Podcast appearances and mentions of King Arthur

What's the point of living in Italy and having a podcast on traveling in Italy if we're never going to talk about Italian legends? That's right, today we're talking about the [somewhat] famous Sword in the Stone, merely 45 minutes away from Siena. Yes, it's an actual sword in the stone! And yes, we know who put it there! There's also the fairly strong theory that it influenced the story of King Arthur's Excalibur. We're also talking about the nearby Abbey of San Galgano, nearly a shell of the gothic abbey it once was, it sits now a beautiful ruin you can visit. If you have any questions about your trip or if you have tips for fellow listeners, you can join our chat on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free or contact us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Want to support the podcast? You can join our Patreon! Check out all of our tiers—free and paid—here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/cw/theitalytravelpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For articles written by us about Italy, check out our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠onlyabag.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠If you'd like to support us by using affiliate links, but don't have the time to hunt them down, we have put them all in one place! Head over to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.onlyabag.com/affiliate-links⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and you can see all of the companies we have partnerships with and you can use them to support Only A Bag (which we deeply appreciate). Thanks for listening! xDarcy and Nathaniel

Author Amy Jeffs (Arthur: A New Life) joins us with the tale of King Arthur's most important quest: learning what (medieval) women want. As with a lot of Arthurian rambles, there's meandering aplenty. But thanks to the Loreboys, this retelling has more Super Mario references than you'd expect. Buy Amy's books here! Get tickets to Alasdair on tour - ⁠⁠⁠⁠Immediately!⁠⁠⁠⁠ Note: Amy would like listeners to know that she intended to cite Fairy Encounters in Medieval England by Jeremy Harte, but she said "Medieval Encounters in Fairy England" because the fairy queen swapped the words around before they made it out of her mouth. For Bonus Episodes and more join the LoreFolk at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ko-fi.com/loremen⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check the sweet, sweet merch here... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.teepublic.com/stores/loremen-podcast?ref_id=24631⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @loremenpod ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/loremenpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.instagram.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.facebook.com/loremenpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Poet Malcolm Guite, along with artist Stephen Crotts and editor Pete Peterson, will discuss the inspiration for and development of Merlin’s Isle, the epic poem cycle of the tales of King Arthur and his Knights, featuring early looks at Stephen’s artwork, and readings of the text from Malcolm. Moderated by Rabbit Room Press editor Pete Peterson.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A scholar, author, artist, and musician, Amy Jeffs is a polymath of British mythology, bringing the greatest stories of the Middle Ages to life in extraordinary books including Storyland, Wild, and Old Songs. She returns to the podcast to share a new life of King Arthur -- drawn not from Mallory's Morte d'Arthur, as most modern adaptations of his story are, but from older, darker, stranger, and more magical sources. This is a story you have never heard before: of a warlord and Roman Emperor, raised by fairies to conquer much of the known world. Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA.  Find out who's appearing near you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.     Become a Member: How To Plus members receive £15 off every live event ticket, free access to biweekly livestreams,  and an exclusive members-only podcast. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com/htasubscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nobunaga the Fool is the kind of mecha anime that dares you to laugh at the premise first and then surprises you with how hard it swings emotionally. Two worlds split into the Eastern Star and Western Star, a cosmic bond called the Dragon Pulse, and a war that drags legendary names into a new myth. We're rewatching it with fresh eyes and talking through what still holds up: the character designs, the giant battle armor fights, the weirdly charming humor, and the plot turns that refuse to play it safe.We spend most of our time on the people at the center of the storm. Nobunaga Oda starts as a brash “fool,” gets handed the powerful armor called the Fool, and ends up trapped in the series' best idea: the savior king who gets framed as a monster. Joan of Arc's visions, her disguise to fight in the Eastern Star, and her growing bond with Nobunaga add real weight to the prophecy angle. We also dig into Mitsuhide's loyalty and betrayal, Da Vinci's tarot-guided role in the journey, and why the show's constant sacrifices make the ending land as bittersweet instead of hollow.Then we zoom out to the political chaos: Ichihime and Julius Caesar's deal, Himiko's tragic support, Shingen's honorable clash that gets ruined by backstabbing, and the Western Star power players like King Arthur and Alexander. If you love historical figures reimagined, alternate history anime energy, and a mecha story that's willing to make its hero look like the villain, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a fellow mecha fan, and leave us a review. What's your rating for Nobunaga the Fool, and who was your favorite character?Text us for feedback and recommendations for future episodes!Support the showWe thank everyone for listening to our podcast! We hope to grow even bigger to make great things happen, such as new equipment for higher-quality podcasts, a merch store & more! If you're interested in supporting us, giving us feedback and staying in the loop with updates, then follow our ZONE Social Media Portal to access our website, our Discord server, our Patreon page, and other social media platforms!DISCLAIMER: The thoughts and opinions shared within are those of the speaker. We encourage everyone to do their own research and to experience the content mentioned at your own volition. We try not to reveal spoilers to those who are not up to speed, but in case some slips out, please be sure to check out the source material before you continue listening!Stay nerdy and stay faithful,- J.B.Subscribe to "Content for Creators" on YouTube to listen to some of the music used for these episodes!

Who first imagined King Arthur pulling a shining blade from solid rock? What do extraordinary Bronze Age discoveries reveal about the legend's deeper roots?Matt Lewis is joined by Amy Jeffs to uncover the surprising origins of the sword in the stone (and other Arthurian legends), tracing them from ancient Welsh poetry and Celtic folklore to medieval romance and Christian symbolism.MORE:King ArthurListen on AppleListen on SpotifyProphecies of MerlinListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcastHistory Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™Want even more Gone Medieval? Watch Matt and Eleanor's new film Medieval Summer on History Hit. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, I take a look back at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Summer 2026 and rate them. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store: FALLARMOR The coupon code is valid through September 21, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this fall, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 319 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is September the 4th, 2026, and today I'm looking back at the movies and streaming shows I watched over Summer 2026. We will also have Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Ghost Armor series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is FALLARMOR. As always, you can get the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through September 21st, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this fall, we have got you covered. Now an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report that the rough draft of Blade of Visions is done. It came to 99,000 words. It'd be kind of cool if it came to 100,000, but as I've learned in the 15 years I've been doing this, it's not a good idea to pad things for length. Editing is underway. I'm about 15% through the first pass of edits. I'm working on the cover design, so I'm on good track to have the book out before the end of the month. I also wrote a tie-in short story called Winter Crown and don't forget that [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of that short story when Blade of Visions comes out later this month. So this makes a very excellent time to subscribe to my new release newsletter. I am also 12,000 words into Elven-Warlock, which will be the seventh book in the Half-Elven Thief series. Hopefully that will be out in October, if all goes well. In audiobook news, I think Blade of Thieves (as narrated by Brad Wills) and Cloak of Worlds (as narrated by Hollis McCarthy) are now finally available at all the usual audiobook stores, which includes Audible, Apple, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play, Chirp, and all the others. So if you want to listen to those if you are going on a Labor Day road trip, you can check those out. A reminder that Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete LitRPG trilogy (narrated by C.J. McAllister) is also available on Audible, so check that out. That's 32 hours long and that would also cover all your Labor Day travels. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects. 00:02:22 Main Topic of the Week: Summer 2026 Movie Roundup So let's move on to our main topic this week. Our main topic this week is the Summer 2026 Movie Roundup and I always enjoy doing those. These episodes are a little less serious than some of the other episodes and it's fun to talk about things I enjoyed and that you might enjoy as well. And I did see a lot of new movies this summer. In fact, I went to the actual theater four times for Masters of the Universe, The Odyssey, Spider-Man, and Coyote vs. Acme, which is probably more than I've gone in a single season since before COVID times. So as usual, here are the movies I saw this summer (rated from least favorite to most favorite). The grades are totally subjective and based on nothing but my own thoughts and opinions. First up is The Breadwinner, which came out in 2026. This is basically standup comedian Nate Bargatze's act come to life as a movie. If you've seen Bargatze's standup, his usual routine is to portray himself as the dumb husband and bumbling Girl Dad, which is actually quite clever from a comedic standpoint since you're unlikely to have outraged mobs calling for your head if all you're doing is making fun of yourself. Anyway, Bargatze portrays Nate Wilcox, the best Toyota salesman in Nashville. (Don't worry, this is the first of only many product placement moments.) He lets his wife Kate manage the household and do the bulk of the work with their three daughters. When Kate's invention takes off on Shark Tank, she has to go to South Korea for two weeks to oversee manufacturing, leaving Nate in charge of the kids. Comedic chaos ensues. On the positive side of this movie, I did approve how this movie showed a married couple trying to work through a rough patch and do what's right for their kids and each other in a semi-productive way rather than blowing up their lives over nonsensical trivialities in the style of Eat, Pray, Love. On the downside, there was a lot of product placement, to the point where it at times felt like an extended commercial with bits of plot jammed in between product endorsement. No doubt most of the production budget came from product placement money. Will Forte was funny as an eccentric roofing contractor and Martin Herlihy as a shifty DoorDash employee. Kumail Nanjiani was funny as Nate's rival salesman at the car dealership. So overall, I would say this was blandly amusing and inoffensive with some funny slapstick moments. Overall grade: C- Next up is Supergirl, which came out in 2026. This movie really was sort of a strange combination of John Wick and the human trafficking subplot from 2020's Black Widow. The end result wasn't quite as good as Superman from 2025, alas. I did like this movie's interpretation of Supergirl. Kara Zor-El's departure from Krypton was way more traumatic than Superman's, so she's dealing with her unresolved emotional issues by traveling from planet to planet with red suns and getting hammered since the same yellow sun that gives Kryptonians their superpowers on Earth also keeps them from getting drunk because their bodies process alcohol too efficiently. However, Kara comes to a planet where a girl named Ruthye lives. Ruthye's family has been slaughtered by ruthless brigands yet led by Krem of the Yellow Hills and she's going on a quest for revenge. When Ruthye tries to recruit Kara for the quest, she's not interested, but then Krem steals Kara's spaceship and poisons her dog Krypto. Krem carries the antidote on his person, so now Kara and Ruthye team up to get vengeance on Krem and to heal Krypto. Krem is a nasty piece of work and he and his space gang travel from planet to planet abducting women to be their wives. I think the problem was that Krem was kind of a boring but nasty villain, but he was still boring. He was basically a space thug with too many piercings. Lex Luthor from 2025 Superman, by contrast, was a really interesting villain, this malignant narcissist who knows that his obsession with Superman is over the top, but he's going to act on it anyway. Additionally, I don't think this version of Supergirl is quite capable of being a lead character on her own. She'd make a superb secondary character, but I don't think she could quite carry a movie on her own. And Jason Momoa was pretty good as Lobo. Overall grade: C- Next up is Troy, which came out in 2004. I wanted to see this either before or after I watched The Odyssey this summer and ended up watching it the day before I went to see The Odyssey. I would say this movie was slow and ponderous, but I did enjoy watching it. This is an adaption of The Iliad and has the sort of slow stateliness of epic films from the '60s. It had good performances and good battle scenes. Brian Cox was enjoyable as a scenery chewing Agamemnon and Brad Pitt worked as Achilles. Interestingly, his version of Achilles reminded me of the interpretation of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen from Dune 2 as sort of a violent psychopath with his own twisted sense of honor. Oddly, despite the fact that this was rather a long movie, the ending seems a bit rushed, like we needed to hurry up and get to the Trojan Horse. It was amusing how Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was changed to "cousin" for the modern audience, but Greek views on sexuality would definitely be unpalatable with both right-wing and left-wing versions of the modern mind, which is a good thing because while the Greeks contributed a great deal to the development of civilization, they were into a lot of unsavory stuff. So overall, I would say this was a fun, epic movie, but I think this walked so the 2026 version of The Odyssey could run. Amusing fact: Christopher Nolan was apparently supposed to direct this, but the deal fell through and he got Batman Begins as a consolation prize instead. Overall grade: B- Next up is The Dink, which came out in 2026. This is an Apple TV comedy movie about pickleball of all things. I feel like this was made because some Apple executive got made fun of by some tennis players for playing pickleball and then decided to take revenge through media. Jake Johnson plays Dustin Boyd, a washed up former child tennis star who now works at his father's tennis club. The club has difficulties because of a growing influx of pickleball players who the hardcore tennis players hate. Dustin's father decides to use the club's bylaws to force a duel match to decide the issue, in the grand tradition of wacky comedy stakes. Dustin really wants to play the duel match, but his wrist is injured in an accident. To get his wrist mobility back, the doctor suggested he play some pickleball and Dustin views this as beneath him, but he really wants to play again, so he signs up for pickleball. This ends up being a wacky sports company/buddy movie as Dustin gradually befriends an eccentric older pickleball player. Ed Harris should really do more comedic roles. He was great as Dustin's stern, yet unscrupulous father. I do admire Apple TV's dedication to making random stuff. Overall grade: B- Next up is Green and Gold, which came out in 2025, and this is a melodrama about a farmer and his granddaughter dealing with the grim economic realities of farming. This is set in 1992/1993 era Wisconsin. Buck refuses to modernize his dairy farm in Door County, Wisconsin. His granddaughter Jenny is a talented musician and also a skilled farmer, and Buck wants her to take over the farm one day, but Jenny's ambitions are looking elsewhere. Events come to a head when Jenny realizes that Buck is deeply in debt to the bank, which is about to foreclose on the farm. However, Buck and the chief banker have a personal animosity, so they settle on a bet. If the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl title in 1993, the banker will give Buck one more year to turn things around on the farm. Meanwhile, Jenny begins to wonder if her music ambitions might generate the money to save the farm. Of course, if you are familiar with the history of the Packers, you know that they won a Super Bowl in 1996, not 1993. The movie has carried on the back of the very strong performances of its actors. It also has an ambiguously happy ending, as is true with so many things in farming. I like this movie because I've spent a lot of my life in the American Midwest, [and] I did appreciate how it shows the difficulties of the farming life. Also, this is important: a fall from a ladder is a plot point. Ladder safety is important, people! If you are going up a ladder, for heaven's sake don't climb the ladder in high heels like the character in question does. Wear sensible, well-fitting shoes with good soles. A very long time ago, I used to work with a guy who would climb extension ladders in cowboy boots. It is nothing short of the mercy of God that he didn't fall off and shatter half the bones in his body. Overall grade: B Next up is Grumpy Old Men, which came out in 1993. Apparently this is set in Wabasha, Minnesota, which is amusing because filming actually took place in several areas in the Twin Cities in Eastern Minnesota, but not actually in Wabasha. I found that personally amusing because I'm quite familiar with the area and so I recognize several filming locations. Anyway, the movie is about two retirees, Max and John, who are enemies and have been enemies for years, but Max is lonely and wants to get married again, and John is about to lose his house to the IRS due to tax problems. Things come to a head when an attractive literature professor moves across the street and both Max and John take an interest in her and start competing for her affections. However, it turns out that Max and John are actually best friends whose love language happens to be hatred and practical jokes, kind of like Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, but more on them below. This was a good character comedy/drama. It was interesting that the professor was an early version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, albeit several decades before someone came up with the term. This is worth watching both as a character and comedy drama and a time capsule of the 1990s. Sometimes a movie ages a bit badly (Airplane and the Thomas Crown Affair from the Spring Movie Roundup come to mind), but this didn't. The sequel Grumpier Old Men from 1995 is basically the same movie, but with the characters acting about 20% dumber so a sitcom style plot can happen. Still entertaining, but not as good as the first one, so Grumpier Old Men only gets a B-, but Grumpy Old Men gets a B+. Next up is Masters of the Universe, which came out in 2026. It was amusing to read reviews of this movie because people thought way too hard about a movie that is essentially about battling action figures. Anyway, this was pretty good. It was nice to see a movie about a science fiction property that doesn't actually hate the source material. Basically it's a live action version of the cartoons from the '80s, albeit with somewhat more thoughtful moments. I heard someone suggest that it was close in tone to Thor: Ragnarok, and that seems accurate. The plot is that Skeletor conquers Eternia and 10-year-old Prince Adam is sent with the Sword of Power through a magical portal to Earth to keep him and the sword out of Skeletor's reach. However, Adam loses the sword while passing through the gate and 15 years later is working in human resources. He's still seeking for the sword despite his therapist trying to convince him that it was a trauma-induced fantasy. However, his persistence pays off and he does find the sword. Teela, who is one of the resistance leaders against Skeletor's rule, comes to Earth to find him and bring him back, but Skeletor's minions arrive to claim the sword as well. Adam and Teela escape back to Eternia and it's up to Adam to find a way to use the Sword of Power to become the hero that Eternia needs. Dolph Lundgren's cameo was great. Overall, I would say this is a fun movie to watch, especially if you're a Millennial or Gen Xer who saw the cartoons or the live action movie back in the '80s. Jared Leto has something of an increasingly questionable reputation these days, but he did a good job as Skeletor, played him halfway between the solemn gravitas of the 1987 version and the malevolent comedic cornball of the cartoons. Of course, in my opinion, the Frank Langella version from 1987 is the best version of Skeletor since he placed it with all the seriousness of a Shakespearean villain monologue at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In hindsight, it wasn't terribly surprising that this underperformed at the box office. It felt like it was made for guys my age, not for kids. I would've been comfortable bringing an eight-year-old to see The Mandalorian and Grogu or Super Mario Galaxy, but I would've been less certain bringing a kid that age to see Masters of the Universe. Additionally, it seemed very Marvel in tone, and I think the overall mood of the US these days is less "Marvel Cinematic Universe quips and banter" and more sort of the grimness of The Odyssey, which we'll talk about shortly. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Young Washington, which came out in 2026, a biopic of the early life of George Washington, covering how he more or less accidentally started the French and Indian War and how he recovered his reputation at the Battle of Braddock's Field. To be fair, the international situation at the time meant that someone was going to start the French and Indian War. It just happened to be Washington, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Overall, I liked this. It was reasonably historically accurate, though some of the emotional and family dialogue at times was a bit clunky. Additionally, Washington was portrayed as having revolutionary leanings much earlier in life than he actually did, since when he was a young man, he had no thoughts of being anything but a British subject and officer. That said, some of the most implausible stuff in the movie actually happened in real life. Like if I were to write in a novel that the future president of the United States personally rallied the army's rear guard to save as many men as possible from an ambush, and in the process had two horses shot out from under him and ended up with bullet holes in his hat and coat (all while fighting continuously), you would probably find that a bit implausible, but it actually happened that way. Washington's daring actions during that battle were one of the reasons he was appointed commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, that and there weren't many other colonials with as much experience of military command as Washington. In that vein, the battle scenes were the best part of the movie. They captured the brutality and messiness of 18th Century warfare without being especially graphic. Anyway, I'm glad this is getting a sequel. Maybe we'll end up with a Young Washington Cinematic Universe. Overall grade: B+ Next up is Meet the Parents, which came out in 2000, and this is probably one of the apex forms of cringe comedy. Ben Stiller plays Greg Focker, a nurse who's in love with schoolteacher Pam Burns. Greg wants to marry Pam, but overhears a phone call with her sister where she says her fiancé asked permission of her traditional father first. Greg decides that he's going to ask Pam's father's permission first to get off on the right foot, and so accompanies Pam to her sister's wedding and her parents' house to, as the title says, Meet the Parents. However, Pam's father is the former CIA counterintelligence officer Jack, and he and Greg immediately get on each other's nerves. To make things worse, the airline has lost Greg's luggage. From these two starting premises follow a cascading series of hilarious disasters that accumulate in a septic tank fire on the lawn. I'm not sure, but I think I saw this one in the theaters when it came out in 2000, and I thought it was funny then. With 26 years of additional life experience under the belt, I still think it's pretty funny, though you could still tell that this movie was filmed before 9/11 because if Greg had his airport meltdown seen today, the consequences would've been much worse. Overall grade: B+ Next up is O Brother Where Art Thou, which came out in 2000. This is a very, very, very specific adaptation of The Odyssey directed by the Coen brothers. George Clooney plays Everett, a convict who escapes from a chain gang in Mississippi during the Great Depression. He wants to find a treasure and he recruits fellow convicts Delmar and Peter to assist him. Along the way, Everett and his team encountered 1930s era versions of the Sirens, the cyclops, the blind prophet Tiresias, and other characters and foes from the original Odyssey myth. Everett and his friends end up running a scam where they pretend to be a Christian music group, but as it turns out, they're actually pretty good at singing, so this leads to unexpected hilarity and opportunities. This was also a very funny movie. Imagine The Odyssey is a comedy with a lot of singing set in the Deep South during the Depression, and you're there. If you're a fan of bluegrass music, this is worth watching. If you've seen Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, it's worth watching this just to ponder how the same source material can produce such wildly divergent interpretations. If you don't care about The Odyssey, then this is still a fun movie to watch. Proof: I mentioned to someone that I had seen this and she responded that she both loved the movie and was surprised to learn that he had in fact been inspired by The Odyssey. Overall grade: A- Next up is Hoppers, which came out in 2026. Like most Pixar movies, this was very high concept. Unlike many recent Pixar movies, it wasn't too depressing and didn't disappear up its own tailpipe. In the city of Beaverton, hot tempered girl Mabel bonds with her grandmother in their favorite place, a woodland grove favored by beavers. Years later, Mabel is a biology student under Dr. Fairfax, but is neglecting her studies to face off against her nemesis, the popular yet sketchy Mayor Jerry of Beaverton. Mayor Jerry wants to build an expressway that will wipe out the woodland grove, and he's perfectly within his rights to do it since no animals have been found living there. Since Mabel's grandmother has died, she's unwilling to give up the grove. However, Dr. Fairfax's research might give her a way. Dr. Fairfax has worked out a way to temporarily transfer human consciousness to a robotic beaver capable of speaking to real beavers, much like the plot of Avatar. In a funny scene, Fairfax angrily denies that it's just like Avatar. Mabel gets the idea to use this to convince real beavers to settle in the grove, thereby thwarting Mayor Jerry's plans. This touches off both a wacky yet poignant adventure. The plot was very well structured and it followed the proper rules of story structure, which I've talked about before. Mabel definitely is a protagonist who takes action, but experiences setbacks and problems of her own creation. It was pretty good. I say it was a return to form for Pixar after some of their weaker movies in the 2020s. Overall grade: A Now it's time for my three favorite movies of summer 2026, all of which I actually saw in the theater. First up is Coyote versus Acme, which came out in 2026. This movie had an extra surge of popularity from the fact that Warner Brothers canceled it as a tax write-off, but distributor Ketchup Entertainment revived it. That makes it a plucky underdog since Warner Brothers senior executives are kind of like the apex version of soulless corporate bug men. Like if I wrote characters in my books who acted like Warner Brothers senior executives, people would think I was being didactic and heavy-handed. Anyway, after decades of failures in efforts to capture the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote decides to sue Acme Corporation for its numerous defective products. Coyote teams up with a lazy strip mall lawyer named Kevin Avery, who specializes in getting small settlements from Acme. However, Avery and Coyote end up filing a massive lawsuit against Acme, which means they'll face the full wrath of Acme Corporation, including its ace lawyer Buddy Crane and its ruthless CEO, Foghorn Leghorn. What follows is a comedic courtroom battle as Coyote and Avery try to defeat Acme Corporation, defeat its sinister plans, and Coyote starts to realize that Road Runner might actually be his best friend. Both quite amusing and touching, and I'm glad this was rescued from the tax write-off vault. Overall grade: A Next up is The Odyssey, which came out in 2026. This wasn't quite as good as Oppenheimer in 2023 in my opinion, but it was still very good and very much worth seeing. It was weird that The Odyssey was briefly a football in the never-ending US culture war scrum because the movie isn't really political and doesn't really have a message beyond "war is destructive and bad", which every sensible person would agree with, and a lesser message of "violating the law of morality has unforeseen cascading bad consequences, including the destruction of civilization", which is also quite true and was one of the themes of Oppenheimer. Nolan himself dismissed the controversies as "irrelevant" and "part of the territory" since no one had actually seen the movie yet, and given that The Odyssey has made a billion and a half dollars as of this recording, I think that may have proved his point. I imagine the scrutiny from Batman fans back in the 2010s was way more intense since in the modern era, many people care more deeply about the accuracy of Batman than The Odyssey. I do think the debate over the historical accuracy in The Odyssey is pointless because the Odyssey is myth, not history. The Iliad and The Odyssey are a lot like Arthurian myth in terms of their actual historicity. Even when Arthurian legend was massively popular with English kings and nobles in the late medieval and early modern period (for example, Henry VIII's older brother was named Arthur in imitation of King Arthur), the version of Arthurian myth they celebrated and wished to emulate had virtually no connection to the reality of Britain in the 500s AD and was instead a sort of fantasy version of their own time in the 14th and 15th centuries. By the time The Odyssey was written down, no doubt a similar process was underway. Both The Iliad and The Odyssey and the Arthurian cycle probably have a kernel of historical truth buried underneath the tales of magic swords, sirens, cyclopses, and vengeful witches with magic islands. There likely was a Romano-British warlord who might have been named Arthur (or possibly Ambrosius Aurelianus) who held off the Saxons for a while before he was overwhelmed and killed. Likewise, Heinrich Schliemann was a highly eccentric and very sketchy crazy rich guy, but he did prove that there really was some version of the city of Troy that was destroyed at the end of the Bronze Age. But everything beyond those basic details came from thousands of years of embellishments and flourishes from later poets and writers. So arguing about the historical accuracy of The Odyssey is a bit like arguing if Star Wars portrays faster than light travel in an accurate way. That kind of argument is just missing the point entirely. It's also interesting to see how modern standards clashed with the ancient mindset. You know how I always say that everywhere in the United States is exactly the same right until it really, really isn't? I think ancient people are just like us until they really, really weren't. Like ancient people would have been superstitious to an extent that even the most credulous crystal and aura influencer on TikTok would find horrifying and frequently violent in a way that the most strident self-defense advocate would find shocking. The Odyssey's version of Odysseus feels guilt and remorse over his actions in a way an actual ancient Greek probably wouldn't have, but so what? This is The Odyssey viewed through the lens of the 21st century, just as those English nobles viewed the myth of King Arthur and his knights through the lens of their time. As I mentioned with Troy above, the ancient Greeks were often quite brutal and would celebrate sacking an enemy city. One side note before we get to the movie, I probably found it funnier than I should have how Nolan favorably cited classicist Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey as a source, and Wilson then had an extended and unintentionally comedic multi-article crashout about how much she hated the movie and of course how much she hated the commemorative Trojan Horse popcorn bucket. Apparently Wilson hated the movie so much she's going to do a new translation of The Odyssey, much to her publisher's baffled dismay. No one does offended huffy petulance quite like an academic. Anyway, back to the movie. It follows the familiar story of Odysseus through Christopher Nolan's preference for non-linear storytelling and practical effects. I did think it was interesting how in this interpretation, Odysseus explicitly connected the ruse of the Trojan Horse with the collapse of the Bronze Age and the rise of the Sea Peoples. It's also probably the most supernatural film Nolan has ever done with actual fantasy and supernatural elements as opposed to science fiction like Inception, Tenant, and Interstellar. Odysseus talks to Athena throughout the movie and it's left up to the viewer's interpretation whether or not he's actually talking to Athena or his own guilt-ridden hallucinations. That said, Odysseus encounters a witch with actual magic powers and travels to the underworld to speak with the shades of the dead, so it's entirely possible he's talking to the actual Athena. In this version, as I mentioned, Odysseus is guilt-ridden over the ruse of the Trojan Horse, which is shown as a violation of the sacred hospitality of Zeus's law and as great a crime as the creation of the atomic bomb in Oppenheimer, which of course is similar to Oppenheimer, where Oppenheimer's creation of the atomic bomb is treated similarly. There are also some genuinely scary sequences in the movie. The bit with the underworld is very spooky, the cyclops is actually quite frightening, and the character of Circe reaches the level of scary previously attained by Heath Ledger's version of The Joker in The Dark Knight. If Nolan ever decides he wants to do a horror movie, it will probably be one of the scariest ones ever made. To sum up, The Odyssey has great performances, great spectacle, great cinematography, and great action sequences. As an interesting interpretation of the original myth, definitely worth seeing. I think you can tell it was a great movie because of all the arguments on the Internet about "what does it really mean?" Great art often has that effect. Overall grade: A The final of my three favorite movies of [Summer] 2026 is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which came out in 2026. There's a rumor, and I don't know if it's true or not, that Tom Holland found the experience of working with Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey so eye-opening that he insisted that if they made another Spider-Man movie, it had to have a reason for existing other than "make a lot of money". If this story is true, it clearly worked. Previously, I though the two best Spider-Man movies were Spider-Man 2 from 2004 and Spider-Man: No Way Home from 2021. I must now amend that opinion to say that there are three best Spider-Man movies and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is one of the three. It is pretty good. I would've trimmed it here and there, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and is an excellent Spider-Man story that totally captures the essence of the character within a good story. It takes place four years after the events of No Way Home erased everyone's memory that Peter Parker was Spider-Man. Peter has now been crime fighting full time, but it is taking a severe toll on his emotions and personal life that he's deliberately ignoring. Meanwhile, Spider-Man has become the beloved crime fighter of New York, trusted by both the NYPD and the Federal Department of Damage Control, which is a reoccurring frenemy for superheroes from other movies. When someone launches an attack on the headquarters of Damage Control, the director recruits Peter to fight their new enemy, a mysterious figure who uses telepathy to possess people from a distance. Peter is the only one who can sense it thanks to his spider sense, and he's also the only one able to resist the telepath's possession abilities. But despite his resistance to possession, fighting a telepath is a dangerous proposition for someone with as many emotional issues as Peter, and things start to spiral out of control when the telepath starts digging into his life. But there's another lesson Peter has to learn. People (and especially superheroes) who take the federal government at its word tend to regret it. For that matter, ignoring his emotional issues is causing Peter's spider powers to start acting in strange ways. But of course, at the end of the day, Spider-Man always follows his conscience, no matter how high the cost to him personally. Definitely an enjoyable movie. All the scenes with Spider-Man and Punisher were great, and the two of them had a great dynamic together. A few other Marvel Cinematic Universe people show up, but this is probably one of the most standalone movies the MCU has done in a while. Of course, the risk of MCU Continuity Lockout is always there (which is one of the reasons I started writing Half-Eleven Thief in 2023). Overall grade: A So I would say it was a pretty good summer for movies. It's also valuable lessons in not taking the Internet too seriously, which too many people do nowadays. There are all these dedicated analyses on X, Threads, and Reddit in June and May explaining why The Odyssey was going to fail for whatever reason, and instead it made $1.5 billion. So I think that's a good lesson in not taking everything you read on the internet a little too seriously. So that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show enjoyable. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.  

This week's stars tell the tale of King Arthur, and how, at this point in the cycle of the year, we're called to find our true north through the damp autumnal air and hazy veils of mist.

Was King Arthur real? or are we looking at history all wrong?If you think finding a 6th-century tomb solves the Arthurian legend, think again. Medievalist, artist, and author Dr. Amy Jeffs (author of Arthur: A New Life) joins host Paul Bavill to dismantle the obsession with "smoking gun" popular history. From giant-descended queens to shape-shifting wizards, the true power of King Arthur lies not in a single dead warlord, but in centuries of evolving folklore, political propaganda, and captivating mystery.In this episode, we explore:The Gloucester Cathedral Apprentice Bracket Myth: How medieval art history misreads grief vs. miracles.The Real Roots of Arthur: 9th-century Breton charters, early Welsh poetry, and monster-slaying heroes.Brute Chronicles & Propaganda: How medieval kings twisted myth to justify foreign conquests.The Dark Origin of the Round Table: Food fights, brutal executions, and baronial politics.Forgotten Women of Arthurian Legend: Morgan le Fay, Guinevere's lineage, and Merlin's sister.Stop reducing complex legends to simple answers—embrace the magic of historical mystery!Guest Info & Book Links:Buy the Book: Order Arthur: A New Life via the History Rage Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9781529431681Website: https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com/Instagram: @amyjeffs_authorLive Event: See Dr. Amy Jeffs live at the Gloucester History Festival (12th–20th September). Book tickets now at https://www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk.Recommended Episodes:Episode 322: Emily Hauser rages that there is no canonical version of The Odyssey.Episode 276: Nick Jubber rages that vampires are not Transylvanian.Follow & Support History Rage:Website: https://www.historyrage.comPatreon: Join for £3/month for ad-free listening, or £5/month for live streams, early releases, and the History Rage mug at https://www.patreon.com/historyrage.Apple Podcasts: Subscribe directly on Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes.Social Media: Follow @HistoryRage on Twitter/X, Instagram, and Facebook. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did King Arthur exist? Amy Jeffs isn't fussed. In this episode, the historian and artist behind Arthur: A New Life takes Dan Jones beyond Camelot and the search for a "real" Arthur, into a world of Welsh myth, Breton storytelling, medieval chronicles, haunted landscapes and hyperbolically violent kings. Together, they try to understand why one of Britain's most compelling legends has endured, and why centuries of writers, artists and dreamers keep remaking him. – If you want a deeper dive into the medieval world with Dan and Amy, grab their accompanying bonus episode at patreon.com/thisishistory. There, Amy shares her favourite absurd moments from medieval manuscripts, including the time when St Martin granted a woman's wish to see her husband covered all over in male genitalia. – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices – Presented by Dan Jones Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman Junior Producer - Dulcie Whadcock Executive Producer - Louisa Field Executive Producer - Dan Jones Production Manager - Jen Mistri Production Coordinator - Eric Ryan Head of Content - Chris Skinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

British actor Tim Curry died on August 26th at the age of 80. Celebrated for his infamous portrayal of Frank-N-Furter in the musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show, his decades-long career included many other roles on stage and screen. Among them, Mozart in Amadeus; King Arthur in the Monty Python musical Spamalot; and the evil clown, Pennywise, in a television adaptation of Stephen King's It. In a generous obituary, the BBC shared tributes from many friends and admirers in the arts. One was from comedienne Carol Burnett, who wrote on social media that "nobody could play lovable villains better than he could". And that is the Curry we are pleased to share with you in this special bonus podcast, in his deliciously chilling and seductive reading of Stephen O'Connor's "Ziggurat." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Vad händer om vi börjar mixtra med det förflutna? Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radios app. Tidsresor är ett ständigt återkommande tema inom science fiction. Men frågan om tidens natur och huruvida vi skulle kunna manipulera den gäckar även verklighetens filosofer och fysiker. Vad talar för – och emot – att resor fram- eller tillbaka i tiden skulle kunna bli möjliga? Och om vilka risker skulle det innebära om vi faktiskt lyckades?P3 Dystopia ger sig ut på en svindlande resa genom rumtiden och tittar närmare på allt från relativitetsteorin till maskhål och grandfather-paradoxen.Programledare och producent: Jennifer Sjöblom och Wendela AntepohlKällförteckningAndra P3 Dystopia-avsnitt som nämns: Alltings slut del 1 av 2 Alltings slut del 2 av 2Fri vilja Medverkande: Sean Carroll - teoretisk fysiker och professor i filosofi vid Johns Hopkin UniversityEmily Thomas - professor i filosofi vid University of DurhamUlf Danielsson - professor i teoretisk fysik vid Uppsala UniversitetLjudklipp: ABC News: Is time travel possible? Big Think: A physicist reveals how time travel is possible Carl Sagan's Cosmos: Episode 8: Travels in Time and SpaceBöcker och filmer: The Tomorrow WarInterstellarAvengers: EndgameDr StrangeDarkSpiderman: Into the spider-verseThe Time Machine, film från 1960 och bok av H.G. WellsA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court av Mark TwainArtiklar/källor i urval: The shape of time (Emily Thomas, 2020)No, Thermodynamics Does Not Explain Our Perceived Arrow Of Time (Forbes, 2019)The Philosophy of Joseph Priestley's 1765 Timeline: Abstract Ideas, Time, and Human Progress (History of Philosophy Quarterly, 2023) Joseph Priestley Created Revolutionary “Maps” of Time (Humanities, 2024)Time (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002)Time and Truth: The presentism-Eternalism debate (Cambridge University Press, 2009) Newton's philosophical analysis of space and time (Cambridge University Press, 2009)Around-the-World Atomic Clocks: Predicted Relativistic Time Gains (Science, 1972)Optical Clocks and Relativity (Science, 2010)Firarvecka för Einsteins teori - men hur funkar den? (Vetenskapsradion, 2015)Redshifted civilizations, galactic empires, and the Fermi paradox (Acta Astronautica, 2026)Bananas Enough for Time Travel? (The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1997) Quantum principle of relativity (New Journal of Physics, 2020)Superluminal observers do not explain quantum superpositions (Physics Letters A, 2023)What Is Time? | Professor Sean Carroll Explains Presentism and Eternalism (The Great Courses, 2018)Så kommer människor att resa i tiden – här är metoderna som funkar (Vetenskapsradion, 2025)Musik:Theodore Shapiro – Safely SituatedTheodore Shapiro – TokensGustavo Santaolalla – Forgotten MemoriesTheodore Shapiro – Tree of LifeKid Loco – Theme from the Graffiti ArtistCher – If I Could Turn Back TimeJon Brion – You LearnBen Prunty – Engi (Explore)Ludwig Göransson – SirensMarcus Bagalà – Boxes: Bittersweet ClosureJon Brion – StorybookErik Satie – GnossienneKlaus Badelt – Opening Titles (Professor Alexander Hartdegen)Silver Maple – Particle EmissionSilver Maple – Quantum MechanicsJay Varton – My Kind of IllusionMax Anson – Secret LightCliff Martinez – Rubber HeadHans Zimmer – Cornfield ChaseTerekke – ArrpfadedHans Zimmer – Tick TockMarcus Bagalà – Cascading BellsDJ Shadow – Stem Long StemBen Frost – Alles Ist Miteinander VerbundenMarcus Bagalà – Frets: Problem, After ProblemJeff Beal – I Think I Smell GasClint Mansell – DreamsBlue Dot Sessions – Lemon and Melon

pWotD Episode 3403: Tim Curry Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 3,081,968 views on Wednesday, 26 August 2026 our article of the day is Tim Curry.Timothy James Curry (19 April 1946 – 25 August 2026) was an English actor and singer. From 1973 to 1975, he portrayed Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the musical The Rocky Horror Show, and reprised the role for its 1975 film adaptation The Rocky Horror Picture Show.Tim Curry started his career in the West End production of the musical Hair (1968–1969). He went on to be nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his roles as The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance (1982) and King Arthur in Spamalot (2006–2007). On Broadway, he earned three Tony Award nominations, his first for Best Actor in a Play for his role as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1980–1981) and followed by two nominations for Best Actor in a Musical for My Favorite Year (1992–1993) and Spamalot (2005).Curry received acclaim for his onscreen roles, Rooster Hannigan in Annie (1982), Darkness in Legend (1985), Wadsworth in Clue (1985), the Concierge in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers (1993), and Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996). He also took roles in The Worst Witch (1986), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Congo (1995), Charlie's Angels (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), and Kinsey (2004).On television, Curry portrayed Pennywise in the miniseries It (1990) and was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for playing a family of Hillbillies in Tales from the Crypt (1993). His numerous voice roles include his Daytime Emmy Award-winning performance as Captain Hook on Peter Pan & the Pirates (1990–1991), Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), Sir Nigel Thornberry in The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004), and Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2012–2014). A reader for numerous audiobooks, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his reading of A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (2002). As a singer, Curry released three rock-focused studio albums: Read My Lips (1978), Fearless (1979), and Simplicity (1981). He released his memoir Vagabond in 2025.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:56 UTC on Thursday, 27 August 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Tim Curry on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Bluesky at @wikioftheday.com.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Matthew.

Fifth-time guest Lisa Harper is back — fresh off a whirlwind trip through England, Wales, the Netherlands, and Scotland, and still nursing the jet lag. Between hug-ministry theology, Levi's 75-day merino wool shorts experiment (Lisa remains skeptical), and a surprise moment praying with a stranger in a London store, the conversation turns to Lisa's new book on the Song of Songs — unpacking how the Bible's most intimate book taught her that God delights in her, brokenness and all. Connect with us on social! Lisa: @lisadharper Levi: @levilusko Jennie: @jennielusko Fresh Life Church: @freshlife [Links] Get Lisa's book, Song of Songs: The Love We Long For: https://bit.ly/4xQn2MY Visit Lisa's website: https://bit.ly/3UAIS8W Get the 5 Gallon Bucket: https://bit.ly/sdl4sHY Get the Lusketeer Sticker: https://bit.ly/sdl4sHY Subscribe for more exclusive content: https://levilusko.com/hitl-subscribe Time Stamps: 00:00:00 – Lisa's fifth visit and the great HITL guest rankings 00:01:37 – Confessions of a hug-ministry professional 00:08:28 – Levi's 75-day merino wool shorts experiment 00:11:19 – Praying with a stranger in a London store 00:14:09 – King Arthur's Seat and an accidental royal garden party 00:19:46 – Introducing her new book, Song of Songs: The Love We Long For 00:24:53 – Why the bride's voice matters more than we think 00:36:47 – Favorite vignettes and the Song of Songs sequel jokes 00:46:17 – Closing thoughts on intimacy, bruises, and redemption

Fifth-time guest Lisa Harper is back — fresh off a whirlwind trip through England, Wales, the Netherlands, and Scotland, and still nursing the jet lag. Between hug-ministry theology, Levi's 75-day merino wool shorts experiment (Lisa remains skeptical), and a surprise moment praying with a stranger in a London store, the conversation turns to Lisa's new book on the Song of Songs — unpacking how the Bible's most intimate book taught her that God delights in her, brokenness and all. Connect with us on social! Lisa: @lisadharper Levi: @levilusko Jennie: @jennielusko Fresh Life Church: @freshlife [Links] Get Lisa's book, Song of Songs: The Love We Long For: https://bit.ly/4xQn2MY Visit Lisa's website: https://bit.ly/3UAIS8W Get the 5 Gallon Bucket: https://bit.ly/sdl4sHY Get the Lusketeer Sticker: https://bit.ly/sdl4sHY Subscribe for more exclusive content: https://levilusko.com/hitl-subscribe Time Stamps: 00:00:00 – Lisa's fifth visit and the great HITL guest rankings 00:01:37 – Confessions of a hug-ministry professional 00:08:28 – Levi's 75-day merino wool shorts experiment 00:11:19 – Praying with a stranger in a London store 00:14:09 – King Arthur's Seat and an accidental royal garden party 00:19:46 – Introducing her new book, Song of Songs: The Love We Long For 00:24:53 – Why the bride's voice matters more than we think 00:36:47 – Favorite vignettes and the Song of Songs sequel jokes 00:46:17 – Closing thoughts on intimacy, bruises, and redemption

This relaxing bedtime story is designed to guide you into deep sleep and even deeper dreams. Beneath the still surface of a lake, hidden from the world above, an enchantress raised a boy who would become the greatest knight that ever lived, and when Merlin- the most powerful wizard in the world- grew weary, The Lady Of The Lake wove him into the heart of an ancient tree. In doing so, she granted the wizard the deepest, most peaceful sleep he had ever known. Tonight, allow her to do the same for you.This episode begins with a brief guided sleep meditation to help you wind down, settle into your body, release tension, and let go of the day- before the story gently takes over and carries you the rest of the way to sleep. From there, you'll drift into the Arthurian legend of the Lady of the Lake- one of the most mysterious and powerful figures in mythology. From raising Lancelot in her kingdom beneath the water to gifting Excalibur to King Arthur and granting Merlin an enchanted rest within the roots of an ancient oak, her story is one of quiet power, deep magic, and the kind of peace that only comes when you finally surrender to sleep. Narrated by a relaxing female voice with soft background music playing throughout.If the most powerful wizard in history needed someone to help him rest, perhaps you are allowed to let someone help you too. Tonight, let the Lady of the Lake do what she has done for centuries- wrap you in enchantment and guide you gently into sleep.Perfect when you need; A calming bedtime story with a guided sleep meditation to help you wind down Arthurian legend and mythology told as a soothing sleep story Sleep stories for adults with relaxing music To quiet an anxious or overactive mind at bedtime A relaxing alternative to guided sleep meditation or sleep affirmations Folklore, fantasy, and ancient legends to help you fall asleep fast Help with insomnia, overthinking, or restless nights Bedtime stories narrated by a relaxing female voiceClose your eyes, and let the ancient magic woven into her story carry you into sleep tonight.New episodes are out every week on Breathingspace- Meditation for Sleep and Relaxation. If this episode helped you find calm and fall asleep, make sure to hit the follow button so you can find your way back here for more guided deep sleep meditations, soothing sleep affirmations, calming sleep hypnosis, and gentle bedtime stories. ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨If you're struggling with anxiety, and feel you need a little extra support, download my course From Panic to Peace,by clicking the link below, and learn the techniques to build lasting calm into your life.From Panic to Peace: https://breathingspace.gumroad.com/l/udobcz✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨Thank you for listening,Sam Jarvis Host @ BreathingspaceBreathingspace is a weekly sleep meditation podcast hosted by Sam Jarvis, featuring guided deep sleep meditations, soothing sleep affirmations, calming sleep hypnosis, manifestation audio, and gentle bedtime stories- all narrated by a relaxing female voice with soft background music. Designed to help you ease anxiety, calm your nervous system, stop overthinking, and fall asleep fast. Whether you're struggling with insomnia, stress, racing thoughts, burnout, or restless nights- press play, close your eyes, and let Breathingspace help you find calm and fall asleep. New episodes every Sunday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Synergy to Synastry time machine is on the move again and, this time, is calibrated to a very different era ☘️ Join Renee for the third and final cultural exploration of the season: Celtic Lore. Get ready for some Gaelic and Irish words because this episode is chock-full of them! Discover the expansive timeline and geography of the Celtic influence, hear about legends like King Arthur and Merlin, as well as gods and goddesses who have shaped other cultures discussed this season. You'll also learn about classic motifs in Celtic lore, the Sacred Seven Trees, and how to interpret Celtic Astrology based upon your birthday! Let's branch out and connect to spiritualism with incredibly deep roots 

Happy feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux! On today’s show, Matt Swaim and Anna Mitchell welcome Kris McGregor to share wisdom from St. Bernard that shows up in the Office of Readings. Other guests include Gary Michuta with more Messianic prophecies, pastoral counselor Kevin Prendergast, and Rita Heikenfeld with Bible Foods. Plus news, weather, sports, and more… ***** The Memorare of St. Bernard of Clairvaux Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,that never was it knownthat any one who fled to thy protection,implored thy help,and sought thy intercession,was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence,I fly unto thee,O Virgin of virgins, my Mother,to thee I come,before thee I stand sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate!despise not my petitions,but, in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen. ***** RECIPES FROM RITA: ZUCCHINI BREAD Double chocolate zucchini bread/cake Ingredients:1 -1/2 cups shredded zucchini1 cup all purpose flour – I use King Arthur unbleached1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted1 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon baking powder1/4 teaspoon salt1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon1/4 teaspoon allspice1/2 cup canola oil1/2 cup sugar1/2 cup light brown sugar2 large eggs1 teaspoon vanilla3/4 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips Instructions:Preheat oven to 350. Spray 9 x 5 loaf pan. Set aside shredded zucchini. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside. Beat oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until well blended and fold in zucchini. Add flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Fold in chips. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Place on wire rack to cool 10 minutes, then remove and finish cooling. Large Batch moist and marvelous zucchini bread with Chai essence Ingredients:3 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (squeeze moisture out before measuring and pack zucchini firmly into measuring cups)3 cups sugar1-1/2 cups vegetable oil – I used canola4 large eggs2 teaspoons vanilla3-1/4 cups all purpose flour1 teaspoon cinnamon2-3 teaspoons dry Chai tea blend – 2 will give a mild taste; 3 a more robust taste2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt1-1/4 cups chopped nuts – optional – I used toasted pecans InstructionsPreheat oven to 350.Spray 2 large loaf or 3 regular loaf pans.Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes.Combine flour, cinnamon, Chai blend, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nuts together. Add to zucchini mixture and blend well.Pour into prepared pans. Bake on middle rack 45 minutes to one hour or until done. A toothpick inserted deep into center will come out clean. My 2 large loaf pans took 55 minutes to bake. Tips:Ball bat sized zucchini works great If you grow zucchini, you know it can go from slender to ball bat size seemingly overnight. Overgrown zucchini has good flavor and shreds up just fine. Can you peel zucchini? I don’t, but Cheryl Bullis, a professional baker from Clermont County, does peel her zucchini before measuring. Squeeze hard to get moisture out. Zucchini is notorious for a high moisture content which can make batter too runny. Add nuts to dry ingredients; This insures that the nuts stay suspended throughout the bread and prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf. ***** Full list of guestsSupport the show: https://www.sacredheartradio.com/donate-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We welcome back guest Tim (@terrificbroth.bsky.social) to talk about Chainsaw Man The Movie - Reze Arc. We also talk about Japanese fashion words, Army of Darkness, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hellsing, zoetropes, and expensive purchasing habits. | Follow us on Apple Podcasts | Support us on Patreon | Follow us on BlueSky | We're on Threads/Instagram | Subscribe to us on YouTube | Join the fan Discord

“Our language is valuable, and we've gotta hold on to that. That's the most human thing we have.” — Jeff Jarvis Last week, to celebrate episode 3,000 of the show, the New York Times' Sam Roberts articulated the art of the obituary. Borrowing from Citizen Kane, he described it as the Rosebud method. Obits are all about life (death only figuring as an afterthought), Roberts explained, so hunt for the moment which defines that life. Today's show is a kind of obituary of that type. Only it's about the life of a machine and the mass media that emerged in its wake. In Hot Type, tech historian Jeff Jarvis introduces us to the magnificent late 19th century machine that not only gave birth to industrial mass media, but also bankrupted Mark Twain. It's the history of the Linotype, the machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler that ended four hundred and fifty years of setting type, as Jarvis puts it, “one damn letter at a time.” It's an extraordinary story. Before the Linotype, American daily newspapers were limited to a 4,000 circulation. First installed at the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886, the Linotype scaled print, thereby enabling the age of mass circulation newspapers, magazines and books. It appeared so infinitely scalable that Mark Twain poured his entire family fortune into its doomed rival, the Paige Compositor. He lost all his money, of course, making it his Rosebud moment — Citizen Twain, so to speak. But for the rest of us, Mergenthaler's magnificent type machine was so hot that it revolutionized 20th century culture in the same way that AI is now revolutionizing 21st century reading and writing. The art of obituary. A description of life, not death. Five Takeaways •       One Damn Letter at a Time. For four hundred and fifty years after Gutenberg, virtually every word in every language was set by hand, one letter at a time — which is why the average American daily circulated just 4,000 copies, “a small Substack newsletter.” Steam-powered presses, cheap wood-pulp paper, stereotyping, and the telegraph had solved every other bottleneck; the typesetter with a composing stick was the last. More than 300 typesetting machines failed before Ottmar Mergenthaler — a Baltimore watchmaker who knew nothing about printing, prodded by James O. Clephane, once a stenographer in Lincoln's cabinet — had the eureka: stop imitating hand-setting and mold entire lines of type at once. Installed at the New York Tribune on July 3, 1886, the Linotype made type fresh for every edition, let print catch up with the telegraph, and gave birth to mass media.•       The Union That Didn't Smash the Machine. The book's great labor surprise: the typesetters didn't fight the typesetting machine. Having studied the Luddites' defeat, the International Typographical Union sent spies into the Tribune's composing room, concluded the Linotype was inevitable, and demanded to operate it — with Mergenthaler's blessing. Thirty thousand jobs disappeared, returned to full strength within five years, and grew for seventy-five more, making the ITU America's most powerful union. Then came wave two — paper tape, computers that could hyphenate and justify, cold type, PostScript — and this time the union fought: six of nine New York papers died in the strikes, Bert Powers traded automation for lifetime job guarantees (the last holder retired from the New York Times around 2012), and Murdoch's secret Wapping plant ended Fleet Street — a century, almost exactly, after machine number one. The two lessons: take charge of the technology if you can; if it will replace you outright, find something else to do.•       The Machine That Drove Twain Mad. Mark Twain wanted to be filthy rich and stop writing — so he poured his fortune, and his wife's family coal fortune, into the Paige Compositor, the Linotype's brilliant, doomed rival: only two ever built, the sole survivor sitting in the basement of Hartford's Mark Twain House looking like “a railroad with nowhere to go.” Bankruptcy followed — a far deeper shame in the nineteenth century — and Twain repaid every debtor. Jarvis reads the scars in the fiction: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ends with technology destroying technology in an Armageddon of Camelot; the unfinished No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger conjures strange beasts endlessly duplicating pages — scale itself as nightmare. He lost all his money, of course — his Rosebud moment, as Andrew puts it, borrowing from Sam Roberts' art of the obituary on episode 3,000. The machine robbed Twain not of his humor, Jarvis concludes, but of his love of technology. The biopic pitch: Citizen Twain.•       From One Gilded Age to Another. The Linotype era bridges Twain's Gilded Age — tycoons of steam, steel, and wire — to ours, with its barons of bits and AI. Whitelaw Reid, the book's villain and the first capitalist media mogul, used the machine against his own union and predicted newspapers would never exceed eight pages (completely wrong); Frank Munsey invented the attention economy at a dime a copy — content as honey, audience as product, a model that ruled mass media and infected the Internet. Today's moguls fare no better in Jarvis's telling: Altman selling “vending machines for intelligence” that actually dispense compute, Amodei “the paragon of safety” with a skewed definition of it, all chasing the Valhalla of AGI, “pure BS.” His hope: open-weight models to check the frontier companies. His warning against banning them: guardrails are a fool's errand — the printing press was a general machine, and nobody could tell Gutenberg to keep it from Martin Luther.•       Words Matter, Damn It. The through-line from Jarvis's blog post to the book: language is the most human thing we have. His objection to Anthropic's watermark isn't Keith Teare's shame argument — it's that a scheme treating “overcast” and “gray” as interchangeable declares all language fungible, “a cultural statement damaging to our craft.” His own AI practice is disclosed down to a confessional footnote in Hot Type for a single borrowed phrase: Gemini may pull facts (“don't write for me”), but what you express must be what you want to express. The typewriter shaped Nietzsche and made Hemingway; the newsroom computer made Jarvis an editor more than a writer; Quark made everyone typesetters — “in the end, it was all still me.” Against Kirschenbaum's gray goo, he holds up Pope Leo (work brings dignity; not a Luddite) and poetry itself. Hot type revolutionized 20th century culture the way AI is now revolutionizing 21st century reading and writing. The art of obituary: a description of life, not death — and the most human thing we have is the words. About the Guest Jeff Jarvis is the Emeritus Leonard Tow Professor of Journalism Innovation at CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. The creator and founding managing editor of Entertainment Weekly, he has been TV critic for TV Guide and People, Sunday editor of the New York Daily News, and a media columnist for The Guardian. His books include What Would Google Do?, The Gutenberg Parenthesis, Magazine, and The Web We Weave; he blogs at Buzzmachine...

Margrave Juro's mission takes him and Kara to Binbin while Nawaam prepares to unleash his super weapon on the galaxy in the second episode of The Ninth Jedi.   In this fully armed and operational episode of Podcast Stardust, we discuss: Our overall non-spoiler thoughts on "A Secret Weapon," How Margrave Juro's quest to recruit allies is a bit like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Similarities between this episode of The Ninth Jedi and Lord of the Rings (plus a *shocking* confession from Jay), The "incident" that lead to Lah Zhima's banishment from Binbin, Our thoughts on what Lah Zhima's motivation might be, Who Nawaam is and how he reminds us of other Star Wars villains, and Nawaam's Kyber Crystal Cannon. For more discussion of The Ninth Jedi, check out episode 1069.   Thanks for joining us for another episode and our brand of Star Wars discussion! Subscribe to Podcast Stardust for all your Star Wars news, reviews, and discussion wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts.   Find Jay and her cosplay adventures on J.Snips Cosplay on Instagram. Follow us on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube. T-shirts, hoodies, stickers, masks, and posters are available on TeePublic. Find all episodes on RetroZap.com.

Hello Cromrades, and welcome to our latest season which takes place in storied Camelot! We will be reading and analyzing various stories featuring the one and only King Arthur and his various comrades. We begin today with the first half TH White's incomparable "The Sword in the Stone". Join us, won't you?    One Things! Luke: "Pressure" Starring Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower Josh: Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Jonathan: Would I Lie to You?   Questions? Comments? Curses? Call us at (859) 429-CROM! Did you know that we're on Facebook? We're posting photos on the Instagrams! Or, check us out on Apple Podcasts! (or your podcast player of choice!) Legal Mumbo-Jumbo Our episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 'Tyrant' theme by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Outro: "Merlin's Time" by Al Stewart. Music obtained legally; we hope our discussion of this content makes you want to go out and purchase the work! 

Kelsey Lee, owner of Potluck Kitchenware Store in Ely, Minnesota, shares how her business navigated the challenges of wildfires, the unique culinary traditions of the Northwoods, and the importance of community and learning. Discover her insights on store curation, local culture, and must-have kitchen tools.A few items mentioned in the Podcast available at POTLUCKPierogi Love and The Elements of BakingVisit Ely, Minnesota for fun things to do year-round! Whether you are looking for a place to stay, a delicious meal, a hiking trail, or an immersion experience, we have businesses ready to meet your needs.Original Transcript Follows:Stephanie Hansen (00:01.176)Hello everybody, welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space. And today I'm with Kelsey Lee. She is the owner of Potluck Kitchenware Store. And Potluck is in Ely, Minnesota, which is my second home. And I've been doing a little mini-series to help people get familiar with some of the businesses that have been impacted by the wildfires this summer. The wildfires, as we currently stand, are in a high form of containment.Smoke in the town has been virtually non existent and people are coming back to Ely, but it has been a dramatic turn in what was looking to be a great summer. Welcome to the program, Kelsey.Kelsey Lee (00:41.088)Thank you so much for having me on.Stephanie Hansen (00:44.2)What does it feel like when, you know, you're starting out on your summer and July fourth has just happened and something that you couldn't have predicted as a business owner, like a wildfire comes into town?Kelsey Lee (00:50.389)it feels like such a jolt and especially with wildfire there's a there's this sense of kind of unknown danger known but unknown danger and i this was the first summer of wildfires that were quite close to town during my time of owning the business the last time we had any a wildfire anywhere near potluck or elite largeI was an employee of Potluck. I wasn't the owner. So I was making, I was sort of executing on decisions as opposed to making them myself. So, you know, your first thought is about air quality and evacuation zones and all of that. And then sort of secondarily you wonder if it means the end of the season. And for me this year, that was an especially weighty question because what I've seen over the last couple of years is that our what whatis commonly known as our summer season, actually extends quite far into the fall. I've seen growing sales numbers in September and October over the last couple of years. And so you really don't want to see your season kind of come to a close when really it's like just getting started. But I'm really happy to say that what I've seen is very much to the contrary. This so two weekends ago on what would have been our blueberry art festivalI saw huge numbers of people in town. I had amazing sales. I've talked to other business owners who had a similar experience. So it feels like our kind of recurring visitors and also our seasonal residents have really rallied to support Ely. and I personally am just so grateful for all of the messaging around Ely is open for business, like conditions here are safe, we welcome you, we encourage you to do your Christmas shopping. all of thatfor in my case and the case of many of the retailers I've spoken to has just been incredibly successful.Stephanie Hansen (02:59.584)It's kind of funny because I am a person that does a reverse commute. I my husband lives in Ely in the summer and I usually head there on Saturday in the afternoon and come home on like a Monday or a Tuesday. And the air quality in the Twin Cities has actually been worse than in Ely. So it's it's been a kind of a strange summer.How hard is it? So you have a great selection of cookbooks. You really do a great job of curating. You've got all the cast iron things that one would expect at a kitchen store in the Northwoods, but you've also got beautiful dishware, some small appliances, all the cute funny towels and napkins and cocktail and entertaining things that you might use at the cabin. How do you curate the store?With such a big percentage of folks being summer residents, does it change?Think it's a really interesting challenge. I actually love doing the buying for the store. I do it all myself because my market really exists as like three segments. And over the years of working here and then being an owner-operator, I've really gotten to know those segments by their general characteristics, but also individuals, right? So I'm getting feedback and product requests and things all the time. and so I think of my customer market as being comprised of seasonal residents. So people who come up for the summer, like you you have a s you have a second home, you have a second kitchen, you're hosting, you're cooking, you are really looking for anything you would be looking for at your main home in your kitchen, right? So like I'm I'm stocking a lot of the supplies that series cooks and bakers need on a regular basis. And then my second market are what I would say what I would call are are kind of like pass-through visitors orAre guests of the seasonal residents. So these people, they're looking for souvenirs, they're looking for hostess gifts. For those folks, the size and weight of items is very, very important. People are looking for something to tuck into their luggage, or they're looking for like a last-minute gadget or something to use on a boundary waters trip. So that's maybe the most varied kind of use case scenario in that second group.and then my third segment are my year-round residents. and their needs vary quite a bit as well. they comprise just a huge percentage of my holiday market, which has been great that we've brought in more holiday specific things, both decor, but really mainly all of the specialty holiday baking over the last few years. and the local market has just grown and grown as I've learned what people are making. and what they need in the kitchen around that time of year.Stephanie Hansen (05:55.673)What do you find are people making? Is it different than what you expected? Like are you, you know, is it bunt pans and cast iron or is it sourdough accessories andKelsey Lee (06:09.55)Yeah, huge. I sell huge numbers of Benettons and LOMS and proofing containers and all of that for sourdough. Sourdough is big year-round, I think is really exciting to say. but what I find most exciting is that especially around the holidays, the cultural culinary traditions of this area really come alive. So people are asking for things for lefsa orSandbuckles or I'm sure I didn't say that quite right. or petitsa, of course. and so it's fun to try to as I'm accommodating those requests, learn about which families have which culinary heritage, you know, and over time you sort of learn like, yes, this family, they make leftsa on Black Friday or the Saturday or whatever. So we really have a surprisingrange of not only wants, but really needs, you know, because many people in this area are making all of their bread from scratch. They're making all of their yogurt. They are participating in, you know, a CSA or they're taking like a butchering class at the folk school. And so the needs really vary, which just makes it exciting from a buying standpoint.Stephanie Hansen (07:24.78)I've been going to Ely for 35 years. and I can say that the culinary world there has expanded and changed, with the folk school certainly offering more classes, but also I think during COVID, a whole new type of person moved into Ely, younger folks, more families.I have seen a lot more people coming from either coasts and coming for the water, the nature, and just the lovely changing of the seasons in Ely. Has that changed things for you or made it more interesting?Kelsey Lee (08:03.153)Yes, much more interesting.And over the last year I've really solidified a partnership with the folk school in terms of not only sponsoring all of their nourishment program areas, but just increased communication with them about upcoming cooking classes. and this last spring we collaborated on a pie dough making workshop at one of the like spring women's retreats at YMCA Camp du Nord up here. so I II see the folk school as being really a critical kind of partner for people, for me to grow awareness of my business, but also as far as preserving and sharing the culinary traditions of this area.Stephanie Hansen (08:52.471)The director of the folk school, Lucy, is my daughter's WIDJI sister. They went on a a long camping adventure together and have been friends ever since, you know, when you are in the Arctic for 30 some days with someone, you really form a bond. And it's been fun to watch Lucy and that folk school grow. And also the Duluth folk school is also growing. So just getting that awareness of, you know, that there's a lot of things to do in the North Woods, even if you're not a paddler necessarily.Kelsey Lee (09:23.896)Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I see the folk school as being like, you know, if if you're gonna connect with one touch point for activities and and even community events in the Northwoods, I think the folk school is it. Absolutely. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (09:38.325)It's interesting too. You know, I'm part of the pickleball club in Ely that's fairly new. There's also the folk school. There are a ton of events that are happening through Ely Connect, which is geared more towards new residents. I really am impressed and excited about the future of Ely just for myself as I spend more time there. And maybe, you know, at some point I'llI don't know, am I ever gonna retire? Probably not, but the ideas in my mind that I could and that there is a place that has such a rich learning path is really kind of fun.Kelsey Lee (10:11.699)Yes. my friends and collaborators at Boundary Waters Connect do a bunch of things. They connect with perspective and new residents. They host the Tuesday group series in town and theyvery accurately characterize Ely as a super curious community. This is a place where people are very skilled. They're sometimes quiet about the skills that they hold. But if you show genuine interest, people are more than happy to share with you the skills that they have acquired on their own, skills they learned through their family. It's a place that is very fertile ground for non-competitive and intergenerational learning, which is really beautiful.Stephanie Hansen (11:03.747)There's also a lot of diverse political beliefs in Ely that seem to exist side by side in a way that I've never seen anywhere else. You have people that have very intense passions about the boundary waters and wanting to prevent mining from going into the boundary waters. And then you also have a very robust community of people that believe that the prosperity of the town historically and potentially in the future is based on mining. And these two things seem to be able to coexist in this really small town of mutual respect and understanding for the most part. it it makes I think Ely so unique in that, you know, you could go and learn how to build a birch bark canoe next to someone that might be completely different than you ideologically.But yet also your neighbor. And I love that that is how this community is fostering growth in learning and growth in how the town is growing. Are you have you experienced that as new people have come in?Kelsey Lee (12:10.818)Yes, absolutely. and I think that comes from it feels a little a little like old-fashioned neighborliness, which can sometimes swing in sort of a gossipy direction when we think about, you know, that small town living. And there's always gonna be an element of that there. But really it comes in my experience, the respect and tolerance comes from a deep understanding that we all need each other.Because of where we live, because of the seasonality of our economy, because our winters and even our summers can be very harsh in certain ways. we have a reliance on our neighbors. And we need those relationships, you know, to look out for not only ourselves but also our community. yeah.Stephanie Hansen (13:00.373)Yeah. I you do get that sense of, you know, like I've been there w in the wintertime when, you know, you get a foot and a half of snow and you need your neighbor to plow you out and you're standing at the end of the driveway as someone comes by with a plow and you're like, Hey, can you help me out? Or your car gets stranded orKelsey Lee (13:17.949)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And people are more than willing to help. It is this is the first place I have lived with that kind ofthat kind of neighborliness and it is I'll be honest it can be a little foreign and a little like suspicious at first. so a story I like to tell is when my husband and I moved to Ely as we were and I don't know how this came about at all. To this day I have no idea. But I have a lovely neighbor named Alana. She somehow found out not onlythe day that we were arriving, like moving into our house, but also roughly the time that we were arriving. And as we pulled into our garage, she was standing in the yard with the neighbor from the other side and they were there ready to greet us. and if you're moving from a big city or you've never experienced that before, it feels really odd and it feels like people are surveilling you or you're you know whatever. but really it comes from that kind of old fashioned spirit of like we want to welcome you, we want to know who you are, because we want to immediately have this sort of neighborly relationship with you. so that that stories like that prevail all over town.Stephanie Hansen (14:40.599)Yeah, I would agree with that. All right. So since you're the kitchen expert, I have to ask you some kitchenware things. could you tell me three things that you're excited about in the store for cooks?Kelsey Lee (14:55.008)Yes, absolutely. I actually have I have a little cart here of products that I really want to show. so the first and this one is geared a little towards people who like are in a cabin, are on the go, you know, s have are space limited in their house. I'm really proud to say that as of a couple of months ago, Potla Kitchenware is a retailer for Vitamix, which is a fantastic brand, of course.This is their five-speed immersion blender. What I love about this is this will blend ice for you. This will do anything that a normal blender will do. It's not just for soups, it's not just for mashed potatoes. this is a workhorse in the kitchen and it it weighs quite a bit for an immersion blender, but it takes up virtually no room compared to your standard kind of countertop blender. so the the larger point I want to make with this is that.to get the power that you need, you don't always need the appliance with the biggest footprint. Especially when you're when you're looking at a quality brand like Vitamix. So this one I love. Absolutely, yes. And that's part of my something I'm managing always is either somebody is in one of the many houses in Ely with teeny tiny kitchens or they're in a cabin or they're in a travel trailer or whatever. So space is always at a premium for my customers here at the store. Yeah, and in a small space.Stephanie Hansen (16:21.251)Right, so that's a great recommendation. I didn't even know they had an immersion blender.Kelsey Lee (16:24.988)It's fantastic. Yes, yes, yes. another thing that I love is this, which is a really odd. This is an odd looking thing. this is one of many high-functioning, colorful, bizarre looking tools from a company called Dream Farm. They are based in Australia. They are next level when it comes to the functionality of kitchen tools.They all have weird names and they all look really weird, but they're fantastic. So this is their chopping spatula. The flexibility here is wonderful. This is what you want to use to get under eggs, under pancakes. it's designed to sit on the counter like this, so it's never gonna get your counter dirty. simplifies cleanup, and then this offset chopping edge you can use for like chopping ground beef in a skillet as you're cooking.it's designed to give you that kind of cutting edge as well. so this is just one of many just fantastic designs from Dream Farm. so if you're if you're looking for something that's not only like beautiful to look at in the kitchen, but also gonna give you added functionality, Dream Farm is a a brand that I love.Stephanie Hansen (17:41.131)It almost looks too like you could use it as like a what is that thing called when you're making sourdough and you're trying to get in and underneath the bread?Kelsey Lee (17:49.165)yeah yeah like a bench a bench scraper maybe. Yeah yeah it's it's flexible enough but also firm enough. I think you totally could. Yeah, yeah. Just kind of get get your dough started. Yeah, absolutely. yeah. And then you asked about things for cooks. So I am gonna show you this. So this is from Dubouillet, which is a French cookware manufacturer.This is carbon steel, but this is kind of carbon steel meant for the every person. This is lower maintenance carbon steel. carbon steel is very much like cast iron in the sense that you typically have to establish and then maintain a layer of seasoning on carbon steel cookware. This one is from their blue carbon line. This one they heat treat at the factory. so you don't have that seasoning maintenance for this. This you exactly.Stephanie Hansen (18:45.539)People will love that.Kelsey Lee (18:47.007)You use this right away. lower maintenance. And my favorite thing about this line, given where we're located, is this you can use over a campfire. And it's comparatively much lighter than carbon steel pans typically are. So this is great for a canoe trip. You just get one of the larger pans, it's like you cook everything in it, safe to use over a campfire, cleans up super well. So I've been really thrilled to bring inStephanie Hansen (19:06.262)Love it.Kelsey Lee (19:16.094)Not only the standard carbon steel, but also the blue from WA. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (19:20.941)Okay, I like that and I'm always looking for the best nonstick pans because I do use my cast iron as a nonstick pan, but sometimes when you're doing eggs you want something a little different.Kelsey Lee (19:31.421)Yes, yes, yes. And carbon steel, we're predominantly a cast iron household, simply because cast iron lasts forever and we haven't had a reason to upgrade to carbon steel, but carbon steel is just it's it's a smoothness that like you really don't find with most modern cast iron. it's just a fantastic cooking surface. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (19:52.601)Okay, since I know you have a cart there, let's do two more. Do you have two more things?Kelsey Lee (19:56.559)Yes, do you want things for cooks or do you want things for the home? Okay, perfect. so let's see. one so one little thing that I want to share as like a shout out to bakers. so this is the Danish dough whisk from King Arthur Baking. It's a triple loop, which some people look for. There's a whole debate out there about how many loops you want in your dough whisk. this one I want to showcase becauseI have been just thrilled that King Arthur is once again offering their their baking products, not their flowers, not their baking mixes, but their actual baking tools. They've recently made those available at wholesale. And that's a big deal because they had a huge wholesale program prior to COVID, and then they suspended wholesale operations during COVID, and it's been several years without.that we haven't been able to obtain these baking tools here at the store. So when I saw that they were available once again, I was just just so so happy. Yes. So King Arthur makes a fantastic cookie scoop and dough whisk and pastry brush and just a lot of those baking essentials. in addition to wonderful, wonderful cookbooks as well. They're a go-to resource there too. yes. So that one I'm happy to showcase. And thenStephanie Hansen (21:14.253)Great.Kelsey Lee (21:18.25)I also want to show the very trendy, but appropriately so. These are geometry towels. these are made from entirely from recycled plastic water bottles. so a very sustainable choice. This is their, I'm gonna show you dimensionally. This is their kitchen towel. It's it's huge. It's 18 by 30. It isStephanie Hansen (21:40.333)Yeah, it's huge.Kelsey Lee (21:44.328)incredibly absorbent of both liquid and dust. I use these here at the store to dust, just incredibly grippy no matter what you're trying to clean up with them. and Geometry continues to partner with artists and designers. So they always have new capsule collections coming out and they are just so design forward. They're light years ahead of all any other textile brand on the market. yes. So I love it. You've given me some things to come in and check out next week.Kelsey Lee (22:15.817)yes, yes, yes, yes. And they they have seasonal collections too, so they make great gifts. and they've recently unveiled table linens as well. table runners, placemats, all of those. Yes, yes.Stephanie Hansen (22:27.188)cute. Okay, before we leave, I'm gonna ask you for two cookbooks that you're excited about because I know you've curated a lot of great cookbooks in the store.Kelsey Lee (22:38.448)Yeah. you'll have to forgive me. I'm gonna turn around a little and just take a look. ooh, yes, so the first one is a very easy choice. This one is called The Elements of Baking by Katerina Sirmelsch. I'm sure I booked that. Apologies. Apologies, apologies. So this gives you for bakers, you know, bakers are likeThat's a very formula and sort of accuracy driven endeavor. And this gives you the formulas and tables that you need to make any recipe gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, or vegan. It is, yes. It is, it's a bit of a tome. I mean it's like it is a thick for sure. But this is just a page of photos of breaking down lumpy versus smooth pancake pattern.Stephanie Hansen (23:20.877)Wow. Okay. That's helpful.Stephanie Hansen (23:27.681)Yeah, it's a resource book.Kelsey Lee (23:36.43)You can see they give you a side-by-side. so if you're somebody who is a trying to accommodate, trying to get away from recipes while accommodating gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, or or vegan eaters in your household or you yourself, I think this is a great resource to build that knowledge base to then be able to adapt any recipe yourself moving forward.Stephanie Hansen (23:58.337)I love it. All right, let's go for one more cookbook and then we'll wrap it up.Kelsey Lee (24:03.287)Perfect. what I want to go for here. So this maybe seems like an odd choice. so it's pierogi love. Getting back to like you know culinary traditions. This one I brought into the store just to kind of round out my hand pie dumpling offering. And just this summer I think I've probably sold almost two dozen copies. People just love there's something about a pierogi.so I love this one because it's not gonna take up a lot of space on your shelf, but you just get such a range of recipes in here. you have a photo for every recipe. and I just love the idea of like putting a ruben in a in a pierobi. You just you know you you take something, something large, something unexpected, put it in one of these, it's just a delight. SoStephanie Hansen (24:58.381)The more diversity I've explored in the kitchen through the television show that I'm working on, I've realized like every culture has a hand pie, every culture has like a flatbread of something. It's it's very interesting when you start to just meet with people and how they all make their specialties from their heritage, but that how they're all sort of linked also.Kelsey Lee (25:06.238)Yes. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I l I love that something as delightful as a flatbread or a hand pie is like truly a thread that unites all of us.Stephanie Hansen (25:32.259)For sure. And that sort of wraps up what we've been talking about, which is community and learning about your neighbors and supporting your neighbors. Kelsey, are you online for people to shop your store?Kelsey Lee (25:45.063)We are online. We're not yet doing sales online. we actually just yesterday launched a a very beta version of our website, so you can find us at potluckkitchenware.com. our hope is to have at least gift card sales online in time for this upcoming holiday season. so you can find us online there. We are also on Facebook and on TikTok.Stephanie Hansen (26:10.677)Okay, we will make sure to follow you. Thanks for spending time with me today. You guys, please visit Ely. You can find a lot of information about Ely businesses at visitealiemn.org. they've got a whole list of all the businesses in town, events and Harvest Moon Festival is coming up in September. That's a big event for the retailers and for folks to come to town in September. I'll be looking forward to that. Kelsey, thanks for your time today.Kelsey Lee (26:37.283)Yes. Thank you so much, Stephanie. It was great to be with.Stephanie Hansen (26:41.197)All right, we'll talk soon. Okay, bye bye.Thanks for reading Stephanie Hansen's @StephaniesDish Newsletter! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

Today it's a battle of iconic British folk heroes! One is a King who loves justice, peace and a little bit of magic. And on the other a hero who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. It's King Arthur vs Robin Hood! Swinging his sword for Team King Arthur, is the host and creator of Greeking Out and History Snacks, Kenny Curtis! And bringing a quiver full of good arguments for Team Robin Hood is Greeking Out writer and History Snacks host, Jillian Hughes! Which side will live happily ever after? Listen and then head to smashboom.org and vote for whichever side you think won! Click here to read a transcript of this episode. Want to support the show? Join Smarty Pass to listen to ad-free episodes or donate!

"We hated your books." That's what a European competitor once admitted to Ivan Misner — years after trying to build a rival networking organization and watching his own members ask, "How come we don't have books like BNI's?" It's a story that gets at the heart of this conversation: sometimes the most competitive thing you can do is give your best thinking away. Bill Sherman sits down with Dr. Ivan Misner, founder and Chief Visionary Officer of BNI (Business Network International), to explore how a mindset of generosity — not scarcity — fueled BNI's growth into 11,000+ chapters, 355,000+ members, and 41 consecutive years of growth. Misner walks through the origin of his 32 books, why he calls his approach "law of abundance," and why he'd rather teach the world how to network than protect BNI's playbook. The conversation goes deeper than tactics. Misner unpacks his VCP process (visibility, credibility, profitability) as a model for how trust — and thought leadership — actually gets built over time. He talks candidly about being a lifelong introvert who built an empire on relationships, the mindset shift from "hunting" to "farming" in networking, and why he now describes himself as having gone from King Arthur to Colonel Sanders as he handed off day-to-day leadership. There's also real vulnerability here: a childhood report card that said he talked too much in class, an honest reckoning with imposter syndrome, and a tribute to the late Mark Goulston, whose "if you always try, you could eventually win" philosophy still guides how Misner thinks about leadership. Whether you're building a personal brand, leading a team, or wondering whether your story has already been told by someone else, this episode offers a grounded, generous perspective on what it actually takes to build something that outlasts you — and how to stay in your flame while doing it. Three Key Takeaways: • Generosity builds competitive advantage, not just goodwill. Misner's "law of abundance" mindset — publishing 32 books that teach networking skills for free — created more credibility and media access than protecting BNI's methods ever could have. Competitors who withheld their own playbooks couldn't keep pace. • The VCP process explains why most networking fails. Visibility, credibility, and profitability build in sequence — but most people skip straight to asking for business before they've earned trust. Misner calls jumping all three stages "invisibility," and it's the single biggest mistake he sees at networking events. • You can reinvent your role without abandoning your purpose. After 12 years as CEO, Misner shifted to Chief Visionary Officer — going, in his words, "from King Arthur to Colonel Sanders." Staying in your flame over decades sometimes means changing the job, not the mission. This episode is a live case study of the book. The story that opened today's conversation — a rival founder admitting "we hated your books" because Ivan's own members had already read them — comes straight from The Thought Leadership Handbook, which draws on 700+ conversations from this podcast to map how thinkers build lasting influence. If today's episode resonated, The Thought Leadership Handbook by Bill Sherman, Peter Winick, and Naren Aryal gives you the frameworks behind what you just heard — including the five thought leadership avatars that help you figure out which one describes you. Free chapter & quiz: thoughtleadershiphandbook.com Get your copy: • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop.org • Amplify Publishing • Apple Books

When Fiction Escaped the Screen The New Monsters – Story Three, Episode Two Every legend eventually reaches a moment when it no longer belongs to the person who created it. King Arthur escaped the poets who first imagined Camelot. Dracula grew far beyond Bram Stoker's novel. Frankenstein's creature became more famous than Victor Frankenstein himself. Stories survive because generations of strangers decide they're worth retelling. In this week's episode of The Devil Within, Branden Morgan explores the extraordinary moment when that same process unfolded before our eyes. Just days after Eric Knudsen introduced Slender Man to the internet, thousands of artists, writers, filmmakers, gamers, and ordinary people began adding pieces to the mythology. No studio coordinated the effort. No publisher managed the continuity. Instead, millions of strangers unknowingly collaborated on what became history's first truly open-source monster. The journey takes us from the Something Awful forums to Marble Hornets, the groundbreaking YouTube series that transformed viewers into investigators and proved that horror could thrive not through expensive special effects, but through participation. Along the way, we examine why the internet accelerated folklore in ways no civilization had ever experienced before, compressing a process that once required centuries into only a few months. But beneath the story of Slender Man lies a much larger question. What happens when technology allows millions of people to create the same myth together? Perhaps the internet didn't change human nature at all. Perhaps it simply became the newest campfire around which we gather to tell stories. Next week, the series reaches its devastating conclusion as fiction collides with reality in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Two twelve-year-old girls commit one of the most shocking crimes of the digital age after convincing themselves they must prove their loyalty to Slender Man. The case horrified the world and forced psychologists, investigators, journalists, and parents to confront a question that remains deeply unsettling: Can a fictional monster bear responsibility for real-world violence, or does the answer reveal something far more disturbing about ourselves? The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan and produced by Evio Creative.

As Dan and Becky are on vacation, the original cast of A24 Rocks comes back to review one of the most beloved A24 films of all time in The Green Knight. Directed by David Lowery, and starring Dev Patel, The Green Knight is about a nephew of King Arthur playing a Christmas game with a fantasy creature called The Green Knight. The Green Knight challenges someone in King Arthur's court to give him a blow, and in return, the Green Knight will give them blow back to them next Christmas. Gawain answers this challenge by chopping off his head. And as next Christmas approaches, Gawain sets off on an arduous journey to complete the Christmas game and find the courage to receive what he gave the Green Knight. Caution: movie spoilers.Buy us a coffee- https://buymeacoffee.com/a24otrIntro- 0:00 to 2:44.Film Discussion- 2:44 to 1:32:52.Film Review/Outro- 1:32:52 to End.

Was Queen Guinevere a traitorous adulteress who caused the tragic downfall of Camelot, or a complex political survivor? Was she even real? Dr. Eleanor Janega and Arthurian expert Dr. Mary Bateman explore the changing faces of King Arthur's legendary wife. They discuss her early mythological Welsh roots, scandalous 'affairs' with Lancelot and Mordred, and how medieval queens used this powerful romantic legend for their own real-world political influence.MOREKing Arthur with Dr. Mary BatemanListen on AppleListen on SpotifyKing Arthur's Sex LifeListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Dr. Eleanor Janega. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week PLUS early access, ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don't be dissuaded by our rather dour Sgt. Rock first half - the time travel and robots at the end make up for it! It's right here in Our Army at  War #180 and Strange Adventures #199! Chapters (00:00:00) - Oh, My!(00:00:17) - Our Army at War(00:02:54) - When You Can't Get a Song Out of Your Head(00:04:14) - The Little Mermaid Guest Star Jen George(00:04:59) - A Taste of the New River Gorge National Park(00:06:04) - Sergeant Rock on His Dog's Aging(00:11:12) - Sergeant Rock(00:14:23) - Sergeant Rock vs. General in the Desert(00:18:49) - Sergeant Rock vs a Nazi General(00:22:44) - We Can't Do This Any More(00:23:54) - Strange Adventures: Vacation Planning(00:26:06) - Knights of the Round Table(00:28:49) - When You're in a Time Machine(00:29:13) - Time Switch: The Story of King Arthur(00:32:59) - Sir Lancelot(00:37:30) - Giant Robot Colossus At King Arthur's Court(00:39:04) - The Robots in King Arthur's Castle(00:43:10) - The Return of King Arthur to DC Comics(00:48:18) - The Semi-Quicentennial of America

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.After Nate makes Nolan fanboys mad, the guys discuss all things Camelot, including key questions such as:why Camelot is basically the story of King David again,how cool Merlin is (whether baptized demon-spawn or not),how the French eventually ruined King Arthur,whether Galahad is the gayest of the Knights of the Round Table,why the courtly love ideal is Victorianized and effeminate,whether Malcolm Guite's new Arthurian Galahad epic is like eating 10 pounds of dark chocolate in one sitting,compare all of the above to Monty Python's Holy Grail and Disney's Sword in the Stone,why Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene is better than Malory's Morte d'Arthur, and more.Plus, SASF's "Make me famous" segment returns with three pitches Nate does not like.

At the court of a French princess in the middle of the 12th century, an obscure poet named Chrétien de Troyes would begin to write and distribute fanciful stories of the Knights of the Round Table. In doing so, he would propel the figure of King Arthur to an unforeseen level of fame and create the medium of fiction as we know it. Following the previous discussion of earlier lore surrounding Arthur, and his potential historic basis, this episode of Gladio Free Europe explores the literary development and legacy of the Arthurian Romance. Liam and Russian Sam pick up with the release of Britain's first bestseller, Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful Homeric pseudo-history, Historia Regnum Britanniae. As this book and its account of King Arthur spread across Europe, many derivative texts would be composed in prose and verse, sometimes elaborating further on King Arthur and his court. During the reign of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose vast territories included England and half of France, the brilliant court poet Chrétien de Troyes would synthesize the matter previously chronicled by Geoffrey and his predecessors with the poetic and heroic traditions of France. In Chrétien's five Arthurian stories, the tone and themes of the older Song of Roland would be applied to the deeds of Arthur and his knights to create a genre of literature entirely its own. The works of Chrétien and his followers would illustrate the chivalric values idealized by the aristocrats of the high and late Middle Ages. King Arthur's knights are valiant fighters, but also passionate lovers, merciful Christians, and fully-realized humans, exhibiting an interiority not seen in any European literature since classical antiquity. The chivalric romance would spread out of the French-speaking courts of England and France into popular circles across Europe, leaving a mark on the literature of Norway, Italy, Islamic Andalusia, and the Jewish diaspora. Chivalric romance, and Arthurian stories in particular, would become Europe's first tradition of popular fiction and remain eminently popular until the end of the chivalric age itself. These stories were read not only for entertainment, but also for moral instruction. For good or ill, chivalric ideals such as courtly love and the knightly quest would impact the real behavior of the medieval warrior elite.  By the later Middle Ages, Arthurian stories would become more solemn and meditative, particular in Arthur's own land of Britain. After the carnage of the Wars of the Roses, a knight and prisoner named Thomas Malory would compose Le Morte Darthur, a sprawling biography that would become the most famous Arthurian work of all time. Written without any of the whit and whimsy as earlier French stories, this text would effectively conclude the chivalric romance tradition and define the legacy of King Arthur for centuries. Following a long period of neglect, artists and aesthetes in the Victorian age began to reappraise the works and values of the Middle Ages, with particular attention to the mournful chronicle of Thomas Malory. Writers such as Walter Scott and Alfred Tennyson would create new works in the chivalric tradition. Arthurian and medieval scenes would be of sudden interest to the painters of the 19th century, in particular the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood that included John William Waterhouse. This Victorian medievalism took many forms, and was at times associates with earnest progressive politics as well as deeply reactionary yearning for an imagined period of innocent morality and unquestioned hierarchy. Although Chrétien may not be a household name (unless your household is the French royal court) his contributions are everywhere. In all popular division, but in particular the modern genre of medieval fantasy, the images and themes first popularized by Chrétien de Troyes would rise again, as was prophesied of King Arthur himself.

Greg Jenner is joined in ancient Greece by historian Dr Emily Hauser and comedian and actor Kiell Smith-Bynoe to learn about the epic poems the Iliad and Odyssey. Traditionally attributed to the poet Homer, these works tell parts of a legend that has fascinated us for centuries: the story of the Trojan War. Featuring a cast of unforgettable characters – Achilles, Odysseus, Paris, Helen, Hector and Agamemnon – the war between ancient Greece and Troy has inspired writers, artists and filmmakers for over a millennium. But the Iliad and Odyssey only recount episodes of this much bigger story. The Iliad, focusing on the hero Achilles, takes place in the closing stretches of the war. And the Odyssey tells the tale of Odysseus's perilous voyage home after the Greeks have triumphed. In this episode, we trace the origins of the poems in the 8th century BCE, looking at whether Homer really wrote them and how these originally oral tales came to be written down, before exploring the fantastical tales they tell. Along the way, we also look at whether or not the Trojan war really happened, how the ancient Greeks defined heroism, and examine the role of gods and monsters in the poems and the lives of their heroes.If you're a fan of fantastical myths and legends, heroes behaving badly, and ancient Greek culture, you'll love our episode on the Iliad and Odyssey.If you want more from Kiell Smith-Bynoe, listen to our episode on Viking explorer Leif Erikson. And for more historical epics, check out our episodes on the Legends of King Arthur, and the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh.You're Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Auréliane Perrin Written by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Red, White & Blues FC | £117m for Morgan Rogers and a Rumor Mill Gone FeralChelsea break the Premier League transfer record, ship Garnacho off to Villa, and get linked to roughly half of Europe — and we're cynical about most of it.Transfer season is here, and Daniel opened the show by torturing Jason all day with an all-caps text promising a “big surprise announcement” that had nothing to do with transfers. The payoff: bald fraud Anthony Taylor is retiring, and we will never have to watch him officiate a Chelsea match again. From there it's a genuinely wild 48–72 hours of business — one record signing, one loan exit, and a rumor list long enough to need its own spreadsheet. We're happy, we're skeptical, and we're bracing for the moment BlueCo inevitably breaks our hearts again.Anthony Taylor Rides Off — and No, We're Not “Delusional”We saw The Athletic's framing coming: fans piling on Taylor at retirement supposedly proves how “delusional” supporters are about referees. We push back hard. We're not anti-referee — we know it's a brutal job, the gear, the whining twenty-somethings surrounding you every match. We're anti-Premier League referees, and we are 1,000% anti-Anthony Taylor specifically. The only bittersweet part is we'll never get to hear that Chelsea terrace chant about him again.Morgan Rogers for £117m — Record Signing, Familiar DoubtsThe big one: Morgan Rogers joins from Aston Villa for a reported £117m, a new Premier League record, on a six-plus-one. The Xabi Alonso “pull” narrative is everywhere — a phone call, Cole Palmer's friendship, Chelsea being Chelsea — and this is where Daniel and Jason go back and forth. Daniel refuses to swallow the “Chubby wanted him so Chubby got him” line whole, pointing out we heard the exact same thing about Maresca and Pochettino. Yes, a serious manager helps recruitment; no, it doesn't explain everything, and the round-table “Knights of Chelsea” mythology (with Eghbali cast as King Arthur) is media hype. Both of us land in the same place: Rogers is a good player, 23, on sensible wages, fitting the buy-young-sell-high model — but we overpaid, and we don't actually know where he fits. Double tens? Wing? Wing-back under Alonso? Nobody's sure.The Money Doesn't Add Up — and the Defense Pays for ItWe dig into the We Ain't Got No History math floating around: the Rogers fee roughly equals what Chelsea banked from Cucurella, Andrey Santos, Tyrique George, Jimmy-Jay Morgan, and the Maresca compensation. We both flag the same flaw — those are gross numbers, and we were still paying wages on most of them, so the “we basically got Rogers for free” spin doesn't hold. What's undeniable is Chelsea sell better than anyone (£400m+ shifted, largely pure-profit academy kids), which is how the spending happens. But Jason's frustration is the through-line of the whole episode: for the same £117m, Chelsea could have had a center back and a goalkeeper. Instead it's another attacker, and the back line is in the lurch again. And, oh yeah — still no front-of-shirt sponsor, four years running, £200m+ left on the table.Garnacho Out, and the Great Rumor AvalancheGarnacho heads to Villa on loan with a soft, appearance-based option around £43m — meaning Chelsea might somehow turn a profit on a player nobody wanted. Good riddance and good luck; Villa's own subreddit is bracing for another reclamation project (”if Unai Emery can't fix him, no one can”). Then we speed-run the rumor mill: Maxence Lacroix inching closer (but don't get fooled, we've seen Chelsea put all their marbles in one basket before), Nico possibly reuniting with Emery, Bruno Guimarães as a possible Arsenal hijack, Enzo Fernández linked to Atlético and quietly to City, and the one that actually excites us — Cristian Romero from Spurs in a swap that offloads Neto. We've begged for years for a proper asshole in this squad; Romero, red cards and all, might finally be our asshole. Add Alex Scott, Adam Wharton, Illia Zabarnyi, Eduardo Camavinga, and a Bosnian teenage winger (Kerim Alajbegović) to the pile, and Fabrizio Romano is teasing a “Da Bomba” midfield transfer that's almost certainly just a name we've already heard. We close on Morgan Rogers one more time, on our own cynicism, and on the quiet hope — dangerous as it is — that this time it actually works. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit redwhitebluesfc.substack.com

Hilaritas host Mike Gathers interviews King Arthur Pendragon, fearless campaigner, defender of the sacred, folk hero, and self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur. • • • Links: The Trials of Arthur: https://www.hilaritaspress.com/podcasts/the-trials-of-arthur-the-biker-who-would-be-king Arthur Pendragon dot org: https://www.arthurpendragon.org Arthur's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Uther_Pendragon • • • Host Mike Gathers: https://linktr.ee/mgathers23 Producer/Engineer Richard Rasa: http://www.pelorian.com/rasa.html  

THE TABLE ROUND Chapter 13: The Knight With Two Swords  All Camelot is in the grasp of what the simple folk call Arthur's Peace. The harvests are good and the people are content. Justice and order has been secured by King Arthur, through might, wisdom, and the aid of the sword of power he wears on his side, Excalibur, a gift given by the mysterious Lady of the Lake. 

