Shadows and Shamblers An American Gods Podcast

Alan gives you a beat-by-beat analysis of “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, off the top of his head. This is part of a larger separate podcasting project called “I Read.”

The “I Read” podcast project can be found on Hallowed Ground Media’s website and all major podcasting platforms.

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by  FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Anya and Alan resurrect our podcast to talk through our feelings about the scandals surrounding Neil Gaiman. Is there a split between Art and Artist? We compare the unbalanced lives of commercial artists to academics. How is our society calibrated to reward and punish abusive but talented people? What should we do about it?

“The Sandman” Netflix adaptation of the 75 issue Comic Book run was canceled in its second season in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Neil Gaiman.

“There is No Safe Word” by Lila Shapiro was published for New York Magazine and online by Vulture in January 2025

Master by Tortoise Media was seven episode podcast series that laid out the allegations against Gaiman and included interviews with the accusers.

“Undoing the Buffy Creator” by Lila Shapiro on Vulture summarizes the allegation against Joss Whedon and some of the affects at the time.

Abby Gardner breaks down the controversies around JK Rowling for Glamour.

“Neil Gaiman Limps Away” by Liz Shannon Miller for consequence.net showcases the charm and magnetism of Gaiman in person, but also the fallout for creators who have been captured in the wake of his scandal.

“The Friedman Doctrine” by Milton Friedman is not US law but articulates the guiding principle of publicly traded companies to enhance the wealth of their shareholders above any other priority.

Dropout TV is a cool independent thing

LN Loch as a YouTube stream about life as an artist and a SubStack with her thoughts.

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by  FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Anya and Alan talk about their plans for the new season of American Gods and focus on the scandal around Orlando Jones leaving the show.

An account of the production problems behind American Gods, including Ricky Whittle’s (Shadow Moon) account of the events around Orlando Jones: “How American Gods Finds Stability (And More Neil Gaiman) in Season 3” by Ron Hogan for Den of Geek.

The Blerd Gurl interviewed Orlando Jones the day he announced his situation. Listen to the podcast interview for yourself.

Fremantle Media is a thing.

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by  FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

We have a new podcast! Come listen to us talk about “His Dark Materials” with our friend Caitlin. For all the details visit the Measures of Truth homepage, then subscribe to the podcast in your favorite player!

Alan reviews the physical media releases of American Gods Season 2 and Season 1. Alan rounds up all the extras and complains about the features that aren’t available. There isn’t very much here for collector’s, but its always nice to have the discs on hand if you can’t stream.

Check out Measures of Truth: A His Dark Materials Podcast and read the book with us before the show drops.

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by FortyTwoMusic.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Sarah pulled a stool up at The Gem to talk Deadwood with Alan. HBO released a movie to wrap-up Deadwood, and that gave us an excuse to fan-out about the whole show. We talk about Sarah’s ships, Alan’s politics, and the vulgar poetry that is Deadwood’s dialogue.

Justified is the spiritual successor to Deadwood.

Check out Sarah’s Homepage.

Alan and Sarah talked about Kings which was not made by David Green (whoever that is) but Michael Green.

Check out the History Spoilers for Deadwood.

Why shouldn’t racist language be changed in Huck Finn?

The Dark Tower franchise is one of Alan’s favorite stories- and can be found in movies, comics, and- of course- novels.

Anarchism as a political framework.

According to W. Earl Brown (aka Dan the bartender) there are deleted scenes and hopefully we get to see them on a Blu-Ray release.

We spotted Garret Dillahunt, but did you catch any of the other returning actors with dead characters?

Titus Welliver couldn’t join the movie because he is the star of Amazon’s Bosch.

Follow Sarah on Twitter!

Come listen to our other podcast Hallowed Ground StoryCast!

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by the Deadwood Movie Soundtrack- used without permission or asking.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Anya and Alan talk about Fake News, Metronomes, Retcons, and the meaning of snails. Can you use boot-contaminated blood in a potion? Anya lays out why this finale is just like a Buffy finale. We wrap up Season 2, thank all of you for listening, and speculate about what comes next.

Buffering the Vampire Slayer just wrapped up Season 4 of the classic 90’s TV show.

The War of the Worlds started as a novel by HG Wells and has been adapted many times in different media.

Even Fox News had to drop their slogan of “Fair and Balanced” as they slid into propaganda.

The Sinclair Broadcasting Scandal was a “forced read” of a script that many “local” news anchors read live on the air to bolster the Trump administration.

The problem with women anchors on Fox News.

