Podcasts about The Lord of the Rings

I explore the character of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings as a model of virtuous masculinity. I break down how he embodies the protector, the healer, and the humble king, and what that means for us as men today. Aragorn shows us how strength and gentleness, ambition and humility, can coexist—and why the world needs more of that balance right now.SHOW HIGHLIGHTS00:00 – Introduction00:27 – The hands of the king03:13 – The protector king06:22 – The humility of power08:24 – Strength with purpose11:11 – Brotherhood and bonds13:39 – Magnanimity and greatness16:55 – Humility at the Black Gate18:26 – Strong and gentle19:23 – Redefining greatness22:04 – Closing thoughts***Tired of feeling like you're never enough? Build your self-worth with help from this free guide: https://training.mantalks.com/self-worthPick up my book, Men's Work: A Practical Guide To Face Your Darkness, End Self-Sabotage, And Find Freedom: https://mantalks.com/mens-work-book/Heard about attachment but don't know where to start? Try the FREE Ultimate Guide To AttachmentCheck out some other free resources: How To Quit Porn | Anger Meditation | How To Lead In Your RelationshipBuild brotherhood with a powerful group of like-minded men from around the world. Check out The Alliance. Enjoy the podcast? Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Podchaser. It helps us get into the ears of new listeners, expand the ManTalks Community, and help others find the tools and training they're looking for. And don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | SpotifyFor more, visit us at ManTalks.com | Facebook | Instagram

Send Bidemi a Text Message!In this episode, host Bidemi Ologunde analyzed the company Palantir Technologies, an American publicly traded company specializing in software platforms for data mining. The analysis focused on the enabling conditions that predate its founding, the company's growth across historical and societal contexts, its financial trajectory and political entrenchment, controversies around privacy and surveillance, as well as compelling background details for a general audience.Support the show

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on empathy games, returning to discuss a little more about Papers, Please before digging into Cart Life a bit. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A bit more of Papers, Please and a little bit of Cart Life Issues covered: thanks for the interview, a bit about Twin Suns Corp, showing earlier versions of the game, a vertical slice with all the game play, getting fired, building up through the systems, was this my run, tactility in games, citations and the space they take, space economy, inventory management by comparison, encumbrance, restriction on space, card games and space, making citations bigger, where's the money coming from, thinking about decisions, the save system, leveraging the save system to have space for warnings, a generous save system, you have to make the whole game, the spread of subversion, not playing through multiple times, an unfortunate bug, GDC and the IGF, festival games on the show floor, a history of game issues, the two storylines we're playing, a dark story of divorce, differences between the cart stories, more adventure game than expected, having a hard time getting a cart and also being too late to pick up your daughter, difficulty and opacity, a film equivalent, Brett's fantasy recs, Papers Please and authenticity, controlling your population in authoritarian regimes, stereotypes in games. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: CalamityNolan, BioStats, Kaeon, KyleAndError, Project Octavia, Harley Baldwin, Republic Commando, Choose Your Own Adventure, Mark Garcia, The Room, SpaceTeam, Gorogoa, The Elder Scrolls, Marvel: Snap, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Netrunner, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, The Last Express, Nier: Automata, Spelunky, The Walking Dead, Richard Hofmeier, howling dogs, Porpentine, itch.io, Ad Hoc, Telltale, The Wolf Among Us, Adventure Game Studio, The Sims, Tow, Rose Byrne, Max, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Raymond Feist, Riftwar saga, Piers Anthony, The Belgariad, David Eddings, Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan, Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, Dave Duncan, Ursula K. LeGuin, Tales of Earthsea, Robert Jackson Bennett, Divine Cities trilogy, Founders trilogy, Terry Pratchett, Discworld, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Shadows of the Apt, Robin Hobb, Farseer trilogy, Martha Wells, Murderbot Diaries, Books of the Raksura, Lois McMaster Bujold, Vorkosigan saga, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, John LeCarré, Lee Child, Jack Reacher, Claudiu, Chernobyl, Outer Wilds, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers. Next time: More Cart Life Oops: What I was going to say at the end there is that This War of Mine caught some flak for not accurately representing how people would come together in times of strife (though generally the critical reception was very positive) Links: First look stream of Project Octavia  Twitch: timlongojr and Twin Suns Corp  Discord  DevGameClub@gmail.com 

Note: "Act 2" will be a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.com*RSVP to EZ's Pinball Orgy*RSVP to Paintball War 25 "The September Slaughter"Topics:*EZ's first class as "Professor Zane" is in the books. EZ reviews how it went.*While EZ was teaching, he was getting inundated with messages from audience members about Free Beer having some sort of meltdown during the FBHW evening Live-stream. The material has been scrubbed from the internet.*EZ previews "Who Are These Free Beers?" with a clip of Free Beer chastising all men.*EZ laid eyes on the greatest collection of Lord of the Rings action figures, ever.*EZ on people who have kids too old.*EZ on how his grandma was always pissed off.Sponsors:Oakland Auto Detail, Kuiper Tree Care, Oakland Auto Detail, Pinball Land, Berlin Raceway, Impact Power Sports,, Frank Fuss/ My Policy Shop Insurance, The Mario Flores Lakeshore Team of VanDyk Mortgage, Shoreliners Striping, Blue Frost IT,Interested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.comContact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Burnie and Ashley discuss the Academy Awards on YouTube, new LOTR, sports blackouts, George RR Martin, The Storm Sword Champions, James Bond, Russia's Number Two guy, and worst jobs in the world.Support our podcast at: https://www.roosterteeth.comFor the link dump visit: http://www.morningsomewhere.comFor merch, check out: http://store.roosterteeth.com

Tonight we discuss the fight by Balin's tomb, in which Sam experiences his first combat.

Tonight we return to the cave-troll attack, already in progress. Let's watch as Frodo achieves the acme of his combat career. Join us on the Signum University Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/szXMFAv

This one's turned out to be a heck of an episode. We're gathering the fellowship and deep diving into Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings! This episode Cody, Aaron, Josh, and special guest Steve from the Critical Encounters podcast cover and discuss the history of one of Nerdom's most prolific authors: J.R.R. Tolkien. This is the first of a 2-parter! We want to hear your Tolkien Takes!Email us at hillshavenerds@gmail.comCome on our Facebook!www.facebook.com/The HillsHaveNerdsCome inside our Discord!https://discord.gg/cruXwRyQjmCheck us out on Youtube for live stream game nights and other stuff!www.youtube.com/@ThehillshavenerdsWe want to thank our Ko-fi supporters! You help us make the show even better.Brittany JohnstonNick De RosaYou can support us on Ko-fi for membership rewards!www.ko-fi.com/thehillshavenerdsCody streams games on Twitch!www.twitch.tv/coffeebreakloungeListen to Steve on Critical Encounters Podcast!https://open.spotify.com/show/3XJOGhuIaQwx2PaaEX0teU?si=be65474a88f1437eTolkien Gatewayhttps://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Main_PageJ.R.R. Tolkien Wikihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

This week Carly, Brad from Canada, Coach Dave and Chad decided to re-cast The Lord of The Rings and also discuss what they watched this week including Weapons! https://linktr.ee/sceneinvaderspodcast?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

I like to do episodes for random reasons and I like when fate makes it happen. Due to looking at a random bargain bin at Walmart found this movie, which lead us to this review.  I am joined by a few friends to talk about the first version of a Lord of the rings movie we ever got. Starring Mike Albertin, Robbie Sherman, and Joseph Larrey.  Robbie's Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/2Yu0P73Pydfi9VMdl2k8cZ Gamer Looks at 40 - https://agamerlooksat40.com/ Zac's Podcast - https://linktr.ee/absolutelythebest Helena - https://linktr.ee/helhathfury Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GamesMyMomFound Follow us on Facebook. Instagram - gamesmymomfound_ YouTube  - https://youtube.com/c/GamesMyMomFoundPodcast Discord - https://discord.gg/YQRZB2sXJC Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - GMMF 335 https://gamesmymomfoundpodcast.podbean.com/e/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-gmmf-335 LEGO Lord of The Rings - GMMF 329 https://gamesmymomfoundpodcast.podbean.com/e/lego-lord-of-the-rings-gmmf-329

What do Tolkien, vocation, and gritty literature have in common? In this conversation, Dru Johnson talks with literary scholar Dr. Karen Swallow Prior about why Christians often gravitate toward fantasy and romantic ideals—and why that can be a problem. Karen critiques the elevation of genre fiction like The Lord of the Rings as literary canon and urges Christians to engage “thick texts” that challenge us and train us to read Scripture more deeply. They discuss how modern reading habits—dominated by email, social media, and skimmable articles—undermine our ability to understand both literature and biblical texts. Karen argues that literature forms our posture toward the world, and that our spiritual and moral imagination needs the grounding realism found in great novels and gritty stories. The conversation pivots to Karen's new book on vocation, exploring how distorted expectations around passion, work, and calling are leaving young people disillusioned. Instead, she calls for a deeper, more historically grounded view of labor, meaning, and responsibility. This episode is a must-listen for those interested in education, theology, literature, and the subtle ways imagination shapes our lives of faith. For more of Karen's literature: https://karenswallowprior.com/ We are listener supported. Give to the cause here: https://hebraicthought.org/give For more articles: https://thebiblicalmind.org/ Social Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HebraicThought Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hebraicthought Threads: https://www.threads.net/hebraicthought X: https://www.twitter.com/HebraicThought Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hebraicthought.org Chapters: 00:00 Exploring Literature and Vocation 02:37 The Role of Literary Criticism in Cultural Contexts 05:44 Tolkien, Lewis, and the Literary Canon 08:46 Understanding Thick Texts: Literature and the Bible 12:04 The Importance of Reading Skills in Biblical Studies 14:55 Interpreting the Bible: Layers of Meaning in Texts 19:49 The Importance of Humility in Understanding Literature 24:00 Navigating Vocation and Career Expectations 29:54 The Reality of Menial Jobs and Their Value 33:37 Balancing Idealism and Grit in Literature 38:47 Finding Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful

With the poetry and songs from The Lord of the Rings in our rear-view mirror here on the TTT, it's time to spend this series looking at important artifacts in the Third Age, starting with a couple of swords that show up in The Hobbit! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The dangers of adventure, an encounter with goblins, and the power of Gandalf. We continue our exploration of JRR Tolkien's the Hobbit, by wandering through chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill.Share this episode using this link:ringspodcast.com/227Who are you?Please tell me a little about you: ringspodcast.com/surveyWander Farther: A Free Reading GuideDownload my FREE guide for reading Tolkien's Silmarillion: https://ringspodcast.kit.com/a982347493Deals for you, my fellow wandererExclusive discount for Lore of the Rings Listeners: 25% off your entire order at Manly Bands. Details at https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/rings/Want to sponsor the Lore of the Rings?Sponsor rates, details, and inquires hereSupport Lore of the Rings with a donationAbout the Lore of the Rings PodcastContact the show, donate, and find past episodes: ringspodcast.comEmbark on an immersive journey through the captivating realms of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, where the epic sagas of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and more come to life. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of Tolkien's masterful storytelling, drawing intriguing comparisons between his literary works and the cinematic adaptations crafted by Peter Jackson. Be at the forefront of the latest developments as we explore the highly anticipated Rings of Power series from Amazon. Prepare to be enthralled as we uncover hidden connections, untold tales, and delve into the depths of Middle-earth lore. Tune in now and become part of our fellowship on this extraordinary journey!This podcast is not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate.Our Sponsors:* Visit Oscha Slings and use my code LOTRPOD for 10% off: https://oschaslings.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/ringspodcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hola Gerardo aquí en otro episodio de Simplemente Yo; La selección de esta semana es The Lord of the Ring: The Two Towers, es una película épica de aventuras y fantasía de 2002 dirigida por Peter Jackson a partir de un guion de Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair y Jackson, basada en Las dos torres de 1954, el segundo volumen de la novela El Señor de los Anillos de J. R. R. Tolkien. En este episodio de podcast, analizo los detalles y Exploro cómo el director Peter Jackson dio vida al mundo de J.R.R. Tolkien, destacando la escenografía, la creación de vestuario y los revolucionarios efectos digitales que animaron a personajes icónicos como Gollum. Hablo sobre los desafíos del rodaje, como las lesiones de los actores y la ambiciosa construcción de los escenarios de la Tierra Media, a la vez que profundizan en la cautivadora banda sonora de Howard Shore, que profundiza la épica de la película.   Plot: Mientras Frodo y Sam se acercan a Mordor con la ayuda de Gollum, la comunidad dividida se enfrenta al nuevo aliado de Sauron, Saruman, y sus hordas de Isengard.   Espero que lo disfruten ;) Información adicional del podcast: Enlace del website official de Filmic Notion Podcast: https://filmicnotionpod.com/ Enlace a nuestra página de Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/446nl  

Episode 200! I can't quite believe we've reached this point: two hundred conversations, stories, and reflections shared with you. And for this milestone, I wanted to talk about something that's been weaving through all of them: the power of metaphor. From Iron Man's first suit to the parables of Jesus, from Joseph Campbell's wisdom to Pete Holmes' “finger and moon,” metaphors shape how we see the world and ourselves. In this episode of Clemenz With a “Z”, I explore why we need metaphors, how they sneak past our defenses to speak to the heart, and what happens when we mistake the metaphor for the thing itself. Along the way, I connect modern myths like Marvel movies to ancient scripture, and even take a surprising detour into The Lord of the Rings to unpack Smeagol's haunting transformation into Gollum. Whether it's a shepherd, a superhero, or a hobbit clutching his “precious,” these stories are pointing us toward something bigger, if we're willing to look past the finger and see the moon. If this episode meant something to you, I'd love it if you'd take a second to like, subscribe, and leave a review, it really helps more people find the show. If you would like to reach out to me you can drop me a line at clemenzwithaz@gmail.com or drop a DM at the clemenz with a "Z" instagram page.   You can head over to https://gofund.me/7ebb0524 every bit helps. And if you're looking for more reflection, honesty, and spiritual wrestling, check out my Substack: Devotionals for the Deconstructing & Disillusioned, it's a space for people who still have soul, but no longer fit in the boxes they were handed. Thanks for being here.

Battlecry!, Bigatures, and the Tank Fallacy: Pathfinder 2e's New Expansion Yells Into the Void (And We Love It!) You can now listen to archive episodes of the RPGBOT.Podcast on YouTube! Catch up on past adventures, deep dives, and spicy takes—now just a click away. Show Notes: In this episode, Tyler Kamstra, Randall James, and Ash Ely sound the alarm for Battlecry!, the latest Pathfinder 2e expansion that drops more mechanics than a dwarven siege engine. The Commander class steals the spotlight, offering the kind of battlefield support that makes your bard feel inadequate. Meanwhile, the Guardian shows up to shout "Taunt!" like it's 2004, then dares you to punch it in the face. New ancestries like the Jotunborn get critiqued (spoiler: they're tall, but not necessarily compelling), and the hosts break down how Pathfinder continues to make tactical party play both crunchy and fun. Also: AI voice acting is ruining everything, and Tyler wants his dang bigatures back. PF2 Battlecry Paizo Blog: Diamond Bankruptcy Update West Virginia Radio Quiet Zone Key Takeaways: Radio Silence Zone: It's real, it's weird, and it's the perfect setting for your next post-apocalyptic one-shot. AI is coming for your dice: The rise of AI in creative industries has the hosts (rightfully) worried—and not just about the quality of CGI. Battlecry is awesome: It brings bold new options with the Commander and Guardian classes, plus new ancestries, archetypes, and updated warfare mechanics. The Commander Class: A tactician's dream—boost allies, manage actions, and scream commands like a fantasy Napoleon. The Guardian Class: Not a traditional tank, but it taunts like one. Understanding the “tank fallacy” is key to using this class well. Reactions matter: Timing is everything. Pathfinder's layered action economy shines even brighter with these new mechanics. New archetypes = spicy builds: There's a lot to chew on for optimizers and roleplayers alike. Magic items and warfare: Updated systems offer more fun without bogging the game down. Diamond Comics' bankruptcy: A reminder of how fragile RPG distribution really is. The LotR extended editions debate: Nobody is neutral. Randall might duel Ash in a Cracks of Doom showdown. Call to Action: If you're a Pathfinder player, Battlecry is more than just a shout—it's a full-blown battle hymn. Whether you're a tactical mastermind or just here for the yelling, grab a copy of Battlecry, roll up a Commander or Guardian, and make your table tremble. Don't forget to subscribe to the RPGBOT.Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and check out our archive of episodes now available on YouTube! Whether you're catching up or diving deep, we've got all the crunchy game mechanics, hot takes, and spicy builds you crave. Listen, laugh, optimize. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. It's a quick, free way to support the podcast, and helps us reach new listeners. If you love the show, consider joining us on Patreon, where backers at the $5 and above tiers get ad free access to RPGBOT.net and the RPGBOT.Podcast, can chat directly to members of the RPGBOT team and community on the RPGBOT.Discord, and can join us for live-streamed recordings. Support us on Amazon.com when you purchase products recommended in the show at the following link: https://amzn.to/3NwElxQ Meet the Hosts: Tyler Kamstra – The tactical mind behind RPGBOT.net, Tyler sees the Pathfinder action economy like Neo sees the Matrix. Randall James – Technologist, lore enthusiast, and fully prepared to duel Peter Jackson over which LotR edition reigns supreme. Ash Ely – Resident cynic, chaos agent, and AI's worst nightmare. Fueled by sarcasm and sweet, sweet table-flipping energy. How to Find Us: In-depth articles, guides, handbooks, reviews, news on Tabletop Role Playing at RPGBOT.net Tyler Kamstra BlueSky: @rpgbot.net TikTok: @RPGBOTDOTNET Ash Ely Professional Game Master on StartPlaying.Games BlueSky: @GravenAshes YouTube: @ashravenmedia Randall James BlueSky: @GrimoireRPG Amateurjack.com Read Melancon: A Grimoire Tale (affiliate link) Producer Dan @Lzr_illuminati

The dangers of adventure, an encounter with goblins, and the power of Gandalf. We continue our exploration of JRR Tolkien's the Hobbit, by wandering through chapter 4: Over Hill and Under Hill.Share this episode using this link:ringspodcast.com/227Who are you?Please tell me a little about you: ringspodcast.com/surveyWander Farther: A Free Reading GuideDownload my FREE guide for reading Tolkien's Silmarillion: https://ringspodcast.kit.com/a982347493Deals for you, my fellow wandererExclusive discount for Lore of the Rings Listeners: 25% off your entire order at Manly Bands. Details at https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/rings/Want to sponsor the Lore of the Rings?Sponsor rates, details, and inquires hereSupport Lore of the Rings with a donationAbout the Lore of the Rings PodcastContact the show, donate, and find past episodes: ringspodcast.comEmbark on an immersive journey through the captivating realms of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, where the epic sagas of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and more come to life. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of Tolkien's masterful storytelling, drawing intriguing comparisons between his literary works and the cinematic adaptations crafted by Peter Jackson. Be at the forefront of the latest developments as we explore the highly anticipated Rings of Power series from Amazon. Prepare to be enthralled as we uncover hidden connections, untold tales, and delve into the depths of Middle-earth lore. Tune in now and become part of our fellowship on this extraordinary journey!This podcast is not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate.Our Sponsors:* Visit Oscha Slings and use my code LOTRPOD for 10% off: https://oschaslings.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/ringspodcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Xbox just keeps taking hits, and there is no way to spin it. Sony takes one on the chin too, as their Live Service goals aren't playing out the way they hoped. Plus Blizzard loses Rod, Strauss is the ultimate hype man, and Battlefield is back? Plus Paramount sets its sights on its new future, DC Studios has a plan, Captain Jack Sparrow might be back. Plus Reviews of Black Bag, Twisted Metal Season 2 and the first two episodes of Alien Earth.

Hey Retro Gamers! On today's episode of Smashing Bricks travel back to 2003 and fight our way across Middle-Earth in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.Join me, Eddie Inzauto, and regular guest Kyle Stallock as we hack and slash and make Tolkien proud in this cross-platform melee action title.Make sure you listen until the end to hear what the next game is and play through with us before the 14th of next month! Smashing Bricks Bonus Round Episodes are now available to all Fire Flower tier (and higher) Patreon Patrons! These amazing episodes post on the 28th of each month, and I really want as many of you to hear them as possible, so I've made it easier to be a part of that audience! Be sure to check them out at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://patreon.com/smashingbricks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Non-patrons can ALSO now hear these episodes on the main feed, but they'll be posted there a little over a year after initial release.Smashing Bricks has a Discord server! Follow this link to join our community and chat about games, the podcast, and anything else your heart desires! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.com/invite/gfnpx62JzS⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You're invited to join the discussion with your comments on our current and upcoming titles or any past game we've played. You can also make suggestions for games you'd like to hear about on future episodes!Check out the Smashing Bricks Playlist and help me fill in the gaps, or let me know that a game that's already on the list is a must-play for the show! Here's a link to the list: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠playlist.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And again, if you'd like to go above and beyond to support the show and even get yourself some brand new bonus episodes, donate a few bucks a month via Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/SmashingBricks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SOCIAL LINKS:Linktree with all links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠links.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SB on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SB on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SB on Intagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SB on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.smashingbricks.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Eddie's Photography on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/edwardinzauto⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kyle's Twitch: www.twitch.tv/realgoodthere

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what's exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above. Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.Shakespeare with a twistLuke Fanning of northeast Minneapolis has his eye on Zach Christensen of Jackdonkey Productions, whose staging of “Henry V” is now at Theatre in the Round.Fanning says Christensen has “an uncanny knack for taking something that might be a little bit old and dusty and shaking it up and making it new and fun.”This production promises music, movement and “weird vibes” while still exploring the play's central themes of war, power and their effects on people. “Henry V” runs through Aug. 18.Luke says: I know I can trust Jackdonkey to add music, movement, weird vibes in a way that I'm gonna lean in instead of zone out.— Luke FanningTim Harding's shimmering ‘Double Vision'Minneapolis visual artist Carolyn Halliday has followed Tim Harding's textile work for decades, but his new series “Double Vision” is something entirely different.Harding prints his own photographs on polyester, reprints them at a different scale on organza, then layers, gathers and stitches the fabrics to create a stereopticon-like effect.The result, Halliday says, “moves and shimmers and distorts the view.” The show is on view at Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis through Aug. 30.Carolyn says: It's really dramatic.— Carolyn HallidayA symphonic ‘Ring' in BrainerdJustin Lucero, artistic director of Theatre Latté Da, says the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd is preparing its largest-ever orchestra for an ambitious weekend.The festival will present an orchestral program featuring music from “The Lord of the Rings,” a new work by French composer Camille Pépin, and “The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure,” a 70-minute distillation of Wagner's epic 15-hour cycle.More than 100 musicians will perform on the Gichi-ziibi stage Aug. 16 and 17.Justin says: It'll be the largest ever orchestra that has been involved with the Lakes Area Music Festival.— Justin Lucero

Welcome to another episode of For The Dads, where hosts Will Compton and Sherm break down everything you need to know about football season survival and Will’s MASSIVE Husband Loss—because being a dad isn't easy! In this episode, Will and Sherm dive into how to successfully plan your weekends during football season, how to handle the emotional rollercoaster when your team loses, and why setting expectations with your spouse is crucial for a smooth season. Plus, the boys talk about balancing family time and football fandom, especially when there’s a new baby on the way! To kick things off, Will and Sherm catch up with Papa Team 6 before jumping into a hilarious story about accountability when Will puts off putting up a shelf in his daughter’s room. Then it’s all about football. Will talks about setting expectations with your wife for the weekend game schedule, while Sherm opens up about his worries that his infant daughter might cut into his football time. The guys also share some fan-submitted stories in Dad Losses, crack a cold one to celebrate seeing your kids after a business trip, and recount their adventures at the county fair. Plus, a surprise call from across the seas wraps up the show. And to finish, Sherm shares his first solo dad lesson—with an epic twist from his favorite Lord of the Rings scene.

Enjoy this throwback to Lauren's appearance on fellow Headgum podcast Too Scary; Didn't Watch where she and the hosts recapped Final Destination 3! And if you want to hear more, listen to their recent Final Destination: Bloodlines episode with Lisa Gilroy here!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What do typhoon evacuations, koala selfies, and second breakfast in Hobbiton have in common? They've all been part of Deacon Bob's adventurous month.  After a few weeks apart, Father Dave and Deacon Bob are back, swapping globe-trotting tales, ministry moments, and a surprisingly full slate of sports updates. Bob's recent trip took him from the typhoon-swept Philippines to Singapore, Perth, Sydney, and a bucket-list stop in New Zealand's Hobbiton (yes, complete with hobbit holes, the Green Dragon Inn, and second breakfast).  Along the way, he preached to 90 youth leaders just hours after a typhoon hit, met a koala, saw kangaroos, and even met a listener named Rain who drove five hours just to hear him speak. There were plenty of memorable meals, from perfect pancakes to less-than-crispy bacon.  Meanwhile, Father Dave stayed stateside, baptizing great-nieces (one walked to her own baptism), speaking at the Knights of Columbus Conference, and making a moving visit to the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City. He shares Rother's remarkable story—from failing Latin in seminary, to obeying his bishop's call to return to Guatemala, to his martyrdom in 1981—and the beauty of a shrine built right in the heart of the city it serves.  Sports fans get plenty too: the debut of MLB's first female umpire Jen Pawol (including her Hall of Fame–bound first pitch), Tom Brady's towering new statue, and even a trivia challenge about the University of Michigan making draft history.  Naturally, there are detours, including CGI vs. AI, bad sports statues, and ministry moments that transcended cultural boundaries. But through it all, the heart stays the same: joyfully sharing the Gospel, wherever God sends you (even if it's to a sheep paddock in New Zealand).    Highlighted Sections  (00:00) Sports, Schedules, and Saying Goodbye  The guys open with bittersweet news about the podcast winding down, why recording has gotten harder, and an invitation for listeners to share favorite memories. They then go into the week's light sports slate and review the new Superman. Even with the end in sight, their trademark banter is alive and well.    (05:41) Football, Statues, and Sports Trivia  Deacon Bob previews a Buccaneers-Steelers preseason game while Father Dave looks forward to Steelers training camp. They discuss Tom Brady's towering statue and celebrate Jen Pawol historic debut as MLB's first female umpire. The segment wraps with a trivia challenge about a university making draft history in all four major leagues.    (15:44) From Typhoons to Hobbit Holes  Bob recounts ministry in the Philippines, Perth, and New Zealand, including speaking to youth leaders after a typhoon and connecting with alumni abroad. He describes walking through the Shire set from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, complete with hobbit holes and the Green Dragon Inn. Jenny may not be a huge fan of the films, but even she found the tour magical.    (23:42) Sydney, Koalas, and the Ends of the Earth  From welcoming bishops to preaching across cultures, Bob reflects on moments when the Holy Spirit's anointing was tangible. He shares encounters with young adults, a koala, and a listener who drove five hours to hear him speak. Each stop reaffirmed the universal joy of sharing the Gospel.    (25:42) Baptisms, Knights, and Blessed Stanley Rother  Father Dave talks about baptizing his great-nieces and representing Franciscan University at the Knights of Columbus Conference. He shares the moving story of Blessed Stanley Rother a missionary priest martyred in Guatemala, and describes visiting the shrine dedicated to him. The witness of Rother's courage and devotion left a lasting impression.    (32:37) Feast Days and a Chapel Blessing  Looking ahead to the Feast of the Assumption they pray for peace amid global tensions. Father Dave previews the blessing of Franciscan University's newly renovated Christ the King Chapel, while Bob outlines upcoming speaking engagements. The conversation closes with anticipation for the start of the school year.    Resources Mentioned  Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine – Learn more about the first American-born martyr  MLB First Female Umpire – Jen Pawol – Read about her historic debut  Hobbiton Movie Set – Explore the filming location of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit  Feast of the Assumption – August 15, a Holy Day of Obligation in the Catholic Church  Christ the King Chapel Renovation – Franciscan University's expanded and renewed chapel  Purposeful Lab – New season started on Faith and Reason 

On this episode we sample Wrexham Lager while chatting about why summers are a free for all, it's been a month since we've been behind the mics, when do the leaves start peeping, Wrexham, why alking is difficult, another TV show tie in, dank college towns, beer shared in community, a LOTR reference that makes Kyle's level of nerd is impressive, the beer from my hometown, everyone loves an underdog, it's the narrative the surrounds the sport, the structure of English football, relegation, what American sports miss, of course with enough celebrity power and money you too can achieve great things, and why you don't throw stones in a water balloon.  Support Us On Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrepandStone We'd love to hear from you! https://linktr.ee/DrepandStone Don't forget to subscribe! Music by @joakimkarudmusic Episode #307

Kev and Codey round up all the recent news Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:02:49: What Have We Been Up To 00:23:52: Game Releases 00:51:09: Game Updates 01:00:01: New Games 01:16:21: Outro Links Research Story 1.0 Little Witch in the Woods 1.0 Slime Rancher 2 1.0 Grimshire Early Access Hotel Galactic Early Access Hotel Galactic Apology Out and About Release Date Out and About Release Delay Ages of Cataria Early Access Release Go-go Town Switch Space Sprouts Update 1 Terra Nil Heatwave Update Snacko 1.1 Update Everdream Valley Family Time DLC Firefly Village Honogurashi No Niwa Galactic Getaway Development Issues Contact Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Kev: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season. My name is Kevin. I’m not alone today. I (0:00:38) Codey: Oooooh though people be clamorin’ for solo Kev time. (0:00:47) Kev: Like how I push the envelope every time I’m you know, I total line but oh (0:00:53) Codey: I’m gonna be real with you. (0:00:55) Codey: I have not listened to the most recent episode. (0:00:58) Codey: I think I’m still finishing up the Tiny Garden episode. (0:01:01) Kev: That’s okay, that’s fine. That’s fine. I (0:01:04) Codey: So I still have a couple episodes to go, (0:01:06) Codey: but I just know that you rock it every time. (0:01:13) Kev: Am (0:01:14) Kev: Getting an hour plus solo recording. I do that’s mmm. I don’t know if that’s good or bad (0:01:17) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:01:20) Kev: That just so that just shows I’m very well versed in talking to myself (0:01:25) Kev: possibly too much (0:01:27) Codey: - Nah, you got, you’re good at it. (0:01:30) Codey: It’s all good. (0:01:31) Kev: Ah, yeah, okay. Well, hi everyone again. I’m Kevin (0:01:36) Codey: - Yeah, you are and I’m not Kevin, I’m Cody. (0:01:37) Kev: Yeah (0:01:39) Kev: And there you go. There we go (0:01:41) Kev: certifiably not Kevin (0:01:43) Codey: - Yeah. (0:01:43) Kev: And we are here to talk today to talk about cottagecore games. Whoo (0:01:48) Codey: - Oh woo, ow, ow, ow. (0:01:50) Kev: Now you dear listener may be wondering why cottagecore and not more deep diving into the Lord of (0:01:56) Codey: Yeah, we really set we set y’all up for, uh, for some, some shire stuff. But alas, we (0:02:00) Kev: And well (0:02:04) Kev: The month of the Shire (0:02:08) Codey: are here, not for the shire. (0:02:10) Kev: The fake out oh, but you know, you know what I’m gonna add something to the what I’ve been up to (0:02:18) Codey: Oh, okay, cool. (0:02:22) Kev: Okay (0:02:24) Kev: But yeah, we’re all over and we’re here to talk about news because news is built up (0:02:28) Kev: We are spoiler alert (0:02:32) Kev: We’re working on the Shire episode, whatever the tale of the Shire episode, but we needed a weak buffer (0:02:36) Kev: And so Cody and I said alright, we’ll just do some news because there’s plenty of news to talk about with the build-up. So (0:02:40) Codey: Yeah. It sure has been a hot minute. (0:02:45) Kev: Yep (0:02:47) Kev: Okay, so yeah news catch up and we’ll get to that as we do (0:02:50) Kev: But before that Cody tell me what has been going on over over there in Cody World (0:02:56) Codey: to think of it. So I think, uh, during those episodes recording with Johnny, I had not yet (0:03:03) Codey: gone to beetle school. So since that time I went to beetle school, you guys, and I had some, (0:03:11) Codey: it was really fun. Uh, I was up in the Chiricahua’s in Arizona, which is not like my first thought. (0:03:16) Codey: I was like, Oh God, Arizona, not looking forward to this super hot. I don’t do hot. Uh, the Chiricahua’s (0:03:21) Codey: were. Lovely. Um, I want to say it never got above like 70 (0:03:26) Codey: degrees. It was like around 70 degrees, but we could go down (0:03:26) Kev: Ooh, that’s lovely! (0:03:31) Codey: into the desert. And so we went into the desert like at night a (0:03:34) Codey: couple times and we got to see some, some tarantulas and some (0:03:38) Codey: rattlesnakes. And so like we got to, to adventure. We also went (0:03:43) Codey: up higher where it was almost like 11,000 feet elevation, um, (0:03:48) Codey: in the Chiricahuas. And it was, it was actually very cold up (0:03:50) Codey: there. I was like, I should have brought a jacket. Yeah. (0:03:52) Kev: Yeah, yeah, it’s the elevation right cuz Atlanta’s similar where we’re you know down South deep, Georgia (0:03:57) Kev: But what’s its mountain eats high evolution into elevation so it can still get chilly (0:04:01) Codey: Yeah. So that was really fun. I learned a lot about Beatles and I feel a lot more confident now. (0:04:06) Kev: So and and you did you graduate are you certified are you do you have a license to be a beetle now? (0:04:13) Codey: You know, it’s funny because when I went to fly school last summer, they gave me a little certificate. (0:04:18) Kev: Yeah (0:04:21) Codey: We did not get a certificate for Beatles. So I, all I have, all I have is the memories. (0:04:23) Kev: Oh, oh no the Beatles got a step up their game (0:04:31) Codey: Uh, the one thing that is beneficial about this is so fly school was more of an international thing. (0:04:36) Codey: There were like maybe six or seven of us that were from the US, but most of the students were from, um, all over the world. (0:04:43) Codey: But so it is unlikely for me to run into the people that I met from fly school at the conferences that I go to because I mostly just go to United States conferences. (0:04:52) Codey: But all, almost all the beetle people, except for like two people, uh, there was a Canadian and a New Zealander. Um, they were all. (0:05:01) Codey: Uh, citizens of America. And so I will be seeing most of them at the conference that I’m going to in November. Very stoked about that. (0:05:09) Codey: Um, cause you make these connections and then, you know, I, it’s like, Oh man, when am I ever going to see that? (0:05:15) Codey: That really cool Italian from, from fly school or whatever. Um, but yeah, I will see most of these people again. (0:05:16) Kev: - Yeah. (0:05:18) Kev: Yeah. (laughs) (0:05:22) Codey: And it’s just great to start building those connections. Um, so I did that. (0:05:27) Codey: that. (0:05:31) Codey: I have also been playing, I’m still playing honey Grove. (0:05:35) Codey: Um, I have unlocked a new explorer B so I’m now at five, but I think there’s six. (0:05:44) Codey: And I’m just like playing it a little bit at a time. (0:05:47) Codey: I’m working on my specimens as per usual so I will graduate or I will defend in the in December now I have had to. (0:05:54) Kev: Okay, these are real specimens. We switched to not the honeygrove specimens (0:05:56) Codey: Correct. We’ve switched to real life. (0:06:01) Codey: Yeah, into the real world. (0:06:04) Codey: So yeah, working on that, I had almost the entire time we were (0:06:08) Codey: kind of on our little break and we were doing the Lord of the (0:06:11) Kev: Yeah. (0:06:12) Codey: Rings stuff. I actually had people that helped me. So I (0:06:13) Kev: Yeah. (0:06:15) Kev: No. (0:06:16) Codey: wasn’t doing everything by myself, which was amazing. Yeah, (0:06:18) Kev: You had cronies. (0:06:20) Codey: we called him my henchmen. And so I had henchmen and they did (0:06:21) Kev: Yeah, there you go, that’s correct. (0:06:25) Codey: an amazing job and they learned so much and I’m so proud of (0:06:28) Codey: them. But I am like almost back to being solo now and I (0:06:31) Codey: am stressing but I got it. I’ve got this but I had to push back (0:06:36) Codey: my defense just because of how much work so I will be defending (0:06:40) Codey: in December now fingers crossed and then actually like graduating (0:06:45) Codey: and like walking for my doctorate in the spring, which (0:06:46) Kev: Oh, snap. (0:06:48) Codey: I don’t super care about it being like so far out. (0:06:52) Kev: Yeah. (0:06:52) Codey: It’s actually better for a lot of my family members that want (0:06:55) Codey: to come and watch me walk because yeah, so they don’t have (0:06:57) Kev: To plan, yeah. (0:06:58) Kev: Mm-hmm. (0:06:59) Codey: to come when it’s like. (0:07:01) Codey: Possibly snowy. (0:07:03) Codey: There’ve been times when my mom wanted to come visit or I wanted to go visit (0:07:06) Codey: home and it like during the June, um, sorry, December, um, January timeframe. (0:07:12) Kev: Yeah. (0:07:13) Codey: Then it just doesn’t work. (0:07:14) Kev: Yeah. (0:07:15) Codey: So it’s better for it to be. (0:07:16) Kev: Yeah. (0:07:16) Kev: I mean, yeah, it’s wild how people who don’t live in snowy areas just absolutely get bodied (0:07:26) Codey: Well, but even even that that I mean even just irrespective of that there is the fact that like (0:07:26) Kev: by snow. (0:07:32) Codey: We will have entire like planes shut down like people will try and travel like the last time I tried to go there (0:07:36) Kev: Oh, that… mmm… that is true. (0:07:41) Codey: I (0:07:42) Codey: Well, what’s the last time? (0:07:43) Codey: I don’t know (0:07:44) Codey: I tried to go home and I was gonna be home for like two and a half weeks and then I ended up having to cut (0:07:48) Codey: It short because my flight got delayed and then I finally got on the plane (0:07:52) Codey: Like it got delayed by like two days and then I finally got (0:07:54) Kev: No, my god, oh my goodness, oh (0:07:56) Codey: Yeah, and then I finally got on the plane. I was on the plane and then there were they had mechanical issues (0:08:00) Codey: And then finally when they can’t mechanical issues (0:08:01) Kev: No (0:08:03) Codey: Cleared up there was that flight was supposed to go to Chicago O’Hare and then O’Hare was getting like three feet of snow (0:08:10) Codey: So they were like, you know, you guys can sit tight (0:08:13) Codey: But we are basically being told to wait and I was just like nope screw it. I just left (0:08:16) Kev: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah (0:08:20) Codey: like (0:08:22) Codey: No (0:08:23) Codey: But yeah, so that kind of stuff happens (0:08:24) Kev: Apologies to Aislinn for triggering her (0:08:26) Codey: especially (0:08:30) Codey: Yeah, it’s I mean, yeah, she knows all about it and (0:08:34) Codey: Yeah going even just like going to Arizona and my stuff got canceled a million times. So (0:08:40) Codey: It’s just a hard time out there right now for sure (0:08:44) Codey: But then my last update is I’m playing Tales of the Shire (0:08:50) Kev: Did you- did you- did you- did- how far are you? (0:08:53) Codey: Um, I don’t… (0:08:56) Codey: Are you playing it too? (0:08:57) Kev: No, I’m not. I’m just curious. (0:08:58) Codey: Oh, okay. (0:08:59) Kev: I- did you have, you know, ballpark estimate? 50%? (0:09:02) Codey: No, no, no, not anywhere near that. (0:09:03) Kev: Okay. (0:09:04) Codey: I’m still in the same… (0:09:05) Kev: There you go. (0:09:06) Codey: I’m still in the first, like… (0:09:08) Codey: I think you start in summer. (0:09:10) Kev: Okay. (0:09:10) Codey: And I’m still in summer. (0:09:11) Kev: Mmm, ahh. (0:09:12) Codey: Um, but I feel like I’m getting… (0:09:18) Codey: I’m, like, going at a good clip. (0:09:19) Codey: I just was gone for a long time. (0:09:22) Codey: And then now that I’m back, (0:09:23) Codey: I’ve been so busy with, like, getting caught up with work. (0:09:24) Kev: Yeah. (0:09:26) Codey: Visiting and stuff, and so, yeah. (0:09:27) Kev: Ahh, alright, alright. (0:09:29) Codey: Uh, well, so that’s what I’ve been up to. (0:09:30) Kev: Well, uh… (0:09:31) Codey: What have you been up to, Kev? (0:09:32) Kev: Well, I was just gonna say, I’m waiting to hear when you finally defeat Sauron, um, Tails of the Shire, but, uh… (0:09:38) Kev: But, hahaha, but, uh… (0:09:40) Codey: That is, that is interesting. (0:09:42) Codey: I’m at the point, um, I don’t know if… (0:09:44) Codey: So this is not a spoiler. (0:09:45) Codey: I don’t know if “Tales of the Shire” is before or after. (0:09:49) Codey: So, um, yeah, I’m not entirely sure. (0:09:53) Codey: It is unclear to me at this, at this stage. (0:09:56) Kev: What if you invite Sauron to tea and you don’t even know it? (0:09:56) Codey: I… (0:09:59) Kev: It could happen. (0:10:00) Codey: You know what? (0:10:01) Codey: It could happen. (0:10:07) Kev: That’s good stuff. (0:10:09) Kev: Okay, well, this past week I’ve been slammed by work. (0:10:13) Kev: I did the coming of the office on, (0:10:15) Kev: I have to come into the office on Saturday yesterday (0:10:18) Kev: ‘cause it’s that bad. (0:10:20) Kev: But other than that, the week before wasn’t as bad. (0:10:26) Kev: There was actually an office party dinner thing (0:10:30) Kev: where I tried to karaoke for the first time. (0:10:32) Codey: Ooh, did you like, did you enjoy it? (0:10:34) Kev: Oh yeah, so, okay. (0:10:36) Kev: I mean, first of all, I am into music, period. (0:10:39) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:10:41) Kev: I am the one, first one on and last one off, (0:10:44) Kev: generally the dance floor. (0:10:46) Kev: Now, this wasn’t a dance floor, (0:10:48) Kev: even though I was moving a bit. (0:10:50) Kev: But, I mean, as evidenced by here, this endeavor, (0:10:54) Kev: I have no problem scre- (0:10:56) Kev: screaming things into a microphone so karaoke was to fit like a glove (0:11:01) Kev: um I I did many songs I don’t remember all of it I know I did um at first they (0:11:09) Kev: did like a curated list cuz they want to stay professionally yada yada but by the (0:11:14) Kev: end of it we’re just doing whatever I know I did the mean canto Columbia mean (0:11:19) Kev: canto from the Disney movie in canto I sung in Spanish build me up buttercup (0:11:22) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:11:26) Kev: there um oh my girl by the temptations that was a good one so on and so forth (0:11:33) Kev: anyways I did karaoke stay tuned will that show up on a solo ops or maybe I (0:11:38) Codey: Ooh, like you would do karaoke on a solo episode. (0:11:43) Kev: cannot be stopped you do will I have a new theme song written for the heart (0:11:48) Kev: season maybe yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah (0:11:50) Codey: I might, you know what, if ever we’re going to record again, I might have to, you know, I’m sick. (0:11:56) Kev: I mean will yeah oh my gosh I’ll should do one of those patreon goals you know (0:11:58) Codey: I want to hear the karaoke. (0:12:04) Codey: That would, you know what, that would be fun, having a greenhouse of karaoke. (0:12:08) Codey: I’m going to put that on there. I have green, oh my gosh, yeah, I have three greenhouses with (0:12:16) Kev: yeah we need to get that we got it we got (0:12:19) Codey: Kev on a sticky note on my laptop and it’s the Sonic 3 movie, Bluey and now karaoke. (0:12:26) Kev: all those are all excellent topics I love blue so I don’t watch blue in a (0:12:27) Codey: I know. (0:12:30) Kev: minute I’m not seeing all the way to something we’ll get there um okay but (0:12:36) Kev: yes karaoke so I carry okie on unabashedly and and yeah um okay game (0:12:44) Kev: stuff though um okay oh okay DK bonanza came out I do not have a switch to my (0:12:50) Kev: brother does I do not so I’ve not played it but (0:12:56) Kev: I do play Tetris 99 and they do events every now and then they’re the kind of (0:12:58) Codey: - Okay, yep. (0:13:03) Kev: always under the radar but I pick up on them because I’m a fiend for Tetris (0:13:07) Kev: DK Bonanza had an event where they put you know a special skin on the Tetris (0:13:12) Kev: screen the blocks and and they play music from the game and so on and so (0:13:17) Kev: forth it was great it’s fantastic music was stellar absolutely stellar so much (0:13:24) Kev: So that like a day or two after. (0:13:26) Kev: I was like, man, I want more of that DK Bonanza music in my veins. (0:13:30) Kev: So I loaded up on the done, you know, YouTube or whatever. (0:13:34) Kev: And then I saw spoilers. (0:13:35) Kev: I didn’t think I could ever see spoilers for a Donkey Kong game, but musical spoilers. (0:13:42) Kev: Which is wild that one, there were spoilers in the Donkey Kong game, but there are. (0:13:47) Kev: And two, that I was spoiled by the soundtrack. (0:13:49) Codey: by this soundtrack done dirty (0:13:53) Kev: so I uh you know (0:13:56) Kev: I haven’t played it but I will say that’s one of the greatest games ever (0:14:00) Kev: from what I’ve seen that will happen (0:14:03) Kev: oh goodness but um so yeah the DK bonanza it’s already good thumbs up from (0:14:10) Kev: you without playing it oh okay oh you know here’s another getting on game (0:14:16) Kev: thing and hey hey here we go people I’m still keeping it in theme I have been (0:14:21) Kev: watching Rings of Power on the Prime Video. (0:14:23) Codey: Ooooh. (0:14:26) Kev: Umm, that’s the Lord of the Rings the prequel series question mark? (0:14:29) Codey: Yeah, it’s it’s a prequel series. (0:14:30) Kev: I g- (0:14:32) Kev: Yeah, it is. I mean like, you know, it’s big open world of Tolkien lore, whatever, but- (0:14:38) Kev: But yes, it happens before the Lord of the Rings. (0:14:40) Kev: Umm… (0:14:41) Kev: I- I- Are you familiar with this at all, Cody? (0:14:44) Codey: unfortunately. Unfortunately, I wish I could get those hours back. No, so it is beautiful. (0:14:47) Kev: Oh, you are. (0:14:48) Kev: Th- That’s unfortunately you are. (0:14:56) Kev: That is all right. Oh no, uh-huh (0:15:00) Codey: It’s beautiful, but they only got rights to like some of the content. And so they just had to like, (0:15:08) Codey: make stuff up, and I hate it. Um. (0:15:09) Kev: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard I (0:15:15) Codey: So without getting too, like, too nerdy, but this is still going to be fairly nerdy. And I could be (0:15:23) Codey: wrong, but this is kind of how I remember it. So Galadriel’s brothers were like fighting. They were (0:15:32) Codey: trying to get revenge on, I think Sauron, because he killed someone who was related to them in the (0:15:38) Codey: war of the, like, when they were trying to fight over the Silmarils. And so they basically like, killed. (0:15:44) Codey: They ended up, like, almost killing each other because they were just so, like, embroiled in this (0:15:47) Kev: - Yeah. (0:15:49) Codey: drama. And Galadriel, like, is known in the Silmarillion to have been like, I don’t want to (0:15:56) Codey: take part of my brother’s war, or my brother’s wars, or whatever. And then the Rings of Power (0:15:58) Kev: Okay, yeah (0:16:02) Codey: is all her taking part in her brother’s wars. And I’m like, no! So that was right away. I was like, (0:16:04) Kev: It is (0:16:08) Kev: Oh (0:16:12) Codey: Oh, I’m grumpy because she was. (0:16:13) Kev: That’s incredible (0:16:14) Codey: She was supposed to be like, not caring. (0:16:18) Codey: And she was just like, well, screw you guys. (0:16:20) Codey: I’m going to go live in the woods and. (0:16:21) Kev: I’m going to go in sight more war. Oh (0:16:24) Codey: Yeah, exactly. (0:16:25) Codey: And so, but I get they had to do things differently and like. (0:16:28) Kev: That’s that’s amazing (0:16:30) Kev: So I guess I have the privilege of being a normie like I have watched Florida the Rings in the Hobbit (0:16:34) Codey: Yeah. (0:16:35) Kev: But I’m I’m not deep in there. It’s it’s it’s I’ve struggled for it just to stick with me (0:16:40) Codey: Well, and there’s just like so much like, who is so wrong? (0:16:43) Kev: Yeah (0:16:45) Kev: Yes (0:16:45) Codey: Are we all Sauron? (0:16:48) Codey: Like, there’s a Sauron in all of us. (0:16:48) Kev: Maybe that maybe if we believe it (0:16:50) Codey: And I like the whole time and I’m just like, okay, I’m, I’m done with this. (0:16:54) Codey: Like, I, uh, (0:16:58) Kev: He does (0:17:00) Kev: That is probably (0:17:02) Kev: like one of the most (0:17:04) Kev: entertaining but in a bad kind of way like he’s very (0:17:08) Kev: Over the top almost like I mean not not ridiculously so but compared to the the movies, right? (0:17:13) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:17:14) Kev: Sauron is a you know more of a force. He’s not a guy right? (0:17:17) Kev: He’s he is the giant eyeball in the sky and this overwhelming presence and here he’s he compared to that (0:17:23) Kev: He feels like a mustache twirling, you know, ooh spooky bit (0:17:26) Codey: Yeah, yeah. (0:17:29) Kev: But that’s it. I mean I’ve been enjoying it. I don’t know all the lore (0:17:32) Kev: I point to the screen when I know a thing but then that’s it (0:17:36) Kev: It’s the productions. Well done. It’s good production better production than the Hobbit (0:17:40) Codey: Yeah, it’s gorgeous. (0:17:41) Codey: It is beautiful and like, but I, (0:17:44) Codey: so I don’t think I’ve watched past the first season. (0:17:46) Codey: I don’t know how much there is. (0:17:48) Kev: There’s three two and they’re working on (0:17:51) Codey: Okay, I didn’t watch past the first one (0:17:53) Codey: because I just, I need to like take off my snooty hat, (0:17:58) Kev: - Yeah. (0:17:59) Codey: you know, and just let things be different and stuff. (0:18:02) Codey: and I just have yet to… (0:18:05) Codey: get the balls to do that, I guess, I don’t know. (0:18:08) Kev: Yeah, it’s hmm. I will I will say again. I say this as a very (0:18:14) Kev: novice casual Lord of the Rings enjoyer (0:18:16) Kev: I feel like they’re really trying hard to tie it to the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, you know the movies right because like (0:18:20) Codey: Yeah, but they’re like literally not supposed to. (0:18:24) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I know because there’s the the hobbits. They’re not even called hobbits (0:18:28) Kev: I forget anyways there are two hobbits and it’s very clearly trying to evoke Sam and Frodo even though they’re not and but no (0:18:37) Kev: Whatever (0:18:38) Kev: It’s fine. I’m enjoying it. Whatever. There you go (0:18:38) Codey: Yep, wasn’t my favorite. It’s I it is enjoyable, especially I think if you have not seen. Yeah, (0:18:45) Kev: The less you know the less, you know with the little tuning star (0:18:47) Codey: the last you know. But like what before it was coming up, I was like, so because I knew it was (0:18:52) Codey: coming. So I read that I was like, I’m gonna read the Silmarillion and then I can have like a little (0:18:53) Kev: Yeah (0:18:56) Codey: bit of idea and I really just shouldn’t have because it ruined it for me. Yep. (0:18:59) Kev: You know too much (0:19:01) Kev: You’re you’re into deep (0:19:03) Kev: Yeah, but I mean it’s it’s fine like it it’s it’s there are worse things to watch (0:19:08) Codey: Yeah, and I know, no, no, dude, that third one, this is me trying not to yell right now. (0:19:09) Kev: Arguably some of the Hobbit movies. Mm-hmm. That third one’s rough. I’m just sorry (0:19:20) Codey: That third one is rough for people because they don’t watch the extended edition. (0:19:25) Kev: Yeah (0:19:27) Codey: You got to watch all of it. (0:19:28) Kev: Okay, you know what that’s probably fair just that’s oh (0:19:31) Codey: There’s so much that’s like cut out that makes it seem like not then you’re like, (0:19:34) Kev: I believe it (0:19:37) Codey: why is he why is this (0:19:38) Codey: so (0:19:39) Kev: You (0:19:40) Kev: That is correct. That is my reaction to many things in that movie is someone who’s not seen the extended cut (0:19:46) Codey: You gotta see the extended come if you if you believe if you think the Hobbit movies are bad come come (0:19:47) Kev: Okay (0:19:51) Codey: We’ll go watch if you and you haven’t seen the extended and you haven’t seen the extended editions (0:19:52) Kev: Go listen to the episode (0:19:56) Codey: Go watch them and then come back to me (0:19:59) Kev: Okay, we have a greenhouse episode on the hobbit I have not listened to it to be fair (0:20:02) Codey: We do (0:20:06) Codey: We do we had fun with those for sure (0:20:07) Kev: But I will (0:20:08) Kev: Yeah, I bet (0:20:10) Codey: When we were recording them, we were like, I don’t know if I was gonna cut half of this or not (0:20:14) Kev: As Al pointed out those greenhouse discussions sparked more discussion in the slack than any other episode of anything (0:20:16) Codey: You (0:20:19) Codey: Yeah, maybe we just need to be let loose (0:20:29) Kev: Okay, um, but yeah, okay now they all right one more thing um for me um the big one (0:20:36) Kev: Uh, Drumroll, please unicorn overla- (0:20:38) Kev: Oh Lord, credits hit today baby! (0:20:41) Codey: Ooh! (0:20:43) Kev: Ooh, um, so I did, like, everything, to be fair, right? (0:20:43) Codey: How many hours is that? (0:20:48) Kev: ‘Cause they’re- they’re very clear, like, here’s the main missions, here’s a bunch of side missions, and you don’t- they’re optional. (0:20:54) Kev: Uh, I did it all, I clocked in at about 110 hours, I think it was. (0:21:00) Kev: Um, and yeah- (0:21:04) Kev: So, I mean, overall thumbs up, my comments are still- (0:21:07) Kev: It’s a– (0:21:08) Kev: Consistent game, I’ll say that. (0:21:10) Kev: Like it’s– (0:21:12) Kev: It’s the strategy gameplay. The story is nothing to write home about. It’s straightforward fantasy (0:21:21) Kev: armies and whatnot. (0:21:23) Kev: Political royalty, yada, yada. (0:21:26) Kev: So it’s enjoyable. It’s comfort food for me. So I enjoy it. Like it’s quality. Don’t get me wrong. (0:21:29) Codey: Yeah. (0:21:32) Kev: It’s not bad, but it just hits the spot for me. (0:21:36) Kev: My biggest complaint and this is gonna sound weird cuz I (0:21:39) Kev: Just said I clocked in 110 hours (0:21:41) Kev: it’s it’s not enough they’re missing and and (0:21:48) Kev: Specifically the end I think I mentioned this on a previous episode, but (0:21:52) Kev: As it came out the developers ran out of money towards the end and you can feel it you can feel it (0:22:00) Kev: So the like I said, there’s main missions, right? And as you beat them, you know (0:22:04) Kev: You’ll not you progress towards the final mission in the (0:22:09) Kev: ultimate main mission you unlock you get one new character a new class that you’ve never had before (0:22:16) Codey: Okay. (0:22:17) Kev: Which in you know these kind of strategy games, that’s a big deal like you don’t get any time to use your new toy basically (0:22:23) Codey: Mm hmm. (0:22:24) Codey: Yeah. (0:22:24) Kev: Congrats, you finally got the last character go beat the game (0:22:29) Kev: Now that’s it there is a little post game epilogue that I can do and whatnot (0:22:35) Kev: And it is still overall very big. It has a lot of (0:22:39) Kev: Variations and and just little things. There’s a couple of different endings you can do (0:22:45) Kev: There’s relationships and and and support conversations that are fun (0:22:52) Kev: But but yeah overall it’s great (0:22:56) Kev: one of the (0:22:58) Kev: Interesting things to get the true the best ending you have to get hitched you have to find a partner (0:23:02) Codey: Mmm. Boo. (0:23:04) Kev: Which is yeah (0:23:07) Kev: Yeah, they try to play it up in the (0:23:08) Kev: it’s it’s a little it’s a little forced a little you know shoehorned in but but (0:23:15) Kev: whatever I still I still have a lot of fun I’m very happy I want more I want (0:23:21) Kev: unicorn overlord 2 now please but yeah just thumbs up overall and that game (0:23:28) Kev: frequently goes on sale so if you have any interest in strategy you know fantasy (0:23:33) Kev: stuff go for it it’s good but okay and hey I hit credits on the game that (0:23:38) Kev: been often for me and at least not lately so yeah all right okay so that’s (0:23:43) Kev: uh that’s that’s stuff we’ve been up to whoo all right let’s get into news (0:23:50) Kev: there’s a lot of it all right we’re gonna start off with the game about Cody (0:23:56) Kev: research story in honor of her almost getting done so they came out with 1.0 (0:24:02) Kev: that is out now I don’t know when it would July it’s been (0:24:09) Kev: for a while more than now yep exactly (0:24:10) Codey: Well, yeah news catch-up episode everybody (0:24:15) Codey: Yeah, so this uh, this adds the epilogue the conclusion some end credits, you know proposals and marriage (0:24:22) Codey: One thing that I super enjoy about this is they have 10 marriage candidates and the proposals can either be player (0:24:29) Codey: initiated or NPC initiated (0:24:32) Kev: Oh, that’s… Oh my gosh! Has that been done before? (0:24:34) Codey: So I (0:24:37) Kev: Oh… (0:24:37) Codey: I don’t know, but I kind of like that where you’re. (0:24:40) Codey: Spend in time with an NPC and then suddenly you just hit a cut scene and they’re proposing to you like I think that’s awesome. (0:24:49) Kev: pretty good that’s pretty like you know obviously well documented lamenting of (0:24:54) Kev: the relationship mechanic or whatever but if you’re gonna do it put in some (0:24:57) Codey: Right. (0:24:59) Kev: effort do something new that’s good I like that that’s good (0:25:01) Codey: Yeah. (0:25:03) Codey: Definitely like that. (0:25:05) Codey: Give more to say about that. (0:25:07) Kev: no just with two things one that makes you think of unicorn oh Lord at one one (0:25:12) Kev: quick shout out just I remembered to get the true ending you have to have your (0:25:16) Kev: Which I think this is actually kind of a thumbs (0:25:19) Kev: up for me. You have to have whoever your selected partner is in your party for the final fight to get the true ending, which I think is kind of nice. (0:25:28) Kev: But yeah, no, just overall, I think that’s great. Having the other person initiate it, that’s great. (0:25:34) Kev: Yeah, no, I’m still kind of on the fence of it being included in the game at all, but here we are, and they did work, so I’ll give them props for that. (0:25:45) Codey: Um, yeah, so that was cool. (0:25:47) Codey: They also had some quality of life adjustments. (0:25:50) Codey: Um, so that brings the game to its 1.0, which is great. (0:25:53) Codey: And the current price is 1399. (0:25:55) Codey: They had it on sale for 60% off, I believe, um, for a hot minute. (0:26:00) Codey: But I think by the time this comes out, it’s already gone. (0:26:03) Codey: So, um, yeah, so, but that’s fine. (0:26:04) Kev: store. Yeah, it’s really not. And that’s, that’s fine. Yeah, the kind I almost feel bad that (0:26:07) Codey: 1399 is nothing. (0:26:08) Codey: Um, on August 28th, they’re going to increase it to 1499. (0:26:15) Codey: Just still feel nothing. (0:26:17) Codey: So you guys. (0:26:21) Kev: they said we, we are not charging, we’re not making money, they, they do deserve that money. (0:26:26) Codey: Yeah, so that was cool. (0:26:26) Kev: So good for them. (0:26:30) Codey: And then the final thing, they had a couple hints (0:26:34) Codey: of what they’re working on next. (0:26:35) Codey: And they are going to do Mac ports and Linux ports. (0:26:41) Codey: But Mac– ooh, very excited about that. (0:26:43) Kev: - Yeah, woo! (0:26:48) Codey: I just never touch my PC anymore. (0:26:50) Kev: laughs I… (0:26:52) Codey: So we’re going to move it up. (0:26:54) Codey: We’re supposed to move it up here this week. (0:26:56) Codey: Um, but I’m also like very busy right now. (0:26:59) Codey: So there’s no way I’m going to play it soon, but. (0:27:02) Kev: Yeah, I have never owned an Apple product. No, that’s not true. I had an iPad or iPod. (0:27:08) Codey: iPod. (0:27:08) Kev: Yeah, that’s an iPod, yes. Back in the day, like the Mini, the Nano, whatever. That’s it. (0:27:14) Kev: But hey, good for you people. Man, those romancibles, they are pretty people. (0:27:18) Codey: - Yeah. (0:27:23) Codey: That’s pretty, yeah. (0:27:25) Codey: They, yeah. (0:27:26) Kev: Sparkles all over. Somebody has birds in there. Good for them. (0:27:30) Codey: Yep. (0:27:32) Kev: All right. Yeah, good for your research story. I do think it is worth celebrating any of these games (0:27:39) Kev: because we’ve seen them in the docket so long, hit 1.0. So good for you. Yeah, (0:27:44) Kev: and it feels like a 1.0 release. Speaking of 1.0s, a little witch in the woods. (0:27:53) Kev: September 4th, they’re dropping the 1.0. And yeah, let’s hear it. (0:28:02) Kev: Okay, right now it’s $16. That is comparable to the other ones. Oh man, these people, (0:28:11) Kev: like, I feel weird saying it. I just feel bad for these devs who work so hard. (0:28:15) Kev: They could probably go up to $19.99. I’m just saying. No one’s gonna weep over the extra (0:28:17) Codey: Yeah, like that’s not going to be that’s not going to break the bank. (0:28:21) Kev: five bucks. I’m just saying. No, it’s not. They deserve a 20. I’m just saying. Anyways, (0:28:30) Kev: So yeah, it’s dropped (0:28:32) Kev: September 4th, it’s you know, all sorts of new features new areas the villager the village with new villagers stories (0:28:41) Kev: quality of life, etc, etc (0:28:44) Kev: so yeah, that’s (0:28:46) Kev: Yeah, good for them. That’ll be you know more less than a month when this drops (0:28:54) Kev: So yeah, I’m looking forward to that. Yeah, I don’t know how do we (0:29:00) Kev: I’m just thinking, how do I feel about the- (0:29:02) Kev: It does look very cute. I like the art style a lot. Will I play this? I don’t know, maybe. (0:29:06) Codey: Yeah, I’m, I don’t know how I feel bad, but I’m, I’m, I’m done with witches, man. I’ve. (0:29:12) Kev: It it has been used exhaustively in this space hasn’t it? (0:29:19) Kev: Yeah (0:29:20) Kev: But but hey (0:29:23) Kev: Well, let’s say here wait one second. Well, you know what? Let’s uh, oh gosh (0:29:30) Kev: No, never mind. Okay. Okay. Um, alright, let’s talk about (0:29:34) Kev: another release coming out (0:29:36) Kev: Slime Rancher 2 September 23rd that is another 1.0. It’s (0:29:42) Kev: Coming out on (0:29:44) Kev: Everything pretty much nuts. Not true steam epic games PS. I can’t believe the epic game store still running (0:29:50) Codey: Yep. Yep. (0:29:50) Kev: PS 5 and Xbox series x slash x s whatever that whatever the current letter is not switch not switch - (0:29:59) Kev: but (0:30:01) Kev: Yeah, it’s coming out. It looks (0:30:04) Kev: Chaotic and fun. It’s it’s weird. We don’t talk about first-person shooters on this on this show much (0:30:10) Kev: But yeah, here we go with you (0:30:12) Kev: Vacuum up or launch the slimes (0:30:15) Kev: Yeah, I don’t know the well. I didn’t play the first one. I will probably not play. There’s nothing wrong with it (0:30:21) Kev: I’m just busy (0:30:22) Codey: Yeah, not not super for me either. But I know some people (0:30:26) Codey: are really excited about it. So very happy for them that it is (0:30:28) Kev: Yeah, no it (0:30:30) Codey: coming out in a month and a half. (0:30:32) Kev: It looks like a quality game. I will say that so good for you so I’m rancher to have people (0:30:38) Kev: Alright, now let’s keep rolling. (0:30:43) Kev: Ok, we’re backing off from the releases. (0:30:46) Kev: Let’s go now to our bread and butter on the show, Early Access and Betas. (0:30:52) Kev: Early Access for the game called Grimshire. (0:30:58) Kev: It is officially out now. (0:31:02) Kev: Let’s see here. (0:31:04) Kev: Here, you wrote some notes, take it away Cody. (0:31:06) Codey: - Yeah, so I wrote some notes (0:31:08) Codey: because I hadn’t really heard about this game (0:31:10) Codey: and I was like, what, this is Grimshire? (0:31:14) Codey: But this is a cozy game podcast, (0:31:16) Codey: like Cottagecore game podcast, what? (0:31:18) Codey: And so I went and looked at it and it is, it’s cute. (0:31:22) Codey: It reminds me, like the character models (0:31:25) Codey: remind me a lot of Redwall. (0:31:28) Codey: Did you ever read the Redwall books? (0:31:30) Kev: Yeah yo, so yeah, this is Redwall is like one of my favorite fantasy variants. (0:31:37) Kev: I don’t know how to describe that, but like, because anytime you, the critter, it’s like anthropomorphic critters and little animals. (0:31:44) Codey: Mm-hmm. (0:31:45) Kev: I’m, I’m down like 10, I’m not going to lie. (0:31:50) Kev: That’s kind of what got me into magic. (0:31:52) Kev: They released a set called bloom burrow, which was Redwall s magic cards. (0:31:52) Codey: [LAUGHS] Yeah. (0:31:57) Kev: and it kind of caught my eye. (0:32:00) Kev: So yes, I love Redwall very much. (0:32:02) Codey: Yeah, so it reminds me of that and then, um, I kind of read more about it. (0:32:07) Codey: They said, quote, we’ve been working on this cozy but grim little world for the past three (0:32:11) Codey: years. (0:32:12) Codey: And I was like, cozy but grim? (0:32:16) Codey: Like how can something be cozy and grim at the same time? (0:32:20) Codey: But I have also been recently watching Little House on the Prairie. (0:32:24) Kev: Oh! Oh! That is, how should I put this? One of the Soria family staples. We’ve watched the series at least four times in the entirety! (0:32:27) Codey: Did you ever watch that show? (0:32:33) Codey: Okay. (0:32:38) Codey: Okay cool. (0:32:39) Codey: Yeah, so I would also describe that as cozy but grim. (0:32:44) Kev: Every episode of Tragedy, you can’t. (0:32:46) Codey: Every single episode. (0:32:48) Codey: And I was like texting Jeff cause I was watching them and I would just text him suddenly and (0:32:53) Codey: be like, she got a pet raccoon and then they thought the raccoon had rabies. (0:32:56) Kev: Oh, no, that episode! (0:32:59) Codey: And then he was like literally about to shoot the dog. (0:33:02) Codey: And the raccoon also bit Laura. (0:33:04) Codey: So if the dog got rabies, she was going to have rabies and then it was. (0:33:08) Codey: And I’m just like, I’m like sobbing, just tears streaming down my face. (0:33:12) Kev: The raccoon ups that one’s intense. Oh my gosh (0:33:12) Codey: And he was just, that was intense. (0:33:15) Codey: This is first season, like so many things happened in the first season. (0:33:19) Codey: And I’m like, Oh yeah, I would have described that also as cozy, but grim. (0:33:23) Kev: Yeah (0:33:23) Codey: So I get it. (0:33:26) Kev: Yeah (0:33:27) Kev: But yeah, and I mean if you watch the trailer for Grimshire here like yeah, it’s it’s pretty grim like towards the end (0:33:34) Kev: You see like the story is about (0:33:37) Codey: plague (0:33:37) Kev: Some survival stuff. There is a pyre. There’s a funeral pyre (0:33:39) Codey: Yeah (0:33:41) Codey: Yeah, cuz there’s plague there’s plague in the area so which is also a little house of the food (0:33:42) Kev: And people wondering if they’re gonna die (0:33:45) Kev: Yeah (0:33:48) Kev: More than multiple (0:33:49) Codey: More than one. Oh, no (0:33:51) Codey: Well, yeah (0:33:52) Codey: I guess cuz there I just they just had a typhus outbreak in this one and it didn’t make I know one of them (0:33:54) Kev: Yeah (0:33:57) Codey: Makes the sister go blind anyway (0:34:01) Codey: So they said quote in early access you can play throughout year one (0:34:04) Codey: but your file will be stuck on winter 28th once you get there. (0:34:07) Codey: The day keeps repeating after you go to bed, (0:34:09) Codey: and we will be adding more content and story in the future. (0:34:11) Codey: So just a heads up, if this is something (0:34:13) Codey: that you were going to think about doing, (0:34:16) Codey: then you’re not going to be able to go further than that. (0:34:20) Codey: And they also said that their old demo save files (0:34:24) Codey: won’t carry over into the full game. (0:34:27) Codey: So if there are any new demo– (0:34:32) Codey: if you restart a new demo now in the early access, (0:34:37) Codey: that will be compatible with the full game. (0:34:39) Codey: But if you’ve played the demo before, (0:34:43) Codey: you will have to start over. (0:34:45) Codey: Just a heads up. (0:34:46) Kev: That’s kind of a bummer (0:34:48) Codey: I get that it happens sometimes, though. (0:34:49) Kev: Yeah, I get it too. I’m just saying like yeah, you know (0:34:52) Kev: I I’m interested in this game because it’s got the red wall thing that the dark angle (0:34:57) Kev: I mean, I’m intrigued but uh, but I probably will wait till I know when you know, I can keep a save or whatever (0:35:02) Codey: Yep, and so they also say that they’re going to add more stuff as they head to 1.0. (0:35:04) Kev: Yeah (0:35:10) Codey: This is actually a common theme of a lot of what we’re talking about today. (0:35:15) Codey: They are going to add more, and they have a little bit of a roadmap, but there are no (0:35:19) Codey: dates on that roadmap. (0:35:21) Codey: So just letting you know what’s coming up, but they don’t have any expected like, “Oh, (0:35:28) Codey: we’re expecting this to be done at this time and this to be done at this time,” which is (0:35:30) Kev: Yeah, yeah, that that’s fine (0:35:31) Codey: It’s probably realistic. (0:35:32) Codey: Uhm, just feels a little. (0:35:36) Kev: Okay, well hey you I’m I’m definitely have my eye on Grimshire though all things said maybe not right now, but oh, but yeah (0:35:45) Kev: Okay (0:35:46) Kev: Let’s see what else next up another early access (0:35:50) Kev: Hotel galactic (0:35:53) Kev: Early oh my gosh $35. That’s kind of a it’s premium. That’s some premium pricing (0:35:56) Codey: I know, right? (0:36:00) Codey: Well, and there was drama associated with it. (0:36:00) Kev: Oh (0:36:05) Kev: Yeah, yeah (0:36:06) Codey: So they released the early access on July 24. (0:36:12) Codey: And in that initial post, they said (0:36:14) Codey: that in the weeks following the release, (0:36:17) Codey: they wanted feedback. (0:36:20) Codey: Again, they had a projected roadmap, (0:36:23) Codey: but I didn’t have dates on it. (0:36:24) Codey: Literally two days later. (0:36:26) Codey: They posed another thing on Steam that’s basically like oops. (0:36:30) Codey: We’re sorry for the state of the game. (0:36:33) Codey: Um, and they say, quote, our rundown hotel has not yet been restored to its future. (0:36:38) Codey: Glory. (0:36:38) Codey: We are fully aware of that. (0:36:40) Codey: And we sincerely apologize that our early access build did not (0:36:44) Codey: meet all of your expectations. (0:36:46) Codey: We made a mistake and we take full responsibility. (0:36:49) Codey: Um, as part of like this, that’s end quote, as part of this, uh, mistake, (0:36:54) Codey: quote unquote (0:36:56) Codey: They are adding compensation strategies so they’re going to find a way to compensate people who have already paid for this early access. (0:37:04) Codey: Kevin, how do you feel about that? (0:37:06) Kev: Oh, okay. Um, all right. First off, I’m gonna take one step back here. First of all, what is the game cuz let’s write that that’s gonna I think that illustrates expectations. It’s a clearly studio Ghibli specifically spirited away inspired game of how should I put this spirit favor esque of the, you know, the side view with the the rooms that you hop around that you’re building up a hotel that then and so yeah, you’re kind of (0:37:10) Codey: - Mm-hmm, right, so… (0:37:36) Kev: expanding the hotel, maintaining guests, etc, etc. We’ve talked about it before I just I just can’t remember anyway, so that’s the game. And so now, okay, before any drama $35 feels like a decent chunk of change for this game, considering spirit fair is noticeably not $35. Um, so you know, the expected prices set expectations, right? That’s like the number one thing in in gaming, (0:38:06) Kev: marketing, whatever. (0:38:09) Kev: So, you know, dropping $35 on the city, it better be good. Now, early when I play an early access, or, you know, I hear about it, I expect things to be buggy, right? That’s kind of a big part of the point, right? betas and play testing all that good stuff. So how bad was this? I can’t even imagine how bad this was to demand or (0:38:36) Kev: to elicit an apology. (0:38:38) Codey: Yeah, I think that that’s like my biggest issue and why I like pulled this question out because (0:38:44) Codey: if I am playing something that’s in early access I’m (0:38:47) Codey: expecting bugs like even if it’s game-breaking bugs like even if it is (0:38:51) Codey: something like they put this out two days later if there was if there were (0:38:57) Codey: bugs that made the game unplayable and it was then like two weeks later and they (0:39:02) Codey: hadn’t responded yeah compensate them like unless you had a friggin family (0:39:08) Codey: and you didn’t have any way to be working on the game at that time but (0:39:11) Codey: literally two days after full release I think that’s par for the course for a (0:39:17) Codey: game that is as ambitious as this game so personally I’d be like like if I were (0:39:25) Codey: one of the people who kick-started it or whatever I’d be like no no don’t worry (0:39:28) Codey: about reimbursing me just like take your time keep doing what you’re doing like (0:39:32) Codey: here’s more feedback and give feedback because they literally won’t need (0:39:36) Kev: Sure, sure. Well, okay. I think there’s two things one. There’s a compensation. I don’t think then it’s gonna be necessarily monetarily (0:39:43) Kev: That could just be you know in game item status, whatever something a bonus of some kind (0:39:50) Kev: That’s what I expect (0:39:53) Kev: But (0:39:54) Kev: But yeah, I like I agree with you (0:39:58) Kev: Like I don’t know maybe it’s just this developer. Maybe they’re just very sensitive about the (0:40:04) Kev: the responses, it could be, I don’t know, or. (0:40:06) Kev: Maybe it was just that bad. (0:40:09) Kev: I don’t know where this lands. (0:40:10) Codey: Okay, so they have, they do have some of the things, they explain what some of the bugs (0:40:16) Codey: were that were coming up. And I mean, some of them are like, you know, game like breaking (0:40:23) Codey: down or requests being blocked, cooking recipes not working, in game time, freezing stuff (0:40:29) Codey: like that. But my favorite too, was that the workers are refusing to perform tasks. And (0:40:33) Kev: Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, like, I mean, all right, you know what, I think that the (0:40:37) Codey: You know what? (0:40:38) Codey: Good for them. (0:40:40) Codey: Let them unionize. (0:40:40) Codey: Like that is a bug that if that was happening, I would cackle. (0:40:46) Codey: I would be laughing so hard and I would message them and be like, (0:40:48) Codey: Hey, this is happening. (0:40:50) Codey: But like, I mean, what are you going to do? (0:40:58) Kev: The only problem is, I’m going to go back to the $35 price point for early. (0:41:01) Codey: - Okay, yeah. (0:41:03) Kev: If that was their full release price point, sure, whatever, for early access, I don’t know, $15, maybe? That’s kind of high still, but, that’s, I mean it’s tough, you need money to keep it going, but I don’t know. (0:41:19) Kev: Ooh, that’s rough though. (0:41:20) Codey: So the other the other bug that I loved was that guests were stuck in an endless sleep loop. (0:41:30) Kev: I like that. (0:41:30) Codey: And you know what, same. I feel like sometimes in my life I there’s just a bug happening and I’m just stuck endlessly sleeping. (0:41:40) Kev: That’s not that’s that’s a feature not a bug (0:41:40) Codey: So I get it. Sometimes it just be that way. (0:41:50) Codey: Yeah, so those are the two things that I thought were hilarious other I mean like I get if (0:41:56) Kev: Yum (0:41:56) Codey: there’s like other things happening but that much outrage to come out in the 48 hours post (0:41:58) Kev: Yum (0:42:03) Kev: Well, you know here here’s another thing is (0:42:07) Kev: What if what is what about the knot game break (0:42:10) Kev: breaking part like what if it’s, you know, has just not fun, you know, like, sure. (0:42:14) Codey: but that’s again something that is going to be improved upon I mean I played lens islands (0:42:19) Codey: first one and like it was I saw where they were going with it but it was definitely like pretty (0:42:24) Codey: basic and they have improved it so much and it seems so fun now like oh sorry not seems it is (0:42:30) Codey: so fun now. But yeah, I just (0:42:30) Kev: Yeah (0:42:35) Kev: Yeah, like I said, I think the only real issue the mistake was the $35 price point (0:42:42) Kev: That’s all that’s that’s something to go back to right because I how much did you pay for for the other ones? (0:42:48) Kev: It wasn’t $35 (0:42:50) Codey: - No, probably not, yeah. (0:42:51) Kev: Yeah, right (0:42:53) Codey: I don’t even remember it was so long ago. (0:42:55) Kev: Yeah, but but anyways (0:42:59) Kev: Well, I’ll give him this (0:43:01) Kev: They they came out and said something right that’s good (0:43:04) Kev: So all right, that’s hotel galactic. I’ll keep keep an eye out to see if they fix that hotel (0:43:14) Kev: Okay, um, all right here next up and (0:43:20) Kev: Purred the a few sentences into Al’s notes. It is early access is confirmed. Oh (0:43:27) Kev: Oh, oh wait, no, not out yet. (0:43:29) Kev: It will be a, sorry. (0:43:30) Codey: No, no, no, no. (0:43:31) Kev: Dates, they’re weird. (0:43:32) Kev: It is out, when people are listening to this, it will be out. (0:43:35) Kev: It is already out now when we’re recording, ‘cause, wait, no? (0:43:39) Kev: Oh my go- oh my go- I’m misreading that, you’re right! (0:43:40) Codey: Okay, so let me let me do this. (0:43:41) Kev: Oh my gosh. (0:43:42) Codey: So Al wrote early access releasing. (0:43:43) Kev: Oh my goodness. (0:43:46) Codey: Well, out now maybe and then there’s another bullet not actually out yet, but was meant to be out 7th of August, but they clicked the wrong button on release. (0:43:54) Kev: Oh my go- (0:43:58) Codey: So, it’s fine. (0:44:02) Codey: This is their quote. I love this for them. (0:44:04) Codey: I mean, it’s probably very stressful for them, but I think this is hilarious. (0:44:08) Codey: Quote, “We are heartbroken to say this, but we can’t release today. We literally cannot press the button. It’s gone.” (0:44:16) Codey: The game is ready to go. Everything was prepared, but since this is our first release ever, we forgot to tick the early access checkbox on the Steam backend until this morning. (0:44:26) Codey: and once that is ticked, Steam automatically put our Steam page into (0:44:30) Codey: review mode, which is a normal process on their end, but for us it couldn’t have come at a worse (0:44:35) Codey: time. This has caused the release button to disappear and we cannot click it. (0:44:41) Kev: Aaaah! Hah! (0:44:42) Codey: Oh dude, but that is like such like beer like I could see that being like bureaucracy stuff like (0:44:47) Codey: that’s not how are you supposed to know how are you supposed to know to click that check box or (0:44:53) Codey: what if they started the game before that checkbox was there and then it just like was like well they (0:44:57) Codey: didn’t click it I don’t know it (0:45:00) Kev: But (0:45:00) Codey: good for that like they’ll figure it out it’s it’s only been three days there (0:45:02) Kev: Yeah, that that’s good (0:45:06) Codey: is not an update yet let me just double-check that this is true but (0:45:11) Kev: I’ve (0:45:14) Kev: I’ve just got to say I love (0:45:18) Kev: Game big news stories that come from pushin

