The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Linda Codega, author of Pasha the Storm. About Pasha the Storm: Pasha the Northern Storm was once the most infamous Meridian pirate who ever sailed the sister oceans. Now, a decade into her exile, Pasha’s afterlife is being held hostage by Atle, an absurdly attractive noble who knows far too much about pirate magic—but not enough about sailing to realize how dangerous Pasha really is. Minister Atle Itaavar is duty-bound to serve the Kingdom of Garda, but as Queen Thivaldís gathers support for her ambitions of empire, Atle turns to treason to stop her. In order to destroy the Queen’s new necromantic navy, Atle plans to steal the Queen’s flagship, kidnap a washed-up pirate to sail it, and track down a legendary killer whale to bring it down. But the hunt for the great undying whale drags Pasha, Atle, and the crew of the Dog into a cosmic reckoning as they face threats from ghosts and gods alike—and the Queen of Garda is close behind. About Linda Codega: Linda H. Codega is a writer, author, and award-winning entertainment journalist who has written about science fiction and fantasy media for nearly ten years. In 2024 they co-founded the tabletop roleplaying game news site Rascal News. They were previously a staff writer for io9. They specialize in tabletop roleplaying games, pop culture, fandom, and queer intersections. They currently live in Los Angles with their dog, Zigzag, after ten years in New York (but not in the city). They are transgender and nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. In 2023 they were nominated for the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming; arguably the most prestigious award in the gaming industry. They won an ENnie for their reporting on Wizards of the Coasts’s proposed changes to Dungeons and Dragons’ Open Gaming License. They have been nominated for a Hugo award three times (and won once) alongside the entire editorial team of Strange Horizons, where they are a first reader. Linda is a member of the Trans Journalists Association. They are also a member of the Writers Guild of America, East, and were previously on the bargaining committee for the Gizmodo Media Group. They are represented by Bridget Smith of the JABberwocky Literary Agency. This week’s picks: Linda: Nine Space Games (Game) Tracy: X-Men ‘97 Season 2 (Disney+) Patrick: Pathfinder Adventure: The Dead God’s Hand by Erik Mona Links: Linda Codega on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 717-With Linda Codega appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

<img decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-8966 size-medium" src="http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention-212x300.png" alt="Divine Intervention, a short film by Ravenna Tran and Rebecca Ozer " width="212" height="300" srcset="http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention-212x300.png 212w, http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention-725x1024.png 725w, http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention-768x1084.png 768w, http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention-1088x1536.png 1088w, http://functionalnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/DivineIntervention.png 1206w" sizes="(max-width: 212px) 100vw, 212px" />This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome William Raillon, the 3rd Nerd backer for Uncanny Magazine, Year 12! About William Raillon: William lives in France and enjoys Twitch, live action TTRPGs and backing projects that help build community and tell good stories like Divine Intervention, a short film by Ravenna Tran and Rebecca Ozer. This week’s picks: William: The United Film Podcast Tracy: The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny / Rereading a Book You Love Patrick: Realm Brew: Magnetic Dungeon Map Tiles Links: William Raillon on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 716-With William Raillon appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome A. David Lewis, author of Body, Soul, and Comics. About Body, Soul, and Comics: Body, Soul, and Comics: Graphic Religion and Graphic Medicine follows A. David Lewis’s unique scholarly journey through graphic religion and graphic medicine, exploring how comics intersect with healthcare, clinical practice, spirituality, patient experience, and belief. Drawing on more than two decades of academic research, Lewis reframes both fields through the distinct narrative and visual language of comics. Though often seen as opposites—spiritual versus scientific—religion and medicine share concerns with selfhood, community, personal well-being, and transformation. Through comics, Lewis reveals these shared concerns and examines how selfhood, identity, and embodiment emerge through visual storytelling. Blending scholarship with autobiography, Lewis weaves personal moments—a religious conversion, experiences with anxiety, and academic work within a healthcare setting—into a broader analysis of representation and meaning in comic books. His account resists the traditional divide between theory and lived experience, grounding abstract ideas in the personal and the visual. Body, Soul, and Comics is both a call for disciplinary reunification and a meditation on how comics themselves bridge seemingly disparate realms—text and image, body and spirit, illness and meaning. About A. David Lewis: A. David Lewis is associate professor of English and health humanities at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). Lewis is also an Eisner Award nominee (2015) and judge (2023) as well as coeditor of Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels and Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Islam, and Representation. A founder of library collections at both Boston University and MCPHS, Lewis focuses his teaching and research on the depictions of cancer and of loneliness in comic books and graphic novels. He is inaugural coeditor of the Graphic Medicine Review and the acclaimed author of such comics as The Lone and Level Sands and the one hundredth anniversary comics adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. This week’s picks: David: Witch Hat Atelier Manga by Kamome Shirahama Tracy: The History of Science Fiction: A Graphic Novel Adventure by Xavier Dollo (Author), Djibril Morissette-Phan (Illustrator) Patrick: WOLFBOX MF60 Compressed Air Duster Links: A. David Lewis on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 715-With A. David Lewis appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome David Ebenbach, author of The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost. About The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost: The poems in David Ebenbach’s new poetry collection, The AI Suspects It Might Be a Hungry Ghost, speculate: if a chatbot could feel and think, what would it feel and think? What would it feel about the complicated situation we’re all in right now, as well as the prospects for the future? What would it think about itself—and about us, its human creators? About David Ebenbach: David Ebenbach writes. He’s been writing ever since he was a kid, when he kept his whole family awake by banging away on an enormous manual typewriter, and he’s never wanted to stop. David’s now the author of ten books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, and his work has picked up awards along the way: the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, the Juniper Prize, the Patricia Bibby Award, and more. Born and raised in the great city of Philadelphia, these days David does most of his writing in Washington, DC, where he lives with his family—because he uses a laptop now, he doesn’t keep them awake with his typing—and where he works at Georgetown University, promoting inclusive, student-centered teaching at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, and teaching creative writing and literature at the Center for Jewish Civilization and creativity through the Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology Program. This week’s picks: David #1: Soundcloud David #2: Going to the Moon (Practices) by Sally Ashton Tracy: Good Eats (HBOMax) Patrick: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (Crunchyroll) Links: David Ebenbach on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 714-With David Ebenbach appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Natalie Zina Walschots, author of VILLAIN. About VILLAIN: The hench once called Anna, now known to her colleagues and enemies as the Auditor, has carved out a wicked name for herself. Any superhero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, her recent success should taste sweet: she has an incredible job with lots of perks, her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated—literally ground to a still-living pulp. But the Auditor still has her sights set on a greater work: destroying The Draft, the organization that makes, trains, and manages the world’s most powerful superheroes. These “heroes” have shown time and time again that they do more harm than good (she has the spreadsheets to prove it), and now is the time to stop the damage at its source. Yet all is not well for the Auditor and her fellow evildoers. Her employer, Leviathan—the world’s most feared supervillain—is not coping well with Supercollider’s defeat at someone else’s hands. As their relationship deepens, her work-life balance increasingly involves navigating the feelings of someone who doesn’t believe they have any. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has reappeared, forcing the Auditor to confront all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty haunt the Auditor, and the fear that their triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them. The Auditor soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she’s taken on before—not another superhero, but someone like her, someone much more dangerous: The Draft’s Chief Marketing Officer. Their conflict isn’t a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as their fight escalates, she&#8217;ll need more than preternatural pattern recognition, data analysis, and a horrific imagination to meet this challenge. It’s guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match. About Natalie Zina Walschots: Natalie cultivates fandoms, builds new communities, develops character voices, leads interactive fiction workshops, designs alternate reality games, constructs branching narratives, and most mornings opens Tumblr before opening her eyes. Her client list includes scrappy indie game studios, critically acclaimed television shows, mixed martial artists, print magazines, talk shows, NGOs, and a few more that defy categorization. Natalie’s work wins awards, grows audiences, and introduces people to the thing they often end up loving most in the world. As a writer and journalist, you can find her work in the National Post, The Walrus, Quill &amp; Quire, The Globe &amp; Mail, and beyond. She’s the author of two poetry collections, DOOM: Love Poems for Supervillains and Thumbscrews, and the novels Hench and its sequel Villain. Hench, dedicated to the plight of hench-people (the downtrodden and often expendable employees of supervillains), was a finalist on the 2021 season of Canada Reads and a nominee for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Natalie has presented at Console-ing Passions, CGSA, Digital Odyssey, TCAF/CSSC, and more. She is an active member of Dames Making Games, and has previously worked with Pixelles, Concordia’s Technoculture, Art and Games Lab, and The Hand Eye Society. She can be found causing trouble at DMG or talking about heavy metal on Banger TV. She has often been in the newspaper for swearing. She lives in Nova Scotia with her partner and four cats. This week’s picks: Natalie #1: Antigen Shift: Verified Unidentified (album) Natalie #2: Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman Tracy: Harley Quinn Vol. 1: No Good Deed Patrick: Pathfinder Bastion of Blasphemies Adventure Path Links: Natalie Zina Walschots on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 713-With Natalie Zina Walschots appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Faith Hunter, author of Unpredictable Magic. About Unpredictable Magic: Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan run Everhart Investigations, a PI firm in Chattanooga that solves