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Nerd Hurdles is a podcast. Chances are if you’re here, you know that already. But just in case you got sent here by Google or a link sent to you by someone in your office, Nerd Hurdles is a podcast about things nerds like. Things that regular people (”normals”) scoff at or outright shun. We discuss these things in a generally humorous and vaguely intelligent way. Or is that intelligible? It might be neither intelligent nor intelligible.
Jakob and Mandi discuss all manner and forms of nerdery and geekery and what makes them magnificent and tragic. This weekly epic explored the depths of what fandoms mean to their fans. Sacred cows of the scifi, fantasy, comic book and any other genre that makes the general public squirm with discomfort get the irreverent Nerd Hurdles treatment (and nerdy love).
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When we sat down to chat about nerdy girls with Ro Karen of Starbase 66, her infamous Beloved claimed she wasn’t going to say a single word. So we didn’t give her a microphone. That didn’t stop her. At all. Welcome to The Beloved Show.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:58 — 34.0MB)
Police dramas and legal dramas have been a staple of television programming since television was called radio. This week Jakob and Mandi investigate and prosecute infamous television cops and lawyers. Murder One and Law & Order are named in the indictment but, as with any police dragnet, many key suspects elude capture.
Let us know who we missed on the forums.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:05 — 22.7MB)
We all need to eat. Which means some of us need to cook. So, how do you cook?
It can be an unexpectedly difficult set of skills to master considering how basic they are to our survival. Luckily, since the dawn of time—well, since people discovered fire and consequently bar-be-que—there have been those willing to pass on these skills to others. With the advent of television, the sum total of our culture’s culinary knowledge was places at out fingertips.
So why aren’t we all master chefs?
Besides the fact that we all learn at some point that following along with a cooking show results in gastronomic disaster, human beings don’t like to learn so much as pretend they’re learning. We prefer to better ourselves through osmosis as opposed to practical, hands on experience. Very few people who watched the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross have ever painted a single happy tree. The same can be said for anyone who ever attended classes in university.
Observing this, the producers of cooking shows have steered away from straight instructional demonstration to focus on personality, between steps banter and chef competitions. Some shows aren’t about cooking but food appreciation where the preparation of the meal is, at best, a footnote (such as BBC’s The Supersizers).
Now, with the democratizing effect of the internet, people who don’t even know how to cook have cooking shows. Such as the delightfully messy My Drunk Kitchen with Hannah Hart.
Proof that it’s harder than it might seem to make a simple little (enjoyable to watch) YouTube cooking show: Our Pagan Kitchen.
Real cooking shows: The Supersizers; My Drunk Kitchen; Cookus Inrreuptus; Vegan Black Metal Chef, Hail Seitan; Martha Stewart Bloopers; Wok With Yan; Urban Peasant.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:55 — 23.1MB)
Yes, there are spoilers in this episode. For both Angel and Buffy. But if you haven’t watched them yet, you probably have no interest in watching them. So you may as well listen to some spoilers.
If, after listening to the spoilers, you think it all sounds pretty good. You should follow this guide for watching Buffy and Angel in conjunction.
And don’t forget about the Toronto Meet-up!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:25 — 21.0MB)
What’s more awesome than going to the movies?
Free ride on a space shuttle? A room full of gold bars? A root canal?
It’s always a crap-shoot. Who will ruin your movie-going experience?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (24.8MB)
For a comic strip so overwhelmingly popular (over the course of 50 years it became a $1 billion empire), it’s relatively rare to find someone who will admit to enjoying Peanuts, much less love it devotedly.
My name is Jakob and I am that person.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:46 — 25.3MB)
Summer is a terrible time of year. According to Jakob.
Links: Ogopogo.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:46 — 25.3MB)
We’ve given you a full week to see the film and something like four years to read the book, so we’re not even going to bother warning you this episode/blog post contains spoilers. Your puny Petronus is no match for our Avada Spoilavra anyway.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:20 — 19.6MB)
The most legitimate or most dubious of all cosplay fandoms? ‘Tis a conundrum which is devilishly difficult to deduce an answer to. For a sub-genre that’s never had a bona-fide “even your mother knows it” hit, steampunk sports a deucedly large legion of dedicated followers.
Perhaps this is due to this same underground status. Fans can be as creative as they want without dressing like any particular character. And what razzes a fan’s berries more than their favourite games, books and movies being virtually unrecognized by the general public? Or the general public being unaware a film such as Wild Wild West is part of a larger subculture (though perhaps steampunkers would like to forget about that one too).
Reading list: Leviathan (Westerfeld); Airborn (Oppel); The Shadow In The North (Pullman); His Dark Materials (Pullman); Firefly (Serenity comics)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:09 — 22.2MB)
Ignore the podcasters behind the curtain.
Not so much a collection of gaffs, blunders and bloopers, our fourth “gag reel” is more like deleted scenes, alternate endings and candid moments from between takes.
Mostly it’s tangents that were edited out for being too tangential to even be easter eggs. A look behind the curtain, so to speak, or a chance to hang out in Jakob and Mandi’s basement with their cats. If that’s your kind of thing you might even enjoy this tangy collection of pointless tangents.
If this is your first time here, please consider listening to one of our other episodes first.
Link: Simply Syndicated Toronto Meet-up 2011 thread.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:11:13 — 32.8MB)
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