What is a Ret-con??

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Faith is the last Slayer called in Buffy the Vampire Slayer- and she’s the best.

Angel was a spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Gnosticism was a heresy of early Christianity.

Elon Musk made a submarine that was never needed.

Hello World is a thing.

Quantum Computing might be cool- but we don’t know much about it.

Schrodinger’s Cat is a thought experiment that helps non-scientists imagine quantum reality.

Diegetic Sounds link the fictional world and the real world for an audience.

Snails have many magical meanings.

Iktomi is played by Julian Richings and Gnaskinyan is played by Stephen R. Hart neither of whom are Native- which is very disappointing.

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Deus Ex Machina is a trope that trips up Fantasy stories sometimes.

Brandon Sanderson’s Laws of Magic in Fantasy.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO RATED AND REVIEWED THE SHOW ALL AROUND THE WORLD!!

Come listen to our other podcast Hallowed Ground StoryCast!

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Anya and Alan run down Season 2 of American Gods by going through all the feedback that has come in. We talk about what we got right, what we got wrong, and how impossible Gaelic is for Alan.

Follow Kait on Twitter and check out Sox and Monkey Presents, her podcast network.

Follow @FarFlungHope5 and check out her podcasts @3SReginas

Follow jean e on Twitter and check out the theatrical plays she has written

Follow Queen Boo on Twitter

Follow Kate on Twitter

Follow Alan’s mom on Twitter

Follow Kelli on Twitter

Follow The Jinn on Twitter for the best American Gods fanfic

Follow Jonita Davis on Twitter and checkout her interview with Mousa Kraish

The story of Cu Chulainn involves the theft of a magic cow. Here is the YouTube video that I ripped off.

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Charles Pulliam-Moore wrote “American Gods has a Lynching Problem” of io9.com

The lynching in “The Ways of the Dead” was based on the actual lynching of William “Froggie” James in Cairo in 1909 (not 1902 Alan)

Anya is referring to the fulfillment of justice for James Byrd Jr. in Texas

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.

Anya and Alan talk Three Beats that are Five Beats, Adaptation, and Chekhov’s shotgun. “The Treasure of the Sun” is a rich multi-layered episode that we dive into. Learn about Banshees, the origin of The Eye of Sauron, and how things went down in the book.

A Three Beat is a popular narrative structuring technique. A five beat is not a real thing, but you get the idea.

Chekhov’s Gun comes from Russian writer Anton Chekhov. We aren’t sure if Anton owned a shotgun.

Balor was the king of the mythic Fomorians, grandfather of Lugh, and enemy of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

The “Song of Songs” is traditionally about the Queen of Sheba, which Bilquis is an adaptation of.

Christianity in the British Isles produced the distinctive Celtic Cross.

Kali worship is extremely diverse, but includes the idea of destroying egotistical preconceptions of the self that block us from being authentic.

Pagani was a Latin word for people who lived in the countryside, and is the root word for Pagan.

Women were central to the early Christian church, although their contributions have largely been erased or forgotten- because Patriarchy.

Emperor Constantine converted the entire Roman Empire to Christianity and fundamentally altered the spirit of the religion.

Paul’s direction for the dress and behavior of women during church worship in 1 Cor 11:2-16 feels out of step with his assertion in Gal 3:27-29 that Christians do not distinguish between nationalities or sex. Anya is probably referring to 1 Cor 14:33-36 where Paul forbids married women from speaking in church. Paul most likely wrote these letters in the AD 50’s. Here is a biased, but comprehensive, article about Paul’s writing on the subject of women in Christianity: The Role of Women in the Church- The Pauline Perspective

The ancient Celtic religion in Ireland focused on knowledge and Nature under the guidance of shamanistic Druids.

Check out our other podcast Hallowed Ground StoryCast and the episode we did about modern Christianity, its relationship with modern American politics, and the autobiography “Crazy for God”

Banshees are mythological spirits in the modern Irish tradition that might have their origins in the ancient goddess Morrigan and traditional Keeners.

Problematic Tropes in this episode: Magical Negro and Gay Best Friend.

Our coverage of the 8th episode of Season 2 will most likely be delayed by the leak of screeners to pirating websites because STARZ decided to pull all screeners for reviews. Read about it.

Our Theme song is "Unstoppable Force" by FortyTwoMusic with other musical contributions by Rich Holmes.

Follow us on Twitter @ShadowShambler and Anya @StrangelyLiterl

Shadows and Shamblers is a production of Hallowed Ground Media and is released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial Sharealike License.