This week on Make Me a Nerd, Mandy Kaplan dives headlong into the fascinating world of The Lord of the Rings with her guest, friend, and Tolkien superfan, Richard Hellstern. Despite her notably limited travel across Middle Earth, Mandy bravely boards the carriage with Gandalf and Frodo and manages to make a drinking game out of the trip.

Surprising everyone, her admiration for the complex and rich world of Peter Jackson’s loving adaptation shines through, even though she admits to struggling at times with the lengthy explanatory monologues about Middle Earth's history.

Richard leads Mandy on a journey through what makes The Lord of the Rings such a captivating saga. Between Peter Jackson's evident love for the source material, the breathtaking visual effects, Howard Shore's enchanting score, and the characters' humanity despite the epic scale of the story, Mandy not only understands the hype and the jokes but might even appreciate the fantasy. Welcome to Tolkien, nerds… the Shire is warm.