This week, we welcome Judd Winick to the show. Winick is a graphic novelist who's played in both the DC and Marvel universes. In addition to comics, he's also written the Batman: Under the Red Hood animated film, was writer/producer for Hulu's The Awesomes, and created The Life and Times of Juniper Lee for Cartoon Network. On this episode, we chat with Winick about his all-ages series HiLo, his career in comics, great books for kids, whether comics have forgotten how to be fun, his time on MTV's The Real World, his series of This Makes Me Happy strips, and his marriage proposal - which, I guarantee you, is one of the most original proposal stories you'll ever hear.

This week, we're thrilled to finally welcome Gene Luen Yang to the show - in style! I can't believe it's taken us this long to have him on the GBBP. Yang's books have been nominated for the National Book Award (American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for the award) and pretty much every other major literary award. He's won the Eisner, is currently the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and recently was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. He's kind of a big deal. On this episode, we talk about the initiative and the response it's gotten, getting more kids and families into libraries, writing outside of your lived experiences, working through rejection, and combating gendered labels and stereotypes when it comes to books.

This week, we welcome sci-fi writer extraordinaire John Scalzi to the show. We chat about the out-of-the-gate success The Collapsing Empire has enjoyed, TV and film rights (and adaptations in general), historical Easter eggs in his writing, the pressures and creative freedom granted by his unprecedented book deal with Tor, the little Wil Wheaton who lives in his head, the JoCo Cruise, and why it's important for writers to commiserate and discuss the challenges they face.

This week, we're looking to the stars with the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait! Plait is an astronomer, author, and science communicator. We talk about science as inspiration, how to encourage kids who are interested in science and astronomy, the current state of scientific literacy in popular culture and the media, and where we go from here.

This week, we're heading back to the kingdom of Corona! We're chatting with Chris Sonnenburg, who developed and is currently executive producer on the new Tangled: The Series. We talk about reuniting the original crew (Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, and Alan Menken are all back in their respective roles), how Sonnenburg's own family dynamic plays into the show, the decisions that factored into the new animation style, and why it's important to write Rapunzel (and her parents) with the audience in mind.

This week, we're chatting with Kirstyn Johnson, a spacesuit technology engineer with NASA, and besides totally geeking out about her job, we talk about the infamous Space Poop Challenge. We chat with Johnson about the challenge, the proposals they received, why NASA has chosen to crowdsource solutions, and how spacesuits have evolved since Mercury and Apollo.

This week, we're looking to the stars and chatting with Emily Calandrelli. Calandrelli has taken a Master's in Aeronautics and Astronautics (from MIT, no less) and a gift for communication and used them to her advantage in the public sphere - an arena that was, quite frankly, previously only occupied by a couple guys named Nye and Tyson. On this episode, we talk to Calandrelli about what set her on a path toward scientific disciplines, STEM vs. liberal arts, scientific illiteracy and skepticism, sci-fi tech, and what has her most excited for the future.

Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi began their animation careers at Pixar, where they worked on films such as Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and Monsters University. Their ambitions eventually led them to start their own studio - Tonko House - where they could tell their own stories in their own way. The Dam Keeper was the first result. And seriously, if you haven't yet watched it, take 15 minutes and do that now. On this episode, we talk about all things The Dam Keeper and Moom, the importance of music in Tonko House's storytelling, The Dam Keeper Educational Project, and the Totoro Forest Project. We also dive deep into the themes and symbolism of The Dam Keeper, which - even though it's only 15 minutes - is positively rich with messages.

This week, we're chatting with one of the most recognizable faces of 90s pop: Lisa Loeb. Seriously, her songs "Stay (I Missed You)," "I Do," and "Do You Sleep?" will basically time warp you back to the mid 90s. However, stopping there would be selling her short. Criminally so. On this episode, we're joined by fellow GeekDad Mike LeSauvage, and we chat with Loeb about her music; how her approach to songwriting, singing, and performing has changed over the years; her role on Amazon's Creative Galaxy; how being a mom has affected her career; the Camp Lisa Foundation; and where she finds the time and energy to simultaneously stay engaged in so many different creative worlds.

This week, we're chatting with the two mad geniuses behind the pseudonymous James S.A. Corey: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Together, Abraham and Franck write as James S.A. Corey for The Expanse series of novels and show on SyFy. On this episode, Jamie is joined by GeekMom Shiri Sondheimer, and they chat with Abraham and Franck about The Expanse, collaborative storytelling, RPGs, the importance of strong (i.e., well-rounded, thoughtful, independent) female characters, and some of the differences between the books and show.