The Outer Twilight

Fandom Part the Second ft Special Guest Kristy Riegel

Mike, Andrew and Kristy continue their conversation on what it means to be a fan and the joys and disappointments that can go with it. In this episode they discuss cosplay, gatekeeping, and how to move amongst the haters and just love what they love.

Fandom ft Special Guest Kristy Riegel

Mike and Andrew welcome their good friend Kristy for a conversation about Fandom, both the good and bad. We discuss DnD, Parenting as fans, and some of the ups and downs of navigating modern fandom.

ChatGPT and AI Art

Mike and Andrew a laymen when it comes to AI and some of the recent developments that have come about with ChatGPT but that doesn't mean  there isn't philosophical and ethical implications in terms of how AI could redefine the way we communicate and relate to one another. Is AI the creator, or is it a tool for creation. What does the future hold? What are the fears and hopes of a future with AI?

Album a Day Review

On January 1st Mike and Andrew embarked on a resolution to listen to an entire album a day from Monday to Friday during 2023. In this episode they talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of what they have heard so far, and the joy of listening to music.

Story Building - Expanding the Cryptid Prompt

Mike and Andrew, inspired by the prompt generated in the last episode, taker a crack at building a long form story from the cryptid hunter idea. As they dig in they discuss audience, genre, characters and plot points that may become an actual novel someday.

Cryptid Hunters & Match Wishes

Mike and Andrew take a crack at creating two new stories from writing prompts, this time in the Young Adult Fantasy realm. Andrew pitches a tale of a father and son on a cross country road trip where Dad reveals that they belong to a line of specialists who hunt cryptids, who themselves are protected by women who have sworn to keep them alive... but is there more to the story than even the boy's own father knows?Mike introduces the idea of a boy who must use magical matches to figure out what happened to his parents. Magic comes with consequences, but do those consequences have to be bad? What if using Magic requires wisdom and sacrifice!?

The Worst of 2022 and the Hope of 2023

Mike and Andrew look at some of their disappointments for movies and media in 2022, but cast their gaze forward into 2023 and discuss the projects they are hopeful about.

Best of 2022

Mike and Andrew discuss a few of their favorite things from 2022!

Throwing Tomatoes

Mike and Andrew focus on Rotten Tomatoes, the popular internet review aggregator. They discuss the difference and value between qualitative and quantitative reviewing along with the other pros and cons of RT. Should we trust audience reviews? Are the conspiracies real? Why doesn't RT seem to care when people get riled up?

Critical Criticism

What is the responsibility of a critic? Mike and Andrew discuss the art of critique, some of their favorite critics and what makes criticism worth reading. They also discuss some of the myths and misinformation that go along with modern criticism and how to discern valid thoughts on a work vs someone just saying it's stupid.