About the show

Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.

Episodes

  • 29. Respect The Hustler, Not The Hustle

    May 11th, 2020  |  1 hr 3 mins
    gary, jenni

    Lords this week: Jenni and Gary. We discuss deciding to eat vegetables, Stephen King writing about boners, airplane respiration strategies, resourcefulness when you don't have the right tool, becoming aware of your mortality, the MT-80s MIDI boom box, doing things because you assume it's what other adults do, and being cursed to listen to only one song for eternity.

  • 28. Stealing The Dead Skunk Back And Forth Forever

    May 4th, 2020  |  54 mins 1 sec
    april, ryan

    Lords this week: April and Ryan. We discuss the spigot question Jim keeps avoiding, reading in the new decade, what the Nakatomi corporation does, favorite zoo animals, cutting sandwiches diagonally, and having a private bidet but not a private toilet.

  • 27. The Great Mongolian Potato Sack Yak Race

    April 27th, 2020  |  1 hr 3 mins
    avery, jesse

    Lords this week: Jesse and Avery. We discuss unsolved math problems, Mr. Potatohead's accomplishments, managing a tedious job, auto-antonyms, humans driving the evolution of cuter and cuter birds, and the "Please Call Stella" accent database.

  • 26. The Double Equilibrium Point Of Water (For Fish)

    April 20th, 2020  |  1 hr 11 mins
    john, nelson

    Lords this week: John and Nelson. We discuss falling into the sky, lonely kaiju, this cool Arkanoid TAS, warming up to doing creative work, a sentient dog digging up a graveyard, and experiencing FOMO about things you don't want to do.

  • 25. Which One Is Eggteen?

    April 13th, 2020  |  54 mins 17 secs
    chall, rusty

    Lords this week: Rusty and Chris. We discuss games as work, photos of people and cats that do not exist, doing a job machines are already better at, hexadecimal naming systems, folk games, recording rigs for podcasting, and jokes as a mnemonic device.

  • 24. So Horrible And Yet So Tiny

    April 6th, 2020  |  1 hr 1 min
    jenni, tyriq

    Lords this week: Tyriq and Jenni. We discuss Hot Topic, toe picks, topical medication, Topic (the candy bar), Test Of Proficiency In Korean, and Topic Records.

  • 23. Purpleface's Face Isn't Purple

    March 30th, 2020  |  1 hr 2 mins
    daniel, lauren

    Lords this week: Danny and Lauren. We discuss Tetris piece personalities, smell-memory associations, convincing my son sleep is a good thing, making art for money vs. for its own sake, a raven being like a writing desk, and the best things that happened to you this week.

  • 22. Abstinent Train Polycule

    March 23rd, 2020  |  1 hr 15 mins
    ryan, xander

    Lords this week: Ryan and Alexander. Topics: creativity from a seed vs. from a box, using Hall of the Mountain King in comedy trailers, HDMI ports in your feet, yak shaving, the Abstinence Train, and multi-lingual animals.

  • 21. Strip Laser Tag

    March 16th, 2020  |  1 hr 7 mins
    elena, josh

    Lords this week: Elena and Josh. We discuss procrastination as a coping mechanism, Newcomb's problem, celebrating Christmas by saying you have a machine gun, the fear that other podcasts might start discussing topics, McMaster-Carr, conlanging with toddlers, and preserving old software.

  • 20. The Bowerbird's Apprentice

    March 9th, 2020  |  1 hr 5 mins
    mark, shirley

    Lords this week: Mark and Shirley. We discuss the Third Culture Kid experience, camgirl life, why most animals don't need to walk, what bones we've broken, and hypnagogic hallucination.

  • 19. A Pickled Egg Christmas

    March 2nd, 2020  |  1 hr 1 min
    jeff, joe

    Lords this week: Jeff and Joe. We discuss finding the time to be a geek, the difficulty of ordering pickled eggs, raising kids, art you made as a kid, etymology, and only getting 80% good at things.

  • 18. Yelling Sweater

    February 24th, 2020  |  1 hr 20 secs
    james, jay

    Lords this week: Jay and James. We discuss old references making jokes inaccessible, how four year olds perceive legos, realizing stylish people can also be skilled, cheap musical instruments, timberwolf jaws, losing touch with popular aesthetics, and growing a Santa beard in spite of your CPAP machine.

  • 17. A Buzzsaw Made Of Bananas

    February 17th, 2020  |  1 hr 11 mins
    april, john

    Lords this week: April and John. We discuss creating D&D characters, being friends with people older/younger than you, when a head nod is appropriate, where to find the Big Mike banana, mind palaces, migrating your files from one computer to the next, and making great salads.

  • 16. I Don't Want To Be Skin Dad

    February 10th, 2020  |  1 hr 8 mins
    kole, tim

    Lords this week: Tim and Kole. We discuss cat trees for humans, non-analytical storytelling, AI Dungeon, whether programmers are worse than they used to be, sonder, what inanimate objects get a proper name, and fruity cheezma.

  • 15. More Real Than Tower Records

    February 3rd, 2020  |  1 hr 8 mins
    avery, tyriq

    Lords this week: Tyriq and Avery. We discuss reading non-religious texts as scripture, what "pitched battle" secretly means, practical usage of carrier pigeons, what ship is the best ship, doing a thing in one way or the other way, and ancient Greeks doing sports clothed and then deciding naked is better.

  • 14. Dad Is A Cenobite

    January 27th, 2020  |  1 hr 5 mins
    april, danny

    Lords this week: April and Danny. We discuss teaching your child the wrong word for something, harbinger households, men's wallets, choosing a new name, the ubiquity of Shen Yun ads, and growing up an extremely unimaginative kid.