Podcasts about Worlds

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.

Breezy Johnson just won the 2026 Olympic Gold Medal in women's Downhill, and she also won Gold at the 2025 World Championships. So Breezy and Jonathan talk about winning Gold, but Breezy also talks about how she navigates the highs and the lows of life — and ski racing — in a way that most of us can likely learn from.Note: We Want to Hear From You!We'd love for you to share with us the stories or topics you'd like us to cover next month on Reviewing the News; ask your most pressing mountain town advice questions, or offer your hot takes for us to rate. You can email those to us here.RELATED LINKS: Sennza FinneSnowbirdBLISTER+ Get Yourself CoveredDiscounted Summit Registration for BLISTER+ MembersNon-Member Registration: Blister Summit 2026Enter Our Free Weekly Gear GiveawaysCHECK OUT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELS:Blister Studios (our new channel)Blister Review (our original channel)TOPICS & TIMES:Sennza Finne (1:43)Snowbird (3:09)Life Since the Olympics? (5:16)Bull Riding & Ski Racing (7:06)The Process (20:06)Winning 2025 Worlds (22:54)‘26 Olympics: Starting in 1st Place (28:33)Does Winning Teach Us Much? (41:52)Your Heroes Growing Up? (54:26)Encouraging development (55:42)Sh!t Talking? (58:37)Breezy's Dad's Accident (1:02:36)CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDBikes & Big IdeasGEAR:30 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the USS Athena on the outside of Federation space looking in, the cadets must make the most of their training to save the day. Matt and Pete cross episode 10, “Rubincon.”Thanks as always to everyone who supports the podcast by visiting Patreon.com/PhantasticGeek.Share your feedback by emailing PhantasticGeek@gmail.com, commenting at PhantasticGeek.com, or tweeting @PhantasticGeek.MP3

The Mechanics of Truth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our Serial Sunday series, we are presenting The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. When mysterious cylinders fall from the sky, Victorian England is thrust into a terrifying struggle for survival as Martian machines lay waste to the countryside. Told in serialized chapters, this landmark science-fiction classic unfolds as a gripping tale of invasion, panic, and humanity pushed to the brink.If you have a story you'd like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Newly crowned US National Champions join KOTL to discuss the battles won, and what is upcoming at Worlds.Hosted by 6 Pack Lapadat

Longevity has been on my mind a lot lately.This past weekend was the Arnold Classic. You look at those guys on the IFBB stage — absolutely massive human beings — and there's no denying the level of discipline and work that goes into that. But it also highlights something important: enhanced bodybuilding and natural bodybuilding are essentially two completely different sports.When people say “the highest level,” they're usually referring to the Mr. Olympia or Arnold stage. And sure, if you're competing in enhanced bodybuilding, that's the top of the mountain. But I'm not playing that sport. I'm competing in natural bodybuilding, and the highest level there is winning Worlds. Two totally different arenas, two totally different priorities.And when you start looking at it through the lens of longevity, things get even clearer.I had a client compete at the Arnold this weekend — Janis — who is 70 years old. Natural athlete. Keto. She went out there and broke world records in the squat, bench, deadlift, and total. At seventy years old.That, to me, is winning on a whole different level.Most people at 70 can barely carry groceries. They're using walkers and canes. Meanwhile she's pulling over 300 pounds off the floor and planning to keep doing it for as long as she possibly can. That's the kind of outcome I want to stack the chips in favor of.Because the question isn't just how high you can climb for a brief moment.The real question is how long you can perform at a high level.Natural bodybuilding, done properly, gives you that runway. When you prioritize nutrition, progressive overload, recovery, and discipline, you're building a system that supports your body for decades. You can keep improving year after year. You don't have to peak in your 20s and then watch everything fall apart.I plan on competing for a long time. I've got my sights set on winning Worlds in 2027, but whether that happens or not, the cool thing about natural bodybuilding is that you can keep showing up. You can keep getting better. You can keep pushing the needle forward.That's the long game.We also talked about some of the biggest mistakes people make with fat loss. The internet loves to throw around the advice “eat less, move more.” And technically, sure — that's not wrong. But practically speaking, it often misses the bigger picture.A lot of people who hit plateaus aren't eating too much. They're actually chronically under-eating. They're running on fumes, walking 30,000 steps a day, barely consuming a thousand calories, and wondering why their body refuses to drop more weight.At that point the metabolism is suppressed. Hormones are downregulated. Recovery is shot.That's why I'm such a big believer in structured building and cutting phases. When you spend time in a surplus and allow your metabolism to ramp up, you create more runway for fat loss later. When you finally drop calories, your body actually responds.You can't stay in a deficit forever.You have to play the long game — just like everything else.The Tribe is gearing up for a three-day fast, and we've got a bunch of conferences and travel coming up this year. Meatstock, Low Carb for Better Health, Hack Your Health — lots of opportunities to connect with the community and keep spreading the message.At the end of the day, everything comes back to the same principle.What can you do today to stack the chips in your favor so that you can operate at a high level for the longest possible time?That's the game I'm playing.And honestly, I think it's the only game worth playing.Greg Mahler is also a lifetime natural bodybuilder, and can be followed on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/ketogreg80/Register For My FREE Masterclass: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2Get Keto Brick: https://www.ketobrick.com/Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ

The chess set—reported to be custom-carved so the pieces resembled Epstein and those in his orbit—wasn't a quirky conversation piece; it was theatrical signaling. A chessboard is a compact metaphor for control, hierarchy, and calculated sacrifice; to populate it with likenesses of yourself and your closest aides weaponizes that metaphor into an assertion: you stage the board, assign the roles, and you decide who moves and who gets sacrificed. The grotesque intimacy of turning people into game pieces collapses bodies and agency into objects of play, and that deliberate objectification is itself an accusation—an unsettling admission that the house was designed as a theatre of power, not a warm home.Worse, the set functioned as social shorthand for everyone who tolerated it. Sitting across from those carved pawns, Epstein's guests were offered a choice: read the scene or pretend not to. That so many wealthy, powerful people treated such staging as “eccentric décor” rather than a glaring red flag reveals the moral rot behind the glamour. Either they were willfully blind, or they understood perfectly and accepted their place in the performance. Either way, the chess set stands as a tiny, obscene manifesto of an ecosystem built on predation and polished denial—taste turned into cover, symbolism into complicity.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Epstein and his young female pawns: Billionaire paedophile had chess set made that featured him as the king… and had models pose to be turned into hand-crafted pieces | Daily Mail Online

