The Free Bin

The Toledo Public Library celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month (Sep. 15 - Oct. 15)! Sophia provides an overview of the celebration, including its history, the distinction between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino," and the many contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities to the United States and the world. Harrison gets lost in the interwoven threads of North American history, and introduces a v...

The gang shares some of their favorite (and least favorite) female characters in fiction. Cindy digs up some info on Victorian grave-robbers. Sophia needs Samantha to move on. Harrison addresses the semiotics of hugging. In this episode: "Alien" (1979) dir. by Ridley Scott "The Anatomist's Wife" by Anna Lee Huber "Aunt Dimity's Death" by Nancy Atherton "Death Comes to Marlow" by Robert Thorogood "...

Harrison rocket-starts a conversation about Mario Kart, designing for contradictory audience expectations, the vastly different ways we approach and appreciate popular works, and a bit of philosophy. Sophia brings the tea. Harrison loses badly at chess. Cindy gets overwhelmed by impenetrable online Mario Kart World discourse, especially regarding the applicability of the current meta build to Boo...

Harrison reads the poem " The Mirror " from "Blooms of the Berry" Madison Cawein

Cindy and Harrison discuss some of their favorite tropes in movies, books, and games! Velociraptors build tension. Ghosts play to an empty house. Cindy discusses some common library and librarian tropes. Eldritch tomes awaken ancient horrors. Sam Fisher is conspicuously sneaky. Harrison invites listeners to go space truckin' . In this episode: "The Anatomist's Wife" by Anna Lee Huber "Any Trope Bu...

Harrison reads " Poppa Needs Shorts " (1964) by Walt and Leigh Richmond.

At Captain Sophia's behest, The Free Bin crew hauls up a net full of maritime tales! Cindy makes a hearty meatloaf from sacred cows, and eats it with black raspberries. Harrison gets shanty pedant-y. Sophia and Harrison tag-team the soundboard. The crowd goes wild. In this episode: "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown "The Brilliant Abyss" by Helen Scales "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Chri...

Cindy, Sophia, and Harrison discuss the ever-evolving role of the telephone in fiction, and the myriad ways technology affects the stories we tell. Along the way, they enjoy a refreshing beverage, eat a two-dimensional snack, endure aggressive theater seats, and imagine a more tactile, odoriferous, and traversable future.     In this episode: "84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff "Black Christm...

In preparation for our upcoming discussion of the ever-changing role of telephones in fiction, Sophia reads Dorothy Parker 's 1928 short story, " A Telephone Call."   Music: "Night on the Docks - Sax" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Sophia invites Cindy and Harrison to share some books from their favorite genres, as well as some unexpected picks. Thrilling adventures, dubious ghosts, and historical tears abound!  In this episode: "The Apparitionists" by Peter Manseau "City of Lies" by Victoria Thompson "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus "The Martian" by Andy Weird "A Murder on Astor Place"...

Cindy, Harrison, and new Library Programs Specialist Sophia discuss the Declaration of Independence, drink some more red juice, and recite the immortal words of Bill Pullman! In this episode: United States Declaration of Independence

See the video episode here! As the library's Joust tournament approacheth, Harrison introduces Cindy to this classic arcade game, and seeks to answer one all-important question: Could we do this in real life? In this episode: Joust "Animals In Motion" (1902) by Edward Muybridge

Cindy teaches Harrison about the history of Father's Day, acknowledges the complicated feelings that the holiday can bring, and caps it all off with a relevant tale from Aesop about a father and his quarrelsome sons. Harrison puts out an RFP for cryptids. President Nixon gets some flowers for your dad. Cindy also announces our upcoming Community Conversations series! Funded by Oregon Humanities, t...

Cindy and Harrison explore the public domain and beyond in this discussion of copyright, its implications for software preservation, and how to support the wild Pac-Man population! Cindy reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 29. Harrison finds a disturbing Edwardian comic strip. In this episode: Betsy Bouncer and Her Doll Digital Millennium Copyright Act United States Copyright Act Section 108 Internet Arcad...

Harrison and Cindy discuss the interesting case of " Unknown Man E ," the Harem Conspiracy , and what this case can teach us about official records, historical erasure, compassion, and what we each leave behind. 2020 BBC Science Focus piece about the reconstruction of the priest Nesyamun's larynx 2018 article from The Verge about the sarcophagus "bone juice" Oxford online course material on crime...

Cindy steps into Doomguy's armor-plated boots to rip and tear through a discussion of Doom (1993), the evolution of PC game control schemes, and the ways in which cultural knowledge of modern gameplay conventions can affect the retro-gaming experience. Check out our bonus video episode here!

In anticipation of this year's game-centric Summer Reading Program, Cindy and Harrison discuss some notable film adaptations of video games. Cindy is a Peach, and Harrison is a Peachette.   In this episode: Doom (franchise) Ludonarrative Dissonance Super Mario Bros. (franchise) Tomb Raider (franchise) Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019) Polybius (urban legend) Prince of Persia (1989)

On the eve of her retirement, Denyse shares some favorite memories with Cindy, Harrison, and you, the listener. We've laughed, we've cried, we've dressed as dementors.

Harrison briefly explains why we've been quiet for a couple of weeks. Short answer: We have a lot of new stuff on the way!

Cindy shares a personal story from her father, detailing his experiences as an airman toward the end of the Korean War.

Content warning: This episode contains weird nightmare stuff. Harrison celebrates National Poetry Month by reading Clark Ashton Smith's 1920 eldritch horror/fantasy poem,  "The Hashish Eater -or- The Apocalypse of Evil." Harrison is now tired.  

Harrison reads a few classic--and rather disturbing--19th-century children's tales from an English translation of "Struwwelpeter" by Heinrich Hoffmann. Music: "Meanwhile in Bavaria" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Cindy and Harrison celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and Cindy shares some relevant titles! In this episode: "The Bone Collector" by Jeffery Deaver "The Boy Who Lived" by David Holmes "Drawn to Be You" by Corey and Andrea Landreth with Jefferson Knapp, illustrated by Trent Landreth "Interabled" by Hannah Burcaw and Shane Burcaw "Laughing at My Nightmare" by Shane Burcaw Lincoln...

Cindy, Denyse and Harrison talk about board games, the Library's upcoming teen space, and more! Cindy challenges Denyse and Harrison to a literary trivia game, and they both do OK.

Harrison reads " Time Enough At Last " by Lynn Venable .