The Nerdologues

This week, the Talking Games crew fields more important questions, like "who's your favorite Pokemon" and "if not Geodude, why?"

Grab a D20 and roll up a character sheet because we are gonna go on a softly-guided journey, listeners. Bennett and Brendan have both had a love for tabletop RPGs since being looped into campaigns as teenagers. After years of different game groups and editions of Dungeons and Dragons, they've joined forces with other members of their theatre company, Otherworld, to create a staged version of their beloved pastime, Fight Quest, that recruits an audience member at the top of the show to be their hero. Lots of talk about other fun RPGs (Fiasco, Lasers and Feelings, Vampire: The Masquerade, etc) and the life lessons gleaned from dealing with all types of gaming personalities.

Hey, we did a show at the Chicago Cultural Center! Here are a bunch of stories from some wonderful creative people we love!

Del prepares to set off on an errand for his weird hosts. Is this his last show from Zzyzzx? Eh, I'm sure everything will be fine.

Eric Schinzer is no musical sheep waiting around for the sounds he loves to pop up in the lame stream. He knew he loved the sweet sound of synth from a young age (citing Dire Straights's Walk of Life as an early intro) and became a fan of midi, 80s sounds (and styles) from then on. A recent resurgence of synth came with a heavy dose of love of 80s-style scoring and turned into this specific Synthwave genre. It makes Eric tingle like an ASMR fan.

Matt Young had to play a bunch of indie games for his job. What an assignment. This week he's gonna talk about that experience -- plus some gaming news -- with Tim, Clayton, and Kellen!

This week, we've got audio from Eric, Claire, and Dwight hosting the kickoff show for Chicago's 2016 LakeFX Summit, a really amazing gathering of creative folk in this city we love. 

Just like all of the other talking heads, the boys are handing out NFL Draft grades!  The accuracy and precision with which they dissect all 32 teams is unrivaled in the sports world.  Also, Hooli and The Joe break down every second round matchup in the NBA playoffs in under a minute a piece.  If that's still not enough, can we interest you in a Dee Gordon joke?

Del's health is improving, but he's starting to feel empty inside. Can Future Islands, Hozier, Blink 182 and more pull him out of his funk?

Honduran hunk Vernon Mina has been living a Hispanic family life his whole life... because... it's... his family. But there's way more to it than that! From entertaining his uncles as a young boy with bits borrowed from his Latino entertainment heroes (Don Francisco anyone?) to meeting his wonderful Mexican wife in high school and accidentally enrolling in a military school to follow her out of state to starting a family of his own and choosing to speak Spanish at home with his son, so much of Vernon's life on stage and off is influenced by his background.