US Champs, Joe B/Janée Kovacs and Meg Scanlon join KOTL to discuss their battles to win a spot on Team USA, their rivals Internationally, answering the critics, and much more!Hosted by 6 Pack Lapadat

He's back! The man behind the mask! Friday the 13th is keeping us busy this year with two in two months and another on the way. This time we're taking a look at 1986's Jason Lives, the movie that canned the original plan to have Tommy Jarvis take up the machete and establishes Jason Voorhees as a lumbering, unstoppable killing machine from beyond the grave! In this movie Tommy Jarvis skips the mental hospital he's been confined at to return to Crystal Lake, since renamed to Forest Green in order to shake its horrible reputation. His mission: dig up the body of Jason Voorhees, who has haunted him since he was a little kid, and make sure that he's dead. But when Tommy's obsession overlaps with an electrical storm, a bolt of lightning strikes the body of Jason and brings him back from the grave once again to kill everyone in sight. Now it's up to Tommy to face his fears and put Jason back in the ground for good. When A New Beginning hit theaters it did characteristically well in box office but faced a significant problem with fans: They hated the new direction. They came for Jason and they left with Tommy and everyone hated it. So Frank Mancuso Jr., now a little preoccupied with his War of the Worlds and Friday the 13th TV shows, left the entire project in the hands of writer and director Tom McLoughlin with one clear directive: Do whatever you want but bring back Jason. Join the Bring Me The Axe Discord: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/snkxuxzJ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support Bring Me The Axe! on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://patreon.com/bringmetheaxepod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Bring Me The Axe merch here:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.bonfire.com/store/bring-me-the-axe-podcast/⁠⁠

We're once again joined by Sean Owen Roberson of Palladium Books, who's talking with us about events both recent and upcoming. In addition to a lengthy post-mortem look back at the recently-concluded TMNT Redux Kickstarter, Sean tells us about some exciting events happening in Detroit! We close out with an exciting look at upcoming things from Palladium. Check out the Worlds of Palladium exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum! A link is just below in these notes. Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And let us know your thoughts by leaving a review on iTunes or any other podcast aggregate sites. For even more info and options, check out our main website or our low-bandwidth alternative feed site. Links of Note: Worlds of Palladium Exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum Weekend Conversation with Kevin Siembieda: April 24 & 25, 2026 – Westland, Michigan Credits: Hosts: NPC, Just Jacob, and Matt Buckley Guests: Sean Owen Roberson Music: Opening is "8-Bit bass & lead" by Furbyguy, Closing is "Caravana" by Phillip Gross Episode Length (We support chapters!): 1:43:04 Glitter Boys, Rifts, the Megaverse, and all other such topics are the property of Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books. Please buy all their stuff and help keep them in print and making more games! You can order directly at palladiumbooks.com, and their entire catalog is available digitally at Drive-Thru RPG as well. We release all of our public episodes simultaneously on: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuc8KbdMqx8ajWfm2OUTs7A Audio RSS: https://breakfastpuppies.com/feed/glitterbois Want to help us pay for hosting? We have a few options: Drop us a one-time donation or a recurring membership at our Ko-Fi page Follow this link to our Pinecast Tip Jar We've got a merch store if you're looking for some sweet Glitterbois swag. Check out our affiliate store and buy some of the various products we endorse. Support The Glitterbois by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/the-glitterbois Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/the-glitterbois/740636ae-46ad-43e0-a2fd-061a33f55974 This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-66e5ee for 40% off for 4 months, and support The Glitterbois.

Watch as a full video interview on our YouTube channelIn the final of our cross-over interview episodes with Narrative Damage, we chat with the brilliant Mike Mason!Mike Mason is an award-winning game designer and writer, and the creative director for the Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game. As well as being the commissioning editor and lead writer for the line, Mike also works closely with artists and cartographers to shape the look and art for Call of Cthulhu.It was great speaking with Mike and hearing how his love for storytelling and Call of Cthulhu led to him landing his dream job. He tells us about how he writes scenarios and campaign books, and how that differs (and doesn't differ) from writing other forms of fiction. Plus, we talk about writing effective horror, and discuss why mystery fiction of all kinds is so popular.Links:Follow Mike on InstagramVisit Chaosium's websiteWatch the trailer for our actual play of Loki's GiftFollow Narrative Damage on YouTube or its own podcast feed to get more interviews with TTRPG writers, creators and more, plus actual plays with some of your favourite authors: https://linktr.ee/narrativedamagerpgSupport us on Patreon and get great benefits!: https://www.patreon.com/ukpageonePage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on ThreadsPage One - The Writer's Podcast is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“This movie feels like a ChatGPT movie if there's ever been one.” This week on Myopia Movies, the gang continues its tour through the worst films of the previous year with 2025's War of the Worlds—a baffling, screen-filled sci-fi mess that somehow turns an NSA analyst played by Ice Cube into humanity's last hope. The panel digs into the movie's strange obsession with surveillance tech, brand-name software, and product placement, while trying to figure out whether the film is pro–surveillance state, anti–surveillance state, or just deeply confused. Along the way, they riff on everything from alien data harvesting and Amazon drones to bad military logic, real-time apocalypse plotting, and a family drama that feels far more creepy than heartfelt. The result is less War of the Worlds and more War of the Windows Tabs. Want to pick a movie we do an episode on and record a special commentary just for you? Purchase something from our wish list! https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3FN64UXVJTOEH?ref_=wl_share We are riffers on Cineprov! Check us out!! How will War of the Worlds (2025) hold up? Host: Nic Panel: Matthew, Alex, Keiko, Nur Directed by: Rich Lee Starring: Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Iman Benson, and Michael O'Neill

