Measures of Truth: A His Dark Materials Podcast

Caitin, Francis, Anya, and Alan loved Æsahættr, even if they can't pronounce it. We talk about all of Season Two and our favorite parts of the finale. It was mostly people dying. We love it when we cry about characters dying. That is totally normal.Self-harm is a symptom of other struggles that can have many causes. If you or someone you know struggles with ANY kind of self-harm (including psychological) please seek help! You don't deserve to suffer and you don't need to suffer.Winchester rifles were a colonizing thing.Existentialism is really hard to do but easy to understand.Plato was into caves, but only allegorically.Season 3 of ‘His Dark Materials' is announced to be in pre-production.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan debate if children deserve hugs in ‘Malice'. Mrs Coulter comes out as a super-hero, we ask ‘do daemons shed', and Sarafina finally meets Lyra. Do you feel bad for Lord Boreal or do you want more child murder? What kind of choice is that? What kind of podcast is this?Alexandre Dumas was a famous writer, and had a mixed race heritage from present-day Haiti.Fascinators are a thing.‘The Epic of Gilgamesh' is a thing.Moral Relativism is debated as being, or not being, a thing.Disney's Jungle Cruise Attraction is a classic all-family slow-ride.Eat The Rich is just a rhetorical thing…. for now.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Francis, Caitlin, Anya, and Alan debate about who exactly is The Scholar, does theology enter into science, and is Mrs Coulter out of Lord Boreal's league? Buckle up your monkeys for a lesson in spiders, snakes, and the Spanish Inquisition.Devon, England is certainly a place… with cottages…Spiders have a body part named Pedipalps which are usually different sizes depending on the sex.Nephila genus of spiders can be large and are known for creating complicated webs.The Holy Inquisitions were a series of police actions within the Catholic Church to maintain doctrinal integrity.Calvin's Geneva Consistory was a real bummer.The Character of Consciousness is a thing.David Chalmers NP-Hardness is also a thing.Panpsychism is a somewhat fringe philosophical concept that is popular again thanks to a combination of ignorance and a poor understanding of quantum field theory.The Gnostic Eden Story is a little different from Sunday School.Moral Luck may or may not be a thingOur theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Francis, Caitlin, Anya, and Alan break into the Tower of Angels and find a civics lesson on English governance, sacred geometry, and the greatness of Hester. We talk about Metatron- who is NOT an fascist alien robot- and the best translation of a scene from the book into the show. Mary talking to angels!

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan reflect on Theft and disagree about what's great and what needed more work. But we all agree it has a wonderful moustache. Come fan the hammer with us as we learn about life in an observatory and the philosophy of pedagogy.Bad Wolf makes ‘His Dark Materials' and does not listen to our podcast. Probably.SciPy is a thing.Fanning the Hammer is a thing.What is a MP 40?I Ching DivinationOrientalism is a thingPedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire introduced the concept of Critical Consciousness in Postmodern Philosophy.The behind the scenes coverage for Season 2 has been great. We enjoyed “Welcome to Cittagazze” for how detailed the world-building (literally) was.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan explore The Cave. We talk about Mary Malone, Oxford geography, and building a credit score with God. Watch out for the return of our Spoiler Section at the end! Hobnob Biscuits are popular in England, but would be called cookies by anyone in the US.The number of co-authors for Scientific Publications is increasing in every field, but does not necessarily translate in wider collaboration. Merely the sharing of equipment.American listeners (AKA Yanks) might be confused why part of “America My Country ‘Tis of Thee” plays during ASK A BRIT! but the song is actually “God Save the Queen” which is the UK National Anthem.A map of Lyra's OxfordA map of real/ Will's OxfordMuch like biscuits = cookies a plaster in the UK would be called a bandage in the US.Take a virtual tour of The Pitt Rivers MuseumThere's a Pitt River in Canada?Indulgences were part of the reason why Martin Luther broke with the Catholic church. The specific practice of selling forgiveness for money or favors is called Simony and was illegal 200 years before Luther's rebellion, though. Self flagellation is a thing.The Catholic Church has covered up sex scandals around the globe including the abuse of children.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan talk about witches, submarines, and witches on submarines. We loved the premiere of the second season. And not JUST because of Red-Panda-Pan. OK maybe 95% because of Red Panda love- but be honest! That is a cute daemon.We recorded this episode on Nov 7 2020 when media predictions in the US claimed an electoral victory for the Biden-Harris presidential team over the incumbent.Also- on N7 Day it was announced that Bioware will release a re-mastered version of the Mass Effect trilogy in 2021.