It's time for another long-form podcast! In this episode, we welcome Parker Settecase of ParkNotes Parker's Ponderings for a deep dive into the limits of Stoicism, the role of the God/Logos in this philosophy, and how these same ideas filter through Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and more.TOPICS WE'LL GET INTO* The overlap between Stoicism and Christianity: How Stoic principles align and diverge from Christian theology, and the importance of the Logos as a personal being.* Wrestling, discipline, and practical philosophy: How Parker's wrestling background shaped his appreciation for Stoic ideas about self-control and focusing on what you can control.* Pop culture and philosophy: Using characters like Gandalf, Batman, and Star Wars' Jedi and Sith to make philosophical concepts accessible and relatable.* Lust, self-control, and pop culture analogies: How Marcus Aurelius' writings on physical desire relate to modern struggles, and parallels with the Star Wars narrative of Anakin Skywalker and the dark side.* The Sith vs. Jedi worldview: Technology, transhumanism, and the dangers of trying to “challenge forth” and reshape nature, with references to Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Foucault.* AI, humanity, and the risks of technological mimicry: Reflections on the use of AI to recreate lost loved ones, the philosophical implications of large language models, and the importance of preserving human uniqueness.* CS Lewis and the Inklings: The relevance of “That Hideous Strength,” “Till We Have Faces,” and the distinction between “major” and “goetia” magic as analogs for Jedi and Sith philosophies. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.geekystoics.com/subscribe

