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EPISODE 150: ALSO 4TH ANNIVERSARY!!
271 Plays3 years ago
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome back to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast! Today we celebrate a double milestone that happened with some pure coincidental Goblin Chaotic Energy. It is our 4th Anniversary, and it is also our 150th episode (ish... there were a few unnumbered check-ins but shhhhhhhhh). The hosts went back through 4 years and 150 episodes and chose their Top 4. And in true Goblin Fashion there was a lot of cheating and there may be a few other episodes... and guests... and hosts... and series... mentioned. We hope you enjoy and we cannot wait to bring you more!!
Again we would like to state that Black Lives Matter (with a link to where you can offer support both monetary and not).
We also are proud to have partnered with Grinding Coffee Co a black, LGBT+ affiliated and owned, coffee business that is aimed at providing coffee to gamers. You can read more about their mission here. You can use our partner code for discounted coffee!
This episode is sponsored by Zencastr. They provide a crystal clear sound and allows for recording separate audio and video tracks for the guests and the hosts. Plus, there is a secured cloud backup, so you never lose your interviews. It is super easy to use, and there is nothing to download. My guests just click on the link, and we start recording. Click here to get 30% off your first three months with a PRO account.
On another new note we continue our partnership with The Fireside Alliance. From their main page: "An independent media network and a progressive community of progressive communities". Please check them out!
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As promised, we plan to keep these Mental Health Links available moving forward too. For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255): Veterans Press 1
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Transcript
Rise of Anti-Trans Rhetoric and Rights Threats
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome to a very special episode of the Goblin Lore podcast. Hobbs and I have been talking about today's topic for a little while now and we're really looking forward to getting into it. But first, we need to unfortunately talk about some going ons in the world right now.
00:00:47
Speaker
There's a lot of anti-trans rhetoric that has gotten really much louder and more public and vicious lately, and there are laws built on prejudice that have been gaining ground. A lot of them have been written. Some haven't made it to the books, but others have here in the US and in other places as well. Also, it looks like some reproductive rights and the rights of bodily autonomy in general are going to get rolled back here in the US.
00:01:15
Speaker
Well hubs and i benefit from a lot of privilege and these aren't topics we can really dive into or we feel super comfortable talking about authoritatively like on our own but it is important for us to speak out against the hate to speak out against the assault on these rights so we're going to say that trans rights are human rights this is abortion is health care bodily autonomy is important for everyone.
00:01:37
Speaker
We've had episodes on queerness. We are hoping to do an episode on reproductive rights. We – and we plan to continue to share our platform with folks who can talk to these topics better than we can because this shit is not okay. Yeah, it is not okay at all. I mean to the point where we have a platform for a reason. So a couple other things that I want to get out of the way and kind of talk about is that idea that people are not illegal.
Immigrant Rights and Gun Laws Debate
00:02:03
Speaker
So in case that's a concern that people have listed in this cast.
00:02:07
Speaker
When it comes to immigrants and immigrant rights, that is also something that I strongly personally support in this idea that somehow being born across an imaginary line means that you're not a human or some don't deserve to have a quality of life or even just these ideas that –
00:02:24
Speaker
I mean the one that upsets me and, you know, well, gosh, while we're on these topics, let's just kind of lay out these points, right? Like guns, guns are something that I grew up around. I am somebody who grew up shooting guns. I am somebody that was taught how to use them, how to properly store them, how to clean them, how to own a gun. It was a big household that believed in the Second Amendment.
00:02:48
Speaker
To this day, my father is a big believer in the Second Amendment and gets frustrated when he feels that these rights are kind of impinged upon. He will still be one of the first people I have ever known to say, why do we need weapons that are capable of firing rounds as quick as some of these weapons are? Why do we need to have magazine capacities that make this easier?
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, and to me, I have this is one that always angers me because what comes with this and how it's relevant even more so I think to our show is usually these discussions come with them very quickly a discussion on mental health, as if
00:03:28
Speaker
that can be just, sadly, it's being used as a way to kind of try to shift the narratives, shift the conversation. This is not one that we've talked about on the show at all. But this is one that more recently stood out to me, especially when we talk about reproductive rights, because we're literally talking about a situation where people don't care once a child is born. The joke being that they're not,
00:03:56
Speaker
that certain political beliefs are not even pro-life, they are literally pro-birth. And after that birth, doesn't really matter. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. And I think that we saw this. No schools, no food, no healthcare. No. And we see the most vulnerable among us, kids, literally gunned down at school.
Gun Laws Stagnation and Societal Inaction
00:04:16
Speaker
And we're still looking for excuses. And this is, I've sadly, the cynical side of me has said years ago that when, when
00:04:25
Speaker
The needle did not perceptively move after the shootings in, wow, in Sandy Hook. And we allowed children to be killed, that we were in trouble. You know, just from that perspective of like, we literally nothing, nothing changed. And we're back at that situation having the same discussions.
00:04:48
Speaker
And bringing in topics that, you know, just to me are not ever going to be just topics that I'm willing to have, which is that somehow mental health and these things that our country has at the same rates as many other countries, yet we are experiencing these things that other countries are not and to degrees they are not. And the reason it stuck with me when you mentioned like women's reproductive rights is once again it reproductive rights in general.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, just sorry, just reproductive rights in general, in particular to people with uteruses or people who could be childbearing in the sense of being forced to basically bring children into the world as a way that can also keep them down. And yet we then see children gunned down and nothing happens.
00:05:35
Speaker
It's just – there's been a lot, like the statement of, I'm tired of living in once in a generation of events, and we have been for a very long time at this point.
Zencastr Anniversary and Reproductive Rights Insights
00:05:47
Speaker
And if people know when Alex mentioned kind of the reproductive rights one.
00:05:54
Speaker
My wife, who is not a magic player, I mean, people who listen to this or people who have met us know she doesn't play magic, but she loves magic. She loves magic players. She loves the fact that there is this community. And when everything was happening, my wife is an OBGYN. One of the things she actually said to me was, you know, is this, is this something that you and Alex would ever talk about? Right? Like the fact that my wife knows
00:06:21
Speaker
that we maybe have a voice or can, or that we're willing to, just, it stood out to me. It stood out to me a ton that she would even just bring it up. So I just wanted to say that part before letting you finish kind of some of it, Alex, sorry. No, no, that was, that was perfect. You were cutting in right at the end of what I was saying. So that was, that was good timing.
00:06:45
Speaker
But I think it just is, we're just making it clear and restating our position because we need to every so often. Yeah, it is important that this is said and that we want to make sure that people know where we stand on these things and that a lot of this stuff is just, it's bad. I'm trying very hard. I'm starting to run out of words that aren't going to be just a string of profanity.
00:07:14
Speaker
Right, right. Like, you don't want to put extra burden on me to have yes, like to edit and try to edit this, because that's it's gonna that's worth moving there quickly because yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
Because we both, you know, and I think this is one of those things that, you know, these rights are affect a lot of people that are in our lives and people that we consider friends of the show.
Dehumanization Dangers and Content Creator Responsibilities
00:07:40
Speaker
And yeah, but even beyond that the any any and you said you said it to Hobbs yourself earlier when you're talking about, you know, no person is illegal. It's it's just about anything that
00:07:54
Speaker
When you start to other people and you start to make people not people, I start to lose language because I get so incensed. There is a lot of that that's sort of all layered in and we've talked about, we've hit a few different topics here, but there's a lot of that that's going on and is a lot louder and is a lot more public lately and it is all reprehensible. I mean, we haven't even touched on
00:08:23
Speaker
race, um, other areas that we've talked about on this. I mean, there's, there's a lot and it continues to be frustrating and to see, you know, we just want it known and restated where our, our stance is in case for some reason there is somebody coming across this that doesn't know. Yeah. Like we're just saying it. We're going to let you know right now.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah, and there's some episodes that we have talked about some of these things. But at any given episode, the whole thing, content creators have to keep in mind. And generally, we forget, because as we're going to talk about, this is a big milestone episode for us. But we've been here the whole time. We forget that any given piece of content, any given episode, can be somebody's first.
00:09:09
Speaker
And so as we're coming here, I'll just say it because it's probably in the episode title, so you probably already know it. But this is going to be our fourth year anniversary and also our 150th episode.