The 66 and 59 kg US National Champions join KOTL to discuss their big title wins, future Worlds appearances, and bitter rivals. Hosted by 6 Pack Lapadat

105 & 120 kg US National Champions, Ashton Rouska & Anthony McNaughton, join KOTL to discuss their title wins, behind the scenes backstories, and upcoming Worlds. Hosted by 6 Pack Lapadat

As the Season of Champions rolls along, we look back at what was a fun Brier out in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. From Brad Gushue's final game to Team Jacobs running out of gas to a Kevin Koe renaissance to Matt Dunstone getting over the hump, there was a lot going on at the 2026 Brier and we recap it all. From there (42:05) we look ahead to the 2026 Women's World Curling Championship, which starts Saturday in Calgary. We talk about all 13 teams in the field - many of which are different from those that played at the Olympics - and make our picks for who will emerge from a wide open field.For more, visit us at GameofStonesPod.com

NEW MERCH: https://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculoushttps://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculous00:00 Dk can't do an intro01:10 Shilling merch09:45 The EpisodeGuilliman is back, but the Imperium is a mess, and his Ultra-Depression is kicking in full force. In this episode, we kick off our three-part series on the Dark Imperium books, diving into the massive conflict that brings the Avenging Son face-to-face with his brother Mortarion: The Plague Wars.​Ultramar is struggling under the weight of Chaos rot, and Mortarion is aiming to choke the realm with disease. We explore the tragic and horrific transformation of the hospital world of Iax into a literal breeding ground for Nurgle's decay, and see how Guilliman plans to hold his territory together by reforming the Tetrarchy to make the 500 Worlds stronger.​Plus, we break down Guilliman's confusing new reality in M41. From dealing with the fanatical Ecclesiarchy and his new Militant-Apostolic Mathieu, to navigating a deadly Legends of the Hidden Temple style obstacle course just to talk to a 100% definitely-not-sentient VTuber version of Belisarius Cawl.Support the show

Most show skiers dream of hosting the World Championships—and right now, the Lake City Skiers are making it happen for 2027. But their journey from a humble traveling team to hosting a major international event is a story of grit, innovation, and relentless community spirit that you can't miss.In this episode, we dive into the rich history of the Lake City Skiers, tracing their roots all the way back to the late 1980s. Discover how they transitioned from the Webster Ski Bees to the renown club they are today, and hear firsthand from Randy Patrick and Steve Hawblitzel about their remarkable growth. From battling unpredictable water conditions—like the infamous Dixie paddle boat interruptions—to securing their own lake, their story exemplifies perseverance and vision.You'll discover the behind-the-scenes planning and epic upgrades that transformed Hidden Lake into a world-class ski site, capable of hosting major competitions and international spectators. Randy and Steve share exactly how they built their infrastructure, from custom docks to innovative night shows, all while maintaining that deep love for the sport and community interaction. Their strategic moves to win Division II Nationals as a launching pad into Division I, and their eventual bid and victory for hosting the 2027 Worlds, highlight the power of leadership and dedication.This episode celebrates the passion that drives show skiing forward through every challenge and victory. Get inspired by their innovative spirit and learn what it takes to turn a dream into reality.Today's Sponsors are....FlymanSkis - flymanskis.comSaga Sports - sagasports.usFollow us on Social Media: Instagram - @theskishowpodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theskishowpodcast Contact The Ski Show: Email us at theskishowpodcast@gmail.com Leave us a rating and a review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ski-show-the-ultimate-show-ski-podcast/id1510243170

The chess set—reported to be custom-carved so the pieces resembled Epstein and those in his orbit—wasn't a quirky conversation piece; it was theatrical signaling. A chessboard is a compact metaphor for control, hierarchy, and calculated sacrifice; to populate it with likenesses of yourself and your closest aides weaponizes that metaphor into an assertion: you stage the board, assign the roles, and you decide who moves and who gets sacrificed. The grotesque intimacy of turning people into game pieces collapses bodies and agency into objects of play, and that deliberate objectification is itself an accusation—an unsettling admission that the house was designed as a theatre of power, not a warm home.Worse, the set functioned as social shorthand for everyone who tolerated it. Sitting across from those carved pawns, Epstein's guests were offered a choice: read the scene or pretend not to. That so many wealthy, powerful people treated such staging as “eccentric décor” rather than a glaring red flag reveals the moral rot behind the glamour. Either they were willfully blind, or they understood perfectly and accepted their place in the performance. Either way, the chess set stands as a tiny, obscene manifesto of an ecosystem built on predation and polished denial—taste turned into cover, symbolism into complicity.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Epstein and his young female pawns: Billionaire paedophile had chess set made that featured him as the king… and had models pose to be turned into hand-crafted pieces | Daily Mail OnlineBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

Artist and designer Dennis Maher has spent decades exploring the life cycles of buildings. After studying architecture at Cornell, he moved to Buffalo, New York—where a job in demolition introduced him to the visceral reality of the built environment constantly breaking down and rebuilding itself.That experience sparked a practice rooted in salvaged materials, forgotten objects, and the imaginative transformation of ordinary spaces. Maher's work now spans sculptural installations, living environments, and his most ambitious project: The Assembly House, an evolving artwork housed inside a historic church that also serves as a training ground for the building arts.Part immersive artwork, part cultural attraction, part educational engine, The Assembly House teaches people to build while reconnecting them to the tactile, communal experience of craft. Through what he calls “architectural dream worlds,” Maher explores how memory, materials, and imagination reshape the way we understand the spaces we inhabit—and the role we play in building them. Images and more from Dennis Maher on our website!Special thanks to our sponsor! Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.SUBSCRIBE - listen to Clever on any podcast app!SIGN UP - for our Substack for news, bonus content, new episode alertsVISIT - cleverpodcast.com for transcripts, images, and 200+ more episodesSAY HI! - on Instagram & LinkedIn @cleverpodcast @amydeversApply to participate in Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVESpecial thanks to our sponsors!Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

