Hold No Heroes

Joining me this week is friend and fellow shitposter, Devan Laurent, to talk about cancel culture and that weird Harper's Magazine letter decrying it. Devan's twitter is @devanmiller and his blog is https://nowisthetimeofmonsters.wordpress.com/

This episode we are joined by my college History professor, Professor X, as we talk about the "isms" we adopt, whether by choice or necessity, and how both of us ended up taking a lot of things for granted in our academic years and how we came to unpack those implicit biases. It's a good conversation with an old friend and we bounce around from talk about the invention of "white people" to our favorite podcasts (besides this one).

A little explanation for why the "Political Podcast" up and fucking vanished during the most important protests in a century.  In Short: I was waiting to make it perfect and, lo and behold, perfect never came. 

Twitch streamer, Halo fan, and my good friend, Matt Acuña, stops by the pod to teach me a thing or two about some Halo lore. Matt's Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/darthmathis

There's something to be said about being able to articulate why it is you like what you like and I think the things I like about superhero narratives are what lead me to become a leftist.  *Mild Spoiler Warning* for plot elements of old seasons of Arrow and Flash. 

You could say that religion was the first fandom. This week I have my good friend Manfred DeVox on the podcast to talk about how we both started out as kinda conservative students on our way to becoming pastors, took wildly divergent paths, and somehow still ended up as Christians(with doubts) and political leftists. I don't believe religion needs to be an obstacle to progressive politics and Pastor DeVox spells out the case quite nicely.  Find Pastor Manfred DeVox on twitter @DevoxRev

Hold No Heroes goes international as I get a chance to talk with writer and young Jeremy Corbyn impersonator, Leo Cookman, about his article "What Is Electability?" and why a word that has such an obvious meaning seems to have many hidden facets. If you enjoyed this conversation with Leo as much as I did then be sure to pre-order Leo's book "Time's Lie : The Narrativisation of Life" here: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Leo-Cookman/Times-Lie--The-Narrativisation-of-Life/24663671 Check out Leo's other work here: https://linktr.ee/leocookman

It's 48 hours after the Iowa caucus and, while we can all agree than Bernie Sanders won, the question on everyone's lips is: Will you vote blue no matter who? That's right. It's everybody's FAVORITE part of the news cycle, where we ask the people with principles, "Do you have to?" And with resounding clarity and conviction we say: YES!

Remember, like, 10 days ago when we were all pretty sure that our dumbshit president stumbled ass-first into a war with Iran? Well, I do. And, my good friend, Ken Culver and I used it as a launching point(pardon the usage) to talk about heavy topics and trying not to go insane from the weight of our stupid world, how best to express ourselves, and let others express themselves in the ways they need.  Notes: The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character name I couldn't remember was "Vic Fontaine." The comic book issue I am referencing is Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #36.

I'm still figuring out this whole "podcasting" thing. This here episode is part 2 of "Richard didn't plan well enough and recorded too much" where I introduce Jake and Stevie to a few villains from pop culture that might have been right the whole time. We talk about such classics as Ra's al Ghul, Mystique, and many more! Episode Art by Ryan Ottley (Invincible #99)

For this episode I am joined by my good friends, Stevie Foxette, biologist and host of the "Buzzed Biology" podcast, & Jake Kilroy, poet and writer behind the JakeIsAVegan instagram page. Together we talk about the villains we can't help but think, "Maybe they have a point?" Listen to Stevie and Jake tell me all about the villains they've grown to appreciate over time and get them on as many government watchlists as I'm already on in the process. Apologies if the episode volume and quality are all over the place, I am experimenting with new microphones and editing tools. Episode Art from Batman: The Animated Series "Almost Got 'Im" (Aired 11/10/92)

Join me as I share a little bit more about myself and what I want to do with this podcast, apologize preemptively for my failures, and use my interesting choice of words last episode to catapult myself into a rant about who you can trust when you want genocides prevented or Avatars of Death destroyed.  References: Title- https://twitter.com/dril/status/831805955402776576?lang=en "Captain Marvel" #32 (May, 1974) "The Thanos Imperative" #4 (2010) 

Joining us for the very first episode is my dear friend, Ken Culver, who has been systematically trying to counteract all the reasons I had in my head for why the internet does not need another podcast about politics or pop culture. We talk about what I want Hold No Heroes to be about and talk for a while about some ways that pop culture does give us an avenue to express ourselves and our beliefs.