00:09:23
Speaker
That's got to be – I got to say, for goblins in our chaos, this fact that they are overlapping is just cracking me up. I died when I realized that we were getting
Podcast Milestones and Memorable Guests
00:09:35
Speaker
that close. Think about all the statistics and quirk, manipulating chance stuff that, hey, that fits.
00:09:41
Speaker
But yeah, so as we're coming here on four years of this cast, we've put out 150 episodes now. We've been doing this for a while. And we just, like I said, new people can come in at any time. And we just want to make sure it's clear to anyone listening where we're coming from. So unless you have anything more to say on that, Hobbs, because I'm going to need to mute my mic soon if I don't.
00:10:10
Speaker
I think we move. Yeah, I mean, once again, I think we just wanted to acknowledge and make sure at the forefront of us being on a fourth year anniversary episode, even just in our own world, what has happened in four years.
00:10:29
Speaker
And I'm also still in the mindset that I, you know, I'm still trying to grapple with the fact that we are now talking about four years. Oh, yeah, four years. And like you said, the fact that four years and 150 episodes kind of overlapped is
00:10:44
Speaker
is funny. It's cool how that works out. I can sometimes be a number geek. My team rolls their eyes at me when I come to them. Oh, I can't remember what day this was. I'd have to look it up. But there was a day, I believe earlier this year, it must have been in February, where I just said, hey, you guys realize that this is the last day where, at least in American date format, the date is a palindrome.
00:11:10
Speaker
They're just like, okay, yeah, sure. And then they go back to the rest of their day because stuff like that doesn't matter to them, but I think it's really good. And then they go back to the rest of their day. Yeah, I mean, it's fair. I appreciate them at least humoring me when I come to them with weird stuff like that.
00:11:26
Speaker
And they do. I mean, and sometimes we're actually interested. Sometimes it's just like, okay, sure, I guess. Thanks, Alex. Yeah. So just as a quick thing, like, we, in the past, and I know in our second anniversary episode, we did a lot of talking about the
00:11:45
Speaker
origin of the cast and stuff. So I don't know that we need to dig into too much of that, unless you're feeling that Hobbs. I know the topic I wanted to talk about, and I'm sorry, I sort of handed things to you. I just realized neither of us introduced ourselves. So I'm going to just say sort of the topic. I'm going to introduce myself. You can introduce yourself and then we'll figure out where to go from there. Do we have a question of the day too, since I wasn't paying that good of attention to any notes or anything? My question of the day is just expletive deleted, I guess right now.
00:12:15
Speaker
Okay, that's fair. So I'm Alex Newman, phoned on Twitter, generally sometimes, at Mel underscore chronicler. My pronouns are he him. We're generally the plan I had was we want to talk about some of our favorite episodes that we've recorded.
00:12:31
Speaker
that feels like a good way to have a kind of a retrospective and to do it from a different angle. There are a lot of times when we will revisit stuff, especially four years on, because sometimes we have new angles or it's just important to kind of talk about these same topics again. But for like the origin of our cast and talking about how we did this stuff that at least to me feels oddly self-serving, not self-serving, but a little self-involved.
00:12:58
Speaker
That's just me. And so that's why I didn't really want to retread that ground too much. So we, because it's for your anniversary, we're going to pick four episodes each to talk about, though we both have cheated, which is perfect goblin logic. That's goblin, right? I say cheated and also did not share our lists. And it did not share our lists, yes. So that could be interesting.
Favorite Episodes and Guest Contributions
00:13:23
Speaker
That could be real interesting. I'll just say I have a few lists.
00:13:29
Speaker
How don't you introduce yourself and then I can do more jabbering? Yeah, so I'm HobSkew. I can be found on Twitter at HobSkew. My pronouns are he, him. And yeah, so this is very shocking to me that we are at this. It is both our 150th and four years, which funnily enough with Alex mentioning the number piece, me being a number geek too, which is probably another reason why we get along so well.
00:13:57
Speaker
I actually went back through and calculated and we have put out since the cast started an episode in 75% of the weeks since we started. So in four years, we have basically put out an episode three out of every four weeks.
00:14:13
Speaker
Which is astounding to me because we've taken some big breaks too. When Joe left the cast, that was our first, I haven't pulled it up for now, our first 59 episodes. Joe left the cast after that. And we took.
00:14:32
Speaker
A like, three month break from recording. There was a few things that were posted in between there. No, it was longer than that. So that episode went up November 6th. Our next one, I guess, was January, but you and I didn't really start recording until March again. There was a few things we posted in between, but we really didn't start going until March. It was almost six months until we were consistently posting episodes again.
00:14:55
Speaker
And we'd already had, yeah, and we'd had around, uh, Freya being born the second break we've had, I mean, we've had, so we've had other breaks too. That's just a big one that, yeah. So it was just mind blowing to go back and actually realize that this is 150 episodes. And actually it technically we're cheating here anyway, because we have some un, like some little just updates that we did put out to let people know what was going on. That was more to do with number, not all of them.
00:15:21
Speaker
But some weren't numbered, right? So we're like, what so I yeah, I went back and looked at it. And we're basically it that is how many we have put out during this time period. So yeah, that's that is cool that I was not expecting that.
00:15:37
Speaker
So one sort of thing before we get too into this, there were two episodes I specifically talked to Hobbs about that I was going to just call out first because it felt like they were both significant to both of us and I didn't want them to just kind of take up an automatic slot that felt less interesting. So I want to talk about episode 100.
00:15:57
Speaker
I guess since we're doing 150, we could call out the special things we did for our previous episodes too. So episode 50, unless I hope I'm not going through your... No, no, none of these... I purposely stayed away from these for a reason. Okay, good. So episode 50 was a lot of fun. That was our second thing we recorded with Chase. They came back and took over our show and it was very airy with Chase.
00:16:22
Speaker
And they ran the show and we were guests. And that was fun. That was a lot of fun. I don't think we specifically said that's what we were doing. So I don't know how many people thought that it was a plain or chaos version of the episode or the show. I think we just we played it straight. Like we just played it. We played it for like you're sitting out expecting a goblin or episode and all of a sudden you're being introduced to Chase. Yeah. So that was that was fun. Episode 100 is the one that I was going to mention here.
00:16:52
Speaker
That is an episode where a number of our previous guests recorded audio clips for us. This had nothing of me, I think just a tiny little clip of Hobbs explaining what it was. And then the rest of the episode was these recordings from all
00:17:08
Speaker
all these previous guests. And it was so cool to me to hear back from all of these folks and to have them kind of checking in. And the fact that when we just say, hey, this is something kind of different that we want to do for 100th episode, so many people responded and wanted to, and there are actually a number of people who
00:17:26
Speaker
responded in positive and were unable to, which is fine. Things come up, life happens, but so many people were able to take the time to record and send us little clips to include in that episode was just incredible for me.
00:17:42
Speaker
So I'm also cheating by doing some special shout outs, as it were, because I did not want to take away from my four episodes. And I had one more. I didn't know if you had anything else. No, no, you're good. Okay, so the other one that I told Hobbs about that we sort of exempted because we were going to talk about it beforehand was episode 119, which was the episode where we talked about our preview card, which was really special. So that was really nice to
00:18:11
Speaker
I still can't believe we got a preview card. And now I'm going to be weird because I'm just thinking, you see a pair of goblins. That was the name of it, right? Yep. You see a pair of goblins by Aaron Miller. Yes. Great Aaron Miller art on that. Yep. From the first D&D, Adventures in D&D, like magic set, which felt really appropriate for a pair of goblins behind the mics talking to you about seeing a pair of goblins. So that was really cool.
00:18:40
Speaker
That was one of those, is this what making it feels like episodes? I mean, that was one of those milestones that we were kind of, I knew starting out, I didn't ever expect to have a preview card, but that was one that I was familiar with. There was an idea that it could happen, right? Like that they used to happen. I knew it was a thing that happened. I didn't expect for it to happen to us. And so I was really excited.
00:19:05
Speaker
Okay, so mine, yeah, my special ones that are like, you know, cheating.
00:19:14
Speaker
is Titus Lunter, the three-part Titus Lunter episodes. And I'm not actually going to those episodes, even though you should go listen to those episodes, it's actually just more... Titus was very, very supportive of us from early on and was the first person that we ever had on that was an artist. And I think really paved the way for what we've had our art interviews be and what we've wanted to talk to the artists about all came from that.
00:19:39
Speaker
as well as Titus really just giving us like great episode ideas. If you remember rightly, Alex, we were looking for like, goblin games episodes, he's like still short hits. And I was talking to Titus at one point, and he literally just like started giving us like, oh, yeah, like foods on Ravnica, like he went just like a whole like 20 years. Yeah, it was like 20 ideas. We do we saw him in the thing. So like, Titus was somebody who
00:20:04
Speaker
I think really did have a shape in some ways of where the show went because of his involvement early on. And I really wanted to make sure that like I gave that as a shout out. The flip side of that is also Chase. Yeah. Oh, Chase. But I, before we, we talk about Chase and then I want to just cut in real quick about Titus. Um, those are episodes 21, 22, 23 free. Oh, nice. I hope I didn't just take your episodes. No, no, no. Cool. I have the planning document open on my side.
00:20:34
Speaker
I scrolled fervently when you said his name and I was like, yeah, I forgot he was that early in our show. It was that early. Yeah.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah, he was willing to come on the show with our you know, us goofballs and talk to us. And from from from the Netherlands and literally spend like two or three hours just Oh, yeah. And if you remember rightly, uh, Joe had to literally leave for work because we recorded it on like a weekday Saturday, no, it wasn't a Saturday morning and he had to go deliver the mail.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, it was, it was, it was wild. I just was wild. Yeah. But we just like kept talking to Titus. Yep. Yeah. So like, I think the last episode is basically you Titus and I just cuz by that point, Joe had to leave. And but yeah, so he just kept the recording going. And it just oh my god that that was incredible. And that was another that was one of those moments I wasn't really expecting.
00:21:27
Speaker
because it's to have someone with that perspective of the game. And like at that point, we still had just started out, but we had talked to other podcasters, and we've talked to other community people. We talked to cosplayers and a lot of cool folks, but we hadn't talked to any artists. Like he was the first artist that we talked to. And just the perspective that the artists have on the sort of set and the setting in the world is incredible.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, and I think it's allowed us to do a lot to realize that we could, you know, like that, that, that this is a feature, right? We have a lot of these kind of features or many, many, I don't know what we would call them just mini like series, like we have some series. I don't know. Yeah. So
00:22:14
Speaker
And there's a few more of those, but so the other one last thing just before we start getting into episodes, because then we can just go off from there and tangents is Chase. Chase has been on the show more than anybody else. Chase is the third host of the Goblin Lore and based completely on the fact that that is whenever they are able to join us, they have an open invitation anytime. Yes. And because they are that amazing.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, they are fantastic. We love having them on the show as often as we can. It has been a little while and that is only because we, Hobbs and I, have been not very organized in trying to get our stuff together. And they, Chase, has been incredibly busy and incredibly successful with all the content they have going on. So it's just been hard for us to line up schedules.
00:23:02
Speaker
But Chase will return. I did. And I got to meet Chase in person at GP Richmond. And it was one of the most important parts of that trip to me was getting to actually get a photo of myself with Chase to send to my wife because my wife just knew whenever we were recording with Chase.
00:23:23
Speaker
My wife would just tell me like, you guys must be recording with Chase again because of how much laughter is coming from down there. And, you know, they, yeah, my wife just completely know that, that they Chase is just really important to this show. And, you know, yeah. So those are two people that I had is on my list of just like, uh, that I needed that to be a special thing. But yeah. Yes. Yeah. And, and okay. So.
00:23:52
Speaker
Let's get into some episodes. Let's get into some episodes, Alex. Who wants to start? Who's going to steal those episodes first? Do you have any within the last dozen or so, the last eight or ten?
00:24:05
Speaker
No. Okay, so there's one thing I wanted to call out. Okay, I was trying to do older stuff, and I assume you were too. There's one other two-parter I wanted to call out that I was not on, that I listened to, but it was the episodes 143 and 144 that you did with Daquan, talking about content creation and just some other community stuff. And those were excellent episodes. And I don't think I've ever actually talked to you about those two.
00:24:31
Speaker
Part of what we're doing, we want to talk retrospective and talk about the history of the show a little bit. If you're newer to the show, even the last year or two, we're going to be talking about episodes that you may not have listened to unless you went really digging. We have a lot of episodes. I'll be honest, it's tough for me to go back to some of the early ones because our sound quality is really bad, particularly mine. My sound quality takes a while to get better.
00:24:56
Speaker
It basically only takes the mic that's sitting in front of me, which actually, now that I think about it, was about two years ago. But it just feels like the kicking and screaming, pulling Alex into the 21st century. 21st, maybe, barely.
00:25:11
Speaker
Anyway, so we're mostly gonna be talking about some of those older episodes, but I did want to mention those two recent ones, particularly if this is something you're interested in. Duquan has a ton of great advice for content creation. And even if you're just interested in it from a kind of a, you know, behind the scenes sort of stance, he talks about a lot of that stuff.
00:25:34
Speaker
I've left it because this is the, so we're already tangenting, so it's fine. I got to meet Daquan in Richmond. There's a reason that I'm in Richmond, so I'm going to be doing kind of a retrospective on Richmond as a solo episode just due to our recording schedules.
00:25:51
Speaker
Just what it meant to go. The decisions I made, risk management, there's kind of a lot that's going to go into it. The wildest thing was how many Goblin Lore guests I met in physical person for the first time ever. And a group that I resaw that I hadn't seen in a very, very long time.
00:26:13
Speaker
Cause I saw the four cosplayers who were our first cosplayers ever to come on in two parts. That's awesome. I met Daquan. I met Shivam.
00:26:23
Speaker
I hung out with Chase. I hung out with Anthony waters for a significant portion of time. That's great. Like, it was all of these people that have been on the show. It was wild. I was like, wow, your voice is very familiar. Yeah, well, it's fun. Because again, like, this is a thing that happens. I mean, a it would be weird for us anyway, because imposter syndrome, blah, blah, blah. But also because for us, like we started our podcast,
00:26:52
Speaker
I guess it would have been a couple of years before the pandemic, but we just barely started it. So we did a few events. There was a few things going on. And like when the last two years, a lot of the value, we had a lot of guests in the early years too, but it's like we didn't go to events for two years. So now all of a sudden we've been talking to all these people on the podcasts or interacting with them. I know you've been doing all sorts of stuff with online magic and doing the charity events and doing all this stuff with webcam magic.
00:27:22
Speaker
And like now all of a sudden for the first time we're, you know, in so long, we're starting to be able to go back to these things and start to see some of these people who we've talked to. So yeah, that was wild. That was wild. Okay. Okay. Do you want to, we're ready to jump into actual episodes? Yup. Okay. You're starting us off. Okay. So I will transition smoothly from something we were talking about.
00:27:49
Speaker
like two tangents ago. I'm going to start with the newest episode on my list. Episode 126, the topic was heroic sacrifice. We recorded that with Chase and my friend Reinhardt. This episode is one that
00:28:10
Speaker
Well, it meant a lot for me. It's one that took me, it's one I had been kind of planning in my head for longer than I even realized I had been planning it in my head, if that makes any sense. We talked to Chase, the very first thing Chase came on the show and talked to us with was a pair of episodes on suicidal ideation. And so those were episodes 47 and 48.
00:28:35
Speaker
So that was, it was a great topic. I mean, it is a tough topic to talk about, but it was a really good episodes and that was a really good chat. I mean, that's part of why we had such a great time chatting with Chase. They were so great on the show that then they came back to episodes later and recorded, you know, took over our show and like there's a reason and that Chase has been coming, you know, we've been working with Chase for so long.
00:29:01
Speaker
And so, but that episode kind of put in the back of my head this idea of talking about suicidal ideation, but also talking about it from kind of a narrative sense, because there's a lot of, a lot of,
00:29:16
Speaker
culture in a lot, at least I'm seeing in a lot of our culture, and I think it's changing, but there's still a lot of sort of lionization, you know, saying how great this thing is, this idea of the heroic sacrifice is put on this pedestal, such a wonderful thing, and it's very rarely examined.
00:29:33
Speaker
how harmful that can be. The people around, like sometimes it is very important for a thing to be done and a person makes a sacrifice to get the thing done, but there are still negative ramifications even in cases where it was very good that this happened. And I know we had talked about Gideon back with the first episodes of Chase, I believe that was around the time, maybe it was a little bit later than that, but around the time of where the spark that might have been a little before.
00:29:59
Speaker
But so we did talk about the bit with Gideon, but that kind of came back here, but also it was fun. What your, what your mind completely blown. Our first discussion about Gideon was episode two and three on trauma.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yeah, trauma, but also because I wanted to talk about not just kind of the suicidal ideation thing, where it was very nice to bring in Chase. That's part of the reason we brought in Chase then, because Chase was going through, at the time was working on their degree, but to bring in more expertise from a mental health standpoint, like practitioner standpoint. But then also because there was a story tie-in, I wanted to talk really about the story as well, brought in my friend, Ryan Hart,
00:30:42
Speaker
who had been on a number of episodes with us. He's a friend that I met going to a local writing convention that actually I get to go to this month.
00:30:52
Speaker
And he has, and he has since written for magic, brought him on the cast to talk about his experience, writing a couple of the stories for Strixhaven. So it was fun to bring him in with a lot of his story expertise and to talk about story structures and things like that, and to have this conversation. So that's very long-winded why that's the first episode here on my list.
00:31:20
Speaker
Which wow, you know, considering, I kind of expected this to happen, but even with us not talking about this, my first episode going the opposite direction was episodes 47 and 48 with Chase and suicidal ideation. So yeah, I mean, I chose these because we had already, we had never shied away from mental health, right? Like, I mean, that's what we talked about when I brought up the fact that two was trauma and literally about what PTSD was.
00:31:50
Speaker
this episode came out of actually an article that Joe had written about passive suicidal ideation and kind of this idea of just thinking about death and thinking about it and just maybe being in a position where you don't care if you live or die and us to be able to take that into more of I felt like being able to break down some stigma around suicidal ideation and just about the fact that like these are thoughts that people have that
00:32:19
Speaker
There is even just ideas that people would rather not be here and that they may be willing to just not care if they live or die. And the differences between that and what people think of with somebody holding it, like standing there ready to do it versus just maybe as we talked about with Gideon.
00:32:37
Speaker
willing to be reckless or willing to put themselves in a situation to the point where, like, Nicol Bolas flat out just calls him out for it. He was like, you know, I could kill you, but I kind of feel like you would want that. I mean, right? Like, yeah, there was this whole element to that. And Joe's article about it, like feeling like you're just kind of sinking with your head above, like just floating at the edge of the water.
00:33:00
Speaker
to be able to bring Chase in for the first time and have them add to, have another mental health practitioner, as you said, be able to bring in that perspective while also bringing in lived experiences of myself, of Joe, of you, of Chase. And Chase and I even talk about those parallels between us being practitioners who also have lived experiences that were relevant, really opened up for me, like,
00:33:27
Speaker
This is a show that I could see doing for a long time. Those were the two episodes because it was like, wow, we took on a topic that most people shy away from head on. Which is funny because as soon as you started saying the one with the right heart chase, I was like, well, and then you started describing the two episodes. I was like, well, there's a reason. And that's the thing.
00:33:54
Speaker
we, you know, we talk a lot about mental health, that's, that's one of the biggest pillars of this podcast for us. And it's, it's a thing that was present at the beginning, as you said, episode two, I think it's become more prevalent lately, because that is more of a focus for you and I, I talk about it in the second anniversary episode, I should figure out what episode number that is. But that was one where
00:34:19
Speaker
I talk a little bit, I think I compared it to like a Venn diagram, because we had our second anniversary near around the time, not too much after Joe left. So it was just U.S. to your retrospect was 79. So it was about 20 episodes, a little under 20 episodes after Joe left. And so we kind of talked about what the future of the cast was, or at least what our thoughts were at the time.
00:34:42
Speaker
But one of the things is when you have three people in a cast, you have all the different things, their interests, and the things that they would talk about, the things that they would like to talk about. And as you overlap each other, you find those areas of overlap, and those are great. You do those topics.
00:34:58
Speaker
But you'll also do topics that are maybe only one personless area because that's kind of part of what being a team is. And it also can be beneficial to have one person speak a little more authoritatively about this thing that they can talk to and then have the other hosts kind of come along with it to kind of learn and ask questions.
00:35:17
Speaker
Yeah, we talked a lot about that idea of like, when it came to some of the mental health topics, you know, you you all being able to be stand ins for our audience. Yes. And just so I guess what I'm the point that I was trying to make, and I take a very long time to get there sometimes is that when there, you know, the three of us, that is a larger swath of area that is being covered. And when
00:35:41
Speaker
And a lot of the things that we're doing now, we're within that same Venn diagram before. It's just that there are some areas that are no longer covered by just the two of us. So I think that ends up being why we talk about mental health, perhaps on a per capita basis a little more. So I think it's funny, you and I both have, I assumed we would both have mental health episodes in our list. And I was a little worried we would overlap, but we'll see. I have a plan for that.
00:36:12
Speaker
So you keep going first though, so unless I then do it in my second backup, you're... Well, do you want to snake this? Do you want to go second? No. I want you to keep going. I think we're okay. I think... I will not lie. I only have one that I think that we're high likelihood to overlap on. Okay. I have two. Well, I am two. I'm pretty sure you won't. This one I'm going to go with next. I am positive you won't.
00:36:39
Speaker
Who knows, maybe I'll be surprised, but I'm gonna go way back to episode 33. No! No, I'm just kidding. I don't have it on my list. That's what I figured. This is one that you were not on. This was an episode that Joe and I recorded. I don't know what it's actually called. Let's see what I have in my notes here.
00:37:00
Speaker
Okay. No, this is the name. Okay. So the actual name that Joe gave it is versus rummage Rube Goldberg machine. Oh, yes. The name that I had in the, in the show notes. Oh, wasn't it? Wait, did I write the wrong number down? I might've wrote the wrong number down because 34.
00:37:17
Speaker
No, 33. 33. I'm looking at the wrong line. Yeah, I have the legacy weapon, the power of planning versus adaptability, aka Erza's rummage sale. So anyway, I do goofy things on the show notes sometimes. So this episode is, I think our very first episode we ever talked about planning, which was interesting, which I didn't expect when I went back to re-listen to this thing.
00:37:37
Speaker
We didn't talk about it as in-depth as Hobbs, you and I tend to later when we go more into, well, you did your Smart Goals episode, and there's some other things where we really dig into this concept of planning and how to make plans. But we did talk a lot about Erza, how horrible he is, and also did he have a plan? Because there was all this stuff that happened, and was he planning any of it?
00:38:04
Speaker
And so it was a lot of fun. And also whenever I get to call it as a terrible is great. And whenever I get to make fun of the fact that the legacy is a random collection of junk that he couldn't sell at his yard sale is also great. And that that's what this episode was. I remember getting to listen to that one in because I love Rube Goldberg machines, but just
00:38:28
Speaker
this idea that like, the plan is so convoluted to actually happen that it's just like, really, really ersa, like, seriously. And that one was fun. I'll just I'm not gonna say what our answers were. If anyone's curious, you can go listen. But our opening question for that that Joe brought was, what's one random object around you that could be used in a Rube Goldberg machine to save the world? And that was a fun, a fun question to answer.
00:38:57
Speaker
Nice. Okay, so I'm going to go to one that I am fairly certain is not because it was a solo episode of my own. But this is an episode that I've gotten a lot of feedback on as an entry point for a subset of our listeners, which is, so it is episode 70, Angrath and Being a Father, Becoming an MTG dad and
00:39:23
Speaker
This was a change in my identity within kind of the Magic the Gathering world and trying to figure out at this point. I don't have the date on it in front of me, unfortunately. So if you have our list up, Alex, episode 70. This episode was one where I started to explore what it meant to now be a father in a hobby.
00:39:49
Speaker
that involves a fair amount of time and money. And the joke being that most magic players, when they finally have enough money to afford to play magic, no longer have the time. And that already felt like that for me. I had a job, I didn't have, the time was gone where I could easily go to a Wednesday night legacy event at a gaming store and I could still go to work the next day and be fine. I can't do that with kids.
00:40:19
Speaker
Angrath was interesting. We actually explored Angrath more than once because he is pulled away from his children. He's a minotaur. He's known for his anger. But what we learned in his story when he's finally able to get away from Ixalan where he got trapped was basically going back to his blacksmithing area and his two daughters are the ones that are running the forge.
00:40:42
Speaker
And trying to understand that idea that we had this father in magic, when we kind of look at parents in magic, it's been an interesting discussion. But somebody who was pulled away from his family, who was a planeswalker, and then ends up stuck away from them.
