Adam's Sneak Peeks | Marjana and The Forty Thieves Part One

Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest - Pinna

In this sneak peek episode of Season 6 of Grimm Grimmer Grimmest, author Adam Gidwitz introduces a dark, reimagined version of the classic tale 'Ali Baba

Key takeaways

• The traditional hero of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' is reimagined—Marjana, not Ali Baba, emerges as the true protagonist.

Main topics

• Reimagined fairy tales
• Dark retellings of classic stories

Notable quotes

This story is Grimmest. It really doesn't seem so bad for almost the entire thing, but right at the end, somebody might get chopped into pieces.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a chilling revelation: Kasim has been murdered by the thieves, setting up Marjana's

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:01) Pinna! Speaker 2 (0:04) Hey Grimm fans, I've got some great news. Season 6 of Grimm Grimmer Grimmest is now releasing exclusively on the Pinna app. You're listening to a taste of Grimm Grimmer Grimmest with the sneak peeks and some Grimm Grimmer Grimmest episodes here in the feed. But the brand new Season 6 episodes are on Pinna, recorded live with kids in Brooklyn and Staten Island and releasing every week. Subscribers get every new episode as soon as it's released, plus every episode from the past seasons and 20 sneak peek episodes. That means there are currently 70 episodes and one more releasing each week available on the Pinna app. If you're not listening on the app, you're missing out. Head to pinna.fm to subscribe. I'll see you there. Speaker 1 (0:55) Pinna! Speaker 2 (0:59) Hi, my name is Adam Gidwitz. I'm an author. I'm also a storyteller. I like telling all kinds of stories, but I especially like telling grim fairy tales. You may think you know grim fairy tales, and you may think that they are sweet and boring. But listen, those tales you heard were the cute, happy, little-kid-bedtime versions of the grim tales. The original grim fairy tales aren't like that at all. They're weird and sometimes gross and often scary. In other words, they're grim. And we're starting something new and exciting here on Grim Grimmer Grimmest. I'm sitting here in my home, in my office, wearing my slippers. No kids anywhere. Because I want to give you a sneak peek of a fairy tale. And I want to hear what you think. We're putting directions on how you can reach out to me in the episode description. I'll take the feedback you've given me and use it to improve the story. And then you'll get a full Grim Grimmer Grimmest version of it. with kids and sound effects and voice actors, just like you're used to. Cool? I hope so. Also, this means you get to hear the stories sooner, which I know you want. Because you tell me. All the time. Okay, so I'm about to tell a real grim fairy tale. Do you want to hear it? Let me help you decide. On a scale of grim, grimmer, and grimmest, this story is Grimmest. It really doesn't seem so bad for almost the entire thing, but right at the end, somebody might get chopped into pieces. If I get to a part of the story and you start to feel scared or uncomfortable, this is what you could do. You could turn down the volume and count to five, and then turn the volume back up. If it still seems like a part you don't want to hear, just turn the volume down and count to five again. You know how much weird and gross and scary you're ready for. You know what you need. Okay, I'm going to start this Grim Grimmer Grimmest sneak peek. Do you want to hear it? Are you sure? Okay, let's do this. Speaker 1 (3:12) Grim Grimmer Grimmest. Speaker 2 (3:16) So, today on the show, we have a very special guest. Sana Ali Muhammad joined us last season for our story, The Fisherman in the Gin. I am so excited that she is joining us again today. Sana, how are you? Speaker 4 (3:32) I'm doing great. So happy to be here. Speaker 2 (3:34) Yes, I'm so glad that you are here. So, we've done a new story for this season together. And it's an exciting one because... It's actually very famous. Probably some kids know it. What story did we choose to do? Speaker 4 (3:47) It's called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. And Speaker 2 (3:51) this story comes from the 1001 Arabian Nights, just like Fisherman and the Djinn did last season. Can you remind us, for those who might not remember or maybe haven't listened to that previous episode, what is 1001 Arabian Nights? Speaker 4 (4:05) Absolutely. So the Arabian Nights are a collection of stories that were passed down orally from a whole host of countries. So think the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. And they were collected into what we now know as the book of the 1001 Arabian Nights. But the premise of the story is this. There's a princess named Scheherazade. And the only way that she prevents her husband, the king, from killing her each night is by telling him a story. but not finishing the story until the next day. And so she tells stories after stories after stories for years and years. They have kids, and now the king loves her. And so storytelling saved her life. Speaker 2 (4:46) And so storytelling saved her life, but in our story, it's not going to save everybody's lives. Some people, they're going to die. So this story, last season we did The Fisherman and the Djinn. That was from 1001 Arabian Nights. This story, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, also from the Arabian Nights. But we're not going to tell it exactly the way that the kids might have heard it before. How have we changed it? Speaker 4 (5:10) So when we were reading the original story, it seemed clear that there was a hero, but that hero wasn't Ali Baba. Join us to see if you can figure out who you think the hero of this story is. Speaker 2 (5:22) Then with that, let's get started. Speaker 2 (5:32) What if the fairy tales you thought you knew weren't the real stories? What if I told you that the real Grimm fairy tales were often dark and scary and gross, and that I was telling them on Grimm Grimmer Grimmest to a classroom full of kids who like to interrupt me and make jokes and annoy me and basically make my life miserable? Season 6 of Grimm Grimmer Grimmest is now releasing exclusively on the Pinna app. So, Do you want to hear a real grim fairy tale? Speaker 1 (6:08) A lot of people remember what they dream about when they go to sleep. But what if you discovered you could move between the world of dreams and real life? That's the story of Dream Breachers, where Evan wakes up on his 12th birthday and realizes that something he dreamed about that night had actually happened. Dream Breachers is a high-stakes sci-fi mystery adventure. And with the help of his friends, a reappearing stranger, and a mysterious organization called the Dream Academy, Evan will discover what it means to be a Dream Breacher. If that sounds like a dream to you, you are in luck, my friend. You can listen to Dream Breachers now, wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (6:58) In a town in Persia, there was a wealthy old merchant who was about to die. He called his two sons to him. One was named Kasim and the other Ali Baba. He said to them, I am splitting my fortune between you. One of you will get all my gold, while the other will get the largest pearl in the whole world. Which do you want? Okay, I have a question for you. Which would you want, all of his gold or the largest pearl in the world? Sona, what about you? Would you