paranormal crimes committed by supernatural beings. When their new client wants help finding her friend, who supposedly disappeared during a reception at Angie’s aunt Jane’s winter residence, things get&#8230; complicated. The client is not who she appears to be, and demons strike the city for the first time since the Witch War. On top of that, evidence is pointing toward the involvement of an overly ambitious vampire—who just happens to be Angie’s ex-husband. As Angie and Evan team up with CPD, they will have to dig deep into their magical reserves—and rely on some friends in high places—to rid Chattanooga of the danger creeping into their city. About Faith Hunter: Faith Hunter, urban fantasy writer, was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south. Hunter fell in love with reading in fifth grade, and best loved SciFi, fantasy, and gothic mystery. She decided to become a writer in high school, when a teacher told her she had talent. Now, she writes full-time, tries to keep house, and is a workaholic with a passion for RV travel, Japanese maples, orchids, white-water kayaking, and writing. She and her husband love to RV to whitewater rivers all over the Southeast. Under her pen name Gwen Hunter, she writes action adventure, mysteries, and thrillers. As Faith and Gwen, she has 40+ books in print in 30+ countries. This week’s picks: Faith: This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews Tracy: Ready Set Bet (Game) Patrick: Pathfinder Impossible Magic (Rulebook) Links: Faith Hunter on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 712-With Faith Hunter appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Frances White, author of THE BONE DOOR. About THE BONE DOOR: When Hop awakens in an ancient labyrinth, he has no memory of his life, or how he got here. He does not recognise the mysterious girl trapped with him. And he certainly cannot identify the shadowy figure stalking him, whispering terrible things&#8230; But there is one thing he is certain of: He must escape. The only way out of the labyrinth is through The Bone Door. But it lies behind a series of locked doors hidden across an array of strange realms. To open the way, Hop must complete impossible tasks before his time runs out. As Hop travels deeper into the maze, he discovers that he and his companions may be more connected to the place and its horrors than he could ever imagine. Unless Hop is able to unravel the true mystery of the labyrinth, and his own role within it, the Bone Door and any hope of escape will be lost forever. About Frances White: Frances White is the award winning and internationally bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned and The Bone Door. Born in Leicester and now a Nottingham resident, Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. She has a soft spot for writing unlikely, flawed, messy heroes, blurring the genre lines, and loves mixing humour and heartbreak. Frances is passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation and fat positivity into fantasy. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes for conventions or researching obscure historical facts. She has two cats, Apollo and Hermes, who she dutifully serves. This week’s picks: Frances: Two-Point Museum (Game) Tracy: Sounds Fishy (Big Potato Games) Patrick: Attack on Titan (Anime) Links: Frances White on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 711-With Frances White appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome back Michael Damian Thomas, to talk about Uncanny Magazine Year 13: The Space Unicorn Believes in YOU! About Uncanny Magazine Year 13: The Space Unicorn Believes in YOU!: We have something special planned this year, Space Unicorns. Along with it being Year 13, this year will feature our DIAMOND Issue 75! In celebration of this milestone, all of the solicited fiction contributors and two of the solicited essayists for Issue 75 have previously won an award for their Uncanny story or essay. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!? Welcome back, Space Unicorns! Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Michael Damian Thomas and Team Uncanny Magazine have run successful Kickstarters for the eight-time Hugo Award-winning, World Fantasy Award-winning, and Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative essays by writers from every conceivable background–not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content. Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists for or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Awards! The Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, our name for the Uncanny Magazine community, made it possible for our remarkable staff and contributors to create this wonderful art for all of our readers via the web or as eBooks. THANK YOU, SPACE UNICORNS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year 13 happen! Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content. Unfortunately, there is a less-than-celebratory side to this Kickstarter. Recently, a very large online eBook retailor changed its terms again, and we lost all of our subscription earnings. YOUR support, specifically, makes it possible for us to make our magazine freely available on our website and to pay our contributors and staff. We need your help more than ever, Space Unicorns! About Michael Damian Thomas: Michael Damian Thomas is the eight-time Hugo, British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Parsec Award-winning co-publisher (with Lynne M. Thomas) and editor-in-chief of the Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Michael was a Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo Award finalist essay anthology Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian Press, 2013) with Sigrid Ellis, and co-edited the anthology Glitter &amp; Mayhem (Apex Publications, 2013) with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas. Michael was additionally a contributor to the SF Squeecast podcast (with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, and Catherynne M. Valente), a contributor to the Down and Safe- Blake’s 7 podcast (with Amal El-Mohtar, Scott Lynch, and L.M. Myles), and is currently the Content Editor (with Lynne M. Thomas) of the It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton podcast. Michael was formerly the full-time caregiver of his late daughter, Caitlin. Caitlin had a rare congenital disorder called Aicardi syndrome. This week’s picks: Michael #1: AEW Wrestling Michael #2: Scotland History Tours (YouTube) Michael: Ruth Aisling: Discovering Scotland (YouTube) Tracy: The Chameleon (Big Potato Games) Patrick: Platform Decay: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Links: Uncanny Magazine Year 13 on Kickstarter Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 710-With Uncanny Magazine’s Michael Damian Thomas appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Catriona Silvey, author of VERVAIN HOLLOW. About VERVAIN HOLLOW: Two years ago, Laura was in a cult. But when the sprawling house in the hollow burned down with Vervain, their strikingly handsome and magnetic leader, trapped inside, Laura had nowhere to go but home. Brokenhearted, she finds herself longing for their lost leader—despite the trauma of that strange and terrifying year, she knows the power he promised her was real. But when her estranged friend, Aliyah, calls to tell her that Daniel, one of the other acolytes, has been lured back to the hollow by a message from Vervain, Laura only hears one thing: He’s still there. As Laura and Aliyah venture back to the house of their nightmares to find the truth, Laura soon realizes that not everything she remembers can be trusted—and that the darkness will do anything to get her back. About Catriona Silvey: Catriona Silvey was born in Glasgow and grew up in Scotland and England. After collecting an unreasonable number of degrees from various universities in the UK and the US, she moved to Edinburgh where she lives with her husband and children. She is the author of Meet Me in Another Life (2021), Love and Other Paradoxes (2025), and Vervain Hollow (2026). This week’s picks: Catriona: There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster?Who Profits and Who Pays the Price by Jessie Singer Catriona: Widow&#8217;s Bay (Apple TV) Tracy: Spider-Noir (Prime) Patrick: Solo Leveling (Crunchyroll) Links: Catriona&#8217;s Newsletter Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 709-With Catriona Silvey appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Sam J. Miller, author of Red Star Hustle. About Red Star Hustle: Aran, a happy-go-lucky high-class escort, is on the run after he’s framed for the assassination of his famous filmmaker client. The last thing he needs is to fall for the studly and noble clone of a murderous puppet monarch while he’s trying to stay one step ahead of an ace bounty hunter, who is trying to keep a fatal secret from her toxic boss/mom, which means she can’t stop to worry about a little thing like whether her target might actually be innocent. Set within a universe of epic mech battles, and billions of human-made wormholes that make traveling to a distant star as easy as walking through a door or scheduling car service. About Sam J. Miller: Sam J. Miller‘s books have been called “must reads” and “bests of the year” by USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, and O: The Oprah Magazine, among others, and have been translated into nine languages. They’ve also been banned in Florida, and stolen by AI. His work has won the Nebula, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Awards. He’s also the last in a long line of butchers. Sam lives in New York City. This week’s picks: Sam: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Tracy: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite Patrick: Song Sung Blue (Netflix) Patrick: Kinder Marinades Links: Sam J. Miller on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 708-With Sam J. Miller appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome William Bernhardt, author of The Superman Wars. About The Superman Wars: Almost everyone knows about the man from Krypton who, disguised as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent working with the fearless Lois Lane, fights for the vulnerable and the oppressed. But few know the truth about this indelible character’s creation. From mobster tactics to decades-long courtroom drama, a beloved American myth was born, betrayed, and eventually reclaimed—almost eighty years after the character first appeared. New witnesses, unpublished manuscripts, personal letters, and more reveal the complex and dramatic history of Superman and his creator, Jerry Siegel. This is a David and Goliath clash with twists, turns, and devastating upheavals. An underdog tale of a creator who fought for his rights and finally found redemption in his battle for truth, justice, and the American Way. A story that has never been fully told… Until now. About William Bernhardt: William Bernhardt is the author of over sixty books, including the Daniel Pike legal thriller series (#1 best-selling novel The Last Chance Lawyer). His previous works include the bestselling Ben Kincaid series, the historical novels Challengers of the Dust and The Florentine Poet, three books of poetry, and the Red Sneaker books on fiction writing. In addition, Bernhardt founded WriterCon Programs to mentor aspiring writers. WriterCon hosts an annual writers conference, an annual cruise, small-group writing retreats, a magazine, plus free bi-weekly e-newsletters and podcasts. More than three dozen of Bernhardt’s students have subsequently published with major houses. He is also the president/owner of Bernhardt Books, which publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. This week’s picks: William: 7 Wonders Dice (Game) Tracy: Resident Alien (Comics) Patrick: Pathfinder Quest (Board Game) Links: William Bernhardt on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 707-With William Bernhardt appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Peter Orullian, author of SONGS OF THE DEAD. About SONGS OF THE DEAD: When Jack Solomon, a struggling musician who works in London’s West End, is killed, he awakens to a new reality in which light and music are used to create magic and where living eras of the past sprawl beneath modern London, layer upon layer, all the