And they all lived happily ever after… or not.

On the newest episode of the V Wanna Know podcast, rapper, singer, and all-around icon Brooke Candy sat down with V’s Mathias Rosenzweig to learn about the shockingly dark and twisted history of fairytales. They were taught by folklore expert and the author of “Fairy Tales 101,” Dr. Jeana Jorgensen.

“I love mythological anything,” Candy said of why she chose this topic to delve into on the podcast. “I love folklore, I love fairies and trolls. I just love the idea of a story about a magical space where dreams can exist and flourish and fantasies can exist. I feel like the basis of a fairytale is that they’re more than what meets the eye.” 

Dr. Jorgensen explained the basic elements of fairytales, from their origins in ancient Greek mythology to their often patterned and formulaic construction. She also explained the difference between folklore and fairytales: “They kind of overlap, but they’re also distinct. We define folklore as informally transmitted traditional culture. So folklore is all those parts of a culture of society that you learn peer-to-peer and face-to-face. Fairytales are kind of a part of that because there are still communities worldwide where people do like face-to-face oral storytelling, but fairytales are also kind of hybrid with literature.”

She also touched on the truly insane history of fairytales, before Disney made them palatable for children. “In a lot of the earlier fairytales from the Grimm’s and from people writing in the 17th century, there’s a lot of death, and cannibalism, and incest,” she said. “There’s just all kinds of stuff that modern audiences would like really shy away from, and at the time in the 1800s, children’s literature was slowly becoming a thing.”

Dr. Jorgensen also delved into the problematic heteronormativity found within some of the most beloved fairytales, and how fairytales historically addressed the concepts of sexuality, gender roles, and sex, and how that’s slowly evolved over the years.

Candy, known for her raunchy and eccentric music, has been fairly quiet since right before the pandemic, when she dropped her highly-anticipated album, SEXORCISM. With features from artists like Charli XCX, Ashnikko, and Rico Nasty, SEXORCISM was in many ways the culmination of her decade in the spotlight. Now, she’s gearing up embark on a whole new musical journey as she’s slated to release new music later this summer.

Tune in to this episode of V Wanna Know to learn more about Brooke Candy’s new direction, and to hear from Dr. Jorgensen about the origins of fairytales.