St. Johns, the defending Champions snd UCONN are the overwhelming favorites to meet on Saturday night for the championship but it is March and this is the Big East Tournament so expect the Unexpected. We go through the Bracket as the Big East Conference invades the Worlds most Famous Arena for four days starting tomorrow. This is the Big East Preview you cant miss as a basketball fan

Rich Ryan breaks down his race at the HYROX North American Championships in Washington DC. After entering as the #2 seed and finishing 8th, he shares the pacing mistake that derailed the race, what he learned, and how he's adjusting training before Worlds. 00:00 – Intro & Race OverviewRich recaps racing in the HYROX North American Championships and the expectations going in.02:57 – The Most Important HYROX Pacing StrategyWhy pacing until burpee broad jumps is key to executing the back half of the race.07:47 – The Moment Everything ChangedA sudden wave of fatigue during the sled pull turns the race into survival mode. 11:24 – The Real Reason the Race Went WrongBreaking down why going out too hard early ruined the rest of the race.36:47 – What Changes Before WorldsTraining adjustments and the plan moving forward for the next big race.Get structured HYROX programs, coaching guidance, and a community of athletes all working toward the same goal. Whether you're building your base or preparing for race day, the RMR Training App has a program for you.Start here:https://www.rmr.training/rmr-app-pod

Some of the biggest industry news in a while dropped late last week, with Six Flags announcing that the chain was selling seven of its parks - Six Flags St. Louis, Worlds of Fun, Valleyfair, Six Flags Great Escape, Michigan's Adventure, La Ronde, and Schlitterbahn Galveston - to EPR Properties, and a majority of the parks would be managed by the new "Enchanted Parks."Enchanted Parks' CEO James Harhi recently gave an interview to the St. Louis Post Dispatch talking about what fans could expect at the park soon to be known as Enchanted Parks' Mid-America, which got us thinking about a wishlist for the other parks involved in the sale. Andrew is joined by two separate Eric/k's from the Coaster101 - Eric with a C in California, and Erik with a K in Canada, to talk about what we'd all like to see at these seven parks going forward. You can connect with the show by hitting us up on social media @Coaster101: Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram. We also have a website, if you're into that sort of thing: www.coaster101.comAlso, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode! And please give us a rating and review wherever you listen, it helps new listeners find us!Find the latest and greatest Coaster101 and theme park-inspired merch at coaster101.com/merchThanks to JM Entertainment for providing our theme song. For more on them, check out jmentgrp.com

Hey kids. Super fun episode ahead of us this week. How? Well, we continue on with our look ar rubber wrestlers. This time much smaller ones than last week. LJN Bendies. We go over every figure in the range and then take a look at the ones that I have..  New show sponsor this week and tons more!  Thanks for tuning in and as always please tell a friend! 

Today's episode was recorded at one of our favorite events, the Quiet Adventures Symposium in Lansing. Today's episode features conversations with paddlers, conservationists, and accessibility advocates across Michigan. Guests include Anna Green, a Junior World Orienteering competitor, Team River Runner, Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps), Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind, the Flint River Watershed Coalition, the League of Michigan Bicyclists, and the Michigan DNR Trails team. While not all of today's topics are paddling related, they're paddling adjacent. I'm willing to bet that you enjoy more hiking, cycling, and more, in addition to your time on the water.  Today's discussions include orienteering at the world level, adaptive paddling programs, volunteer lake and stream monitoring, watershed stewardship, cycling advocacy, inclusive outdoor programming, and state water-trail and trail management efforts—highlighting ways listeners can get involved, protect waterways, and enjoy paddling in the Great Lakes region. Connect: Southern Michigan Orienteering Club smoc-runs.com USA Orienteering https://orienteeringusa.org/ Flint River Watershed Coalition Flintriver.org Kayakflint.org Opportunities Unlimited for the Blind https://oubmichigan.org/ Team River Runner https://www.teamriverrunner.org/ Creating Ability: https://www.creatingability.com/ Michigan Clean Water Corps MiCorps.net League of Michigan Bicyclists lmb.org Michigan Department of Natural Resources https://www.michigan.gov/dnr Hiking Trails: https://gis-michigan.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/3d190eb423fa4e578049faf36654a8ab_1/about Water Trails: https://gis-midnr.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/midnr::michigan-dnr-designated-water-trails/about

Peter Brown, Managing Director of Baggot investment partners.

Graham and Kevin talk about what they normally do to get ready for tournaments. Also discuss some news about AMG.

Today we're taking a little road trip — we're driving all the way to Alberta, Canada, to chat with J.S. Nathaniel. J.S. is a dark fiction author who writes gothic and dystopian stories. His work explores emotional resilience and identity through powerful storytelling. His latest book, Dominion of the Divine, is out now. Find out more at: https://jsnathaniel.link/

As the academic year comes to a close, action doesn't take a vacation when Nus Braka's dastardly plan is revealed. Matt and Pete take stock of episode 9, “300th Night.”Thanks as always to everyone who supports the podcast by visiting Patreon.com/PhantasticGeek.Share your feedback by emailing PhantasticGeek@gmail.com, commenting at PhantasticGeek.com, or tweeting @PhantasticGeek.MP3