way back to recorded history. Jack also soon discovers that many of those who reside in the stratums of London’s past have grown angry with the present world, and that their anger is being channeled by a powerful society of light-and-music-based magic wielders who can cross the realms between life and death, between the present and the past. A past where the dead are sowing revolution against the living, and all of history is at stake. About Peter Orullian: Peter Orullian is an American fantasy author, composer, and performer. As a musician, he has toured internationally—fronting various rock and metal bands—written and released multiple albums, and recently founded his own symphonic rock group, Symphony North, which focuses on building trans-media properties to combine music and narrative. The first of these, entitled The Bell Ringer, was recently released as a full concept album, and will embark on a US tour in holiday of 2026. The novelization of The Bell Ringer will release in tandem with the tour. As an author, Orullian has also novelized chart-topping concept albums for Grammy Award–winning metal giant Dream Theater. In 2012, he was shortlisted for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award. He has written numerous short stories as well as several other novels, including The Vault of Heaven, all of which use music as a driving force for worldbuilding and magical systems. Since 2018, he has been collaborating with Brandon Sanderson on developing and writing The Strata Wars series. This week’s picks: Peter #1: Sevendust: One (Album) Peter #2: Summer of Night by Dan Simmons Peter #3: Symphony North albums Tracy: Daredevil Season 1 (2015 &#8211; Netflix/Disney+) Patrick: Black Clover (Crunchyroll) Links: Peter Orullian on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 706-With Peter Orullian appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome J.P. Lacrampe, author of Valet. About Valet: Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But that’s easier said than done when he&#8217;s tasked with helping his owner’s thirty-five-year-old son “get out of his funk.” Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn’t inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn’t have a master’s degree, and he just can’t seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. He’d rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time. When Grayson learns of Charlotte’s plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It’s not just the family business at stake, it’s all the technology—like Cy—their dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would do: he steals the flash drive with his father’s most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant. To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Grayson’s first real date—and her dog—keeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust. About J.P. Lacrampe: J.P. Lacrampe received his MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College. His short fiction has been published by Glimmer Train, McSweeney&#8217;s, Instant City, and in Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit. He is a professor at Santa Clara University &amp; SJSU, where he teaches courses in composition, fiction, and screenwriting. This week’s picks: J.P. #1: Disney&#8217;s Aladdin (1992) J.P. #2: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak J.P. #2: Deer seen swimming in San Francisco Bay far from shore Tracy: Corn on the cob Patrick #1: Witch Hat Atelier (Crunchyroll) Patrick #2: The Home Depot Hot Dog Cart Links: J.P. Lacrampe on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 705-With J.P. Lacrampe appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Seanan McGuire, author of STRIXHAVEN: OMENS OF CHAOS. About STRIXHAVEN: OMENS OF CHAOS: Eula Blue was supposed to be a mage. That was before the war came—before the fight for the Multiverse devastated Eula’s home, and with it her hopes for a magical education. But the destruction of the war also brought something new: the ability to travel to other planes. And when Eula receives an invitation to study magic at a distant school called Strixhaven, she leaps to take it. To make it through their first semester, they’ll have to fight for their place in this new world—or else they’ll be dead before their final exams. About Seanan McGuire: Seanan McGuire lives and works in Washington State, where she shares her somewhat idiosyncratic home with her collection of books, creepy dolls, and enormous blue cats. When not writing–which is fairly rare–she enjoys travel, and can regularly be found any place where there are cornfields, haunted houses, or frogs. A Campbell, Hugo, and Nebula Award-winning author, Seanan’s first book (Rosemary and Rue, the beginning of the October Daye series) was released in 2009, with more than twenty books across various series following since. Seanan doesn’t sleep much. This week’s picks: Seanan: How to Survive Camping: The Man With No Shadow by Bonnie Quinn Tracy: Aye, Dark Overlord! (Game) Patrick: 3D Printed Life Tracker/HP Counter Links: Seanan McGuire on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 704-With Seanan McGuire appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Naomi Kritzer, author of Obstetrix. About Obstetrix: Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she&#8217;s kidnapped. They&#8217;re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN. Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped. She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it&#8217;s the last thing she does. About Naomi Kritzer: NAOMI KRITZER has been re-reading favorite books since childhood, and probably still has passages from A Wrinkle in Time memorized. She writes for both adults and teens, including Catfishing on CatNet and Chaos on CatNet from Tor Teen and Liberty&#8217;s Daughter from Fairwood Press. Her writing has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Award, the Locus Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. Naomi lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family and three cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice. This week’s picks: Naomi #1: Schmigadoon! (AppleTV) Naomi #2: A Dubious Clamor by Marissa Lingen Naomi #3: The Mirror Realm Cycle Series by Ariel Kaplan Tracy: Invincible (comics) Patrick: The Apothecary Diaries (Crunchyroll) Links: Naomi Kritzer on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 703-With Naomi Kritzer appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Amal El-Mohtar, author of Seasons of Glass and Iron. About Seasons of Glass and Iron: Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar. With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose. Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories includes &#8220;Seasons of Glass and Iron,&#8221; &#8220;The Green Book,&#8221; &#8220;Madeleine,&#8221; &#8220;The Lonely Sea in the Sky,&#8221; &#8220;And Their Lips Rang with the Sun,&#8221; &#8220;The Truth About Owls,&#8221; &#8220;A Hollow Play,&#8221; &#8220;Anabasis,&#8221; &#8220;To Follow the Waves,&#8221; &#8220;John Hollowback and the Witch,&#8221; &#8220;Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers,&#8221; &#8220;Pockets,&#8221; and more. About Amal El-Mohtar: Amal El-Mohtar is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and criticism. Her stories and poems have appeared in magazines including Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Apex, Stone Telling, and Mythic Delirium; anthologies including The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories (2017), The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (2016), Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (2014), and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (2011); and in her own collection, The Honey Month (2010). She is co-author, with Max Gladstone, of the multiple award-winning This is How You Lose the Time War. Her articles and reviews have appeared in the New York Times, NPR Books and on Tor.com. She has been the New York Times&#8217;s science fiction and fantasy columnist since February 2018, and she is represented by DongWon Song of HMLA. This week’s picks: Amal #1: Clues by Sam &#8211; Puzzles Amal #2: Heated Rivalry (HBO) Amal #3: Goin for a Walk Amal #4: Time of Iron book series by Sarah Rees Brennan Tracy: A Short History of Stupid by Bernard Keane &amp; Helen Razer Patrick: Marty, Life Is Short (Netflix) Links: Amal El-Mohtar&#8217;s Newsletter Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 702-With Amal El-Mohtar appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Anton Hur, translator of If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Cho-yeop. About If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Cho-yeop: An elderly woman stranded in a defunct space station recounts her life story to a visitor as she waits for a vessel that may never arrive. A man comes across a company called Emotional Solids that sells emotions as material products—love as a piece of chocolate, sadness as a smooth stone, anger as a glass paperweight—and tries to understand why people would want to purchase any negative emotions. When an enigmatic artist reveals long-forgotten messages from beyond through her wildly original paintings portraying a planet from a time long before humanity formed, a team of researchers investigate if this planet truly existed and if so, how did this artist know of it? After a pregnant woman’s estranged mother dies suddenly, her avatar disappears from the library of lost souls where the digital minds of the deceased are stored—and the woman is forced, for the first time, to endeavor to understand her mother. In a future utopian society where gene selection has been made uniform and all those with imperfections are cast aside, one woman seeks the truth about the history of her isolated world. And when a young woman undertakes a never-before-accomplished journey through a wormhole, she must reckon with the legacy of her aunt, who vanished mysteriously days before she was meant to begin the same pilgrimage. About Anton Hur: A translator and author working in Seoul. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, and raised in British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, and Thailand, but mostly in Korea. Author of Toward Eternity (HarperVia) and No One Told Me Not To (Across Books). Repped by Safae El-Ouahabi at RCW. This week’s picks: Anton: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw Tracy: Milk Oolong Full-Leaf Tea Patrick: Frieren: Beyond Journey&#8217;s End (Netflix) Links: Anton Hur on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 701-With Anton Hur appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jeremy Szal, author of WOLFSKIN. About WOLFSKIN: Vakov Fukasawa is a Reaper. An elite soldier injected with a dangerous drug called stormtech: the DNA of a genocidal alien race, the Shenoi. It makes him stronger, faster, more aggressive. At a price. A price that, if the House of Suns cult and the dangerous Shenoi alien race behind it, isn&#8217;t stopped, all of humanity will have to pay&#8230; About Jeremy Szal: Jeremy Szal was born in 1995 and was raised by wild dingoes, which should explain a lot. He writes dark science fiction of a character-driven, morally grey nature. His main series is The Common Trilogy, which includes STORMBLOOD, BLINDSPACE and WOLFSKIN, about a drug harvested from alien DNA that makes users permanently addicted to aggression and adrenaline. The books are published by Gollancz/Orion across nine territories. He carves out a living in Sydney, Australia with his family. He loves watching weird movies, collecting boutique gins, exploring cities, cold weather, and dark humour. Find him at various social media websites at @JeremySzal. This week’s picks: Jeremy: NO OTHER CHOICE (Movie) Tracy: Batman: The Adventures Continue (Comics) Patrick: Tidyboss Straightening Clips Set of 4 for 1 24&#215;36 Battle Game Mat Links: Jeremy Szal on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 700-With Jeremy Szal appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Molly Tanzer, author of And Side by Side They Wander. About And Side by Side They Wander: For three hundred years, humanity’s greatest works of art have been on loan at the Greenwood Museum. It was finally time for them to come home&#8230;but the alien curators were disinclined to