Podcasts about Hercules

Welcome to Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. We explore how Parker blends classic Romantasy tropes with fresh worldbuilding, the tension between destiny and desire in her characters, and the ways her heroine reflects larger genre shifts toward female-driven agency. We also dive into the book's explosive popularity on BookTok and why it's being hailed as one of the standout romantasy debuts of the year. This is part 2 of this week's episode. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Sponsor: The best way to cook just got better. Go to HelloFresh.com/BOOKTALK10FM now to Get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item for Life! One per box with an active subscription. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: ⁠⁠https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/⁠⁠  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. We explore how Parker blends classic Romantasy tropes with fresh worldbuilding, the tension between destiny and desire in her characters, and the ways her heroine reflects larger genre shifts toward female-driven agency. We also dive into the book's explosive popularity on BookTok and why it's being hailed as one of the standout romantasy debuts of the year. This is part 1 of this week's episode. Come back Thursday for part 2. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Sponsor: The best way to cook just got better. Go to HelloFresh.com/BOOKTALK10FM now to Get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item for Life! One per box with an active subscription. Free meals applied as discount on first box, new subscribers only, varies by plan. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: ⁠https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/⁠  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hercules Federal First Credit Union Salt Lake County Player of the Week for Week 4 of the 2025 Utah High School football season was Herriman High School running back Filisi Filipe,

Welcome to Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya. We explore how this YA fantasy is masterfully crafted, offering a rich and authentic representation of Mexican culture, and why it's so refreshing to have a standalone story that delivers a complete, satisfying ending. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: ⁠https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/⁠  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sharlene Hector: Touring the World with Basement Jaxx, Finding Theatre, and Owning the Spotlight

Episode 130 of Inside Quotes! This week our special guest Kaleb Keenan picked the 1997 film “Hercules”.   Watch Today's Episode on YouTube: Inside Quotes - YouTube Channel   On Today's Episode: Watching movies in Romania Unhealthy school lunches Rainy days in afterschool care Hades is a standout villain Youtuber tier list videos Where does this movie rank in the Disney renaissance? Live action remake - fan casting Go the Distance (from Hercules) - BYU Vocal Point ft. The All-American Boys Chorus Movie adaptation changes from the greek myth   Show Notes: Inside Quotes Merch Store Linktree: @insidequotescast Artwork by Bryce Bridgeman: @Groovybridge

In this episode of Tipsy Casting, we welcome the powerhouse show runner and co-creator of The House of The Dragon, Ryan Condal!The series launched on Max on August 21, 2022, with the first episode drawing in a total of 9.99 million viewers as HBO's biggest series premiere ever. The first season of the series went on to win the Golden Globe for “Best Drama Television Series,” in addition to receiving multiple nominations from the Primetime Emmy Awards, BAFTA Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and People's Choice Awards. The second season premiered on Max on June 16, 2024 with Condal at the helm yet again. Season 2 of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON secured 1.2 billion total viewing minutes in the first week airing on the platform.Ryan previously co-created, executive produced, and showran the USA series COLONY for three seasons. In film, he co-wrote Warner Bros' RAMPAGE for Brad Peyton, sold a pitch to Lionsgate with Chad Stahelski attached to direct, and wrote HIGHLANDER for Chad Stahelski, which is set up at Lionsgate. In the past, Ryan sold his spec screenplay INFINITE HORIZON to Warner Bros and wrote the feature HERCULES starring Dwayne Johnson. Ryan was named one of Variety's 10 TV Scribes to Watch for 2015.In this episode we discusss...Ryan's love of scotch whiskey His decision and transition from the US marke to the UK marketThe development process of The House of the Dragon We dive into the casting process and how he balanced getting the big name actors along with the lesser known up and coming castHis instinct for casting and how he views the processWhat is he looking forward to after The House of the Dragon is over and if he's keen to dive into a certain genreMentorship within the writing world and how to get your foot in the doorHow important networking and putting yourself out there can help you throughout your careerResources: Ryan Condal IMDBEntertainment Weekly's Article about HOD Season 3 ────────────────────────────⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stay Tuned with Tipsy Casting on IG⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tipsy Casting YouTube Channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Jessica ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Jenn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn More About ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jess ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠& ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jenn's⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Casting Journeys ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get Casting Life Away Merch here!⁠⁠⁠

This week, with Popper back from vacation (holiday), the boys return to their roots with Greek Myths, Prince Ali, driving, previous shows (for some reason), the POG Key Phrase and much more.

Episode #565! Hercules Unchained, Dungeons & Dragons World & Realms and Cryptology! This week we talks Dungeons & Dragons with a book and a documentary. First, from Ten Speed Press is their next hardcover Worlds & Realms covering Greyhawk and more. Scott has the documentary Eye Of The Beholder The Art Of Dungeons & Dragons. Scott also has two Hercules movies and a movie starring Laurel and Hardy. DL brings Cryptology magazine #2 featuring an 18 page article on Don Heck to the table. Plus extras!

Book Besties Season 9 Episode 2: Blood of HerculesBesties join us this week as we take on another #booktok favorite, Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas. Listen in as the besties talk about story structure, if this book should be labelled spicy, and discuss the intricacies of using Mythology as your base.Things talked about in this episode: Jasmine Mas: https://jasminemasbooks.com/ Storygraph Season 9 Challenge: https://bit.ly/3VqOj7w Carpe Librium: https://beawesomereadbooks.com Meet Molly and April, they bonded over books and became Book Besties. So, what do you do when you find your book bestie? Start a podcast of course. Hang out with April and Molly as they talk about everything they love and hate about books. Follow the Book Besties on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube. If you'd like to contact the Book Besties, please email us at bookbestiespod@gmail.com or visit our website bookbestiespodcast.com. This episode is sponsored by Carpe Librium: Bookish Things for Bookish People. Use the code hellobesties to get free shipping on your first order at https://beawesomereadbooks.com.

No novo episódio do Entreato, Leticia Saggese compartilha suas impressões sobre os musicais que assistiu recentemente no West End, como Hercules, MJ, Hadestown e Back to the Future. Já Rafael Nogueira conta sobre sua viagem ao Rio de Janeiro para conferir Hair e Tick, Tick… Boom!Dê o play e venha ouvir esse bate-papo cheio de teatro musical! Ajude o Musical Cast se manter vivo! Contribua no Catarse e assine nosso conteúdo. https://www.catarse.me/musicalcast

Tonight's bedtime story is The Three Golden Apples - an adaptation of a Greek myth by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was first published in 1851 in his collection of stories called "A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys". A retelling of a Greek myth featuring the hero Hercules and his quest to retrieve three golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides.Support the podcast and enjoy ad-free and bonus episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts. For other podcast platforms go to https://justsleeppodcast.com/supportOr, you can support with a one time donation at buymeacoffee.com/justsleeppodOrder your copy of the Just Sleep book! https://www.justsleeppodcast.com/book/If you like this episode, please remember to follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite podcast app. Also, share with any family or friends that might have trouble drifting off.Goodnight! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Toon'd In!, Jim Cummings welcomes the legendary and masterfully expressive Andreas Deja! Renowned as one of Disney's most iconic animators, Andreas brings a treasure trove of stories, insights, and artistic passion to a conversation that's equal parts inspiring and nostalgic.From bringing to life some of animation's most unforgettable villains—like the menacing Scar in The Lion King and the flamboyant Jafar in Aladdin—to shaping beloved heroes like Hercules, Andreas takes us deep into the heart of hand-drawn animation. He and Jim dive into the craft of character performance through pencil and paper, the delicate balance between artistry and storytelling, and the evolution of animation from golden age traditions to modern-day innovations.

The Hercules Federal First Credit Union Salt Lake County Player of the Week for Week 3 of the 2025 Utah High School football season was Corner Canyon High School quarterback Helaman Casuga.

Welcome to the first installment of our Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We explore Katniss Everdeen as a heroine whose personality type makes her both powerful and vulnerable, how Peeta functions as a unique male main character (MMC), and why the series' themes of power, media, and survival feel even more relevant today than when the books were first released. This is part 2 of this week's episode. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: ⁠https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/⁠  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dive deep into the astrological sixth house with medical astrologer Kira Sutherland as she unpacks the fascinating connection between health, routine, and mythology. This episode reveals how this often-overlooked house serves as the critical integration point between our personal journey and our relationships with others.The conversation weaves through mythology, with Artemis emerging as the powerful sixth house archetype – self-contained, knowledgeable, and deeply connected to healing wisdom. Kira explains why Mars finds its joy here, illuminating how our health requires the same disciplined effort as Hercules' twelve labors. You'll discover the profound relationship between the sixth house (acute illness and preventative health) and its opposition, the twelfth house (chronic conditions and necessary rest).Perhaps most fascinating is the sixth house's rulership of the small intestine – the organ that literally decides what becomes part of us and what doesn't. This perfect metaphor extends through modern discoveries about the gut-brain axis, confirming ancient astrological wisdom about body-mind connection. The discussion also explores how pets fall under sixth house domain, creating routine and requiring service while teaching us about care cycles.Whether you're an astrology enthusiast, health-conscious seeker, or mythology lover, this episode offers rich insights into the daily rhythms that sustain well-being. Kira's expertise in both natural medicine and astrology creates a holistic perspective that will transform how you understand your own health practices. Listen now to discover how the sixth house might be influencing your life, and learn practical wisdom for working with these energies more consciously.* The above episode description was generated by Buzzsprout AIDiscover more about Kira Sutherland at astrologyofhealth.com.Podcast Musician: Marlia CoeurPlease consider becoming a Patron to support the show!Go to OnTheSoulsTerms.com for more.

