NOPL News: Librarians launch ‘Raging Romantics’ podcast

By Amanda Roberts

NOPL Creative Director

NOPL librarians Jackie Hoyt and Jen Tolley created the Raging Romantics podcast last year to discuss romance novels.

While the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL) is doing curbside pick-up and virtual programming at this time, two of their librarians have started a podcast. After forming a romance book club in 2018, librarians Jackie Hoyt and Jen Tolley wanted to find a new way to reach romance genre lovers. They created the Raging Romantics podcast last fall and now have a collection of episodes.

Episode topics range from vampires to silver foxes to the hottest Regency authors, and all episodes seek to uncover inherent concerns and issues around the genre. Jackie and Jen try to balance difficult discussions with hilarious outbursts, moments of perspective, and of course, raging and ranting.

“Romance is an important genre,” says Jackie. “We’re going to be thinking quite hard on a lot of things that some people deem ‘fluff’ or ‘inconsequential.’”

Jen Tolley sits in a red chair in front of a window. She is a white woman with brown hair and dark eyes and is wearing a jean jacket. — NOPL librarian Jen Tolley is the co-host of the Raging Romantics podcast, in which she and her colleague Jackie Hoyt take a deep dive into the romance genre.

“This podcast is critical thinking into my favorite genre,” says other host Jen Tolley. “We believe that these sorts of deep dives are necessary to open up essential conversations our society should be having.”

They keep the banter lighthearted and upbeat, making the podcast an informal education piece for adult readers of all ages looking for entertainment and counsel on the romance genre.

NOPL’s romance book club, Between the Covers, continues to meet virtually every month on the third Thursday of the month. The Raging Romantics podcast airs twice a month, on the first and third Friday at NOPL.org/RagingRomantics. You can also find Raging Romantics on Spotify.