Nerdhole

We got another chance to interview Friend of the Hole and rockstar game designer Jonathan Tweet, whose magnificent book Grandmother Fish comes out today in his new deal with Macmillan. We’re going to the launch party at Ada’s Technical Books in Seattle on Saturday 9/10 from 10am-2pm, and you should too. In the interview, we […]

We nabbed ace game designer Brandon Bozzi for a great, funny interview about the design process and the economy of free-to-play games. We’re sad to report that Smash Squad, the game he was working on and discussing, has been axed since we recorded this, but we felt that the conversation was worth hearing anyway. We […]

We’re all over Stranger Things, Netflix’s homage to all of the 1980s. They may have poached Mary’s memoir title, but we can’t hold that against them because the show is just that perfect. When we recorded, Mary had binged the hell out of it while Rob had just dabbed a pinky toe in, but our […]

Pokemon WHAAAA? Mary tells us all we need to know about this quick-burning craze that is swallowing people’s data plans whole even as it enforces unprecedented exercise goals on unsuspecting nerds. Rob explains shutting it down after discovering that his closet is infested with Zubats, while Paul wryly observes his son’s dealings with this reality […]

Hey, it’s a Nerdhole sampler! We talk about a cool, short book by Kai Ashante Wilson, the sweet new video game by the folks behind Limbo, and a board game that briefly made NASCAR seem interesting. And we managed to bust out an entire podcast without talking about television. Achievement unlocked! LINKS Excerpt from The […]

Should you see that World of Warcraft movie? Listen and find out. Since Paul and Rob are so woefully ignorant when it comes to all things WoW, we invited two smarties from Mary’s guild, Kraken Skulls, to help enlighten us. Big thanks to Jeremy and Mike for taking the time to join us! ERRATA Even […]

Key and Peele say it better than we can: Fall is here, and with it a downpour of new nerdy programming. Rob and Mary enthuse about various returning shows and a couple of new ones–check them out while they’re still hot. (Oh, and Rob has been burning up with shame over his inability to recall […]

The first round of DLC is out for Fallout 4, and we’re as happy as ever to gab about our favorite game (well, our collective favorite, anyway). Players have tons of new settlement options plus a mid-length story that brings robots front and center and a longer story set in a new, spoooooky location. The […]

With Mary on assignment, Paul and Rob discussed Preacher–both the new AMC TV series starring Dominic Cooper and the old-ish Vertigo comics series by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. While the title has some legendary problems for those of us with a SJW bent, there’s some worthwhile storytelling and some complicated feminism, so we’re at […]

After a festival of bizarre tech issues, it’s finally time for Daredevil 2: Elektra Boogaloo. Mary and Rob are all caught up, while Paul don’t give a fuck. We still dive into spoilers, so beware if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to learn its dark secrets prematurely. LINKS Daredevil on Netflix Our […]

As Captain America: Civil War draws near, Rob gives a quick 101 on the huuuuge comics event that spawned its primary conflict, if not exactly its plot. Whether you’re leaning toward Team Cap or Team Stark, the writers at Marvel need you to understand that you are supporting difficult moral choices. There’s death and drama […]

It turns out that there are other non-Nerdhole podcasts out there, and some of them may be relevant to your interests. Mary tells us all about Black Tapes, which entertainingly reanimates the corpse of the hoary old “skeptic confronting the supernatural” trope. Paul spoke not too long ago about Clash of Clans, the silly little […]

Zombicide is the shambling, reanimated elephant in the room; it raised 11 zillion dollars on Kickstarter but, as far as Rob and Paul are concerned, it’s only okay. We discuss our feelings and what this phenomenon means to tabletop gaming, and then Mary shares her enthusiasm for a lovely little game called Merged! (Of course, […]

We turn our steely gaze to The X-Files now that its new season has crept to a weird, abrupt halt. As ever, Rob and Paul couldn’t quite make it all the way through six hours of viewing in time to record the show, but Mary and special guest star Jo Jo Stiletto more than compensated […]

We originally called this episode “Dogshit Express,” but we decided to sacrifice punch for clarity. If you know us at all, you know that we have complicated feelings about quality when it comes to our genre entertainment. E.g., Mary loves what she calls “shitty vampire things,” but that doesn’t keep her from loving less shitty […]

Agent Carter is back! We gab about her new LA adventures–what we love, what we almost love, and what we love a lot. While we loosely discuss the plot, this episode is spoiler-free. LINKS Agent Carter on Hulu Season 1 on Amazon We got curious about ratings mid-chat, and it turns out that while AC […]

The Force awakened recently, and no doubt most of you have already seen the new, largely Lucas-free flick. Paul and Mary have plenty to say, while Rob listens attentively and occasionally highlights his ignorance of the franchise. The bottom line: We can maybe forgive those terrible prequels now. LINKS Here’s that nifty FX Breakdown video […]

It’s another delicious Nerdhole Sandwich! Mary delves deep into the underwater horror game Soma, Rob explains his tentative endorsement of Legends of Tomorrow, and Paul shares his delight for the tower defense game Kingdom Rush. So filling. LINKS Soma Mary suggests playing on PC rather than PS4. In part, it’s because of her frustration with […]

Most of us lucky enough to have played in a kickass RPG campaign have dreamed of bringing our adventures to the page or the screen–and now we know that it can be done. The Expanse, currently running on Syfy, is based on a series of books with a storied RPG history. Paul schools Mary and […]

It’s a quest…for puzzles. Rob shares his passion for certain Puzzle Quest games and his disdain for others while Mary explores what doesn’t quite work about Adventure Time‘s foray into the genre. LINKS Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords started it all off and is still well worth a playthrough or two. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix […]