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

  • 137. Burying The Machete (So Nobody Can Open The Coconuts)

    June 6th, 2022  |  1 hr 16 mins
    april, john

    Lords: John and April. We discuss playing GTA V in lieu of hiking in California, embroidery, jokes that 3-year-olds tell, Moondrop's Tale, Survivor, and why Twitter keeps recommending Russell Crowe.

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    136. Thanks For Inventing Dengue Fever, Mark Rosewater

    May 30th, 2022  |  1 hr 3 mins
    erica, jenni

    Lords: Erica and Jenni. We discuss the Talenti Cup System, decentralizing social media, what 3-year-olds know about peeing in the woods, Mark Rosewater-designed devil fruits, and decarbonizing the language.

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    135. I've Been A Bad, Bad French

    May 23rd, 2022  |  1 hr 15 mins
    fred, nate

    Lords: Nate and Fred. We discuss rice cookers playing music, competition in a utopia, Hot Ice, Cool Sounds, Goblin Time, whether the D&D-themed Nerds marketing campaign is good for D&D, and convincing the four horsemen to hire you as fifth horseman.

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    134. A Bad Case Of Footmouse

    May 16th, 2022  |  1 hr 55 secs
    maxx, michael

    Lords: Maxx and Michael. We discuss World's Greatest Author Chuck Tingle, ways of making moving easier, melatonin parenting decisions, and fjf.

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    133. Every Tumbleweed Is An Antique

    May 9th, 2022  |  1 hr 1 min
    avery, duncan

    Lords: Duncan and Avery. We discuss the golden age of belt buckles, someone asking if you remember Tetris, the JVC PocketMail, The Prelude, by Matthew Zapruder, hyperspecific collections, and Yiwum, the city in China that produces 60% of all the Christmas decorations in the world.

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    132. A Miserable Pile Of Knuckles

    May 2nd, 2022  |  50 mins 54 secs
    cort, jenni

    Lords: Jenni and Cort. We discuss novel uses for hundreds of surplus ceramic clown statues, thinking about household stuff as a system you can design to meet your needs instead of a cultural lifestyle obligation, Sidetalkin', Big Black Elephant, giving people a video game so they can paradigm shift, and games or sports that started out as fictional, but that people actually play.

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    131. GDC Santa Rides Again

    April 25th, 2022  |  1 hr 7 mins
    kev, mike

    Lords: Mike and Kev. We discuss embracing creative chaos is very hard but paradoxically extremely common, thanatosensitivity, GDC, Tarantulas on the Lifebuoy By Thomas Lux, and Being left handed in a right handed world.

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    130. Gilding The Lemur

    April 18th, 2022  |  1 hr 12 mins
    stevie, tyriq

    Lords: Tyriq and Stevie. We discuss watching TAS videos and wondering how much of what is happening is necessary vs flourish, if Jeff Bezos wanted to create Jurassic Park, dipping fruit in chocolate, Strong Men, Riding Horses by Gwendolyn Brooks, and the creators of Earthworm Jim: Where are they now?

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    129. Yet Another Country Where They Don't Pee

    April 11th, 2022  |  1 hr 7 mins
    alex, shannon

    Lords: Alex and Shannon. We discuss regional Trash animals, dynamic water features, the Pee Pee Dance's Wikipedia absence, The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe, recipe essentialism,
    and Sei Shonagon's Hateful Things.

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    128. Intermittent Fasting Kirby

    April 4th, 2022  |  1 hr 7 mins
    chris, jenni

    Lords: Jenni and Chris. We discuss bean trees, the spoilers social contract, words that men know but women don't and vice versa, Ozymandias by Percy Shelley, chilling by yourself in the womb unless you're a twin, oldschool AD&D being hard to start but ultimately less video/board gamey, and Wordle speed runs.

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    127. Let's e e cummings This Up

    March 28th, 2022  |  1 hr 13 mins
    cort, fabian

    Lords: Cort and Fabian. We discuss Black Square Day, why we have nostalgia for old computers even though they were terrible, the Dirtywave M8 tracker, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost.

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    126. Toast Is A Fruit

    March 21st, 2022  |  1 hr 6 mins
    david, erica

    Lords: David and Erica. We discuss choosing plant families for the apocalypse, alternation of generations, gaming your Fitbit, Ode to Spot, Stonecoin, and things that have not gone wrong yet.

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    125. Your Mom Won't Cry

    March 14th, 2022  |  1 hr 3 mins
    alexicographic, danielle

    Lords: Danielle and Alexander. We discuss learning to figure skate as an adult, cursed mnemonics we never question, the first thing you remember buying online, a child's beliefs about the afterlife, learning how to speedrun without actually doing it, and receiving texts in your email.

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    124. Call Me Da5id; Da4id Was My Father

    March 7th, 2022  |  1 hr 1 min
    tyriq, xander

    Lords: Tyriq and Xander. We discuss choosing a name with numbers in it, overcoming the inertia of old tools, confusing two things that are not the same, Sweater Weather, by Sharon Bryan, making things that occupy real-world space, and Ithkuil: the inscrutable conlang that was co-opted by Russian Buddhist cultists.

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    123. Go Up, You Bald Head!

    February 28th, 2022  |  1 hr 3 mins
    chris, hallie

    Lords this week: Hallie and Chris. We discuss playing card finishes, how we'd talk about religion and faith if those words didn't exist, Good Bones by Maggie Smith, and hair mayonnaise.

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    122. If You're Cold, Your Oatmeal Is Cold

    February 21st, 2022  |  58 mins 33 secs
    ananda, maxx

    Lords: Maxx and Ananda. We discuss rare videos of European hamsters, eating the last dragon vs. eating a human being, what's wrong with math Wikipedia, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigan, Diatomite and our weird relationship to tiny cursed skeletons, and making fermented foods.