Spencer and Jonathan are joined by Tyler and Ellie for the 2026 draft! Before turning their sights towards this year, they reflect on their 2025 picks. Then at 8:35 they take turns picking their most anticipated releases in the following categories: Movies, music, shows, and miscellaneous. Just how many Bill Lawrence properties will be selected? Tune in to find out!

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

Your favorite holiday tradition has returned, as it’s time for the second annual GARTS! That’s right, Spencer and Jonathan return to share their favorite art from 2025. Here are the nominees:

• Music: Forever is a Feeling by Lucy Dacus; Send a Prayer My Way by Julien Baker and Torres; NEVER ENOUGH by Turnstile; I've Felt Better by Dinosaur Pile-Up; Straight Line Was a Lie by The Beths; TOY by Dear Seattle

• Movies: Zootopia 2; Sinners; F1; Super-Man; Good Fortune; Ballad of Wallis Island; The Phoenician Scheme; Flow; Relay

• Shows: Abbott Elementary; Pluribus; Andor; The Studio

• Video Games: Hades 2; Tiny Bookshop; Donkey Kong Bananza; Spindle; Two Point Museum; He Is Coming; Ball x Pit

• Books: The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart; Katabasis by R.F. Kuang; Bury My Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

• Miscellaneous: Shohei Ohtani’s NLCS Game 4; Art In Bloom at NCMA; The Good Art Friends

Tune in to hear which won in each category!
Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

Your favorite podcasters were so preoccupied with whether or not they could cover Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, that they didn’t stop to think if they should. We hope that we did not create in vain as we discuss a film that seems like it was destined to be made the moment that Mary Shelley penned her story of a modern Prometheus 200 years ago. The episode starts off with Spencer and Jonathan sharing their experiences with Del Toro’s previous work and the character of Frankenstein. The spoilers start at 14:34 when we provide our general impressions, rate the performances, and unpack the political reflections. Tune in to hear us discuss a movie that begs the question “what if everyone was nicer to each other?!?”

Other art discussed in this episode: Katabasis, Pluribus, Saturdays at Your Place, Carly Cosgrove, and Riley!

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

Shameless plug time! Spencer has published a novella called Marley’s Christmas. 
Bookshop | Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Barnes & Noble

Join us as we travel to the unknown this month in covering Patrick McHale’s timeless 2014 miniseries Over the Garden Wall. After sharing what’s good (Hades II and Kiki’s Delivery Service), we chat generally about the show’s origins. The spoilers start at 14:17 as we breakdown our favorite themes, episodes, and frog names.  

To engage with the fandom, we recommend swinging by r/overthegardenwall. Here’s the post on favorite episode that we referenced in the episode. 

If you enjoyed Over the Garden Wall (which you undoubtedly did), consider checking out these tonally-similar works:

• Centaurworld

• Welcome to Night Vale

• Gravity Falls

• A Monster Calls

• The Decemberists

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

Shameless plug time! Spencer has published a magical realism novella called Marley’s Christmas.
Bookshop | Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Barnes & Noble

We sail the seas hunting for the elusive podcasting shards as we discuss The Wind Waker! We start off with some spoiler-free chatter, sharing our early impressions of the Switch 2, and our history with Zelda (the beloved Nintendo series, that is, not F. Scott Fitzgerald’s mercurial spouse), before diving into the details of this timeless game at 14:40. Along the way, we touch upon the once-bemoaned, now-celebrated art style, which gameplay mechanics have and have not stood the test of time, and the structure of the story. 

Other art discussed in this episode: 

• Saturdays at Your Place

• The many many books of Brandon Sanderson

• Legendary Adventures’ The Development of the Wind Waker

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

Grab a weighted blanket and light some calming candles, because we’re talking about cozy art in this month’s Good Art Friends!

(2:41) What’s Good: Dinosaur Pile-Up new album I've Felt Better, IMSA Race, Ryan North’s Fantastic Four run, Long Story Short.

(7:01) Cozy Games: We chat about our experience playing cozy games over the years and attempt to define the genre. Along the way, we touch on Tetris, Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, A Short Hike, Wylde Flowers, Sneaky Sasquatch, Tales of the Shire, the Haunted Chocolatier, and Witchbrook.

(15:00) Tiny Bookshop: We start with an overview of this quirky and quaint game, then dip into mild spoilers starting at when we discuss our favorite characters, locations, items, and storylines from Tiny Bookshop. 

Subreddits referenced: r/CozyGamers & r/TinyBookshop (with this thread on best items highlighted)
Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

It is time for our much-anticipated, much-requested, much-ballyhooed Miyazaki retrospective episode! Each month we’ve chatted briefly about a different Miyazaki movie and since we’ve covered all twelve, it’s time for us to cover his entire catalog. We counted down our five favorite films of his, preceded by a few honorable mention selections. There are some mild spoilers for each movie, so feel free to use the following timestamps to skip any that you have not yet seen (but also: go watch those, because every single Miyazaki movie is pure gold).

• 3:59 | Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

• 9:24 | The Boy and the Heron

• 10:55 | Ponyo

• 12:38 | Princess Mononoke

• 15:26 | Howl’s Moving Castle

• 18:54 | The Wind Rises

• 22:21 | Castle in the Sky

• 26:06 | My Neighbor Totoro

• 31:31 | Kiki’s Delivery Service

• 35:55 | Spirited Away

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

It’s the Sad Art Friends! In this episode, we share our favorite sad songs. Breakups! Familial strife! Funerals! Sick kids! Burnt boats! Tune in to wallow in all that delightful misery. 

You can listen to a playlist of all these sensationally sorrowful songs on Spotify and Apple Music. 
Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

This month’s episode starts with a chat about Studio Ghibli’s delightfully idiosyncratic Porco Rosso, before an opening conversation about Spanish Love Song’s 2020 album Brave Faces Everyone. We paused at 13:45 to listen to the album repeatedly for a few weeks, then engaged in a deep dive into the lyrics, music, and context for this beautifully challenging album. 

Interviews referenced: The Rodeo, The Alternative, Atwood Magazine, and a February 2021 Twitter thread that we won’t link to because, ya know, fascism. 

Next topics: Miyazaki in July and The Wind Waker in August.
Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky at @goodartfriends.bsky.social‬.

The episode starts with a quick Miyazaki Minute on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1:35), before a spoiler-free introduction to Amal El-Mohtar’s 2025 novella The River Has Roots. The spoilers start at 11:37 as Spencer and Jonathan break down the story’s characters, lyrical prose, and conception of magic.

Our topic next month is Spanish Love Songs’ 2020 album Brave Faces Everyone. 

Send us a message at [email protected], or connect on Bluesky with Jonathan and Spencer.