00:40:58
Speaker
But exploring what it meant to be a father and what my place was in this community, there's literally a dad discord. I've had so many discussions about this with magic players because magic players are aging. I mean, we're always getting younger new players. It's been an interesting hobby in that the people who started kind of
00:41:18
Speaker
are getting to that age where their dads or their moms or their parents or their, you know, that they're, and I obviously did it from that perspective because that's what I know. But just that idea of balancing a hobby with parenthood is, it was something that was very deeply personal to me. Yeah. And that was April 29th, 2020. So a month, two months after lockdown started too. And just after Glenn's first birthday. So I'd been a father for about a year. So yeah, I mean, it was, it was a very,
00:41:49
Speaker
It was a very raw episode to record, just a concern I was doing it on my own. So.
00:41:55
Speaker
is a whole experience. I don't know how much we've done with it. It's a whole different experience to sit there with a mic and silence as your only companion. Even when we used to have three hosts consistently going down to two, you still have a conversation. You still have a back and forth. But as soon as you're by yourself, it is a very different act. At least for me, conceptually, it feels very different.
00:42:23
Speaker
That's why I tend to script out most of my episodes by myself. Whereas episodes with you, it's like maybe a list of notes and some random chicken scratch. Okay. That's my second. All right. All right. I'm just going to do this one too. So one more episode without you. Episode 34.
00:42:45
Speaker
This was the this is the probably episode I've referenced to non magic folk while trying to explain what our show is Beyond just talking about mental health because that's an easy thing and say hey we talked about mental health a lot, but we also do other things Episode 34, which I still can't believe was that long ago disaster planning and the war the spark with Renee Oh
00:43:10
Speaker
I have to throw in because you know we've had times where we've had to record with just just like me and a whole guest or just with you and a guest or you know me do a solo episode however it's been
00:43:25
Speaker
this out of all the ones that ended up being due to scheduling issue has killed me the most I wanted to be on this episode more than any other one that we've done that I've missed easily. It's so good. So this was before where the spark came out as a set. But after all of the
00:43:46
Speaker
reviews, I believe. So we didn't talk about a lot of specific details of the set, but we had a good idea of what was going on. And so we talked to our friend Renee, who now I believe works for FEMA, at the time was working for the Delaware State Emergency Preparedness. I don't even know what to call it, but part of the government that prepares for emergencies. And this was so cool to
00:44:12
Speaker
just that topic in general, but then to really, really embody this idea of taking the real world topics and relating them to the lore. And this felt like the best click of a puzzle piece between those two concepts that I've
00:44:28
Speaker
that we've done. This is, for me, is still the one I go back to because this one just felt so good, just to take those principles. And especially at the time, too, we've talked a little bit about our show notes. We have kind of a structure. We have different segments, particularly back when we were recording with Joe. And when we did lore more often, this was much more specific. And we had an order. And this was one of the first episodes where I'm planning it out. I go, we need to change the order. We need to talk about the real world stuff first.
00:44:57
Speaker
then relate that to the lore. Because normally we talk about the lore of things and say, well, this is what we can take from this to bring to a real world topic, especially then. That's not how this episode went. Because it's kind of the reverse, the whole, the joking conceit, but was actually fun. And part of what we were trying to do was say, well, okay, what can the citizens of Ravnica, what lessons can they take from normal emergency preparedness and apply to this situation and
00:45:25
Speaker
deal with this disaster, help deal with this disaster on Ravnica. I just also love the fact that it's like the zombies aren't the problem. That was the takeaway that I wrote. The zombies are not the issue. Yeah, it was that was such a fun episode. I I'll stop being effusive about it because it's that's
00:45:44
Speaker
I've done enough of that. So Hobbs, what's your next episode? So I'm going to take us to another that I feel was a really tough episode to record just because of leaning into topics that maybe are a little bit more uncomfortable for you and I to talk about from our place of privilege and why we have the guests that we have.
00:46:05
Speaker
And this is actually one of our most downloaded episodes, part one is. So I am going back to a two-parter. You might be able to see the theme of how I have cheated so far. Continuing to cheat. This is episode 109 and 110, which was looking at Killian Liu.
00:46:25
Speaker
with Michelle and Ryan. And this was literally where we talked a lot about kind of the model minority myth, where we actually got to what we like, we referenced this really cool video, if you haven't seen it, go back to those old episodes, because we do link it in there. There is a whole discussion about the model minority. As it refers to kind of Asian Americans in particular,
00:46:52
Speaker
But we were looking at this with Strixhaven coming out, a set that people had been very excited about with the schools. And Michelle and Ryan had both really wanted to come on and talk once we talked to them or reached out to them because of kind of some stereotypes that were evident in the Killian Lou story in particular. And this was also during the pandemic when there had been kind of a rise in anti-Asian hate in the US.
00:47:22
Speaker
This two-parter was one of my favorite. I mean, there was a reason that we literally
00:47:29
Speaker
had the two of them back together and why I wanted to play magic with the two of them. They are great guests who also just work very well together. I would have Michelle. Michelle is actually, I believe, number two behind Chase for most appearances on the episode or on the cast because she also did toxic masculinity and Jace. And she also did art and the color pie with Joe and I like really early on.
00:47:55
Speaker
And if you, depending on how you want to count it, episode two and three, where we talk about trauma, was talking about an article she wrote. Yeah. So like central, at least as a starting point for us to kind of bounce off of.
00:48:09
Speaker
There's a reason that both her and Taya have been frequent members with their Loregoi knowledge. Let's just be honest about it. They are a cast that we look to for inspiration and that we also just enjoy the people on it.
00:48:25
Speaker
Absolutely. Michelle and Ryan coming on and talking about that and their own experiences and expanding this idea of the diaspora, how things are not a monolith. There was a lot to do with race in particular that I thought came out well.
00:48:41
Speaker
set up kind of our fear with with Neo with return to Kamagawa and we had them back to talk about like, hey, let's acknowledge when some things were actually done well, because part of the problem was things take time. And this is something I talked about with the quant. And one between those time periods, wizards did, did put their
00:49:05
Speaker
I, what's the phrase, you know, money where their mouth is? Yeah. Yeah. That was, and look at the schedule, that was about 10 months apart.
00:49:13
Speaker
We had them on the episodes. You were talking about 109, 110, talking about Killy and Lou, or Killy and you. Oh, goodness, now I don't know the character. It's Lou. It's Killy and Lou. Okay, perfect. It's been a while since I've even really looked at those cards. That was April 7th and 15th, 2021, was when those episodes were published. And then it was in February of this year, February 9th and 16th of 2022.
00:49:41
Speaker
was when they came back to talk about after Kamigawa launched and hey, this is some really good stuff. So so I had them in there just because except that that episode was one of our I believe out outside of like the first episode ever, which just because people maybe come across us is our second the first part of that is our second most downloaded episode of all time.
00:50:06
Speaker
There's a reason. There's a reason. Much better first episode for people to download than our first episode. If you're listening to this and you haven't listened to it and you're interested, go ahead. But it's going to be rough. I haven't listened to it for a while. That's what happens. It takes people a while to find. There's a lot of good stuff.
00:50:26
Speaker
do stuff in there. Like I talk about floodgate, which is fantastic. Yep. But again, my sound quality is garbage early, gets slightly better and then gets much, much better. Yeah. Yeah. And this is one of those things we talked about with lessons that you learn. And that is one is it and I will say to even having had this discussion with other content creators, sound is the area to invest time in, because it will it is we are a audio medium.
00:50:56
Speaker
Yes, and I will say, I know it doesn't work for everybody all the time for everything. But for me, it's been very beneficial to listen to most of the episodes we put out. I know early on, I kind of had the idea of, well, I was there, I know what we said, except
00:51:12
Speaker
sometimes by the time it gets posted, you don't necessarily remember it. But also listening to it the way that your listeners are going to listen to it is very helpful. That is what ultimately made me finally decide to get an actual decent mic, because it just I became really soul conscious listening to the episodes going, man, my sound is really bad. Thank you, hipsters of the coast. Yeah. So go into my my last episode on the list here.
00:51:40
Speaker
I'm going to go with episode 106, where we recorded with Princess Lily, and the episode title is Princess Lily and the Food Vendors of Ravnico, which I think I'm just going to say is a little bit of a trick, Dirty Trick is a title, because we don't actually talk about food vendors of Ravnico.
00:52:03
Speaker
Princess Lily brings up that she could talk about them. And then we kind of get distracted because by that point in the conversation, we have lost all sense of order. And we never actually talk about food vendors of Ravnica. So at some point, we need to bring Princess Lily back on to talk about that.