Dan, Brian, and Will continue their discussion of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, culminating with a tense Is It Good? rating session and Star Wars vs. LotR throwdown. Join as they discuss the nature of male bonding and positive masculinity in Lord of the Rings, their favorite casting, the epic finale, and some of the wackier bits of lore. Stay to the end for sendoff more fulfilling than second breakfast. Dan's movie reviews: http://thegoodsreviews.com/ Subscribe, join the Discord, and find us on Letterboxd: http://thegoodsfilmpodcast.com/

"I am glad you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, listeners".4 years and one hundred episodes later, we've done it. We've read The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings by Jimmy RR Tolkien chapter by chapter with you all by our side. Thank you for joining us on this grand adventure. While we're not done yet, there won't be another one quite like this.xoxo,Tori and Paul of The SillymarillionThank you as always to Molly Knox Ostertag for guesting and being a part of our Fellowship. Follow Molly! https://www.mollyostertag.com/ Epilogue: https://mindstalk.net/bkxyzzy/tolkien/TolkienEpilogue.pdf Insta:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @sillymarillions⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bluesky:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thesillymarillion.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/thesillymarillion⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for bonus contentEmail: thesillymarillion@gmail.com for inquiriesCheck out AthraPlay! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://athraplay.simplecast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Heartfelt thank you to Evelyn (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.evelynleerogers.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) for our Season 5 art.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Share your own iconic local footy moment for a chance to win a $1,000 donation to your local club thanks to Toyota - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NOMINATE HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BRAIN ROT TOUR⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ALL TICKETS!!! ROT TIME! Harry's LOTR Nerd Off. Josh debuts Factual or Actual. Ripper Joke Rewind: Giving bad jokes a second chance. The Lambros have hit struggletown. LIST: Top 5 worst shops to visit on the weekend. SCHEMES: Free tennis tickets & cheap paint from Bunnings! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HATS HAVE BEEN RESTOCKED - NEW BEERS HAT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Vi får rett som det er spørsmålet: «Hvis jeg skal anbefale én episode av NL til noen som aldri har hørt på før - hvilken skal det være?» Vel - her er fasiten! Det er denne! FOR en episode! ❤️‍

