Serious Fun

It's the third and final episode of Serious Fun, live from the 2024 Brown County Library Pop Con! For the grand finale, Bryan sits down with Cofrin School of Business faculty Dr. Vallari Chandna and Anup Nair, as well as UWGB Communication professor Dr. Justin Kavlie, to talk through the greatest duos in pop culture! Why do we love these pairings? What makes a great duo? And which of the four twosomes is the greatest of them all? Tune in and enjoy the lively conversation that only comes after we've all been at a convention for a full day.

Goodness gracious, another Serious Fun! This is the second live episode from the 2024 Brown County Library Pop Con, and this week Bryan sits down with cosplay and convention expert (and former student) Nicole Rastia to provide a seasoned guide to convention survival and etiquette! Ever wondered how to put a cosplay costume together? Curious about convention etiquette? How to stay hydrated? What you get out of going? All these questions and so much more will be answered on this live episode of Serious Fun!

In the first of a trio of shows recorded at the 2024 Brown County Library Pop ConTM, Bryan sits down with best-selling, six-time Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Raina Telgemeier! Raina is the author and artist behind beloved books like “Smile”, “Guts”, “Ghosts”, and “Sisters”. With nearly twenty million copies of her work in print, Raina is one of the most popular YA authors in the world. In this episode, Raina talks about her life, her creative process, why autobiographical stories resonate with so many people, why kids can benefit from telling their own stories through comics, and so much more! Listen now!

SHOW NOTES:

Check out Raina’s official website and stay up to date on all her work at https://goraina.com!

To find out more about Shaquille O’Neal’s gummy business, visit https://shaqalicious.com

On this episode of Serious Fun, we tie on our headband and take it to the streets with Grant Patterson, Head Sensei of the WNFC Esports Dojo and CEO of WNFC LLC. Grant sits down with us to talk about fighting games and how his organization uses them to teach kids skills like confidence, decision-making, and determination that can help them elsewhere in life – and how they could help you, too! We also nerd out about the golden age(s) of fighting games in the way only two middle-aged dudes who have been there since basically the beginning can. If you like fighting games, the scholarship of teaching and learning, philosophy or psychology – you’ll find something to like in this one!

Check out WNFC Esports Dojo at:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcUTvadMyz-n7L_V0xiM92Q

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

X: @wnightfightclub @wnfcdojo

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

Check out Pocket Pedagogy and everything else UWGB’s Center for Games and Interactive Media at https://www.youtube.com/@uwgbCGIM

Video games! You love 'em! You know you do! But some games are more special to us than others. Some games inspired us, or challenged us. They made us see the medium and the world in a different way. Some even changed the entire industry. These are the GameChangers, and this week on Serious Fun Bryan sits down with Dr. Juli Case and Dr. Chris Williams of the UW - Green Bay English faculty to list and discuss the personal and historical significance of fifteen must-play games and why you should play them. And as this is the final of our three shows recorded at the 2023 Brown County Library Pop-Con, we also heard from fans and community members about which games they felt deserved the honor of being included on the list! That list spans RPGs to action games, small-scale personal narratives to massive franchises, and more. Did your favorite make it? Download and find out...

SHOW NOTES:

The full title of this episode was supposed to be "Episode 54: GameChangers - The Games That Made Us (or Games Where You Beat Up Your Dad) (w/ Juli Case and Chris Williams)" but it wouldn't fit. But you read the show notes, so now you know that. You have that treasured knowledge. Good for you!

Thanks again to everyone at the Brown County Library for making this event possible and to Forever Friend of the Show Miriam Brabham for once again lending her help in managing the audience Q&A!

Music Credits:

Junichi Nakatsuru - Duelists/Mitsurugi’s Theme (Soulcalibur)

Darren Korb - No Escape (Hades)

Nobuo Uematsu - Golden Saucer (Final Fantasy VII)

Michiru Yamane - Dracula’s Castle (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)

Takashi Tateishi - Ending Theme (Mega Man 2)

In our second live show from the Brown County Library Pop-Con, Bryan is joined by legendary author and master of kid-oriented horror R. L. Stine! In this wide-ranging interview in front of a massive live audience, we talk about writing horror for younger audiences, the impact Tales from the Crypt has on a young mind, tips and strategies for a prolific writing process, why comedy and horror are so closely linked, and so, so much more!

Show notes:

Check out all of Stine's work at https://www.rlstine.com

Music credits:

Jack Lenz - "Goosebumps Theme"

Serious Fun returns with another slate of live episodes from the 2023 Brown County Library Pop-Con! This week, Bryan sits down with Patrick and Savannah O'Connor of power pop band The Shake Ups and discusses their unique blend of cartoon and musical influences in front a live audience! This "animated" conversation also covers copyright and licensing, songwriting and musical arrangement, remix culture, and so much more! Download it already!

Check out the Shake Ups' music, find their tour dates, and peruse their albums and merch at http://www.theshakeups.net

Song credits:

The Shake Ups - "Meddling Kids"

The Shake Ups - "Robot Arm"

What can professional wrestling and its largest figurehead tell us about our social and political moment? Turns out - a lot! Author Abraham Josephine Riesman returns to Serious Fun for an in-depth discussion about her new book "Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America". Riesman breaks down McMahon, his empire, his connections to politics and business, and how his contributions to pro wrestling have created a new weighted form of synthetic reality she calls "neokayfabe" that permeates our social, political, journalistic, and media lives.

SHOW NOTES:

Learn more about the book at:

https://www.ringmasterthebook.com

Riesman's article on the Book of Job for Slate is here:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/03/job-torah-story-despair-alternative-war-democracy-climate-apocalypse.html

In our final live Serious Fun from the 2022 Brown County Library Comic-Con, Bryan sits down with Zack Kruse (UW - Green Bay Sheboygan) and Miriam Brabham (UW - Green Bay Main Campus) to once and for all answer that question that gnaws at us literally and figuratively - who is the all time greatest, gnarliest, creepiest, most symbolically relevant monster of them all? Is it Dracula, lord of the vampires? The Wolfman, half-man half-beast? Frankenstein's monster, misunderstood brute? Or is it the humble zombie horde, shambling across the countryside? Delve deep into these monsters and what they represent with us - you might get scared, but you'll learn something!

Check out Zack's book, Mysterious Travelers: Steve Ditko and the Search for a New Liberal Identity here: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/M/Mysterious-Travelers

It's a spooktacular celebration of the craft of drawing on a new Serious Fun! In this live episode from the 2022 Brown County Library Pop-Con, Green Bay artist Robb Mommaerts talks about his style, influences, and work on properties like Klawde the Evil Alien Warlord Cat. Robb also demonstrates how to draw and create original characters from scratch in this fascinating live drawing demonstration!

Check out Robb's Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/robbmommaerts/?hl=en

Check out his poster for the Brown County Library Comic-Con (which he donated to the library like the cool guy he is) here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjAtoENOlMx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For you Tumblr fans:

https://robbmommaerts.tumblr.com/

His blog is here:

http://robbvision.blogspot.com/

Check out a couple photos from the event here: https://twitter.com/Learnonaut/status/1583514310122213377