00:52:18
Speaker
Well, it's funny because I took the episode title away from that discussion about having Lillian to talk about food vendors of Ravnica, given neither of them were supposed to talk about. No, no, it was absolutely not what we were supposed to talk about at all. No.
00:52:37
Speaker
But I think it just shows that the food becomes a common theme, noticing that somehow neither of us. We'll get to this. Okay. One thing I just want to say about that episode of Princess Lily is we have had some episodes like this a lot of times.
00:52:55
Speaker
We bring guests on with a specific topic that we've talked to them about, we've come up with, which is great. That's kind of why we're bringing these guests on because they have great expertise and perspectives and they're sharing this stuff. But this episode, more than any other, with basically any other guest,
00:53:11
Speaker
up until the guests have been on the show a whole lot because Chase will come on and we'll just go in any given direction. But the conversation that the three of us got to in this episode with Lily was just so cool to me. By the end of the episode, we were just chatting and that was a lot of fun. In the last week or so, I've been revisiting some old episodes and listening to them. This is one that I just really enjoyed listening to that conversation.
00:53:39
Speaker
Though, Princess Lily did come on to talk about transness in the Magic community and in judging. And there was, you know, working at, she worked at a local game store. And so had a lot of really good perspective to talk about that topic and in those environments. And like, that was a good important conversation that we had early on in the episode. And then we just started talking about random stuff and it was,
00:54:07
Speaker
It was great. So that's why I wanted to call that one out. So Hobbs, what is your force that you were trying to transition into? And I no, no, no, I was trying to transition. I was actually going to go in a complete different direction almost as like, we're gonna pause now for honorable mentions. Okay, we did not neither of us choose a color pie of food episode.
00:54:27
Speaker
Well, and that's because this is another layer of my cheating. So I have Yep, a list of all of our color pie of food. Like I was guessing when we got to this point, and you hadn't done a color pie of food episode, that you had something planned. Because I was like, wait, there's no way that we're going this entire time without listing color pie of food as a series.
00:54:53
Speaker
Are we going to run through this series before you do it before we get to my final? Yeah, let's do it. So episode 53 was the first one. That was the episode where we talked about sauces. That was a Patreon suggestion by Zach.
00:55:08
Speaker
I always for sure, exactly. Yeah. But I just remember Zach and then I, my brain stops right there. It's like, isn't that an entire name? Not really, but anyway, so that was, um, his suggestion for a topic for us to talk about. Um, it was, we had a lot of fun. That's where I had struggled to figure out what to do with this until my brain basically built the color pie of food, at least a starting point.
00:55:34
Speaker
for the different philosophies of what each color would do. And that is something we have evolved in all of these episodes since. The way there are seven episodes, I would say, are officially part of this. And there's one episode that's kind of an asterisk on the side. So we'll get to that one last. The next one, unless you stop me at any point, you want to talk about any of these episodes.
00:55:56
Speaker
I will, I will. Okay, perfect. So the next one that I did was on my list for a while and then I took it off when I decided to cheat just flagrantly here was the meals, episode 68 was when you and I basically just talked about food we like to make.
00:56:13
Speaker
I will be honest, I think we even said in this episode, this is one of the first ones we recorded when we kind of came back after Jill left. You and I, I think we're just looking to record and we didn't have the energy or time to make up anything else. So this is like, let's just talk about this, because
00:56:31
Speaker
This seems fun to follow up with this, and it's food we're cooking. It was early in the pandemic too, so it was helpful to just talk about easy food that you can just make. And going back and listening to this episode, I'll tell you the first food. I'm not going to go into anything else. If you're interested, please listen to the episode. But the first food I talked about was grilled cheese.
00:56:51
Speaker
And legitimately, having listened to that episode earlier this week, I went twice now. We were recording on a Friday, and it's like twice this week, I've actually made grilled cheese because it's like, oh yeah, that is something real easy. Don't have to order anything. Don't make anything frozen. Just make a grilled cheese sandwich. It's simple. And so I did. Yes, you did. And yes, this was where we started refining a little bit because
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, which has been an ongoing, probably my favorite series for refinement because to me, I like, I'm somebody that, I mean, there's a reason I like doing this cast. This cast is a way for me to think about some of the psychological things that I teach and that I work with people on and as it applies to the Magic of the Gathering or the community. And so it's a shift for my brain to kind of see it in a different way. Us doing it with the color pie and food,
00:57:47
Speaker
is a great way for me to re-examine the color pie. And we've had this discussion to where we brought in, you know, where does hybrid mana really come in? Where does multicolor come in? There's a reason that we keep refining it and we've spent a lot of time and energy to kind of try to understand this because it's the same idea to me as people trying to understand the color pie. It's a cool, seemingly simple concept, but it's not.
00:58:12
Speaker
It's got a lot of depth to it. There's a lot. It's a relatively easy concept to explain, but there is so much depth to it. And it's, it's just a lot of fun to take it and stretch it in a weird way. We're like, Hey, you're used to talking about the color pie in spells and creatures and keywords and very usually like mechanical game crunchy things. And I'm like, no, no, we're going to talk about pancakes. What, what's the color pie a pancake?
00:58:39
Speaker
breakfast foods in general yeah I'm hungry again so our next episode on that was pie episode 91 this topic by the way was suggested to me by Reinhard I think as a joke I took it seriously however so we did the color pie of pie
00:58:58
Speaker
Episode 103 was sandwiches, which we took on the internet philosophical question we did, we did address that we and this is also one where I think we really started to talk about the cultural aspect of white.
00:59:13
Speaker
and how what might be considered white in the United States, which is the culture that Cobbs and I share, is not necessarily white outside and even within the smaller niche of maybe the Midwest or Minnesota, compared to other parts of the US. Episode 122 was Snacks, which was incredibly far, far too broad. I don't know what I was thinking when I came up with that one. And I think we talked about that a little bit.
00:59:42
Speaker
Episode 134 was Thanksgiving, the American Thanksgiving. We talked through a lot of the foods there. This is one where we really get into hybrid because we have to address the fact that, well, actually, I think the section two, this and the next one are both episodes. We have to acknowledge the fact that there is a lot of just random sort of black in the color pie for American foods because a common thread is excess.
01:00:06
Speaker
Just in general, there's just like, sure, this food isn't too bad, but what if we gave you three times as much as you need? Or sure, this food is pretty bad for you, but it tastes amazing. So let's give you at least twice as much as you need.
01:00:19
Speaker
And then number 140 fitting that is breakfast food So those are the those are the seven that are definitely color pie of food the the exception which almost went on my list I really enjoy not exceptions a bit of an asterisk I enjoyed this episode it touched on this but we did this is one that we got the the idea from from Titus I believe was the drinks of the guilds episode 75
01:00:44
Speaker
So, and it wasn't complete the drinks, the guilt and Joe and I did coffee trade on Ravnica and how every everybody was involved in the coffee trade.
01:00:54
Speaker
Yes, and so those are both talking about guilds, which is a little different from color pie. I think that's a thing we talk about just in general. Oh, yeah, that's a big, that's a big one. Something is Boros is not the same as it's red, white. I mean, that's part of why we were excited for Strixhaven, even if there's some issues, you know, problematic elements there. One of the things I really liked about that set was
01:01:17
Speaker
several of those pairs, several of those schools took like the Lorehold red white is very different red white than the Boros red white. I love that. And there's a few others that are like that too. So my last one. And there's God, this was this like trying to narrow this down. At first I was like four. Okay, like I when you realize it's there's 150. Like, I
01:01:42
Speaker
I had to cut, I cut interviewing a major league baseball player, which- I'm surprised actually. I thought that would be on your list. It was going to be on my list. I had it down and it got bumped and you'll understand why in a second. Episode 62 and 63, 100 pence. 100 pence from the, at that point, I believe he was finishing up his playing in Texas, but he had been most known for playing for the San Francisco Giants. But like, I'm a huge baseball person.
01:02:12
Speaker
Actually, hilariously, as we're recording this, the Angels are on Apple TV again, and he's now a broadcaster. So it's really wild because the Angels, he's now broadcast like three Angels games this season, too. So it's even more mind blowing to me because it's like the really the crossing of worlds. But when we got to interview a World Series champion and an all star for a major league team, because Joe, prior to leaving, he had reached out to their PR department.
