What is Strange and Beautiful?
Long time partners, Rachel and Matt, bring their unique blend of wit and weirdness to the worlds of sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. From quirky movie reviews to lively book discussions, they'll keep you entertained and informed with their mature humor and infectious enthusiasm. Join them as they chase their little nerd hearts through the genres they love.
The Strange and Beautiful Mission
It began in November 2022 when Matt and Rachel started the first podcast on the network, The Strange and Beautiful Book Club. Their intention was to share their love of the Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy genres. They enjoy all stories on both paper and film but called the podcast a “Book Club” because they wanted to emphasize that the story itself is always the focus. As the podcast and the network has evolved, Matt and Rachel have focused on elevating independent voices in storytelling and sharing them with their listeners. It is the mission of the Strange and Beautiful Book Club to give a platform to smaller creators who have a unique and beautiful story to tell but may not have the platform or the reach to do it by themselves. We welcome working with self-published authors, small to medium publishers, independent film makers, and more.
Genuine curiosity and interest is one of the main driving forces behind content selection. Strange and Beautiful Network believes that listeners can tell when a podcast host is sincerely engaged in the content they are presenting and that it makes a significant quality difference in the final product. It is important that listeners can trust us when we recommend a book or review a movie. Thorough, authentic engagement with the source material for each and every podcast is our highest priority.
The podcast is aimed towards casual to avid readers who want to find unique voices in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror genres. Matt and Rachel feature new releases that they just can’t miss, independently published titles that deserve more love, and older publications that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Through it all, Strange and Beautiful tries to foster a spirit of grace, positivity, and kindness towards other viewers, readers, and creators. There are many strange and beautiful voices out there in the world and they all deserve a chance to be heard.
Meet the Hosts
Husband and Wife, Rachel and Matt, are truly the marriage of art and science.
Rachel is a life long creator and has worked in everything from Graphic Design to Ceramics. She loves reading and can read anywhere from 400-500 words per minute depending on interest and complexity of text. She reads a wide variety of material for the various network podcasts but her heart really lies in rich, wordy old Science Fiction and Fantasy. Rachel wears many hats at Strange and Beautiful including, producer, audio editor, social media manager, website builder, beverage coordinator, and much more.
Matt says that his job is computer but we all know its much more complicated than that. It seems to involve at least three monitors, a lot of typing, and abbreviations only he understands. He doesn’t read as quickly but his degree in Physics and Mechanical Engineering make him particularly fun to chat Science Fiction with. He’s the primary technological wizard at the network and if the microphone is working, its him we him have to thank.
Rachel and Matt
Highlights and Stats
In addition to the regular format discussions, Rachel and Matt have interviewed anyone from renowned Neuroscientist, George Paxinos (who once had the third most cited book of all time) about his eco-fiction work “A River Divided” to an Australian biologist turned author, Haldane B. Doyle, who wrote “Our Vitreous Womb.”
Rachel and Matt enjoy discussing creative works with the people who made them and always ensure knowledge of the subject matter prior to the interview so that it can be as informative and natural as possible.
Strange and Beautiful Book Club is streamed in over 50 countries and has a majority male audience (60%) in the 35-44 age bracket. To date, it has over 140 published episodes with a total download count of 3,600 since July of 2023 when they moved to their current distribution platform. New episodes average 27 downloads within the first 30 days and 43 downloads within the first 90 days with the highest overall download count for any episode being 139 (“Geometry for Ocelots” by Exurb1a). The majority of our listeners are engaged and complete in excess of 70% of the episodes (according to Spotify analytics). Strange and Beautiful Book Club routinely makes it to the top 200 podcasts in the Apple TV & Film and Film Reviews in Canada and Australia with less frequent appearances on the same US Chart where it has been as high as 75.
Strange and Beautiful Book Club also has an active and growing YouTube channel where our episodes are also posted.
Promotional Information
Strange and Beautiful Book Club will highlight and promote your content in a number of ways.
Authors or publicists seeking to get their content on the show can expect that their book or movie will be covered in on our review style podcast episodes where Matt and Rachel will discuss the overall content and recommend the book to their listeners in an authentic and engaged manner. The episode will be advertised on our website and on our Instagram page which currently has a consistent following of over 600.
When published, the review episode will appear on all podcast streaming platforms in addition to appearing on our YouTube channel as the podcast audio over a static image.
Strange and Beautiful Book Club also offers interview episodes for creators wishing to speak on the podcast. All interviews are conducted through Riverside.fm but only the audio from the recording will be used. Authors and publicists are encouraged to send any interview questions they hope will asked during the episode though questions may arise from genuine discussion that are not included on the list. It is our hope that all interviews are casual, informative, entertaining, and comfortable for everyone involved.
All participants will be informed of the publication dates of any episodes related to their content whether it is a review style episode or an interview. They will also be sent links to all locations where their content is promoted.
All books submitted to the network will be read in full so please expect a minimum of two weeks before Strange and Beautiful Book Club can proceed with promotional opportunities.
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