Cover of Topic Lords

Topic Lords

Topic Lords

By: Jim Stormdancer
Listen for free

Season's Savings | 0.99 €/month for 3 months

5.99 €/month thereafter - terms apply. Cancel monthly.
Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.© 2026 Jim Stormdancer Art
Episodes
  • 365. Repel Mode

    365. Repel Mode
    19 Oct 2026
    Lords: Merlin https://linktr.ee/alexglowTyriq https://oddobject.zone/ Topics: Holograms for the eyes & ears (making holograms & immersive binaural recordings) Merlin's holography references:Process for creating Denisyuk holograms (single-beam reflection holograms): http://www.holography.ru/les1eng.htmMore in-depth info (MIT Open Courseware): https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mas-450-holographic-imaging-spring-2003/9668ed9d2cbf0b127b5c1d1a770b2275_ch16inlinereflectionh.pdfOr another explanation you may prefer: https://holographer.com/single-beam-reflection-hologramsI also mentioned transmission holograms (which requires a laser beam of the same wavelength to reconstruct/view the hologram, but can achieve greater depth)Also might have mentioned the Litiholo kits – which provide a more instant, darkroom-less, "Polaroid-style" holography process. I made some of these, removed the plastic film with the recorded holo, and cut them up for use in jewelry: https://litiholo.com/"Astropilot" Soviet arcade machine, ft. Pepper's ghost effect (NOT a hologram): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsAShNzaj6sJosh Ellingson also does some cool Pepper's Ghost art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPt7oqunrbgI realized the term I was looking for, to define (IMO) a hologram, is PARALLAX! Where it looks different based on the viewing angle, and also creates the illusion of depth with binocular vision :)Immersive binaural stereo recording:Recordings I made with my old Hooke Audio binaural-mic earbuds...Resonant tunnel singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HLV7SG-h4gRain & crickets along Mystic River, MA: https://soundcloud.com/alexglow/rain-crickets-along-mystic-river-ma-spatial-audioImogen Heap performing Hide and Seek inside a decommissioned nuclear reactor (during Music Tech Fest 2018): https://www.instagram.com/tv/BnbfFaPg6ABReaktorhallen tour: https://www.instagram.com/tv/BnZiRqPg4fvMore on the reactor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R1_(nuclear_reactor)Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset = the set of recording earbuds I currently use: https://hifiplus.com/articles/sennheiser-ambeo-smart-headset-binaural-recording-earphonesWhat it's like to fall in love for the first time at 36?Attract modeGod is Change by Octavia Butler https://godischange.org/the-book-of-the-living/ Microtopics: The AAA studio making Scrubbin' Trubble 2.The Amnesia Fortnight kickstarter.Inviting the entire games industry to participate in PiCoSteveMo.What common English words have "merlin" in them.Custom circuit boards for changing your brain functions.In-season fruits.The partner who gets people to pay you.How hard is the "supposed to" supposed to?Going to jail for paying taxes incorrectly.An independent study in holography.Approaching the Altar to Holography and making sure all the inner tubes are evenly inflated.Stamped-foil holograms.Bertrand Fluffle.Head Related Transfer Function.2D vs. 3D Pepper's Ghost.Hologram, or "complete writing"Whether Princess Leia is a hologram.Interference-based situations.The mall globe thingamajigs.Yelling at random people not to give you unsolicited advice.Fediverse like transmission reliability.Deciding to fall in love for anthropological purposes.Asking the person who just confessed love for you what you're supposed to do with this information.LOL. LMAO, even.Two people who think that the same Spanish words are cool.Thinking really hard about how to make your child be a good person.Relationship red flags and green flags.Liking yourself and thinking you're pretty cool.Getting some good art about your relationship situation.Slot machine attract modes.The three little pigs slot machine expanded universe.Snood on the iPod Touch.What does and doesn't count as attract mode.The UFO 50 text entry screen.The UFO 50 attract mode process.Who made the Ding Dong Dang backend?Whether attract mode should show high aspirational level play vs. poor play.Mobile game ads that show you the player being very bad at the game vs. mobile game ads that just show you something incredibly gross.Whiskey and Blue Whiskey.Whether your hair color comes across on audio.Everyone's attract mode is someone else's repel mode.Paying 25 cents to get the jukebox to play no music for three minutes.Countering the previous guy's jukebox selection by putting in a nega quarter that mutually dissolves the regular quarter.Arcade attract modes that are so annoying that you put in a quarter just to make them stop.Earthseed vs.Earthsea.The Serenity Prayer.Wherewithal, fortitude, chutzpah, stick-to-it-iveness.A two-poem show.Fascination with texts that are parsed in a non-religious way.The Tyriq tag.The Tags are Clean.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 10 min
  • 364B. Meat on the Chat Bones (I Could Chew That)

    364B. Meat on the Chat Bones (I Could Chew That)
    12 Oct 2026

    This is the pre-show banter and topic negotiation for episode 364, ft. Maxx and Avery:

    Microtopics:

    • Strumming a guitar on a Zoom call.
    • A topic that's just a story.
    • Cassowary Joe.
    • Something rotten in Denver.
    • Whether Carmen Sandiego is a pun on the city of San Diego.
    • How the Diablo game series sounds to people who are not from the Bay Area.
    • The mythical Kingdom of Bethesda, where you might go meet Liv Tyler.
    • Whether you're from San Diego. (It's complicated.)
    • In defense of the Murder Cassowary.
    • The tiger climbing up your friend and stalking you throughout the zoo.
    • Being the coolest kid in your apartment complex until somebody gets a Super Nintendo.
    • Cargo Cult Entertainment Green Light.
    • Offering a poem and immediately regretting it.
    • The RSS feeds for individual Lords.
    • The eight hour Avery-only episode.
    • Reminding you buddy not to say goodbye to the Alexandria that you're losing.
    • Pretty Wacky in Every Language.
    • Getting excited when you have something to contribute to the video game discussion.
    • Trying to turn your video game podcast into Topic Lords.
    • The Idle Thumbs Steering Direction.
    • Sharing a show on a radio station with your friend who only plays Ska and when they go to the bathroom you play Elliott Smith.
    • Timeless Topics that Will Never Grow Old.
    • Why is my computer automated?!
    • The shop in your local mall in San Jose where you can rent videos that people home-taped in Japan and mailed to the shop.
    • Gradually replacing all the water in your body with British game shows.
    Show more Show less
    20 min
  • 364. Boys Don't Know About Cassowary Man

    364. Boys Don't Know About Cassowary Man
    12 Oct 2026
    Lords: MaxxAvery Topics: False brochures https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/513415/Green-OaksOwning the wrong game console https://desertstormcards.com/The middle 90% principle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gPuH1yeZ08The God Abandons Antony, by C.P. Cavafy https://www.onassis.org/initiatives/cavafy-archive/the-canon/the-god-abandons-antony Microtopics: A person, in Seattle and on the Internet.Upcoming puppet shows.Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam.Portland Puppet People.Giant puppets made from shards of cardboard hanging from the ceiling.When people treat the puppet as real because the puppeteer did such a good job.Various tasks that would be challenging got moths.Girls go to university and boys go to cassowaryversity.Social Media!Spotify looking at your cover art and telling you "this would be better if it was AI-generated."A Swedish pop duo originally consisting of two Swedish people.A brochure that's slightly about your health.A picture in which everyone is smiling even though one of them is undergoing a medical procedure.Convincing elderly role-players to retire.Volunteering to DM at your local retirement home.Talking to your best friend, an emoji on a white orb.The part of the retirement home brochure about making a scene where it's like "if you can't think of anything to yell at your nurse here's some ideas"Growing old to become the dad from Frasier.A high school student making a horror film hiring a bunch of 30 year olds to play the teenagers.A brochure explaining what time is and different models of thinking about time.Handing about brochures about yourself in lieu of business cards.Marvel and DC comic book cards.Topps Operation Enduring Freedom collectible cards.The holographic Obama Bin Laden card.Sitting in class and contemplating why George W. Bush is touching the side of someone's head.Choosing to collect the Operation Desert Storm cards rather than the Operation Enduring Freedom series because it's more nostalgic.Trading some Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh cards for a mint condition Condoleeza Rice.Britain's Tony Blair: a Staunch Ally.Why you have that tattoo of Bonk on your stomach.Aphex Twin pressing play on his laptop and then just pacing back and forth on the stage looking angry as people dance.The Asylum Pictures of the video game industry.Kids in the neighborhood no longer coming over as soon as your neighbor gets a Super Nintendo.Nintendo localizing all the onigiri out of NES games.Kanye West's unfinished concept album about the Turbo Grafx 16.Freezing your credit card in a block of ice, but for children.A ten year old in the process of becoming a vegetarian.Running out of existential concerns before you turn ten and never developing any more.Japanese kids accepting Transformers at face value, like "of course this gun would turn into a guy" whereas American kids needed a Saturday morning cartoon to explain that it's because they're made of transformium and eat energon.Slightly malproportioned villain with a Shakespeare collar and a claw handGoing out to run errands in jeans, a t-shirt and a Shakespeare collar.How many pieces of s suit it is if you're just wearing sock garters that nobody can see.Custom colors for your Turbo Grafx?!Extremely serious Bombermans.The 90% parking principle.Calculating the approximate maximum height of a human based on having no information about humans.Mathematicians and philosophers yelling at their Windows Phones about this podcast.Trying a cup of coffee and saying "it needs more beans."Suddenly realizing that you might live to be 940.A poem who only writes about ancient Rome.Waking up to hear an invisible parade leaving Alexandria.Feeling the portents of the moment.A classic of Art Terrorism.Replacement-level mid-90s R&B.A 22 minute song including everything everyone likes best in a song.Every commercially-released Beatles song playing at once.A particular teacher who always enters the classroom in the same way.Every Topic Lords guest needing the same brand of squeaky rubber chickenA nickname that a radio DJ gave you when you were 15.
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 5 min
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet