Show Notes: 

• Intro (0:00-0:19) 
• Fleshman Family Birthday Celebrations (0:19-22:36) 
  • Food Fight 
  • Dunk Tank 
  • Obstacle Course 
  • Jedi Training 
  • Home Demolition?!? 
  • Weird Al’s UHF: Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse 
• Levels of Nerd-ness (22:36-28:17) 
  • The nerd secret handshake: W00t 
    • Level 1: Console gamers 
    • Level 2: *serious* Board gamers 
    • Level 3: Role-Playing Games (RPGs) 
    • Level 4: LARP? 
• Russia’s morning commute (28:71-42:03) 
• British word of the day (42:03-44:10) 
  • “push the boat out” (American: splurge) 
    • Informal – British 
    • Be lavish in one’s spending or celebrations.  
• Ben & Josh’s Book Club – Mistborn: The Final Empire, book 1 of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson (44:10-1:51:50) 
  • Subversion of expectations 
    • Kelsior is good at this from the start and Vin learns quickly (not the usual way for this sort of thing) 
  • Character focus – self-discovery & transformation theme throughout the series 
    • The characters feel like real people 
    • Vin’s central conflict is learning to trust people 
  • Hard vs. Soft Magic Systems 
  • “There’s always another secret” 
  • Sanderson’s 3 laws of magic 
    1. Sanderson’s First Law – An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic in a satisfying way is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.[1] 
    2. Sanderson’s Second Law – Weaknesses (also Limits and Costs) are more interesting than powers[2] 
    3. Sanderson’s Third Law – Expand on what you have already, before you add something new. If you change one thing, you change the world.[3] 
  • “New ideas are like new tastes…the older you are, the harder they are to stomach.” -Menace 
  • “Do you stop loving someone just because they betray you? I don’t think so. That’s what makes the betrayal hurt so much.” -Kelsior 
  • “What is belief if you can’t continue it after failure?” -Sayzid 
  • Kelsier’s 11: 
    • George Clooney as Kelsier 
    • Matt Damon as Vin 
    • Julia Roberts as Elend Venture 
    • Brad Pitt as Sazed 
    • Andy Garcia as The Lord Ruler 
• For next time… (1:51:50-1:52:53) 
  • Ripped from the headlines story that actually happened to Ben 
  • Book club discussion for next time: 
    • Scarcity: Why having too little means so much by economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir 

SHOW NOTES: 

• Intro (0:00-1:04) 
• Episode 1 Cleanup  
  • What happened to Patrick Bull (1:04-4:01) 
  • Uber Gospel lady (4:01-10:11) 
    • The Uncanny Valley 
    • Mormon filmmaker Richard Dutcher 
• “Family Friendly” (10:11-19:56) 
  • 30 Rock  
  • The Return of Jafar 
  • Mark Rosewater: Restrictions Breed Creativity (see Lesson #18) 
  • Opportunity Paralysis 
• The Smart Phone Revolution (19:56-25:47) 
  • Nokia 3310 
  • Motorola Razr 
• British Word of the Day (25:47-31:16) 
  • Bespoke: Adj., made for a particular customer or user 
• What game is/was Josh Playing? (31:16-54:19) 
  • Warhammer 40K 
  • Indie board game: Scythe 
  • Game complexity tiers: 
    • 1 (simplest): UNO 
    • 2: Monopoly 
    • 3: Settlers of Cataan 
    • 4: Scythe 
    • 5 (most complex): Twilight Imperium 
  • Puerto Rico 
  • Arkham Horror 
  • Kickstarter- Kingdom Death: Monster 
• Ben’s Unified Parenting Theory (54:19-1:11:43) 
  • Phase 1: Obedience – Child says, “Yes Mama/Daddy,” and does it. 
  • Phase 2: Commitment/awareness – Child says, “What else can I do to help?” 
  • Phase 3: Responsibility/initiative – You say (or don’t have to say), “Find something that needs to be done and do it,” and then they do! 
  • Phase 4: Self-determination – They make their own choices based on their own goals. 
• Waiting in line and teaching children the social contract (1:11:43-1:35:33) 
  • This is Spartaa!!! (passenger gets kicked off subway) 
  • Stinging nettle 
• Next Episode Teasers (1:35:33-1:40:51) 
  • Book Club Selections: 
    • Josh’s Pick (to be discussed in Episode 3):  
      • Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson 
    • Ben’s Pick (to be discussed in Episode 4):  
      • Scarcity: Why having too little means so much by economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir 

Ben and Josh recorded their pilot episode during a weekend trip to play (what else) Magic. Listen as they discuss playmats, shoes, blenders, and other things…

SHOW NOTES: 

• Intro (0:00-1:32) 
  • Magic Fest Las Vegas 2019 
• Podcast origin story (1:33-13:12) 
  • Where it all began? 
  • Grand Prix New Jersey 2018 Final Standings (type ‘Rich, Benjamin’ in the search field to see that Ben came in 128/1,212) 
• Infatuation with objects discussion (13:13-52:46) 
  • Japanese ‘Chandra, Fire Artisan‘  
  • Lego Millenium Falcon 
  • Rex Dangervest Ship 
  • The Nike Air Max 95 (Neon) 
  • Photos Ben has taken of the current 3 pairs of Nike Air Max 95 he owns 
  • Josh’s blender 
  • Playmat Josh was infatuated with  
  • Atomic Comics Emporium, Hampton, VA 
• The Patrick Bull incident (52:47-1:00:44) 
• What age do you call “kid”? (1:00:45-1:04:25) 
• Disagreeableness (1:04:26-1:15:27) 
  • Psychologist World: Agreeableness 
  • Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Ketyian 
• Full Actualization (1:15:28-1:24:45) 
  • ASL Interpreting 
• Future Shows (1:24:44-1:32:10) 
• FIN