
Northern Lights/The Golden Compass
From The Jump by Grace Mulvey & Niamh King
March 25, 2026 · 1h 25m · Season 4 · Episode 5
About this episode
The episode explores Philip Pullman's Northern Lights and its film adaptation, discussing themes of religious authoritarianism and moral questions in children's literature.
In the first of our series on children's stories, we dive into the modern masterpiece Northern Lights, by Philip Pullman, and its less regarded 2000s film adaption, The Golden Compass. Religious authoritarianism, moral absolutism, gender hierarchies and talking polar bears are all up for discussion in this episode, as Grace and Niamh ask the question; is this really for kids? CW: Institutional child abuse, death Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Hosts: Grace Mulvey, Niamh King
Topics covered
- children's stories
- literature
- film adaptation
- religious themes
- gender hierarchies
- moral absolutism
Keywords
- Northern Lights
- The Golden Compass
- Philip Pullman
- children's literature
- film adaptation
- religious themes
- gender hierarchies
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Northern Lights, The Golden Compass
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