The English ivy biomass.

This week the boys chat movie theories, how the theater industry is doing, and what's going on in the 'Uncanny Valley'.

"Cats" stuff, "Star Wars" stuff, "Endgame" things, and more!

Co-host: Dan Richardson & Hashi The Wonder Dog

Discussed:

the commercials you get in your head

listener feedback on music management

first results of Merlin's own deep dive on music management alternatives

thoughts on the "safety" that ends up making us less safe

the perverse magic of "ghoti"

thoughts on Dan's cool new laptop

getting the shell you want

sometimes Daddy needs to go in the closet

Jeff and Christian welcome Kate Yeager from Inside Xbox to the show this week to discuss exclusives for the next gen Xbox, Stadia's broken promises, no VR for Xbox, and more!

The Playlist: Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 4, Outer World, Disco Elysium, Star Wars Jedi The Fallen Order, Pokemon

VR Talk: Oculus Link and the best VR headset right now

Parting Gifts!

John and Dan talk about turning points.

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DISCUSSED: Merlin has an email confession; Dan steps up with a shoulder; listeners have given your hosts a season of the show; praise for HBO's Watchmen; a discussion of curating media for kids; Merlin exercises Personal Privilege; everybody is different!; praise for the new MacBook Pro (and who it may or may not be good for); the beginnings of what could be an extensive series on reclaiming control of your own media; some Plex homework for both listeners and your hosts; a brief rant on the downsides and limitations of renting other people's music; Merlin is birthday-gifted with Planty II plus some awesome @pants materials.

"At the top of the episode, we say it's episode 59. Disregard. -Keith"

This week is chock full of Episode 9 dealings and hot takes! Plus - who gets capes in "Black Adam", who the smartest exec's thought should play Harriet Tubman, and so much more!

Co-host: Dan Richardson

Joe Leo is the CEO of Def Method, an agile Ruby software consultancy, and the co-author of The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Third Edition. He and Brittany discussed functional programming in Ruby and their thoughts on the Ruby community after Rubyconf 2019.

Jeff and Christian welcome Lana Bachynski from Riot Games to the show this week to talk about WolfEye Studios, the announcement of Half-Life Alyx VR, and the possibility of an Amazon game streaming service.

The Playlist: Ring Fit Adventure, Control, Breath of the Wild, Monster Hunter, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Stadia, Jedi Fallen Order, Pokémon Sword.

Tabletop Time: Gloomhaven

Parting Gifts!

Brittany is live from Rubyconf 2019! Noah Gibbs is a Ruby Fellow for AppFolio, working on the core Ruby language and related tooling. After over 30 years of communicating with computers, Noah now believes that communicating with humans may not be a passing fad, and he's trying it out.