01:02:40
Speaker
And when he left, he literally was like, hey, by the way, Hobbs, like, here's all the details, set it up. And then I just had to sit here and interview a Major League Baseball player who then like, hey, turned the tables and started interviewing me because there was a ton of stuff he didn't know about the game. It was wild. Okay. I let that go because because of Anthony Waters. Oh, okay.
01:03:07
Speaker
So episode 128 and 129, another artist episode. Alex kind of mentioned with his final one with Princess Lily, when we have a plan, somewhat of a plan. With all of our artists, we usually talk about their experience with being a magic artist, kind of their history with art, what they've done, kind of what brings them to it. We get to learn a little bit about their passion, what it is about the art world, and
01:03:34
Speaker
This was one of those conversations that started because Anthony and I had been talking about me buying artist proofs and he knows Mike Lineman and Mike had asked, you know, like, hey, here's his info. You can reach out to him directly. And I reached out to him by email and him and I just got to talk to you.
01:03:54
Speaker
while getting to talk, he found out about the cast and he found out about the mental health piece. And he just said, hey, you know, like, wow, that's that's something that's very close to me. I don't think basically it gets talked about among artists and among the art community and kind of brought up this idea of like, you know, how you don't talk about certain things at work because, you know, the stigma that's associated with it, right? The fear of losing out on, you know, for artists would be losing out on contracts that somebody thinks that your depression may impact your
01:04:24
Speaker
your scheduling or your timing when it comes to commercial art. So we had that as a plan. We had show notes. We wanted to just talk to him about what his art that he'd done. We got to look at a lot of his art to get to see things within them that we never had. And right when I went to transition into the topic, Anthony stopped us and said that he wanted to back up. And
01:04:49
Speaker
You and I were not prepared. I was joking about with people this past weekend that Anthony felt very comfortable with us, which is something that people have told me. I think it was one of the things that really struck me with the episode with Mab that we just finished, is that people feel comfortable talking to us.
01:05:10
Speaker
He backed up to tell us that his father had killed himself and his father was a veteran. His father was a psychiatrist who worked in the VA and still was not something that he could get away from. And I wasn't prepared in the sense of, you know, we didn't have a heads up, which is fine because that's the point is that we are
01:05:38
Speaker
As you said, Alex, a conversation and a lot of times those conversations are difficult conversations and we don't always know what's going to come up as we start talking. Well, yeah. And, and it's a topic that is really hard to talk about. And so, and people shy away from it. And people shy away from it. And, and the fact that he came on and was talking to us for a while and then was comfortable enough to say, Hey, you know what? Let's talk about this. And he opened up and shared that. And it was powerful. He shared his journey with art and how art got him through.
01:06:09
Speaker
And here's the other thing. When I showed up to Richmond this past weekend, he had told us about this book that he had wrote that was kind of a combination of his art and his journaling about being the child of a survivor of a parental suicide. And he had brought a copy of the book to give me and signed it.
01:06:30
Speaker
And I like am writing to Alex as I'm like trying not to, you know, like break down crying in front of more people again for like the fifth time this past year, given that so many things that I don't know, just the Mental Health Month, the charity event, and then to come and meet this person that came on our show and, and they were the ones who were vulnerable. They were the ones who, who provided us with all of this rich, just
01:06:59
Speaker
ability to talk about something is thanking us.
01:07:04
Speaker
it feels uncomfortable, right? Well, that's for me. Oh yeah. It gets to, you know, one of, I believe, I think it was the, again, I referenced this a lot. I listened to this earlier, but this, our second anniversary episode where I believe I said that the subtitle of our show should just be imposter syndrome. Yeah. And it's, it's just so, and some of it's imposter syndrome, some of it's just that it's surreal, I think, even four years in, even doing this as long as we have been that,
01:07:34
Speaker
people are willing to open up that. And as you say, you know, and then thank us for the opportunity. It's like, well, we're blown away. Thank you for coming. Bringing this topic for having this conversation with us. And yeah, we turn into Midwesterners, just nobody can say thank you enough. And I mean, we mean this towards all of our listeners. I mean, this is, you know, as we're wrapping up, we've done our
01:07:59
Speaker
We've done our top fours, and I still have a few things to say. I have one more cheat, two episodes. Okay, well you cheat then first. Okay, I'll cheat and then we can close this off with more heartfelt stuff. So the other thing I noticed that neither of us put on any of our list was any Galen profiles.
01:08:20
Speaker
Yep. So I wanted to call out or grab them for five episodes. All of them? All of them. So this is a series that we tried, though, I think I now that I'm looking at this, I think I actually did miss something in the middle here. So this is a series that we thought we were we started early and we thought we were going to continue and then we kind of didn't for a while. So this starts with Krenko in Episode 9.
01:08:44
Speaker
Sorry, episode six. Slow Bad was episode 19. That, by the way, Hobbs is an episode you called out during the second anniversary episode, which was fun conversation. Slow Bad is so if I had picked one, it would have been Slow Bad and I would have cheated because Slow Bad was the first thing that we were visited to. Yes. And that's I just realized I didn't write down the second Slow Bad episode. That was 74. We came back to Slow Bad.
01:09:13
Speaker
Then, which actually fits nicely because then the next one was Squee at Episode 112, when we realized, oh, we haven't actually done goblin profiles in a long time, like a year or something, at least since the slow bed. And then that one was probably a year or more.
01:09:30
Speaker
since the previous one. And then the two most recent ones were episodes 123 and episode 124, which were kind of a pair of episodes where you and I talked about goblin decks that we had. Because unfortunately, there's a lot of goblin legends. Most of them don't have a lot of story. This month, you know, we are talking about Kiki-Jiki. So we have an episode that just went up about Kiki-Jiki. We have another episode that'll come out about Kiki-Jiki, which feels appropriate.
01:09:59
Speaker
Mirror breaking, baby. Yeah, and also this wasn't part of the original plan, but I think it works well that this episode will come between them, really making it like a mirror image with the mirror in between the two episodes.
01:10:13
Speaker
And so with Zada and Grenzo were two that had a tiny little tiny bit of story. But so what you and I did is we talked about like community topics based on that. So I talked about my Zada deck, which started as a dollar general deck. I talked about the Minneapolis play, you know, the Minneapolis group that we're a part of and kind of the dollar general format that we played for a while, where it's a commander format where every card has to be less than a dollar.
01:10:36
Speaker
You talked about your Grenzo deck that was the artist proof deck and talked a lot about kind of working with artists and doing the artist proof thing and that whole community. So that was a lot of fun. And also for me, what was cool about this pair of episodes was it's
01:10:52
Speaker
It was trying to evolve the formula of what we do, because that's one of the things when you're a content creator. There's lots of ideas and lots of things, but sometimes if you just stick into, you need some amount of structure because otherwise your show is not about anything, and sometimes that's okay. But for us, we wanted some specific structure about the things that we were about, but then it was finding ways to evolve that and
01:11:15
Speaker
finding little cheats for us. And this was a way that we could, these are two of the only episodes where we talk about cards, because we're a magic podcast, but we talk about the community. We talk about the lore, we talk about the characters and the story and like mental health and things like that. There's not a lot of cards in cards, cards generally come up for us during like questions, where we'll or maybe on art episodes more than anything.
01:11:41
Speaker
Yep, and so this was fun to get to talk about actual decks that you and I both built. And then we both took the lead for our respective episode. That was really fun for me to get to go back to a thing. We're going back to the Goblin Profiles and we're kind of bringing that in as a thing that we wanted to make a central part of our cast and we kind of hadn't for a while. We are the Goblin Lore podcast after all.
01:12:03
Speaker
But it was also fun to take that and then evolve it a different way. And, you know, I don't know that we're going to do this particular thing again, but it was kind of fun to find a way to like, can we talk about these decks? Is that a way we can talk about? There's something else that I did. I noticed that neither of us went with it. I didn't think that we would, which was some of our just more simple humor episodes. We've done we've done literally episodes on the flavor text with goblins. That was a fun one.
01:12:31
Speaker
We've done light-hearted episodes, and I think that that is because it's part of – sometimes we've even had that discussion of needing to record a light-hearted episode because we need a break. It's that self-care piece to it.
01:12:44
Speaker
And the food ones are ones that are often that for us where we just crack up a ton. Looking at just different random goblins can sometimes be hilarious because they are a creature type that we, I think, grew to identify with. And we've talked about this in past episodes. To me, there's such a communal aspect behind goblins. I used to be much more of a zombie person when it came to any kind of creature-based strategies.
