Lauren Cerand, currently based in New York City, is a freelancer and jewelry student. In 2019, she gave up her apartment, sold most of her belongings and moved to Italy to learn how to make jewelry at the Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence. We trace her path from a class at the 92Y to Pratt School of Design and finally to Italy.

Follow Lauren on Instagram or her project Shop Cerand.

Links

Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School

• 92Y Jewelry programs

Based in Denver, Colorado, Marni tells us why she picked up a deck of Tarot cards in 2016 and how she fell madly, deeply in love with all things Tarot. You will want to pick up a history book before you are halfway through the podcast and buy a beautiful deck by the end.

Follow @mystic.marni on Instagram

Show Links

• Rider Waite Smith Deck

Scott Weston is a Chicago-based Drupal developer who would like to move to Schitt's Creek. In this episode we talk about the Moira costume party that opened the door of the Canadian sitcom to him, debate which characters had the most personal growth and we talk about our cats.

CW: We discuss a death by suicide that happens in Season 1 during our discussion about Bob. Hop from 1:10:00 to 1:12:00 to skip

The only link you need from this episode is: Fold In The Cheese

Aimee Giese is a Denver-based graphic designer and concert photographer. We talked about how organizing a fundraiser at her son's school opened the door for her to become an accomplished concert photographer. She explained to me the rules of shooting concerts, declares Red Rocks the best venue in the world (fair) and introduced me to a dozen new bands and photographers over the course of our conversation.

Links

Follow Aimee Giese, aka Greeblehaus, on

• Twitter

Reading her blog, start here

• U2 Concert Photos

Additional links

• #SaveOurStages

Caroline Dorn and Ellie Klein Goldman are the women between @RogueShul. Until this week, the account was anonymous, but that didn't stop it from being at the center of many delightful conversations for people active in the Reform movement (and beyond). The account was from the POV of imaginary synagogue staff dedicated to the mission and the people, but a little exasperated from time to time.

Ellie and I are from the same hometown in Indiana (aka The Crossroads of America), her bestie from Camp GUCI is my Rabbi's daughter, and her younger brother was in my class at Woodrow Wilson Junior High.

In 2021, Ellie and Caroline are launching the Real Time Strategy Group to help synagogues and teams with trainings, workshops and professional development.

Links

Follow Caroline on Twitter and Instagram

Buy some RogueShul merch

Buy a copy of my self-published children's book Hanukkah on Miller Drive on Snapfish

Terre Haute, Indiana, the Crossroads of America

Sean Ellis is a co-founder of the Los Angeles Historical European Martial Arts Society and an avid participant in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) aka sword stuff. If you were ever obsessed with the sword fight in Princess Bride, this episode will teach you what the dialogue really means and Sean will find a way to get you psyched about picking up a sword this year.

Link Round-Up

LAHMAS on Facebook

SoCal Swordfight

Forteza Fitness in Chicago

Academy of Arms in Burbank

Hero's Journey LA

Directory of online HEMA classes for COVID times

Sharp swords live stream (not from Poland, no blood)

Fastest forgotten archery

Hans Talhoffer Manuscript project on IndieGoGo

Hans Talhoffer Wikipedia

Manuscript I 33

Steve Martin in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

A Christmas Story

Vigo County is no longer a bellweather county

Field Band 101

Hi Josh Cheney

Thea Lux, an LA-based actor, writer, comic and voice-over artist, jumped on Zoom with me to talk about knitting - specifically all the sweaters she's been knitting during COVID. We talk about patterns, finding errors and deciding when to start over.

Did you vote yet?

Show Links

Follow Thea on Twitter and Instagram

Hot Dog City, USA on Etsy

Like Mother on Audible

Support Geeky Teas in LA

Thea was Comic of the Week on The Jackie and Laurie Show (on my birthday)

Hollywood Fringe Festival

22

Author Joanna QL and I talked about Writing the Rails, I Fight Dragons and what it was like to mix social media and music business in the late aughts.

Links

Writing the Rails

I Fight Dragons

A Seasonal Table: Winter

Joanna QL, author of The Seasonal Table: Winter, loves all forms of making and crafting. Whether it's cooking, sewing, wood burning or massive home projects - she's your go to person! We talk about her Ayurvedic training, a new cookbook and then dive deep on where her love of making comes from. She also has a warning for people running Zooms with kids - watch out for the Motion Sickness Opera and advises that we adults laugh it off when it happens.

Episode Links

The Seasonal Table: Winter

Seasonable Table Merch (including spice packs and tea towels)

Follow Joanna on Twitter to learn about Zoom cook-alongs

Go deep in the archives for Writing the Rails videos with David Kav

Proof that Amtrak caught up to us with a Writing the Rails fellowship for authors

Become a citizen scientist with Sci Starter

Martin Atkins from Pigface is a professor at my alma mater

Shai and I went down a winding path during our CATS episode about close-up magic, movies about magic and the Magic Castle in LA. Somebody invite us both when all of this is over, please.

Chicago Magic Lounge

Magic Castle

David Copperfield disappeared the Statue of Liberty