Podcasts about Thor

Thor talks about reports of the QB competition for the Vikings that is expected heading into training camp, then shares 6 free agent fits for the Vikings who have yet to sign anywhere. Plus a hefty mock draft with multiple trades!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thor is back from vacation and reacts to the news of the day involving Carson Wentz re-signing with Minnesota, shares his thoughts on what this means for the QB room of the Vikings, and answers some mailbag questions from listeners!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thor shares his All Freaks list of prospects with names at every position of guys who tested as flat out athletic freaks. How much could their draft stock rise over the next month before draft day? Could they be just who your team is looking for?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's a new Nintendo 3DS in town and it's taking the retro emulation handheld scene by storm. This week Deeb joins the podcast to discuss the android-based device the AYN Thor: why it's one of the best handhelds we've ever used, what it means for the future of handheld gaming, and why companies like Nintendo and Valve should take notice. With Android's ability to play PC games natively, the future of gaming has gotten very interesting, and we break down what it could mean for the industry. We also cover all the Nintendo and gaming news such as Yoshi and the Mysterious Book getting a release date and price, Nvidia's controversial new AI-based DLSS 5, Pokemon Pokopia's meteoric sales numbers and much more. As always, we close with the games we've been playing. Listen to Super Switch Headz on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you enjoy podcasts. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:08:39 News and Rumors 0:36:40 Google Closing Down Android 0:43:25 The AYN Thor & Android Handhelds 1:20:00 Games We're Playing Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWbF4gb Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/switchheadz Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SuperSwitchHeadz/ Website: https://www.switchheadz.com/ Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchHeadzClips

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Today is Sky's husband, The Boo's, birthday. This got Thor, who's birthday is nowhere near being soon, thinking... what does he want to do for his birthday??? Well he mentioned that nobody has ever planned a surprise birthday party for him and that he would like one.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The young and mighty Thor is cast from Asgard for disobeying his father.  But with Thor gone, his brother Loki takes over the throne and looks to rid the universe of Thor himself.  Thor must learn what it means to be a better warrior and save Earth and Asgard in Thor. We also discuss the latest news this week, talk some things w watched such as One Piece season 2 and more!  Next week: Memento!

Allen covers a week of offshore wind milestones including the Maersk Viridis sailing toward New York, Revolution Wind’s first power delivery, Vineyard Wind’s final blade, RWE’s Thor project in Denmark, and Kinewell Energy’s fundraise in England. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Good morning, everyone. There is a ship sailing toward America right now. And when it arrives, it will be the most powerful wind turbine installation vessel ever to work in United States waters. Her name is Maersk Viridis. Built by Seatrium in Singapore. Forty thousand tonnes of steel. A main crane reaching one hundred and eighty meters into the sky. Designed to lift the next generation of fifteen-megawatt turbines. At her naming ceremony, godmother Charlotte Norkjer Larsen smashed a bottle of champagne against the main crane pedestal. Viridis — the Latin word for green. The Viridis is headed for Equinor’s Empire Wind project off the coast of New York. When complete, five hundred thousand homes will have power. Now, there is something worth noting. This vessel was built as a Jones Act-compliant solution. That means it can work legally in United States offshore waters. It was built with zero lost time injuries. And while one great ship sails west, the wind industry is moving forward on every front. In New England, the Revolution Wind project delivered its first power to the grid. Seven hundred and four megawatts. Power enough for up to three hundred and fifty thousand homes. Built by local union workers logging more than two million hours. That same week, workers installed the last turbine blade on Vineyard Wind. A project that endured a fractured blade in July of twenty twenty-four, a legal battle to survive a federal stop-work order, and came out the other side — still standing. On the other side of the world, Denmark is doing what Denmark does. The first turbine is now installed at the Thor offshore wind project. In the North Sea, off the west coast of Jutland. When finished, Thor will be Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm. Seventy-two turbines. Each capable of fifteen megawatts. Each turbine rising one hundred and forty-eight meters above the sea. Total project capacity — one-point-one gigawatts. The installation vessel is the Brave Tern, operated by Fred. Olsen Windcarrier. She carries three turbines per trip. Some blades on Thor are recyclable. That is not a headline you could have written ten years ago. And the developer building Thor? That would be RWE. RWE is everywhere right now. Now, for a small story with a large idea behind it. In Wallsend, England, a twelve-person company called Kinewell just raised seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Founded by an engineer named Andrew Jenkins while he was earning his PhD at Newcastle University. Kinewell builds software — software that optimises the design of offshore wind farms. Cable layouts, turbine placement, transmission systems. All three, working together. Their clients include Equinor, SSE Renewables, and Eurus Energy. The new funding unlocks a further six-figure grant, bringing total new capital to more than one million pounds. Ten new jobs in the next six months. Their software has saved clients hundreds of millions of pounds. That is what the right tool can do. So let us step back and look at the week. A ship christened and sailing to New York. A New England grid receiving its first offshore wind power. Vineyard Wind — finished at last. Denmark’s largest wind farm, growing turbine by turbine. And a twelve-person software firm in northeast England, helping shape the invisible architecture of the energy transition. That is the Wind Energy News for the 16th of March, 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy podcast tomorrow.

Did the 2011 Thor movie set up how Doctor Doom will steal Loki's science/magic in Doomsday? Welcome back to THE ROAD TO DOOMSDAY, New Rockstars' ultimate Marvel rewatch podcast! In this episode, our hosts revisit the 2011 Thor film. Erik Voss and Jessica Clemons dive deep into the Thor film to point out the clues of Yggdrasil, science-magic, and… Miss Minutes?? We're back at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles on April 17th, come in person or stream anywhere. Tickets: https://ucbcomedy.com/show/new-rockstars-live-its-morbin-time Join the NR Underground for exclusive audio shows: https://nrunderground.supercast.com Written by: Alex Berg Head of Content & Executive Producer: Erik Voss General Manager: Zach Huddleston Senior Producer: Jessica Clemons Producers: Gina Ippolito, Alex Berg, Patti Chambers Podcast Producer: Brian M Kim Post Production Supervisor: Joshua Steven Hurd Staff Editor: Abby Freel Editors: Eric Gorday For business inquiries please contact business@nrdigitalstudios.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're heading back to Tromaville, but is it all a little too polished? We're watching The Toxic Avenger reboot this time on Harmless Phosphorescence!   Support the show and get early access and exclusive content at  https://www.patreon.com/harmlessentertainment   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEDmdtUAW_pJYCJfaZV7Unw/live   https://www.reddit.com/r/harmlessentertainment   Buy some Merch! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/attention-hellmart-shoppers   Check out Executive Producer Michael Beckwith's movie website at https://upallnightmovies.com/   Ranked: #152   RANKINGS   1 Endgame 2 Spider-Man No Way Home 3 Infinity War 4 Superman 2025 5 Logan 6 Deadpool & Wolverine 7 Captain America: Civil War 8 The Avengers 9 The Dark Knight 10 THE Suicide Squad 11 Thor Ragnarok 12 Guardians of the Galaxy vol 3 13 Black Panther 14 Iron Man 15 Captain America: The Winter Soldier 16 Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 17 Guardians of the Galaxy 18 Batman Begins 19 Batman 89 20 Spider-Man 2 21 Spider-Man Homecoming 22 Spider-Man Far From Home 23 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 24 Thunderbolts* 25 Thor: Love and Thunder 26 Deadpool 2 27 Deadpool 28 The Batman 29 Captain America: The First Avenger 30 Spider-Man 31 X-Men: Days of Future Past 32 Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 33 Shang-Chi 34 Joker 35 Captain Marvel 36 Ant-Man 37 Blue Beetle 38 Black Widow 39 Ant-Man and the Wasp 40 Eternals 41 Avengers: The Age of Ultron 42 Birds Of Prey 43 Wonder Woman 1984 44 Wonder Woman 45 Iron Man 3 46 The Dark Knight Rises 47 Superman 1978 48 The Marvels 49 Dr Strange 50 Thor 51 Kick-Ass 52 X-Men First Class 53 Hellboy 54 X2 55 Darkman 56 Iron Man 2 57 Swamp Thing 58 Hellboy II: The Golden Army 59 Watchmen 60 X-Men 2000 61 Batman Returns 62 Blade 63 Defendor 64 Unbreakable 65 The Crow 66 Batman 66 67 The Fantastic Four: First Steps 68 Orgazmo 69 Superman II 70 Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania 71 Shazam! 72 Thor: The Dark World 73 The Wolverine 74 Superman Returns 75 Blade II 76 Mystery Men 77 Super 78 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 79 Venom: The Last Dance 80 Chronicle 81 Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 82 Man of Steel 83 Venom: Let There Be Carnage 84 The Green Hornet 85 The Incredible Hulk 86 Sky High 87 The Mask 88 Constantine 89 The New Mutants 90 The Rocketeer 91 Superman III 92 Buffy the Vampire Slayer 93 The Return of Swamp Thing 94 The Flash 95 Shazam! Fury of the Gods 96 Superhero Movie 97 Blade Trinity 98 Batman V Superman: Dawn of justice 99 Venom 100 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 101 Captain America: Brave New World 102 Black Adam 103 Fantastic Four: The Rise of Silver Surfer 104 Hancock 105 Fantastic Four 106 Madame Web 107 Blankman 108 Supergirl 109 The Crow 2024 110 Hellboy 2019 111 Power Rangers 112 The Meteor Man 113 Justice League 114 X-Men Last Stand 115 Van Helsing 116 Spiderman 3 117 The Amazing Spider-Man 118 TMNT2 119 Superman and the Mole Men 120 Green Lantern 121 Ghost Rider 122 TMNT3 123 Hero At Large 124 Push 125 Jumper 126 Condorman 127 Howard The Duck 128 Aquaman 129 Punisher: War Zone 130 Toxic Avenger Part II 131 TMNT: OOTS 132 TMNT14 133 Hulk 134 Bloodshot 135 Daredevil 136 The Crow: City of Angels 137 The Punisher 04 138 The Punisher 89 139 Batman Forever 140 Kick Ass 2 141 Steel 142 Glass 143 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 144 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 145 X-Men: Apocalypse 146 Split 147 Suicide Squad 148 Brightburn 149 X-Men Origins: Wolverine 150 The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 151 Sgt Kabukiman NYPD 152 The Toxic Avenger 2025 153 The Phantom 154 Toxic Avenger 155 The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 156 The Shadow 157 The Toxic Avenger Part III 158 Spawn 159 Batman and Robin 160 Elektra 161 Morbius 162 My Super Ex-Girlfriend 163 Zoom 164 Underdog 165 Catwoman 166 The Spirit 167 Jonah Hex 168 Fant4stic 169 Max Steel 170 Superman IV: The Quest For Peace 171 Dark Phoenix 172 Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV 173 Fast Color 174 Joker Folie a deux 175 Kraven The Hunter 176 Archenemy 177 Son of the Mask 178 The Crow: Wicked Prayer 179 Super Capers 180 All Superheroes Must Die

Send a textWhen hawks began to slow soar over the land behind my house, and giant cats popped up on my timeline, I had another synchro-mystic occurrence, the name Freya. As is my pattern, the Universe had to bop me on the head repeatedly until I received the message - look into Freya. She's been part of your spirit team and wants you to dig in.And this is her episode.Let's get into it!What to Read, Listen to and Watch NEXTFreya, how to recognize her, and call her in to help, Rebecca HollyKnow Your Lore about Freya's Brisingamen, Patheos.comSeidr, Norse Mythology for Smart PeopleAnxious about AI? Take two minutes to contact your local politician and ask them to tap the brakes on this technology. Still worried? Contact one of the orgs below and get involved. But for today, hug your kid, cook food and really breathe in deep as it simmers, walk in nature, brush a cat, donate to the food bank, brew a cup of tea, or draw a five-minute portrait of your dog. ***Is AI the Devil? on Substack!*** Hero Organizations: 80,000 Hours Center for Humane Technologies State of Surveillance, an organization that helps foster online privacy Curious Cat Crew on Socials:Curious Cat on Twitter (X)Curious Cat on InstagramCurious Cat on TikTok

What happens after the Last Battle? In this episode of the Black Tower Podcast, Andrew and Reese explore The Next Generation of the Wheel of Time — the children who may shape the Fourth Age. From Rand al'Thor's heirs with Elayne and Aviendha to the future bloodlines of Mat, Perrin, and Nynaeve, we look at the next generation of leaders, channelers, and legends. Who will rise to power in the Fourth Age? Which children could become the next heroes of the Pattern? The Wheel keeps turning — and a new generation is coming. #WheelOfTime #BlackTowerPodcast #WheelOfTimeLore

Thor fields questions from listeners regarding if KOC and Murray would mesh if he signs in Minnesota, whether he trusts the front office in this year's draft, and if there are any NFL aspirations for his draft analysis in the future. Plus plenty about draft prospects, fits for the Vikings, and more! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today is the day that Thor and his wife, Hayley, have scheduled interviews for a nanny for his son when him and Hayley are both at work. This is a big deal because they are first time parents and need to make sure that whoever they pick is fit for the job. Of course, a major requirement from Hayley is that this nanny is an "Abuela" because no young girls are getting this job!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THIS VOYAGE, the Treksperts go out to sea as DAREN DOCHTERMAN checks out the STAR TREK CRUISE and brings you some exclusive conversations from the good ship Enterprise with WILLIAM SHATNER, JONATHAN FRAKES, NANA VISITOR, ARMIN SHIMERMAN, MIKE & DENISE OKUDA, ROD RODDENBERRY and more. Don't miss this Trek on the high seas. And tickets are on sale now for next year's voyage at startrekthecruise.com.The Inglorious Treksperts are: MARK A. ALTMAN (showrrunner/creator, Pandora, writer/producer The Librarians, 50 Year Mission), DAREN DOCHTERMAN (associate producer, Star Trek: The Moton Picture - Director's Edition) & ASHLEY E. MILLER (writer, Thor, X-Men: First Class; showrunner, DOTA: Dragon's Blood).*** FOLLOW THE TREKSPERTS ON SOCIAL AT: LINKTR.EE.COM/TREKSPERTSPLUS Blue Sky: @inglorioustrekspertsTwitter/X:@inglorioustrekFacebook:facebook.com/inglorioustrekspertsInstagram/Threads: @inglorioustrekspertsLinktree: linker.ee.com/trekspertsplusLearn all that is learnable about Star Trek in Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross' THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION, available in hardcover, paperback, digital and audio from St. Maritn's Press. For all our social channels go TrekspertsPlus on Linktree. And now follow the Treksperts Briefing Room at @trekspertsBR, an entirely separate Twitter & Instagram feed."Mark A. Altman is the world's foremost Trekspert" - Los Angeles Times

Thor is always thinking about the future. Well one thing he has been thinking about is what happens if something happens to him and his wife. He goes through his whole thought process about who him and his wife chose to get his son if something bad were to happenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor is a new dad and him and his wife like to travel but now that they have a son, they may need to wait a bit. Well we found a study that helps them out just a bit and gives them an idea of when they could travel again based on the results that say what the best age to travel with a kid. It's Throwback Thursday so of course we have to play our favorite game, Throwback Trivia! People seem to be going to the movies less and less now so wee found a study that will show exactly how many Americans actually left their house to see a movie instead of streaming itSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the new sidecar of Meta Mystics! Every Thursday we will be dropping an extra episode specifically for those who want to know more about scientific articles, redacted CIA Articles and mind expanding books. Plus I wanted to release it on Thursday because Norse mythology is awesome so shoutout to my homie Thor in the etheric realms, stay weird! To Follow Us On Patreon—> https://www.patreon.com/c/MetaMysticsEmail Us!—> MetaMystics@yahoo.comSubscribe to our Youtube—> http://www.youtube.com/@MetaMysticsTo Follow Us On TikTok—> https://www.tiktok.com/@metamysticsGive us a follow on Instagram—> @MetaMystics111To read along, here's the article! —> https://archive.org/details/1983-analysis-of-gateway-process/1983%20Analysis%20and%20Assessment%20of%20Gateway%20Process/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/meta-mystics--5795466/support.You Don't Know What You Don't Know!

Thor is always thinking about the future. Well one thing he has been thinking about is what happens if something happens to him and his wife. He goes through his whole thought process about who him and his wife chose to get his son if something bad were to happenSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor is a new dad and him and his wife like to travel but now that they have a son, they may need to wait a bit. Well we found a study that helps them out just a bit and gives them an idea of when they could travel again based on the results that say what the best age to travel with a kid. It's Throwback Thursday so of course we have to play our favorite game, Throwback Trivia! People seem to be going to the movies less and less now so wee found a study that will show exactly how many Americans actually left their house to see a movie instead of streaming itSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor leads the show with his final thoughts on the Vikings QB position ahead of the new league year, and then attempts to make NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah's idea a reality by having the Vikings tarde up in the draft to select Notre Dame's Jeremiyah Love.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thor is a big mall lover. Well today he is a little upset about a decision that was made at Westfield UTC that will effect mall culture and where he goes to shop. He lets us hear all about it in today's Midweek MeltdownSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each generation claims that they have the best music and that their experience is better than the last. Well we found an article that definitively names the best generation for music experiences. Thor is upset about a recent change to the Westfield UTC mall that ruined his experience and made him swear off any Westfield malls! He lets us know all about it in his Midweek Meltdown! Restaurants are getting crazy with what they charge for today. Some charge for bread, others charge for water. Well a Miami restaurant is going viral because of something they charged for that is completely unheard of...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we're going line by line through "Down Bad" from Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Jenn, Maansi, and Jodi unpack one of the album's most emotionally raw — and unexpectedly hilarious — songs, diving deep into its extended alien abduction metaphor, what it really means to be "down bad," and how Taylor uses sci-fi imagery to explore love bombing, power dynamics, and the messiest stages of heartbreak. We also discuss how this song connects to last week's Hero's Journey episode, why crying at the gym might be the most relatable lyric Taylor has ever written, and what the repetitive, fading outro says about the cycle of emotional abuse. Plus: cow mutilation, Kate McKinnon's SNL alien sketches, Thor and Natalie Portman, and The Other Boleyn Girl. Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics! Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com   Episode Highlights: [01:12] What does "down bad" actually mean? From Google's AI overview to Usher to Grease [05:50] Verse one line by line: Being beamed up, cosmic love, and the alien abduction metaphor [13:08] The chorus: Down bad, crying at the gym — from the cosmic to the devastatingly mundane [31:52] The chorus again: "Like I lost my twin" — Plato's soulmate theory and twin flames in Taylor's discography [34:18] The bridge: hostile takeovers, indecent exposures, and Close Encounters — loving all the red flags [36:20] "I'll build you a fort on some planet" — savior complex, desperation, and what fort-building actually means [43:35] The stages of grief in one song: is this processing, or just a very messy beginning of processing? [46:03] Getting to the purpose   Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social! TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift Link Tree → linktr.ee/aptaylorswift Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts Libro.fm → tinyurl.com/aptslibro   Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com   Affiliate Codes: Krowned Krystals — krownedkrystals.com, use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!   Libro.fm — Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here: tinyurl.com/aptslibro   This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z

In this series, LazyTitan and Boomguy talk about their favorite heroes, starting with #1 and working their way down their respective lists. Ever wondered why we love what we do? Who's your pick between these two?

Thor is a big mall lover. Well today he is a little upset about a decision that was made at Westfield UTC that will effect mall culture and where he goes to shop. He lets us hear all about it in today's Midweek MeltdownSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each generation claims that they have the best music and that their experience is better than the last. Well we found an article that definitively names the best generation for music experiences. Thor is upset about a recent change to the Westfield UTC mall that ruined his experience and made him swear off any Westfield malls! He lets us know all about it in his Midweek Meltdown! Restaurants are getting crazy with what they charge for today. Some charge for bread, others charge for water. Well a Miami restaurant is going viral because of something they charged for that is completely unheard of...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor and Judd offer some modest proposals to the Vikings regarding some easy and reasonable free agent signings they shouldn't think twice about, Thor makes he final plea with Minnesota to sign one QB over another, plus discussions about needs that need to be addressed, Harrison Smith's pending retirement, and more!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Nomads! We're back with another catch-up for February of 2026. Watch the snow melt, check your sump pumps, and listen to Brandon, Eric and Dave talk about everything they've been checking out. We hope you enjoy and as always, safe travels Nomads!AYN ThorAmerican ArcadiaMinishoot AdventureVampire CrawlersHalls of TormentA Knight of the Seven KingdonsIn the Blink of An EyeHorizon Chase 2Pinball FX Bethesda PackPokopiaSlay the Spire 2 Early AccessDeath of a UnicornThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriOverwatch is back!!--------------------------------------------------------------For more, visit https://thenomadsoffantasy.comDiscord: https://thenomadsoffantasy.com/discord

It's Marvel Monday and we're diving into the realm of Asgard! ABOUT THOR: THE DARK WORLD When the Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, Thor must embark on a perilous and personal journey that will reunite him with doctor Jane Foster. AIR DATE & NETWORK FOR THOR: THE DARK WORLD October 9, 2013 | Theatrical Release CAST & CREW OF THOR: THE DARK WORLD Chris Hemsworth as Thor Natalie Portman as Jane Foster Tom Hiddleston as Loki Anthony Hopkins as Odin BRAN'S MOVIE SYNOPSIS Loki is in troubleeeee. Daddy Odin is mad at him. Loki is like I just wanted to rule Earth as a benevolent god. What's the big deal? Odin tells him he should have him killed but instead, he'll just be imprisoned. Thor is doing Thor stuff, fighting off rock monsters and stuff with his buddies. When he gets back to Asgard, Odin tells him the time has come for him to get over Jane Foster and become king. Speaking of Jane Foster, she's in London, trying to eat with a dude but she can't stop thinking about Thor. Darcy shows up to tell her that the numbers and graphs and stuff are going nuts! They head to where the readings are happening and it takes them to an abandoned warehouse where there seems to be some sort of weird teleportation portal that is opening and closing at random. She gets sucked into the portal. While this is happening, Thor is talking to Idris Elba who is supposed to be keeping an eye on her and he's like oh weird, I actually can't see her right now. So he goes to Earth to check on her. By the time he gets there, she's now returned back to Earth. She's shocked to find out that it's been 5 hours. She sees Thor and smacks him a couple times for taking so long. The cops show up and try to arrest her for trespassing. When he touches her, this like red light radiates from her and sends them flying. Realizing that something is going on with her, Thor grabs her and transports them to Asgard to do some tests. Odin sees what's going on with her and is like oh yea I know what's up. That's dark elf-ish. It's called the Aether. And it's bad. Thor explains, every 5000 years, the 9 realms align and it causes the portals between these realms to get a bit wonky. So that's how she fell through that portal. But when she interacted with the Aether, she awakened Malekith - a dark elf who is up to no good. They attack Asgard and kill Thor's mom, Frigga, in the process of protecting Jane from them. Thor immediately wants revenge but Odin tells him to wait - they'll be back because we still have the Aether. Thor doesn't want to wait. So he asks Loki to help. Luckily, he knows about a secret portal to Svartalfheim, where they will use Jane to lure and confront Malekith, away from Asgard. In return, Thor promises Loki vengeance on Malekith for killing their mother. While in transport, Thor and Loki have a heart to heart. They yell at each other. They love each other. Classic brother stuff. There, Loki tricks Malekith into drawing the Aether out of Jane, but Thor's attempt to destroy the exposed substance fails. Malekith merges with the Aether and leaves in his ship. Loki is real hurt, on the verge of death. Thor is like I'll tell Dad you didn't suck after all. Afterwards, Thor and Jane discover another portal in a nearby cave and reunite in London with Darcy and Jane's mentor Dr. Erik Selvig who was kinda going crazy but he's fine. Jane knows about Malekith's plan to destroy the universe. Thor starts going through all these portals when Malekith ends up on Earth. Thor returns just in time to help transport Malekith away from Earth where he is crushed by his own ship that was also being transported at the same time. Thor returns to Asgard, where he declines Odin's offer to take the throne and tells Odin of Loki's sacrifice. As he leaves, Odin's form transforms to that of a grinning Loki. UH OHHHHHHH. Watch the show on Youtube - www.deckthehallmark.com/youtubeInterested in advertising on the show? Email bran@deckthehallmark.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thor reacts to the news of the day including the re-signing of Eric Wilson, signing CB James Pierre, Jalen Nailor going to the Raiders and more before getting into a 7-rock mock based on the news of the day.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Although we lost an hour over the weekend, Thor's still felt extremely long. Thor's family is in town and everywhere they went became a full on operation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor's baby boy is getting to the age of a lot of "firsts." Well this weekend there was a "first" that Thor was not a part of and is kinda upset about...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's round two of the Newly Show game and things are TENSE! Will Eddie and Thor make it out or will Sky and Emily take the game???See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode of BEYOND the Bifrost, the guys dive deep into the high-stakes chaos of the DC K.O. tournament! We break down Scott Snyder's "All-In" era, the mystery of King Omega, and how the Absolute Universe is reshaping the DC landscape.From Batman's shocking elimination and the scavenger hunt for Thor's Hammer, to the emotional battle between Joker vs. Jason Todd, we analyze the hits and misses of this blockbuster bracket. Plus, we discuss why Superman's final message of hope is exactly what the world needs.Check out PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/u65477484?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creatorCheck out INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/marvelthorpodcast?igsh=Nm15MjQ2dW10cXZ3&utm_source=qrCheck out DISCORD:https://discord.gg/DsKTVAmwuY

