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    <fireside:genDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:04:12 +0000</fireside:genDate>
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    <title>Topic Lords - Episodes Tagged with “Martin”</title>
    <link>https://topiclords.com/tags/martin</link>
    <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
    <description>Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type>
    <itunes:subtitle>The only place on the internet you can hear topics discussed!</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>Every week, Jim invites different friends to guest on Topic Lords and be excited about whatever they've been fixated on this week.</itunes:summary>
    <itunes:image href="https://media24.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3597ddeb-e52e-4cda-a59c-c64600489fea/cover.jpg?v=5"/>
    <itunes:explicit>yes</itunes:explicit>
    <itunes:owner>
      <itunes:name>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>jim@goombas.org</itunes:email>
    </itunes:owner>
<itunes:category text="Comedy"/>
<itunes:category text="Education"/>
<itunes:category text="Arts"/>
<item>
  <title>349. Life Finds a Way (To Scratch Its Nose)</title>
  <link>https://topiclords.com/life-finds-a-way-to-scratch-its-nose</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">f69e721c-4583-457a-8f6c-52c288fcb41b</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
  <author>Jim Stormdancer</author>
  <enclosure url="https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3597ddeb-e52e-4cda-a59c-c64600489fea/f69e721c-4583-457a-8f6c-52c288fcb41b.mp3" length="67877168" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Jim Stormdancer</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>Lords: Cort and Martin. We discuss what Thomas the Tank Engine does when he gets an itchy nose, the end of Destiny, Glittermitten Grove's undisclosed AI content, Iroha, adding bears to your threat model, and what you'd like to be entangled with</itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:10:30</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>yes</itunes:explicit>
  <itunes:image href="https://media24.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3597ddeb-e52e-4cda-a59c-c64600489fea/cover.jpg?v=5"/>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Lords:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Cort&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Martin

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Topics:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What does Thomas The Tank Engine do when he gets an itchy nose?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The end of Destiny&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Glittermitten Grove's undisclosed AI content&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Iroha

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;I need to add bears to my threat model&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What thing would you like to be entangled with?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Microtopics:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Setting arbitrary deadlines to get things done and taking them seriously.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Lord Walker.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Writing 20 songs in 12 hours.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Schrodinger's Cat Burglar.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A video game that everyone in the world will love.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Jimbo and the Jet Set.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Soulful butt-licking.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Do Fish Itch?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What twisted idiot god would make a fish itch.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The cosmology of Thomas the Tank Engine.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Itchy planes flying very close to a mountain so they can scratch their faces.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Whether trains can die in the Thomas the Tank Engine universe.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Trains trying to live up to human standards of beauty.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Pixar Cars needing eye surgery.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Destiny's Final Update.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Patrolling the moon in search of wizards.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;T-shirts with the insignias of obscure PVP factions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The logo of a football team that doesn't exist.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Destiny shipping as MusicPlayerDemo.exe.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Six people at the peak of their skill doing weird crap.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Extremely obscure, elaborate secrets in MMOs.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The CEO wanting to write a bunch of game lore so the developers have to find a place for him to put it&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Deliberately burning yourself out on an MMO and then deleting it forever.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Vaulting Justifications.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Clarity of Biome.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Great ideas for a company that has infinite resources.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;RuneScape Modern and RuneScape Classic.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Quitting WoW with your fiancee because you have a wedding to plan.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The additional fee Blizzard charges for hosting your wedding inside of World of Warcraft.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fantasy heroin vs. Sci-Fi heroin.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Stephepoa, Jasquosius, Dovanice and Jixandlia.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Little dudes persisting between missions, if they survive.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Naming all the fish after your Kickstarter backers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Doing all the same things the target your satirizing does, except you're doing them ironically.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Lemmings as a squad-based tactical war game.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A joyous approach to an anti-war message that makes war seem like a ton of fun.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Violating the Geneva Convention by putting the Red Cross in Duke Nukem 3D.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The video game that has committed the most real life war crimes.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Poems you can't look at.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Arriving today at the deep mountains of evanescent existence.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Perfect pangrams.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How they decided on the order of the Japanese phonetic alphabet.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Who does Shakespeare think he is?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Localizing Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffallo into foreign languages.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Poorly localized advertising campaigns.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Who is the Pilot?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Reading Kingdom Hearts sequel titles as poetry.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A Language Built for Poetry.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Coyotes begrudgingly scampering away after you honk loud enough.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A small family of black bears walking down your street and effortlessly demolishing all your trash cans.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dressing your dogs up like bear cubs so the mama bear takes care of them.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How are you going to keep your trash safe?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Trying to design a trash can lid that can be operated by a drunk human but not by a smart bear.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Putting up bear crossing signs on every street in hopes that you'll discourage traffic driving through your neighborhood.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What is this, an overpass for bears?!&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A salmon tube but for bears.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Things in nature that want to kill you that you routinely interact with.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Animals that are great except they have way too many legs.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Entangled Burglars.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sharing thoughts and sensory inputs over long distances.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Wrapping yourself in mummy wrappings so nobody can observe you directly.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Timid Butthole.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Where does the cat end and the cat fur begin?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sneaking into the archives and discovering a picture of your dad's butthole in the files and wondering "How did they get this? Why do they have this?"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Three Names of an Elf.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Why Cort is one of the most researched developers on Mobygames. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>Lords:</p>

