barklife

as the title suggests, our protagonists discuss both dogs and books, and how we, as a culture,  underestimate kids' reading capabilities and emotional capacities. also, Animal Crossing. beware spoilers for I'm Thinking of Ending Things.
links to other things, mostly books, that are mentioned in this episode:

• Carmichael's (our local bookstore)
• Brownsboro Animal Clinic (our vet)
• "snake ex machina"
• A Peculiar Peril by Jeff VanderMeer
• Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
• Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti
• The Rise & Fall of D.O.D.O. by Nicole Galland & Neal Stephenson
• Pete the Cat

jahnna and josh are back to give you a year-end wrap-up. sort of. we sort of ramble, as always, as the words escaping our mouths struggle to keep up with our brains. in episode 5, we find some things that didn't suck about 2021, as well as desires for 2022 (but not goals, because we don't do new year's resolutions). and this episode has been optimized for podcast listening, in terms of loudness, according to Apple. sorry if the previous episodes have been too loud.

as ever, our theme music is Bark-a-Tron 5000 by Bad Ronald.

some media referenced in this episode:

• Subnautica
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

in episode 4 our protagonists talk smack on a rather obscure text called The Return of the King, and also The Hobbit. and except for josh struggling to form cohesive sentences, you'll also hear about:

• The Heroine with 1001 Faces
• puppets discussing the monomyth
• The Norse myth that inspired "The Lord of the Rings"
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces
• The Last Cuentista
• The Thirteenth Tale
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
• Go Set a Watchman
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

epic background music credit goes to Scott Holmes.  as ever, theme music is Bark-a-Tron 5000 by Bad Ronald. 

hey! this episode is somewhat belated. it's the holiday season, and josh was out of town for a week in december, so things got weird. the editing may be a little slapdash, sorry and/or get over it. here's some of the things we reference this week:

• Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum
  By Michael McCreary
• Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension
  By Michio Kaku
• The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture
  By Glen Weldon
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

as ever, our theme music is Bark-a-tron 500 by Bad Ronald. sound effects are public domain or free for non-commercial use from SoundBible.

good news, everyone! the audio quality of episode two is markedly better than in episode one! i'm (josh) learning great stuff about audio editing! no weird gaps! background noise removed!
bad news, everyone! we were both tired and unprepared when recording this episode, so ... it's maybe boring? some of last week's topics get a rehash. but hey, that's life, and we have a through-line now, i suppose.

topics this week included:

• The Saint
• The Murder on the Links
• 1493
• The Ashes of London
• Dune (again. and still a major motion picture. twice.)
• Wuthering Heights ("0 stars. every character in this book is terrible." -josh)
• Poldark
• Pride and Prejudice
• Birder Murder Mysteries (#5 referenced in the show)
• New Balance MSCFIV1

theme music is Bark-a-tron 5000 by Bad Ronald thanks to creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US

jahnna and josh talk for a while. wren breathes loudly in the background and occasionally barks. if you don't know us -- heck, even if you do know us -- it may be difficult to follow. we jump around [cue music] topics a bit (a lot). spoiler alert for Avengers: Endgame. find other stuff we post at theharveygrofts.com.
links to some of the things we discuss:

• Books
  • The Man Who Died Twice
  • Poison for Breakfast
  • 1491 & Before Columbus
  • Dune (Now a major motion picture! Again!)
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians
  • Mythos
  • Sandman
  • American Gods
  • Good Omens
  • Skeleton Man
  • Pride & Prejudice
• I'm A Gnu
• Guar gum in fracking
• Shannon and the Clams (The Year of the Spider)
• Strange Planet
• WFPK