Open World Chat

John and Jim have a freewheeling chat with Shannon Wheeler (God is Disappointed in You, The New Yorker) about Shannon's work, The Bible, social media, Too Much Coffee Man tattoos, and what's still funny in this world. 

John and Jim are joined by RPG company Paizo (Pathfinder, Starfinder) staffer Jenny Jarzabski (a member of the United Paizo Workers union) and freelancer Joe Blomquist to discuss the recent successful organizing campaign at the company. We discuss their efforts, along with the burgeoning organizing campaign at Image comics -- and what future efforts to organize at more "geek" companies m...

Caitlin Rosberg joins Jim and John to discuss the Dune film and the sometimes uneasy handshake between movie adaptations and their source material with a few digressions along the way, of course (who should play Alia in the next Dune movie?).

George Marston of GamesRadar+ is here to explain Non-Fungible Tokens to you. We discuss their appeal, their limitations, and their implications to artists, the comics industry, and the very nature of the art marketplace - as well as some perhaps unexpected environmental impacts...

DC Fandome has passed. What sounds good? What looked good? What looked "meh," and what's the buzz around the Milestone Initiative, the new bisexual Superman, and more.

John and Special Guest Co-host Maryscott O'Connor break out of OWC's usual paradigm for an in-depth discussion with Author, Scholar, and Diplomat Peter Galbraith. From the perspective of his own involvement in the interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, Peter shares his uniquely qualified analysis of what went wrong, and what an ethical foreign intervention should look like. (Yes, we were...

John and Liane talk with Nathan White, the District Archaeologist and Tribal Liaison, US Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District. We discuss portrayals of archaeology and archeologists in genre film, how those portrayals perpetuate stereotypes and promote marginalization of indigenous peoples, and how the actual practice or archeology over the decades has itself been responsible for these and...

Steve Benen joins us to discuss his book The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics , living with a post-policy Republican Party, and blogging. We talk about Steve's early days as a blogger and podcaster, what's changed about our politics since the Trump presidency, why there is reason for optimism... and since this is OWC, we also talk some sci fi and com...

Sean and Andrew join John and Liane for a deep dive into the art vs. artist debate, looking at H.P. Lovecraft and his life, but also discussing how Lovecraft's work has been re-imagined in work such as Lovecraft Country, We also expand the discussion to look at the contemporary art-vs-artist poster boy, Joss Whedon, Sean and Andrew also discuss some of the projects they're working on,bef...

Liane and I have a conversation with Alexander Dunst, Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Paderborn in Germany. Alex is a PKD scholar and edited the book of essays The World According to Philip K. Dick.  PKD's  work has, of course, been adapted into several Hollywood films (for better and for worse). and our discussion of the impact and implications of his work brings...

John and Liane are joined by Seven Days film critic and editor Margot Harrison discussing the evolution of the strong woman character in genre cinema and television (and in general) over the generations. Join us as we dive into horror, superheroes... and also contrast and compare the heroines of the Star Wars franchise.

Comics industry gossip columnist and Bleedingcool.com founder Rich Johnston discusses "comicsgate" and how it fits into perennial cycles of outrage and conflict in the comic book world. He also offers a different viewpoint on the political nature of superheroes.

Jim Dandy (Dandeneau) of Den of Geek drops in for a conversation about cinematic universes; which ones fly high, which ones crash and burn, and what makes them work (or not). Also, we discuss the political nature of superheroes. Are they left wing? Right wing? No wing? Listen as we hash it out.

Following part 1's discussion which focused on race and diversity in Star Trek, we slide into a range of topics from a discussion of good TV (including what Tim is - and perhaps surprisingly isn't - watching) to boardrooms and broadband.

A show that begins with Paul discussing his new film "The Conjuring: The Devil Made me Do It," (and teasing his role in Showtime's upcoming series "The First Lady") and Tony on his work with the likes of William Shatner and Stan Lee, turns into a freewheeling conversation covering comic creators' rights, Jon Favreau, Star Wars, the Tekwar video game, anti-trust law, A...

In part 1 of a 2 part discussion, Star Trek Voyager's Tim Russ joins Liane and John to discuss race in Trek and his portrayal of Voyager's Security Officer.