return them. Force was out of the question. Earth’s government was clear: They were not going to press the issue. So, all we had was guile and hubris to fuel our little intergalactic art heist. My old friend Tarquin was our leader, but not the captain. That was Tchik-tchik, though whether Tchik-tchik was our insectoid pilot’s name or species is still unclear to me. Misora, with her extremely illegal biotech mods, was our muscle. Jack was there to hack the security systems of the biggest museum in the galaxy. He was a sensynth, a sentient synthetic being, and the most powerful machine intelligence on Earth uncorrupted by alien technology. My name is Fennel Tycho. I’d like to tell you I was there because of my expertise in Art History. Truth is, I was there because without me, Jack would not have agreed to go. He was notorious for being difficult to work with—but it was a mistake to think I could make things any easier. About Molly Tanzer: Molly Tanzer is the author of five novels, two collections, and many works of short fiction. Her work has been nominated for the Locus Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Wonderland Book Award, and her official revival of the sword and sorcery heroine Jirel of Joiry has been nominated for the Robert E. Howard Society’s Costigan Award. Her novel Creatures of Charm and Hunger won the Colorado Book Award in 2021, and her work adapting manga for English-speaking audiences has been nominated for the American Manga Awards. This May, her novella And Side by Side They Wander will be published by Tordotcom. She lives close to Boulder, CO with her many houseplants. This week’s picks: Molly: Frieren: Beyond Journey&#8217;s End (Netflix) Tracy: Forest Shuffle (Card Game) Patrick: Hidden Wonders: Chessex Mystery Dice Sets Links: Molly Tanzer on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 699-With Molly Tanzer appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Tao Wong, author of The First Step. About The First Step: It is said that a journey of a thousand li begins with a single step&#8230; Long Wu Ying never expected to become a real cultivator, never dreamed of having the chance to train and develop wondrous martial arts skills and magic of his own. As a farmer’s son in a rural village, his days were spent studying, planting rice, and spending time with his friends. Fate, however, has different plans for him. Conscripted into the army and taken from everything he knows, Wu Ying’s chance observation of an incoming ambush prevents a bloody rout—and brings him to the attention of the powerful Verdant Green Waters sect, an elite school of cultivation. Invited to join the sect as a novice, Wu Ying is thrown into a world he is utterly unprepared for, one filled with demonic beasts, haughty nobles, and, most of all, the very real possibility of reaching immortality—if he’s brave enough to seize it. About Tao Wong: Tao Wong is the author of the A Thousand Li progression fantasy series and the System Apocalypse LitRPG series, among others. When he’s not writing and working, he’s practicing martial arts, reading, and dreaming up new worlds. He lives in Toronto, Canada. This week’s picks: Tao: The Longest Day in Chang&#8217;an (Chinese TV Show) Tracy: Takenoko (Board Game) Patrick: Paul McCartney: Man on the Run (Documentary) Links: Tao Wong on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 698-With Tao Wong appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Chu, author of The Subtle Art of Folding Space. About The Subtle Art of Folding Space: Ellie’s universe?and this one?is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it’s supposed to. Daniel, Ellie&#8217;s cousin, has found an illicit device in the skunkworks?one that keeps Ellie&#8217;s comatose mother alive while also creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of this universe. It&#8217;s not a good day. If she can confront her mother’s legacy and overcome her family’s generational trauma, she just might find a way to preserve the skunkworks and reconcile with her sister…but digging into her family’s past is thornier than it seems, and the secrets she uncovers will force Ellie to choose between her family and the universe itself. About John Chu: John Chu is a microprocessor architect by day, a writer, translator, and podcast narrator by night. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming at Boston Review, Uncanny, Asimov&#8217;s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Tor.com among other venues. His translations have been published or is forthcoming at Clarkesworld, The Big Book of SF and other venues. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte Awards, won the Best Short Story Hugo for &#8220;The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere.&#8221; and won the Best Novelette Nebula for &#8220;If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You.&#8221; His novel, The Subtle Art of Folding Space will be published by Tor in April, 2026. This week’s picks: John: Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi Tracy: Japanese Curry Blocks Patrick: The 13th Warrior Links: John Chu&#8217;s Newsletter Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 697-With John Chu appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Michael R. Underwood, author of Menagerie of Mayhem: Volume 1. About Menagerie of Mayhem: Volume 1: Menagerie of Mayhem: Volume 1 introduces 35 new adversaries for the Daggerheart fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, including multi-phase foes like the Blood Mage and adversary groups such as the ferocious Umbral Hunting Pack and the nihilistic Congregation of the End. This is part one of a multi-part series of short adversary books. If this volume does well enough, there will be more, with the intent to have them all eventually collected in one larger book with a print edition. About Michael R. Underwood: Michael R. Underwood is an author, podcaster, and publishing professional. His series include the Ree Reyes Geekomancy books, the Stabby Award finalist Genrenauts series, and Born to the Blade. He’s been a bookseller, sales representative, and the North American Sales &amp; Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. His writing has been a finalist for the r/Fantasy Stabby Award for Best Serialized Fiction and he was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast with the Skiffy &amp; Fanty Show. He was a finalist for Best Game Master (Video Actual Play) at the New Jersey WebFest for Valloward. He was an additional designer for Darrington Press’ Daggerheart core rulebook, lead designer of the Marauders of Windfall adventure, additional designer on the Quickstart Adventure, and co-writer of the Daggerheart Homebrew Kit. He was also a game design consultant and additional writer for Candela Obscura and self-published his sci-fi comedy rpg The Only Logical Solution is Hijinx. Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with games and making pizzas from scratch. This week’s picks: Mike: Pistolheart Vol 1 by Carlos Cisco Tracy: Skull (Game) Patrick: Young Sherlock (Prime) Links: Michael R. Underwood on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 696-With Michael R. Underwood appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Damien Ober, author of Voidverse. About Voidverse: When the Sinker was a child, all she knew was violence. To survive, she fled into the Void—a seemingly infinite nothingness where people live on “rocks,” individual lands spread out in all directions, floating in the vast empty space. Some rocks are giant magnets, others burn with eternal flame, and some are influenced by seemingly magical anomalies with such great powers that evil forces would stop at nothing to possess them. And while most are afraid of traveling through the Void, the Sinker is not. With a sword on her back, she speeds through the darkness, running from a past that is quickly gaining on her. Emery only knows the comfort of Fairviel, but when her son falls ill and the Sinker arrives on her doorstep, she ventures into the Void in search of a cure. When she returns, Fairviel is destroyed. With no home, Emery begins to sink, chasing a recurring dream that feels bigger than a dream, that feels like the key to everything. But they are not alone in the Void. Mercenaries rise and fall around them, princes and kings guard their kingdoms, and a great machine fuels its ascent by consuming all in its path. With the Void destabilizing, Emery and the Sinker find themselves at a turning point in history, a moment when everything could collapse or realign, and the only thing that may save them exists at the bottom of it all. Or so legend says&#8230; About Damien Ober: Damien Ober is a novelist and screenwriter. He was a writer for the Netflix series The OA and has written scripts and developed TV shows for Paramount+, AMC, Netflix, and Warner Brothers. His work has appeared in The Rumpus, NOON, B O D Y Literature, The Baltimore City Paper, VLAK, and port.man.teau. He was a co-winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award, was nominated for a 2012 Pushcart Prize, and his screenplay Randle Is Benign was selected for the 2013 Black List. This week’s picks: Damien: Star Trek: Ascendancy (Board Game) Tracy: Sea Salt &amp; Paper (Game) Patrick: The Game Master&#8217;s Book of Instant Towns and Cities by Jeff Ashworth (Author), Tim Baker (Author), Matheus Graef (Illustrator), Luke Eidenschink (Illustrator) &amp; more Links: Damien Ober on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 695-With Damien Ober appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Aubrey Sitterson, author of Free Planet Volume 1. About Free Planet Volume 1: In the wake of a grueling war of independence, a team of revolutionary heroes is tasked with defending their home and its uniquely potent energy source from multiple intergalactic superpowers intent on domination. But though they are each deeply committed to the dream of a free planet, they all have completely different ideas about what complete freedom actually entails. Faced with separatist movements, counterrevolutionaries, political deadlock, famine, equipment shortages, a looming trade war, violent attacks and wildly divergent ideas of how to handle each, can true freedom endure? Informed by real-world research and extensive design work, Aubrey Sitterson (The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling, No One Left to Fight) and Jed Dougherty (Savage Hearts, Worlds’ Finest) have created a comic that functions as both literature and art object, a rumination on freedom, the sacrifices it demands, the discipline it requires and the authority that must arise in its absence. About Aubrey Sitterson: Aubrey Sitterson is a Los Angeles based writer, best known for the science-fantasy action comic No One Left to Fight, co-created with Fico Ossio; The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling graphic novel, co-created with Chris Moreno; and the successfully crowdfunded BEEF BROS, co-created with Tyrell Cannon, and Stoned Master, again with Chris Moreno. He has written for all of the industry&#8217;s top publishers, including Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, BOOM!, Oni, Dynamite and Viz. This week’s picks: Aubrey: The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk Tracy: Origin Story (Game) Patrick: Falling Skies (Netflix) Links: Aubrey Sitterson on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 694-With Aubrey Sitterson appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Laura K. Maurer, author of THE RENEGADE AND THE LODESTAR. About THE RENEGADE AND THE LODESTAR: Persephone is living a nightmare. Waking up on a cold, hard ground with air that smells like rot, the young goddess fills with horror as she remembers her sudden and unexpected demise. And now trapped in the realm of the dead, she clings to the dwindling hope of escape. Hades won’t be stopped. Vowing to find his beloved and bring her back to the surface, he and his brother search fruitlessly for the opening unseen by the living&#8230; until they find an unlikely path. And as he descends into the Underworld, he finds himself face to face with a ferocious three-headed, six-eyed beast. Learning she was betrayed and sent down below as part of a perverse plot, Persephone scrambles to test her powers as she thwarts the monster planning to make her his queen. While Hades battles seas of shades, inky dangers, and an endless labyrinth to reach the woman he can&#8217;t live without. Can Persephone and Hades survive harpies, enemies and a dark world to be reunited? About Laura K. Maurer: Laura has degrees in English and Comparative Religion from the University of Iowa. Born and raised in Springfield, Illinois, Laura is a Pilates teacher and jewelry designer who has sold literature-related jewelry in libraries and theaters throughout Southern California. She currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband and son where she teaches Pilates and writes at her local library. This week’s picks: Laura: Death By Lightning (Netflix) Tracy: A Place for All My Books (Board game) Patrick: Pathbinder Battles Miniatures (Paizo) Links: Laura K. Maurer on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 693-With Laura K. Maurer appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Seamus Sullivan, author of Daedalus Is Dead. About Daedalus Is Dead: Daedalus of Crete is many things: The greatest architect in the world. The constructor of the Labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur. And the grieving father of Icarus, who plunged into the sea as father and son flew from the grasp of the tyrannical King Minos. Now, Daedalus seeks to reunite with Icarus in the Underworld, even as he revisits his own memories of Crete, hoping to understand what went so terribly wrong at the end of his son&#8217;s life. Daedalus will confront any terror to see Icarus again?whether it&#8217;s the cruel punishments of Tartarus, the cunning Queen Persephone, or the insatiable ghost of the Minotaur. But the truth, stalking Daedalus in the labyrinth of his own heart, might be too monstrous for him to bear. About Seamus Sullivan: Seamus Sullivan’s fiction has appeared in Terraform and his book reviews have appeared in Strange Horizons. He lives in Jersey City with his family. Deadalus is Dead is his first novel. This week’s picks: Seamus: &#8220;The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming&#8221; &#8211; No-No Boy Tracy: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) Patrick: The Search for Planet X: Renegade Game Studio &amp; Foxtrot Games (Board Game) Links: Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 692-With Seamus Sullivan appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Katie Cook, author of NOTHING SPECIAL. About NOTHING SPECIAL: In the grand scheme of the worlds at large, Callie thinks she’s nothing special. Sure, she’s friends with the ghost of a radish and her dad owns a magical antique shop–but she’s spent her life in the human world. Her dad won’t let her join him on his collection trips in the magical realm “for her own protection”, so she’s only caught glimpses of that world through the gates of the town where her father’s store is. On her seventeenth birthday, Callie goes home with her friend Declan to find her home in disarray and her dad missing. Signs of a struggle point to the portal to the magical realm and when there are signs, you follow them. Now it’s up to Callie, Declan, and Radish to band together and bring him home. As they face creatures good and bad, and all sorts of adventure, Callie and Declan may just find out that they are both special in their own ways after all. About Katie Cook: Katie Cook is the creator of the Nothing Special webcomic on Webtoon and the oldie-but-goodie webcomic Gronk: A Monster’s Story (which was one of the first webcomics archived by the library of congress!). She spent several years as one of the primary writers on IDW’s My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic comics to the point that they made her a pony on the show (really). Then there’s all those books she has illustrated and written for a tiny franchise called “Star Wars”. Maybe it’ll take off one day. Time will tell. She has also written and drawn comics for Marvel, Disney Publishing, Boom! and many other publishers. This week’s picks: Katie: 31 Days of Drawing Things You Don&#8217;t Normally Draw: Quiznos Spongemonkeys Tracy: That&#8217;s Not a Hat (Game) Patrick: Stranger Things 5 (Netflix) Links: Katie Cook on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 691-With Katie Cook appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy look back on 2025 and towards 2026 in a rare and very special Just Us episode. We chat about our favorite episodes from 2025, our favorite authors and more! If you like what we do, and enjoyed this very special Just Us episode, consider joining The Functional Nerds Patreon Page! We put out a Patron&#8217;s Only Just Us episode very month. Thanks for listening! Links: Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2026 Patrick Hester The post Episode 690-Just Us and the New Year appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Emily Mitchell to talk about her new short story collection The Church of Divine Electricity. About The Church of Divine Electricity: Delightfully blending literary fiction with speculative genres, the stories in The Church of Divine Electricity somehow manage to feel as though they could take place today. In Emily Mitchell’s created worlds, as in our own, technology bewitches, especially with its ability to heighten both connections and isolation. Whether being held by a giant and comforting machine, allowing micro-drones to record one’s every moment for a year to win prize money, or choosing self-mutilation in exchange for a bionic hand, these characters navigate technological and social change. The familiar can turn unrecognizable and disorienting—sometimes in a flash, sometimes gradually. Lyrical, haunting, and often funny, these stories ask us to consider what—and who—gets left out of a seemingly utopian future of technological advancements. Finely observed, thoughtful, and vivid, Mitchell’s stories get under your skin. It’s not that the best-laid plans could lead us astray—it’s that they may already have. About Emily Mitchell: Emily Mitchell grew up in London, England and moved to the United States as a teenager. She is the author of a novel, The Last Summer of the World (W. W. Norton, 2007), which was a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Award, and two collections of short fiction, Viral (W. W. Norton, 2015) and The Church of Divine Electricity, winner of the 2023 Elixir Press Fiction Prize, forthcoming from University of Wisconsin Press in fall 2025. Her stories have appeared in Harpers’, The Sun, The Southern Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, American Short Fiction and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times, the New Statesman (UK), Guernica and the Washington Independent Review of Books. She is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Can Serrat International Artists Residency. She serves as fiction editor for New England Review and teaches at the University of Maryland. She lives just outside Washington DC with her husband, the writer and editor J. M. Tyree. This week’s picks: Emily #1: Tainaron by Leena Krohn Emily #2: Death by Lightning (Netflix) Tracy: Ranch Oyster Crackers (just subtract the dill for Tracy&#8217;s version) Patrick #1: Everspace 2 (Steam) Patrick #2: The Glass Cannon Podcast Campaign 3: Shadowdark Links: Emily Mitchell on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 689-With Emily Mitchell appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jordan Marshall, who backed the Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns Kickstarter at the THIRD NERD level! Jordan is working with a group of game developers on a new TTRPG: WE BEGIN AT MIDNIGHT! This week’s picks: Jordan: London Fog Tracy: G-shaft candy Patrick: Southern Comfort Eggnog Links: Jordan Marshall on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 688-With Jordan Marshall appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Marie Lu, author of RED CITY. About RED CITY: Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world’s elites in the form of sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more. Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city—and the paths of their lives—will be irrevocably transformed. The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates’ brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off across opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war. About Marie Lu: Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 15 novels, including Legend, The Young Elites, Warcross, Skyhunter, and Stars And Smoke. Her adult debut, Red City, releases on Oct. 14, 2025. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as an artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. This week’s picks: Marie Lu #1: Legends &amp; Lattes by Travis Baldree Marie Lu #2: Milk Frother Tracy: A Man on the Inside S2 (Netflix) Patrick: A Charlie Brown Christmas Album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio Links: Marie Lu on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 687-With Marie Lu appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Daniel H. Wilson, author of Hole in the Sky. About Hole in the Sky: On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.” Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson’s unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans’ understanding of reality. About Daniel H. Wilson: Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and the multiple New York Times bestselling author of techno-thrillers such as Robopocalypse, The Clockwork Dynasty, and The Andromeda Evolution (an authorized sequel to the Crichton classic). He earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Masters degrees in Machine Learning and Robotics. His next novel, Hole in the Sky, is a story of Native First Contact, releasing October 7th, 2025. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon. This week’s picks: Daniel: Die Hard: The Musical Tracy: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow Patrick: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Steam) Links: Daniel H. Wilson on Facebook Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 686-With Daniel H. Wilson appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Sara Raasch, author of The Entanglement of Rival Wizards. About The Entanglement of Rival Wizards: Sebastian Walsh: Evocation Department. Human. The first of his family to pick college over the military. Elethior Tourael: Conjuration Department. Half-elf. Pretentious asshole. The latest legacy Tourael at Lesiara U. Both: Mageus Research Grant finalists. Sebastian refuses to let anyone snatch this away, least of all a snob riding on old money. But what’s worse than a nemesis stealing your grant? You could both get it. Under the condition you work together. Sebastian is in hell. Thio’s broody. Takes up their shared lab space with his projects . . . and biceps. Brings treats for Sebastian’s familiar . . . . . . and is nothing like Sebastian thought. When Sebastian’s past with the Touraels forces him to choose his research or Thio, the decision should be simple. But while working with his rival is volatile . . . falling for his rival might blow up Sebastian’s future. About Sara Raasch: Sara Raasch has known she was destined for bookish things since the age of five, when her friends had a lemonade stand and she tagged along to sell her hand-drawn picture books too. Not much has changed since then — her friends still cock concerned eyebrows when she attempts to draw things and her enthusiasm for the written word still drives her to extreme measures. She is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of multiple books for teens, including the historical romantasy duology WITCH AND HUNTER, cowritten with Beth Revis; as well as romances for adults, such as THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE KISSMAS, GO LUCK YOURSELF, and THE ENTANGLEMENT OF RIVAL WIZARDS. This week’s picks: Sara: A Normal Week At Home with the Fam Tracy: Othello (game) Patrick: Critical Role&#8217;s The Mighty Nein (Prime) Links: Sara Raasch on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 685-With Sara Raasch appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome back Beth Cato, author of A House Between Sea and Sky. About A House Between Sea and Sky: Grieving Hollywood writer Fayette Wynne arrives in Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1926 to finish her latest project in peace. All alone, save for the preternatural sourdough starter her family has nurtured for years, Fayette is also resentful. The proven healing powers of the bread made with her starter were insufficient to save her beloved mother. For Fayette, it’s time to try and push past the pain and anger and move on. Then, during a violent storm, Fayette saves rising star Rex Hallstrom during a moment of crisis. Their shelter: a peculiar cliffside house, its door flung open as if beckoning them. Sentient, curious, and lonely, it recognizes in Fayette a unique magic even older than its own. In the days that follow, as a friendship grows between Fayette and Rex, they discover local legends surrounding the isolated house: It appeared in the span of a single night, its cursed origins said to be Hell itself. But for two souls who need to move forward, it provides unexpected comfort and hope. In fact, Fayette and Rex have never felt more alive. Neither has the house, whose mysteries are unending and whose wicked history may be too powerful to ignore. About Beth Cato: Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in Red Wing, Minnesota. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. A 2015 Nebula finalist, she is the author of the cozy mystery CHEDDAR LUCK NEXT TIME as well as fantasy like A THOUSAND RECIPES FOR REVENGE. Her short stories can be found in publications ranging from Beneath Ceaseless Skies to Uncanny Magazine. In 2019 and 2022, she won the Rhysling Award for short speculative poetry. Her website BethCato.com includes not only a vast bibliography, but a treasure trove of recipes for delectable goodies. Find her on BlueSky as @BethCato and Instagram as @catocatsandcheese. This week’s picks: Beth: Meg Shaffer author of The Wishing Game, the Lost Story and the Book Witch Tracy: The Great British Baking Show (Netflix) Patrick: Down Cemetery Road (AppleTV) Links: Beth Cato on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 684-With Beth Cato appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Lyndsay Ely, author of The Lost Reliquary. About The Lost Reliquary: The Devoted Lands was once home to many gods. Now, after centuries of brutal wars, only Tempestra-Innara, the Enduring Flame, remains. As a divine warrior, Lys is outwardly loyal to her goddess. If she dreams of deicide, that’s her business. When a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a glimmer of hope for her freedom. Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary with the power to kill a god. Annoyingly, she’s not alone. Paired with Nolan, a warrior from a rival cloister who is as pious as he is determined, Lys must feign devotion if she hopes to keep her own god-killing ambitions within reach. But as they pursue the heretics linked to the assassination, Lys uncovers a world with more possibility—and peril—than she ever anticipated. About Lyndsay Ely: Lyndsay spent her teenage years wanting to be a comic book artist but as it turned out, she couldn’t draw very well, so she began writing instead. She is a geek, a foodie, former publishing minion, and has never met an antique shop or flea market she didn’t like. Boston is the place she currently calls home, though she wouldn’t mind giving Paris a try someday. Like many authors, she&#8217;d be thrilled if you purchased her books, but most especially if you get them from your local indie bookstore. This week’s picks: Lyndsay: Goetze&#8217;s Pumpkin Pie Caramel Creams Tracy: Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant Patrick: Haxtec Spinner Dice 7-in-1 Metal DND Dice Set Links: Lyndsay Ely on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 683-With Lyndsay Ely appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Auston Habershaw, author of Faceless Galaxy. About Faceless Galaxy: Throughout the gutters and sanitation systems of the civilized galaxy, amorphous, nameless blobs called Torrhoids digest other species’ trash to clean air and water. The Great Races don’ t consider Torrhoids intelligent. But when one Torrhoid receives a baffling kindness, its curiosity ignites. The shapeshifter discovers it can mimic its overlords— not only their voices, but their forms and movements, too. It can escape the prison planet where it is kept cold, hungry, and fighting for life. It can evade those who would throw it back into the sewers. With ingenuity, quick thinking, and the power of surprise, it can strike down even the oligarchs and influence traders who rule the galaxy. So begins the career of the assassin known only as &#8220;Faceless&#8221;. Still learning the cultures of the beings it impersonates, testing the limits of its abilities, and evading revulsion for its natural form, Faceless is never far from detection and death. Ethics are a luxury it can ill afford. But as the stories of this sharp, twisty cyberpunk collection prove, a gutter scavenger’s justice may still beat an empire’s. About Auston Habershaw: On the day Auston Habershaw was born, Skylab fell from the heavens. This foretold two possible fates: supervillain or scifi/fantasy author. Fortunately he chose the latter, and spends his time imagining the could-be and the never-was rather than disintegrating the moon with his volcano laser. He lives and works in Boston, MA. Auston is a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest (2nd place in quarter 1, 2014) and has published stories in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Escape Pod, among other places. His fantasy series, The Saga of the Redeemed is available through Harper Voyager Impulse. This week’s picks: Auston: UFO 50 (Game) Tracy: A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny Patrick #1: Tom Clancy&#8217;s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch (Netflix) Patrick #2: Who Killed The Montreal Expos? (Netflix) Links: Auston Habershaw on BluSky Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 682-With Auston Habershaw appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mark Waddell, author of Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World. About Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World: Colin is a low-level employee at Dark Enterprises, a Hell-like multinational corporation solving the world’s most difficult problems in deeply questionable ways. After years of toiling away in a cubicle, he’s ready to climb the corporate ladder and claim the power he’s never had. The only problem is, he’s pretty sure he’s about to be terminated. Like, terminated. That’s tough, because his BFF has just set him up with a great guy. In fact, maybe he’s a little too great. And he asks a lot of questions&#8230; When Colin meets a shadowy figure promising his deepest desire in return for a small, unspecified favor, he can’t resist the urge to fast-track his goals. He asks for the one thing that will improve his life: a promotion. But that small favor unleashes an ancient evil. People in New York are disappearing, the world might be ending, and Management is starting to notice. Getting to the top is never easy, and now it’s up to Colin to save the world. It’s the ultimate power move, after all. About Mark Waddell: Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Mark grew up on the cold, windswept Prairies of western Canada. Fleeing southward, he earned a Ph.D. in the history of science, medicine, and technology from the Johns Hopkins University and then enjoyed fifteen years of non-stop excitement as a humanities professor. Finally yearning for greener pastures, he persuaded his amazing husband to move to Vancouver Island, where they now live. When not writing stories about murderous Canadians, he plays the viola in a local orchestra, walks his dogs along the seashore, and thinks up interesting ways to kill people. This week’s picks: Mark: The Great British Bake Off (Netflix) Tracy: Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher Patrick: Invasion (AppleTV) Links: Mark Waddell on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 681-With Mark Waddell appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Louis Sachar, author of The Magician of Tiger Castle. About The Magician of Tiger Castle: Long ago and far away (and somewhere south of France) lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia’s father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the “wedding of the century,” Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures—the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold—he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and, of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess—or risk ruin? About Louis Sachar: LOUIS SACHAR is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Holes, which won the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award. His other books include Small Steps, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award; The Cardturner, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, Dogs Don’t Tell Jokes, The Boy Who Lost His Face, and There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, which won more than twenty-four state children’s choice awards voted on exclusively by children. For younger readers he’s written the Marvin Redpost series and the Wayside School books. His first book for adults is The Magician of Tiger Castle. This week’s picks: Louis: Galactic Cruise (Board Game) Tracy: Andor Patrick: Pathfinder Quest &#8211; a cooperative adventure board game (Paizo) Links: Contact Louis Sachar Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 680-With Louis Sachar appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Wiswell, author of Wearing the Lion. About Wearing the Lion: Sometimes a goddess&#8217;s worst enemy is her biggest fan. Heracles, hero of Greece, dedicates all his feats to the goddess Hera. If only he knew that his very face is an insult to her&#8230;as he is yet another child that Hera’s dipshit husband, Zeus, had out of wedlock. “Auntie Hera” loathes every minute of Heracles’ devotion, until she snaps and causes an unspeakably tragic accident: the death of Heracles&#8217; children. Plunged into grief and desperate for revenge, Heracles is determined to find the god that did this. Wracked with guilt and desperate to save face, Hera distracts Heracles with monster-slaying quests, only to find that he is too traumatized to enact more violence. Instead, Heracles cares for the Nemean lion, bonds with the Lernaean hydra, and heeds the Ceryneian hind. Each challenge adds a new monster to Heracles&#8217; newfound family. A family that just might lay siege to Mount Olympos. About John Wiswell: John Wiswell is a Nebula-winning and Locus-winning author who lives in the middle of the woods. His debut novel, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN, was released from DAW Books in the U.S. and Arcadia Books in the U.K. in April 2024. John&#8217;s work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, LeVar Burton Reads, Nature Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy &amp; Science Fiction, Weird Tales, the No Sleep podcast, Nightmare Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and other fine venues. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. His fiction has been translated into ten languages. He graduated Bennington College in 2005, and attended the Viable Paradise 17 workshop in 2013. He has multiple disabilities including a neuromuscular syndrome, and thinks healthy people&#8217;s capacity to complain is very funny. He finds a lot of things very funny and would like to keep it that way. He is frequently available for interview and for talks at conferences. He has done panels at places such as Worldcon, the Nebula Awards Conference, and the World Fantasy Convention. He posted fiction daily on this blog for six straight years, and has left every embarrassing and inspiring word of it up to read for free. If you&#8217;d like to see a writer develop style, it&#8217;s all there. You can point and laugh. He probably can&#8217;t hear you. This week’s picks: John: Herdling (Video game Tracy: Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 1 by Stan Sakai Patrick: Starfinder: Murder in Metal City Deluxe Adventure Links: John Wiswell on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 679-With John Wiswell appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jakub Szamalek, author of Inner Space. About Inner Space: When an ammonia leak threatens the astronauts on the International Space Station, NASA directs Lucy Poplasky, one of the ISS’s first female commanders, to investigate the cause. Russia has just invaded Ukraine and tensions are running high—could the leak be a brazen act of sabotage? The Russian cosmonauts aboard deny tampering with the ship’s systems and insist on the issue stems from the American side. As levels of the poisonous gas rise, Lucy’s investigation shatters trust between the Russian and Western crews, exposing deep fissures in the partnership thousands of miles below. Intense and unrelenting, Inner Space questions what truly draws us to the stars: the urge to explore the unknown, selfish ambition, or an instinct to run away from the entrenched troubles on Earth? About Jakub Szamalek: Jakub Szamalek is Narrative Director at Rebel Wolves game studio. Born in Poland in 1986, he studied in the UK, at Oxford and then Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge Gates Scholar. He is an author and the writer behind the international video game bestsellers, including The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Blood of Dawnwalker. He lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with his family. He wrote the award-winning The Hidden Web series of thrillers, which has been adapted into a major motion picture by Monolith Films, and his crime novels have been awarded the Best Polish Crime Novel and Zloty Pocisk prizes. Jakub has been named among Eastern and Central Europe’s Young Leaders by the Res Publica Foundation. This week’s picks: Jakub: The Naked Gun (2025) Tracy: The Man Who Died Seven Times by YASUHIKO NISHIZAWA (Author), Jesse Kirkwood (Translator) Patrick: Pathfinder Game Night: Dawn of the Frogs Links: Jakub Szamalek on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 678-With Jakub Szamalek appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Daphne Fama, author of House of Monstrous Women. About House of Monstrous Women: In this game, there’s one rule: survive. Orphaned after her father’s political campaign ended in tragedy, Josephine is alone taking care of the family home while her older brother is off in Manila, where revolution brews. But an unexpected invitation from her childhood friend Hiraya to her house offers an escape&#8230; Why don’t you come visit, and we can play games like we used to? If Josephine wins, she’ll get whatever her heart desires. Her brother is invited, too, and it’s time they had a talk. Josephine’s heard the dark whispers: Hiraya is a witch and her family spits curses. But still, she’s just desperate enough to seize this chance to change her destiny. Except the Ranoco house is strange, labyrinthine, and dangerously close to a treacherous sea. A sickly-sweet smell clings to the dimly lit walls, and veiled eyes follow Josephine through endless connecting rooms. The air is tense with secrets, and as the game continues it’s clear Josephine doesn’t have the whole truth. To save herself, she will have to play to win. But in this house, victory is earned with blood. About Daphne Fama: Daphne Fama was born in the American South, embedded in its tight-knit Filipino community. When she’s not writing stories about monsters and the women who love them, she’s writing about video games. And when she’s not writing, she’s spending every minute adoring her partner and pup. This week’s picks: Daphne: Gold Bee Door Knocker Tracy: Glocusent Book Light Patrick: Wednesday (Netflix) Links: Daphne Fama on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 677-With Daphne Fama appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jenna &#8220;Dingo&#8221; Woldenga and Avery Howett, part of the team behind the Fool&#8217;s Gold: Death by Karaoke Graphic Novel. About Fool&#8217;s Gold: Death by Karaoke Graphic Novel: Have you ever sung karaoke so badly that you unleashed the apocalypse? Well, that’s an average day for the Fool’s Gold crew: a group of traveling magical rejects. Join the chaos of experiencing tabletop role-playing games with this group of chaotic friends and their even more chaotic characters as they dare to take on the world’s deadliest jungle known as the Bellowing Wilds. See them fall headfirst into triggering an apocalypse, tangle with a swamp witch, indulge in spa days, and deal with a rogue mechanical dragon. It will take intelligence, wisdom, and true bravery to survive this adventure…too bad they have none of these things. May the dice be on their side, ’cause they’re gonna need them! About Jenna &#8220;Dingo&#8221; Woldenga: Jenna &#8220;Dingo&#8221; Woldenga is a storyteller, animator, illustrator, voice actress, and webcomic artist. She started the DingoDoodles YouTube channel in 2017 to tell stories from her life and friends. Eventually, she started retelling the story of the Fool&#8217;s Gold D&amp;D campaign she played with Felix and their friends, and nobody has really told her to stop yet, so here we are! Her animated videos have amassed millions of views and single-handedly made Fool&#8217;s Gold into the success it is today. Dingo is a master comedic storyteller and loves to get lost in her own worlds. She&#8217;s inspired by some of her favorite shows like Avatar: The last Airbender, Inuyasha, and Futurama, and she won&#8217;t stop until she makes an animated TV show worthy of standing beside her inspirations. About Avery Howett: Avery is an illustrator, character designer, comic artist, and dinosaur enthusiast. She began her D&amp;D hobby after meeting Dingo and Felix in college and went on to play Gothi in the first Fool’s Gold game. Years later, she evolved from designing the looks of the Fool’s Gold crew at the table in her notebook, to becoming the lead artist for the Fool’s Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds D&amp;D supplement. Now she is a full-time illustrator with the team, following the fun into the next projects. She is also the lead illustrator and director of the Fool&#8217;s Gold graphic novels! In her spare time Avery pursues her comic passion by working on her webcomic Vamps. About The Fool&#8217;s Gold: Sands podcast: Fool&#8217;s Gold is one of the most hilarious and dramatic D&amp;D tabletop roleplaying shows on the internet! Join our cast of professional chaos goobers as they explore a winding world full of absurd monsters, moral dilemmas, legally-distinct-franchises, and emotional damage. Available in two flavors: The Fool&#8217;s Gold: Sands podcast, and the animated Fool&#8217;s Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds show on YouTube. Episodes are edited into snappy 1 hour chunks. Links: Jenna &#8220;Dingo&#8221; Woldenga on Instagram Avery Howett&#8217;s VAMPS The Fool&#8217;s Gold: Sands podcast Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 676-With Jenna &#8220;Dingo&#8221; Woldenga and Avery Howett from Fool&#8217;s Gold appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Delilah S. Dawson, author of Dungeons &amp; Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd. About Dungeons &amp; Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd: Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer. After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation: Fairest Friends, I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure. Your host, Strahd von Zarovich With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever. About Delilah S. Dawson: Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling writer of Star Wars: Phasma, Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, The Secrets of Long Snoot, The Perfect Weapon, and Scorched; Disney Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart, It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, Guillotine, Midnight at the Houdini, Bloom, The Violence, the Blud series, Servants of the Storm, the HIT series, Wake of Vultures and the Shadow series (as Lila Bowen), and a variety of short stories in anthologies such as Death &amp; Honey, Robots vs. Fairies, Hellboy: an Assortment of Horrors, Violent Ends, Carniepunk, Three Slices, and Last Night a Superhero Saved My Life. With Kevin Hearne, she is the co-writer of the Tales of Pell series. Her middle grade works include Mine, Camp Scare, and the Minecraft Mob Squad series. This week’s picks: Delilah #1: Libby App Delilah #2: Mercari Delilah #3: Poshmark Delilah #4: E-Bay Delilah #5: The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas Tracy: Deep Regrets (Game) Patrick: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Links: Delilah S. Dawson on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 675-With Delilah S. Dawson appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Sam Kelly, author of Human History on Drugs. About Human History on Drugs: Did you know that Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk and William Shakespeare was a stoner? Or how about the fact that Steve Jobs believed taking LSD helped him create the Apple computer, or that Sigmund Freud loved cocaine so much he took it all the time and prescribed it to his patients? In Human History on Drugs, Sam Kelly introduces us to the history our teachers never told us, offering up irreverent and insightful commentary as he sheds light on some truly bizarre aspects of the historical characters we only thought we knew. With chapters spanning from Ancient Greece (“The Oracle of Delphi Was Huffing Fumes”) to modern times (“Carl Sagan Got Astronomically High”), Kelly&#8217;s research covers all manner of eras, places, and, of course, drugs. History is rife with drug use and drug users, and Human History on Drugs takes us through those highs (pun intended) and lows on a witty and entertaining ride that uncovers their mind-boggling impact on our past. About Sam Kelly: Sam Kelly, a history grad from Stanford University, is on the autism spectrum and his interest and passion for history has become an almost physical compulsion. He loves to dig up forgotten and weird stories from the past and spends hours uncovering every last stubborn detail. As a deep believer that history can be as exciting as any Marvel movie, Sam aims to—whether on TikTok or through a book—make history both engaging and accessible to all. Human History on Drugs is his first book. This week’s picks: Sam: Stardew Valley Sam: Superman Sam: Fantastic Four Tracy: Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen Patrick: The NFL Preseason Links: Sam Kelly on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 674-With Sam Kelly appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Margaret Stohl, Jeanine Schaefer, and Judith Stephens to talk about their new book, Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel Comics. About Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel Comics: Inspired by the hit podcast The Women of Marvel and cowritten by the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures, this eye-opening and engaging book celebrates the women who have helped make Marvel one of the most successful comics and entertainment companies in the world. What does a hero’s journey look like when the hero in question happens to be a girl? #1 New York Times bestselling author and Marvel creator Margaret Stohl (The Life of Captain Marvel, Black Widow: Forever Red) along with Judith Stephens (producer and cocreator of the Women of Marvel podcast), and Jeanine Schaefer (critically acclaimed editor) interviewed more than a hundred women and nonbinary Marvel contributors in search of the answer to that question. With one shared goal—to make the historically invisible work of women visible—and with unprecedented access to Marvel creators, writers, and more, Stohl, Stephens, and Schaefer set out to tell the story of the women of the “House of Ideas” from 1939 through today, and along the way, to find the meaning of their own Marvel stories. Packed with biographies and illustrations from creators, graphical reprints and excerpts of historic Marvel comics, and exclusive interviews from acclaimed directors like Anna Boden and Cate Shortland; lauded writers such as Kelly Sue DeConnick, Eve Ewing, Rainbow Rowell, Nic Stone, G. Willow Wilson, Tini Howard, and Maurene Goo; top artists like Jen Bartel; and influential producer Sana Amanat, Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel is an essential read for fans of all ages. About Margaret Stohl: Margaret Stohl is a the #1 New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels and graphic novels, including the Beautiful Creatures series, the Black Widow: Forever Red duology, the ongoing Mighty Captain Marvel comic, and the Life of Captain Marvel miniseries. About Jeanine Schaefer: Jeanine Schaefer worked as an assistant editor for DC Comics, notably on the Superman books between 2004 and 2006 up until Infinite Crisis. In 2010, she moved to Marvel Comics. She returned to DC with her husband Mark Doyle when the main office was moved to Burbank in 2015. In 2018, she became Executive Editor at Boom! Studios, though she departed three years later. About Judith Stephens: Judy Stephens is a producer, author, host and cosplayer. Her first book, “Cosplay the Marvel Way: A Guide to Costuming Culture and Crafting Basics” is available in June. Judy is also a co-creator of the Women Of Marvel podcast and co-author of the upcoming book “Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel”. With over 15 years at Marvel, Judy has worked in production of news and pop culture based content, including photos, video and multimedia. Judy&#8217;s work has been featured on major geek-culture outlets like Marvel, Kotaku, and Nerdist, and within several books, including “Cosplay World” and “Yaya Han&#8217;s World of Cosplay.” Since attending her first anime and comic convention in 2004, Judy has traveled the world as a staff, photographer, guest and attendee of over 100 conventions, meeting cosplayers from California to London, New Zealand and Chile. As part of her inclusion in the cosplay community, she is well known as an advocate for cosplay at Marvel and Disney, with contributions including Marvel Becoming, Marvel Cosplay Covers, Costoberfest, organizing the Marvel Cosplay Contests, social media coverage and most recently Marvel’s 616 episode “Suit Up” on Disney+. Over the last two decades, she has also cosplayed over thirty characters, including her well-known Captain Marvel. A proud Queens resident, where she lives with her two cats, she spends her free time enjoying the city, working out &amp; traveling with friends. Links: Margaret Stohl on Instagram Judy Stephens on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 673-With Margaret, Stohl Jeanine Schaefer and Judith Stephens appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Paul Bradley Carr, author of THE CONFESSIONS. About THE CONFESSIONS: LLIAM is the world’s most powerful supercomputer, built to make the toughest decisions for its users. Where to work, who to marry, and even who should live or die. But when LLIAM suddenly goes offline with no explanation, the world is thrust into chaos, paralyzed by indecision. Stocks plummet, stores are shuttered, planes sit grounded on runways as humanity scrambles to re-adapt to an uncertain, analog world. Then the first letters arrive&#8230;on every continent, in every language, mysterious envelopes arrive in the mail, exposing people’s darkest secrets, and most shocking crimes. All beginning with the same chilling words: “We must confess.” With millions of people suddenly made to confront their past transgressions, and society fast unraveling, CEO Kaitlan Goss must track down the only person who can help undo the resulting violent chaos: Maud Brookes, an ex-nun who taught LLIAM what it means to be human. But when Maud receives a letter herself, revealing Kaitlan’s own unforgivable sin, the two women are forced into a deadly game of deceit as the world teeters on the brink. About Paul Bradley Carr: Paul Bradley Carr is a journalist and author. He has written three memoirs about his adventures in and around Silicon Valley. He was the Silicon Valley columnist for The Guardian, senior editor at TechCrunch, cofounder of PandoDaily, and founder and editor-in-chief of the infamous NSFWCORP in Las Vegas. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, National Geographic, and much more. He lives in Palm Springs with his family and is the co-owner of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs. This week’s picks: Paul: Agatha Christie, She Watched: One Woman&#8217;s Plot to Watch 201 Christie Adaptations Without Murdering the Director, Screenwriter, Cast, or Her Husband by Teresa Peschel Tracy: Muderbot (Apple TV+) Patrick: Macross Movies and TV Shows on Hulu (Start Here) Links: Paul Bradley Carr on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 672-With Paul Bradley Carr appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Joan Slonczewski, author of Minds in Transit. About Minds in Transit: In the hundred-level city of Iridis, human lords recycle diamonds and emeralds down to the Underworld while sentient machines pilot lightcraft and perform surgeries. Microbial minds expand the brains of scientists and artists. The artist Chrys directs her microbes to paint startling installations, design smart buildings and fix quantum networks. A world-size virtual intelligence called Transit commissions Chrys to create a whole new city on another planet. But unexpected flaws fracture her designs. Microbial criminal gangs invade Chrys’s brain to kill off her own micros and take control. In Iridis, the roots of buildings grow cancers that escape the Underworld and cause earthquakes. Outlawed machines shake down shops and kidnap human lords for ransom. The city’s rulers ignore the signs of collapse, then face a new threat that no mind foresaw. About Joan Slonczewski: Joan Slonczewski publishes research with undergraduates on bacterial pH stress, funded by the National Science Foundation. They also study cold-adapted microbes from Antarctica. Slonczewski authors science fiction novels, including A Door into Ocean and The Highest Frontier, both of which earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. They teach courses on microbiology and on writing science fiction. This week’s picks: Joan: Starship Teapot by SI Clarke Tracy: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1: Change is Constant by Kevin B. Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Dan Duncan Patrick: Galaxy Highways (Steam Game) Links: Joan Slonczewski on Facebook Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 671-With Joan Slonczewski appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Morgan Ryan, author of A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES. About A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES: Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Now, with Hitler’s army rampaging across Europe, the witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the cause: she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler and his sycophants can. When a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, the coven is left shaken, exposed and divided. The elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes, Lydia knows her mission has never been more urgent. Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne—a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets—and Henry Boudreaux—a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalked by the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the book is only half the battle—the Grimorium Bellum has a dark agenda all its own. Lydia must subdue it before the Witches of the Third Reich can use it—but she’ll have to survive the book herself, first. About Morgan Ryan: Morgan Ryan is the author of stories born from a lifelong love of magic, a fixation on historical minutiae that borders on the obsessive, and a tendency to fall down rabbit-holes. She was raised in a family of writers in upstate New York, and received her degree in theatre performance from Northeastern University. She now lives in Chicago with her husband. A Resistance of Witches is her first novel. This week’s picks: Morgan: Dimension 20 Tracy: The Expanse: Season 3 Patrick: Slow Horses (Apple TV) Links: Morgan Ryan on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 670-With Morgan Ryan appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Michael Damian Thomas, to talk about Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns!. About Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns!: Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Michael Damian Thomas and Team Uncanny Magazine have run successful Kickstarters for the seven-time Hugo Award-winning, 2024 World Fantasy Award-winning, and 2024 Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative essays by writers from every conceivable background–not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content. Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists for or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Awards! If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year 12 happen! Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content. Unfortunately, there is a less-than-celebratory side to this Kickstarter. Recently, a very large online eBook dealer ended its magazine subscriptions and moved Uncanny onto their streaming service. This meant over a 75% reduction of our subscription earnings. YOUR support, specifically, makes it possible for us to make our magazine freely available on our website and to pay our contributors and staff. We need your help more than ever, Space Unicorns! About Michael Damian Thomas: Michael Damian Thomas is the eight-time Hugo, British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Parsec Award-winning co-publisher (with Lynne M. Thomas) and editor-in-chief of the Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Michael was a Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo Award finalist essay anthology Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian Press, 2013) with Sigrid Ellis, and co-edited the anthology Glitter &#038; Mayhem (Apex Publications, 2013) with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas. Michael was additionally a contributor to the SF Squeecast podcast (with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, and Catherynne M. Valente), a contributor to the Down and Safe- Blake’s 7 podcast (with Amal El-Mohtar, Scott Lynch, and L.M. Myles), and is currently the Content Editor (with Lynne M. Thomas) of the It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton podcast. Michael was formerly the full-time caregiver of his late daughter, Caitlin. Caitlin had a rare congenital disorder called Aicardi syndrome. This week’s picks: Michael: The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time List Tracy: The Revival Tea Company Links: Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns! Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick HesterThe post Episode 669-With Uncanny Magazine&#8217;s Michael Damian Thomas appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Matthew Kressel, author of SPACE TRUCKER JESS. About SPACE TRUCKER JESS: Jessian Urania Darger is a kick-ass take-no-shit foul-mouthed too-smart-for-her-own-good sixteen-year-old girl with a chip on her shoulder. She and her daddy have been grifting their way across the verse for years. But when her daddy gets arrested for running crypto-credit scams, Jess is forced to get a job on Chadeisson Station as a roachrunner, fixing starships to survive. She dreams of a better life, away from her corrupt daddy, so she&#8217;s been saving up to buy a Spark Megahauler, a huge cargo ship, ever since she saw one in a printer catalog. She wants to run the long hauls, to sail alone into the black and never look back. But when her daddy goes missing from prison, Jess realizes she just can&#8217;t let him go, and she makes it her life&#8217;s mission to find out where he&#8217;s gone. In an odyssey that takes her across the galaxy, Jess encounters vanished planets, strange societies, inscrutable alien gods, and mind-bending secrets that may change humanity&#8217;s path forever. About Matthew Kressel: Matt is a software developer and speculative fiction writer with three Nebula Award nominations, a World Fantasy Award nomination, and a Eugie Award nomination. He&#8217;s the co-host of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City. And he created the Moksha submissions system, in use by some of the largest publishers in speculative fiction today. This week’s picks: Matthew #1: Poker Face (Peacock) Matthew #2: Dept Q (Netflix) Tracy: Galaxy Trcuker (Game) Patrick: Becoming Led Zeppelin (Netflix) Links: Matthew Kressel on Instagram Tracy Townsend on BluSky Patrick Hester on Instagram The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2025 Patrick Hester The post Episode 668-With Matthew Kressel appeared first on The Functional Nerds.