Yesterday

Wisconsin: Cheeseheads

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier travels to Madison, Wisconsin, to investigate the World Championship Cheese Contest. With 3375 entries and 150 classes, we are talking a lot of cheese. Hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, the comp has been running since ... Show More

56m 39s

Apr 14

Pro Puzzler

On this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob discover that doing jigsaw puzzles is not just a hobby - it’s a sport! They talk to US speed puzzler Karen Kavett - AKA Karen Puzzles - who’s about to head off to the 2026 USA Jigsaw Nationals. How big is the scene and what does it ta ... Show More

1h 8m

Apr 7

Parasocial Listener II

In this week’s Flightless Bird, we return to Nick from last year’s Parasocial Listener Episode. Nick had been diagnosed with a rare kind of brain tumor - rare in that you can remove it, but it keeps coming back. In today’s episode, Nick has taken a leap of faith and arrived in Ne ... Show More

53m 45s

Sep 2025

174 - Hobbit Day (Mini Episode)

On a new mini episode of SmartLess Presents ClueLess, host Elliott Kalan (and Producer Devon) would like to tell you all about some very mini people: the Hobbits, from JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings series! Today is Bilbo Baggins’ birthday (sort of, we’ll clarify that), so ex ... Show More

8m 45s

Aug 2024

Tim's Tolkien Obsession & Amazon Prime's The Rings of Power

Tim Harford's life has been building up to this moment. In this Cautionary Conversation, he discusses the works of his favorite author J.R.R. Tolkien and the social science at play in Amazon Prime's series The Rings of Power. What do elves and whistleblowers have in common? How c ... Show More

45m 7s

Aug 2024

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power — An Empire Podcast Preview Special

One pod to rule them all? This Thursday (August 29) sees the return of Prime Video's epic J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, and to mark the occasion we've put together a little preview special, just for you. In it, you'll find an in-depth inter ... Show More

47m 22s

Sep 2025

What the right gets wrong about Tolkien

Many far-right conservatives think The Lord of the Rings is about them. They may love Tolkien, but it's very possible Tolkien would not have loved them back. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen with help from Ariana Aspuru, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laur ... Show More

25m 57s

Nov 2023

Shire Jail

Begin your journey into Middle-earth. The inspiration for the upcoming original series on Prime Video, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. We're talking about the Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien and related works. We have fun playing a guessing game with deranged YouT ... Show More

1h 56m

Sep 2021

118 - The Hobbit

SPONSORED BY: AUDIBLE To get a 30-day trial, a free book, and access to the library, go to <a href= "http://audible.com/ndq">audible.com/ndq</a> <span ... Show More

1h 22m

Jan 2021

Ep. 161 - Antisemitism in Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Fantasy w/ Eric Silver

Eric Silver uses examples from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and more to show how antisemitism is present in the fantasy genre. He shares what's bad, explains why it's troublesome, and shows how we can avoid these issues going forward! Topics include: Teen Miss Dance of New Je ... Show More

1h 7m

Apr 2020

Bonus Q&A: Betsy Bird Interviews Chris Grabenstein

Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Chris Grabenstein (author of The New York Times best-selling Mr. Lemoncello's Library series). They go behind the scenes and talk about what it was like growing Jasper’s giant story seed about Zeta Zingone, the 74 ... Show More

30 m

Lord of the Rings Revisited