Fully Compatible.In 3 parts, by Member389. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. The next morning he had the hood up on Ellie's car and had tried turning it over a couple times, and the starter took, but it didn't want to fire. He looked into the possible problems and everything looked in good shape, so he figured he'd look up the symptoms online and most pointed to the fuel filter, so he made a quick rundown the parts store and picked up a new one. That seemed to do the trick, once it was installed he was able to start her car several times without any problem.Ellie came trotting down the stairs with a plate and mug. She walked up to Luke and leaned in fast and gave him a kiss. "Thank you! What was wrong?""Fuel filter, I replaced it and now it's turning over first try.""Hungry? I got up earlier than I thought so I baked banana bread."He smiled. "Absolutely, let me go wash the gas off my hands.""Here, this will make sure you come back." She broke off a piece and fed it to him. As he hummed his appreciation."You think that's all that will have me coming back? Remind me to fix the mirror in your bathroom." He leaned in and kissed her again. "That is awesome banana bread though." He grinned as he jogged into the house. He came back out to find her sitting on the hood of her car, half the slice she'd brought out was gone."Do you drink coffee?" She asked, and he nodded. "Guess I should refill this then, huh?" She chuckled. "If you hadn't taken so long to wash up you might have gotten this cup. Come on up, and I'll slice some more of this awesome bread.""Isn't this how the spider lures the fly into its web?" He chuckled."Can spiders even make banana bread? I can assure you that I'll never trap you, but as my dad used to say, 'If you want the honey, you gotta deal with the bees.' I think he meant that you have to take a chance on the bad stuff to get to the really good stuff.""Sounds like a good philosophy. I'm kind of scared though. What's the bad stuff?" He paused for a moment."Have you always been such a deep thinker?" She asked."I used to get called out by my mom for being introverted and quiet. She was always trying to get me out of my shell." He shrugged and smiled. "But quiet doesn't mean stupid.""I never thought it did." She refilled the mug with coffee and added sugar and milk, and sliced off a fresh slice for him and brought it to him."What about you Luke? Are you willing to brave the bees to get the honey?" She asked."I've only been called a coward once, by you.""I called you a chicken, not the same thing." She grinned."So; what are we doing today?" Luke just smiled and drank his coffee."Jeans, comfortable shoes for walking, and a sweatshirt. That's all you get for now. We should head out early, maybe 2:30 or 3. Is that okay with you?""Are we; becoming a 'thing'?" He asked her. The genuine innocence was so sweet."Well we've only been hanging out a few weeks, but so far so good." She smiled, and noted that she'd been smiling a lot around him. That was a good sign too.She was excited and curious. She'd gladly go where ever he wanted right now. She had a quick realization, that her little seduction of Luke was backfiring and without him even trying she was being seduced by him as well. "Do I need to bring anything? Water, snacks?" She asked pushing for a hint."No we'll stop at the store on the way." He smirked popping the last bit of bread into his mouth, washing it down with the rest of the coffee. "Oh, I have something of yours too. I'll bring it up when I come to pick you up." She gave him a questioning look. "Don't look so innocent. I turned redder than your satin top when my dad pulled your panties out of my back pocket last night."Ellie bust out laughing. "I was wondering where they'd gone to. I thought you'd pocketed them you pervert.""Oh no! I know now that when you grabbed my ass last night you stuffed them in my pocket! You were hoping I'd get caught weren't you?"Ellie had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard. She didn't have a clue but Luke was hooked now. He had never seen her look more beautiful."No, oh my god no. I did sneak them in there, but not for that reason. I figured they'd be a nice little memento of our first date.""I thought tonight was going to be our first date?" He asked curiously."Well I couldn't wait. I invited you to dinner last night, as far as I'm concerned that was our first date." She leaned on her fist smiling at him. "How was it?"He looked at her wide-eyed, slack jawed. She leaned forward and slipped her tongue between his parted lips and they kissed deeply. "It was fun wasn't it?" She asked hoping for a little reassurance."It was fantastic." He whispered urgently and kissed her again. "I'll see you in a couple hours." He gave her another kiss then stood and left looking over his shoulder at her beaming back at him. He smiled as he headed down into the house to spend a little time knocking off schoolwork before going out for the night.He knocked on her door at 2:30 sharp. She called out for him to come in. He heard close the closet door, and she popped out of the bedroom in jeans and a black turtleneck. She held her arms out. "Is this okay?" She asked."Perfect." He smiled. They headed down to his car and once again he opened the door for her letting her settle in before he closed it. He hopped into the driver's seat and they were on their way. He drove out to the shopping center and pulled into a space at the grocery store."When you were a kid, what were the things you remember most about holiday meals. What was that one thing you couldn't wait for?" He asked, he tilted his head indicating they were going inside."This is a first, a date at the supermarket." She chuckled."Seriously. Was there something special that you only had at that time of the year but not usually any other.""Mashed potatoes with a lot of butter and pepper. Oh and my mom only used to make that string bean casserole at holidays. I love that too. Pie is a given, pumpkin and pecan, I'd have both." She smiled."Good, good to know. He grabbed a basket and they started wandering around the store and he picked up the makings of the casserole. A couple boxes of instant mashed potatoes, and some canned gravy. He found canned pumpkin and put some of that in the basket. "What else?" Ellie gave him a curious look trying to figure out what he was doing."Well, she used to make glazed carrots too. If we were lucky, relatives from up north would send her a bottle of real maple syrup, otherwise she would make it from butter and brown sugar. That was awesome." He found carrots and put several cans in the basket as well."Anything else?""Scrabble, well that's what we called it. The rest of the world knows it as party mix with the cereal and pretzels baked with seasoned salt and our secret weapon, Worcestershire sauce." Luke found the cereal aisle and grabbed the ingredients, and made his way to the chip aisle and found pretzels to go with it stating that they always had pretzels and mixed nuts in theirs. He looked down and seemed to be counting."Okay, first thing that comes to your mind when I say, comfort food.""Mac and cheese." She said, and he grinned."Good choice." He stocked up on the blue boxes."Are we stocking a fallout shelter?" She said nervously. He chuckled."You didn't see the big hole we've dug in the back yard?" Ellie just rolled her eyes and grinned, she knew this had to be going somewhere and she was getting more curious. They made their way to the front and got in line at the check-out filling a couple of the re-usable shopping bags with their groceries. He stowed all the groceries in the trunk and held the door open for Ellie once again. They were on the road again heading out of town."Okay, you've got me. I haven't got a clue what we're doing." She giggled. Nearly twenty minutes later Luke turned down a side road following a sign pointing out a fairground entrance. A few miles down the tree lined road the area opened up to fields filled with cars and signs for the county fall harvest festival. He made his way carefully up the dirt path and finding someone directing the parking."But why the store?" She smiled as he handed her the lightest of the grocery bags. They walked towards the gate and she saw the truck and tables. A sign indicating donations for the holiday food pantry in lieu of admission to the park could be made there. Ellie grinned at Luke, finally realizing his plan. They brought the bags up to one of the tables and the older couple behind thanked them and asked how many items they had brought. Luke told them twenty-seven, ten per ticket had been requested. "We went a little crazy remembering what we loved about holiday dinners and lost count." The lady fawned over them while her husband took the bags back to a sorting area near the truck, and thanked them. They took their tickets and went into the fair.They wandered through the attractions. Luke showed off his prowess for carnival games and won Ellie a stuffed tiger. They wandered through the exhibits, marveling at the giant pumpkins and petting the cute animals. They found the food vendors and ate everything that was bad for them, but you only go to the fair once a year, so they indulged. There was even a concert that night and they sat in the grandstand listening to the band. Ellie was glad he told her to bring a sweatshirt because it had turned cooler as the sun went down. She hardly noticed as they sat there with their arms around one another. He rubbed her back as she held him tight."Why didn't you just tell me about the food drive?" She asked."I didn't want you to think I was trying to impress you." He paused. "My folks were pretty lucky. They both had good jobs and made a good living. We've never wanted for anything. Well there was this one time I wanted a dirt bike and they said no, but that wasn't because of the money. I think they just wanted me to live to be twelve at the very least. They never let me get jaded, you know, they always wanted me to know there were people who didn't have. They were much more subtle than the usual, 'Eat your broccoli, kids are starving in Africa' parents. Hell, I never realized that some of those less fortunate families were kids I went to school with until years later. Giving back is just something they taught me to do. Besides it seemed more fun that way." Luke smiled down at her. "I got to tease you for a change.""Well, it didn't work.""Huh?""I'm impressed anyway." She smiled. "You spent almost twice the cost of those tickets filling those bags."After the last song finished a loud whistle screamed out followed by a loud boom. Fireworks had started behind the stage and they sat and watched them arm in arm. Ellie laid her head on his shoulder as they watched, both occasionally jumping at the explosions.Ellie had taken hold of Luke's hand as they made their way home down the dark winding roads. She massaged it with her thumb rubbing in slow circles."Thanks, I had a great time." She said softly. She could make out his grin by the dash lights."Me too." He gave her hand a squeeze."Luke? When I asked the other night if you've ever made out before, you said you hadn't. Have you ever had a girlfriend? I mean, have you ever had sex?" Her voice was soft but with an inquisitive edge to it. His hand flexed a few times in hers."No." He replied with a nearly silent sigh."Any reason?" She pressed. "It can't be that you've never had a chance. You must have had to beat the girls away with a stick in high school." A soft giggle followed the comment."I was pretty quiet, I didn't have a lot of friends." He shrugged. Neither spoke the rest of the way home. Ellie had laid his hand on her lap and continued to rub it gently, and he rubbed her leg through her jeans. They pulled into the drive and parked. With all the lights off in the car Ellie slid his hand further up her thigh, and leaned over to kiss him. She was eager and let it be known in her kiss and he responded in kind gripping her thigh tightly."Would you walk me up?" She asked pulling away from his lips reluctantly. He got out and walked around to her door opening it. She stood, looked into his eyes and took his hand and led him up the stairs. "Would you like to come in?" She wasn't sure if she needed to coax him but he was already in the doorway closing it behind him. A faint smile came to her lips and she tried to hide it. He returned the little smirk in kind. "There's a bottle of wine in the fridge. Why don't you open it up, and I'll be right back." She bit her lip and smiled backing her way to the bedroom. She was giddy because she knew she would have him tonight. She undressed and replaced her every day underthings with the yellow lingerie she bought the day they went shopping together, and dressed again. She wanted to see his face as he peeled her out of her clothes.She entered the room and Luke stood up. "Who taught him this stuff?" Ellie wondered. She turned off the overhead light and put on a small table lamp. They sat down on the sofa, Ellie leaned into him pulling her legs up beneath her."Did you really you have a good time tonight?" He asked. Ellie chuckled and looked him in the eyes. Her smile slipped away as she leaned in to kiss him deeply."The night's not over yet." She whispered.Luke's nervousness was slipping away as he and Ellie began kissing in earnest. He leaned back pulling her on top of him as their hands began to roam over each other. His hand slid up her back slowly lifting the hem of her shirt, he sent shivers up her spine as he caressed her skin. She joined in and reached between them and unbuttoned his shirt pulling it free of his jeans and ran her hand up his t-shirt playing with his nipple.Ellie broke free of his warm lips and came up to a kneel between his legs, and looked down at him as she crossed her arms lifting her turtleneck up and over her head. She shook her hair out as she tossed the shirt onto a side chair and smiled down at him. She grinned showing off the little yellow lace bra, which made him smile. Luke reached up and grasped the front of her jeans pulling her off balance and back onto his chest in a flurry of giggles. His hands not only roamed her back, but now slid between them as he ran his palm up her bra eliciting a soft moan as he massage her breasts through the fabric."The clasp is in back." She said in a clear invitation. Using his other hand he reached down between her legs and dragged her higher up his body, placing her breast within easy reach of him. Rather than unsnap the band he slipped the strap off her shoulder and pulled the cup down revealing smooth white skin and puckered pink nipple to his hungry mouth. He kissed it gently, causing Ellie to gasp as his tongue ran lazy circles around the tip causing it to get even harder. Her breathing was short and quick. She pulled away from his agonizing teasing, placing her forehead against his, and closed her eyes."I don't know if you want this, but I do. Would you take me to bed and make love to me Luke?"He looked her in the eyes for a moment thinking it would be his pleasure. Her eyes closed for a moment, when she opened them, he felt himself fall into their depths, and he was gone. He kissed her deeply.She stood shakily, Luke reached for her steadying her. She smiled as she took his hand and pulled him up too. He wrapped his arms around her taking her mouth with his again. He fumbled a few times with the hook of her bra. She smiled."Don't worry, practice makes perfect.""I hope I get a lot of practice then."She walked backwards pulling him with her into the bedroom. She reached down and unbuttoned her jeans turning and giving her ass a little wiggle as she pushed them off showing her yellow lace panties, which thanks to the heavy petting on the couch were now quite damp. She kicked them aside and turned back to Luke who just stood there staring, his mouth hanging open. She smiled and pushed his unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders and down his arms. He reached to take off the tee, and she stopped him."Allow me."She lifted the hem of the shirt and ran her hands up his chest and sides lifting the shirt with it."You don't know how much I wanted to do this yesterday morning when you answered the door." She smiled as she stroked his nipples with her thumbs. "I want you to know how good this feels." She said leaning forward and taking one into her mouth swirling her tongue and flicking it.Luke's breathing got shallow a fast. She took it between her teeth, giving just a light tug before letting it free.Luke gasped at the sensation. She pushed the shirt up and he raised his arms letting her pull it off completely."Damn do you look good without a shirt on." She said."You look pretty fantastic without one too." He replied smiling. They kissed again, their bare chests touching for the first time sent shocks through them both. The heat they were building was intense and made the room feel cool in comparison. He felt hands on his belt fiddling with it to get it loose, soon his jeans were unbuttoned and the zipper slid down. Her hand slid down inside massaging the length of him through his boxers."Hmm , that feels nice." She mumbled into his kiss."It's not very;” She halted him with a firmly planted kiss."Enough of that, you've been watching too much porn." She giggled. "Remember, the pyramids were built with hand tools, it's not the size of your tool, it's how you use it." That made Luke chuckle. She began kissing her way down his chest and stomach and eventually knelt in front of him. She reached up and tugged the jeans down to his knees seeing his boxers strain to contain his hardness. She peered up at Luke from under a fallen lock of hair as she reached slowly for the waistband. She pulled down slowly, revealing it finally. Slowly a grin crept across her face as she looked up again."It's perfect." She said biting her lip. She looked down at it, he wasn't huge, but he was above average. She couldn't wait to have him inside her. She peeked up again. "Mind if I take the edge off for you?" Luke just tilted his head wondering what she meant just as she leaned forward and took him into her mouth.Luke let out a gasp as her lips engulfed him. It's a wonder his knees didn't buckle and land him on the floor. She started slowly taking a little more in with each stroke. She let him free and licked the length of him. He was gasping for air, she knew he wouldn't last, & decided to bring him some relief. She began bobbing her head while stroking him bringing him to the brink."Ellie! I'm.." He didn't get the words out by the time she felt the rush hit the back of her throat. She swallowed quickly hoping she could keep up."I'm sorry! Oh, shit." Luke said looking down at her. As she continued to lick and suck him."Well I'm not. Now that the edge is off we can take our time." She gave him a last lick to clean the tip. "I'm torn between wanting to instruct you and letting you discover on your own. Is there anything you've seen that you've wanted to try?"Luke's expression changed from horror to astonishment. Was this beautiful girl kneeling in front of him. Giving free reign to his sexual fantasies? He reached down taking her elbow and lifted her up so she was standing again, and quickly kicked the rest of his clothing free. Ellie turned and went to the bed pulled back the covers and laid down and looked at him expectantly."Why am I naked and you've still got those on?" He said nodding at her lacy yellow panties.She grinned. "It's because you haven't taken them off yet." She snickered. "Though maybe I should do that myself before you pilfer all of my panties."Luke grinned and walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed, and reached for the waistband, he gave a quick peek up at her, she just straightened out and lifted her hips off the mattress giving him the go ahead to slip them off. They released from her hips and as he pulled them from between her thighs the moisture held them in place for a moment as he pulled them free, sliding them down her legs."They're soaking." He said surprised.Ellie rolled her eyes a bit and smirked. "You have a, uh, certain effect on me. What can I say?" She sat up leaning into his kiss. "Have you thought about it, or shall I take the lead?""I want to taste you." He said in a whisper. She kissed him deeply."Well you know what I taste like up here. Why not explore a little." She said in a deep voice he'd never heard her use before.He did just that, working his way down her neck leaving a trail of kisses that caused her to sigh deeply. Then laid a trail to her breasts taking an excruciatingly long time to take her nipple into his mouth.She moaned a little deeper and ran a hand through his hair while her other found his still hard cock and massaged it slowly not wanting him to go off in her hand.He lavished attention on her breasts for a while, and Ellie began to wonder if he'd go any further so she gently pulled herself up causing his mouth to land on her rib cage, hoping that would be incentive to continue south. It worked, he made his way down her stomach giving her belly button a little lick causing her to giggle. She gave his hair a tug to get him to stop.He hesitated as he made his way down over her smooth skin kissing his way around, dragging his tongue slowly nearly torturing her. He slipped around pushing her legs apart and lay between her raised knees. He leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue teasing its way up her swollen pink lips causing Ellie to gasp and grip his hair a little tighter. It took all of her reserve to not pull him down into her, as she relaxed her grip he began to explore and he took the cues she gave him very well, as she leaned in and lifted. He was very attentive and gentle, almost too gentle as her climax neared she moaned a little louder, a little quicker.Luke surprised her by slipping a finger into her molten core and taking her clit between his lips causing her to cry out and arch up as she peaked quickly. After a couple minutes of panting she lifted Luke's head by his hair from the task of cleaning up the mess he'd made of her."You've never done that before?" She asked, an edge in her voice.He just looked at her in wide-eyed innocence and shook his head back and forth."Did I do something wrong?" He asked, suddenly worried. She just fell back and laughed."No, you did everything right, that's why I wondered."Luke crawled up beside her and she looked over at his sweet face lacquered in her own honey.She leaned over and kissed him, tasting herself on his tongue. "Listen. I'm on the pill, but I want you to wear a condom anyway. A girl can never be too safe." Luke's eyes went wide."Shit, I don't have any. I mean; I never."Ellie giggled and reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a little foil packet. "It's a good thing I was hoping this would happen and prepared for it."Luke's eyes went wide."Oh seriously. Guys can be as thick as bricks sometimes. I've been practically throwing myself at you since I moved in, Luke. Hasn't it been obvious?""Well I just thought you were being friendly, and well a bit of a flirt. I didn't think any more of it until last night." He shrugged."You surprised me with the stakes of that Jenga game." She smiled. "I'm glad I lost.""I'm glad you did too." He grinned."Lay back." She put the packet to her teeth and tore it open. "See how it's rolled. Place it at the tip, and unroll it like this, and voila. Mr. Happy is now properly dressed for the ball." Ellie looked down at it, and her smile faded into a look of need as she looked up at Luke. "Let me." She placed a hand on his chest as she rose up and threw a leg over his body and straddled his hips. She took his length and ran it against her before settling gently down on it. She let out a gasp as he entered her slowly.Luke lay back taking short quick breaths wanting badly to raise his hips and drive himself into her.Ellie was in control of the moment, a hand firmly on his chest as she lowered herself further, as she took him in she sped up burying him into her completely causing them both to cry out."Oh that feels nice!" She said as she clenched down on him causing him to gasp again. She rose up slowly causing her own deep moan. She rode him for several strokes as he took hold of her hips getting into the rhythm of her body. She pressed herself down on him and leaned forward and kissed him. "Luke?""Hmm?""Roll me onto my back and fuck me good and hard." She said biting his lip.He smiled as he wrapped an arm around her and rolled over taking her with him.She adjusted quickly and her legs went around him rocking her hips to get him to start.He was a quick study, and he began thrusting into her in long deep strokes as he attacked her mouth and neck."Harder!" She urged. "Don't stop!"He had no intention of stopping if anything he was scared he was hurting her as the sound of their flesh meeting, repeatedly rang throughout the room."Yes!" Ellie cried repeatedly. He felt his climax approaching again. Ellie began to shudder under him as she let out a series of high pitched moans, he knew then he couldn't hold out any longer and pushed hard into her releasing as she gripped down on him. He collapsed unable to hold himself up any longer.They lay there gasping for breath for a long while when Ellie leaned over and whispered into Luke's ear, in a little sing-song way. "Guess who's not a virgin now?" She kissed his cheek as she heard him laughing into her shoulder."What now?" He asked."Well, first thing you may want to do is go and tie off your little goody bag and trash it." She said. She looked deeply into his eyes. "Will you stay with me tonight?" She asked.He didn't know why but Luke's throat tightened. He looked into her dark eyes, a feeling of falling into them washed over him."Yes." He whispered. "I hope you don't snore though, I'm a light sleeper." He grinned.They both busted out laughing as he rose to go clean up. When he came back the bed had been remade, Ellie lay there wearing his t-shirt which was enticingly short, her long supple legs leading up to the hem, it was obvious that she hadn't bothered with putting her panties back on. He turned off the light and crawled in beside her, they kissed, and explored as they fell asleep.Deep in the night they stirred, this time Luke took her slowly. She looked up, the faint light of a streetlight limned his body. Soft moans and whispers broke the peace as they concluded their lovemaking. The quiet enveloped them as they drifted off again.The rumble of the door opener in the garage woke Luke. His head popped up realizing he wasn't in his room. He looked down quickly and found shining brown eyes smiling up at him."Good morning."The blanket had pulled down and Ellie's breasts were in full view."Pardon the morning breath." He said as he kissed her. "You lost your shirt."She giggled. "More like you peeled it off in the middle of the night.""Oh shit!" He grimaced, looking at her neck."What?""I'm sorry. I had no idea." A panicked look settled on his face."What?!" She started to panic, and she noticed he was looking at her neck. She bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom. A moment later she busted out laughing. "I look like I was attacked by a gang of vampires." She came back out smiling. "Good thing I like turtlenecks."Luke was somewhat relieved but still worried. "I'm sorry!" He said again concerned that she'd be mad at him for looking like she'd been beaten."You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about." She leaned forward kissing him quickly. "Except maybe waking me up with this a couple times over the last few hours." She said reaching under the blanket and grasping his hard cock. "Let me check I may have a spare toothbrush, unless you want to run down and grab yours." She grinned. "Sounds like your dad just left.""Yea I'm guessing he went to breakfast without me." He smirked. "We like this place in town, it has a large glassed in dining room like a greenhouse. On Sundays they do a jazz brunch." He looked over at the clock noting it was much later than he usually woke.Ellie smirked. "Well we did have quite a workout last night. It's to be expected.""Let me text him. If we hurry we can join him." Luke said. "If you'd like to, I mean.""I'm torn between having my way with you yet again, but we'll have plenty of time later. I'd love breakfast. Let me go clean up and find a way to hide the damage. You brute!""I should probably grab a clean shirt, & clean up myself. Jeans are fine." Luke grabbed his jeans pulling them on and pulling on his shirt and made a beeline for the door. He paused at the bottom of the steps to text his dad then made his way into the house to wash up and change. He bolted out of the house to find Ellie leaning against the garage."Guys, always taking forever to get ready." She shook her head. She looked absolutely radiant in the morning sunshine."What can I say. I don't just roll out of bed looking this good, it takes work you know."Ellie chuckled as she said. "Seeing first hand evidence to the contrary, I'm calling bullshit.""He said he'd just have coffee and wait for us."They walked into the restaurant and were directed to the table where he sat. Derek stood as they approached."Now I see where he gets it. Hi Mr. Page.""Please, call me Derek. What do you mean?"Ellie grinned as she sat down. "I've never seen a guy stand when I walk in the room, or hold the door for me like Luke does. It's nice.""Well chivalry never goes out of style." He smiled. "I ordered us the sticky buns, they should be out soon. They make their own here, and they're endless. Thankfully, after seeing how many of them Luke can eat." They all got a chuckle at that. Luke rolled his eyes."Did you kids have fun at the fair?""We had a blast." Ellie said beaming. "Hercules here won me a stuffed tiger, and everything."They chatted amiably about school, work and the jazz band group playing at the other end of the dining room."What are you doing for the holiday next week?" Derek asked her."I'm going back home for the weekend. My mother and my aunt own a bed & breakfast up on a lake. It's a huge old house which makes it perfect for everybody." Ellie said. "What about you boys?""Not much, we'll probably have dinner out and catch some football." Derek replied."No way! You don't have any family around here?""None nearby." Derek confirmed.Ellie gave them a shrewd look. "Do you work Friday?"Derek shook his head. She already knew Luke was free. She paused for a moment and excused herself to go find the ladies room."Those are some pretty nice shiners." Derek commented. "When she moves, a few of them peek up above the turtleneck." He grinned.Luke turned red. "Uh, yea. Well we went up to her place after we got home."Derek grinned held up his hand, and gave a little shake to his head. "No need to explain, you're both adults."They both stopped speaking and stood as Ellie walked back to the table putting her cellphone in her pocket. She smiled at both of them as she sat down again."You are both now busy for the Thanksgiving holiday. It would be my pleasure if you would join me next week at the Bed & Breakfast. They have satellite so you won't miss any football." She grinned."Thank you, but we couldn't impose." Derek said."It's no imposition, there will be guests there as well. I just called my aunt and asked if there was room and she said there are still plenty of rooms available for you to stay over. It's about an hour away, up near the state park on the west side." She smiled at him then looked at Luke. "Besides, I was going to try and drag him away with me. It doesn't seem fair to leave you all alone. I've already told her you would accept. No backing out now.""You're a regular fireball aren't you?" Derek grinned. "I guess I have no leave but to accept on my behalf. What about you, Luke. Think you can be persuaded to spend an entire weekend in country with a lovely lady?"Luke looked at Ellie grinning. "It'll be tough, but I think I'll manage." She raised an eyebrow slightly and nudged him in the shin with her toe. "Ow!"Derek chuckled deeply. Yes, Ellie was definitely the right choice, there was no doubt in his mind now. By Member389 for Literotica.

Fully Compatible.In 3 parts, by Member389. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. The next morning he had the hood up on Ellie's car and had tried turning it over a couple times, and the starter took, but it didn't want to fire. He looked into the possible problems and everything looked in good shape, so he figured he'd look up the symptoms online and most pointed to the fuel filter, so he made a quick rundown the parts store and picked up a new one. That seemed to do the trick, once it was installed he was able to start her car several times without any problem.Ellie came trotting down the stairs with a plate and mug. She walked up to Luke and leaned in fast and gave him a kiss. "Thank you! What was wrong?""Fuel filter, I replaced it and now it's turning over first try.""Hungry? I got up earlier than I thought so I baked banana bread."He smiled. "Absolutely, let me go wash the gas off my hands.""Here, this will make sure you come back." She broke off a piece and fed it to him. As he hummed his appreciation."You think that's all that will have me coming back? Remind me to fix the mirror in your bathroom." He leaned in and kissed her again. "That is awesome banana bread though." He grinned as he jogged into the house. He came back out to find her sitting on the hood of her car, half the slice she'd brought out was gone."Do you drink coffee?" She asked, and he nodded. "Guess I should refill this then, huh?" She chuckled. "If you hadn't taken so long to wash up you might have gotten this cup. Come on up, and I'll slice some more of this awesome bread.""Isn't this how the spider lures the fly into its web?" He chuckled."Can spiders even make banana bread? I can assure you that I'll never trap you, but as my dad used to say, 'If you want the honey, you gotta deal with the bees.' I think he meant that you have to take a chance on the bad stuff to get to the really good stuff.""Sounds like a good philosophy. I'm kind of scared though. What's the bad stuff?" He paused for a moment."Have you always been such a deep thinker?" She asked."I used to get called out by my mom for being introverted and quiet. She was always trying to get me out of my shell." He shrugged and smiled. "But quiet doesn't mean stupid.""I never thought it did." She refilled the mug with coffee and added sugar and milk, and sliced off a fresh slice for him and brought it to him."What about you Luke? Are you willing to brave the bees to get the honey?" She asked."I've only been called a coward once, by you.""I called you a chicken, not the same thing." She grinned."So; what are we doing today?" Luke just smiled and drank his coffee."Jeans, comfortable shoes for walking, and a sweatshirt. That's all you get for now. We should head out early, maybe 2:30 or 3. Is that okay with you?""Are we; becoming a 'thing'?" He asked her. The genuine innocence was so sweet."Well we've only been hanging out a few weeks, but so far so good." She smiled, and noted that she'd been smiling a lot around him. That was a good sign too.She was excited and curious. She'd gladly go where ever he wanted right now. She had a quick realization, that her little seduction of Luke was backfiring and without him even trying she was being seduced by him as well. "Do I need to bring anything? Water, snacks?" She asked pushing for a hint."No we'll stop at the store on the way." He smirked popping the last bit of bread into his mouth, washing it down with the rest of the coffee. "Oh, I have something of yours too. I'll bring it up when I come to pick you up." She gave him a questioning look. "Don't look so innocent. I turned redder than your satin top when my dad pulled your panties out of my back pocket last night."Ellie bust out laughing. "I was wondering where they'd gone to. I thought you'd pocketed them you pervert.""Oh no! I know now that when you grabbed my ass last night you stuffed them in my pocket! You were hoping I'd get caught weren't you?"Ellie had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard. She didn't have a clue but Luke was hooked now. He had never seen her look more beautiful."No, oh my god no. I did sneak them in there, but not for that reason. I figured they'd be a nice little memento of our first date.""I thought tonight was going to be our first date?" He asked curiously."Well I couldn't wait. I invited you to dinner last night, as far as I'm concerned that was our first date." She leaned on her fist smiling at him. "How was it?"He looked at her wide-eyed, slack jawed. She leaned forward and slipped her tongue between his parted lips and they kissed deeply. "It was fun wasn't it?" She asked hoping for a little reassurance."It was fantastic." He whispered urgently and kissed her again. "I'll see you in a couple hours." He gave her another kiss then stood and left looking over his shoulder at her beaming back at him. He smiled as he headed down into the house to spend a little time knocking off schoolwork before going out for the night.He knocked on her door at 2:30 sharp. She called out for him to come in. He heard close the closet door, and she popped out of the bedroom in jeans and a black turtleneck. She held her arms out. "Is this okay?" She asked."Perfect." He smiled. They headed down to his car and once again he opened the door for her letting her settle in before he closed it. He hopped into the driver's seat and they were on their way. He drove out to the shopping center and pulled into a space at the grocery store."When you were a kid, what were the things you remember most about holiday meals. What was that one thing you couldn't wait for?" He asked, he tilted his head indicating they were going inside."This is a first, a date at the supermarket." She chuckled."Seriously. Was there something special that you only had at that time of the year but not usually any other.""Mashed potatoes with a lot of butter and pepper. Oh and my mom only used to make that string bean casserole at holidays. I love that too. Pie is a given, pumpkin and pecan, I'd have both." She smiled."Good, good to know. He grabbed a basket and they started wandering around the store and he picked up the makings of the casserole. A couple boxes of instant mashed potatoes, and some canned gravy. He found canned pumpkin and put some of that in the basket. "What else?" Ellie gave him a curious look trying to figure out what he was doing."Well, she used to make glazed carrots too. If we were lucky, relatives from up north would send her a bottle of real maple syrup, otherwise she would make it from butter and brown sugar. That was awesome." He found carrots and put several cans in the basket as well."Anything else?""Scrabble, well that's what we called it. The rest of the world knows it as party mix with the cereal and pretzels baked with seasoned salt and our secret weapon, Worcestershire sauce." Luke found the cereal aisle and grabbed the ingredients, and made his way to the chip aisle and found pretzels to go with it stating that they always had pretzels and mixed nuts in theirs. He looked down and seemed to be counting."Okay, first thing that comes to your mind when I say, comfort food.""Mac and cheese." She said, and he grinned."Good choice." He stocked up on the blue boxes."Are we stocking a fallout shelter?" She said nervously. He chuckled."You didn't see the big hole we've dug in the back yard?" Ellie just rolled her eyes and grinned, she knew this had to be going somewhere and she was getting more curious. They made their way to the front and got in line at the check-out filling a couple of the re-usable shopping bags with their groceries. He stowed all the groceries in the trunk and held the door open for Ellie once again. They were on the road again heading out of town."Okay, you've got me. I haven't got a clue what we're doing." She giggled. Nearly twenty minutes later Luke turned down a side road following a sign pointing out a fairground entrance. A few miles down the tree lined road the area opened up to fields filled with cars and signs for the county fall harvest festival. He made his way carefully up the dirt path and finding someone directing the parking."But why the store?" She smiled as he handed her the lightest of the grocery bags. They walked towards the gate and she saw the truck and tables. A sign indicating donations for the holiday food pantry in lieu of admission to the park could be made there. Ellie grinned at Luke, finally realizing his plan. They brought the bags up to one of the tables and the older couple behind thanked them and asked how many items they had brought. Luke told them twenty-seven, ten per ticket had been requested. "We went a little crazy remembering what we loved about holiday dinners and lost count." The lady fawned over them while her husband took the bags back to a sorting area near the truck, and thanked them. They took their tickets and went into the fair.They wandered through the attractions. Luke showed off his prowess for carnival games and won Ellie a stuffed tiger. They wandered through the exhibits, marveling at the giant pumpkins and petting the cute animals. They found the food vendors and ate everything that was bad for them, but you only go to the fair once a year, so they indulged. There was even a concert that night and they sat in the grandstand listening to the band. Ellie was glad he told her to bring a sweatshirt because it had turned cooler as the sun went down. She hardly noticed as they sat there with their arms around one another. He rubbed her back as she held him tight."Why didn't you just tell me about the food drive?" She asked."I didn't want you to think I was trying to impress you." He paused. "My folks were pretty lucky. They both had good jobs and made a good living. We've never wanted for anything. Well there was this one time I wanted a dirt bike and they said no, but that wasn't because of the money. I think they just wanted me to live to be twelve at the very least. They never let me get jaded, you know, they always wanted me to know there were people who didn't have. They were much more subtle than the usual, 'Eat your broccoli, kids are starving in Africa' parents. Hell, I never realized that some of those less fortunate families were kids I went to school with until years later. Giving back is just something they taught me to do. Besides it seemed more fun that way." Luke smiled down at her. "I got to tease you for a change.""Well, it didn't work.""Huh?""I'm impressed anyway." She smiled. "You spent almost twice the cost of those tickets filling those bags."After the last song finished a loud whistle screamed out followed by a loud boom. Fireworks had started behind the stage and they sat and watched them arm in arm. Ellie laid her head on his shoulder as they watched, both occasionally jumping at the explosions.Ellie had taken hold of Luke's hand as they made their way home down the dark winding roads. She massaged it with her thumb rubbing in slow circles."Thanks, I had a great time." She said softly. She could make out his grin by the dash lights."Me too." He gave her hand a squeeze."Luke? When I asked the other night if you've ever made out before, you said you hadn't. Have you ever had a girlfriend? I mean, have you ever had sex?" Her voice was soft but with an inquisitive edge to it. His hand flexed a few times in hers."No." He replied with a nearly silent sigh."Any reason?" She pressed. "It can't be that you've never had a chance. You must have had to beat the girls away with a stick in high school." A soft giggle followed the comment."I was pretty quiet, I didn't have a lot of friends." He shrugged. Neither spoke the rest of the way home. Ellie had laid his hand on her lap and continued to rub it gently, and he rubbed her leg through her jeans. They pulled into the drive and parked. With all the lights off in the car Ellie slid his hand further up her thigh, and leaned over to kiss him. She was eager and let it be known in her kiss and he responded in kind gripping her thigh tightly."Would you walk me up?" She asked pulling away from his lips reluctantly. He got out and walked around to her door opening it. She stood, looked into his eyes and took his hand and led him up the stairs. "Would you like to come in?" She wasn't sure if she needed to coax him but he was already in the doorway closing it behind him. A faint smile came to her lips and she tried to hide it. He returned the little smirk in kind. "There's a bottle of wine in the fridge. Why don't you open it up, and I'll be right back." She bit her lip and smiled backing her way to the bedroom. She was giddy because she knew she would have him tonight. She undressed and replaced her every day underthings with the yellow lingerie she bought the day they went shopping together, and dressed again. She wanted to see his face as he peeled her out of her clothes.She entered the room and Luke stood up. "Who taught him this stuff?" Ellie wondered. She turned off the overhead light and put on a small table lamp. They sat down on the sofa, Ellie leaned into him pulling her legs up beneath her."Did you really you have a good time tonight?" He asked. Ellie chuckled and looked him in the eyes. Her smile slipped away as she leaned in to kiss him deeply."The night's not over yet." She whispered.Luke's nervousness was slipping away as he and Ellie began kissing in earnest. He leaned back pulling her on top of him as their hands began to roam over each other. His hand slid up her back slowly lifting the hem of her shirt, he sent shivers up her spine as he caressed her skin. She joined in and reached between them and unbuttoned his shirt pulling it free of his jeans and ran her hand up his t-shirt playing with his nipple.Ellie broke free of his warm lips and came up to a kneel between his legs, and looked down at him as she crossed her arms lifting her turtleneck up and over her head. She shook her hair out as she tossed the shirt onto a side chair and smiled down at him. She grinned showing off the little yellow lace bra, which made him smile. Luke reached up and grasped the front of her jeans pulling her off balance and back onto his chest in a flurry of giggles. His hands not only roamed her back, but now slid between them as he ran his palm up her bra eliciting a soft moan as he massage her breasts through the fabric."The clasp is in back." She said in a clear invitation. Using his other hand he reached down between her legs and dragged her higher up his body, placing her breast within easy reach of him. Rather than unsnap the band he slipped the strap off her shoulder and pulled the cup down revealing smooth white skin and puckered pink nipple to his hungry mouth. He kissed it gently, causing Ellie to gasp as his tongue ran lazy circles around the tip causing it to get even harder. Her breathing was short and quick. She pulled away from his agonizing teasing, placing her forehead against his, and closed her eyes."I don't know if you want this, but I do. Would you take me to bed and make love to me Luke?"He looked her in the eyes for a moment thinking it would be his pleasure. Her eyes closed for a moment, when she opened them, he felt himself fall into their depths, and he was gone. He kissed her deeply.She stood shakily, Luke reached for her steadying her. She smiled as she took his hand and pulled him up too. He wrapped his arms around her taking her mouth with his again. He fumbled a few times with the hook of her bra. She smiled."Don't worry, practice makes perfect.""I hope I get a lot of practice then."She walked backwards pulling him with her into the bedroom. She reached down and unbuttoned her jeans turning and giving her ass a little wiggle as she pushed them off showing her yellow lace panties, which thanks to the heavy petting on the couch were now quite damp. She kicked them aside and turned back to Luke who just stood there staring, his mouth hanging open. She smiled and pushed his unbuttoned shirt off his shoulders and down his arms. He reached to take off the tee, and she stopped him."Allow me."She lifted the hem of the shirt and ran her hands up his chest and sides lifting the shirt with it."You don't know how much I wanted to do this yesterday morning when you answered the door." She smiled as she stroked his nipples with her thumbs. "I want you to know how good this feels." She said leaning forward and taking one into her mouth swirling her tongue and flicking it.Luke's breathing got shallow a fast. She took it between her teeth, giving just a light tug before letting it free.Luke gasped at the sensation. She pushed the shirt up and he raised his arms letting her pull it off completely."Damn do you look good without a shirt on." She said."You look pretty fantastic without one too." He replied smiling. They kissed again, their bare chests touching for the first time sent shocks through them both. The heat they were building was intense and made the room feel cool in comparison. He felt hands on his belt fiddling with it to get it loose, soon his jeans were unbuttoned and the zipper slid down. Her hand slid down inside massaging the length of him through his boxers."Hmm , that feels nice." She mumbled into his kiss."It's not very;” She halted him with a firmly planted kiss."Enough of that, you've been watching too much porn." She giggled. "Remember, the pyramids were built with hand tools, it's not the size of your tool, it's how you use it." That made Luke chuckle. She began kissing her way down his chest and stomach and eventually knelt in front of him. She reached up and tugged the jeans down to his knees seeing his boxers strain to contain his hardness. She peered up at Luke from under a fallen lock of hair as she reached slowly for the waistband. She pulled down slowly, revealing it finally. Slowly a grin crept across her face as she looked up again."It's perfect." She said biting her lip. She looked down at it, he wasn't huge, but he was above average. She couldn't wait to have him inside her. She peeked up again. "Mind if I take the edge off for you?" Luke just tilted his head wondering what she meant just as she leaned forward and took him into her mouth.Luke let out a gasp as her lips engulfed him. It's a wonder his knees didn't buckle and land him on the floor. She started slowly taking a little more in with each stroke. She let him free and licked the length of him. He was gasping for air, she knew he wouldn't last, & decided to bring him some relief. She began bobbing her head while stroking him bringing him to the brink."Ellie! I'm.." He didn't get the words out by the time she felt the rush hit the back of her throat. She swallowed quickly hoping she could keep up."I'm sorry! Oh, shit." Luke said looking down at her. As she continued to lick and suck him."Well I'm not. Now that the edge is off we can take our time." She gave him a last lick to clean the tip. "I'm torn between wanting to instruct you and letting you discover on your own. Is there anything you've seen that you've wanted to try?"Luke's expression changed from horror to astonishment. Was this beautiful girl kneeling in front of him. Giving free reign to his sexual fantasies? He reached down taking her elbow and lifted her up so she was standing again, and quickly kicked the rest of his clothing free. Ellie turned and went to the bed pulled back the covers and laid down and looked at him expectantly."Why am I naked and you've still got those on?" He said nodding at her lacy yellow panties.She grinned. "It's because you haven't taken them off yet." She snickered. "Though maybe I should do that myself before you pilfer all of my panties."Luke grinned and walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed, and reached for the waistband, he gave a quick peek up at her, she just straightened out and lifted her hips off the mattress giving him the go ahead to slip them off. They released from her hips and as he pulled them from between her thighs the moisture held them in place for a moment as he pulled them free, sliding them down her legs."They're soaking." He said surprised.Ellie rolled her eyes a bit and smirked. "You have a, uh, certain effect on me. What can I say?" She sat up leaning into his kiss. "Have you thought about it, or shall I take the lead?""I want to taste you." He said in a whisper. She kissed him deeply."Well you know what I taste like up here. Why not explore a little." She said in a deep voice he'd never heard her use before.He did just that, working his way down her neck leaving a trail of kisses that caused her to sigh deeply. Then laid a trail to her breasts taking an excruciatingly long time to take her nipple into his mouth.She moaned a little deeper and ran a hand through his hair while her other found his still hard cock and massaged it slowly not wanting him to go off in her hand.He lavished attention on her breasts for a while, and Ellie began to wonder if he'd go any further so she gently pulled herself up causing his mouth to land on her rib cage, hoping that would be incentive to continue south. It worked, he made his way down her stomach giving her belly button a little lick causing her to giggle. She gave his hair a tug to get him to stop.He hesitated as he made his way down over her smooth skin kissing his way around, dragging his tongue slowly nearly torturing her. He slipped around pushing her legs apart and lay between her raised knees. He leaned forward and kissed her, his tongue teasing its way up her swollen pink lips causing Ellie to gasp and grip his hair a little tighter. It took all of her reserve to not pull him down into her, as she relaxed her grip he began to explore and he took the cues she gave him very well, as she leaned in and lifted. He was very attentive and gentle, almost too gentle as her climax neared she moaned a little louder, a little quicker.Luke surprised her by slipping a finger into her molten core and taking her clit between his lips causing her to cry out and arch up as she peaked quickly. After a couple minutes of panting she lifted Luke's head by his hair from the task of cleaning up the mess he'd made of her."You've never done that before?" She asked, an edge in her voice.He just looked at her in wide-eyed innocence and shook his head back and forth."Did I do something wrong?" He asked, suddenly worried. She just fell back and laughed."No, you did everything right, that's why I wondered."Luke crawled up beside her and she looked over at his sweet face lacquered in her own honey.She leaned over and kissed him, tasting herself on his tongue. "Listen. I'm on the pill, but I want you to wear a condom anyway. A girl can never be too safe." Luke's eyes went wide."Shit, I don't have any. I mean; I never."Ellie giggled and reached into the nightstand drawer and pulled out a little foil packet. "It's a good thing I was hoping this would happen and prepared for it."Luke's eyes went wide."Oh seriously. Guys can be as thick as bricks sometimes. I've been practically throwing myself at you since I moved in, Luke. Hasn't it been obvious?""Well I just thought you were being friendly, and well a bit of a flirt. I didn't think any more of it until last night." He shrugged."You surprised me with the stakes of that Jenga game." She smiled. "I'm glad I lost.""I'm glad you did too." He grinned."Lay back." She put the packet to her teeth and tore it open. "See how it's rolled. Place it at the tip, and unroll it like this, and voila. Mr. Happy is now properly dressed for the ball." Ellie looked down at it, and her smile faded into a look of need as she looked up at Luke. "Let me." She placed a hand on his chest as she rose up and threw a leg over his body and straddled his hips. She took his length and ran it against her before settling gently down on it. She let out a gasp as he entered her slowly.Luke lay back taking short quick breaths wanting badly to raise his hips and drive himself into her.Ellie was in control of the moment, a hand firmly on his chest as she lowered herself further, as she took him in she sped up burying him into her completely causing them both to cry out."Oh that feels nice!" She said as she clenched down on him causing him to gasp again. She rose up slowly causing her own deep moan. She rode him for several strokes as he took hold of her hips getting into the rhythm of her body. She pressed herself down on him and leaned forward and kissed him. "Luke?""Hmm?""Roll me onto my back and fuck me good and hard." She said biting his lip.He smiled as he wrapped an arm around her and rolled over taking her with him.She adjusted quickly and her legs went around him rocking her hips to get him to start.He was a quick study, and he began thrusting into her in long deep strokes as he attacked her mouth and neck."Harder!" She urged. "Don't stop!"He had no intention of stopping if anything he was scared he was hurting her as the sound of their flesh meeting, repeatedly rang throughout the room."Yes!" Ellie cried repeatedly. He felt his climax approaching again. Ellie began to shudder under him as she let out a series of high pitched moans, he knew then he couldn't hold out any longer and pushed hard into her releasing as she gripped down on him. He collapsed unable to hold himself up any longer.They lay there gasping for breath for a long while when Ellie leaned over and whispered into Luke's ear, in a little sing-song way. "Guess who's not a virgin now?" She kissed his cheek as she heard him laughing into her shoulder."What now?" He asked."Well, first thing you may want to do is go and tie off your little goody bag and trash it." She said. She looked deeply into his eyes. "Will you stay with me tonight?" She asked.He didn't know why but Luke's throat tightened. He looked into her dark eyes, a feeling of falling into them washed over him."Yes." He whispered. "I hope you don't snore though, I'm a light sleeper." He grinned.They both busted out laughing as he rose to go clean up. When he came back the bed had been remade, Ellie lay there wearing his t-shirt which was enticingly short, her long supple legs leading up to the hem, it was obvious that she hadn't bothered with putting her panties back on. He turned off the light and crawled in beside her, they kissed, and explored as they fell asleep.Deep in the night they stirred, this time Luke took her slowly. She looked up, the faint light of a streetlight limned his body. Soft moans and whispers broke the peace as they concluded their lovemaking. The quiet enveloped them as they drifted off again.The rumble of the door opener in the garage woke Luke. His head popped up realizing he wasn't in his room. He looked down quickly and found shining brown eyes smiling up at him."Good morning."The blanket had pulled down and Ellie's breasts were in full view."Pardon the morning breath." He said as he kissed her. "You lost your shirt."She giggled. "More like you peeled it off in the middle of the night.""Oh shit!" He grimaced, looking at her neck."What?""I'm sorry. I had no idea." A panicked look settled on his face."What?!" She started to panic, and she noticed he was looking at her neck. She bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom. A moment later she busted out laughing. "I look like I was attacked by a gang of vampires." She came back out smiling. "Good thing I like turtlenecks."Luke was somewhat relieved but still worried. "I'm sorry!" He said again concerned that she'd be mad at him for looking like she'd been beaten."You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about." She leaned forward kissing him quickly. "Except maybe waking me up with this a couple times over the last few hours." She said reaching under the blanket and grasping his hard cock. "Let me check I may have a spare toothbrush, unless you want to run down and grab yours." She grinned. "Sounds like your dad just left.""Yea I'm guessing he went to breakfast without me." He smirked. "We like this place in town, it has a large glassed in dining room like a greenhouse. On Sundays they do a jazz brunch." He looked over at the clock noting it was much later than he usually woke.Ellie smirked. "Well we did have quite a workout last night. It's to be expected.""Let me text him. If we hurry we can join him." Luke said. "If you'd like to, I mean.""I'm torn between having my way with you yet again, but we'll have plenty of time later. I'd love breakfast. Let me go clean up and find a way to hide the damage. You brute!""I should probably grab a clean shirt, & clean up myself. Jeans are fine." Luke grabbed his jeans pulling them on and pulling on his shirt and made a beeline for the door. He paused at the bottom of the steps to text his dad then made his way into the house to wash up and change. He bolted out of the house to find Ellie leaning against the garage."Guys, always taking forever to get ready." She shook her head. She looked absolutely radiant in the morning sunshine."What can I say. I don't just roll out of bed looking this good, it takes work you know."Ellie chuckled as she said. "Seeing first hand evidence to the contrary, I'm calling bullshit.""He said he'd just have coffee and wait for us."They walked into the restaurant and were directed to the table where he sat. Derek stood as they approached."Now I see where he gets it. Hi Mr. Page.""Please, call me Derek. What do you mean?"Ellie grinned as she sat down. "I've never seen a guy stand when I walk in the room, or hold the door for me like Luke does. It's nice.""Well chivalry never goes out of style." He smiled. "I ordered us the sticky buns, they should be out soon. They make their own here, and they're endless. Thankfully, after seeing how many of them Luke can eat." They all got a chuckle at that. Luke rolled his eyes."Did you kids have fun at the fair?""We had a blast." Ellie said beaming. "Hercules here won me a stuffed tiger, and everything."They chatted amiably about school, work and the jazz band group playing at the other end of the dining room."What are you doing for the holiday next week?" Derek asked her."I'm going back home for the weekend. My mother and my aunt own a bed & breakfast up on a lake. It's a huge old house which makes it perfect for everybody." Ellie said. "What about you boys?""Not much, we'll probably have dinner out and catch some football." Derek replied."No way! You don't have any family around here?""None nearby." Derek confirmed.Ellie gave them a shrewd look. "Do you work Friday?"Derek shook his head. She already knew Luke was free. She paused for a moment and excused herself to go find the ladies room."Those are some pretty nice shiners." Derek commented. "When she moves, a few of them peek up above the turtleneck." He grinned.Luke turned red. "Uh, yea. Well we went up to her place after we got home."Derek grinned held up his hand, and gave a little shake to his head. "No need to explain, you're both adults."They both stopped speaking and stood as Ellie walked back to the table putting her cellphone in her pocket. She smiled at both of them as she sat down again."You are both now busy for the Thanksgiving holiday. It would be my pleasure if you would join me next week at the Bed & Breakfast. They have satellite so you won't miss any football." She grinned."Thank you, but we couldn't impose." Derek said."It's no imposition, there will be guests there as well. I just called my aunt and asked if there was room and she said there are still plenty of rooms available for you to stay over. It's about an hour away, up near the state park on the west side." She smiled at him then looked at Luke. "Besides, I was going to try and drag him away with me. It doesn't seem fair to leave you all alone. I've already told her you would accept. No backing out now.""You're a regular fireball aren't you?" Derek grinned. "I guess I have no leave but to accept on my behalf. What about you, Luke. Think you can be persuaded to spend an entire weekend in country with a lovely lady?"Luke looked at Ellie grinning. "It'll be tough, but I think I'll manage." She raised an eyebrow slightly and nudged him in the shin with her toe. "Ow!"Derek chuckled deeply. Yes, Ellie was definitely the right choice, there was no doubt in his mind now. By Member389 for Literotica.

Welcome to the first installment of our Autumn-ish Book Club! In this flash analysis series, we take an academic approach to some of the most talked-about books in Romantasy and fantasy today. With over 13 years of combined academic literary training, we bring a critical lens to fandom favorites while keeping the discussion fun, thought-provoking, and accessible. In this episode, we're discussing The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. We explore Katniss Everdeen as a heroine whose personality type makes her both powerful and vulnerable, how Peeta functions as a unique male main character (MMC), and why the series' themes of power, media, and survival feel even more relevant today than when the books were first released. This is part 1 of this week's episode. Come back Thursday for part 2. This season, we'll be covering: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker Where the Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell Blood of Hercules by Jasmin Mas Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem And when book club wraps up, get ready! Our next full literary analysis will dive into Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas. If you're new here, we also have full seasons analyzing A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, House of Earth and Blood, House of Sky and Breath, Throne of Glass, and Crown of Midnight. Go back and check those out to see how we break down metaphors, symbolism, narrative structure, and character arcs through multiple literary lenses. Plus, we're thrilled to announce our newest venture: The Subtext Society Journal—the first of its kind, dedicated to Romance, Romantasy, and fandom with an academic yet accessible voice. We're publishing original essays and thought pieces, and we encourage listeners to submit their own articles for a chance to be featured. If you love Sarah J. Maas, Romantasy, and deep literary analysis, you're in the right place. Share your thoughts for a chance to be featured! Submit them at ⁠⁠⁠booktalkforbooktok.com⁠⁠⁠ for a future mini-episode or exclusive Patreon discussion. The Subtext Society Journal: https://thesubtextsocietyjournal.substack.com/  Support the Show:  Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/booktalkforbooktok⁠⁠⁠  Merch: ⁠⁠⁠Etsy Store⁠⁠⁠ Follow Us on Social: Instagram: @BookTalkForBookTok TikTok: @BookTalkForBookTok YouTube: @BookTalkForBookTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Connor sits down with storyteller Jameson Olsen to dive into the myth of Hercules and uncover its relevance for modern men. From the legendary labors to the tragedy that shaped his journey, Jameson unpacks how these ancient myths reflect the struggles of responsibility, temptation, betrayal, and redemption men face today. They explore the crossroads between vice and virtue, the weight of personal choices, and the timeless lessons hidden in myth. This conversation challenges men to confront their own trials, learn from archetypal stories, and find meaning in bearing the burden of life's hardships.SHOW HIGHLIGHTS00:00 - Introduction00:36 - Retelling ancient stories for modern times02:57 - The trials of Hercules and lessons for men04:52 - The Choice of Hercules: virtue vs. vice08:15 - Modern vices and distractions13:13 - Hercules' origins and fatherless upbringing15:43 - Tragedy: Hera's curse and the loss of family20:25 - Redemption through the labors22:57 - The Nemean Lion: confronting the impossible29:27 - The Hydra: breaking destructive patterns40:16 - Cleaning the Augean stables44:40 - The mares of Diomedes: consequences of carelessness48:42 - Hippolyta's belt and the gender divide54:07 - Bearing the heavy burden of disaster58:22 - Redemption, atonement, and moving forward01:03:20 - Using stories as mirrors for personal growth01:06:05 - Where to find Jameson Olsen***Tired of feeling like you're never enough? Build your self-worth with help from this free guide: https://training.mantalks.com/self-worthPick up my book, Men's Work: A Practical Guide To Face Your Darkness, End Self-Sabotage, And Find Freedom: https://mantalks.com/mens-work-book/Heard about attachment but don't know where to start? Try the FREE Ultimate Guide To AttachmentCheck out some other free resources: How To Quit Porn | Anger Meditation | How To Lead In Your RelationshipBuild brotherhood with a powerful group of like-minded men from around the world. Check out The Alliance. Enjoy the podcast? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Podchaser. It helps us get into the ears of new listeners, expand the ManTalks Community, and help others find the tools and training they're looking for. And don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | SpotifyFor more, visit us at

This week I'm crossing off a bucket list guest, Andreas Deja! Andreas is a lead and supervising animator on some of your favorite villains across the pantheon of Disney. Gaston, Jafar, Scar and he's done some amazing work on Lilo and Hercules as well as a plethora of others. This one is super special for me and I hope you enjoy! Join our Patreon: https://patreon.com/CartoonChronix   Follow Us On Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CartoonChronix Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CartoonChronix X: https://x.com/CartoonChronix Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CartoonChronix   Follow Andreas: https://www.instagram.com/officialandreasdeja Follow Andreas: http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/ Follow Andreas: https://mushkathemovie.com/home     #Disney #WaltDisney #AndreasDeja #LionKing #LittleMermaid #BlackCauldron #LiloandStitch #Aladdin #DisneyAnimation

The Hercules Federal First Credit Union Salt Lake County Player of the Week for Week 2 of the 2025 Utah High School football season was Brighton High School running back Judah Valle.

A compendium of rare cross-cultural and historical accounts of extrasensory perception• Provides accounts of ESP ranging from ancient Greek myth, traditional North and South American, African, and Polynesian stories to individuals like Rumi, Charles Dickens, and Carl Jung• Considers unexplained ESP-related happenings, including bilocation, the ability to locate lost items, early knowledge of one's own death, and perceptions regarding the well-being of loved onesWhether a premonition of an impending event, a warning of potential danger, or an unlikely synchronistic experience, such things are surprisingly common, even if they often cannot be clearly explained.Taking readers on a historical and cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, Daniel Bourke documents, contextualizes, and sheds light on these mysterious phenomena. From the plains of Peru and the haunted highlands of Scotland to the snowy taiga forests of the Far North and the Indigenous cultures of Australia and America, Bourke examines the strange psychic occurrences that seem to appear in all places, at all times. These include instances of bilocation, premonitions about the coming of visitors, intuitions of the location of lost items or treasures, the discovery of cures by telepathic means, and even accurate pre-perceptions about one's own demise or the perilous situation of a loved one. He looks at the renowned Greek seers, including Iamos, who announced the death of Hercules at the moment it occurred; the far-reaching visions of the shaman in a trance who might warn his tribe of danger; and the witches, wizards, and heroes of legend and romance who were privy to secret knowledge through magical means. Bourke's survey incorporates rare accounts from people all around the world and across the ages, including figures like Rumi, Saint Anthony, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Carl Jung.Shedding light on our cultural and mythic past, Bourke shows that wherever you look in the world, whatever culture or time, telepathic tales are unfolding all around us.Daniel Bourke is an author, poet, and songwriter. He has a background in the natural sciences, the arts, and the video game industry. He has previously been published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, New Dawn Magazine, and the journal Darklore and is the author of Apparitions at the Moment of Death. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/daniel-bourkeBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/earth-ancients--2790919/support.

The Secret History of Gold comes out this week. Here for your viewing pleasure is a fim about gold based on the first chapter.“Gold will be slave or master”HoraceIn 2021, a metal detectorist with the eyebrow-raising name of Ole Ginnerup Schytz dug up a hoard of Viking gold in a field in Denmark. The gold was just as it was when it was buried 1,500 years before, if a little dirtier. The same goes for the jewellery unearthed at the Varna Necropolis in Bulgaria in 1972. The beads, bracelets, rings and necklaces are as good as when they were buried 6,700 years ago.In the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, there is a golden tooth bridge — a gold wire used to bind teeth and dental implants — made over 4,000 years ago. It could go in your mouth today.No other substance is as long-lasting as gold — not diamonds, not tungsten carbide, not boron nitride. Gold does not corrode; it does not tarnish or decay; it does not break down over time. This sets it apart from every other substance. Iron rusts, wood rots, silver tarnishes. Gold never changes. Left alone, it stays itself. And it never loses its shine — how about that?Despite its permanence, you can shape this enormously ductile metal into pretty much anything. An ounce of gold can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long or plate a copper wire 1,000 miles long. It can be beaten into a leaf just one atom thick. Yet there is one thing you cannot do and that is destroy it. Life may be temporary, but gold is permanent. It really is forever.This means that all the gold that has ever been mined, estimated to be 216,000 tonnes, still exists somewhere. Put together it would fit into a cube with 22-metre sides. Visualise a square building seven storeys high — and that would be all the gold ever.With some effort, you can dissolve gold in certain chemical solutions, alloy it with other metals, or even vaporise it. But the gold will always be there. It is theoretically possible to destroy gold through nuclear reactions and other such extreme methods, but in practical terms, gold is indestructible. It is the closest thing we have on earth to immortality.Perhaps that is why almost every ancient culture we know of associated gold with the eternal. The Egyptians believed the flesh of gods was made of gold, and that it gave you safe passage into the afterlife. In Greek myth, the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, which Hercules was sent to retrieve, conferred immortality on whoever ate them. The South Americans saw gold as the link between humanity and the cosmos. They were not far wrong.Gold was present in the dust that formed the solar system. It sits in the earth's crust today, just as it did when our planet was formed some 4.6 billion years ago. That little bit of gold you may be wearing on your finger or around your neck is actually older than the earth itself. In fact, it is older than the solar system. To touch gold is as close as you will ever come to touching eternity.And yet the world's most famous investor is not impressed.‘It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or some place,' said Warren Buffett. ‘Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.'He's right. Gold does nothing. It does not even pay a yield. It just sits there inert. We use other metals to construct things, cut things or conduct things, but gold's industrial uses are minimal. It is a good conductor of electricity, but copper and silver are better and cheaper. It has some use in dentistry, medical applications and nanotechnology. It is finding more and more use in outer space — back whence it came — where it is used to coat spacecraft, astronauts' visors and heat shields. But, in the grand scheme of things, these uses are paltry.Gold's only purpose is to store and display prosperity. It is dense and tangible wealth: pure money.Though you may not realise it, we still use gold as money today. Not so much as a medium to exchange value but store it.In 1970, about 27 per cent of all the gold in the world was in the form of gold coinage and central bank or government reserves. Today, even with the gold standard long since dead, the percentage is about the same.The most powerful nation on earth, the United States, keeps 70 per cent of its foreign exchange holdings in gold. Its great rival, China, is both the world's largest producer and the world's largest importer. It has built up reserves that, as we shall discover, are likely as great as the USA's. If you buying gold or silver coins to protect yourself in these “interesting times” - and I urge you to - as always I recommend The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Ordinary people and institutions the world over use gold to store wealth. Across myriad cultures gold is gifted at landmark life events — births and weddings — because of its intrinsic value.In fact, gold's purchasing power has increased over the millennia, as human beings have grown more productive. The same ounce of gold said by economic historians to have bought King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 350 loaves of bread could buy you more than 1,000 loaves today. The same gold dinar (roughly 1/7 oz) that, in the time of the Koran in the seventh century, bought you a lamb would buy you three lambs today. Those same four or five aurei (1 oz) which bought you a fine linen tunic in ancient Rome would buy you considerably more clothing today.In 1972, 0.07 ounces of gold would buy you a barrel of oil. Here we are in 2024 and a barrel of oil costs 0.02 ounces of gold — it's significantly cheaper than it was fifty years ago.House prices, too, if you measure them in gold, have stayed constant. It is only when they are measured in fiat currency that they have appreciated so relentlessly (and destructively).In other words, an ounce of gold buys you as much, and sometimes more, food, clothing, energy and shelter as it did ten years ago, a hundred years ago or even thousands of years ago. As gold lasts, so does its purchasing power. You cannot say the same about modern national currencies.Rare and expensive to mine, the supply of gold is constrained. This is in stark contrast to modern money — electronic, debt-based fiat money to give it its full name — the supply of which multiplies every year as governments spend and borrowing balloons.As if by Natural Law, gold supply has increased at the same rate as the global population — roughly 2 per cent per annum. The population of the world has slightly more than doubled since 1850. So has gold supply. The correlation has held for centuries, except for one fifty-year period during the gold rushes of the late nineteenth century, when gold supply per capita increased.Gold has the added attraction of being beautiful. It shines and glistens and sparkles. It captivates and allures. The word ‘gold' derives from the Sanskrit ‘jval', meaning ‘to shine'. That's why we use it as jewellery — to show off our wealth and success, as well as to store it. Indeed, in nomadic prehistory, and still in parts of the world today, carrying your wealth on your person as jewellery was the safest way to keep it.The universe has given us this captivatingly beautiful, dense, inert, malleable, scarce, useless and permanent substance whose only use is to be money. To quote historian Peter Bernstein, ‘nothing is as useless and useful all at the same time'.But after thousands of years of gold being official money, in the early twentieth century there was a seismic shift. Neither the British, German nor French government had enough gold to pay for the First World War. They abandoned gold backing to print the money they needed. In the inter-war years, nations briefly attempted a return to gold standards, but they failed. The two prevailing monetary theories clashed: gold-backed versus state-issued currency. Gold standard advocates, such as Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, considered gold to be one of the key pillars of a free society along with property rights and habeas corpus. ‘We have gold because we cannot trust governments,' said President Herbert Hoover in 1933. This was a sentiment echoed by one of the founders of the London School of Economics, George Bernard Shaw — to whom I am grateful for demonstrating that it is possible to have a career as both a comedian and a financial writer. ‘You have to choose (as a voter),' he said, ‘between trusting to the natural stability of gold and the natural stability of the honesty and intelligence of the members of the Government… I advise you, as long as the Capitalist system lasts, to vote for gold.'On the other hand, many, such as economist John Maynard Keynes, advocated the idea of fiat currency to give government greater control over the economy and the ability to manipulate the money supply. Keynes put fixation with gold in the Freudian realms of sex and religion. The gold standard, he famously said after the First World War — and rightly, as it turned out — was ‘already a barbarous relic'. Freud himself related fascination with gold to the erotic fantasies and interests of early childhood.Needless to say, Keynes and fiat money prevailed. By the end of the 1930s, most of Europe had left the gold standard. The US followed, but not completely until 1971, in order to meet the ballooning costs of its welfare system and its war in Vietnam.But compare both gold's universality (everyone everywhere knows gold has value) and its purchasing power to national currencies and you have to wonder why we don't use it officially today. There is a very good reason: power.Sticking to the discipline of the gold standard means governments can't just create money or run deficits to the same extent. Instead, they have to rein in their spending, which they are not prepared to do, especially in the twenty-first century, when they make so many promises to win elections. Balanced books, let alone independent money, have become an impossibility. If you seek an answer as to why the state has grown so large in the West, look no further than our system of money. When one body in a society has the power to create money at no cost to itself, it is inevitable that that body will grow disproportionately large. So it is in the twenty-first century, where state spending in many social democracies is now not far off 50 per cent of GDP, sometimes higher.Many arguments about gold will quickly slide into a political argument about the role of government. It is a deeply political metal. Those who favour gold tend to favour small government, free markets and individual responsibility. I count myself in that camp. Those who dismiss it tend to favour large government and state planning.I have argued many times that money is the blood of a society. It must be healthy. So much starts with money: values, morals, behaviour, ambitions, manners, even family size. Money must be sound and true. At the moment it is neither. Gold, however, is both. ‘Because gold is honest money it is disliked by dishonest men,' said former Republican Congressman Ron Paul. As Dorothy is advised in The Wizard of Oz (which was, as we shall discover, part allegory), maybe the time has come to once again ‘follow the yellow brick road'.On the other hand, maybe the twilight of gold has arrived, as Niall Ferguson argued in his history of debt and money, The Cash Nexus. Gold's future, he said, is ‘mainly as jewellery' or ‘in parts of the world with primitive or unstable monetary and financial systems'. Gold may have been money for 5,000 years, or even 10,000 years, but so was the horse a means of transport, and then along came the motor car.A history of gold is inevitably a history of money, but it is also a history of greed, obsession and ambition. Gold is beautiful. Gold is compelling. It is wealth in its purest, most distilled form. ‘Gold is a child of Zeus,' runs the ancient Greek lyric. ‘Neither moth nor rust devoureth it; but the mind of man is devoured by this supreme possession.' Perhaps that's why Thomas Edison said gold was ‘an invention of Satan'. Wealth, and all the emotions that come with it, can do strange things to people.Gold has led people to do the most brilliant, the most brave, the most inventive, the most innovative and the most terrible things. ‘More men have been knocked off balance by gold than by love,' runs the saying, usually attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Where gold is concerned, emotion, not logic, prevails. Even in today's markets it is a speculative asset whose price is driven by greed and fear, not by fundamental production numbers.Its gleam has drawn man across oceans, across continents and into the unknown. It lured Jason and the Argonauts, Alexander the Great, numerous Caesars, da Gama, Cortés, Pizarro and Raleigh. Brilliant new civilisations have emerged as a result of the quest for gold, yet so have slavery, war, deceit, death and devastation. Describing the gold mines of ancient Egypt, the historian Diodorus Siculus wrote, ‘there is absolutely no consideration nor relaxation for sick or maimed, for aged man or weak woman. All are forced to labour at their tasks until they die, worn out by misery amid their toil.' His description could apply to many an illegal mine in Africa today.The English critic John Ruskin told a story of a man who boarded a ship with all his money: a bag of gold coins. Several days into the voyage a terrible storm blew up. ‘Abandon ship!' came the cry. The man strapped his bag around his waist and jumped overboard, only to sink to the bottom of the sea. ‘Now,' asked Ruskin, ‘as he was sinking — had he the gold? Or had the gold him?'As the Chinese proverb goes, ‘The miser does not own the gold; the gold owns the miser.'Gold may be a dead metal. Inert, unchanging and lifeless. But its hold over humanity never relents. It has adorned us since before the dawn of civilisation and, as money, underpinned economies ever since. Desire for it has driven mankind forwards, the prime impulse for quest and conquest, for exploration and discovery. From its origins in the hearts of dying stars to its quiet presence today beneath the machinery of modern finance, gold has seen it all. How many secrets does this silent witness keep? This book tells the story of gold. It unveils the schemes, intrigues and forces that have shaped our world in the relentless pursuit of this ancient asset, which, even in this digital age, still wields immense power.That was Chapter One of The Secret History of Gold The Secret History of Gold is available to pre-order at Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookshops. I hear the audiobook, read by me, is excellent. The book comes out on August 28.Hurry! Amazon is currently offering 20% off.Until next time,Dominic This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

This week, my husband Jesse Townes joins me to talk about what men think about during s*x. We answer: Men, why don't you make any noise? Speak up!, Is it true that when you are in doggy, you think about other girls?, Do you have to go somewhere else mentally to finish?, What is going through your head when you are f!ngering me?, What does it mean when a guy doesn't make eye contact during s*x?, How long is too long to go without s*x in a relationship?, Do you judge how our vulv@s look?, and do you care if there is a little poop during booty stuff?We also nibble on sm*t books, Quicksilver, responsive desire, male insta-cart drivers, plantains vs bananas, Hercules, Disney and more. 

Ever wondered how people fall in love with Greek mythology? From Percy Jackson to Disney's Hercules, and even modern myth-inspired works like Epic: The Musical, we explore all the ways these legendary stories capture our hearts. Join us as we dive into myth retellings, the myths that first drew us in, and where YOU can start your own journey into the world of the Greek gods.Timestamps:(0:00) Intro(2:28) Thoughts on Greek Myth Retellings(8:17) Tyche, Hades & Epic: The Musical in the Mystery Cult(10:18) Dionysus & Hermes Restock(11:20) Gateways to Greek Mythology: Percy Jackson, Hercules & More(19:18) How We Got Into Greek Mythology & the Gods(30:03) Where to Start in Greek Mythology(36:26) The First Myth That Hooked Us(41:26) Zeus & HP Chelsea's Godson StoryCheck out our Patreon, Styx and Bones Temple's Store, Blogs and more! ⁠⁠https://beacons.ai/styxandbonessFOLLOW STYX AND BONES ON SOCIAL MEDIA⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/styxandbonespodcast⁠⁠FOLLOW HIGH PRIESTESS CHELSEA⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/highpriestesschelsea⁠⁠FOLLOW DR. K⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/dirtdiaries_⁠⁠

Medo! Horror! Sofrimento! Neste episódio, a trupe do Podtrash embarca na primeira aventura cinematográfica do Arnold Schwarzenegger, ainda com sotaque austríaco tão pesado que parecia que o Hércules tinha acabado de sair de um rodízio de gurjão de peixe no Rio de Janeiro! Sim, ouvintes, falamos do clássico trash Hercules in New York, onde o […]

This week on Family Trivia with Dad and Lad, we're going full Olympian with 15 family-friendly trivia questions all about Greek mythology! From Zeus's thunderbolts to Medusa's bad hair days, we're putting your myth-busting knowledge to the test.Get ready for a fun-filled episode where kids, parents, and myth-loving mortals alike can play along. Can you beat the lad or will the lad rise to the challenge like Hercules himself? Hit play to find out!

The Hercules Federal First Credit Union Salt Lake County Player of the Week for Week 1 of the 2025 Utah High School football season was Murray High School quarterback Phil Holland.

Het nieuwe seizoen begint meteen goed. Nederland wacht een verkiezingscampagne met grote thema's. De aanpak ervan is des te dringender na een coalitie die vooral met zichzelf bezig was en stagnatie en verlamming achterliet. Jaap Jansen en PG Kroeger tekenen de kaart van het politieke landschap en de campagneroutes die zich voor de verschillende partijen openen. Met de kiezer als Bachs mythische held ‘Hercules op de tweesprong’. Kiezen we voor een volgende variant van een populistische coalitie of voor een pad naar constructief regeren? *** Deze aflevering is mede mogelijk gemaakt met donaties van luisteraars die we hiervoor hartelijk danken. Word ook vriend van de show! Heb je belangstelling om in onze podcast te adverteren of ons te sponsoren? Zend een mailtje naar adverteren@dagennacht.nl en wij zoeken contact. *** In 2025 gaat het voor het eerst sinds 2002 niet om de vraag of men een premier wil laten voortgaan, maar om een richting voor het land. Bovendien hangen boven de campagne net als toen (na 9/11) donkere wolken van geopolitieke dreiging. De partijen moeten hier nu hun weg en profiel vinden. De post-Schoof PVV lijkt de PVV van Geert Milders en zijn ijskast te ontkennen. Wilders heeft zijn oude grammofoonplaat weer opgezet. Alles wat aan zijn rol als Schoofs coalitiechef herinnert is rigoureus geschrapt. De PVV-bewindslieden lijken verdampt; hun werk staat bij het oud vuil. GroenLinks-PvdA versnelde de eigen eenwording, al werd het als wenkend perspectief besmeurd door has-beens als Rob Oudkerk en Ad Melkert. Voor Frans Timmermans als meest ervaren all round leider lonkt het premierschap. Frans als ‘ome Joop’ van 1977. Maar 'Kies de Minister-President' kon toen wel, ditmaal niet en dat maakt die strategie niet eenvoudiger. De VVD lijkt vooral slachtoffer van het failliet van Schoof. De keuze voor die coalitie en de chaos daarbinnen raken de reputatie van de gedegen liberale regeringspartij. Haar bewindslieden kunnen hun eigen beleid niet in de etalage zetten en het nieuwe program is opvallend markt-fundamentalistisch, terwijl andere partijen juist afscheid nemen van het neoliberalisme. En traditionele VVD-kiezers twijfelen of Dilan Yesilgöz de juiste keus is. Het CDA kent een heel andere uitdaging. Is zijn renaissance niet té meeslepend? Lukt het een stevig team, organisatie en inhoudelijke agenda te realiseren vanuit een Kamerfractie met maar vier leden die door willen en een kwetsbare partij? Met Henri Bontenbal is het CDA plots wel opnieuw een sterk merk. De nieuwe leider bouwt voort op klassieke motieven en herkenbare ideeën en duikt niet weg voor de confrontatie met het populisme. Blijft de vraag of de kiezer – net als die mythische held - bij de tweesprong weet welk pad hij kiest. Concentreren kiezers zich rond de grote partijen van voorheen of blijft het een moeilijk te leggen puzzel in een versplinterd landschap? *** Verder luisteren 521 - Hoe saaier de politiek, hoe gelukkiger het land 517 - Na de champagne de campagne 516 - Files op het elektriciteitsnet: de energietransitie dreigt slachtoffer te worden van het eigen succes 514 - De andere waarheid na Schoof 512 - Hoe onderwijs, bedrijven en overheden samen de arbeidsmarktkrapte bestrijden 509 - Het verdriet van Geert Milders 507 - Het strenge oordeel van Rekenkamerpresident Pieter Duisenberg 493 - Het belastingkaartenhuis wankelt 422 - Een eigen huis, een plek onder de zon - woningnood toen en nu 251 - Nederlanders hebben groot vertrouwen in de democratie, veel minder in partijen 149 - De zeven levens van Abraham Kuyper, een ongrijpbaar staatsman *** Tijdlijn 00:00:00 – Deel 1 00:49:35 – Deel 2 01:21:36 – Deel 3 01:40:54 – EindeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Darkness Radio Presents:  Telepathic Tales: Precognition and Clairvoyance in Legend, Lyric, &Lore with Researcher/Author, Daniel Bourke! Whether a premonition of an impending event, a warning of potential danger, or an unlikely synchronistic experience, such things are surprisingly common, even if they often cannot be clearly explained. Taking readers on a historical and cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, Daniel Bourke documents, contextualizes, and sheds light on these mysterious phenomena. From the plains of Peru and the haunted highlands of Scotland to the snowy taiga forests of the Far North and the Indigenous cultures of Australia and America, Bourke examines the strange psychic occurrences that seem to appear in all places, at all times. These include instances of bilocation, premonitions about the coming of visitors, intuitions of the location of lost items or treasures, the discovery of cures by telepathic means, and even accurate pre-perceptions about one's own demise or the perilous situation of a loved one. He looks at the renowned Greek seers, including Iamos, who announced the death of Hercules at the moment it occurred; the far-reaching visions of the shaman in a trance who might warn his tribe of danger; and the witches, wizards, and heroes of legend and romance who were privy to secret knowledge through magical means. Bourke's survey incorporates rare accounts from people all around the world and across the ages, including figures like Rumi, Saint Anthony, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Carl Jung. On today's show, Tim sits down with Daniel and talks about why through history our ancestors have tried to contact us to warn us about impending danger, give us the cure for certain diseases, tell us where there is hidden treasure, and give us certain messages from beyond! Get "Telepathic Tales" here:  https://bit.ly/4lM0nLA Sign up to go with Dacre Stoker and Mysterious Universe Tours to Romania here:  https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-haunted-halloween-romania-tour/ Want to attend JUST Dracula's Vampire Ball at Bran Castle? Click this link to find out how: https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-vampire-ball-at-bran-castle-a-private-halloween-experience/ Travel with Brian J. Cano to Ireland for Halloween for 11 days and get 100 dollars off and break it into 10 easy payments here:  https://www.mysteriousadventurestours.com/darkness_radio/ Make sure you update your Darkness Radio Apple Apps! and subscribe to the Darkness Radio You Tube page:  https://www.youtube.com/@DRTimDennis #paranormal  #supernatural  #metaphysical  #paranormalpodcasts  #darknessradio  #timdennis #danielbourke #telepathictales #precognitionandclairvoyanceinlegenclyricandlore  #death #ghosts  #spirits  #spectres #hauntings  #demons #apparitions #tokens #visions #messengers #angels #guardianangels #spiritguides #Psychics #mediums #empaths #grief #loss #deathandmourning #soulcontracts #dreams #shaman #medicinemen #healing #signs #intuition  #neardeatheexperience 

Wyatt sits down with the founders of Groom Lake. In this episode:  How social engineering attacks are being used to exploit companies in crypto and beyond How companies can better protect themselves and be vigilant of these exploit attempts The future of cybersecurity software for crypto

Darkness Radio Presents:  Telepathic Tales: Precognition and Clairvoyance in Legend, Lyric, &Lore with Researcher/Author, Daniel Bourke! Whether a premonition of an impending event, a warning of potential danger, or an unlikely synchronistic experience, such things are surprisingly common, even if they often cannot be clearly explained. Taking readers on a historical and cross-cultural voyage through extrasensory experiences, Daniel Bourke documents, contextualizes, and sheds light on these mysterious phenomena. From the plains of Peru and the haunted highlands of Scotland to the snowy taiga forests of the Far North and the Indigenous cultures of Australia and America, Bourke examines the strange psychic occurrences that seem to appear in all places, at all times. These include instances of bilocation, premonitions about the coming of visitors, intuitions of the location of lost items or treasures, the discovery of cures by telepathic means, and even accurate pre-perceptions about one's own demise or the perilous situation of a loved one. He looks at the renowned Greek seers, including Iamos, who announced the death of Hercules at the moment it occurred; the far-reaching visions of the shaman in a trance who might warn his tribe of danger; and the witches, wizards, and heroes of legend and romance who were privy to secret knowledge through magical means. Bourke's survey incorporates rare accounts from people all around the world and across the ages, including figures like Rumi, Saint Anthony, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Carl Jung. On today's show, Tim sits down with Daniel and talks about why through history our ancestors have tried to contact us to warn us about impending danger, give us the cure for certain diseases, tell us where there is hidden treasure, and give us certain messages from beyond! Get "Telepathic Tales" here:  https://bit.ly/4lM0nLA Sign up to go with Dacre Stoker and Mysterious Universe Tours to Romania here:  https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-haunted-halloween-romania-tour/ Want to attend JUST Dracula's Vampire Ball at Bran Castle? Click this link to find out how: https://mysteriousadventurestours.com/tour-item/draculas-vampire-ball-at-bran-castle-a-private-halloween-experience/ Travel with Brian J. Cano to Ireland for Halloween for 11 days and get 100 dollars off and break it into 10 easy payments here:  https://www.mysteriousadventurestours.com/darkness_radio/ Make sure you update your Darkness Radio Apple Apps! and subscribe to the Darkness Radio You Tube page:  https://www.youtube.com/@DRTimDennis #paranormal  #supernatural  #metaphysical  #paranormalpodcasts  #darknessradio  #timdennis #danielbourke #telepathictales #precognitionandclairvoyanceinlegenclyricandlore  #death #ghosts  #spirits  #spectres #hauntings  #demons #apparitions #tokens #visions #messengers #angels #guardianangels #spiritguides #Psychics #mediums #empaths #grief #loss #deathandmourning #soulcontracts #dreams #shaman #medicinemen #healing #signs #intuition  #neardeatheexperience 

We've got mail! Jonathan and Honey answer your questions about cinema, films, family and everything in between. This week, the two discuss their first memories of going to the cinema and the dream movie line-up for a long haul flight.The two also reminisce on baby Honey in full Hercules heroine Meg costume, they plan ahead for a festive family screening of Hot Frosty and our girl Taylor Swift is BACK... or so she tells Honey telepathically.Let us know what you think! You can get involved by emailing us at reeltalk@global.com and follow us on Instagram on @reeltalkrossThanks for listening. Listen and subscribe to Reel Talk on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

California is the most expensive state in the country to buy a house for a host of reasons, including a lack of inventory and high costs of building. One oft-blamed culprit is the California Environmental Quality Act. Developers say CEQA, enacted in 1970, made housing more expensive by piling on environmental regulations and making it too easy for individuals to file lawsuits against projects in their communities. This summer, the state legislature amended the law with the goal of making it faster and less expensive to build housing in California. We'll talk about how much of a difference CEQA reform could make in addressing the Bay Area's housing shortage and where – and when – we might see new developments. Guests: Adhiti Bandlamudi, housing reporter, KQED Sarah Karlinsky, director of research and policy, Terner Center for Housing Innovation, University of California, Berkeley Buffy Wicks, member, California State Assembly - she represents California's 15th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of the cities of Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo, Pinole, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington, and Piedmont Patrick Kennedy, owner, Panoramic Interests - a development firm that has been building in the Bay Area since 1990 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us this week for an awesome interview with Jason E. Reichenberg, the author of the new book, The Twelve Labors of Hercules and Freemasonry! In this episode, we talk about the book, Masonic Youth, Jason's path into Freemasonry, important lessons learned from his research, and a whole lot more! Don't miss it! Links: Get a T-shirt from Darin! The Hercules Book from Jason! https://www.perfectashlarpublishing.com/books https://masonicconsouth.com Masonic Con South Y'all! https://masoniccon.com/#schedule SPML Masonic Con Skull and Crown Ltd. www.skullandcrownltd.com Craftsman+ FB Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/craftsmanplus/ WCY Podcast YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/WhenceCameYou Ancient Modern Initiation: Special Edition http://www.wcypodcast.com/the-Shop The Master's Word- A Short Treatise on the Word, the Light, and the Self - Autographed https://wcypodcast.com/the-shop Get the new book! How to Charter a Lodge: https://wcypodcast.com/the-shop Truth Quantum https://truthquantum.com Our Patreon www.patreon.com/wcypodcast Support the show on Paypal https://wcypodcast.com/support-the-show Get some swag! https://wcypodcast.com/the-shop Get the book! http://a.co/5rtYr2r  

With tracks from Priorat, Tiger & Woods, Exte C, Antonin, Nhan Solo, Fernando, Leonid, Lrusse, Shafty, Love Quartet, Secret Stealth, Voorn & Salvador, Payfone, Giovanni Damico, Jim & Crooked Man, Kabinett, Hercules & Love Affair, Yuu Udagawa, Das Komplex, Bizarre Inc. Contact: dj@ribeaud.ch.

 DownloadWelcome to LOTC Presents Black Glove Mysteries and this week Ian Irza and GregaMortis are looking at a couple earlier Mario Bava films from 1961. The sub genre we are tackling is the sandal and sword films and the movies covered are 1961 Hercules In The Haunted World as well as 1961 Erik The Conqueror. These are way different type films then we normally cover but they are really fun. We hope you will enjoy this show. Grab your favorite snacks and beverages as you journey with us through the Land Of The Creeps.HELP KEEP HORROR ALIVE!!MOVIE REVIEWS1961 HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLDIAN : 8GREG : 7.51961 ERIK THE CONQUERORIAN : 7.5GREG : 8LINKS FOR DOUBLE DOUBLEGregaMortisFacebookTwitterLand Of The Creeps Group PageLand Of The Creeps Fan PageJay Of  The Dead's New Horror Movie PodcastYoutubeInstagramEmailLetterboxdTwisted Temptress LinkLetterboxdIAN IRZA LINKSBLOG SITEFACEBOOKTWITTERINSTAGRAMLETTERBOXDLOTC Hotline Number1-804-569-56821-804-569-LOTCLOTC Intro is provided by Andy Ussery, Below are links to his social mediaEmail:FacebookTwitterLespecial FacebookLespecial Website

We're headed back to the 1970s and Italy, as we watch a kung-fu movie with very little kung-fu, but a whole lot of one liners, as we watch the amazingly titled Mr. Hercules Against Karate. Join us as we discuss the lack of good martial arts, when this movie wears out its welcome, and compare it to all-time classic literature. Join our Patreon at just $1 a month. The Patreon page is now live and you can check it out at Patreon.com/TCTAMPod.Find us on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads @TCTAMPod and on TikTok @theycalledthisamovie.Our theme music was written and performed by Dave Katusa. He can be found on Instagram @dkat_productions.

Tom Young grew up on his family's farm in North Carolina. From a young age he was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of being part of a bomber crew during World War II. That helped to spark his interest in both flying and in service. Young served in the Maryland and West Virginia Air National Guard, serving as flight engineer for C-130 Hercules and C-5 Galaxy transport planes. Missions took him to the war zones in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also a military novelist and his latest work is The Mapmaker, which focuses on the French Resistance during World War II.In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Senior Master Sergeant Young tells us all about the C-130 and C-5, his role of flight engineer during flight, and coming under enemy fire in both Iraq and Afghanistan.Young also takes us into the world of the French Resistance, how it was so creatively organized, and the critical role it played in helping the Allies before and after D-Day. He also talks about how dangerous it was to be part of the resistance, especially in the face of the speakable cruelty of the Nazi Gestapo and SS forces towards the people of France

WHO PUT THE GLAD IN GLADIATOR!? HER-A-CLES! This week, the siblings are breaking down one of Carie's treasured favorites from the Disney Renaissance, Hercules (1997). Carie's inner Humanities student is rearing it's insufferable head this week for all of the incredibly sophisticated jokes in the script. Ross is having trouble with the mixed salad of Roman and Greek references. He's also predictably uncomfortable and entertained by James Woods as Hades, and Carie once again is testing Ross with her characterization of the film as "biconic." Also, this film did great things for himbos. Where are all of our soft buff men who just want to love us the way we deserve?  SUPPORT US ON PATREON!

Did you know Superman hates racism? It's true, he's been fighting against it for decades now! We're taking a look at Superman Smashes the Klan from 2019 by Gene Luen Yang and art by Gurihiru, which is not just set in the 1940s, but also based on an old radio play from the 1940s. As the Klan makes their presence known in Metropolis to scare away a new Chinese family, Clark learns more about embracing his alien origins. Then we continue Thunderbolts with issue #22, where Hercules comes in to cause some chaos. Next Time: Our Freakier Friday "Body Swap Special" Ultimate Spider-Man #66-67 (Spider-Man & Wolverine) Uncanny X-men #314 (Iceman & Emma Frost) Daredevil #37 (Daredevil & Dr. Doom)

We return to the sun bleached vistas of Australia for the third film in our Aussie Horror series in discussing Peter Weir's horror of manners weirdo classic, THE PLUMBER (brought to you by Lucas)! While we're in the Outback we discuss OnlyFans hypotheticals, spiritual journeys at music festivals, Lady Gaga, The Vista Theater, our actual plumbing needs in real life, and so so much more!    Go to patreon.com/SHUDcast where you can sign up for all kinds of extra goodies!   00:00 - 26:30ish - Intros: Foil trading cards, OnlyFans hypotheticals, Cody's spiritual trip to the Fire in the Mountains Music Festival, Curtis' similar excursion to Lady Gaga   26:30ish - 1:11:00ish - The other stuff we watched this time!   Curtis - The Batman, Batman Ninja vs Yakuza League, The Howling III: The Marsupials, Black Water, Sinners, Bramayugam, Bhoothakaalam, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Eddington, Cut, Alien Apocalypse, Out of Sight, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Happy Gilmore 2, Monster Island, Together, Clueless   Lucas - Sinners, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Together, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), Hercules in New York, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Wild Wild West, The Smurfs, The Expendables, Freaky Friday (2003), The Naked Gun (2025)   Austin - Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, The Mist, Final Destination: Bloodlines,    Cody - Bramayugam, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Together, I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Superman, The Mask of Satan, The Northman   1:11:00ish - 1:42:00ish - THE PLUMBER - SHUDdown and discussion!   142:00ish - End - The final film in “I Left My Heart in the Yabba” - Australian Horror Movies, this time brought to you by Cody!  

If you're not napping from 1:30pm-4:00pm daily, then its curtains I'm afraid.This week's episode has wonderful internet reviews for protein obsessed-people and their microwaveable pork rinds, holding lightning with Disney's Hercules (1997), honey stinger energy waffles (to offset a goo dependency), the implication of piss in Dumb and Dumber (1994), and a nasty bag of onions ordered off of Amazon. For the segment, we pay tribute to the Dark Prince himself on Momento Mori-view. Don't let the bed bugs bite!Want more party? Check it out at https://www.reviewpartydotcom.com/ !

"But now your task is to be Hercules and bear the heavy burden of disaster"After months in Middle-Earth we are heading back to ancient Greece for an anthology of adventures from everyone's favorite demigod. But...are the adventures even the heart of this story? Or is there a much deeper lesson to discover?Sign up for 'BTMC: Protagonist Edition', where you get EXTENDED VERSIONS of the episodes to take you even deeper into the story with more scenes, more lessons, and more of everything that makes the show what it is, as well as access to all of the Character Analysis episodes. Sign up link below: Get BTMC: PROTAGONIST EDITION: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://becomingmain.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠--GET THE FREE NEWSLETTER: "THE SCHOOL OF PROTAGONISM"Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@schoolofprotagonism⁠⁠FOLLOW BTMC FOR MORE GREAT CONTENT: Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/becomingmain⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/becomingmain⁠⁠⁠⁠

In his new book, The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Hispano-African Border(Stanford, 2019), Sasha D. Pack considers the Strait of Gibraltar as an untamed in-between space—from “shatter zone” to borderland. Far from the centers of authority of contending empires, the North African and Southern Iberian coast was a place where imperial, colonial, private, and piratical agents competed for local advantage. Sometimes they outmaneuvered each other; sometimes they cooperated. Gibraltar entered European politics in the Middle Ages, and became a symbol of the Atlantic Empire in the Early Modern period (the Pillars of Hercules of Emperor Charles V are featured on the Spanish flag to this day), but Pack's study focuses on the nineteenth century. Europe's new imperialism, Britannic naval supremacy, the age of steam, the ever-present danger of cholera, all mark the change of a Spanish-Moorish border into a multilateral one. So too does the multicultural mix of Europeans and North Africans, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and Protestants who brought a spirit of convivencia (mutual toleration) into the region, unlike the nineteenth- and twentieth- century homogenizing nationalism that was at play elsewhere. In the middle of this theater, Dr. Pack follows the careers of adventuresome entrepreneurs, who manipulated the weak enforcement of conflicting laws in overlapping jurisdictions for their own gain. He calls these characters “slipstream potentates” because they maneuvered creatively in the wakes of great ships of state on their courses in the seas of international politics. (Other historians have called them “the last Barbary pirates.”) They bring color and detail to this already gripping narrative of international politics in Spain and North Africa in the century between Napoleon and Franco. Sasha D. Pack is Associate Professor of History at the University of Buffalo. He studies Modern Europe, Spain and Portugal, and the Mediterranean, focusing on transnational and political history. Krzysztof Odyniec is a historian of the Early Modern Spanish Empire specializing in culture, diplomacy, and travel. He completed his PhD in 2017 at UC Berkeley where he is now a Visiting Scholar and a Fellow in the Berkeley Connect in History program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Episode No. 717 features artist Erin Shirreff, curator Davide Gasparotto, and conservator Ulrich Birkmaier. The Milwaukee Art Museum is presenting "Erin Shirreff: Permanent Drafts" through September 1. Across 40 recent collages, photographs, sculptures, and videos, the exhibition reveals Shirreff's interest in the space between images and the objects they picture. The exhibition was curated by Kristen Gaylord. Among the museums that have presented solo exhibitions of Shirreff's work are SITE Santa Fe, the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass., SFMOMA, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. "Artemisia's Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece" is at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles through September 14. The exhibition reveals conservation work done on Gentileschi's ~1635-37 Hercules and Omphale, a significant painting damaged in a massive explosion in Beirut in 2020. Birkmaier led the conservation of the work, which Gasparotto joined to four other Gentileschis in this exhibition, which particularly highlights Gentileschi's focus on strong women from the classical and Biblical traditions. Instagram: Davide Gasparotto, Tyler Green. Air date: July 31, 2025.

On today's show, we chat with two-time guest, Kevin Sorbo! Still beloved by audiences nationwide, “What If…” stars Kevin Sorbo, Kristy Swanson, John Ratzenberger, and Debby Ryan. Notably, “What If…” marks the first faith film for Jenkins and for Kevin Sorbo—an early signal of the impact Jenkins would later make on global faith audiences.  The story follows Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo), a businessman who abandoned his faith. One day, Ben wakes up living the life he was destined for—married to his college sweetheart (Kristy Swanson) and serving as a small-town pastor. Featuring memorable performances by John Ratzenberger and Debby Ryan, the film blends humor, heart, and a powerful family theme.  “Before ‘The Chosen,' this was the project that changed everything for me. ‘What If…' helped me realize the kinds of stories I want to tell,” said director Dallas Jenkins. “To this day I hear from people who loved it, so I was thrilled to reconnect with the cast so we could bring back this movie to a new audience.”  “Dallas Jenkins is a true visionary, and‘What If…' is where it all began, Fifteen years later – and after all of the profound success Fathom Entertainment accomplished with Dallas and his team on ‘The Chosen' – this is a terrific opportunity to revisit ‘What If…' with a special Fathom presentation,” said Ray Nutt, CEO of Fathom Entertainment. “Audiences are going to be moved by this film all over again—and the new reunion footage makes it even more meaningful for audiences to see it all on the big screen.”Kevin Sorbo is a distinguished American actor, producer, and director, renowned for his iconic role as Hercules in Hercules: "The Legendary Journeys".  His compelling charisma and strength have captivated audiences globally, solidifying his status as a versatile talent in the entertainment industry.  Transitioning into faith-based cinema, Kevin has dedicated his career to producing and starring in films that champion Christian values and family unity.  His works, including "God's Not Dead" & Let "There Be Light", demonstrate that movies reflecting traditional values can achieve significant box office success, inspiring and uplifting audiences www.fathomentertainment.com/releases/what-if-15-anniversary/sorbostudios.com@christianmusicguyschristianmusicguys.com

In this episode of Working Class Audio, Matt welcomes engineer and producer Mark Pistel. His extensive credits include influential work with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Consolidated, as well as notable collaborations with artists such as Meat Beat Manifesto, Grace Jones, Hercules and Love Affair, Chuck Prophet, Rykarda Parasol, Machines of Loving Grace, Holly Herndon, Los Mocosos, and many others. In This Episode, We Discuss: Growing up in Duluth Vibrant San Francisco Scene Sampler Revolution Disposable Heroes Album Production Jack Dangers Adapting to Industry Changes Union Work Links and Show Notes: https://www.markpistel.com Matt's Rant: Differences Credits: Guest: Mark Pistel Host/Engineer/Producer: Matt Boudreau WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell The Voice: Chuck Smith