Debut Buddies

When Shannon's away... we get some extra specials guests! Facing John on this week's show, are returning guest Eric Palencia, family lawyer and artist Maha Kamal, and poet and CU lecturer Jenny Cookson. Topics include: Reality Therapy, Barn Burners, the Blue People of Kentucky, the Teapot Dome Scandal and more, plus the usual fun of Pomme ou pomme de terre and Original Sketch. But things get really Byzantine when Nate offers a bonus question on Indie Band TV Show Mashups... It's a real barn burner of an episode (wink) through and through!

Follow us on IG and Twitter!!!! We're at @avagueideapodcast, and @avagueideapod, respectively!

Like the show? Please rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play... whatever you use... Just tell the people!

Taxes? We don't need no stinking taxes! Actually, you do. And Brass Taxes can help! Go to BRASSTAXES.COM and schedule a convo with a tax preparer. Mention promo code IDEA and they'll give you $25 off tax prep AND give $25 to the Southern Poverty Law Center!

Gardener, businesswoman, butcher, teacher... and JOHN'S SISTER (WHAAAAA!!??), Helen Peros, is our special guest for an episode about Ancient Astronauts, Echolocation, the Iron Curtain, and Harlequin Romance. We're all living High on the Hog in this one! There's Hall or Oates, and Pomme ou pomme de terre, plus Nate premieres a new game: Original Sketch, that tests his guests improv skills.

Follow the show on social media! We're at @avagueideapod on Twitter, and @avagueideapodcast on Instagram. Want to support the show? Rate and Review us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play!

If you like anime, check out Nate's other podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski: You Better Beweeb It on the Mole Hole Radio network! (moleholeradio.com)

Are you a freelancer? A creative? Man, tax season sucks when you have to claim that 1099 income as a self-employed person. Are you sure you're doing it all correctly? Are you paying the least (receiving a refund)? Well... BRASS TAXES (friend of the show) can help! Just upload some documents, answer some questions, and set up an appointment. Your taxes get done without breaking the bank and with minimal stress.

Listeners of A Vague Idea can get $25 off when you set up a call with a tax preparer and mention promo code IDEA. For each person who does, Brass Taxes will donate another $25 to Nate's nonprofit of choice, the Southern Poverty Law Center. Head to BrassTaxes.com to get started and mention promo code IDEA for $25 off this year's tax prep services.

Prepare to meat your match! This week we welcome special guests The Steak King, himself, Paul Baldwin (@thesteakking on Insta, facebook.com/thesteakking), and the Steak Queen, herself, Barb Baldwin, to grill or be grilled with John and Shannon. We hear the origin of the Steak King, then Nate cooks up a list of savory topics including The Mythic and Untrue Etymology of Sirloin, Trump Steaks, Stakeout (1987), Meet-cute, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Long Pig... and more. Plus, Pomme ou pomme de terre! It's a perfectly seasoned episode that's anything but well done.

Like the show? Follow and interact with us on the our NEW social media accounts:

Twitter: @avagueideapod

Want to support the show? Rate and/or review us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play!

If you like anime, check out Nate's other podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski: You Better Beweeb It on the Mole Hole Radio network! (moleholeradio.com)

And follow the Steak King on social media: Instagram: @thesteakking, Facebook.com/thesteakking

Becca Lipman returns to the show, to defend her first-appearance victory. She, Shannon, and John dabble in topics ranging from Transformers (1986) to Haitian Voudu to Missing White Woman Syndrome to the Taco Cleanse. There's Pomme ou Pomme de Terre, Hall or Oates, and a bonus question impression of a wealthy dowager... and then we talk about the at-the-time soon-to-be-played Super Bowl... but that conversation ends up being primarily about Girl Scout Cookies. GO GET SOME COOKIES! Oh, and Nate wants a nemesis... but finds out he might already have one in a DRAMATIC REVEAL!

Want to be on the show? Tweet at @nateragolia!

Love the show and want to support it? Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Like anime movies (and occasionally live-action adaptations thereof)? Check out Nate's podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski on Mole Hole Radio (moleholeradio.com) called You Better Beweeb It.

Writer of the Burning Metronome comic series, the "What'd I Miss?" comic in the Colorado Sun, and host of Mother F**ker in a Cape podcast, R Alan Brooks, guests this week! Alan, John, and Shannon tackle "Well... Actually," Pomme ou pomme de terre, and a list of bloody good topics including the myth of Welsh Corgis, the Denver Spider Man, Mason-Dixon Line, Pro Wrestling Face, and Google Duplex. Plus, we talk about Star Trek! It's Alan and Nate at Tanagra... John, when the walls fell. Shannon, with sails unfurled. And, if you're into the whole ASMR thing, listening to Alan's smooth, baritone gravel might be the closest thing to heaven! It's a fun-packed episode!!! Woohoo!

If you like the show, please go to Apple, Stitcher, or Google Play and rate and review us. If you don't go in for that sort of thing, just tell your friends, family, or perhaps even a sentient chatbot... just spread Ye Olde Worde, please.

If you want to name that winner's trophy we never have a name for, tweet @nateragolia.

If you like anime, pop over to moleholeradio.com, and check out Nate's podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski called You Better Beweeb It.

Wanna sponsor the show? Tweet @nateragolia. Wanna be on the show? Let Nate know.

If you like donuts... HAVE ALL THE DONUTS IN THE WORLD!!!

Award winning manager of International Visitor and Professional Exchange Programs at World Denver, and Regis University admissions staff, Dan Wienecke is on the show this week! He discusses short-term swimwear, and then challenges John and Shannon on topics including Public Access Television, Dungeons and Dragons, Leaves of Grass, Weather Underground, Hacienda Skilled Nursing Facility Birth, Mantis Shrimp, and more. Plus, Nate makes the guests play "Well... Actually" again, someone lands on Pomme ou Pomme de Terre, and there's a new BONUS category: Hall or Oates. We have fun.

Like the show? Please please please rate and review us on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play.

Want to name the winner's trophy for a future episode? Tweet @nateragolia with suggestions.

Want to be on the show? Tweet @nateragolia!

If you like learning about the topics we discuss, go to Wikipedia, pore over the depths of references and resources, and see what you have a vague idea about.

And if you like anime, check out Nate's podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski, You Better Beweeb It, on which they watch anime films and discuss them. It's over at moleholeradio.com.

A bagel makes an appearance in the second edition of Pomme ou pomme de terre, and Nate, John, and Shannon welcome special guest Sara Smith (advertiser / CU Boulder Faculty) to talk about the Noble Eightfold Path, Rocco the British Parrot, Necropants, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and the Waffle House Index. Plus, things get a little racy when they talk about Globish. There's even a new game: Well... Actually! Oh, and did we mention one of the topics is Trepanning? It is! You need this episode like you need a hole in a head, or maybe a whole in the head... (whisper enlightenment whisper)

Like the show? Go to Apple, Stitcher, or Google Play, or wherever you can, and rate and review us. That way other people can find out!

Want to be on the show? Tweet @nateragolia! Want to name the winner's trophy for an upcoming episode? Tweet @nateragolia! Want to sponsor the program? Tweet @nateragolia!

We start 2019 with an episode of A Vague Idea that's a real barn burner! With no special guest John and Shannon get gritty in a game decided by 1/10th of a point!!! We talk about the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act (2018), the Puppybowl, the $325,000 Hamburger, Jonestown, and more. PLUS: Nate has a new game for us... "Pomme ou Pomme de Terre?" Have ye what it takes to listeneth to this new episode!? We thinketh ye doth!

Want to be on the show? Tweet @nateragolia! Want to name the winner's trophy for an upcoming episode? Tweet @nateragolia! Want to sponsor the program? Tweet @nateragolia!

If you like anime: check out Nate's other podcast with Shaunn Grulkowski called You Better Beweeb It. Most recently they watched Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade. You can find that show at moleholeradio.com.

How dare you bring Tofurkey here! THIS is a meat house! The inimitable Micah White (Geeks Who Drink, Denver Center for the Performing Arts) answers the call to A Vague Idea this week! He battles Shannon and John over topics like H.R. Giger, H.R. Pufnstuf, the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, Baby Powder, and Andreas Hvid's Great Pyramid Porn. PLUS: Sean Connery accents! This episode is a HOOT!

In this episode, as corrected last week ; ), we talk about KFC being a tradition in China, but it's actually Japan, and for that error we apologize.

Want to name the winner's trophy for an upcoming episode? Tweet your suggestion @nateragolia.

Like anime and Nate's voice? Check out his podcast, You Better Beweeb It, at moleholeradio.com.

Want to be on A Vague Idea? Tweet or Message Nate on social media.

On a very special holiday episode, Nate gets his actual family to find out if they have a vague idea about a list of topics from Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. It's a real Dickensian situation!!! His wife Jenny, sister Sylvia, stepmom Yolanda, father Tom, and brother-in-law Taylor throw back some cheer and talk about the Yule Cat, Wassailing, Good King Wenceslas, the Star Wars Holiday Special, and more! Will they have a vague idea, or will the proceedings devolve into a special kind of chaos? Maybe both!

Oh, and we make a correction for next week's episode because we're in a TIIIIIIIIIME WAAARRRRRPPPPP.

Want to name the victor's "trophy" for a future episode? Tweet @nateragolia with suggestions. Like anime? Check out You Better Beweeb This, Nate's other podcast (with Shaunn Grulkowski) at moleholeradio.com. Like books and reading the? Check out Nate and Shaunn's sci-fi press at readspaceboy.com.