Acclaimed short fiction writers Sarah Hall, Jonathan Escoffery, and Niamh Mulvey on building immersive worlds in compressed spaces, grounding stories in real human stakes, and writing openings and endings that transform both character and reader.   Timestamps: 00:01:06 Sarah Hall (from Episode 161) 00:14:43 Jonathan Escoffery (from Episode 56) 00:26:42 Niamh Mulvey (previously unreleased conversation) You'll learn: Sarah Hall's “keyhole” approach to short stories — and how the unseen world beyond the scene gives a story its depth. Why trusting your preoccupations beats forcing a theme, and how over-awareness of your own subject can kill the fiction. A technique for thickening a thin first draft: telescope into your character's childhood, then out to their future. Why Jonathan Escoffery believes stories without real-world stakes will lose to equally crafted stories that engage with the world, every time. How Escoffery pairs imagination with lived emotional experience to make unfamiliar settings resonate — and why personal growth feeds artistic growth. What choosing a linked story collection over a novel taught Escoffery about pacing, pause, and propulsive energy. Why Niamh Mulvey thinks showing off your best writing in an opening is a mistake — and what to do instead (start specific, name a character, put two people in relation). A prompt for finding your story's urgency: ask “why this moment?” and aim for the energy of really good gossip. How character desire shapes place and plot at the same time, so setting becomes what your character wants rather than backdrop. Mulvey's “third element” — a character, object, or event seeded early that can emerge later to unlock your ending. Resources & Links: Join our LWS community! Sarah's full episode and notes Jonathan's full episode and notes If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery Hearts and Bones: Love Songs for Late Youth by Niamh Mulvey The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan   About Sarah Hall: Sarah Hall is one of the UK's most talented authors. Twice nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the first and only writer to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice, she has written ten highly acclaimed novels and short story collections. About Jonathan Escoffery: Jonathan Escoffery is the author of the linked story collection If I Survive You, a New York Times and Booklist Editor's Choice, an IndieNext Pick, and a National Bestseller. His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Oprah Daily, Electric Literature, Zyzzyva, AGNI, Pleiades, American Short Fiction, Prairie Schooner, Passages North, and elsewhere. About Niamh Mulvey: Niamh Mulvey is from Kilkenny, Ireland. Her short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee and Southword and was shortlisted for the Seán O'Faoláin Prize for Short Fiction 2020. Her short story collection Hearts and Bones: Love Songs for Late Youth was published by Picador. The Amendments is her first novel. For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.For free writing sessions, join free Writers' Hours: writershour.com.*FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS' SALONTwitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalonInstagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalonFacebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalonIf you're enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!

How do planetary systems form? If you wanted to observe them, where would you look and what would you look for? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome Luke Keller, professor of Astronomy and Physics at Ithaca College, who together with his team has identified 9 of these early solar systems. As always, though, we start off with the day's joyfully cool cosmic thing: a recently published paper that determined that at any given time, it is likely that a couple of extrasolar objects like 3I/ATLAS and Oumuamua would be present in our solar system. The real issue is detecting them. For context, Luke, whose science has focused over the years on finding debris from solar systems, explains how protoplanetary discs can eject matter that ends up orbiting that star. He's especially fond of cosmic dust, “the catalyst for the formation of planets and asteroids and comets…” Then it's time for a question for Luke from the audience, from Elisa: “I heard that the James Webb Space Telescope sees infrared light. How does that work? Does that mean it couldn't see the Sun?” Luke breaks down the various wavelengths of light and our Sun. He also explains how the JWST works and why it never looks at the sun. It turns out that Luke has built a variety of astronomical instruments including imaging and spectroscopic tools with for large observatories. He's also used information from instruments like JWST in his studies of the formation of stars and solar systems. Luke explains how his teams search for preplanetary solar systems, what they're looking for, and where they're currently looking: associations of stars in the direction of the constellations Taurus, Scorpius and Chamaeleon. All told so far Luke and his team have identified 9 of these early solar systems. He then breaks down the current thinking on how planetary systems form from clouds of dust. He explains some of the processes that involves, along with the types of planets that may form. For our next audience question, Joan asks, “What do you think is the most interesting constellation?” Luke picks two: first, Ursa Major, aka “The Big Dipper,” because he grew up in Alaska and saw it all the time – along with “auroras all the time.” The second constellation he picks is Orion, aka “The Hunter,” because it contains some of the closest star forming regions of our galaxy. Luke unpacks the difference between “watching the sky” and “observing the sky” – and why he encourages the latter to both his students and the general public. And before the episode is over, we get to hear about Luke's live show, Spacetime, where he collaborates with poet David Gonzalez and guitarist Álvaro Domene in a stage performance that's equal parts astrophysics, poetry, and music. If you'd like to know more about Luke's show, Spacetime, check it out at https://spacetimeshow.org/. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon. Credits for Images Used in this Episode: Image of a young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech edited by Invader Xan. Artist's impression of the interstellar interloper 1I/ʻOumuamua making a visit to our solar system. – Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted and F. Summers (STScI). Spectral distribution of sunlight. – Credit: Creative Commons / Rhwentworth. The Taurus-Auriga association, also known as the Taurus-Auriga molecular clouds, is a stellar association located around 140 parsecs (420 ly) from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. It is the nearest large star formation region to Earth. – Credit: ESA/Herschel/NASA/JPL-Caltech; acknowledgement: R. Hurt (JPL-Caltech) The constellation Taurus as seen by the naked eye. The constellation lines have been added for clarity. – Credit: Creative Commons/ Till Credner - Own work, A Visual Guide to the Constellations. Artist's impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. – Credit: European Southern Observatory. Illustration comparing the sizes of various exoplanets with Earth, Mercury and the Moon. – Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The constellation Ursa Major as it can be seen by the unaided eye.– Credit: Creative Commons / Till Credner - Own work: AlltheSky.com. Composite image comparing infrared and visible views of the famous Orion nebula and its surrounding cloud, an industrious star-making region located near the hunter constellation's sword. The picture at left was taken with the Infrared Array Camera on board NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and the picture at right is from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz. – Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Toledo/NOAO. Image showing Betelgeuse (top left) and the dense nebulae of the Orion molecular cloud complex. – Credit: Creative Commons / Rogelio Bernal Andreo

For our Serial Sunday series, we are presenting The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. When mysterious cylinders fall from the sky, Victorian England is thrust into a terrifying struggle for survival as Martian machines lay waste to the countryside. Told in serialized chapters, this landmark science-fiction classic unfolds as a gripping tale of invasion, panic, and humanity pushed to the brink.If you have a story you'd like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.comBy becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free!Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconradNarrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/Other shows hosted by Darren:Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymagMicro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrorsRetro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradioChurch of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we're taking a little road trip — we're driving all the way to Alberta, Canada, to chat with J.S. Nathaniel. J.S. is a dark fiction author who writes gothic and dystopian stories. His work explores emotional resilience and identity through powerful storytelling. His latest book, Dominion of the Divine, is out now. Find out more at: https://jsnathaniel.link/

