Thank you. We couldn't have made it without you. Be safe. Be gentle. Be kind.

Hey! Before you listen to this episode, if you haven't seen Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa, you can watch alongside us. We've got a commentary track available to everyone over on our Patreon. The movie is, blessedly, free to watch on Youtube. Our dear friend and cover artist Jalla (@nyalliest) joins us for our final episode of 2021 to talk about a treasured piece of once lost media, Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa. It's probably our most chaotic episode ever.

This week we're joined by London, who's sharing stories from their upbringing, as well as breaking down how modern Native Horror can fumble or succeed in its explorations of indigenous heritage, folklore, and storytelling. We discuss Bone Tomahawk, Anoka, The Only Good Indians, and more!

This week, Cas and Teese are kicking back with a fun game. Teese is subjected to a gauntlet of guessing what wild names are actual FFXIV quest names. Let us know your score and maybe Cas will buy you a chocolate treat and take you to see the sail ships.

We brought back Nica to talk about their love of MKs (that's mechanical keyboards (and also membrane keyboards, but we mean mechanical here (yes, it's confusing. we know. we're sorry.)))! If you've got someone in your life diving into the hobby, Nica is here to share a wealth of knowledge to get you started in understanding all the intricate little info about these clickity clackity boys.

Way back in our Final Fantasy 7 House episode, we mentioned that it seemed as though Jennifer Cornet had gone on to repeat her behavior in the Hannibal fandom. And she might have. This week, Cas takes us through the Tattlecrime saga, a story shared far and wide by Monica Edwards in a pursuit that began, humbly, in search of NBC Hannibal leaks.

Pyramid Head has long been an icon of the horror genre, especially for video games, but his appearance has shifted to something more and more sexual over time. This week, Cas uses Pyramid Head as an introductory case study to talk about our sexual desire for monsters, why we're fascinated with them, and why we keep making them more and more romantic. It's an episode all about Monster F*****g (TM).

That right there is the babygate. Now let's talk about the babygate. Can we talk about the babygate please, Cas, I've been dying to talk about the babygate with you all day. Babygate. This name keeps coming up over and over again, every day. Teese is here, and they've brought babygate with them - It's a One Direction conspiracy that spun out of control and into toxic, upsetting waters. This week, Teese brings us through the fiasco blow by blow, alleged photoshop by photoshop.

In a sweep of autumnal spookiness, Cas brings Teese through a brief history of The Slender Man, the internet's favorite bogeyman.

This episode's got a tasty dash of half & half - This first end is a coffeehouse chitchat styled episode, where Cas and Teese discuss both Lamb (2021) and The Last Duel (2021) and in the latter half, Teese and Cas dive into the origins of Hanahaki and Alexandria's Genesis, two enduring fictional illnesses. Why do writers invent disease and what can they communicate in the narrative?

Don't meet (or learn about) your heroes. This week, Cas takes Teese on a tour through rainbow history, discussing the origins of Lisa Frank, her rise to 90's aesthetic stardom, and the vicious collapse of it all. Don't turn off the episode early, we might chain your headphones on with a padlock.

If you caught our one note preview from last episode, you'll know this week we're talking about Toby Fox's Megalovania. Most of us know the song from indie-hit Undertale, but the song started long before. Teese is here to take us through the evolution of the song, from ROM hack origins to symphonic presentation.

In the past weeks, there's been an unprecedented hemorrhaging of World of Warcraft players, and an equally unprecedented surge of FFXIV players. Cas is telling Teese all about the potential causes for this, the way it's affected the Final Fantasy online community, and they even talk about how to be a good newbie player. You know, a sprout!

In this bonus episode made possible by our patrons, Teese examines all the little places in Neopets where religion has made it through and permeated the lore of the site. Cas talks about the importance of worldbuilding. They both have too much fun saying BONUS!

After watching Monster Hunter (2020), Cas and Teese are sitting down to talk about Hollywood's relationship with the United States Department of Defense, and how the military uses media in its soft wars and enlistment strategies.

Teese leads us from the path of fandom this week to air some frustrations on the nature of Superhero blockbusters and how Birds of Prey was poised to fail despite its quality. We examine the ruins of Suicide Squad 2016 and the zombie-like reanimation of it released last month.

Contestant No. 1 come on down! What's your name, sailor? It's Nica! Teese is off this week so Cas has brought on friend-of-the-show Nica to be subjected to a game of Guess That Voice Actor! We're enjoying goofy clips, sharing fun memories, and sharing what it is we love about the work VAs do.

It's TiK ToK time! But no, not that one - This week, Teese takes us back to the old days of Ke$haStuck and walks us forward through a discussion of revising, revisiting, and growing.

On the birthday of the podcast, our patrons have brought us together to talk about the appeal of Drift Compatible AUs. We chat about the appeal of Pacific Rim, the intimacy of mind melding, and we've got TWO new segments (One's tiny and it's at the very end but it's great. You'll love it. We promise). And hey! Thank you. You've kept us going.

We're back from Summer Vacation! Now with chilly cold opens. This week, we're talking about the calamity that was the ending of the Mass Effect trilogy, and figuring out what such a seemingly small moment in history has meant for us as viewers and enjoyers of all kinds of media since then. It's a frustrating, complicated topic, but hey! You can kiss the aliens!

We're joined this week by Audrey (@optimumonprime) who's here to teach us a little history on Hasbro, and the unprecedented audience switch we saw in the 2000's and 2010's of My Little Pony and Transformers. Robots hot.

This week, Teese shares a snapshot history of the much-loved Zine, how it came to be in Fandom, and we have a chat about the missteps taken in recent years.

We're joined (and edited) this week by the incredible Panda (@empandanada) who's illuminating the wild and dangerous antics of those lil cats in the woods. You know, the Warrior Cats.

Something a little bit different this week - as Cas explains at the beginning, we were beset by some unforeseen delays. We wanted to share with you the very first episode of our Patreon Podcast Show & Tell. It's a relaxing chat about some of the very things we love. We won't be sharing these episodes on the main feed, they've gotta stay special and secret for our patrons, but we wanted to offer something while we get our things together in preparation for July.