The Three Links Odd Cast

We had to call another audible at the line of scrimmage as our scheduled guest was out sick this episode.  With Sovereign Grand Lodge right around the corner we decided to discuss the Encampment branch of Odd Fellowship.  Once a vibrant and vital part of the Order, in many places it has atrophied to the point of irrelevance.  Toby, Ainslie, and Mike discuss whether it makes more sense to put an en...

Technical issues prevented us from interviewing our scheduled guest so, being resourceful Odd Fellows, we called an audible at the line of scrimmage and decided to talk about our mentors in Odd Fellowship.  Mentorship is an important part of any organization, and especially so in our Order.  There's much to do as an Odd Fellow and it can take years to get everything down.  Each of us has had...

July 2022 represents two years of podcasting for the Three Links Odd Cast and we are all very excited to commemorate this achievement with a celebratory episode.  As part of the celebration, we announce a new cohost, Brother Mike Duminiak of West Virginia, who had previously been a guest on the episodes about the Patriarchs Militant branch and the Freemasons.  Together, the three co-hosts discuss...

June is a month of many celebrations and we're taking the opportunity to join in with one of them, though not the one Toby had expected.  Brother Chris Emmons from Kanawha Lodge #25 in Charleston, West Virginia joins us to celebrate LGBTQ Pride and share his experiences as an out gay Odd Fellow.  The conversation wanders around quite a bit and covers a wide range of topics, including the many...

As Odd Fellows, we're not surprised by any old thing we find in a lodge hall.  For non-members, though, it can be quite a shock when relics of a former lodge are left behind and discovered while exploring a new building.  Such incidents usually end up getting some kind of media coverage and one of those stories inspired hosts Sara Buesing and Emily Coleman to do an episode of their podcast  A...

GRAND LODGE.  The mere words strike fear into the hearts of Odd Fellows everywhere.  What is this strange, mysterious conglomeration of Odd Fellows who gather for some unknown purpose?  Since Grand Lodge season is upon us, Ainslie and Toby sat down with Brothers Adam Potolsky and Matthew Finkelstein to discuss their experiences at the 2022 session of the Grand Lodge of California held in Modesto. ...

What if the narrative we've all been told—that the government takeover of social services led to the decline of Odd Fellowship—was wrong?  Esteemed Canadian economist, author, and educator Herb Emery, author of "A Young Man's Benefit," joins us to discuss his research into the end of beneficial membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  What he discovered from researc...

As recently as 2017 Portneuf Lodge #20 in Pocatello, Idaho was moribund.  Six people met twice monthly in a dusty old hall downtown with a worn-out, broken sign out front.  It might as well have said that the lodge was permanently closed.  Then something remarkable happened—the lodge decided to spend some money to fix up its sign.  The newly painted and refurbished sign, with its glorious neon lig...

Odd Fellows, like all fraternal orders, have to exist in the long shadow cast by the only fraternal group that has any awareness in popular culture: Freemasons.  Whether because of wacky conspiracy theories, blockbuster movies, thriller novels, or seemingly endless supposed connections to various historical figures and events, Freemasonry is the template against which most fraternal orders get com...

An interesting and unusual confluence has occurred where tattoo artists and Odd Fellowship have mixed, creating some interesting results.  From some of the most famous tattoo artists like Oliver Peck and Luke Wessman, down to the average corner tattoo shop owner, the stunning, bold symbols of Odd Fellowship have called out to the tattoo community and brought them into our august fraternity.  Their...

A week and a half ago, Brother John Reitzer-Smith was presiding over a lodge meeting as Noble Grand when the question arose if there were any Ukrainian Odd Fellows in need.  Within the span of a few days, Brother John had made contact with a lodge in Poland that, before the war in Ukraine, had been initiating Ukrainians with the intent to form lodges in that country.  Now those new Ukrainian Odd F...

For this very special episode we visit with Meredith Moore, Past Grand of Fort Worth Lodge #251 in Texas.  Sister Meredith has become an active, indispensable, and inspirational Odd Fellow with her years of service in various lodges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  She talks about her journey from being invited to a lodge function at Dallas #44 to being one of the most active Odd Fellows in North T...

