This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Delilah S. Dawson, author of Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd.

About Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft: Heir of Strahd: Five strangers armed with steel and magic awaken in a mist-shrouded land, with no memory of how they arrived: Rotrog, a prideful orcish wizard; Chivarion, a sardonic drow barbarian; Alishai, an embittered tiefling paladin; Kah, a skittish kenku cleric; and Fielle, a sunny human artificer.

After they barely survive a nightmarish welcome to the realm of Barovia, a carriage arrives bearing an invitation:

Fairest Friends,

I pray you accept my humble Hospitality and dine with me tonight at Castle Ravenloft. It is rare we receive Visitors, and I do so Endeavor to Make your Acquaintance. The Carriage shall bear you to the Castle safely, and I await your Arrival with Pleasure.

Your host,

With no alternative, and determined to find their way home, the strangers accept the summons and travel to the forbidding manor of the mysterious count. But all is not well at Castle Ravenloft. To survive the twisted enigmas of Strahd and his haunted home, the adventurers must confront the dark secrets in their own hearts and find a way to shift from strangers to comrades—before the mists of Barovia claim them forever.

About Delilah S. Dawson: Delilah S. Dawson is the New York Times bestselling writer of Star Wars: Phasma, Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade, The Secrets of Long Snoot, The Perfect Weapon, and Scorched; Disney Mirrorverse: Pure of Heart, It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, Guillotine, Midnight at the Houdini, Bloom, The Violence, the Blud series, Servants of the Storm, the HIT series, Wake of Vultures and the Shadow series (as Lila Bowen), and a variety of short stories in anthologies such as Death & Honey, Robots vs. Fairies, Hellboy: an Assortment of Horrors, Violent Ends, Carniepunk, Three Slices, and Last Night a Superhero Saved My Life. With Kevin Hearne, she is the co-writer of the Tales of Pell series. Her middle grade works include Mine, Camp Scare, and the Minecraft Mob Squad series.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 675-With Delilah S. Dawson appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Sam Kelly, author of Human History on Drugs.

About Human History on Drugs: Did you know that Alexander the Great was a sloppy drunk and William Shakespeare was a stoner? Or how about the fact that Steve Jobs believed taking LSD helped him create the Apple computer, or that Sigmund Freud loved cocaine so much he took it all the time and prescribed it to his patients?

In Human History on Drugs, Sam Kelly introduces us to the history our teachers never told us, offering up irreverent and insightful commentary as he sheds light on some truly bizarre aspects of the historical characters we only thought we knew. With chapters spanning from Ancient Greece (“The Oracle of Delphi Was Huffing Fumes”) to modern times (“Carl Sagan Got Astronomically High”), Kelly’s research covers all manner of eras, places, and, of course, drugs.

History is rife with drug use and drug users, and Human History on Drugs takes us through those highs (pun intended) and lows on a witty and entertaining ride that uncovers their mind-boggling impact on our past.

About Sam Kelly: Sam Kelly, a history grad from Stanford University, is on the autism spectrum and his interest and passion for history has become an almost physical compulsion. He loves to dig up forgotten and weird stories from the past and spends hours uncovering every last stubborn detail. As a deep believer that history can be as exciting as any Marvel movie, Sam aims to—whether on TikTok or through a book—make history both engaging and accessible to all. Human History on Drugs is his first book.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 674-With Sam Kelly appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Margaret Stohl, Jeanine Schaefer, and Judith Stephens to talk about their new book, Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel Comics.

About Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel Comics: Inspired by the hit podcast The Women of Marvel and cowritten by the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures, this eye-opening and engaging book celebrates the women who have helped make Marvel one of the most successful comics and entertainment companies in the world.

What does a hero’s journey look like when the hero in question happens to be a girl? #1 New York Times bestselling author and Marvel creator Margaret Stohl (The Life of Captain Marvel, Black Widow: Forever Red) along with Judith Stephens (producer and cocreator of the Women of Marvel podcast), and Jeanine Schaefer (critically acclaimed editor) interviewed more than a hundred women and nonbinary Marvel contributors in search of the answer to that question.

With one shared goal—to make the historically invisible work of women visible—and with unprecedented access to Marvel creators, writers, and more, Stohl, Stephens, and Schaefer set out to tell the story of the women of the “House of Ideas” from 1939 through today, and along the way, to find the meaning of their own Marvel stories. Packed with biographies and illustrations from creators, graphical reprints and excerpts of historic Marvel comics, and exclusive interviews from acclaimed directors like Anna Boden and Cate Shortland; lauded writers such as Kelly Sue DeConnick, Eve Ewing, Rainbow Rowell, Nic Stone, G. Willow Wilson, Tini Howard, and Maurene Goo; top artists like Jen Bartel; and influential producer Sana Amanat, Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel is an essential read for fans of all ages.

About Margaret Stohl: Margaret Stohl is a the #1 New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels and graphic novels, including the Beautiful Creatures series, the Black Widow: Forever Red duology, the ongoing Mighty Captain Marvel comic, and the Life of Captain Marvel miniseries.

About Jeanine Schaefer: Jeanine Schaefer worked as an assistant editor for DC Comics, notably on the Superman books between 2004 and 2006 up until Infinite Crisis. In 2010, she moved to Marvel Comics. She returned to DC with her husband Mark Doyle when the main office was moved to Burbank in 2015. In 2018, she became Executive Editor at Boom! Studios, though she departed three years later.

About Judith Stephens: Judy Stephens is a producer, author, host and cosplayer. Her first book, “Cosplay the Marvel Way: A Guide to Costuming Culture and Crafting Basics” is available in June. Judy is also a co-creator of the Women Of Marvel podcast and co-author of the upcoming book “Super Visible: The Story of the Women of Marvel”. With over 15 years at Marvel, Judy has worked in production of news and pop culture based content, including photos, video and multimedia. Judy’s work has been featured on major geek-culture outlets like Marvel, Kotaku, and Nerdist, and within several books, including “Cosplay World” and “Yaya Han’s World of Cosplay.”

Since attending her first anime and comic convention in 2004, Judy has traveled the world as a staff, photographer, guest and attendee of over 100 conventions, meeting cosplayers from California to London, New Zealand and Chile. As part of her inclusion in the cosplay community, she is well known as an advocate for cosplay at Marvel and Disney, with contributions including Marvel Becoming, Marvel Cosplay Covers, Costoberfest, organizing the Marvel Cosplay Contests, social media coverage and most recently Marvel’s 616 episode “Suit Up” on Disney+. Over the last two decades, she has also cosplayed over thirty characters, including her well-known Captain Marvel.

A proud Queens resident, where she lives with her two cats, she spends her free time enjoying the city, working out & traveling with friends.

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 673-With Margaret, Stohl Jeanine Schaefer and Judith Stephens appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Paul Bradley Carr, author of THE CONFESSIONS.

About THE CONFESSIONS: LLIAM is the world’s most powerful supercomputer, built to make the toughest decisions for its users. Where to work, who to marry, and even who should live or die. But when LLIAM suddenly goes offline with no explanation, the world is thrust into chaos, paralyzed by indecision. Stocks plummet, stores are shuttered, planes sit grounded on runways as humanity scrambles to re-adapt to an uncertain, analog world.

Then the first letters arrive…on every continent, in every language, mysterious envelopes arrive in the mail, exposing people’s darkest secrets, and most shocking crimes. All beginning with the same chilling words: “We must confess.”

With millions of people suddenly made to confront their past transgressions, and society fast unraveling, CEO Kaitlan Goss must track down the only person who can help undo the resulting violent chaos: Maud Brookes, an ex-nun who taught LLIAM what it means to be human. But when Maud receives a letter herself, revealing Kaitlan’s own unforgivable sin, the two women are forced into a deadly game of deceit as the world teeters on the brink.

About Paul Bradley Carr: Paul Bradley Carr is a journalist and author. He has written three memoirs about his adventures in and around Silicon Valley. He was the Silicon Valley columnist for The Guardian, senior editor at TechCrunch, cofounder of PandoDaily, and founder and editor-in-chief of the infamous NSFWCORP in Las Vegas. His writing has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, National Geographic, and much more. He lives in Palm Springs with his family and is the co-owner of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 672-With Paul Bradley Carr appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Joan Slonczewski, author of Minds in Transit.

About Minds in Transit: In the hundred-level city of Iridis, human lords recycle diamonds and emeralds down to the Underworld while sentient machines pilot lightcraft and perform surgeries. Microbial minds expand the brains of scientists and artists. The artist Chrys directs her microbes to paint startling installations, design smart buildings and fix quantum networks. A world-size virtual intelligence called Transit commissions Chrys to create a whole new city on another planet.

But unexpected flaws fracture her designs. Microbial criminal gangs invade Chrys’s brain to kill off her own micros and take control. In Iridis, the roots of buildings grow cancers that escape the Underworld and cause earthquakes. Outlawed machines shake down shops and kidnap human lords for ransom. The city’s rulers ignore the signs of collapse, then face a new threat that no mind foresaw.

About Joan Slonczewski: Joan Slonczewski publishes research with undergraduates on bacterial pH stress, funded by the National Science Foundation. They also study cold-adapted microbes from Antarctica. Slonczewski authors science fiction novels, including A Door into Ocean and The Highest Frontier, both of which earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. They teach courses on microbiology and on writing science fiction.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 671-With Joan Slonczewski appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Morgan Ryan, author of A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES.

About A RESISTANCE OF WITCHES: Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Now, with Hitler’s army rampaging across Europe, the witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the cause: she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler and his sycophants can. When a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, the coven is left shaken, exposed and divided. The elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes, Lydia knows her mission has never been more urgent.

Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne—a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets—and Henry Boudreaux—a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalked by the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the book is only half the battle—the Grimorium Bellum has a dark agenda all its own. Lydia must subdue it before the Witches of the Third Reich can use it—but she’ll have to survive the book herself, first.

About Morgan Ryan: Morgan Ryan is the author of stories born from a lifelong love of magic, a fixation on historical minutiae that borders on the obsessive, and a tendency to fall down rabbit-holes. She was raised in a family of writers in upstate New York, and received her degree in theatre performance from Northeastern University. She now lives in Chicago with her husband. A Resistance of Witches is her first novel.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 670-With Morgan Ryan appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Michael Damian Thomas, to talk about Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns!.

About Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns!: Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Michael Damian Thomas and Team Uncanny Magazine have run successful Kickstarters for the seven-time Hugo Award-winning, 2024 World Fantasy Award-winning, and 2024 Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative essays by writers from every conceivable background–not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content.

Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists for or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Awards!

If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year 12 happen!

Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content. Unfortunately, there is a less-than-celebratory side to this Kickstarter. Recently, a very large online eBook dealer ended its magazine subscriptions and moved Uncanny onto their streaming service. This meant over a 75% reduction of our subscription earnings.

YOUR support, specifically, makes it possible for us to make our magazine freely available on our website and to pay our contributors and staff. We need your help more than ever, Space Unicorns!

About Michael Damian Thomas: Michael Damian Thomas is the eight-time Hugo, British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Parsec Award-winning co-publisher (with Lynne M. Thomas) and editor-in-chief of the Locus Award-winning Uncanny Magazine. Michael was a Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo Award finalist essay anthology Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian Press, 2013) with Sigrid Ellis, and co-edited the anthology Glitter & Mayhem (Apex Publications, 2013) with John Klima and Lynne M. Thomas. Michael was additionally a contributor to the SF Squeecast podcast (with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, and Catherynne M. Valente), a contributor to the Down and Safe- Blake’s 7 podcast (with Amal El-Mohtar, Scott Lynch, and L.M. Myles), and is currently the Content Editor (with Lynne M. Thomas) of the It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton podcast.

Michael was formerly the full-time caregiver of his late daughter, Caitlin. Caitlin had a rare congenital disorder called Aicardi syndrome.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 669-With Uncanny Magazine’s Michael Damian Thomas appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Matthew Kressel, author of SPACE TRUCKER JESS.

About SPACE TRUCKER JESS: Jessian Urania Darger is a kick-ass take-no-shit foul-mouthed too-smart-for-her-own-good sixteen-year-old girl with a chip on her shoulder. She and her daddy have been grifting their way across the verse for years. But when her daddy gets arrested for running crypto-credit scams, Jess is forced to get a job on Chadeisson Station as a roachrunner, fixing starships to survive.

She dreams of a better life, away from her corrupt daddy, so she’s been saving up to buy a Spark Megahauler, a huge cargo ship, ever since she saw one in a printer catalog. She wants to run the long hauls, to sail alone into the black and never look back.