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Elyse Seal, a fiction book coach. Elyse helps authors get unstuck and finish their novels without spending years rewriting the same draft. With five years of experience and training from Author Accelerator, she specializes in sci-fi and fantasy authors. She helps writers build solid story foundations before they write and coaches them through editing in layers, big picture first, then scenes, then language. Her approach is candid and collaborative. She challenges authors to go deeper into character development and examine whether each scene is doing the heavy lifting it needs to do. Because every word matters. Authors hire her for clarity, accountability, and expert guidance toward the finish line.   According to Elyse's website, “you'll stop second-guessing and start writing with purpose, direction, and the confidence that your story matters. Whether you're just starting with an idea, deep in your first draft, or stuck after many revisions, I've got you.   “Writing is hard, but it's not because you're doing it wrong.  You just need a plan, support, and someone who gets it.”   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   You can follow Author Elyse Seal Website: https://www.elysesealcoaching.com/ IG @elyse.j.seal FB: @Elyse Seal   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #elyseseal #bookcoach # #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview

Liz Hickox's triathlon journey and mindset transformation. Key Takeaways Mindset Shift Unlocked Performance: Liz's breakthrough came from replacing a self-limiting belief ("I don't win races") with a performance-focused one ("Success is the only motherfucking option"). New Coaching Partnership was the Catalyst: A new coach (Colin Cook) provided the structure and accountability needed to break old habits, including inconsistent training and alcohol consumption. Adversity Forged Resilience: Winning two major races (Happy Valley, Lake Placid) with broken toes proved the power of her new mindset and physical dedication. Kona Podium Validated the Transformation: A top-5 finish at Kona, guided by a single bike-split goal, validated the new approach and solidified her identity as a top-tier athlete. Topics Early Life & Athletic Background Upbringing: Athletic parents; a strict, driving father and a supportive mother. Pivotal Event: A severe car accident at 19 caused a year-long school delay. Wall Street Career: Started on the American Stock Exchange floor, then moved to a NASDAQ trading desk. Running as Therapy: Began running after her father's death, using it as a mental escape from a high-pressure job. Sailing Career: Won a One Design World Championship, leveraging a lighter weight for crew selection. Triathlon Introduction & Early Struggles First Triathlon (c. 2000): The Mighty Hamptons Tri, completed on a mountain bike with aero bars. Result: Walked the run due to lack of training. Return to Triathlon (c. 2017): Used training as a grounding force during a difficult marriage. First Half-Ironman: Timberman, finished just outside the top 10. First Full Ironman: Lake Placid (2017, 2018), consistently finished just outside the top 10. Self-Limiting Belief: Realized she was subconsciously holding back to avoid outperforming her spouse, creating a "marginally well" identity. The Breakthrough Season (2025) Coaching Change: Switched to Colin Cook after her previous coach dismissed her Kona goal for Lake Placid, saying the race was "too competitive." New Approach: Adopted a disciplined lifestyle, including consistent training, dialed-in nutrition, and full alcohol abstinence. Happy Valley 70.3: Adversity: Broke two toes ~10 days before the race. Strategy: Wore a walking boot pre-race, then hammered the bike to compensate for a compromised run. Result: Won her age group by over 20 minutes, securing a 70.3 Worlds slot. Lake Placid Ironman: Adversity: Raced on broken toes, causing pain on downhills and a gluteal tendinopathy injury. Result: Won her age group by 26 minutes, finishing 50 minutes faster than her 2018 time. Kona World Championships Mindset: Approached the race with a focus on experience and enjoyment, not just results. Bike Strategy: Focused solely on hitting the coach-set 6-hour bike split goal, ignoring all other metrics. Result: Finished in 6:01. Run Strategy: Removed socks mid-race to manage burning feet, running the rest of the marathon barefoot in her shoes. Result: Finished 5th in her age group, achieving a podium finish. Next Steps Liz Hickox: Race Happy Valley 70.3 and Lake Placid Ironman in 2026. Compete in Unbound gravel race. Attend the upcoming Tucson training camp.

Raif Fejzo from RRT Motorsports joins the show to talk about building the fastest Mitsubishi Evos in the world. We dive into how DSMs got him hooked on turbo cars, the journey from working out of a home garage to running a full shop, and what it really takes to build a 7-second Evo. Raif also breaks down Evo engine programs, MoTeC tuning, and the constant race to push the platform even faster. Take your build up a whole new level with 6XD Gearbox: https://6xdgearbox.com Code "Minnoxide5" for 5% off High Performance Academy: https://hpcdmy.co/Minnoxide Use code "MINNOX" for 55% off ANY course Use Code "MINVIP" for $300 of the MINVIP Package Tuned By Shawn: https://www.tunedbyshawn.com Code "Minnoxide" for 5% off! Ship With Sure Thing Logistics: https://www.surethinglogistics.net MORE BIGGER Turbo T-Shirts:  https://www.minnoxide.com/products/more-bigger-t-shirt 00:00 – Intro 01:07 – How DSMs Hooked Him on Turbo Cars 06:46 – Early Racing Days & Evo vs Subaru Culture 10:09 – Turning a Garage Hobby Into a Real Shop 14:07 – Evo World Records & Chasing a 6-Second Pass 18:59 – First 8-Second Evo & The Push Toward Sevens 24:57 – Switching to MoTeC & Fixing Reliability 28:02 – Evo 8 vs Evo 10: Which Platform Is Better? 40:44 – Real Costs of Building a 500–700HP Evo 47:00 – Building a 7-Second 4G63: Pistons, Rods & Billet Blocks 54:30 – Why Competition Pushes the Evo Platform Forward

Today's episode of The Rizzuto Show starts the way all great chaos begins: with a few innocent birthday shoutouts. But this is a daily comedy show, so naturally the conversation derails almost immediately.First up, the crew celebrates a bunch of birthdays — including listeners, family members, and basically anyone within shouting distance of the microphones. Somewhere in the middle of that celebration, the topic shifts to National Frozen Food Day, which sparks an extremely serious and definitely scientific debate about the greatest frozen food of all time. Are Totino's Pizza Rolls the GOAT? Do Eggo waffles even count? Is Stouffer's mac and cheese a masterpiece or a crime against humanity? The arguments get heated… and someone definitely burns the roof of their mouth reliving their pizza roll trauma.Then we get into one of the wildest stories of the day: a DARE instructor — you know, the guy whose job was literally teaching kids to say no to drugs — getting busted for selling them. Out of his patrol car. In uniform. The part that really blows everyone's mind? The punishment is basically weekend jail. The crew debates whether that's justice… or the world's worst episode of The Breakfast Club.From there the show takes a sharp turn into music nostalgia, with the gang breaking down the greatest concert opening songs of all time. Korn, Rage Against the Machine, Foo Fighters, Limp Bizkit — if it's the kind of song that makes you want to run through a brick wall, it makes the list.But the real chaos kicks in when the crew talks about the possibility of buying a movie prop from Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls — the famous rhino scene prop. The idea seems brilliant until they find out shipping alone might cost around $8,000. Suddenly the show is pitching sponsorship ideas, planning a cross-country rhino road trip, and trying to convince management this is somehow a “business expense.”Meanwhile, the morning kicks off with dense fog, a bizarre “weather sandwich,” and news that Six Flags St. Louis might be getting new ownership — which raises a critical question: if the DC licenses disappear, do we get to rename all the roller coasters?It's another perfectly ridiculous episode of your favorite funny podcast, where serious topics, weird news, and completely unnecessary debates collide in the best possible way.If you like daily humor, bizarre news stories, and a comedy podcast that never stays on topic for long, welcome to the chaos.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshow for more from your favorite daily comedy show.Connect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShowHear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MO.Six Flags sells off Worlds of Fun, Six Flags St. Louis | Here's what that means for the upcoming seasonWoman arrested after six children test positive for alcohol at birthday partyStowaway Svetlana Dali successfully sneaks on plane to Europe againOfficials Warn of Fake Restaurant Inspectors Filming ‘Secret Audits' for Social MediaFormer New York DARE officer admits to selling drugs while in uniform in squad carEffort to raise speed limit in Missouri advancesParayko declines to waive No-Trade Clause, staying put for nowBillikens Turn Back Loyola Chicago 79-65, Claim A-10 Regular-Season Title ShareSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

   Well, your humble host has a pretty good nose for stink when it comes to what liberal law enforcement officials DON'T tell the public.  Our 22 year old man that dropped 20 bombs in a trash can at the World War I Museum is..... yup... wanted by ICE.  Of course he is and of course they didn't want to say it.  This is like "oh, there's children in the hospital" after the shooting at the Chiefs parade.  Ya, those children were the gang member shooters.  It's bad in KC folks, this should be a huge story but you should mostly be concerned at all the important information they keep from us.    Kristi Noem is out at DHS and off to another job that will be announced Saturday.  We'll fill you in on her replacement and why the move was made.    I met Scott Jennings in KC on Thursday and he couldn't have been a nicer man.  He's becoming a huge media star and his number of offers must be off the charts right now.  And.... it seems likely he'll be joining us here on the podcast sometime soon!    Worlds of Fun has been sold, along with 6 other Six Flags parks, to a KC company.    The World Baseball Classic starts with a Shohei Ohtani grand slam.  The royals have a tv disaster on their hands almost as bad as their pitching Thursday night.  KU, MU and KSU know their conference tourney seeds according to USA Today.   The lawsuit against 1587 continues even as the judge denies an emergency request.  A college program's assistant coach is arrested for being a pimp.  Yes, a pimp.    And a music superstar gets popped for a DUI which is about the 20th thing this person has been in trouble for.

It is RAZZIE "MONTH"! Laura and Noah kick things off with Ice Cube's H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds. An Amazon commercial cosplaying as a film. Is this a PRIME example of a film that is a misunderstood Razzie nod? Or should it just sit in your cart and STAY DOOMED!?  Wanna watch before you listen? Watch on, you guessed it, Amazon Prime. Check out the new discord!  https://discord.com/invite/Jr34y5BJGJ Have an idea for what Stay Doomed should cover next? Already seen the show and have a question or comment for us to read on the podcast?  Email us at TheStayDoomedShow@Gmail.com

over 6 hours of undulating back and forth crossing over the depths of house and techno.

Quick reaction show about Six Flags selling seven parks to EPR Properties and being managed by Enchanted Parks and former Six Flags CEO. Will Valleyfair get a new coaster? Magic coming to Michigan’s Adventure? Worlds of Fun becoming an immersive destination? The post Six Flags Sells 7 Parks – Quick Reaction Show appeared first on In the Loop.

The party reunites at Keeper's Keep victorious, changed, and burdened by what they've uncovered.Support the show Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MortalsAndPortals Discord: https://discord.com/invite/tG5WJCWxjD Wiki: https://mortalsandportals.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MortalsandPortals Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalsandPortals/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mortalsandportals/ Email: mortalsandportals@gmail.com

Quick reaction show about Six Flags selling seven parks to EPR Properties and being managed by Enchanted Parks and former Six Flags CEO. Will Valleyfair get a new coaster? Magic coming to Michigan’s Adventure? Worlds of Fun becoming an immersive destination? The post Six Flags Sells 7 Parks – Quick Reaction Show appeared first on In the Loop.

