If you are someone who has complained that every new piece of media is a sequel, prequel, remake, reboot, or a studio banking on pre-existing IP (intellectual property) to bring in audiences, this is the episode for you. We are kicking off 2025 with Nadira Goffe, a staff writer at Slate, who helps us contextualize this moment in pop culture as well as looking back at a time when media felt like "hope-ium".

Links, books, and more at https://bydonmartin.com/

Grab your wieners, your marshmallows, your bad haircuts, and toss them all on the funeral pyre of 2024.

Robyn Valentine, co-host of the Coffee & Cauldrons podcast and author of Magickal Tarot & The Apprentice Witch, joins me to review the highs, lows, personal triumphs, and things we'd love to leave behind as we BURN 2024 DOWN to prepare for a bright new year ahead.

Hopefully.

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Ella Harrison is the author of The Book of Spells. She has a degree in anthropology and uses her social media platform to educate and entertain audiences on the topics of folklore, folk magic, and the history of holiday traditions. If you've ever wondered about figures like Krampus or Perchta, this is the show for you.

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Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire preorder links

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/21737256

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/1146128413

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Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire/id6608980931

Amazon: https://a.co/d/4bzX26r

They say all politics is local, but that's difficult to believe when every single topic of conversation at our dinner table seems to have national stakes. From the books on our kids' shelves to who reads those books to them to the statues in our parks to who is allowed in our parks, every issue large and small feels like it's operating on some grand scale. It's hard to gain perspective, hard to know what information to trust, especially when some of our politicians are telling us not to trust what we've seen and heard with our own eyes and ears.

That's where good journalists come in.

Gregory Royal Pratt is an investigative reporter with the Chicago Tribune. He's made a name for himself covering corruption, triumphs, and everyday heroes in the third largest city in the country. We had a conversation about the power of local journalism, the influence of national politics in small town spaces, and why he wrote a book about Lori Lightfoot. 

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

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Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire preorder links

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/21737256

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/1146128413

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Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire/id6608980931

Amazon: https://a.co/d/4bzX26r

Thanks to the Make America Healthy Again movement, there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation on the rise about food, "chemicals", and whether what we eat is safe. Thankfully, Erin the Food Science Babe is here to help.

Subscribe to Erin's channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodScienceBabe

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headonfirepod/

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Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonfirepod

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Subscribe to the Head On Fire podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

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Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire preorder links

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/21737256

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire-don-martin/1146128413

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Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/verity-vox-and-the-curse-of-foxfire/id6608980931

Amazon: https://a.co/d/4bzX26r

The mantel of the witch is one that has been worn by people for all sorts of reasons. 

There are those who don the black hat for political purposes, as a feminist symbol, or a way for those who find themselves on the margins of society in one way or another to reach for the power they otherwise could never hope to have. 

Then there are the people call themselves witches because they cast spells and divine the future and talk to the dead. And still there are others conjuring up new titles or resurrecting old ones all in an attempt to define a personal spiritual path that is inclusive, empowering, and allows for a spark of magic in the real world.

I summoned three fabulous witches to help me call the corners, cast a circle, and chat all about how to walk the witches’ road in real life.

Please support today's guests:

Thorn Mooney

Courtney Weber

Mawiyah Bomani

Order my books, The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft and Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire, here.

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

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Dr. Sam Montano is no stranger to combating conspiracy theories regarding emergency management. She’s been doing it since Hurricane Katrina. She holds a BS in Psychology, as well as Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Emergency Management and teaches the subject at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Her book Disaster-ology came out in 2021. I sat down with her to help parse fact from fiction on what FEMA is, the politicization of climate disasters, and how emergency managers are preparing for the next catastrophe. 

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headonfirepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/headonfirepod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headonfirepod

Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonfirepod

Buy me a Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/headonfirepod

Subscribe to the Head On Fire podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4qTYYhCLMdFc4PhQmSL1Yh?si=5387b774ed6e4524

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A.J. Jacobs is a New York Times bestselling author known for his immersive, year-long experiments, including The Year of Living Biblically, The Know-It-All, and his latest book, The Year of Living Constitutionally.

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headonfirepod/

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Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonfirepod

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

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By all accounts Victoria Aveyard is both an outlier and also as close to the Hollywood version of becoming an author as it gets. 

While the average age for a debut novelist is around 36, Victoria’s debut novel—Red Queen—was published shortly after graduating from college and went on to become a massive, runaway success. And so did all of the rest of her novels. In fact, every one of Victoria’s novels has been a New York Times bestseller, and she even made it onto the coveted Bestseller Series list which is rareified air indeed. 

So it came as quite a shock to her readers when, earlier this year, she talked about having to go back out on submission this year with what will be her debut adult novel. They were even more shocked to learn that she received a number of rejections, thinking, of course, that past performance meant that every future book would automatically receive the green light from any future publisher. 

I sat down with Victoria to have a long discussion about the actual job of being an author, what readers and prospective authors alike get right and wrong about the labor of a creative career, and how to reframe rejection for yourself as just another part of the job. 

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headonfirepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/headonfirepod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headonfirepod

Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonfirepod

Buy me a Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/headonfirepod

Subscribe to the Head On Fire podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

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Charlie Sprinkman developed the app Everywhere Is Queer, which is quickly becoming one of the best, most comprehensive lists of queer owned and operated businesses. 

Whether you’re looking for a travel agent, a craft store, a bakery, or a horse ranch, the Everywhere is Queer app is helping people realize that supporting queer owned and operated businesses in person and online might be easier and closer to home than people realize…just in time for you to divert those Brr month shopping dollars to a small business near you. I sat down with Charlie to discuss the app’s creation, the importance of speaking with your dollars, and why ally owned businesses aren’t going to be listed on the app anytime soon.

Email: [email protected]

Social links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/headonfirepod/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/headonfirepod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headonfirepod

Support my work on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/headonfirepod

Buy me a Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/headonfirepod

Subscribe to the Head On Fire podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4qTYYhCLMdFc4PhQmSL1Yh?si=5387b774ed6e4524

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/HeadOnFirePod