The Nerds Awaken

Dearest Gentle Listeners, we can't believe Bridgerton is already over for the next two years. But it's not really over until we break it down, so let's get into it. Joined by frequent-friend-of-the-pod Andee, we discussed all the things from Season 4 Part 2. Was Benophie our favorite Bridgerton couple? How did we handle Francesca's heartbreaking scenes? Who do we think the next...

Dearest Gentle Reader...The Bridgerton family and their steamy hijinks are once again gracing our Netflix accounts, and you KNOW we had to talk about it. We teamed up with Big Gold Belt Media to break down the first four episodes that make up Part 1 of Season 4. In this episode we give our thoughts on the main couple Benedict and Sophie, the numerous side plots, and what we hope to see in Part 2....

In a world where music transcends boundaries and connects people, few artists have achieved the level of impact that Taylor Swift has. From her early beginnings as a country singer to becoming a global pop sensation, her career is a testament to talent, resilience, and connection. Julie is joined by her best friend and fellow Swifitie, Shannon, to celebrate Taylor's newest documentary, End of...

It's been a hell of a week for Ben Solo fans.  In a recent AP interview, our fav Adam Driver dropped an atomic bomb on the Star Wars fandom: he had been secretly working on a Ben Solo movie for two years. Titled The Hunt for Ben Solo , it took place after The Rise of Skywalker and would have explored the mystery of what might have happened to Ben after he disappeared into the Force. The worst...

Marvel dropped-albeit very, very slowly-a massive announcement about the cast of Avengers: Doomsday this week, and we had to immediately talk through our feelings about it! Julie and friend-of-the-pod Andee talked all about the electrifying cast list and everyone it included (and everyone it mysteriously didn’t ). They also talked theories, recent projects and the future of Marvel. What did you th...

Every once in a while at The Nerds Awaken we sit down with no plan, no outline, no agenda; we just hit record and let the pop culture gossip flow. And that's what this episode is, our stream-of-consciousness thoughts on all the recent pop culture and entertainment happenings, plus all the books/movies/tv shows we're loving lately and the ones we're looking forward to. Hear our vario...

The Nerds are back for the first time in 2025 with an episode that is all things Star Wars! We chat about our love for Skeleton Crew and our need for a second season, plus the upcoming seasons of Andor and Ahsoka.  We also talked about the upheaval surrounding the Rey movie and why we think this movie is never, ever getting made. Find us on social media and chat about Star Wars with us!

2024 is coming to a close, so we decided to sneak in one more episode to talk about all of our favorites of 2024, from books and movies to IRL moments that had us obsessed. Plus a look forward to what we’re excited for in 2025. Find us on social media and let us know your favorite pop culture things from 2024! 

We return with our final batch of interviews with some of the cast of Outlander Season 7B! With Big Gold Belt Media, Janna was thrilled to speak with Graham McTavish (Dougal MacKenzie) and Lotte Verbeek (Geillis Duncan) about their surprising return to Outlander after several years away (and after the pretty famous deaths of their both their characters). We also got to ask the delightful Charles V...

We recently had the absolute pleasure of interviewing some of the cast of the Starz hit tv series Outlander through our friends Big Gold Belt Media. Janna sat down with cast members from Season 7 to talk about Part 2 of the season, which premiered Nov 22 on Starz. We chatted with John Bell (Young Ian), Rik Rankin (Roger MacKenzie), Diarmaid Murtagh (Buck MacKenzie), Steven Cree (Ian Murray Sr), Kr...

Season 2 of The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime came to a thrilling (ish?) conclusion in episode 8 and we talked through all of our many feelings. We chatted Julie's love for the epic Balrog fight in Khazad-dum, Andee's excitement at Berek's cameo, and the death that absolutely destroyed Janna emotionally. Plus, we repeatedly expressed our frustration at the pitfalls of 8 episode sea...

It’s hard to believe that The Rings of Power is almost over! Each week The Rings of Power is raising the stakes, and episodes 6 and 7 were no exception. From Celembrimbor’s slow descent into madness under Sauron’s abuse, to Galadriel and Adar’s continued but mysterious chemistry, and the incredible massive battle of Eregion, there was so much to talk about. We covered all the major storylines, com...