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousToday, Bricky and DK are diving headfirst into the new narrative campaign, "500 Worlds: Titus". The events of Space Marine II are in the rearview mirror, and our boy Demetrian Titus has officially secured the bag: getting promoted to Captain and Master of the Watch. Bobby G has tasked him with an incredibly ambitious (and maybe impossible) goal: reclaiming the lost 500 Worlds of Ultramar.​Titus heads out to the Vespator Front to secure a spooky planet called Novamagnor, a world so cursed that even Hive Fleet Leviathan actively avoided it. What Titus thought would be a "poggers" little speedrun to drop a vortex bomb in a sleeping Necron tomb immediately goes completely off the rails. We're talking Hexmark Destroyer ambushes, a literal Necron civil war spilling onto the surface, and the arrival of Nekrosor Ammenthar, the horrifying Patient Zero for the Destroyer Curse.​To make matters worse, Titus has to deal with Archmagos Wytbor Oct, a massive C'tan cultist who literally holds the door open for the Necrons because he wants to free a Nightbringer Shard from a massive Tesseract Vault. It's a pyrrhic victory of epic proportions, capped off by The Rock pulling up to the outskirts of Ultramar with a cryptic text message that simply reads: "Brother. We need to talk".Support the show

Clara flies for the Crown, Olivier cuts a visit short, and Lewis shadows an investigation. The theme of tonight's episode is Worlds.(To avoid spoilers, content warnings are listed at the end of this episode description).The bonus story that goes with this episode is ‘Rot', and is available for Hallowoods patrons on the show's Patreon, along with behind-the-scenes, exclusive merchandise, and more! Because the show runs without ads or sponsors, we rely on support from fans to guarantee the survival of this LGBTQ+ horror podcast.Hello From The Hallowoods is written and produced by William A. Wellman, a queer horror author. You can visit their website for more information! The transcript for this episode is available on the Hello From The Hallowoods Website. Click here to read!You can also find Hello From The Hallowoods on social media! The show is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @thehallowoods. If you'd like to connect with other fans of the show, there's even a fan-run Discord Server!Music for this episode was used under license from Artlist.com. The soundtracks featured were: ‘Rhea', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Morning Sunbeams', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Trembling Light', by Marco Martini,‘There's a Place for Me', by Roie Shpigler‘Flight', by Semo‘The Last Road Trip', by Tommy H Brandon,‘A Moon Walk', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Water for the Sea', by Idokay,‘A Touch of Dream', by Max H,‘Eureka Hills', by Eureka Woods,‘A Drop of Sparx', by Benja‘For the Broken Hearted', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Dawn', by Eva Tiedemann,‘Autumnal Smile', by Nocturne Samurai,‘Effoliation', by SEA, ‘Uncharted Lands', by Romeo,‘Moonrise', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Titan', by Yehezkel Raz,‘Morning', by Claudio Laucci, ‘Don't Look Back', by Dani Ha Dani,‘Shimmering Light', by Sparrow Tree,‘Scorpio', by Spearfisher,‘Rhea', by Yehezkel Raz,And ‘Farewell', by Maya Belsitzman and Matan EphratContent warnings for this episode include: Abuse, Animal death (Dogsmell as usual), Violence, Death + Injury, Blood, Static (including sfx), Emotional Manipulation, Drowning, Body horror, Electrocution, Religious Violence Shank vs. Diggory hoodie is now available on merch shop!https://store.dftba.com/products/shank-and-diggory-hoodie

Today we're heading to one of the most complex, energetic, and endlessly fascinating cities in the world. Hong Kong.  The city is layered, fast moving, deeply local, and full of contrasts. Towering skylines and quiet temples. Global finance and everyday rituals. World class dining and wild, unexpected nature just beyond the city streets. Joining me today are two people who know Hong Kong from very different, deeply personal perspectives. Gerald Hatherly, who has lived in Hong Kong for decades and helped shape how travelers experience Asia, and Yim Tom, a Hong Kong based artist whose work bridges history, craftsmanship, and contemporary design. We talk about everything from food and art to unspoken cultural rules, nature escapes, pop culture, and what Hong Kong reveals about the world when you really take the time to see it. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this interesting episode of Luxury Travel Insider.   Looking to book a luxury hotel? Get special perks and support the podcast by booking here: https://www.virtuoso.com/advisor/sarahgroen/travel/luxury-hotels If you want our expert guidance and help planning a luxury trip with experiences you can't find online, tell us more here and we'll reach out: https://bellandblytravel.com/book-a-trip/   Learn more at www.luxtravelinsider.com   Connect with me on Social: Instagram LinkedIn

Software engineer Adam Munder is on a mission to break down communication barriers between the Deaf and hearing worlds. In a live demo, he introduces OmniBridge — an AI platform that translates American Sign Language into English text in real time — and demonstrates how this tech could ensure every conversation can be fully understood, regardless of the participants' hearing abilities. Munder is joined onstage by ASL interpreter Christan Hansen and TED's Hasiba Haq.Learn more about our flagship conference happening this April at attend.ted.com/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oscar-winning costume designer Deborah L. Scott grew up sewing doll clothes, puppets, and getting swept up by the stories at the cinema. At 21 she went to work costuming show girls on the Vegas strip. Once in film, her adaptability, imagination, and resourcefulness carved a path that led to projects with Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, and onto sets of the biggest films of our time. Images, links and more from Deborah on cleverpodcast.com!Special thanks to our sponsor! Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale.If you enjoy Clever we could use your support! Please consider leaving a review, making a donation, becoming a sponsor, or introducing us to your friends! We love and appreciate you!Clever is hosted & produced by Amy Devers, with editing by Rich Stroffolino, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.SUBSCRIBE - listen to Clever on any podcast app!SIGN UP - for our Substack for news, bonus content, new episode alertsVISIT - cleverpodcast.com for transcripts, images, and 200+ more episodesSAY HI! - on Instagram & LinkedIn @cleverpodcast @amydeversApply to participate in Emerging Designers Spotlight LIVESpecial thanks to our sponsors!Wix Studio is a platform built for all web creators to design, develop, and manage exceptional web projects at scale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me for a transformative live in person event in Maui on May 14-17 https://www.brianscottlive.com/hawaii-2026   Join The Reality Revolution Tribe