“Suicide Mission” was composed by Jack Wall and “An End to All Things” was composed by Sam Hulick with copyrights held by Bioware and used on the podcast without permission.A picture of FlorenceA picture of Mount St MichelIf you are too young to remember the 90s, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a thing.What's a “Teleology”???Lyanna Mormont is not in His Dark Materials no matter what your brain tries to tell you.Paradise Lost is a fanfiction prologue to His Dark Materials written hundreds of years in advance of Philip Pullman's birth.Social Darwinism is a thing- unfortunatelyDrinking the Kool Aid ???????Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan finish the second book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and feel good enough about it to talk for over two hours. Do we finally figure out what Dust is? Does this book have an ending? What is the Alamo anyway? Some of these questions will probably be answered, but no promises.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan discuss chapters 12 and 13 of “The Subtle Knife” by Philip Pullman. We can't stop talking about Science as Mary Malone steals the show. We talk about Serpents, how Ruta is completely the worst, and question if Dust is Angels.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan read chapters 9, 10, and 11 of “The Subtle Knife” by Philip Pullman. We remember that we love the witches, that we really missed Mrs Coulter, and we debate how exactly the Subtle Knife works. Are you ready to talk about the Z-Axis? Well get ready!Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Francis, Anya, and Alan pull a heist as the COVID timewarp continues in chapters 6, 7, and 8 of ‘The Subtle Knife' by Philip Pullman.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, Francis, and Alan read chapters 4-5 of'The Subtle Knife' by Philip Pullman.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin Francis @franciswindram The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan welcome Francis to the team as we start Will's adventure in ‘The Subtle Knife' by Phillip Pullman. We talk about mental health, willpower, and how much we hate a certain Witch Queen. The Subtle Knife has a very different start and tone to it- which fits our weird pandemic time-capsule perfectly.We recorded the podcast on March 18th 2020 when lockdowns associated with the COVID pandemic became ubiquitous. We were feeling a lot of anxiety…Philip Pullman wrote the Young Adult Mystery ‘The Ruby in the Smoke' in 1985 as well as three more sequel novels.What is a Babel Fish??Caitlin's Tolkien podcast is called: So You Want To Read Tolkien…The book by Philip Pullman that is full of Tolkien thoughts is ‘Daemon Voices'The Multi-verse theory is a thingWhat is Schrödinger's cat again?Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche was a Nazi and Fredric Nietzsche's sister.Nietzsche is most often associated with Nihilism but he wasn't actually a fan of it.Follow Francis on Twitter: @franciswindramOur theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, Francis, and Alan wrap up the first season of His Dark Materials by reading all the emails we’ve gotten. We love Ruth Wilson, pick daemons for each other, love Ruth Wilson, and- oh did we mention we love Ruth Wilson? We go over our favorite moments, music, and knitwear of the season and discuss the letter “U” much more than anyone would have guessed!British Brevity is certainly a feature of Commonwealth shows, as compared to American TV.Musical Episodes are a thing.Lani Diane Rich is a Story Expert who has said that Characters should drive Story, not Plot or Theme, if you want an audience to be emotionally involved.There is a Golden Compass movie?The Empty Child is an award winning episode of Dr Who.Ariyon Bakare is awesome in all the ways that you can be- and he also makes Lord Boreal awesome.The UK isn’t a part of Europe?Caitlin’s daemon picks: Alan = Border Collie, Anya = Raccoon, Francis = PheasantAnya’s daemon picks: Caitlin = Hedgehog, Alan = African Grey Parrot, Francis = TamarinAlex the Grey Parrot helped to demonstrate that Avian Intelligence is comparable to Mammal Intelligence.What is Alan’s actual daemon?Alan’s daemon picks: Francis = Charlotte the Spider, Anya = Texas Coral Snake, Caitlin = KinkajouFrancis’ daemon picks: Caitlin = Weaver Bird, Alan = Elephant/ Tortoise, Anya = ServalCaitlin’s friends said she was a goldfish?What’s a Parasitoid Wasp?Ermines!Lyra the ConstellationThe Good Place is about the afterlife and is pretty funny!On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich Von Kleist was a direct influence on Phillip Pullman according to what he says in his book Daemon Voices.Jason and Vivian have a great podcast called Forkin Bullshirt about The Good PlaceAunt Viv from Fresh PrinceStar Wars Fan Edit: Dawn of the EmpireHouseboats are a thingCaitlin and Jennifer have a Star Trek podcast called A Command of Her OwnBrutalist Architecture is a thingWhy don’t Americans spell with British “U”s?Ruth Wilson also stars in LutherWhat is L33T?There is a creepy (but cute!) puppet of Lyra!YouTube version of HDM SoundtrackFollow Francis on Twitter: @franciswindramOur theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about the finale of His Dark Materials! Caitlin doesn’t care about Roger. Anya sees a Buffy connection. Alan can’t stop himself from saying Moses. We love the look of the show, Mrs Coulter, and we want Season Two right now.The Folger’s incest ad is a Holiday TraditionWhat is heteronormative?Soldiers actually do parachute with attack dogs.Article about Ruth Wilson leaving The Affair.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about great screams, too much hugging, and the heroine’s journey. We liked the bear fight but loved Lord Boreal and Elaine Perry. We stay on topic with robot murder, Spaceballs, and debating if Beyonce has a last name.Lord Asriel’s reaction in the video game of The Golden Compass.Meat-O-Vision is a visual trope in cartoons that tells us the character is hungry.Parsimonious? Occam’s razor?Beyonce has a last name?! (Spoiler: it’s Knowles-Carter)Roger’s daemon is named Salcilia.Here is why the bears had no armor (armour?) on.Dostoevsky talked about mental repression and polar bears.Spaceballs doll sceneThe Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s JourneySchrodinger’s Cat is a thing.Accidental Murder TropeTed was a murdered robot who was killed by a Vampire Slayer. Named Buffy.Ralph Ellison had thoughts about being invisible and black.British slave trade was a thing.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about Bolvanger. Anya listens to the podcast in order to remind us of what we thought the first time around. Caitlin reluctantly enjoys witchy flight. Alan smoothly crams Dostoevsky into the discussion. Its one cliffhanger of a podcast.What is Floofy?What is a Bag of Holding?The Sami people are an ancient people in Europe who are often used as a trope for primitive people.Gaslighting is NOT a thing and we never talked about it. Why did you think we did?Castrati were prized for their singing voices, but eventually outlawed in Europe.Felicity Huffman was swept up in a scandal around UCLA’s admissions.Drake’s text messages to Billie Eilish are textbook grooming.The Grand Inquisitor was written by Dostoevsky and satirizes Catholic Christianity.The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was instrumental in leading to modern IRB consent testing.Nuclear testing gave us a great geologic record of modern humanity.Passover is about the Angel of Death (Azriel) not killing the Hebrews during the story of Exodus.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan wrestle with this episode. Ma Costa is amazing, but Will is very different. And Will is fantastic, but Billy’s loss is not properly realized. Iorek is incredible, but can anyone be magnificent while struggling up a hill. All this, and knitting too.Halo is an ongoing video game franchise, and will be a TV show in 2020.Caitlin and Anya were not impressed with the flying in A Discovery of Witches, as they commented on in their podcast Desire Made Real.Lani Diane Rich is an excellent teacher of Storycraft and can be found at Chipperish Media.Here is Kelli’s thread about disability in His Dark Materials.The Evil Cripple Trope is a bad one to fall into in 2019.We believe Kaisa should be a goose, and we will make propaganda about it.What is an H&M?People drive on the wrong side of the road in England? Learn how to drive wrong.Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) is a serious mental health issue.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about geese. We get foxed by some accents with our special guest Francis, we discover that Anya was metal AF in middle school, and Hester is the best.Is it Armor or Armour?Kaisa settled in the form of gyrfalcon in this adaptation.Why are geese hot right now? Oh The Untitled Goose Game.The Daily Show Correspondents.There are a lot of accents in England.A Creole is a language that emerges from a combination of two languages as a single language with a unique grammar and word-use.Who are Saxons and Normans?An article by Screenrant that explains why His Dark Materials doesn’t have daemons walking around everywhere.Caitlin’s hat can be seen here.How do you knit a Latvian braid?Meteoric Iron is a thing.Extraneous Podcast is a lot of fun and worth your time if you aren’t listening.Christianity was leveraged as source of power and acceptance during colonization.Utilitarianism is a thing. A Teleological thing.Jeremy Bentham was a weird guy with a lot of important ideas. You can still visit his body in England at his college.We talked about “And The Band Played On” on Hallowed Ground StoryCast.The Catholic Church covered up rape for decades.There has been a false link created between Homosexuality and Pedophilia. We reject that.Follow Francis on Twitter: @franciswindramOur theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk Ma Costa’s knit sweater-overall look, the great way Lyra was told about her mother, and teleology. Because we were made to talk about teleology. We don’t like book burning, and Caitlin has thoughts about Lyra wearing pants. But we all love Ma Costa and the Gyptians.Who is Kylie Minogue?Anti-Roma riots in Bulgaria are getting whipped up by the government targeting Roma people as scapegoats. In 2019.The International Romani Union is the current representative legal body that interacts with the United Nations, and other sovereign nations, on behalf of Roma people. It was founded as The World Gypsy Community, then became the International Gypsy Committee. Alan is wrong to say that it had either of those names in the 1990s though, because it became the IRU in 1978.Where is the money for Climate Research going in 2019?What is a Teleology?The influence of Greek philosophy on European culture.What is a Rage Room?What’s a Sargon the Great?Origin of ‘As safe as houses’Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitin, Anya, and Alan loved ‘The Idea of North’. Pan is perfect, Mrs Coulter is scary, and Lyra is a North fangirl. We talk knitting, daemon manners, and Spinoza. Typical for us!John Adams was in an HBO special with his name, as well as being a supporting character in Hamilton. However, he was not given a part in The Addam’s Family.The Cursed Child was indeed………. cursed.Varys in A Song of Ice and Fire, or Game of Thrones, is cooler than the Cardinal.According to Hope not Hate, 1/3 of Britons polled believe that Islam is a threat to British life.Shows outside the US can win Emmys.Trepanning holes are pretty big!Fair Isle Knitting is a thing.Art Deco was a big deal 100 years ago.How to knit an uneven rib.Matilda is a good book.Moses did some murder- then split (but not the Red Sea, that was later).Baruch Spinoza admired the way that Renee Descartes laid out his belief in Mind and Body- but did not agree with him.Psychophysical Parallelism might be a thing.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about the premier of His Dark Materials, Lyra’s Jordan. We have thoughts about the Gyptian Bar Mitzvah, opening the show with Lord Asriel, and the meaning of “EVERYONE’S SPECIAL!!” Explain yourself Beta-Asriel.Who is Lorne Balfe? He created all the amazing music on the show.String Theory?Mat Fraser has had a varied career in show-business. He has been a musician, playwright, stage actor, podcaster, and television actor. He was born with phocomelia, which shortens a person’s limbs, caused by the use of thalidomide while his mother was pregnant.The flood scene is from the prequel novel La Belle Sauvage.There is a Golden Compass video game?!What is The Shire?It might be a stretch to compare the Magisterium’s symbol to a Globus Cruciger, but that won’t stop Alan from saying it.Galileo Galilei wrote a ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ which led to a confrontation with Pope Urban VIII. At the end of Galileo’s trial it has been told that he muttered, “All the same- it moves,” as he left the room, which is most likely what Anya was recalling.Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan Book-Over The Golden Compass (Northern Lights) by Philip Pullman. We spoil the Narnia books, the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac, and the amount of energy needed to break chemical bonds. We spoil everything. So much spoiling.Horseshoe Theory is a thing.Cliffhanger vs Game ChangerHarry Potter changed the world of publishing.The King James Version of the Bible was influenced by the English Reformation.Different traditions in Africa related to the ideas of zombies.Africa is not a country.www.AfricaIsNotACountry.com is not an owned domain as of the time this podcast was published.John Faa was a real person.An article by Jessica Reidy about the use of Roma in fiction which mentions the Gyptians.Releasing a chemical bond requires more energy to go in than comes out.More energy is released in splitting an atom, than is used to split it- called fission.The story of Abraham and IsaacDivination is a thing.What’s a Dark Matter?Zee or Zed is the only real fight worth fighting.The Problem of Susan TropeOur theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan cover Chapters 18-20 which is all about Sinful Chicken Stew, Iorek Bear-Jesus, and teleology (of course). What is Mrs. Coulter’s endgame? Why will only Anya stand up for Avocados? Listen and find out!Mortal Kombat was a thing in the 90s.Jamestown was initially a failure as a colony, but Carolina was more successful. Both of these were founded for commercial and political reasons rather than religious.Jabme-Akka is the underworld spirit of the Sami people. She tends to the dead in the afterlife.The Vasconic language family includes Basque and is believed by some linguists to indicate a people-group more ancient than the current Indo-European groups that invaded the continent in waves. The Inuit-Yuptik-Unangan language family stretches into Siberia and could have had