We welcomed back author Ashley Hawthorne to the Nerds Awaken studio to talk all about her latest release Death Sentence , available now from Creative James Media! We chatted sophmore novel struggles, her first foray into murder mysteries, and the idea for a lighthouse horror romance she just can't get out of her head. Learn more about Ashley at her website . Find The Nerds Awaken on social me...

We are back with more deeply insightful, highly educated and meta commentary on the Amazon Prime fantasy series The Rings of Power . Just kidding...you know we would never. As per usual there is language, lots of commentary on how hot people are, and hoping characters get kicked in the balls (looking at you, Kemen, and maybe Elrond). We broke down episodes 4 & 5, which we unanimously loved. We...

We had the great privilege of sitting down with Jennifer L. Armentrout, New York Times #1 bestselling author of over 70 books including the wildly popular Blood and Ash series. Her latest release Born of Blood and Ash , book 4 in the Flesh and Fire series is available now! We asked Jennifer about her long and prolific writing career, from her writing habits and favorite tropes to her upcoming publ...

After two long years The Rings of Power series is back on Amazon Prime with a three episode premiere. Joined by friend of the pod Andee, we broke down our reactions to the premiere (with lots of spoilers), from Hot Sauron's origins as black goo to Elrond being a dramatic biatch over some little ol' rings. We also play "Would You Rather: Sauron variant addition" and the results...

In this episode, Janna sat down with Nagier from Big Gold Belt Media to discuss the new Netflix Korean thriller The Frog, which premieres August 23rd. Listen to our discussion of all eight episodes of the sinister and bloody thriller, with spoilers being discussed in the later half of the episode. We had high praise for just about everything in this drama, from the cast performances and music to t...

It's our final real quick recap for San Diego Comic Con! We give a rundown of everything we each did on Saturday-from Julie spending the entire day in Hall H and seeing the big celebrities, to Janna hitting some smaller panels with authors and fulfilling a dream of seeing another member of the LOTR Fellowship (listen to find out who!). We also cover Sunday, which was a lowkey day and the ONLY...

We're back with another real quick recap of our time at San Diego Comic Con! In this episode we're covering everything we did on Friday, from seeing Hot Sauron (aka Charlie Vickers) at the Rings of Power panel in Hall H to the cool swag we got from the FX activation. Find more of our SDCC coverage on our social media !

San Diego Comic Con is officially underway and we’re bringing you a real quick recap of preview night and Thursday’s schedule. We visited activations from Paramount and Peacock, attended TV panels, and got to see Deadpool 3 in person with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (and a lot of other surprise guests!) Look for our recap of Friday at SDCC soon! Follow us here for all of our SDCC coverage! 

We gathered with friend of the pod Andee to breakdown season one of the Acolyte and that stunning season finale. We had high hopes for The Acolyte after breaking down the series premiere , and even with a few hiccups in the middle, we were not disappointed and have fingers and toes crossed for a season two announcement. We discussed our favorite moments, the shocking twists, our exciting for a pos...

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (or of July)-San Diego Comic Con time! The Nerds Awaken will be back at SDCC 2024, but first we chatted about the schedule, surprises, and everything we’re looking forward to see from panels and activations to favorite authors and friends. Follow The Nerds Awaken on social media for all our SDCC coverage!

We were delighted to welcome author Liana de La Rosa back to the podcast, whose latest novel Isabel and the Rogue is available now from Berkley Romance! We ADORED Isabel and the Rogue , book 2 in the Luna Sisters series, and loved talking to Liana all about her characters and the historical setting of the series. Liana really is putting the history back in historical romance, and we couldn't...

We are back breaking down Part 2 of Bridgerton Season 3 (Eps 305-308) with Big Gold Belt Media ! There was so much going on in Part 2 ( too much, even), but we think we managed to cover all the different arcs and characters in the last four episodes. We had fun talking about the things that worked for us, but were also honest about the areas that we were disappointed in. You can find the video ver...

We had so much fun breaking down the first two episodes of the new Star Wars series The Acolyte, which premiered June 4th on Disney+. While we were cautiously optimistic about the idea of show after it was announced in 2020, we did not anticipate how much we would love the first two episodes. From the mystery-thriller plot to the vibrant new characters (hellooooo Master Sol), we were immediately s...