Meet Tricia Copeland. She is an award-winning author of books for youth and young adults. Mostly she writes fantasy books, but as we learn during this episode, she also does write some romance books.   Tricia says that as a child she hated writing. Even so, she went to school and eventually she went to college where she received a degree in Microbiology. She also attained a Master's degree. She then went to work for a chemical company. After four years she found herself beginning a journey of technical writing and writing patterns and supporting materials.   After a few years Tricia became a stay-at-home-mom for a time. She tells us how she loved to tell stories and entertain her children.   We learn how she wrote her first fiction book series in 2015-16 about her time facing anorexia. In real life, she faced this and overcame it. She then began writing fantasy youth books and realized not only that she could write, but that she did not hate writing at all. She has written several series and has plans for more.     About the Guest:   Tricia Copeland is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Kingdom of Embers, To be Fae Queen, Lovelock Ones, and Azreya, Aztec Priestess, and dozens of other titles. She is the host of the Finding the Magic Book Podcast who weaves magical stories about love, courage, and finding your passion.   Tricia began her author journey with a women's fiction series, the Being Me series, which is an adaptation of her experience with anorexia. Afterwards she quickly pivoted to her favorite genre, fantasy. Her young adult fantasy series highlight themes including resilience, perseverance, faith, loyalty, trust, friendship, family, and love. They include the Kingdom Journals and Realm Chronicles series that find witches, vampires, and fae fighting an evil spirit determined to end them all. She tempers the high stakes drama in these books with her fun rom coms in the Perfect romance series.   Tricia Copeland believes in finding magic. She thinks magic infuses every aspect of our lives, whether it is the magic of falling in love, discovering a new passion, seeing a beautiful sunset, or reading a book that transports us to another world. An avid runner and Georgia native, Tricia now lives with her family and four-legged friends in Colorado. Find all her titles including contemporary romance, now penned under Maria Jane, young adult fantasy, and dystopian fiction at www.triciacopeland.com.   Ways to connect with Tricia:   https://triciacopeland.com https://www.facebook.com/TriciaCopelandAuthor/ https://www.instagram.com/authortriciacopeland/ https://twitter.com/tcbrzostowicz https://www.tiktok.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.youtube.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tricia-Copeland/author/B00YHN5Q4G https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14055439.Tricia_Copeland https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tricia-copeland     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson ** 01:17 Well, hello everyone. We're really glad to have you here, wherever you may happen to be listening in from. We're really glad that you're listening to unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Michael hingson, and our guest today is Tricia Copeland. Tricia is a prolific author. I use that word absolutely without any any concern, a prolific author of children's books, especially in the fantasy world. So she has been doing this a while and and also has an interesting story just of her life to tell. So we're going to go into all of that and delve in and see where we go. So Tricia, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Tricia Copeland ** 02:05 Thank you, Michael, I appreciate you having me, and I do want to make a little edit to that intro. Okay, go ahead. My books are young adult to New Adult books, so ages 13 plus mostly, all right,   Michael Hingson ** 02:19 so young adult to new adult. All right, that's fair. So how do you feel that your books fall into the range of things like the Harry Potter series and so on, sort of the same age groups,   Tricia Copeland ** 02:40 right? Genre adjacent, I have a series, The Kingdom Journal series, which includes three witches that have to break a curse on the witch lines. So the witches have to find each other as well as figure out how to break the curse using various forms of magic. So not really the same as Harry Potter, but definitely with with the witches, and the kind of contemporary world that Harry Potter is. But actually, I won't say that, because I haven't I think Harry Potter is mostly in the contemporary world, right? I didn't read all the books. I have to admit that he's   Michael Hingson ** 03:18 somewhat in the contemporary world, but, but I was thinking more of from a standpoint of the same type of age group.   Tricia Copeland ** 03:25 Yes, I think a younger reader. I think people started reading Harry Potter maybe around 10 or 11. And these books have older teenagers to start, age 1718, so 13 Plus is a good indicator. I think the other   Michael Hingson ** 03:42 thing I would observe about Harry Potter is that there are a lot of people who aren't necessarily teenagers or young adults, including me, who have read them and enjoyed them. I think that that Harry Potter certainly brought an interesting dimension to reading for teenagers especially, and hopefully young adults, because a lot of people did catch on to them, and they they had a great theme, and you do some of the same sorts of things by virtue of the fact of what you're writing and who you're writing it for,   Tricia Copeland ** 04:17 right? They definitely caught adult eyes and hearts and minds too   Michael Hingson ** 04:23 well, tell us somewhat about the early Trisha growing up and so on. Love to learn a little bit more about you, and then we can talk about whatever we feel is relevant to talk about the early Tricia,   Tricia Copeland ** 04:35 right? Well, I grew up in rural South Georgia, small town in south Georgia, and always loved reading and hiking and the outdoors, and very quickly, knew that maybe I didn't want to be in a small town forever. So I went to college in Atlanta, and I got a degree in microbiology, and from there, I got a master's. Degree, and I started my career in Central Research and Development at a chemical company, a large chemical company. So I was looking at making chemicals from microbes. And that was very exciting. That was my dream job that I'd always wanted. So that was very cool to be able to achieve that goal, and I actually didn't like writing until I started doing more technical writing with papers and patents.   Michael Hingson ** 05:29 Technical writing can be boring, but people could make it more exciting than oftentimes they do. I would say I've had to do some of it. I understand   Tricia Copeland ** 05:39 well, you have to like the topic, right? If you don't like the topic, you're not going to like the paper,   Michael Hingson ** 05:45 right? But also, I think that a lot of technical writers write and it's all very factual, but I think even in technical writing, it would be better if writers could do some things to draw in readers. And I've always felt that about textbooks. For example, my master's degree and bachelor's degree are in physics, and I've always maintained that the the physics people who write these books, who are oftentimes fairly substantial characters in in the genre, if you will, or in the field, could do a lot more to interest people in science and physics by rather than just doing these technical books, telling some stories along the way, and bringing people in and making people relate more to the topic. And they don't do that like I think at least that they should.   Tricia Copeland ** 06:36 I guess that can be said, maybe for every technical Yeah. Area,   Michael Hingson ** 06:43 yeah, it would be nice if technical writers spend a little bit of time, but of course, then the other side of it is that the industry doesn't want that. So what do you   Tricia Copeland ** 06:54 do? It may be a catch 22 on that one   Michael Hingson ** 06:56 might be, but that's okay. So how long did you stay working at the tech at the chemical companies and so on?   Tricia Copeland ** 07:06 I was in the lab for four years, and then I moved into the patent Legal Group. So I began my career as a Patent Agent, and now that's what I do for a living. My day job is that I help clients draft and file their patent applications.   Michael Hingson ** 07:22 So you have your own business doing that. I do, yes, oh,   Tricia Copeland ** 07:28 well, I write by day and I write by night.   Michael Hingson ** 07:32 Yeah, well, that can be pretty exciting, though. You get all sorts of interesting things to write about. I   Tricia Copeland ** 07:40 do I meet a lot of cool people that are inventing cool things.   Michael Hingson ** 07:44 So here's the question, do you ever find that what you write about during the day influences you, and you want to use some of that, or the general concepts of some of that, at night, when you're doing your your fiction writing?   Tricia Copeland ** 07:58 I haven't done that yet, I did write one dystopian fiction about a viral pandemic, and that touched on a little bit of my background in microbiology and genetics, but not anything that my clients have done   Michael Hingson ** 08:19 well. So you got into the patent field when you when you started doing that initially, were you doing it for a company, or did you just leap out on your own and start to have your own business?   Speaker 1 ** 08:30 Yes, I was doing that for a company. Okay? And how long did you do that? I was at that company   Tricia Copeland ** 08:35 about a year and a half. And at the time, we lived in Pennsylvania and outside of Philly. So then we had a job change, and we moved to Denver, so I took a little time off to be with my kids before I started my business.   Michael Hingson ** 08:53 So how long ago did you start the business?   Speaker 1 ** 08:57 In 2012 so 13 years doing it a while? Wow,   Michael Hingson ** 09:01 okay, and obviously you're having some success because you're still doing it.   Tricia Copeland ** 09:05 I am. Yes, I love helping my clients, and feel like I can definitely give them a value add   Michael Hingson ** 09:14 if you're not giving something away. What's probably the most interesting patent that you helped somebody work on attaining   Tricia Copeland ** 09:24 I will say, I worked with an inventor a year ago, and amazing man, he had had his career in education and teaching, and he developed a set of blocks to help people or Help kids. I should say, learn the parts of speech so you could put the together, the blocks, whether it was a subject, verb, pronoun, noun, adjective, adverb, and I learned parts of speech that I never knew existed from helping them with this application, and I was very excited. To help him get his patent. That's kind of cool.   Michael Hingson ** 10:04 Yeah, I am fair. I'm not sure I know all the parts of speech, but I remember being involved in high school well and in elementary school and diagramming sentences and learning a lot about the different or a number of the different parts of speech. Not sure I necessarily remember all of them extremely well, so I probably split infinitives and well, what do you do?   Tricia Copeland ** 10:28 Yes, I hated sentence structures.   Michael Hingson ** 10:35 Well, so what got you started then, since you were writing patents for people and so on, and helping people in securing patents. What got you then started in dealing with fiction writing, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 10:49 Well, when my kids were very young, I was a stay at home mom, and most of my days were spent chasing them around, occupying them, entertaining them, shuttling them from one place to another. So I realized in the evenings I was bored. I did my mind didn't have enough to occupy it. And I was about, I think it was about 38 and, you know, looking at my 40 year old birthday and thinking, huh, well, and I maybe it was like my 20 year high school reunion. I don't know why it coincide coincided, but I started thinking about my early college years I developed anorexia, and thinking about that time in my life and how poignant it was that I was able to recover from that disease and really gain some life skills from that experience. So I started a story that was a fictionalized account of my experience with anorexia and recovering for anorexia. So my first series, called the being me series, is a four book series about a character named Amanda who develops anorexia and then is able to recover.   Michael Hingson ** 12:01 So what caused if you understand, or, man, I don't know a lot about anorexia, Anorexia, and probably have some misconceptions about what I'm about to ask, but what, what caused it? Why did you develop that condition?   Tricia Copeland ** 12:16 Well, there's a lot of I mean, it happens differently for a lot of people, I think anorexia is a lot about control and having control over your environment. And I got there was a number of factors that I was depressed and not happy about not feeling like I was achieving, maybe what I should be achieving, and instead of someone might have turned to alcohol or drugs to alleviate those stressful feelings. I channeled all that into Okay? Well, if I'm just thin and if I just look good enough, then everything will be fine. And obviously, once your brain starts to get in that cycle, it just compounds on itself. You can't stop yourself from thinking that way. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 13:05 and what helped you get out of doing that? Was it writing or what? What really caused you to realize that ain't the way to go?   Tricia Copeland ** 13:16 Yeah, I almost died. That was it very it was a low point. And really, you know, if I didn't do something different, if I didn't let people help me do something different, I would not have made it. So really, you know, a lot of that is like educating people how serious eating disorders are, as well as how helpless sometimes the person that is experiencing them is in being able to help themselves.   Michael Hingson ** 13:48 And you said that this happened somewhat in your your college years.   Tricia Copeland ** 13:53 Yes, I was 20.   Michael Hingson ** 13:56 Were there a lot of pressures were, were people criticizing you in any way that helped contribute to it, or was it sort of really   Tricia Copeland ** 14:04 internally? Part of it was internally. Part of it was, you know, what I thought people's expectations I was in. I was at a engineering school and I was a biology major, so maybe that wasn't the best place for me. Everybody was very high in performing. Yeah, yeah. There are many, many factors, I think, and just my my brain that was not processing things, maybe as realistically as they could have been processed.   Michael Hingson ** 14:33 But what you eventually did about it was to write a series about it, so clearly you were able to move beyond it, and then, if you will, talk about it,   Tricia Copeland ** 14:45 right, right? So I went into inpatient recovery, and then was able to get the help that I needed with therapist and psycho psychiatrist and support groups, and that was a big help. And then, yes, 20 years later, I. Wrote a series about it.   Michael Hingson ** 15:02 Well, that's pretty cool. And again, it's I'm always one who admires people who are able to and willing to talk about things. I went to an event last year was the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Cherry Blossom Festival, which happens every April, is a celebration of American history, and they'll bring people in who have some relationship to an historic event, or who have relatives who were so for example, the great grandson of President Grant was at this event, but one of the people who was there was a former secret service agent who rode in the car behind John Kennedy when he was in Dallas and assassinated, and it took him 45 years to get to the point where he could come out of his experiences enough to start to talk about it, and I just have always admired people who do that. For me, being in the World Trade Center on September 11 and getting out, I never really viewed it as all that traumatic, but I guess it was, but my way to deal with it was, and I realized it much later, but we had so many newspaper reporters who wanted to know about the blind guy who got out of the World Trade Center. I talked about it, I mean, answered everyone's questions. And that was ironically, I love to pick on the media, but ironically, it was the media that really probably helped me move forward from September 11 the most.   Tricia Copeland ** 16:41 Yeah, I can imagine that was a lot of processing that you were able to do, as you talked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 16:48 People asked all sorts of questions, some really good questions, some not so good questions. And we got to observe all sorts of different types of press people. We had one Italian film crew who came to our house, there were 13 people, most of whom didn't really seem to do a whole lot, but they were there. And then there was a Japanese crew that came. And I think there were two people. It's just amazing what you see and what you learn. And for me and my wife, both now my late wife, but both, both of us love to observe and study and really think about what all these people are doing and how they do it, and we use it as ways to help us learn more about things, if you will, studying and being a student. I think of life as always an important thing,   Tricia Copeland ** 17:39 right, yeah, and I guess everybody reacts different to trauma and how you can process that everybody needs a little bit different. But yes, if you could look at things through a learning lens, that can definitely help too.   Michael Hingson ** 17:52 So you wrote the being me series. How many books are in that series? Four books, four books. Okay, and so, how long ago did you write those?   Tricia Copeland ** 18:03 I published them between 2015 and 2016   Michael Hingson ** 18:07 Okay, did you self publish or I do? Yes, you still do. Okay, great. Well, all right, and then what? What made you decide to then continue and start going into sort of teenage and so on, fiction and fantasy and so on, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 18:31 I realized that I just loved writing, and it was something that I didn't want to stop doing. So when I looked around for my next genre to write in, it was very obviously fantasy. For me. I read fantasy from a very young age. I loved Merlin and King authors legends and the Lord of the Rings and all of those books as a young person and a young adult, and that's just what I wanted to write. So my first book, interestingly enough, my editor sent it back to me and said, This is not fantastical enough. You need to make it more paranormal. So it took a minute to make that switch. What   Michael Hingson ** 19:15 book was that   Tricia Copeland ** 19:16 that is drops of sunshine and it is mirrored off an experience I had. I was a camp counselor at a camp for the blind when I was in I guess after my freshman year of college, and the campers in my story have these extra sensory skills where they can read people's minds. That was the paranormal aspect of my book, and that's not known in the beginning the story to our main character, and then she discovers that these kids have this special talent, and that was how my fantasy books started out. Mm, hmm.   Michael Hingson ** 20:00 Then where did it go from   Tricia Copeland ** 20:01 there? Then I jumped into the witches with the kingdom Journal series. I developed a character that was a vampire or is a vampire witch hybrid, and so she has a vampire mother and a witch father, but she doesn't know who her father is. She's never met him. And to make things a little bit harder, vampire witch Hyderabad are not allowed, but either the witch lines or the vampires, so both the vampires and the witches got together and said, these beings are too dangerous. We're not going to allow them in our society. And if she's discovered, then she'll be killed. That was the first character, Alina, and she's and to give her just a little more stress, I put her in a human High School, so now she pretends, you know, can't pretend to be a witch. Can't pretend to be a vampire. She needs to be human too. And, yeah, so that was a really fun book to write, and that's the series where the trinity of witches has to come together, so she has to find the other two witches of the Trinity, and they each get to tell their story in the books too. So that's why it's called the kingdom journals. It's a little bit of a journal format, so each character gets to tell their own story as well as telling the overall plot line of the series. How   Michael Hingson ** 21:19 do you come up with these characters and create these stories? I mean, it's very imaginative. I wouldn't have thought of it. How do you, and I'm sure other people say that, but how do you create the characters? How does all that   Tricia Copeland ** 21:32 work? Yeah, I set out, funny enough, I set out to write a vampire series that was my vampire is my favorite fantasy characters. And I thought, Okay, I'm gonna write a vampire series. It's not you don't want to do it too far out from what most people write or most people think of vampires. But I wanted my vampires to be a little bit different from the other vampires and other series. So I had this idea of making the vampire witch hybrid and her set in a human High School, and what would that look like? And then the challenge? I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the challenge, but somehow I came up with this curse, and the curse was on the witch line, so it very quickly morphed into more of a witch book and the magical side of things, but the vampire characters are still there, and I explore them a little bit, although not as much as the witches.   Michael Hingson ** 22:27 Do you find that the characters essentially tell you what they want to be and who they are and why they do what they do. How much are the characters involved in your writing process? I've heard other authors say that that in some of the fiction things, the characters really create the story   Tricia Copeland ** 22:47 they do. I feel like my books are very character driven. So how I usually start with the idea for a character and think of their personality, their challenges, what I want, what themes I want to show with that character and then build the world sort of around that character. So it shows those themes and those character traits and what they're overcoming, either in their personal life or in their their physical life, right? But I do have characters that go off script. In the second book, kingdom of darkness. I have a character who we're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy. The main character thinks that he may be trying to delude her into thinking he's good when he's not really good. But I wrote him so well, like he was so nice that I couldn't make him a villain. So he became, I rewrote the story a little bit. I'd written it in my mind, I guess, but I rewrote it a little bit. So he did end up being a villain. And then somehow he got his whole own book, so he gets to star in his whole book after that.   Michael Hingson ** 23:54 And does he stay a villain? No, he   Tricia Copeland ** 23:57 didn't stay. He didn't was never, I mean, I kind of wrote it so the main character thought he was a villain, but in the end, I didn't make him a villain.   Michael Hingson ** 24:06 Well, I like books like that. I yeah, I think that most creatures are generally pretty nice.   Tricia Copeland ** 24:14 We would hope so,   Michael Hingson ** 24:16 although I don't know that that bears necessarily are overly generally nice to people, but, you know, who knows? Yeah, that doesn't mean they're evil either. Well, no, yeah.   Tricia Copeland ** 24:27 I mean, they're just living their life, right? That's they need their food sources. Is just like we need our food sources. So   Michael Hingson ** 24:35 I'd rather not be their food source, though, but that's okay, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 24:39 Yeah, and I don't know. I do struggle with, like, evil or antagonistic characters, because I'm, I don't like the idea that there's a character that is purely evil for no reason. So that is, that's always a grapple in an author's mind. I think,   Michael Hingson ** 24:56 well, and you know, I'll go back to Harry Potter. Modern Of course, we have Lord waldemart, who was definitely evil. But even so, the way she created the characters and the way she crafted the books, which probably in some ways, are similar, just in a process of what you do, it's not necessarily overly graphically evil. Even if there's evil, it isn't so graphic that you you you become totally adverse or against it. Evil or bad things are there, but it's all on how you present it. That's why I like books that are essentially puzzles, if you will, because they leave a lot of things to your imagination, and they give you the ability to as a reader, think about it, but as a writer, you also are essentially drawing the reader in to where you want the reader to go, but, but they're puzzles, rather than just some graphic thing, talking about all these horrible, mean, nasty things that a character may do.   Tricia Copeland ** 26:08 That's true, and it's all perspective, right? So the quote, unquote villain in my series is out to destroy all the vampires. But then you meet vampires that are good vampires, right? And you think, Huh, well, maybe this one vampire shouldn't be destroyed, because this vampire is not acting in a mean or hurtful way. So many sides to those questions,   Michael Hingson ** 26:33 yeah. Well, so the Kingdom series. How many books are in that one?   Tricia Copeland ** 26:38 There are four books in the main series, and there's a prequel to that series, okay?   Michael Hingson ** 26:45 And then what happened? What happened after that series?   Tricia Copeland ** 26:48 So in the finale, kingdom of war, my witches were going to have this huge battle against a vampire army that the evil witch created to, you know, battle the good witches. Yeah, she put which souls in the vampires. So that made them sort of like super vampires. But anyway, my witches needed an army, and I thought who would be a good character to be, to have an army that can come help the witches. So, yeah, the beings I thought of were fairies, and I created a queen Titania, is her name, who had an army who would come help the witches battle these vampire witch soul hybrid be. And when I created her, she just kind of took on her own character, and I quickly morphed that into what was her backstory, what were struggles? Where was she living? Where would the spay army come from? And that is what kind of launched my realm chronicle series, that the finale is coming out next month. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 28:10 that's that's pretty cool, and that that answers, again, the question we talked about earlier. The character actually took over, if you will, the writing, which is always cool, because that really shows how deeply you're invested in the characters and you let them have their voices, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 28:26 And I couldn't really give up the characters from my kingdom Journal series. They not, you know, not to give too much away, but they do complete their first quest and but this evil witch who's trying to destroy the vampires is still out there somewhere, so I couldn't completely let them go. So the witches from my kingdom Journal series come into the round Chronicles series, and the fairies and the witches are continuing to help each other.   Michael Hingson ** 28:56 Well, that's cool. Well, it's kind of neat to even though it's a new series, and I assume you can read one without reading the other, but still, it's neat that you, you follow on and help to craft and expand the world.   Tricia Copeland ** 29:11 It's been a lot of fun. And I, you know, selfishly, I didn't want to let go the characters. I felt like they had a little bit of story left in them, and I was able to do that through the round chronicle series. And yeah, it it was a lot of fun for me to   Michael Hingson ** 29:26 write. And now, of course, the question is, will there be a lot more story with them, which is part of the adventure that will come next? Right?   Tricia Copeland ** 29:33 Yes, I'm, I'm thinking of that. I put my characters through a lot. So after I finished the finale, I felt like I just had to let them rest. I'm not really sure if I will continue with those same characters or or either pull out some different characters from that book to have their own stories. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 29:54 well, it's, it's going to be an adventure. No question about. It   30:00 definitely so   Michael Hingson ** 30:04 with your books. Do you have themes in your books? That is, are you? Are you trying to convey messages? Do you have themes and things that you want people to think about as they go through reading your books?   Tricia Copeland ** 30:16 I do. I feel like I like that in the book, and so I kind of embed that in my books too, but it's really more about what is the character grappling with. Not only, like I said in their physical world, maybe Queen Titania is the first female queen in her realm, and some of the old guard, other monarchs are not sure that a female should be able to rule, So that's sort of an out, outside challenge. But she also has inner conflict and challenges where she's not really trusting that she really can do it and she's really supposed to do it, and should she, you know, hand the crown to someone else who may be older or wiser or and so it does she have faith in herself. You know, would sort of be that theme there. And so each of the books have, I mean, it's not like I say, hey, the theme of this book is you need to believe in yourself, yeah, but just showing that the character arcs and how they overcome their challenges.   Michael Hingson ** 31:22 How do you again create those? How do you work those in what? What's the process that allows you to to put those themes in and and add them to the book and bring that value out? Right?   Tricia Copeland ** 31:37 I guess it's just how, the way I the challenges I choose to put in front of my characters and showing them fail at times, and showing them I do write first person, so you're getting a very up close view of what the character is thinking and feeling at all times. So I think that helps with a little bit of that, knowing that the character is struggling with whatever their um, XYZ, inner, inner turmoil that they're struggling with. And then, you know, just having other characters bounce things off of them, because the character themselves might not realize, hey, I I get anxious when I'm not in control of situations. So, you know, somebody might say, Hey, you're doing this again, stop.   Michael Hingson ** 32:29 That's why we have editors,   32:30 right,   Michael Hingson ** 32:33 and other people to help well, so you are you, but you clearly talk with your characters and you let them have a voice, which is, I think, something that adds a really great dimension to the writing that you do. And I think it's very important to do that.   Tricia Copeland ** 32:51 I hope so. I have very detailed character sheets for each of my characters. I create much bigger back stories than, probably, than really makes it into the books, just to be able to know, like, how my characters will react in situations, what their growth needs to be, where areas that I want to show that growth, and what's most important in their values, And how would they react to all the different challenges?   Michael Hingson ** 33:24 What caused you to bring fairies into it again? I think that's pretty imaginative. You were writing about witches of vampire. Fairies are are different. How did that come about?   Tricia Copeland ** 33:34 Honestly, I was at a book event, and a person was walking around with these postcards, and they were trying to get authors to write a short story for an anthology, and it had to be a fantasy genre, and it had to be a character with a mental health challenge. But the image on the postcard was of a fairy, and she was hunched in a meadow in these grasses, and she looked kind of anxious or scared, maybe even a little timid or worried. And I thought, Oh, that's a cool image. It was very striking with the green grass and her fairy wings and just her eyes were like had just a lot of feeling behind them. So it caught my eye. I never thought I'd write about fairies. I was looking for the Army for my witches, and I thought, well, you know, the fairies could be like the characters the witches go to. So it was just kind of happenstance that I happened to see this fairy character on a postcard and think, Huh, I could, you know, the fairies could be the answer.   Michael Hingson ** 34:44 And turns out, they were, they were Yes. So are all fairies girls? No, okay.   Tricia Copeland ** 34:51 I mean, fairies are much like humans in my world, except that my fairies have wings. They in. Middle Earth, which is just below earth. So they share our same bedrock. It kind of mirrors our Earth in my world. And they have rings where they can come back and forth between the fae and the human realm, and they live in our contemporary times. I like those themes of there might be witches, there might be vampires, there might be fairies that walk alongside us every day, and we don't know it.   Michael Hingson ** 35:24 And do they know Bill Bo Baggins, since we're talking about Middle Earth, just   Tricia Copeland ** 35:29 they do, well, they might have read the book. I don't know that they met him personally.   Michael Hingson ** 35:35 Yeah. Well, that's, you know, another, another story, but it's but it's cool. What other kinds of characters are you thinking of for maybe future books, outside of witches, vampires and fairies,   Tricia Copeland ** 35:49 right? So I won't give too much away, but no, in order to perform some of the spells that they need to perform in, I guess in two of my books in this series, to be a Fae legend, which is the third book of the series, and to be a Fae which is the finale, The last book of the series. My witches and fairies need to perform these spells. So they need a great amount of power or energy, and they have to assemble different kinds of beings. And in the finale, they have to assemble 12 different kinds of beings. If you try to make a list of different kinds of being, you actually in ones that the witches and the fairies could find in the human realm, like so I had an elf and the werewolves and nicks and selkies like so the Nicks are shape shifters that shift into fish, and then the selkies are shape shifters that shift into now I'm blanking not walruses seals, sorry. So yeah, I had to go find all these different characters. So all of those characters are in this final book, and I I'm thinking of maybe some of those characters that can form a new series.   Michael Hingson ** 37:11 So are all trolls, mean, nasty creatures, or, do you know yet,   Tricia Copeland ** 37:16 in my series, they are depicted as that? Yes,   Michael Hingson ** 37:21 how about gnomes? I don't have any gnomes. Well, there's another one for you to look at down the line. Might be. It might be interesting to see where that goes. Of course. Yep, so you but you have a variety of characters, and I think it's it's great when you have a rich culture of a lot of different characters. And of course, there are all sorts of potentials for conflict or for different creatures to work learn to work together too,   Tricia Copeland ** 37:56 right? The Fay historically have not worked with other beings or creatures. They very much kept to themselves and had primary purpose. They think their primary purpose is to protect the humans from all the evil spirits. So that has been their focus historically, and they've shunned other groups of beings based on whether they thought they were descended from the Creator, who's sort of like their god or the creator or the evil one, right? So the Fae believed that the vampires and werewolves, for instance, were created by the evil ones, so they shouldn't associate with those types of beings, and there's a lot of learning in there. I guess you could say it, are we going to partner with these beings, and how? What does that look like? And is that really okay? And can we choose a different path than what our predecessors have chosen?   Michael Hingson ** 38:59 And I guess it's sort of pretty clearly, is that they somewhat do that.   Tricia Copeland ** 39:06 Yes, they do. And Titania, our main character, is very much the Herald for that type of behavior and that type of community and that type of acceptance   Michael Hingson ** 39:23 well. So your next year, your book will be out in July, and then where do you go from there?   Tricia Copeland ** 39:31 Yes, so like I said, I'm tossing around ideas for fantasy characters. I also write in the romance genre, so generally, I'll write a fantasy, and then I'll write a romance. I'll switch back and forth between writing those. The past year and a half, I guess I've been focusing on finishing this fantasy series, so I have two romances now queued up that I'm excited about writing, and we'll get to those first. I   Michael Hingson ** 39:58 think, hmm. What romances Have you written already?   Tricia Copeland ** 40:03 So after the being me series, I started the perfect romance series, which the first book was a little bit different from a typical romance. It has five parts, and it's the same main character, but based on decisions at different times in her life, her life goes off in a different way. So you see her go to France and fall in love with the French man, or you see her take a job in New York City and fall in love with a investment banker. And so you see her in different stages of her life, having made different decisions, but still finding happily ever after. So that kind of kicked off that. And somebody, somebody called it speculative romance at one time, and it's more like make your own story or choose your own ending type of book. But from there, I initially thought I would write like a full book showing each of the happily ever afters with that same character, but I wrote one book showing one happily ever after scenario, but then decided that I would look at all of her friends lives so they all met in college, and they were in this one sorority together. And so I write different books showing the different friends love stories. So I've written perfect. Was the first one perfect, always with Chloe. And then Brie book is a close as close to perfect. And this is still set in Lexington, Kentucky. And then the last one is perfect office pack, which is a enemies to lovers, office romance.   Michael Hingson ** 41:51 Now, do you put a lot of sex in your books? I   Tricia Copeland ** 41:54 don't know. My books are what's called closed door or fade to black, so you'll see some kissing, but not much more than that,   Michael Hingson ** 42:03 and that's fine. And the reason I asked that question was to get to the whole issue of so many people when they're writing, just have to make everything so graphic. There's got to be all this sex and all this other stuff that they put in them. And my view has always been, is that really necessary? And I gather you, you're essentially saying the same thing. And again, it's like detective stories. I love to read a lot of detective stories, but I like the detective stories most that are puzzles. That is, I want to figure out who done it. I don't need all the graphics of how somebody got murdered, or what happened. It happens. You don't need to put all that graphic stuff in to get to dealing with the puzzle. And it's the same thing with sex. You really need all that. Like a lot of comedians, it's all the shock stuff. They got to have all these horrible words, swear words, and everything else but the best comedians, I think most people, if they really study it, will agree, are the ones that tell stories without all that dirty and sex stuff in it.   Tricia Copeland ** 43:12 And that's what I like to read and what I like to watch, too. But there are definitely people that enjoy different types of books. Yeah, there are, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 43:21 yeah, I hear you, but I, I would prefer to be able to use my imagination in various things. So one of my favorite detective stories or Characters of All Times is Nero Wolfe, written by Rex Stout, because he he writes in a way where you don't see all the graphic and don't need to see any of the graphic to get the entire picture. He describes enough so you know what's going on, but he doesn't deal with it in a way that would How do I put it? Offend anyone?   Tricia Copeland ** 43:59 Right? And I would probably argue that mystery books are would be the hardest to write, I think, because you have to give enough clues throughout so that the reader doesn't think, Oh, I would have never thought that was the villain, but you don't want to put too much in. So it's so obvious who the villain is, right? So I think it's the ways those authors weave those stories are very intricate and thought out and multi layered and impressive to me   Michael Hingson ** 44:34 well. And the reality is that sometimes, and again, I'll use Rex Stout as an example, when you find out who did it, or who the bad person was, and Wolf explains it clearly, all the clues were there, but it would be really hard for you to put it together. Now, there have been a few times where there were things that he didn't tell you, that if you if he had said those. Because during the book, you might have figured it out, but mostly the clues are somewhat there, but it is so subtle that I doubt very many people would figure it out, which   Tricia Copeland ** 45:14 is, yeah, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 45:17 It makes it so much fun. When that happens, it is. So you're, you're still deciding what you want to do for your next series of books, or what, what the next realm will be, if you will,   Tricia Copeland ** 45:31 in the fantasy genre, yes, I'm still deciding which way to go with my next characters.   Michael Hingson ** 45:38 Yes, right, but you're going to probably do some romances before you go into those. I   Tricia Copeland ** 45:43 am, yes, I was just writing a newsletter to my subscribers. In the last book, I had subscribers pick names for my characters. And so in this book, I thought, You know what? I don't like this character has has only been introduced and very briefly in one of the books, and so she doesn't have a lot of backstory. And I thought, You know what, I can just ask my readers, where do you think she should live? What are her hobbies? What does she like to do? What's her favorite book genre? I thought that would be a lot of fun for my readers to direct some of that.   Michael Hingson ** 46:18 And what kind of answers did you get? Did you get a lot of feedback?   Tricia Copeland ** 46:22 Like I said, I Well, with the names one when? So I'm just sent out the poll today, new one, but for the name ones, yeah, I would. I got like 100 answers. And then I thought, you know, next time, I won't do the names, because sometimes names are so personal and can vote like a lot of emotion that people get very heated about people's names.   Michael Hingson ** 46:47 Now, do mostly women answer? Do you get both sexes answering your questions? It is   Tricia Copeland ** 46:52 mostly women, but definitely, maybe 10% male, I would think. And actually, I feel like I have more interaction, and that's mostly on the fantasy side, but I feel like I actually have sometimes more interaction. Maybe, I don't know, maybe this get more passionate about fantasy?   Michael Hingson ** 47:13 Yeah, probably so. But you know, there's, there's something to be said for reading a good romance book. I like cozy mysteries as well, and a lot of those are really combinations of mysteries and romance, and the mystery part is oftentimes more straightforward, but it's just the whole book and the putting the entire book together that makes it so much fun.   Tricia Copeland ** 47:41 Yeah, those can be a quick, you know, kind of feel good read. I yeah for that genre, yeah, and   Michael Hingson ** 47:49 there's nothing wrong with that. It's good to have feel good books occasionally,   Tricia Copeland ** 47:54 too. I am all for feel good everything, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 47:58 Well, when I travel, I like to read on airplanes, and I like not to work and do reading that's really related to work, because going and coming from events is really the time that I get to have the most down time once I get somewhere I am on until I am on the airplane coming home. And so it is the way to relax. So I enjoy reading things that will allow me to relax when I'm going and coming from trips or from events, which is so important, I think, to be able to do and I think people should do more of that. It's always worth slowing down some and really letting your mind just wander.   Tricia Copeland ** 48:38 Yeah, plane trips are my favorite, because that's I do the same thing. I read on the plane, and I listen to audio books mostly if I'm home, when I'm exercising or when I'm doing chores. But to be able to sit down and read doesn't happen that often.   Michael Hingson ** 48:56 What do you like to read most from audio books? What? What genre?   Tricia Copeland ** 48:59 Um, exactly what I write, fantasy and romance.   Michael Hingson ** 49:03 What's your favorite fantasy books   Tricia Copeland ** 49:06 I just finished, and I'm so behind because I don't read fantasy when I'm writing fantasy. So I just finished Holly Black's, the folk of the air series, the cruel prince, I think the cool prince, the wicked king and the queen of nothing. I think they're the three books in that series. So that was really good series. And I'm writing Emily's wild encyclopedia fairies right now. So I just started that get   Michael Hingson ** 49:33 a little bit more information on those fairies for a future book. Right? That's that's kind of important to do. So do you produce with I've asked a number of people this, and I'll ask you, do you arrange for audio books to be produced from your series?   Tricia Copeland ** 49:53 I do both my fantasy series, The Kingdom journals, as well as the realm Chronicles. I have audio books. Four. I'm a little bit behind in the realm Chronicles. My Narrator had some health problems, so I'm switching narrators. But my new narrator, Tina walls, wolsen craft, yes, I think that's how you pronounce her last name, she will be working on the fourth book in the realm Chronicles series in September. So I'm hoping that will come out in October, and that will be my, my eighth audio book.   Michael Hingson ** 50:23 And where can people get the audio books?   Tricia Copeland ** 50:26 So the kingdom Journal series is on all platforms, and then the realm chronicle series, the newest series, is on Audible. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 50:37 so and again under your name for the author?   Tricia Copeland ** 50:42 Yep. Tricia Copeland, author, the Kingdom Journal series. The first two books are female character, so and now I'm blank. I can't believe I'm blanking on her name. It'll come to me in a minute. Yeah. So I had a female narrator for the first two books, and then the second two books are male Lee main characters. So Dan Delgado did the narration on those and then Jillian Yetter, who was the most amazing narrator for Titania. She even had pink hair, just just like Titania does, a hold of the the cover of the book has Titania is pink hair. So that was really fun to work with her, and we won an award for the second book in that series, to be a fake guardian   Michael Hingson ** 51:26 in audio book. Oh, cool. What was the award? It   Tricia Copeland ** 51:29 was independent book publisher Association, young adult fantasy, Silver Award.   Michael Hingson ** 51:35 Oh, cool. That's exciting. It's always good to have awards. Have you run other awards along the way?   Tricia Copeland ** 51:40 I have several Colorado independent book Publishers Association for the first book, kingdom of embers, in the kingdom Journal series, as well as several the global Book Awards for to remember it to be, to be a fake queen, which is the first book in the kingdom journals and as Ray at my Aztec mythology.   Michael Hingson ** 52:06 So how many books have you written all together?   Speaker 1 ** 52:08 Next month's book will be 23 Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 52:13 That is really exciting. Well, I know we're putting in the show notes, the picture of the book cover for the next book. And as I mentioned earlier, if you want to send us other books that you think people ought to read, we'll put those pictures in the the notes as well. I'm glad to have all the pictures you want to share.   Tricia Copeland ** 52:31 I will definitely share them. Thank you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 52:34 so is there anything else you'd like all of our listeners and viewers to know or to think about going forward,   Tricia Copeland ** 52:42 right? Well, if you go to my website, which is triciacopeland.com,   Michael Hingson ** 52:47 and Tricia is T, R, i, c, I A, Copeland, C, O, P, E, L,   52:53 a n, d, l, a n, d.com.com,   Tricia Copeland ** 52:56 yes, if you go there, and if you just want to get a trial of my books. If you subscribe to my newsletter, then you can read a free short story fantasy as well as a free short story romance.   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 Oh, okay. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that,   Tricia Copeland ** 53:13 they can reach out on direct message, on social media, or my email is Tricia T, R, i, c, I a@triciacopeland.com   53:21 too. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 53:24 then people can, can reach out and and they'll, I'm sure, have all sorts of ideas for you.   Tricia Copeland ** 53:31 I love ideas, and I love talking to readers about my books.   Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Yeah, I I've written three, and I love getting comments and feedback from people, because I get new ideas and new thoughts. And mine are really all about helping to inspire people and so on. So it's it's always good when people have their their observations, whatever they are.   54:01 I agree.   Michael Hingson ** 54:03 Well, anyway, I want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun, and I really value your time being here, and I hope people will reach out and and also, more important, get your books and read your books and review them. One of the most important things that all of us who are authors will tell anyone is, please review the books. Please go to places like Amazon and Reddit and so on and review the books, because those reviews are are viewed and paid attention to by so many people. So giving an author, a great review is always a wonderful thing to do.   Tricia Copeland ** 54:44 We do appreciate those and thank you so much, Michael for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 54:48 Well, it was my pleasure, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching today. We really appreciate it. If you've got any thoughts, I'd love to hear from you, please email me at Michael H i. M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I, at access, A, B, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, but also go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hinkson.com/podcast, you can see all of our podcasts there, but they're also available wherever you're listening to podcasts and and you can find the most anywhere podcasts are available. If you know anyone who ought to be a guest that you think would make a wonderful guest, and you'd like to have them tell their stories and Tricia you as well, I would really appreciate you introducing us, because we're always looking for more people to have on the podcast, and so please don't hesitate to reach out and don't hesitate to provide introductions, but again, give us a five star review here on unstoppable mindset. We value your reviews greatly, and we really appreciate you doing it. So I want to thank you, Tricia again, for being here. This has been fun, and I think it's really important that people do get a great sense of what you're doing, and I think we've done that, and we're really anxious to see where you go from here.   Tricia Copeland ** 56:08 Thank you so much, Michael, I so appreciate it.   Michael Hingson ** 56:15 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Episode Description Podcasters are Evelyn and Robert Lewis Special Hobbit Hosts are Evelyn Mykelrose and Amy Redman Edited by Evelyn Lewis Produced by Comic Canary, Evelyn Lewis, and Robert Lewis Follow us: http://tolkienaboutit.com/ Patreon: Tolkien About It Podcast Facebook: Tolkien About It Twitter: @TolkienPod