The battle that built Arthur's legend may never have matteredWas the Battle of Badon really the decisive moment that saved Britain from the Anglo-Saxons — or has history given it far more importance than it deserves?In this episode of History Rage, host Paul Bavill is joined by leading early medieval historian Professor Nick Higham to challenge one of the most persistent myths in British history. The popular narrative tells us that Badon was a crushing British victory that halted Anglo-Saxon expansion for generations — often linked to the legendary figure of King Arthur. But when you dig into the sources, archaeology, and timeline, that story begins to unravel.Drawing on early texts, including the writings of Gildas, Professor Higham explains how the earliest reference to Badon describes a siege rather than a dramatic battlefield clash. More importantly, the event seems to have been used mainly as a chronological marker rather than as evidence of a decisive national victory. Later writers transformed this brief reference into a heroic turning point, laying the foundations for the Arthurian tradition that still shapes popular history today.This episode explores how archaeology challenges the idea of a long pause in Anglo-Saxon expansion after Badon. Instead of retreat, the material record shows continued settlement growth and cultural spread across southern Britain. Rather than one defining battle, the fall of Roman Britain and rise of Anglo-Saxon England appears to have been a long, complex transition shaped by migration, shifting power, and cultural change.If you enjoy myth-busting history and want to understand how legends are created — and why they endure — this episode delivers a powerful rethink of one of Britain's most famous early medieval events.About the Guest — Professor Nick HighamProfessor Nick Higham is Emeritus Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Manchester and one of the UK's leading experts on the transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England. His research focuses on the origins of England, early medieval warfare, and the development of historical traditions.Buy the Book Featured in This Episode:How England Began: From Roman Britain to the Anglo-SaxonsSupport the podcast and the author by purchasing here:https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9780300254921Find out more about Professor Nick Higham's work through his academic publications and public history contributions. Explore More History Rage EpisodesIf you enjoyed this episode, you may also like:Episode 201 — The Anglo-Saxons Were No Better Than the VikingsEpisode 148 — Vikings Are Not Just Mass SlaughterersThese episodes expand on the realities behind popular myths about early medieval Britain.Follow and Contact History RageGot a historical myth you'd like to see challenged? Get in touch:

The One where Dave fantasizes about cosplaying as Lobo 24/7 and taking his HOOK everywhere. And Marvel rings in the CHANGES! WE LOVE L.A! Please support the show on Patreon! Every dollar helps the show! https://www.patreon.com/SignalofDoom Follow us on Twitter: @signalofdoom Dredd or Dead: @OrDredd Legion Outpost: @legionoutpost

✏️Gaṅgâdhara's astrologer dad has some bad news for his boy: he's going to die.Well, first he'll spend a decade in prison, and then die. Then things will get better? It's the story of the Soothsayer's Son.

How much Arthurian art have you seen? Chances are, it's more than you think. From medieval illuminated manuscripts to seemingly vague romantic paintings of knights on horseback wooing maidens with flowing hair, join the hosts for an exploration of visual depictions of Arthurian legends across the centuries.

Everywhere Rome fell, civilization transformed. In Britain, it stopped.That's not a myth. That's what actually happened. Everywhere else the empire fell — Gaul, Hispania, Italy, North Africa — the barbarian successor kingdoms absorbed Roman administration and kept the machine running. The Franks kept Roman law. The Visigoths kept the Christian church. The Ostrogoths kept the Senate and the aqueducts. Even the Vandals in North Africa kept Roman urban life going.In Britain, none of that happened. The Roman garrisons pulled out in 407. The emperor told the Britons to defend themselves in 410. And when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, they didn't do what every other post-Roman successor group did. They didn't inherit. They built wooden halls next to abandoned Roman villas and let the villas fall down. Latin didn't evolve into a Romance language the way it did in Gaul and Hispania — it just vanished. Christianity didn't survive the transition — Pope Gregory the Great had to send Augustine of Canterbury in 597 to start over from pagan ground. Cities didn't get built on top of the old Roman ones — they got built somewhere else while Colchester sat empty for centuries.This is Episode 4 of the "Life After the Fall of Rome" series. Britain is the comparison case for the whole thesis. Everywhere else Rome fell, it transformed. Britain is the exception that proves the rule — the one place where the Hollywood version of the fall (villas abandoned, libraries lost, languages disappeared, lights actually going out) turned out to be true. And the reason it happened is quieter and more dangerous than any invasion narrative: successors who chose not to inherit.The barbarians didn't destroy Roman Britain. Roman Britain was already failing on its own. What the Anglo-Saxons did was build something entirely different on top of it — a new culture with no interest in preserving what came before. That indifference, more than any battle, is what real collapse actually looks like.If you're new to the series, start with Episode 1 ("Rome Didn't Fall — Here's What Actually Happened") linked below.

For more than a thousand years, the legends of King Arthur have been retold, expanded, and reinvented. In this episode, we trace the remarkable evolution of the Arthurian legends from the shadowy origins in post-Roman Britain through Saxon England and the French courts, up through Victorian writers and into the modern day.    Along the way, we explore how each generation reshaped the legend and why Arthur remains one of the most enduring figures in Western literature. More than the story of a single king, Arthur's journey is the story of how great myths survive: by continually adapting while remaining unmistakably themselves.

A Note from James:This is a very special episode for me.There have only been a few times in the history of this podcast when I've had the chance to sit down with one of my heroes. This is one of those times.Frank Miller is one of the most important storytellers of my life. When I first picked up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, it completely changed what I thought comics could be. This wasn't just another Batman story. It was a revolution. Frank took Batman out of the colorful, campy world I grew up with and turned him into something darker, mythic, terrifying, and psychologically real.There is a comic book industry before The Dark Knight Returns, and there is a comic book industry after The Dark Knight Returns. Every Batman movie since then carries Frank's fingerprints in some way. But it wasn't just Batman. Frank changed Daredevil. He created Ronin. He created Sin City. He showed that comics could handle adult stories, painful arcs, crime, tragedy, mythology, obsession, and moral ambiguity.But what matters most to me is that Frank is a master storyteller. And I love storytelling. Whether it's books, podcasts, articles, comics, or just how we make sense of our lives, story is everything.So getting to sit down with Frank Miller and talk about Batman, myth, creativity, mentorship, discipline, and his new book, Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing, and the Art of Storytelling, was a dream come true.This was my first in-person podcast in years. Jay drove up from Atlanta. I flew into the city. And yes, I brought my copy of The Dark Knight Returns for Frank to sign.Episode Description:Frank Miller didn't just write and draw some of the most influential comics of the modern era. He changed the grammar of comics.In this conversation, James sits down with Miller to talk about Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, Ronin, Sin City, and Miller's new book, Push the Wall. The conversation begins with Batman, but quickly becomes a larger discussion about how characters become myths.For Miller, Batman was never just a rich detective in a costume. The material was already there from the beginning: a child witnessing the murder of his parents, growing up without powers, building himself into a force through discipline, intelligence, and obsession. Miller's goal was to pull that core truth out and make Batman stand beside older pulp and mythic figures like Zorro, The Shadow, and the hard-edged heroes of crime cinema.James and Frank also talk about how myths are built around simple central values. Superman is hope. Batman is justice, vengeance, effort, and fear. The art is not in making those ideas complicated. The art is in placing them inside a human context so they feel emotionally true.The discussion moves into the craft of comics itself: page layouts, panel borders, visual rhythm, and how the pictures carry most of the story. Miller reflects on the influence of Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Japanese samurai films, martial arts movies, Greek tragedy, Jean Giraud/Moebius, Lone Wolf and Cub, and the creative power of combining worlds that do not obviously belong together.They also talk about mentorship. Miller describes calling Neal Adams from the phone book, bringing him drawings, and enduring brutally honest criticism. That toughness, he says, was part of the training. To survive as an artist, you need egoism without egotism: enough belief to keep coming back, but enough humility to keep learning.The episode closes with practical advice for young artists today: go to conventions, build the strongest portfolio you can, seek out hard criticism, don't chase only the biggest titles, protect your original ideas, and look for “losers” you can make great.What You'll Learn:Why Frank Miller wanted Batman to become a myth, not just another superhero.How The Dark Knight Returns helped move comics toward darker, more adult storytelling.Why Batman's lack of superpowers is exactly what makes him compelling.How mythic characters are built around simple core themes like hope, vengeance, justice, or discipline.Why comics are not just written stories with pictures, but a visual storytelling machine.How Miller learned from Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, samurai films, noir, Greek tragedy, and European comics.Why creativity often comes from combining unrelated influences.What Miller means by “egoism, but not egotism.”Why young artists should seek out hard lessons instead of easy praise.How to enter comics today without giving away original work too early.Why determination, stamina, and a lack of Plan B shaped Miller's career.What Miller is working on next, including a new Western-style Sin City story.Timestamped Chapters:[03:41] Meeting Frank MillerJames begins by holding up Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and asking what it means to be known through one defining work.[04:00] Before and After The Dark Knight ReturnsWhy James sees Miller's Batman as a dividing line in comic book history.[05:07] Turning Batman Into a Psychological ConditionJames asks how Miller transformed Batman from a campy hero into something darker, mythic, and terrifying.[05:49] Batman as MythFrank explains that his first impulse was to make Batman stand with figures like The Shadow, Zorro, and the hard-edged heroes of crime cinema.[06:37] Pulling Comics Out of ChildhoodMiller describes his desire to push comics into adolescence and beyond the conventions of disposable monthly stories.[06:59] The Origin Was Always ThereWhy Batman's trauma, lack of powers, and self-made discipline were already embedded in the character from the beginning.[07:50] Superman Descends, Batman RisesFrank contrasts Superman as a figure of light with Batman as something that comes up from the darkness.[08:44] What Makes a Character Mythic?Miller explains that great characters usually have a simple central theme: hope, justice, vengeance, effort, or fear.[10:30] King Arthur, Luke Skywalker, and the Power of ObjectsThe conversation turns to swords, lightsabers, utility belts, and how mythic symbols carry stories across generations.[11:54] Breaking the PageJames and Frank discuss how Kirby, Neal Adams, and others shattered conventional panel layouts before Miller pushed those techniques further.[12:35] A Tradition of RevolutionFrank explains why creativity means breaking a few eggs while still working inside a lineage.[13:00] When the Page Tells the StoryHow panel size, shape, and visual composition can carry emotional meaning without words.[14:10] What Would Frank Do With Batman Now?Miller says the point is not to reinvent Batman for novelty's sake, but to find a good story.[15:00] Moving Daredevil Into Hell's KitchenJames asks how Miller brought his own New York experience into Daredevil's world.[15:45] Fear, Editors, and Media ConglomeratesFrank reflects on how creative fear moves through artists, editors, bosses, and corporate structures.[16:17] Are New Comic Stories Still Possible?Miller argues that the talent and creative energy are still there, even if it does not always come from predictable places.[17:40] How Comics Survived Their Own DeathsFrank traces comic books from the attacks of the 1950s to Marvel, underground comics, and the direct market.[19:30] What Young Artists Need TodayWhen James asks what skill matters beyond drawing and storytelling, Miller answers: determination.[20:01] No Plan BFrank explains that he never had a concept of failure because comics were what he had wanted to do since his earliest memories.[20:47] Writing vs. StorytellingWhy, in comics, most of the storytelling happens in the pictures.[21:00] Neal Adams and the Hard LessonsMiller remembers calling Neal Adams from the phone book and receiving tough critiques that tested his character.[22:34] Egoism, Not EgotismFrank explains the balance an artist needs: enough ego to return after criticism, but not so much that they stop learning.[22:51] Stealing From the GreatsWhy artists must study and learn from earlier practitioners rather than pretending genius arrives fully formed.[23:47] Batman Is Possessed, Not ObsessedFrank corrects James's description of Batman and explains that Batman is filled with an eternal force.[24:50] Daredevil, Samurai, Crime, and Greek TragedyHow Miller fused martial arts films, ninja stories, crime movies, and Greek tragedy into his Daredevil run.[27:01] Stick, Elektra, and the Sensei ArchetypeJames and Frank trace the mentor-student relationship through Daredevil, samurai stories, and mythic training narratives.[27:47] Lone Wolf and Cub, Moebius, and RoninHow Forbidden Planet exposed Miller to Japanese and European comics, leading to the hybrid world of Ronin.[28:35] The Power of IntersectionsWhy combining Westerns, samurai stories, science fiction, noir, and mythology can create something new.[30:08] Discipline vs. ChaosJames identifies a recurring theme in Miller's work: taking chaos and molding it into purpose.[30:40] Batman Becomes the FatherFrank explains the final image of The Dark Knight Returns: the orphan becoming the father.[31:24] Why So Many Heroes Are OrphansMiller says the lone child against the elements is at the heart of heroic storytelling.[32:36] Guilt, Control, and Batman's Unhealed WoundJames and Frank discuss whether Batman is driven by guilt or by the need to take control after childhood trauma.[33:43] Pushing Batman to the ExtremeWhy Miller made the Batmobile a tank and amplified the character's core qualities.[33:50] How Frank Would Start TodayMiller advises young artists to attend conventions, show their work, use the internet, and seek honest feedback.[34:36] Seek Hard CriticismWhy young creators should avoid people who only make them feel good.[34:59] Don't Chase the Biggest TitlesMiller advises artists to look for overlooked characters—or better yet, create something themselves.[35:21] Find a Loser and Do It RightA practical creative strategy: identify something bad, understand why it fails, and build the better version.[35:41] Gatekeepers and New AvenuesFrank weighs the traditional obstacles against new channels for artists to get discovered.[36:27] Protect Your Original IdeasWhy young artists should be careful about handing over original material too early.[37:00] Humility, Listening, and Surviving the BusinessMiller adds that determination must be paired with humility and a willingness to learn how the industry works.[37:58] Batman at 55—and What Comes NextJames reflects on Batman's age in The Dark Knight Returns, and Frank jokes that next time Batman may be 80.[38:36] A New Western Sin CityFrank talks about working on a new Sin City story with a Western angle.[38:52] Push the Wall and the Art of CreativityJames closes by describing Miller's new book as a guide to creativity and inspiration.[39:20] A Dream Interview Comes Full CircleJames thanks Frank, explains the personal significance of the episode, and asks him to sign The Dark Knight Returns.Additional Resources:Push the Wall by Frank Miller — Miller's memoir and guide to writing, drawing, and storytelling.Batman: The Dark Knight Returns — Miller's landmark Batman story.Batman: Year One — Written by Frank Miller with art by David Mazzucchelli.Frank Miller's Sin City Deluxe Editions — Dark Horse's deluxe editions of the noir series.Lone Wolf and Cub — The samurai manga series Miller discusses as a major influence.Moebius / Jean Giraud — The European comics artist whose visual world influenced Ronin and modern science-fiction imagery.Joseph Campbell Foundation — Background on the mythic storytelling ideas referenced in the conversation.Neal Adams — DC's remembrance of the artist and mentor Miller discusses.Jack Kirby Museum — Archive and background on one of Miller's central comics influences.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gary Wayne is back in the basement, and this time he is tracing blood. Royal blood. He lays out the case that the most powerful families on earth have spent thousands of years tracking a single genetic line all the way back to the giants of Genesis 6. The Rh-negative mystery. The O-negative blood of the Windsors. Coats of arms that hide Nephilim genealogies in plain sight. King Charles claimed descent from Vlad the Impaler. It is a game of thrones playing out across the whole of human history.From there, it only goes deeper. The fairy and dragon bloodlines. The Gene of Isis. King Arthur, Dracula, and the Tuatha De Danann are all branches of the same buried family tree. Gary connects the coded heraldry of the royals and the seed wars of the Old Testament to a counterfeit pedigree being built for the Antichrist, and argues that every empire from Rome to China guards the same occult secret. This episode is sponsored by: https://shopremi.com — Get 55% off your new night guard from now until the end of August with Remi Club Subscribe and Save using code BLURRY! https://rocketmoney.com/blurry — Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster! https://preborn.com/blurry — Visit the PreBorn! website or dial #250 and use keyword BABY to donate today. - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The French hard right leader Marine Le Pen says she'll still be a candidate in next year's presidential election, despite losing an appeal against her conviction for misusing EU funds.Also in the programme, we speak to Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the presidential task force for the World Cup, on one of the most controversial moments in the tournament's history; and, a 700 year-old book telling the story of King Arthur and his court.(Photo :French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament for the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, poses prior to an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, following the verdict in her appeal trial over misuse of EU funds, in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris, France, July 7, 2026. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann/Pool TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Welcome to Day 2891 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – When Myth Remembers: The Case for the Supernatural in History. Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2891 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps!   I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2891 of our Trek.   The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Our current series of Theology Thursday lessons is written by theologian and teacher John Daniels. I have found that his lessons are short, easy to understand, doctrinally sound, and applicable to all who desire to learn more of God's Word. John's lessons can be found on his website   theologyinfive.com.   Today's lesson is titled:  When Myth Remembers: The Case for the Supernatural in History. Modern thinking often treats myths as primitive fiction, old stories made up to explain what ancient people didn't understand. This is a shallow and deeply flawed view. A myth, in its original form, was never just a tale. It was a framework for understanding reality. Myths carried the collective memory, theology, morality, and worldview of a people group. They encoded truth, not always literal in every detail, but meaningful, historical, and often rooted in real events, places, and supernatural encounters. To dismiss myths because they involve divine beings or miracles is to miss their purpose. Ancient people did not separate the sacred from the secular. Their myths reflected how they understood the world and how they encountered powers beyond it. The first segment is: Historical Memory Preserved in Myth Some myths are poetic versions of real events. The story of the Trojan War, once thought to be legend, gained new weight when archaeological discoveries confirmed the existence of a city that fits Homer's description of Troy. Likewise, while the legends of King Arthur are wrapped in fantasy, they are likely based on a real post-Roman warlord who resisted Saxon invaders. Even in Scripture, the events that modern critics label “mythic” often show clear signs of historical anchoring. The global flood, the destruction of Sodom, the Tower of Babel, and the conquest of Canaan are presented not as metaphors but as real acts of God in human history. These accounts, though cosmic in scope, are rooted in geography, time, and national memory. The second segment is: Myth as Cultural Lens Myths also reveal what mattered most to a people. Norse mythology, shaped by harsh winters and unrelenting violence, emphasizes cold, fate, and struggle. Mesopotamian myths center on divine kingship and cycles of fertility, reflecting the importance of rivers, temples, and crops. These stories do not just preserve events; they preserve the lens through which cultures viewed divine activity. In the Bible, this same pattern holds. Its creation narrative, flood story, and judgments are not recycled myths but deliberate responses to the surrounding pagan world. Scripture confronts and corrects the worldview embedded in other myths. It does not borrow their gods. It defeats them. The third segment is: The Modern Turn Against the Supernatural The rejection of mythic material as a source of truth is not ancient. It is modern. It was not the biblical writers or the early Church who dismissed the supernatural. That rejection began in earnest during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when Western intellectual culture began shifting under the influence of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment exalted reason, skepticism, and empirical science. Thinkers like David Hume and Immanuel Kant argued that miracles violated the laws of nature and were therefore unreliable as historical events. Supernatural claims were relegated to the realm of fiction or psychological projection. This created a new definition of truth, one that excluded divine intervention, spiritual beings, and cosmic conflict. In the nineteenth century, these assumptions were applied to the Bible through the historical-critical method. Scholars such as Julius Wellhausen dissected Scripture not as divine revelation but as a collection of evolving mythologies shaped by human communities. The creation narrative, the flood, the Tower of Babel, and the miracles of Jesus were no longer treated as actual events but as religious poetry or borrowed legends. In this model, myth was not something to be trusted. It was something to be deconstructed. Even movements that sought to preserve the value of myth, such as Romanticism, did so by redefining it. Myths were not allowed to speak about divine realities. Instead, they were reduced to metaphors for the human condition. Their theological and historical weight was stripped away in favor of psychological interpretation. The fourth segment is: Augustine's Overcorrection: From Mysticism to Minimalism But the groundwork for this modern rejection of mythic material was laid even earlier. Augustine of Hippo, one of the most influential theologians in Christian history, had once been deeply involved in Manichaeism, a mystical cult that emphasized a cosmic struggle between light and darkness. After leaving the cult and converting to Christianity, Augustine understandably sought to distance himself from the elaborate supernatural systems he had once embraced. However, in doing so, he overcorrected. He rejected many established supernatural interpretations of Scripture, favoring more allegorical and philosophical approaches. Influenced by Neoplatonism, Augustine prioritized abstract spiritual realities over tangible supernatural beings. He reinterpreted Genesis 6, for example, not as a rebellion of divine beings, but as a moral tale about the intermarriage of the godly and ungodly. Though Augustine never denied God's power or the reality of miracles, his discomfort with mythic material and his desire for theological respectability led him to downplay or spiritualize the cosmic conflict found in much of the Bible. His influence steered much of Western theology away from the ancient worldview that accepted divine councils, rebellious spirits, and supernatural intervention as real components of history. This theological shift made it easier for Enlightenment thinkers to later dismiss myth outright. The supernatural had already been contained and abstracted. In many ways, the modern rejection of myth did not begin with science. It began with Augustine's reaction against his own past. The fifth segment is: The Myth That Was True and the Myths That Remembered Not all myths are lies. Many are distorted memories of real events, echoes of a spiritual history that the nations once knew but later twisted. The flood, the divine rebellion, the rise of giants, the war among the gods, these appear in cultures across the globe not because they were invented out of thin air, but because they preserve fragments of true events. The nations remembered the rebellion of the sons of God, but they passed it down in corrupted form. They remembered divine judgments, but attached them to false deities. Their stories are not false because they are myth. They are flawed because they lost the context of Yahweh's supremacy. In the twentieth century, this idea was captured powerfully in a conversation between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. At the time, Lewis still considered myths to be beautiful lies, moving, meaningful, but ultimately untrue. Tolkien challenged that view. He explained that myths resonate because they point to something real. Humanity tells stories of gods and sacrifice and resurrection because it dimly remembers. Made in the image of a Creator who speaks through story, we carry within us a longing for the true version of the story all nations once knew. Tolkien told Lewis, “The story of Christ is a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference: it really happened.” The point was not that the other myths were worthless, but that they were shadows. The gospel is the fulfillment of what all the others pointed toward. It is not myth in the modern sense of fiction, but myth in the ancient sense of divine reality revealed in story. Where the nations preserved pieces of divine truth wrapped in confusion, Scripture restores the original pattern. Where paganism elevates rebel gods and obscures justice, the Bible reorients the mythic structure around Yahweh, the Most High. It does not erase the mythic imagination. It redeems it. The sixth segment  is: Yahweh Is Not Bound by the System He Created A major reason people reject mythic material is the presence of supernatural events. Miracles, divine appearances, and acts of judgment are written off as fabrications because they do not conform to natural law. But that objection is built on a misunderstanding of who Yahweh is. If we believe that Yahweh is...

A lonely Massachusetts crossroads has been claiming the lives of lawmen for over two hundred years—each one stabbed in the back in a spot so open no killer could possibly reach him, while the only sound in the dark is a woman's cold laughter.Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/OTRCHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Show Open00:01:30.028 = CBS Radio Mystery Theater, “The Talking Women” (February 06, 1978) ***WD00:47:04.966 = 2000 Plus, “The Giant Walks” (November 08, 1950) ***WD01:15:57.050 = The Unexpected, “Nightmare” (October 31, 1948)01:29:30.334 = Unsolved Mysteries, “Writing On The Wall” (October 05, 1949) ***WD01:44:12.246 = Dark Venture, “Hideout” (January 07, 1947) ***WD02:09:03.788 = The Weird Circle, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” (1945)02:36:35.446 = The Whistler, “Danger Is a Beautiful Blonde” (March 05, 1945)03:07:19.667 = Strange Wills, “Madman's Diary” (August 17, 1946)03:37:02.993 = Witch's Tale, “Haunted Crossroads” (October 17, 1932) ***WD04:01:39.046 = X Minus One, “Hostess” (December 12, 1956)04:29:47.425 = ABC Mystery Time, “Four Fatal Jugglers” (1957) ***WD04:53:37.561 = Strange Adventure, “Diamonds In The Desert” 04:56:54.720 = Show Close(ADU) = Air Date Unknown(LQ) = Low Quality***WD = Remastered, edited, or cleaned up by Weird Darkness to make the episode more listenable. Audio may not be pristine, but it will be better than the original file which may have been unusable or more difficult to hear without editing.CUSTOM WEBPAGE: https://weirddarkness.com/WDRR0692This installment of #RetroRadio — old-time radio in the dark — gathers twelve vintage broadcasts spanning crime, science fiction, the supernatural, and the just plain strange, drawn from CBS Radio Mystery Theater, 2000 Plus, The Unexpected, Unsolved Mysteries, Dark Venture, The Weird Circle, The Whistler, Strange Wills, The Witch's Tale, X Minus One, Masters of Mystery, and Strange Adventure.CBS Radio Mystery Theater opens the night with "The Talking Women," written by Sam Dan and starring Ed Ames, as host E.G. Marshall introduces wealthy executive Robert Bayswell, a man whose endless "business trips" to New York have quietly covered a five-year affair with his mistress, Lolly "Dolores" Harbison. When Bayswell decides to end the relationship and return to his wife Martha, a struggle over a loaded .38 revolver sets a chain of events in motion — one that draws in nightclub photographer Julie Palmer and homicide detective Sergeant DeLuca, both circling a death no one can quite explain.2000 Plus delivers the science-gone-wrong terror of "The Giant Walks," in which the obsessed Dr. Ellsworth, having used a pituitary revitalizer to breed giant rats four feet long, sets his sights on the next logical subject — a human being. His powerfully built test subject Barstow is grown to thirty feet of muscle and bone, while uneasy assistant Weston watches the experiment spiral past anything Ellsworth can hope to control.The Unexpected stars radio's Lurene Tuttle in "Nightmare," the tale of understudy actress Jenny, who answers her door to a hideous, dwarf-like old peddler selling two dolls — one that cries and one that laughs. Against the peddler's strange warning, she chooses the laughing doll, and its contagious, mocking laughter begins to follow her everywhere she goes, into the theater, the subway, and her sleepless nights.Unsolved Mysteries presents a true-style ghost story told by foreign correspondent Jackson, who recalls a visit to a centuries-old medieval castle in Northumberland, England, complete with drawbridge, moat, and turrets — and its resident phantom, the Lady Evelyn, said to warn the family of any impending disaster. Sleeping in the haunted wing, Jackson is roused by a figure who writes a message in letters of fire across the stone wall, a warning tied to the RMS Titanic.Dark Venture stars William Conrad in "Hideout," the confession of small-time gambler Sam, who sits in on one of Phil Collins's famous high-stakes poker games, wins and loses a fortune, and ends the night shooting political big shot Mike Barnes. Fleeing to Chicago and a rooming house run by Dave Jordan, Sam stumbles into a carnival fortune teller, Madame Zara, who reads the cards and tells him he will die within three days at the hands of a man with white hair — just as hired killer Whitey Burke begins closing in.The Weird Circle summons its bellkeeper for the immortal Robert Louis Stevenson tale "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," in which Dr. Henry Jekyll brews a potion meant to separate the good and evil halves of a single man. The draught gives life to the stooped, deformed, and wholly malevolent Edward Hyde, who terrorizes the streets of London while lawyer Mr. Utterson, Dr. Lanyon, and the faithful butler Poole try to understand what their friend has unleashed.The Whistler brings the Signal-sponsored noir "Danger Is a Beautiful Blonde," as bored construction engineer Van Stevens, killing time in a small coast city on a Saturday night, is picked up on the street by a beautiful young blonde in a slick convertible. She drives him to a seaside mansion full of priceless art, and the flirtation turns to ice the moment she asks him to look under her bed — where a dead man lies hidden.Strange Wills stars distinguished Hollywood actor Warren William as attorney John Francis O'Connell in "Madman's Diary," a probate-court reading of the last testament of the late Professor Lucifer Nicolai. The diary records the professor's decade-long obsession: an electromagnetic experiment to separate the human mind from the body and hurl it backward along light waves into the past. His subject, a young orphan named Alice, is sent first to the age of King Arthur and Guinevere, then far deeper — a quarter-million years before Christ.The Witch's Tale, narrated by 122-year-old Nancy, the Witch of Salem, and her wise black cat Satan, tells "The Haunted Crossroads," where state troopers keep dying at a barren Massachusetts intersection — each one stabbed in the back in a spot so open no killer could possibly reach him and flee unseen. After young Trooper Tom Fallon falls beside his uncle Sergeant Pat McGee and friend Gene Hardy, the only clue is a woman's cold laughter in the dark and a curse reaching back to 1721 and a hanged woman named Goody Fairfax.X Minus One, hosted by Isaac Asimov, presents "Hostess," the story of biologist Rose Smollett, who brings home a guest from another world — the Hawkinsite physician Dr. Harg Tolan, a six-limbed being who breathes cyanide from a cylinder at his mouth. Tolan has come to Earth to study the dreaded "inhibition death," the wasting illness that kills his people, and his quiet questions about the missing persons bureau begin to unsettle Rose's policeman husband, Drake.Masters of Mystery offers the island thriller "Four Fatal Jugglers," in which business partners Gordon Penrose and Dave Copeland — tangled together by Gordon's wife Lydia and her demands for a divorce — head off for a weekend of duck hunting on a tiny, isolated island in the middle of a lake. Lydia's protective brother Bob is drawn in too, and with old grudges, suspicions of murder-by-hunting-accident, and a hunting knife in play, the trip becomes a deadly game of who can be trusted.Strange Adventure closes the night with a desert tale of two weather-beaten prospectors, gangling Slim Sandstone and his stocky partner Geordie Gaines, who walk into the bank of George Alden and deposit a canvas sack half-filled with uncut diamonds. Their secret field out on the desert is rich beyond belief, and the greedy banker schemes to maneuver the pair out of their claim — never suspecting what a salted diamond strike can teach a smart financial tycoon.

In today's episode of the Atheist Experience, The Cross Examiner and JMike tackle the subtle "little things" of Christian nationalism and the liberating reality of secular mental health! From the Pentagon's reclassification of Mormonism to a personal struggle with depression, the hosts dismantle the idea that faith is a viable substitute for evidence or professional care. Can we find a better grounding for reality than ancient forgeries and emotional placeholders?Levi in LA questions why he shouldn't believe in a higher power if it provides comfort, such as a positive outlook during illness. The hosts use the "diamond in the backyard" analogy to explore the high cost of religious tithing and emotional energy spent on unsupported claims. They emphasize that a lack of evidence should lead to agnosticism rather than conviction. What happens to your resources when the promise of a diamond never materializes?Michel in NY asks if the fame of the Gospels proves Jesus was a historical figure rather than a myth. The hosts compare this reasoning to the popularity of King Arthur or Robin Hood, noting that legendary status doesn't establish physical reality. The conversation briefly touches on apocryphal texts and modern gender commentary before being identified as potential trolling for its lack of substance. Can the popularity of a story ever serve as a reliable yardstick for historical truth?Marcos in New Zealand presents a trilemma regarding children and free will on Judgment Day. He also cites documented witnesses of Ellen White as proof for his theism. The hosts challenge this "hearsay of hearsay" by comparing it to the modern "James River Church toes" miracle, which lacked independent verification despite multiple claims of witnessing the divine. They urge applying a consistent standard of evidence to all extraordinary stories. Why do ancient legends receive a special pass from skepticism?Thank you for joining us this week! We will see you next time!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-atheist-experience--3254896/support.

What really went on at the court of King William Rufus?William the Conqueror's son and successor was fierce and ruthless. He taxed heavily, refused to conform to the ideals of kingship, and reportedly presided over a court of extravagant young men and sexual licentiousness. But how much of Rufus's reputation was shaped by the monks that despised him?Matt Lewis is joined by Professor Tom Licence, to explore the life, reign and shocking death of a king, whose reputation remains as provocative today as it was nearly a thousand years ago.More:King Arthur's Sex LifeListen on AppleListen on SpotifyEdward II: King of IncompetenceListen on AppleListen on SpotifyGone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. Audio editor is Natasha Hughes, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcastSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week, PLUS early access, ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the outbreak of First World War airplanes were still a novelty on the battlefield. Originally planes were used for reconnaissance and the pilots were usually unarmed. This quickly changed and soon airplanes were being outfitted with machine guns and tasked specifically with destroying enemy aircraft. Fighter pilots were a new type of warrior, but ironically they started to be described in medieval terms. Stories began to appear in the wartime press about acts of courtesy between enemy pilots. Soon propagandists were claiming that airmen were "knights of the air" bound by an unwritten code of chivalry. The image of the daring and gentlemanly "flying ace" proved to be an incredibly effective recruitment tool. Were the stories of gallantry in the sky little more than wartime propaganda, or was there something to the image of the gentleman-pilot? Tune-in and find out how King Arthur, Ernest Hemmingway, and the "Fokker Scourge" all play role in the story.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.