonnen pile up. The mysterious forces behind the Scattering finally emerge, setting the stage for Sandworms of Dune.

An unpublished Dune Encyclopedia manuscript called Psychology of the Fremen never made it past Willis E. McNelly's editing desk, until now. Abu and Leo dig into what got cut, in part one of a two-episode dive into the Fullerton archives' unreleased psychology entries. Carl B. Yoke, a Kent State University professor, wrote it as one of five planned psychology profiles that also covered the Bene Gesserit, the Sardaukar, the Harkonnens, and the Imperium. Yoke's Fremen entry builds its case through an invented smuggler-poet, whose writings and observations of Fremen psychology survived in the Bene Gesserit archives on Wallach IX. From there, Abu and Leo trace a psychological system mapped almost entirely onto Carl Jung. This episode contains NO SPOILERS for the Dune novels. SUPPORT THE SHOW Get ad-free episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/GomJabbar Say thank you with a tip: https://buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar Buy custom-designed Dune merch: https://gomjabbar.shop Watch video episodes and clips: https://www.youtube.com/@loreparty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 2026 Hugo Awards hand Best Novel to Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting and give Murderbot its first-ever trophy, while WorldCon finally reveals the price for the 2023 Hugo scandal: a lifetime ban for administrator Dave McCarty and lesser bans for three others. Plus, Silo closes its most divisive season yet to a critic/audience split the internet doesn't seem to agree with, and the Bobiverse's fifth book proves the series still has it. Stellar Dispatch drops every Tuesday. New main episodes every Friday on the Stellar feed. Stories this week: 2026 Hugo Awards winners announced at LAcon V WorldCon censures and bans four 2023 Chengdu Worldcon officials Silo season 3 finale review Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5) review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abu and Leo begin the book club coverage of Hunters of Dune, the first novel completing Frank Herbert's saga after his death. They walk through the first half of the book's tangled plot before turning to the continuity breaks and creative choices they think do real damage to the Dune canon. This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, plus chapters 1-44 of Hunters of Dune! Listen to "The 7 Deadly Sins of Brian Herbert" episode HERE IN THIS EPISODE Why the Ithaca crew revives gholas of Paul Atreides and Leto II Atreides while passing over Ghanima and Alia Murbella's shaky start as Mother Commander of the merged Bene Gesserit and Honored Matres, and the power struggles taking shape at Chapter House The Oracle of Time and a Golden Path retcon that Abu and Leo argue contradict rules Frank Herbert spent six books establishing SUPPORT THE SHOW Get ad-free episodes and more: patreon.com/gomjabbar Say thank you with a tip: buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar Buy custom-designed Dune merch: gomjabbar.shop Watch video episodes and clips: youtube.com/@loreparty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since we're in our #BrianHerbertEra, Abu and Leo revisit an episode from 2022 covering the history of Dune as told by Brian Herbert in his book, The Road to Dune. SUPPORT THE SHOW Get ad-free episodes and more: ⁠patreon.com/gomjabbar⁠ Say thank you with a tip: ⁠buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar⁠ Buy custom-designed Dune merch: ⁠gomjabbar.shop⁠ Watch video episodes and clips: ⁠youtube.com/@loreparty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frank Herbert spent five books showing how faiths merge, mutate, and drift beyond recognition. Then, in Chapterhouse: Dune, he wrote in a community of Jews who had not changed at all. Abu and Leo gather critical takes from Jewish readers and scholars, then sit down with historian DZ Kalman to ask whether representation that gets things wrong can still be worth having. This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels, up through Chapterhouse: Dune! IN THIS EPISODE Rebecca, the Rabbi, and the deal the Bene Gesserit struck with a people nobody could find Where Kwisatz Haderach actually comes from in Jewish mysticism, and why nobody knows how Herbert found it A theory about Beverly Herbert's death, the to-do list she left behind, and what Daniel and Marty have to do with any of it MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE DZ Kalman's essay on the Jews of Dune: jellomenorah.com DZ Kalman's podcast, Belief in the Future: podcasts.apple.com Michael Weingrad, Jews of Dune: jewishreviewofbooks.com Jonathan Weidenbaum, The Holy Versus the Sacred: doi.org Leigh Kimmel's Chapterhouse Dune review: billionlightyearbookshelf.com SUPPORT THE SHOW Get ad-free episodes and more: patreon.com/gomjabbar Say thank you with a tip: buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar Buy custom-designed Dune merch: gomjabbar.shop Watch video episodes and clips: youtube.com/@loreparty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abu⁠ and ⁠Leo⁠ close out the book club with a live listener Q&A, the first one recorded with every page of Frank Herbert's saga behind them. It's a reflective hang about how this series thinks about power, governance, and the limits of art as political commentary, and about what it feels like to reach the end of a six-year read-through. This episode contains SPOILERS for all six of Frank Herbert's Dune novels. IN THIS EPISODE Whether the Bene Gesserit's surveillance-and-no-confidence structure is Frank's ideal government, or a system he builds up only to critique through the Honored Matres Our theories for why Abomination disappears after Children of Dune, from the inner Mohalata to Siona's descendants being immune What Daniel and Marty really represent, and why Chapterhouse works as Frank's farewell with no seventh book needed What the Dune Encyclopedia's contraception entry reveals about the Bene Gesserit breeding program, axolotl tanks, and their opposition to abortion Whether Dune: Part Three can handle the jihad honestly, with Andor Season 2 held up as the gold standard for political storytelling A live, no-holds-barred re-ranking of all six novels, with Leo putting Dune fifth and God Emperor dead last SUPPORT THE SHOW Get ad-free episodes and bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/GomJabbar Say thank you with a tip: https://buymeacoffee.com/gomjabbar Watch video versions of select episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@loreparty Get yourself some custom-designed Dune swag: https://www.gomjabbar.shop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices