The Two Sayats: The Color of Pomegranates (1969) & the novel The Highlands Burn (2026) (feat. THB author Joe Kassabian & theatre actress Mari Vial-Golden)

For this year’s Armenian-American Heritage Month, Jay and his co-editor Jessie is joined by two creatives of Armenian background: theatre actress Mari Vial-Golden and novelist Joe Kassabian (of Lions Led By Donkeys podcast) to talk about Joe’s upcoming gunpowder fantasy book The Highlands Burn along with this episode’s topic The Color of Pomegranates. Is it a coincidence that we are going to talk about the fantasy novel with the main character named Sayat and a Soviet-era movie about an ashugh named Sayat-Nova?