AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

Three educators explore why slicing a cone four different ways produces circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas—and why those same curves show up everywhere from planetary orbits to satellite dishes. The episode moves from the geometric intuition (a string between two pins traces an ellipse) through the equations that describe each shape, to the physics that determines which curve a comet or planet actually follows. A practical thread runs through: why engineers trust parabolas, why the sun sits off-center in Earth's elliptical orbit, and why a hanging chain is not the same curve as a loaded bridge cable.

Based on "College Algebra — Analytic Geometry: Conic Sections as Equations" by OpenStax (Rice University) (OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/college-algebra/pages/8-introduction-to-analytic-geometry), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Adapted by Demades into an AI-narrated audio discussion. Access for free at https://openstax.org.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

It has been six months since your group played Terraforming Mars, and somewhere in there the
table quietly adopted three house rules it now believes are real rules.

This is a rules refresher, not a teach — audio cannot show you the board or the card layout, so
if you have never played, watch a video tutorial first and come back. FryxGames maintains an
official FAQ, but it is hosted only on BoardGameGeek and is not used as a source on this show,
so every ruling here is traced out loud to a page of the FryxGames rulebook itself.

The seven we cover:

1. You may play a card whose effects you cannot fully perform — you simply do not get the
terraform rating. Maxed parameters do not make cards illegal.
2. Red-bordered production cuts are compulsory (cut your own if you must). Red-bordered resource
removal is optional, in full or in part. Same border, opposite rules.
3. A card’s requirement is checked when you play it and never again. A low-oxygen blue card keeps
working all game.
4. A blue card’s red-arrow action fires once per generation. Always-active effects have no arrow
and are not actions.
5. Greenery must go next to a tile you own if you have anywhere to put it — and every greenery
next to a city scores for whoever owns that city.
6. Funding an award buys nothing but the award existing. The category leader takes it, ties included.
7. There is one more plant conversion after the final production phase, before scoring.

Sources are linked in full at the end of the episode.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

It has been a year since you played Brass: Birmingham. Everybody remembers that the game
is about connections, and everybody remembers a slightly different set of connection rules.

This is a rules refresher, not a teach — audio cannot show you the map, so if you have never
played, watch a video tutorial first and come back. Roxley publishes no FAQ and no errata for
this game, so every ruling here is traced out loud to a page of the rulebook itself, and
anything we could not point at a page for did not make the episode.

The seven we cover:

1. Coal and iron have opposite rules on the same page. Coal needs a connection and comes from
the closest connected mine; iron needs no connection and comes from any unflipped Iron Works
on the board.
2. Cubes only become money on the turn the tile is built. There is no selling to the market later.
3. Merchant beer is for Sell actions only — never for the Rail Era double-link, which needs
Brewery beer specifically.
4. Your own Brewery does not need to be connected to where the beer is required. An opponent’s does.
5. You may only overbuild an opponent’s Coal Mine or Iron Works, and only when there are no cubes
of that type anywhere on the board — including in its Market.
6. The Canal Era one-tile-per-location cap is a limit on you, not on the town. Other players may
build in the same location.
7. End of the Canal Era removes level one tiles from the board, but not from Player Mats.

Sources are linked in full at the end of the episode.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

It has been six months since you played Wingspan. The box is open, everybody
half-remembers the rules, and somebody is about to misplay the engine for three hours.

This is a rules refresher, not a teach — audio cannot show you a player mat, so if you have
never played, watch a Watch It Played teach first and come back. Every ruling here is traced
out loud to a page in Stonemaier's own rulebook (revision 24), the Appendix (revision 17), or
their published Rules and FAQ page.

The seven we cover:

1. Playing a bird is the only action that activates no row — and brown, white and pink are
three different clocks, not three flavours of the same one.
2. Pink "once between turns" powers fire on opponents' turns, once between each of yours —
including one last time after your final turn of the game.
3. Two food as any one food works only while you are playing a bird. Never for a power cost.
4. Cached food is points, not a wallet: you cannot spend it back out.
5. Column egg costs, spare eggs evaporating, and why a bird on your mat is permanent.
6. The birdfeeder has exactly two reroll triggers — and you choose dice one at a time, which
can hand you a reroll mid-selection. Most tables never use this.
7. Tied end-of-round goals pool the places and round down. Two players tied for first on a
5/2/1 goal score three each, not five.