ancient contact with the Finno-Ugric language family of the Sami.Some people still eat seal meat in modern times.What is the Helium Reserve?What is the Hindenburg?Physicalism is the philosophical stance that there is only physical matter in the universe, which requires that everything is controlled by determinism.Free Will may or may not be a thing, but if it is- it requires options.Christianity is the only Abrahamic Religion to believe in Original Sin.Acquired Freedom is the idea that you can become a moral actor through knowledge of and faith in God.In The Gospel of John 3:3 Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”Human women in Narnia are called ‘Daughters of Eve’.The Power of the Powerless was written by Vaclav Havel and is a modern parable of post-modern complicity and victimhood.Elon Musk made a submarine that no one ordered.The current British Constitutional Crisis is part of a wider cultural problem of isolation and consolidation of power with small groups.A defense of Choice FeminismWho is Laura from American Gods?Read Chapters 21-23 for next time!Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk Chapters 14-17, cassette tapes, and how Caitlin got all the science right. Anya spots a Plot Hole, Alan says scientists have no butts, and Caitlin brainstorms an ending quote live on mic.The Samoyedic is the Russian name for the Indigenous People of that region- especially Siberia.Meet Anubis from American Gods as played by Chris Obi.The CBC says that Santa is Canadian, and therefore you should believe it.The charged particles that hit the magnetic field come from the sun- called Solar Wind.Not all planets have a geomagnetic field, but Earth does because it is better than the other planets.The Aurora is as complicated as it is beautiful. Which is a lot. Very complicated.The International Space Station has taken video of the aurora.Neon Lights are a thing.Apriori and Aposteriori are big words for truth you know and truth you experience.The Correspondence Theory of Truth is the oldest test for truth in logical philosophy.What is Post-Truth?The idea of contradicting ideas in Buddhism both being true is called Catuṣkoṭi.The Parable of the Invisible Gardener is designed to illustrate that religion is intrinsically irrational. R.M. Hare came up with a similar scenario to illustrate irrational belief does not have to be religious.What is Blik?The Love, Joy, Feminism Blog by Libby Anne tackled the tangled bad science of believing in young-Earth Creationism but not Flat-Earth Theory.The Milgram Experiment showed that regular people could easily become sadistic torturers.The Covenant of Circumcision in Judaism.Bear Worship was (and kinda still is) a thing.Read Chapters 18-21 for next time!!Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about a universe where they banged a physicist- and a universe where they didn’t. We also talk about Chapters 10-13 of The Golden Compass. We find out that John Calvin believed in boring things, that no cats were harmed in Schrödinger’s experiment, and #NotAllBears.The slur ‘Gypsy’ comes from a mutation of Egyptian. The Roma/ Sinti / Traveler people came from northern India, and not Africa.Anya’s equation for making gas from iron filings looks like this: With dilute H2SO4, you get a standard metal-acid redox reaction - Iron (II) Sulphate & hydrogen gas are the products: Fe (s) + H2SO4 (aq) → FeSO4 (aq) + H2 (g)Quantum Theory and The Uncertainty Principle are counter-intuitive, but have proven to be the most reliable mathematical model in Physics.Richard Feynman bragged about his womanizing in his loose autobiography ‘Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman’. He often complains that women won’t give him the sex he wants, so what is the point in being polite to them?It is unclear who said, "Anyone who claims to understand quantum theory is either lying or crazy,” but it is often attributed to Feynman.What is Schrödinger's Cat?What is the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?What is the Many-Worlds version of String Theory?The Multiverse TropeDeepak Chopra melds counter-intuitive science with mysticism, and sells a lot of books.The last thing Stephen Hawking wrote was “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation?” which set a limit on the number of possible universes.What are the Northern Lights?Witches?John Calvin believed in the total sovereignty of God.Wait. The Puritans were real?A concise explanation of Calvin’s view on “Free Will”.Cartesian Dualism is a thing.Does a body need a mind to exist?Nature vs NurtureCanadian Geese are trigger-happy attack-dogs with wings.Beowulf was a were-bearTexas was its own countryWhat is a Zorro?Read Chapters 14-17 for next time!!Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan read Chapters 5-9 of The Golden Compass (The Northern Lights) by Philip Pullman. We talk about same-sex daemons, daemon sex, daemons giving away your emotions…. listen, we really like daemons! Also Astronomy, Freud, and Gyptians on the river.‘Gypsy’ is a racial slur for Romani people who had an actual Scottish leader in England named Johnnie Faa in the mid 1500s.What is Afro-Futurism? What is Binti?Who is Galileo?The Ptolemaic Planets are visible with the naked eye. William Herschel is given credit for discovering Uranus but it was his sister Caroline who first recorded it.How does a Crookes Radiometer work? Here is a video from How Stuff Works.Is a Magic 8 Ball real?? (Spoilers- no)What is an Oblate?What is Zoroastrianism?Sigmund Freud thought everything was about penises? The framework of the Ego Ideal was Freud’s explanation for how children mature.The Sensus Divinitatis is part of how we know there is a God, that the Bible is true, and what our place in God’s plan is- according to John Calvin.The Chosen One TropeThe Secret Family Legacy TropeWhat was Pullman’s trans-gender tweet scandal about again?What is The Trolley Problem?Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan kick off The Golden Compass by talking about its “real” name of The Northern Lights, the scruffiness of shoes in academia, and the danger of Gargamel’s pussy(cat).Paradise Lost by John Milton is the source of His Dark Materials and Golden Compasses.Read more about What’s Up With The Title of the first book and the HDM series itself.Satan as the protagonist of Paradise Lost is hotly debated (if anything about the criticism of English religious epic-poetry can be “hot”) and Alan is just giving his opinion. Here is another opinion that agrees with Caitlin by John M. Steadman titled “The Idea of Satan as the Hero of Paradise Lost” written for the American Philosophical Society Journal and compiled by jstor.org.The allusions to Narnia are from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.What is Turkish Delight?Chocolatl is the Romanized spelling of the Nahuatl word for “food made from cacao seeds”.Listen to Desire Made Real hosted by Caitlin and Mandi and that featured Anya.How long does it take wine to go bad?The use of alternate words like Anberic and Naphtha help to show that history has been different in Lyra’s world.The Protestant Reformation led to the separation of church and state in Europe and gave rise to secular nationalism during the Enlightenment.Who is Calvin? Was he the Pope for real?(spoilers: no- the opposite)The doctrine of Predestination centered reformed Christian theology on God rather than on humans.A list of all the PopesListen to the “Crazy for God” episode of HGSCAzrael the Cat is not the inspiration for Lord Asriel’s name, but the Islamic angel of death Azrael is.The Smurfette PrincipleCarl Jung and the Animus/ Anima.Teleology has nothing to do with bananas or phones.What is a dystopia?Jewish boys in Czarist Russia were drafted into the army in order to kill/ socially deprogram them.America is separating families and detaining children.What’s a Mary Sue?“Dollar” was used by Shakespeare to refer to money, and the dollar-coin was the most common form of money in Europe- but was rejected by England as it rose into the largest empire in world history.Read Chapters 5-9 for the next episode!!Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com

Caitlin, Anya, and Alan talk about the trailer for ‘His Dark Materials’, problematic authors who should not be taken too seriously, and polar bear plushies. Seriously. Will there be a chance to buy an Iorek plush?! This is important. And we talk about why we care about these books and the show and stuff. Panserbjorn plush!!Here is LSU’s Creative Writing Program. Maybe it is better now than when Alan was there.There is a movie about the Golden Compass??!What is a Province? It is what Canada calls its States.What are Robert Jordan books? Related: What were Fantasy Books in the 90’s?What are TERFs?Philip Pullman tweet scandal about Trans Rights: “Phillip Pullman Wants to Know Which Side of the ‘Trans-Argument’ He Should Be On.” by Kaila Hale-Stern for The Mary Sue..Death of the AuthorPhilip Pullman has strong opinions about Fantasy which energized the development of “His Dark Materials”. Read about it in “Far From Narnia” by Laura Miller for The New Yorker.Anya and Alan co-host Shadows and Shamblers a podcast about the STARZ adaptation of American Gods.The trailer for His Dark MaterialsYou can see that Lyra Belacqua is blonde in all this fanart.Lin Manuel Miranda talks about singing a duet.The Kingkiller Chronicles TV ShowThe full cast of His Dark MaterialsTo Anya’s point- read about an Oregon black bear that was killed by officials because it was too habituated by tourists taking selfies with it and feeding it. Please leave wild animals in the wild.Check out Bad Wolf which is based in England and came out of the BBC.Anya and Caitlin worked together on the podcast Desire Made Real from Eloquent Gushing about the TV adaptation of “A Discovery of Witches”.Check out Hallowed Ground Media for more Anya and Alan.Check out Caitlin’s podcast about Middle Earth “So You Want to Read Tolkien”Our theme song is Clockwork Conundrum by NathanGunnFollow us on Twitter: Anya @StrangelyLiterl Cailtlin @inferiorcaitlin The Podcast @MoTPodPlease email us contact@hallowedgroundmedia.com