For this episode we had put out an invitation to members of the Rose Float Committee to join us and talk about how they put the float together and what it does to raise awareness of Odd Fellowship.  Despite some encouraging communication initially, no one from the committee joined us for this episode.  Ever the resourceful members, Scott, Toby, and Ainslie launched into an impromptu discussion of...

In 2009, a hall at the Stroud School of Arts in Dungog, Australia revealed an engaging secret: a hand-painted silk banner from the 19th Century.  Two years later the banner wound up in the collection of the Newcastle Museum where David Hampton would eventually find it and begin unravelling it's fascinating history.  Made in London by Tutill and Company, it was the pride and joy of Williams Ri...

A popular novel inspired a curiosity about fraternalism back in 2016 for Gary Harper which led him to start researching various fraternal orders.  After some study, he settled on joining the Odd Fellows.  There was just one problem, however: he had no way of finding a lodge to join.  Various emails to addresses he had found online went unanswered for years until finally, in 2019, he visited the IO...

UPDATE: the correct audio file has been uploaded!  For those that downloaded the previous version, we hope you enjoyed a preview of "The Scandinavian Polka Party," hosted by Brother Toby on 247PolkaHeaven.com. *** This is the second half of The Important Crossover.  If you haven't heard Part 1, go check it out from our friends at Modern Goat Rider. For the second half of The Importa...

Brother Mike Duminiak of West Virginia joins us as we reconvene for the new year to tell the story of the Patriarchs Militant.  This oft-ignored branch of Odd Fellowship provides some surprising opportunities and does some very interesting work.  Brother Mike is a passionate and articulate supporter and gives us a comprehensive look at the history, origins, development, and current practices of th...

Toby and Ainslie take a nostalgic look back at the past year in Odd Fellows podcasting and revisit some of the topics they covered.  Brother Nick Curry of Chester Lodge #281 in Virginia gives an update on the lodge's progress and how they're reforging bonds with the community that were lost when the lodge closed.  Ainslie and Toby also give a sneak peak at some of the coming year's...

Medieval English Craft Guilds were the wellspring of modern fraternalism.  From those original attempts to protect trade secrets, educate artisans, and assist members and their families, an amazing variety of fraternal orders has developed.  Those fraternal groups would have remained solely in the land where they began had it not been for the subsequent spread of British influence and culture acro...

Amidst the fields of corn, soy, and wheat, there's something else growing in Northern Illinois: Odd Fellowship.  Brother Ray Jackson of Ottawa Lodge #41 shares his story of how the members of Century Lodge #492 in Carpentersville spread out across the northern part of Illinois reviving struggling lodges and renewing the spirit of Odd Fellowship.  SPOILER ALERT: there's no one, main secre...

With a strong interest in history, esotericism, and philosophy, it was only a matter of time before Asean Malik Bey found his way to Odd Fellowship.  That first encounter happened at a friend's martial arts studio and, since that time, Brother Bey has launched a career as an Odd Fellow organizer, historian, and scholar.  A member of Teoronto #8 of the IOOF and Northern Star #715 of the GUOOF,...

More than a decade ago, Scott Moye was just your average historian in Arkansas.  Fueled by a desire and curiosity to be a part of a fraternal order, he started looking around and researching and eventually landed on the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  That journey eventually lead him to scholarship and the authorship of his new book, Think Like An Odd Fellow .  During this episode, Brother Scot...

We've all had to sit through long, meandering, pointless meetings.  Why should we allow our lodge meetings to be disorganized and annoying to sit through?  Brothers Ainslie and Toby dedicate this episode of the Three Links Odd Cast to guiding you through the best practices for holding a lodge meeting so that business can get done in a quick but thorough way.  They start with the preparations...

Ainslie and Toby spend some time contemplating the culture clash that often happens when new members join lodges full of long-time members.  On the one side, there are eager new members who have just joined and have great ideas and can't wait to start changing things and getting their new lodge active.  On the other side there are members who have spent years perfecting the way they do things...

Back home from Sovereign Grand Lodge in Cincinnati, Brothers Ainslie and Toby share their exhaustive interview with Grand Master of California Michael Greenzeiger about his new book, The Odd Fellows' Primer.   The interview goes into great detail about the process of researching and writing the book, its origins, its inspiration, and the various challenges encountered along the way.  The inte...