Plus two quick ones: when the bird tray actually refills, and the unused-food tiebreak that
decides level games.

Sources are linked in full at the end of the episode.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

It's been six months since Root hit the table, and somebody is about to march warriors through a clearing they have no business entering. This is a refresher, not a teach — we can't show you the board, so if it's your first game, watch a Watch It Played video first and come back.

Seven mistakes that genuinely recur in r/rootgame, each settled against a numbered rule in the Law of Root (Oct 2025) — Leder Games' 32-page rules reference, read aloud by section number so you can check us.

1. **Warriors don't walk wherever paths go.** To move, you must rule the origin clearing, the destination, or both — and rule means warriors plus buildings, with tokens and pawns counting for zero. Ties rule for nobody, except the Eyrie's Lords of the Forest. The Vagabond alone is exempt (Nimble). (Law 4.2.1, 2.5, 7.2.2, 9.2.3)
2. **Battle math has a cap and an order.** Rolled hits are capped by your warriors in the clearing; a warrior-less defender is defenseless; warriors die before buildings and tokens; the attacker scores a point per building or token removed — the owner loses nothing — and dead warriors go back to the supply. (Law 4.3.3.I, 4.3.5.II, 4.3.6, 3.2.1, G.24)
3. **Each crafting piece activates once per turn**, and its suit is its clearing's suit. (Law 4.1.1)
4. **Marquise wood is not money.** Build wood comes from the build clearing or clearings connected to it through clearings you rule — cut the connection and the wood is stranded. (Law 6.5.4.II, 6.4)
5. **The Eyrie Decree is a contract, not a menu.** Every card, left to right, or turmoil: a point lost per bird card, Viziers included, and Daylight ends on the spot. Adding one or two cards each Birdsong is compulsory too. (Law 7.5.2, 7.7, 7.4.2)
6. **Outrage triggers on movement**, not just token removal — marching into a sympathetic clearing costs a matching card, and with no match you show your whole hand. Plus: the Alliance defends on the HIGHER roll. (Law 8.2.6, 8.2.2)
7. **The Vagabond can't be killed, and killing his neighbors has a price.** Hits damage his items; his combat runs on undamaged swords; and removing one warrior makes your faction permanently Hostile — feeding him Infamy points thereafter. (Law 9.2.7, 9.2.4, 9.2.6, 9.2.9.III)

**Sources.** The Law of Root (Oct 2025) and Root Learning to Play (Oct 2020), both published by Leder Games and retrieved 2026-08-09. Leder publishes no separate FAQ — the Law is the living-rules document. Player discussion mined from r/rootgame and boardgames.stackexchange.com; links in the episode's SOURCES section.

Root is published by Leder Games. This show is unofficial and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher.

Tabletop Refresher is produced by demades.ai.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

It's been six months since Ark Nova was on the table, and somebody is about to misplay the zoo for three hours. This is a refresher, not a teach — we can't show you the board, so if it's your first game, watch a Watch It Played video first and come back.

Seven mistakes that genuinely recur in r/ArkNova, each settled against a located passage in the official rulebook, glossary, or FAQ v2 — page numbers read aloud so you can check us.