In this week's livestream, Matt joins Nick Polk from Tolkien Pop! to discuss the fascination with Tolkien by fascists and authoritarians like JD Vance and Peter Thiel. To become a financial backer for The Quollective, click here.If you want to call in to the Bonus Show, leave a voicemail at (530) 332-8020. We'll get to your calls on next Friday's Bonus Show. Or, you can email Matthew at matthew@quoir.com.Join The Quollective today, and use Promo Code: "heretic" to save 10% off a yearly subscription!Pick up Keith and Matt's book, Reading Romans Right, today!Please consider signing up to financially support the Network: QuoirCast on PatreonIf you want to be a guest on the show, email keith@quoir.com.LINKSQuoirCast on PatreonQuoirCast on Patheos

Episode 616 of The Knife Junkie Podcast features an inspiring conversation with rising bladesmith Joseph Bandeko, whose rapid ascent in the knife-making world has been nothing short of remarkable.In just over five years, this American Bladesmith Society apprentice has progressed from using an upside-down belt sander in his parents' garage to creating sophisticated art knives that command thousands of dollars and turn heads at major blade shows across the country.Host Bob DeMarco explores Bandeko's incredible range of work, from intricate Damascus steel daggers featuring double keyhole handles that require tolerances within thousandths of an inch, to robust outdoor choppers forged from 130-year-old ship chain iron.The conversation reveals not just the technical mastery required for such pieces, but also the innovative thinking behind designs like his S-grind kitchen knives that solve real-world problems with food release, and his Lord of the Rings-inspired fighters that showcase both artistic vision and functional excellence.What makes this episode particularly compelling is witnessing a young maker who refuses to be confined to a single approach or style. his philosophy of continuous innovation and willingness to tackle increasingly challenging projects - including an upcoming sword featuring six keyholes and mosaic Damascus - demonstrates the fearless creativity that's driving the next generation of American bladesmithing. His journey from self-taught hobbyist to respected craftsman offers valuable insights for anyone interested in the intersection of traditional skills and modern innovation.The discussion also covers practical aspects of running a custom knife business, the importance of community and mentorship in the bladesmithing world, and the technical challenges involved in working with different steel types and construction methods. Whether you are a knife enthusiast, collector, or aspiring maker, this episode provides both inspiration and education about what's possible when passion meets precision in the world of custom knives.Listen to this episode at www.theknifejunkie.com/616 and follow Joseph Bandeko on Instagram @joseph_bandeko.Be sure to support The Knife Junkie and get in on the perks of being a patron, including early access to the podcast and exclusive bonus content. Visit https://www.theknifejunkie.com/patreon for details.You can also support The Knife Junkie channel with your next knife purchase. Find our affiliate links at https://theknifejunkie.com/knives. Let us know what you thought about this episode and leave a rating and/or a review.Your feedback is appreciated. You can also email theknifejunkie@gmail.com with any comments, feedback, or suggestions.To watch or listen to past episodes of the podcast, visit https://theknifejunkie.com/listen. And for professional podcast hosting, use our podcast platform of choice: https://theknifejunkie.com/podhost.

In The Lord of the Rings film adaptation, the fellowship is very unbalanced. It's essentially Aragorn doing all the work, and Sam is the real hero, but I have to say, as I am reading through Lord of the Rings for the first time, I am astounded at the beauty of the fellowship and how they rely on each other. It is VASTLY different from the book compared to the movie, and I want to talk about two examples where that is the case.

John Lees returns to the podcast to discuss his newest comic from Mad Cave Studios: ORLA! John has partnered with Sally Cantirino, Dearbhla Kelly, and Lucas Gattoni for this tale of love and monsters, well, one monster in particular, The Ick. John and Jimmy discuss some of the terrible men Orla finds herself dating, the wonderful visual jokes the incredible Sally Cantirino added to the story, and the fun of making a comic with all the tropes of a romantic comedy. John also talks about the current Kickstarter campaign for Grawlgore & Shanks that he worked on with Joe Mulvey being published by ComixTribe. It's Lord of the Rings meets Knives Out, and it looks incredible. John is a fantastic storyteller who is so passionate about the collaboration of making comics and it's great to have him back on the podcast.  From the Publisher Love is a monster. Orla Bard is an antique restorer, romance novel enjoyer and keen birder. She also believes in true love, continuing to navigate Seattle's singles scene despite repeated disappointment. But Orla has a secret. She is afflicted with The Ick, a man-eating monstrous entity dwelling inside her, who violently emerges whenever she gets too angry or afraid. Unable to rid herself of this curse, Orla uses The Ick to save other women by removing the scummiest men from the dating pool…permanently. Hearts (and bodies) will be broken in this offbeat romcom/creature-feature mashup! Order ORLA Check out Grawlgore & Shanks #1 on Kickstarter Follow John on Bluesky Follow Comic Book Yeti

There's an ancient Western myth that's been adopted by the masses and often without their consent. It can be found in movies like Star Wars and Finding Nemo. It's in books like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. It's the secret theme included in your favorite TEDx Talk. And it's something that's taken for granted in almost every business podcast that exists.  Worst part? This myth may be responsible for your success… but, if left unchecked, it's responsible for the low-grade anxiety, under-the-surface numbness, and quiet sadness you feel but never talk about.  The same story that got you this far - to win, to prove, to conquer - is the very thing keeping you stuck.  It's The Hero's Journey and you can see its impact in nearly every kind of media you consume. But the problem is, stories never tell the full story - and after successfully going through The Hero's Journey, life takes on a bleak and gray undertone that whispers, “You're not enough and will never be enough.”  That's the bad news.  The good news? The Sage's Journey is the antidote to the dull ache of confusion inside you. But it's not a tale of conquering dragons, so you may have never heard of it. And it's definitely not as well known, even though it's just as ancient. That's because it's a quieter journey. One that happens in your internal world instead of the external one.  And it's the only way to unlock joy and lasting fulfillment in your life.  And that's what you'll discover when you tune into this week's show.  Listen now.  Show Highlights Include: How the “Warrior Identity” that's responsible for your success is also the root cause of your emotional exhaustion and lack of fulfillment in life (and how to upgrade your identity) (0:24)  The “Path of the Sage” secret to stop proving yourself and to start becoming yourself (2:26)  Why books, movies, graduation speeches, and even business podcasts silently fill you with an unquenchable sense of existential dread that only The Sage's Journey can solve (2:54)  How to experience unbridled joy, naturally, when you bend down to tie your shoes, as you browse through the grocery store, and when you hold a child (16:06)  The “Conquering Your Dragon” trap high achievers fall into that only reinforces your belief that you're not enough (and how to set your sword down and experience freedom for perhaps the first time) (20:24)  For more about David Tian, go here: https://www.davidtianphd.com/about/  Want more success in leadership, deeper connections, or a greater sense of fulfillment? Take this free assessment—it's fast, easy, and tailored to your unique situation. Answer a few simple questions, and you'll get instant access to a suite of masterclasses designed specifically for where you are right now. Whether you're struggling or simply want more out of life, this is your next step. No guesswork. Just clarity. Click here and see what's waiting for you: https://dtphd.com/quiz Emotional Mastery is David Tian's step-by-step system to transform, regulate, and control your emotions... so that you can master yourself, your interactions with others, and your relationships... and live a life worth living. Learn more here: https://www.davidtianphd.com/emotionalmastery

For over a decade, a pair of huge eagles ridden by Gandalf the wizard greeted people as they arrived in the city famous for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. But no longer. Today, Wellington Airport unveiled its brand new centerpiece created by Weta Workshop and it's already proving a hit with locals and visitors. Massey University journalism student Kajal Nair reports.

This week we look at communion on the moon; banning Jews in Edinburgh; Kate Forbes resigns;  Lord of the Rings;  England v. India;  Country of the Week - India; Prison Officers compelled to lie; Chinese spies in the UK;  Angela Rayner and Muslim Heritage Month; Brisbane Anglicans reject Scripture; the Dutch self-generating sea wall;  the Chinese Vertical Forest City; The News Agents on the Quiet Revival;  the closure of Spurgeons College and Trinity; Feedback on Gaza; Niall Ferguson on genocide;  recognising Palestine: Major Andrew Fox on Triggernometry;  Final Word - Psalm 46  -  With music from REM; Radiohead; Booker T and the MGs;  Shankar- Essen- Loy;  Bridge Music; Golden Earring; Annie Lennox;  and Larry Norman;    

20 years from now someone somewhere will surely be considering having another go at The Lord of the Rings on film. In this episode of Mythmakers, Julia Golding is joined by academic and Tolkien fan Jacob Rennaker to look back at the Peter Jackson adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, considering the script choices and casting, the cuts and the visual realisation. What were the moments that could not be bettered, and where is the room for a new creative to have another go? Have a listen and see if you agree!(00:05) Analyzing the Changes in LOTR Films(08:32) Exploring Themes and Moments in LOTR(18:01) Critiquing LOTR Films(34:47) Analysis of Omissions in LOTR Films(41:41) Visualizing and Enhancing LOTR Locations For more information on the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, our writing courses, and to check out our awesome social media content visit: Website: https://centre4fantasy.com/website Instagram: https://centre4fantasy.com/Instagram Facebook: https://centre4fantasy.com/Facebook TikTok: https://centre4fantasy.com/tiktok

The nature of evil, the nature of elves, and a brief encounter with Elrond (curiously, not called Half-elven). We follow Bilbo and the dwarves on their adventure to the Lonely Mountain in chapter 3 of JRR Tolkien's children's classic, The Hobbit or There and Back Again.Share this episode using this link:ringspodcast.com/226Who are you?Please tell me a little about you: ringspodcast.com/surveyWander Farther: A Free Reading GuideDownload my FREE guide for reading Tolkien's Silmarillion: https://ringspodcast.kit.com/a982347493Deals for you, my fellow wandererExclusive discount for Lore of the Rings Listeners: 25% off your entire order at Manly Bands. Details at https://www.ringspodcast.com/p/rings/Want to sponsor the Lore of the Rings?Sponsor rates, details, and inquires hereSupport Lore of the Rings with a donationAbout the Lore of the Rings PodcastContact the show, donate, and find past episodes: ringspodcast.comEmbark on an immersive journey through the captivating realms of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, where the epic sagas of the Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales, and more come to life. Join us as we delve into the rich tapestry of Tolkien's masterful storytelling, drawing intriguing comparisons between his literary works and the cinematic adaptations crafted by Peter Jackson. Be at the forefront of the latest developments as we explore the highly anticipated Rings of Power series from Amazon. Prepare to be enthralled as we uncover hidden connections, untold tales, and delve into the depths of Middle-earth lore. Tune in now and become part of our fellowship on this extraordinary journey!This podcast is not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate.Our Sponsors:* Visit Oscha Slings and use my code LOTRPOD for 10% off: https://oschaslings.comSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/ringspodcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

ThredUp stock is up 600% this year… because Frugal Friendly Finance is winning the trade war.Palantir is named after LOTR, but is it Sauron or Frodo?… Either way, it's stock is #1 this year.The Savannah Bananas' baseball team is disrupting MLB… by doing stuff that doesn't scale.Hellman's Mayonnaise sponsored a wedding… (we cried)$PLTR $UL $TDUPWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Hennessey

We are sans-Pre-Fixe this week because Dominick is indisposed with a voice emulating Kermit the Frog, but Chris reads Dominick's statement to The Clistenership addressing his absence. Then, Kate Casey joins to fix Orlando Bloom. They discuss Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Troy (and those full-frontal naked photos of him on set), his marriage to Miranda Kerr, his New Age hobbies, marrying Katy Perry, and their recent split post-muppets-in-space.You can find Kate at @katecaseyca and find her podcast Reality Life with Kate Casey here.You can find Dom at dommentary.com.You can find Chris at @thechrisderosa.Follow the show at @fixingfamouspeople and on YouTube.Subscribe to the Patreon Fixing Bonus People here.You can GIFT the Patreon to someone here.And listen to FREE Examples of the Patreon Bonus Content here!Or Subscribe to A La Carte Episodes in the Apple Podcast App.Write a review and let us know who you want us to fix!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan kicks off the show with more to share from Donkey Kong Bananza, while Jocelyn returns to Lord of the Rings games with Tales of the Shire. Over in the news, Microsoft back pedals in desperate need of a good news story, Amazon has all the video game TV adaptations, and Darksiders 4 delivers on a promise over a decade in the making.DiscussionStart - Donkey Kong Bananza20:07 - Tales of the Shire42:55 - Tabletop Simulator: Frosthaven47:44 - NewsImportant StuffSupport us on PatreonDiscord ChannelEmail the show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are no shortage of essays discussing the legend of Boromir in the books and the movies. He seems to be having some kind of resurgence in the last few years because enough time has passed from the films, which is what most people know LOTR from, that people are re-evaluating and looking at Boromir as a sympathetic character. But boy do they not know the start of it!

I want to revisit the very first essay I published on the very first chapter of Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring. In that essay I talked about the Loneliness of Bilbo Baggins and how I thought there were a lot of underwritten things as well as overt things that showed that Bilbo didn't really seem to have too many good friends. And that he only realized a little too late how dear a friend Frodo was. And the same with Frodo…he only realized how much he loved Bilbo after Bilbo had left for another adventure.

Are you ready to dive into a thrilling sci-fi world? Want to uncover the chilling secrets of an alien invasion? I'm excited to welcome Aaron Ryan, a passionate author and self-proclaimed Lord of the Rings geek, to today's episode. Aaron's vivid storytelling, inspired by cinematic masterpieces like Aliens, brings a unique musicality to his gripping narratives. We'll explore his Dissonance series, a four-book series that began as a trilogy and expanded with a prequel, set in a post-apocalyptic 2042. Aaron shares insights into his creative process and the thematic depth of human conflict in his work. He reads an excerpt from his novel, Dissonance, where Cameron Shipley recalls the day the world was ravaged by telepathic gorgons during their devastating 2026 invasion. IN THIS EPISODE: (01:51) Explanation of tetralogy versus quadrilogy, with tetralogy being the correct term for four books, distinct from quadrilogy for movies (02:56) Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and Aliens, crafts Sci-Fi thriller narratives driven by speculative, scientifically creative concepts (04:22) Discussion on authors crossing genres, explanation of Dissonance as a theme (08:40) Ryan describes incorporating musicality in writing, inspired by the Alien's soundtrack (13:53) Ryan reads an excerpt from Dissonance describing Cameron Shipley recalling the 2026 Alien invasion by Gorgons      KEY TAKEAWAYS: Aaron Ryan's Dissonance series, a gripping sci-fi thriller tetralogy, explores a post-apocalyptic world after a 2026 alien invasion by telepathic Gorgons, blending intense action with themes of human dissonance and survival. Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and films like Aliens, Ryan crafts a vivid world-building narrative, using weaponized frequencies and a musicality in writing to enhance thrilling scenes, such as those in Dissonance. Dissonance is being adapted into a Screenplay for platforms like Netflix, with its telepathic paralytic Gorgons and weaponized frequencies, highlighting its pulse-pounding storytelling and terrifying alien encounters. Subscribe to Reenita's Storytelling Den on Substack for free/ You will also be eligible for other extras, such as exclusive content from podcast guests, short stories, exclusive fiction, and more! https://substack.com/@reenitahora   FICTION CREDITS: Written and read by Aaron Ryan  GUEST RESOURCES: Aaron Ryan Author - Website  Dissonance Alien Invasion Saga - Website Aaron Ryan - LinkedIn Author & Speaker Aaron Ryan - Facebook Business Page Author Aaron Ryan - Twitter Author Aaron Ryan (@authoraaronryan) • Instagram photos and videos Author Aaron Ryan - Pinterest  HOST RESOURCES Website LinkedIn  Tiktok  Instagram  Facebook  Twitter (X)  Substack  Threads  LinkTree   BIO: Aaron Ryan, a Washington-based author, lives with his wife, two sons, a dog, a cat, and finches, and writes the Dissonance series, Forecast, The Superhero Anomaly, and business books. Inspired by a second-grade novella, his diverse experiences as a voiceover artist, musician, and more fuel his unique storytelling. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/true-fiction-project/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Exciting news from Nicole: Best Friends is BACK and 1) now on Headgum, 2) with FULL VIDEO EPISODES! Enter the pantheon of best friendship and check out Nicole and Sasheer's first episode back, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And Subscribe to the Best Friends YouTube channel (@NicoleandSasheer) for video episodes. New episodes every Wednesday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.