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Editorial note from Isaac: for my money this is one of the best books we've covered on this podcast, but it's also wildly upsetting in a way that sneaks up on you, so be aware of that.

This book came out four years before The Matrix and nailed the gender/power/information/sexuality/control thing so hard that the rest of the genre is still catching up. It only got translated into English a few years ago, but at least you can read it now, and find out what The Problem looked like from a place and time where it still seemed like he who controlled Microsoft Encarta might control the world.

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deltarune x revolutionary girl utena

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I just worked up a part of this for a podcast jingle last week and Tom has been on my mind ever since. Clearly an omen.

Tom was my big favorite in middle school, and that seems to have been a common experience for nerdy American kids for over half a century. He released about 27 songs in the 50s and 60s and gave up showbiz when he was still in his 20s. This is how you live a long and happy life while remaining eternally beloved, as long as you make the songs really good.

Tom - who got drafted into the NSA when he was 19, before anyone was allowed to know that the NSA existed - famously said that the real world had made political satire obsolete when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize, which means that things have been too absurd to be worth commenting on since at least ten years before I was born. And yet we still write funny little songs! Not as good as he did, though. I don't think we make people like him anymore.

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Mayan plate with monkey tail in spiral

Date: c. 300-850 AD

Collection: Museo Nacional de Antropología, México

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This episode is Isaac's fault (podcast Isaac, not guest Isaac, although guest Isaac aids and abets.) There are no wizards and no lesbians in The Commodore - it's not the best book in this 20-volume series about British naval culture during the Napoleonic wars, nor is it the last, although Isaac will claim that it is. But there is a little girl with 19th century autism in this one, and that gives us an opportunity to explore one of our favorite secondary subjects: monstrous children, and whether they can be cured by becoming Irish.

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I have had this old song I wrote stuck in my head for the past couple days and I didn't like the vocals on the only recording of it I could find so I dubbed over them. My old lyrics were always very elliptical and if I could tell my DIY indie kid self anything it would be to sack up and be emo. And sing it yourself, dummy.

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Starting my speech at the Omelas city counsel with a child acknowledgement statement

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A deconstruction of wizard school stories, a deconstruction of competence porn, a deconstruction of one particular person's understanding of herself, and a really entertaining fantasy novel on its own merits. Heartily recommended.

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This clipping of an old Jules Feiffer strip fell to the ground when I opened up a used copy of Mad Magazine

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"Timeless" Toni Storm at the AEW ALL IN TEXAS Post Show Media Scrum

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CREATING BLUEY - Tales from the Art Director

Chapter 4 - It's (gotta be) Done! Beyond Bluey

The final chapter. Beyond Bluey and the power of Animation

FREE on Substack

Thankyou all so much for following along. The outpouring of support and care for the artists behind the art has been really heartening throughout this whole process. Not to be cringe but I honestly think this medium captures the human spirit better than any other form of expression, so I know whatever the future brings for us we’ll be able to weather it for that reason alone. 🕊️

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This one's been a long time coming! Naked Bee joins us to discuss the Vows and Honor books, which are about a swordswoman and a sorceress who aren't dating but are married. We ask why that is, and why the author thinks that is, and then we ask whether there was always this much rape in these kinds of stories, and then we get to the whole force-femme plotline, and so on.

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And I don't know if that is—I don't know if that's for me, I don't know if that's for this company, or I don't know if that's for himself. And I might never really figure that out. But it does feel good, to be able to let go of a little bit of the past, and to be excited about the future.

AEW ALL IN: TEXAS (POST SHOW MEDIA SCRUM) | 07.12.25

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150-odd years of built-up curses - race curses, class curses, sex curses, gay curses, curses direct from the last of the four great novels of China - may seem like a lot to surmount, but there's always the possibility that this generation will finally get it right (if they're lesbians.)

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THE FORTUNE TELLING COAT OF PROPHECY