1. **Releasing into the wild: which enclosure you flip is not your choice.** You must flip the smallest occupied enclosure meeting ALL the animal's requirements, water and rock included — and take tokens off a special enclosure first if the animal could have lived there. This one has a formal erratum, because the first two printings shipped a rulebook and a glossary that contradicted each other. (FAQ v2 p. 1, ERRATA; glossary p. 1)
2. **The Reptile House and Large Bird Aviary don't dodge water and rock** — and they have a hard token capacity. The real bonus: when you build one, you may move ALL qualifying animals in at once. (Rulebook p. 12; FAQ v2 p. 2)
3. **Unique buildings never count as water or rock spaces**, and printed water on a tile is artwork. Icons and spaces are two different currencies. (Glossary p. 4; FAQ v2 p. 2)
4. **"After finishing" means after your entire Animals action** — card moved to slot 1 and all. Everything else resolves immediately, even between your two animals. (Rulebook p. 11)
5. **Upgrading an Action card mid-action doesn't upgrade that action** — the stronger side arrives next action. But it counts as upgraded for fulfilling conditions straight away. (FAQ v2 p. 2)
6. **Strength is locked in when you declare the action; everything you earn inside it is spendable inside it.** (FAQ v2 p. 2)
7. **Upgraded Association buys DIFFERENT tasks, never repeats** — plus the worker escalation and the donation's prerequisite. (Rulebook pp. 14, 16)

**Sources.** Ark Nova rulebook, glossary, and FAQ v2 (which opens with the errata block for versions 1.0 and 1.1), all published by Capstone Games and retrieved 2026-08-09. Player discussion mined from r/ArkNova; links in the episode's SOURCES section.

Ark Nova is published by Feuerland Spiele / Capstone Games. This show is unofficial and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher.

Tabletop Refresher is produced by demades.ai.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

Polynomial and rational functions aren't just equations to solve—they're shapes with personalities you can read directly from their form. This episode explores how the degree of a polynomial tells you its maximum turns, how roots and factors reveal the same information in different forms, and how end behavior is entirely ruled by the leading term. When you divide polynomials to create rational functions, vertical asymptotes mark where the curve shoots toward infinity, and horizontal asymptotes show where it settles at the edges. By learning to decode these features, you can sketch the entire behavior of a curve before plotting a single point.

Based on "College Algebra — Polynomial and Rational Functions: Curves With Character" by OpenStax (Rice University) (OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/college-algebra/pages/5-introduction-to-polynomial-and-rational-functions), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Adapted by Demades into an AI-narrated audio discussion. Access for free at https://openstax.org.

Create your own podcast — free. Turn any topic into a research-backed, multi-host episode like this one — no card needed: https://demades.ai/studio?studio=1&topic=Polynomial+and+Rational+Functions%3A+Curves+With+Character&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=rss

AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

A weekly report on the consumer-protection enforcement actions the Federal Trade Commission published this week, read from the Commission's own announcements. Covering 2026-08-03 – 2026-08-09.

In this episode:
• FTC Ditches ‘Disparate Impact’ — https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/08/ftc-ditches-disparate-impact

This show reports on published FTC actions. It is not legal advice.

This episode was generated with AI by Demades. Every item above links to the primary source document it is based on.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

A weekly report on the drug and biologic approvals the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published this week, read from the FDA's own application records and approved labels. Covering 2026-08-03 – 2026-08-09.

In this episode:
• NDA 220860 — Orzeyful (TAKEDA PHARMS USA) — FDA approval, 2026-08-05 — https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?event=overview.process&ApplNo=220860

This show reports on published FDA actions. It is not medical advice.

This episode was generated with AI by Demades. Every item above links to the primary source document it is based on.

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AI-generated podcast — the hosts and voices are synthetic, not real people. Made with AI by Demades.

The atom's structure was assembled through a series of failed models and clever experiments, not direct observation. Starting with Thomson's plum pudding model and moving through Rutherford's gold foil experiment, which revealed a tiny dense nucleus, the hosts trace how scientists ruled out each picture—the pudding, then the planetary model—using indirect evidence like ricocheting particles and the fingerprints of light that atoms emit. The real story is one of careful wrongness: each discarded certainty taught us something true about why matter doesn't collapse and why atoms are mostly empty space.

Based on "Physics — The Atom: How a Picture of Matter Was Assembled" by OpenStax (Rice University) (OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/physics/pages/22-introduction), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Adapted by Demades into an AI-narrated audio discussion. Access for free at https://openstax.org.

Create your own podcast — free. Turn any topic into a research-backed, multi-host episode like this one — no card needed: https://demades.ai/studio?studio=1&topic=The+Atom%3A+How+a+Picture+of+Matter+Was+Assembled&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=rss