Guest Host: Dan Cunningham

The stone that turns all metals to gold! Join us as we discuss one of the ducks' classic treasure hunts in search of one of history's greatest treasures in this amalgam of legend and myth as the ducks' traverse the Mediterranean and Middle East in search of the philosopher's stone, eventually stumbling into the Labyrinth of Greek mythology. My guest and I discuss the story's mythological origins, the history of the philosopher's stone, and the special attention to detail Barks paid in this one.

Guest Host: John Lustig

Time to visit, albeit briefly and in disguise, the tiny town of Omelet, site of one of the greatest disasters Donald Duck ever inflicted on a town! Omelet is an utter classic, a very personal story in which Barks drew from his personal experiences raising chickens, and is the ten-pager he often mentioned as being his favorite of his short stories. Check out this special episode as I'm joined by the Disney comics writer John Lustig as we particularly focus on Barks writing and story-telling in this all-time classic.

Guest Hosts: Mikkel Hagen & Ruben Olsrud

Hi listeners! Ready to chase a certain rodent all the way to Norway? The podcast gets to cover Barks' Scandinavian-set adventure, "the Lemming with the Locket." My Norwegian guest hosts and I have a great conversation about Barks' depiction of Norway, misconceptions about lemming, cheeses of Europe, and much more!

Guest Host: Thad Komorowski

What's that in that bottle floating to shore? It appears to be this week's podcast, where we discuss the early Scrooge adventure "the Mysterious Stone Ray!" This is a unique adventure story, tinged with a creepy sense of mystery and a real science-fiction influence! Definitely not an episode to listen to on an empty stomach, unless you're a fan of cabbages and prunes!

Guest Host: Patrick Block

Playing hooky, listeners? The Truant Officer will deliver you where you're supposed to be: listening to this episode! This themed episode looks at Barks' 3 stories that were all about truancy, where the nephews ditch school! "Truant Officer Donald" is probably the most famous, but don't sleep on the other two! Revisiting these three similarly-themed stories is a great way to explore how Barks was able to develop fresh plotlines over the years. And the subject of Truant Officers seems like such a weird time capsule now (though technically they still exist in the U.S.). 

Guest Host: Sara Santiago

Greetings listeners! This episode is a bit unusual as it is the beginning of a 2-part episode we are dubbing "Scroogeanomics." In the first part, we'll be exploring one of the Duck Man's most famous ten-pagers, "a Financial Fable," and considering what it tells us about Barks' free-market philosophy and opinions about capitalism and economics. The episode will conclude next time by exploring the thematically similar "Spending Money," as well as other economically themed stories.

Guest Host: Patrick Block

Listener, has the pace of being a modern, 1950s zillionaire got you down? On the verge of cracking up? Don't go off to live with the squirrels, instead give our episode about one of Barks' all-time greats, "Tralla La" a listen! This fan favorite, widely-known as "the bottlecap story," is Barks' amazing take on the old Shangri-La/Shambala legend, popularized in the book "Lost Horizon" and in Frank Capra's film adaptation. The story is an incredible work of art that ponders identity, wealth, assimilation, and provides one of Barks' most fascinating economics experiments.

Guest Host: Ryan Bailey

Hello listeners, join us for an underwater adventure that starts out rather innocuously. "Atlantis" features a great, twisty tale that starts with a squabble over a debt, advances to the world's greatest 2-D pie fight, and ultimately ends up with the discovery of the lost city of Atlantis! The story also includes notable first appearance of Scrooge McDuck's Worry Room and the Junior Woodchucks guidebook (here: book of knowledge).