01:13:10
Speaker
now I'm not like I actually love playing goblins and it's it's been doing the show and digging into what goblins are and just even
01:13:22
Speaker
As we talked about with Gavin, better representation among them, which started out as almost a joke, but it isn't. They are an important communal group. Yes, and particularly as the game is getting, as Wizards is making more and more emphasis both on the cards and in the story to try to have stories that aren't just about combat and throwing spells and blowing up things.
01:13:48
Speaker
Goblins are an important community, and they bring a lot of that, and that's something that you and I both kind of discovered. I know we talk about how the cast got named in that second anniversary episode, and you and I weren't big goblin people, and to be honest, I don't know how big Joe of a goblin person Joe is. He might have been. But the topic of goblin lore, the name fit because it was about
01:14:10
Speaker
random stuff. And it's kind of a funny name. But it has kind of been a big thing. And I realized too, I didn't call it quirk. We talked about quirk in that twice. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did. And then again, with orcish in episodes 95 and 96. So actually, we've done our favorite goblin. Well, our favorite gambling gov. Favorite gambling gov. So maybe we've done a little bit better there than I was was thinking that puts it
01:14:36
Speaker
that all of those combined put goblins profiles just ahead of the color pie of food. Yeah, baby, which is nice, staying on brand. But I mean, you know, we, we went with the name, we started developing this kind of
01:14:52
Speaker
And one of the things that really solidified it for me is the flavor text from Goblin Slide and Goblin Gathering that came later. Yeah, Goblin Slide. Oh, I found that – I know we talked about the origin of this, but I can't remember. I don't think that was that episode. It might have been the episode about flavor text.
01:15:13
Speaker
But yeah goblins, which by the way was episode 46 it was a patron request from Taeya. But goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers and I think that it does speak to this communal nature. And my heartfelt piece that I had from before was wanting to acknowledge our goblin lord discord.
01:15:38
Speaker
Our patrons and almost all of our active patrons are in that discord. But that discord, to me, has been a place for people to come. It's been a place for people who are even taking breaks from magic. It is an open invite to, by the way, it started as a Patreon thing. I know we've talked about it a little bit, but anyone who'd like to join it is.
01:15:59
Speaker
We have links for it. If you go to the Goblin Lore podcast, Twitter, there's a link tree there where you can just join our Discord. And the Discord is a very welcoming place. They are a very supportive group of people. And I just, I always like, you and I have talked about before, we never really made it a part of like every episode to thank our patrons or the Discord. And I really want to. Yeah, there's,
01:16:27
Speaker
There's to be honest, there's a lot of things that we want to do and haven't had the time or energy I've talked to four years in. Yeah, four years in. It's there's always things there's always things coming up but like I've talked a bit about on the cast I've the last 10 or so months my sleep has taken a really bad turn. Fortunately, within about two weeks of us recording this
01:16:51
Speaker
I will have something from a dentist that hopefully will help my sleep apnea, and I'm hoping to then have more energy to start working on things. Even in the last year, fairly consistent. We've been missing some weeks here and there. We missed a week in May, but we've been pretty consistent getting episodes out, but there's a lot of stuff that I'd like to do that's going to take more work, more research, more planning and writing, and I just haven't had the energy really.
01:17:17
Speaker
And I think it shows that something that you've talked about, even four years in, we're still finding what we can do to keep going, as you said, to not stay stale. And another thing that we've talked about, I think that is a priority. In the beginning of this episode was actually even kind of really related to it was this idea of us having a mission statement to make clear where we stand. Absolutely. That's, that's a thing we've been talking about putting together for a little while, just
01:17:48
Speaker
And I'm just, I'm tired all the time. I'm tired right now as we're talking. Right. And we just, that's why when we get together to record, which even just getting to the record is something that is so important to Alex and I, we have these plans. We have these things that we want to keep doing for you all. We're, we're doing the show because we love doing the show and we want it clearly to be stated what our positions are. And a mission statement kind of helps us hold our own feet to the fire sometimes.
01:18:15
Speaker
to make sure that we're continuing to seek out guests that are a good fit for the show. Not just can we just find somebody that's of this group and get them to come on but are they a good fit for us and for this show and having that mission statement. Exactly and to just bring people in to talk about things too and to bring in diverse people to talk about anything from you know again
01:18:40
Speaker
And to go back to an episode I talked about earlier with Lilly, we talked about there was the topic to talk about Lilly's experience in the magic community as a trans woman in different environments. But also, we just talked about other stuff. And we have had episodes. We have had some guests who will come on and talk about various topics, some of which are more serious and more important in that way societally, and some of which are just
01:19:07
Speaker
We just want to talk and have fun. We just want to talk to fun and interesting people. Like you say, and this I think, a mission statement helps us to hold ourselves to this, but it's an important thing that you talked about two years ago. I think this is an episode of Chase actually, the first episode we recorded when we came back. Number 61, planning
Goals as Mission Statements and Value Alignment
01:19:28
Speaker
and resolutions. I'm pretty sure is where you talked about this idea of
01:19:33
Speaker
You, okay, I'm going to muddle this and maybe you can help fix this, but this is kind of the idea I had in that, you know, you have these goals that aren't necessarily a goal, but they're kind of a mission statement sort of thing. And if you, because they're not necessarily an exact quantified thing, but it's something that you're aiming to move towards all the time. And maybe you take steps off here or there, but it's like at this point, if you don't take too many and you're not going in that direction, it's time to reassess what that direction is. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about?
01:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's actually the idea we talked about even just long term versus short term goals. But one of the things we talked about with long term goals is, you know, it can even be the ideas of aspirations. There are oftentimes our value system. That's what they're giving us. They're giving us, like I say, like a direction to point. So if you think of a trail, it's which trail you're taking and which trail you're choosing to take, you may not get to the end of it. You may not, you know, it's like kind of like walking towards the horizon, right? Like you can just keep walking towards the horizon.
01:20:34
Speaker
You know, outside of, but it's that idea that you may not get there, but it's keeping you focused in a direction. It's pointing you towards being in line with your value system and being in line with what is important to you.
Managing Energy and Episode Quality Commitment
01:20:46
Speaker
Yeah. And those can also be really helpful for making decisions sometimes too, because you can weigh, okay, does this fit with what I've said that what I'm trying to do, does this help towards this thing? And you can use that to weigh that stuff. And like you said, it's, it's.
01:21:03
Speaker
That's why we want to do this, and this is something that we will do. We just need to find time and energy because it's a thing. I'm not sure if you realized Hobbes. I know I've mentioned this before, but sometimes it's important to things be repeating, but every single week, another week is going by. So while we're recording, it just...
01:21:24
Speaker
That's like you said, sometimes our energy just goes into let's get an episode recorded. We get scheduled with guests or we get some topics worked out. And it just, sometimes that's the energy for the week that that's our spell slots. And we have, you and I lately have a lot more long rests, whatever, you know, analogy works for you. And hopefully soon, this, uh, if not, if this doesn't work for me, then at some point, something else will. I've been on a waiting list to get a CPAP.
01:21:53
Speaker
machine for a while, at some point they'll come through and hopefully sooner rather than later, but when it does, I am going to put more energy back into some of this stuff when I have more of it to give.
01:22:06
Speaker
And I think that's just our way of saying that this is something that is that important to Alex design that we, we want to be able to give it our all. And this retrospective has really reminded me of the fact that 150 episodes in four years is a very, like, it's a milestone and we need to celebrate it. Um, you and I, because it's, it's something that I, I did never thought that this is something that I would be doing. No, same here.
01:22:39
Speaker
And that's our show for today. You can find the host on Twitter. Hopskew can be found at Hopskew. And Alex Newman can be found at Mel.com. Send any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to at goblinlordpod on Twitter or email us at goblinlordpodcast at email.com.
01:22:57
Speaker
If you want to support your friendly neighborhood gospel, the task can be found at patreon.com. Opening and closing music by Vindergotten, who can be found on Twitter at Vindergotten, or online at vindergotten.bandcamp.com. Logo art by Steven Raffaeo, who can be found on Twitter at Steve Raffaeo.
01:23:20
Speaker
Goblin Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing Vorthos content, as well as magic content of all kinds. Check them out on Twitter at hipstersmtg or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you all for listening, and remember, goblins, like snowflakes, are only dangerous in numbers.