We’ve read, listened and watched them on screens of all sizes. But what actually makes a myth or a fairy tale?

Today’s guest, Ann Schmiesing, kicks off season five of The Ampersand by delving into mythmaking and the lessons we can glean from fairy tales. She is the best-selling author of The Grimm Brothers biography, which the New Yorker listed as one of its best books of 2025, a professor of Germanic and Slavic languages and the vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder. Ann dives deep into the Grimms and disability studies while also exploring CU Boulder’s crafting of mythologies in its 150th Anniversary.

Learn more about Ann's research. 

Purchase The Brothers Grimm.

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Written and produced by Erika Randall and Tim Grassley.

Original music composed by Nelson Walker.

Recorded at Interplay Recording and Multimedia.

Music: Borodin's In The Steppes of Central Asia. Recorded, produced and released to the public by The Musopen Kickstarter Project.

The Ampersand is a production of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.