But when her daddy goes missing from prison, Jess realizes she just can’t let him go, and she makes it her life’s mission to find out where he’s gone. In an odyssey that takes her across the galaxy, Jess encounters vanished planets, strange societies, inscrutable alien gods, and mind-bending secrets that may change humanity’s path forever.

About Matthew Kressel: Matt is a software developer and speculative fiction writer with three Nebula Award nominations, a World Fantasy Award nomination, and a Eugie Award nomination. He’s the co-host of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City. And he created the Moksha submissions system, in use by some of the largest publishers in speculative fiction today.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 668-With Matthew Kressel appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Antony Johnston, author of Can You Solve the Murder?

About Can You Solve the Murder?: One murder. Six suspects. One truth for YOU to uncover.

YOU are the lead detective and it’s your job to investigate the most mysterious crime of your career.

There’s been a murder at Elysium, a wellness retreat set in an English country manor. You arrive to find the body of a local businessman on the lawn – with a rose placed in his mouth. It appears he was stabbed with a gardening fork and fell to his death from the balcony above. You quickly realize that balcony can only be accessed through a locked door, the key is missing, and everyone in Elysium is now a suspect… Who did it and why? It’s up to you to figure it out.

YOU gather the evidence and examine the clues.

YOU choose who to interview next, and who to accuse as your prime suspect.

But remember that every decision YOU make has consequences – and some of them will prove fatal…

Do you have what it takes? Can YOU solve the murder? Put your sleuthing skills to the test!

About Antony Johnston: Antony Johnston is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era.

The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde was based on his graphic novel. His murder mystery The Dog Sitter Detective won the Barker Book Award for fiction. His crime puzzle novel Can You Solve the Murder? reinvented the choose-your-own-story format for a modern audience. The Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers are in development for TV. And his productivity guide The Organised Writer has helped authors all over the world take control of their workload.

Antony is a celebrated videogames writer, with genre-defining titles including Dead Space, Shadow of Mordor, and Resident Evil Village to his credit. He also consulted on the Emmy Award-winning Silent Hill Ascension, making him the only writer in the world to have worked on all of the ‘big three’ horror gaming franchises.

His immense body of work also includes Marvel superheroes such as Daredevil, Wolverine, and Shang-Chi; the Alex Rider graphic novels; the post-apocalypse epic Wasteland; and more. He wrote and directed the sci-fi film Crossover Point, made entirely in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.

An experienced podcaster and public speaker, he also frequently writes articles on the life of an author, and is a prolific musician.

Antony is a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, a member of International Thriller Writers and the Society of Authors, a Shore Scripts screenwriting judge, and sits on the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s videogames committee. He lives and works in England.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 667-With Antony Johnston appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Auston Habershaw, author of If Wishes Were Retail.

About If Wishes Were Retail: Alex Delmore needs a miracle. She wants out of her dead-end suburban town, but her parents are broke and NYU seems like a distant dream.

Good thing there’s a genie in town?and he’s hiring at the Wellspring Mall.

It’d help if the Jinn-formerly-of-the-Ring-of-Khorad knew even one thing about 21st-century America. It’d help if he weren’t at least as stubborn as Alex. It’d really help if her brother didn’t sell her out to her conspiracy theory-loving, gnome-hating dad.

When Alex and the genie set up their wishing kiosk, they face seemingly-endless setbacks. The mall is failing and management will not stop interfering on behalf of their big-box tenants, especially the megastore ValuDay.

But when the wishing biz might start working, the biggest problem of all remains: People are really terrible at wishing.

About Auston Habershaw: On the day Auston Habershaw was born, Skylab fell from the heavens. This foretold two possible fates: supervillain or scifi/fantasy author. Fortunately he chose the latter, and spends his time imagining the could-be and the never-was rather than disintegrating the moon with his volcano laser. He lives and works in Boston, MA.

Auston is a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest (2nd place in quarter 1, 2014) and has published stories in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Escape Pod, among other places. His fantasy series, The Saga of the Redeemed is available through Harper Voyager Impulse.

This week’s picks:

Links:

© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 666-With Auston Habershaw appeared first on The Functional Nerds.