It's round two of the Newly Show game and things are TENSE! Will Eddie and Thor make it out or will Sky and Emily take the game???See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor's baby boy is getting to the age of a lot of "firsts." Well this weekend there was a "first" that Thor was not a part of and is kinda upset about...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Although we lost an hour over the weekend, Thor's still felt extremely long. Thor's family is in town and everywhere they went became a full on operation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor shares his thoughts on Geno Smith reported to be getting released by the Raiders and how it relates to Minnesota, news of some key contract restructures happening for the Vikings, and exudes some knowledge about draft prospects that listeners are curious about!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thor's wife, Hayley, made a big mistake when she saw a post on Instagram and assumed something that may not of been the case. But things got even more awkward when she DM's them!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thor fields questions from listeners about the online outburst from Javon Hargrave, if the Oregon safety is destined to be a Viking, thoughts on specific prospects, and more on this ‘Ask Thor Anything' edition of TTP!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

PFF's Lead NFL Draft Analyst Trevor Sikkema joins Thor to share some of their biggest stock risers from the NFL Combine from guys who don't usually get the spotlight outside of the first round. Who sent the biggest shockwaves through the football world and put NFL teams on notice ahead of the upcoming draft?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

THIS VOYAGE, the Treksperts celebrate one of STAR TREK's greatest episodes with a deep dive into DEEP SPACE NINE's "The Visitor" with star CIRROC LOFTON (Jake Sisko), writer MICHAEL TAYLOR and director DAVID LIVINGSTON.The Inglorious Treksperts are: MARK A. ALTMAN (showrrunner/creator, Pandora, writer/producer The Librarians, 50 Year Mission), DAREN DOCHTERMAN (associate producer, Star Trek: The Moton Picture - Director's Edition) & ASHLEY E. MILLER (writer, Thor, X-Men: First Class; showrunner, DOTA: Dragon's Blood).*** FOLLOW THE TREKSPERTS ON SOCIAL AT: LINKTR.EE.COM/TREKSPERTSPLUS Blue Sky: @inglorioustrekspertsTwitter/X:@inglorioustrekFacebook:facebook.com/inglorioustrekspertsInstagram/Threads: @inglorioustrekspertsLinktree: linker.ee.com/trekspertsplusLearn all that is learnable about Star Trek in Mark A. Altman & Edward Gross' THE FIFTY-YEAR MISSION, available in hardcover, paperback, digital and audio from St. Maritn's Press. For all our social channels go TrekspertsPlus on Linktree. And now follow the Treksperts Briefing Room at @trekspertsBR, an entirely separate Twitter & Instagram feed."Mark A. Altman is the world's foremost Trekspert" - Los Angeles Times

Thor relies on a second opinion on EVERYTHING! Well after constantly asking us for our opinions and then ignoring them after, we start to judge him a little bit for what he needs help deciding. Well it seems that he has replaced us all with something else that he claims won't judge him when helping him make a decisionSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you're raising a child with complex medical needs, the early years can feel like one long stretch of survival mode. Hospital stays, surgeries, therapies, and constant uncertainty loom large over everything.For Cindy, that uncertainty started before her son Thoren was even born. After a routine ultrasound raised concerns, her family began a medical journey that would eventually reveal not just one rare condition, but a genetic mutation so uncommon that Thor was one of the first documented cases in the world. In this episode, Cindy shares the story of Thor's early years: surgeries shortly after birth, years of hospitalizations, and learning how to advocate for his medical needs again and again. She also talks about the emotional side of caregiving: the grief that shows up in unexpected moments, the challenges of navigating medical systems, and the complicated transition that happens when survival mode finally begins to ease. Plus, she shares her thoughtful perspectives on the importance (and difficulty) of including Thoren in as many places as possible and why that can prove to be so difficult sometimes.Finally, a big thank you to our sponsor for today's episode, Huckleberry Hiking! Learn more about how they can help make hiking more accessible for your disabled kiddo here!Links:Visit Huckleberry Hiking's website.Listen to Ep 180: Does Disability Parenting EverGet Easier?Connect with Cindy on Instagram @montanareinhard!Follow us on Instagram @the_rare_life!Join The Rare Life newsletter and never miss an update!Fill out our contact form to join upcoming discussion groups!Donate to the podcast or Contact me about sponsoring an episode. 

Thor touches on the news of the Cardinals releasing QB Kyler Murray and if he's a good fit for Minnesota, reports of the Vikings open to trading Jonathan Greenard, and hits some offensive NFL Combine risers of interest for the Vikings. Plus a 7-round mock draft base on the latest info and news!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Justin Timberlake was arrested back in 2024 for a DUI and of course it was a mess. People are now asking for the footage from the arrest but it seems like Justin doesn't want that footage to be seen... The City of San Diego has put out a new ballot measure to tax people who purposefully leave their secondary home vacant for half of the year or more. Well Thor is taking issue with this... not because he doesn't want to make housing more affordable but he sees through the government and knows it won't stop there and lets us hear about it during his Midweek Meltdown. Sky once left work because of a horrible sunburn. Thor once called out because he was barricaded in his apartment hiding from a coyote. We all have our reasons for calling out. Well we found a thread of weird reasons that people have called out from work for...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The City of San Diego has put out a new ballot measure to tax people who purposefully leave their secondary home vacant for half of the year or more. Well Thor is taking issue with this... not because he doesn't want to make housing more affordable but he sees through the government and knows it won't stop there See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Judd joins Thor to sift through all of the top Vikings reated news to be uncovered during the NFL Combine, with the two discussing the QB position and its future, key points of need in the offseason, coaching personnel, and much more!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeff and Christian welcome youtuber and game reviewer Tamoor Hussain back to the show this week to discuss reports that FROM Software prevented Bloodborne remake from happening, Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine getting a September release date, and a new rhythmn game from the folks who made Guitar Hero.The Playlist:Tamoor: Resident Evil Requiem, AYN Thor, ClutchtimeChristian: Resident Evil Requiem; Marathon Server Slam: Open PreviewJeff: Resident Evil: Requiem, Steam Next Fest Demos (best of the best): Vampire Crawlers, Enter the Chronosphere, Spellsy, Alabaster Dawn, Rune Dice, Croak, TMNT: Empire CityParting Gifts!