Cover of Narrative Decay

Narrative Decay

Narrative Decay

By: Lion Publishing
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What do you get when you combine two book nerds, a distaste for agenda-driven drivel, and a desire to return to better storytelling? Apparently, you get a publishing house and its flagship podcast!


On Narrative Decay, co-hosts Seth Cordle and Rebekah Edwards discuss the ideologically corrupted state of publishing, the decline of literacy in America, and how they're trying to change their little corner of the book world.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebekah Edwards Art Politics & Government
Episodes
  • EP. 005 — ToxicEmpathy

    EP. 005 — ToxicEmpathy
    19 Oct 2026
    Is there good in him? Luke Skywalker thought so. He was wrong.Today we’re talking about toxic empathy. You may have heard it called suicidal empathy, ruinous empathy, or murderous empathy, but it’s all the same thing: holding the perspective of others to a degree that it impacts your own safety, and feeling for a person so much that you stop asking about the rightness of what they actually do.We get into where this shows up in entertainment, starting with Darth Vader, who never repents and only saves Luke once it’s selfishly beneficial to him, and then gets three prequels so you can feel bad for him. From there it’s Magneto, Mr. Freeze, Loki, Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey, the Joker, Wicked, Cruella, Maleficent, Songbirds and Snakes, Fantastic Beasts, Euphoria, Breaking Bad, that one Law & Order: SVU two-parter, and why Hollywood keeps going back and giving villains origin stories so we can say “it’s not her fault she wanted to murder 101 dogs to make a coat.” We also talk about the difference between a sympathetic villain and an actual redemption arc, why Prince Zuko did it right, and why Tom Hiddleston being good-looking is doing a lot of heavy lifting.Then we get into why this matters outside of entertainment. We used to be a society that based things on actions, and now we base things on motives. A great therapist once said you cannot judge other people by their intentions, only by their actions, because you can’t read their mind. And when humans try to take God’s place as the one who hands out mercy, we crucify Christ and release Barabbas.Yes, the Lindsay Clancy case comes up, because it’s a very public example of exactly this. And yes, Rebekah brings the research: the 2006 Nature study on what happens in men’s and women’s brains when a cheater gets punished, the gendered answers to the trolley problem, who actually wants prison reform and why, and the uncomfortable question of what all of that means for women on juries.We end with how this shaped our own books, and why Lion is going back to stories about good triumphing over evil, the importance of family, and self-sacrifice.In this episode:🧠 Defining toxic empathy (and why it never seems logical once you spot it) 🎬 “Heartwashing” and the Darth Vader problem 🦹 Magneto, Mr. Freeze, and the rise of the sympathetic villain 🧪 Beloved, Euphoria, Breaking Bad, and the villainous protagonist 📚 Voldemort and Snow were real villains, then the prequels showed up ⚖️ Sympathetic villain vs. real redemption arc: Loki and Prince Zuko 🟢 Lanterns and when writing becomes a mouthpiece for the writer’s politics ✝️ Only God gets to hand out mercy, and it still requires repentance 👩‍⚖️ The Lindsay Clancy mistrial and why so many women “stand with Lindsay” 🔬 The study that shows men’s reward centers light up when a cheater gets punished 🚃 The trolley problem, Iron Man, and the kind of female hero Rebekah wants to see 🦁 How we wrote our own villains, and why Lion is going noble brightFollow Lion Publishing:Website: https://lionpublish.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lion-PublishingInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lionbookpublishing/X: https://x.com/lion_publishTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lionbookpublishingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lionbookpublishing/Follow the hosts/authors: Rebekah: https://rebekahedwards.com/links/ Seth: https://linktr.ee/sethcordleauthorSupport the launch:BackerKit: COMING SOONLike, subscribe, and share as we push back against Narrative Decay — one good story at a time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 10 min
  • EP. 004 — Crossing The Line

    EP. 004 — Crossing The Line
    18 Sep 2026
    What happens when the least bookish person on the Lion team also has the spiciest TikTok?Not spicy like smut. Spicy like anti-smut.In this episode of Narrative Decay, Rebekah Edwards and Seth Cordle sit down with Hayla, who designs Lion Publishing's social posts and runs a personal TikTok full of hot takes that get her pushback from both sides. Her very first post was her testimony, and it got heat from the LGBT community and from Christians who insisted "Jesus made you this way." So we get into what it actually looks like to be bold online without just chasing clicks, and why it's so easy to say things on the internet you'd never say to someone's face.We talk about cross-in-the-bio Christians who bully people in comment sections, the difference between hot takes that are true and hot takes that are heresy, when the Holy Spirit says "don't respond" (which for Seth is about 9 times out of 10), and why Rebekah is done dancing around her faith and wearing rainbow glasses to blend in. Rebekah is also taking back "spicy." And the rainbow. Consider yourself warned.Then it gets into the book space: the "girls only want to read smut" argument and why that's insulting to women, why "non-consensual" being used as a selling point is not spicy, it's rape, why the pendulum swung from "don't reduce us to homemakers" all the way to "don't reduce us to anything except porn watchers," the "what did you expect from the romance section?" problem, and why there's no reason that stuff should be in the young adult section at all.PLUS: the pro-life post TikTok quietly capped, why the comments under happy motherhood videos have turned into "I'm sorry for your loss," and Hayla's beach book where the guy was dead the whole time.Big picture, we're not trying to make anyone stop reading what they read or do it in secret. We shouldn't govern what people read, but we can try to change what they're fed. We're starting something new and flooding the market with better options, and if what we make sucks, we'll fail. That's the beauty of capitalism. If we're right, we won't.In this episode:🎨 Meet Hayla, Lion's social media designer and resident hot-take machine 🔥 Spicy takes, not savory takes (and definitely not smut-spicy) 🙏 Bold online vs. bullying online, and where Christians get it wrong 📵 Why 9 times out of 10 the answer is "don't reply" 🌈 Rebekah takes back the rainbow (and the word "spicy") 👶 The pro-life post TikTok didn't want you to see 📚 "Girls only want to read smut" and why that's insulting to women 🚫 Non-consensual is not a selling point 👧 What's showing up in the YA and preteen sections 🦁 Flooding the market with better options instead of banning the bad ones 🍨 Love and Gelato, gallivanting, and the book where the guy was dead the whole time 📱 The Based Reader app, sponsored by Rebekah, for RebekahFollow Lion Publishing: Website: https://lionpublish.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lion-Publishing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lionbookpublishing/ X: https://x.com/lion_publish TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lionbookpublishing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lionbookpublishing/Follow the hosts/authors: Rebekah: https://rebekahedwards.com/links/ Seth: https://linktr.ee/sethcordleauthorSupport the launch: BackerKit: COMING SOONLike, subscribe, and share as we push back against Narrative Decay — one good story at a time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    48 min
  • EP. 003 — Is Based Publishing Harmful?

    EP. 003 — Is Based Publishing Harmful?
    10 Aug 2026

    Can we create books for an underserved audience without somehow being accused of hating everyone else?


    Apparently, that’s a harder question than it should be.


    After a completely normal drive-through conversation sends Rebekah into an existential publishing crisis, we tackle one of the biggest questions surrounding what we’re building at Lion Publishing: if we intentionally create stories that don’t center the themes dominating mainstream publishing, are we excluding people—or are we simply making room for readers who haven’t felt like there was much room for them?


    We get into politics becoming religion, why simply saying “I don’t want to read that” can turn into a moral indictment of your entire character, age-appropriate books, free speech, bookstore boycotts, and the difference between allowing something to exist and demanding that everyone celebrate it. And yes, somehow The Hunger Games, JD Vance, Yellowstone, smut, rainbow glasses, and Cubs fans all make their way into the conversation.


    Then we tackle another question we get a lot: why don’t we just call Lion a Christian publishing company? We talk about the infamous “little old lady test,” why so much Christian entertainment sacrifices storytelling for messaging, and the difference between Christian themes and Christian fiction. We want manuscripts from people across the political and religious spectrum because we’re not trying to create another ideological bubble. We want genuinely good stories where evil can exist without being glorified, goodness still means something, and heroes are allowed to be heroes.


    At the end of the day, we’re not trying to erase anyone else’s stories or tell people what they’re allowed to read. We’re creating the space we wish existed—one where storytelling comes first, our faith doesn’t have to be hidden, and readers who have felt like the odd ones out finally have somewhere to belong.


    In this episode:


    ☕ The drive-through conversation that started an existential publishing crisis

    📚 Why we’re creating books for an audience that feels left behind

    🗣️ Free speech, political litmus tests, and “books are inherently political”

    ⭐ Representation, disagreement, and whether not celebrating something equals hate

    👨‍👩‍👧 What actually belongs in children’s and school libraries?

    🔥 Why smut gets less pushback than saying we don’t want LGBT themes

    📖 The “little old lady test” and our problem with Christian fiction

    🎬 Why Christian movies have a storytelling problem

    ⚔️ Bringing back heroes who can face a broken world without becoming part of it

    🦁 Why we aren’t Christian publishing—even though our faith is inseparable from our mission


    Follow Lion Publishing:

    Website: https://lionpublish.com/

    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Lion-Publishing

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lionbookpublishing/

    X: https://x.com/lion_publish

    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lionbookpublishing

    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lionbookpublishing/


    Follow the hosts/authors:

    Rebekah: https://rebekahedwards.com/links/

    Seth: https://linktr.ee/sethcordleauthor

    Henry: (lol, you thought this guy had social media?!)


    Support the launch:

    BackerKit: COMING SOON


    Like, subscribe, and share as we push back against Narrative Decay — one good story at a time.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Show more Show less
    37 min
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