<ul>
<li>Cort</li>
<li>Martin

<ul>
<li><a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550" rel="nofollow noopener">https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Topics:</p>

<ul>
<li>What does Thomas The Tank Engine do when he gets an itchy nose?</li>
<li>The end of Destiny</li>
<li>Glittermitten Grove's undisclosed AI content</li>
<li>Iroha

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha" rel="nofollow noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>I need to add bears to my threat model</li>
<li>What thing would you like to be entangled with?</li>
</ul>

<p>Microtopics:</p>

<ul>
<li>Setting arbitrary deadlines to get things done and taking them seriously.</li>
<li>Lord Walker.</li>
<li>Writing 20 songs in 12 hours.</li>
<li>Schrodinger's Cat Burglar.</li>
<li>A video game that everyone in the world will love.</li>
<li>Jimbo and the Jet Set.</li>
<li>Soulful butt-licking.</li>
<li>Do Fish Itch?</li>
<li>What twisted idiot god would make a fish itch.</li>
<li>The cosmology of Thomas the Tank Engine.</li>
<li>Itchy planes flying very close to a mountain so they can scratch their faces.</li>
<li>Whether trains can die in the Thomas the Tank Engine universe.</li>
<li>Trains trying to live up to human standards of beauty.</li>
<li>Pixar Cars needing eye surgery.</li>
<li>Destiny's Final Update.</li>
<li>Patrolling the moon in search of wizards.</li>
<li>T-shirts with the insignias of obscure PVP factions.</li>
<li>The logo of a football team that doesn't exist.</li>
<li>Destiny shipping as MusicPlayerDemo.exe.</li>
<li>Six people at the peak of their skill doing weird crap.</li>
<li>Extremely obscure, elaborate secrets in MMOs.</li>
<li>The CEO wanting to write a bunch of game lore so the developers have to find a place for him to put it</li>
<li>Deliberately burning yourself out on an MMO and then deleting it forever.</li>
<li>Vaulting Justifications.</li>
<li>Clarity of Biome.</li>
<li>Great ideas for a company that has infinite resources.</li>
<li>RuneScape Modern and RuneScape Classic.</li>
<li>Quitting WoW with your fiancee because you have a wedding to plan.</li>
<li>The additional fee Blizzard charges for hosting your wedding inside of World of Warcraft.</li>
<li>Fantasy heroin vs. Sci-Fi heroin.</li>
<li>Stephepoa, Jasquosius, Dovanice and Jixandlia.</li>
<li>Little dudes persisting between missions, if they survive.</li>
<li>Naming all the fish after your Kickstarter backers.</li>
<li>Doing all the same things the target your satirizing does, except you're doing them ironically.</li>
<li>Lemmings as a squad-based tactical war game.</li>
<li>A joyous approach to an anti-war message that makes war seem like a ton of fun.</li>
<li>Violating the Geneva Convention by putting the Red Cross in Duke Nukem 3D.</li>
<li>The video game that has committed the most real life war crimes.</li>
<li>Poems you can't look at.</li>
<li>Arriving today at the deep mountains of evanescent existence.</li>
<li>Perfect pangrams.</li>
<li>How they decided on the order of the Japanese phonetic alphabet.</li>
<li>Who does Shakespeare think he is?</li>
<li>Localizing Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffallo into foreign languages.</li>
<li>Poorly localized advertising campaigns.</li>
<li>Who is the Pilot?</li>
<li>Reading Kingdom Hearts sequel titles as poetry.</li>
<li>A Language Built for Poetry.</li>
<li>Coyotes begrudgingly scampering away after you honk loud enough.</li>
<li>A small family of black bears walking down your street and effortlessly demolishing all your trash cans.</li>
<li>Dressing your dogs up like bear cubs so the mama bear takes care of them.</li>
<li>How are you going to keep your trash safe?</li>
<li>Trying to design a trash can lid that can be operated by a drunk human but not by a smart bear.</li>
<li>Putting up bear crossing signs on every street in hopes that you'll discourage traffic driving through your neighborhood.</li>
<li>What is this, an overpass for bears?!</li>
<li>A salmon tube but for bears.</li>
<li>Things in nature that want to kill you that you routinely interact with.</li>
<li>Animals that are great except they have way too many legs.</li>
<li>Entangled Burglars.</li>
<li>Sharing thoughts and sensory inputs over long distances.</li>
<li>Wrapping yourself in mummy wrappings so nobody can observe you directly.</li>
<li>The Timid Butthole.</li>
<li>Where does the cat end and the cat fur begin?</li>
<li>Sneaking into the archives and discovering a picture of your dad's butthole in the files and wondering "How did they get this? Why do they have this?"</li>
<li>The Three Names of an Elf.</li>
<li>Why Cort is one of the most researched developers on Mobygames.</li>
</ul><p><a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/topiclords">Support Topic Lords</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>Lords:</p>

<ul>
<li>Cort</li>
<li>Martin

<ul>
<li><a href="https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550" rel="nofollow noopener">https://steamcommunity.com/app/2111550</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Topics:</p>

<ul>
<li>What does Thomas The Tank Engine do when he gets an itchy nose?</li>
<li>The end of Destiny</li>
<li>Glittermitten Grove's undisclosed AI content</li>
<li>Iroha

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha" rel="nofollow noopener">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li>I need to add bears to my threat model</li>
<li>What thing would you like to be entangled with?</li>
</ul>

<p>Microtopics:</p>

<ul>
<li>Setting arbitrary deadlines to get things done and taking them seriously.</li>
<li>Lord Walker.</li>
<li>Writing 20 songs in 12 hours.</li>
<li>Schrodinger's Cat Burglar.</li>
<li>A video game that everyone in the world will love.</li>
<li>Jimbo and the Jet Set.</li>
<li>Soulful butt-licking.</li>
<li>Do Fish Itch?</li>
<li>What twisted idiot god would make a fish itch.</li>
<li>The cosmology of Thomas the Tank Engine.</li>
<li>Itchy planes flying very close to a mountain so they can scratch their faces.</li>
<li>Whether trains can die in the Thomas the Tank Engine universe.</li>
<li>Trains trying to live up to human standards of beauty.</li>
<li>Pixar Cars needing eye surgery.</li>
<li>Destiny's Final Update.</li>
<li>Patrolling the moon in search of wizards.</li>
<li>T-shirts with the insignias of obscure PVP factions.</li>
<li>The logo of a football team that doesn't exist.</li>
<li>Destiny shipping as MusicPlayerDemo.exe.</li>
<li>Six people at the peak of their skill doing weird crap.</li>
<li>Extremely obscure, elaborate secrets in MMOs.</li>
<li>The CEO wanting to write a bunch of game lore so the developers have to find a place for him to put it</li>
<li>Deliberately burning yourself out on an MMO and then deleting it forever.</li>
<li>Vaulting Justifications.</li>
<li>Clarity of Biome.</li>
<li>Great ideas for a company that has infinite resources.</li>
<li>RuneScape Modern and RuneScape Classic.</li>
<li>Quitting WoW with your fiancee because you have a wedding to plan.</li>
<li>The additional fee Blizzard charges for hosting your wedding inside of World of Warcraft.</li>
<li>Fantasy heroin vs. Sci-Fi heroin.</li>
<li>Stephepoa, Jasquosius, Dovanice and Jixandlia.</li>
<li>Little dudes persisting between missions, if they survive.</li>
<li>Naming all the fish after your Kickstarter backers.</li>
<li>Doing all the same things the target your satirizing does, except you're doing them ironically.</li>
<li>Lemmings as a squad-based tactical war game.</li>
<li>A joyous approach to an anti-war message that makes war seem like a ton of fun.</li>
<li>Violating the Geneva Convention by putting the Red Cross in Duke Nukem 3D.</li>
<li>The video game that has committed the most real life war crimes.</li>
<li>Poems you can't look at.</li>
<li>Arriving today at the deep mountains of evanescent existence.</li>
<li>Perfect pangrams.</li>
<li>How they decided on the order of the Japanese phonetic alphabet.</li>
<li>Who does Shakespeare think he is?</li>
<li>Localizing Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffallo into foreign languages.</li>
<li>Poorly localized advertising campaigns.</li>
<li>Who is the Pilot?</li>
<li>Reading Kingdom Hearts sequel titles as poetry.</li>
<li>A Language Built for Poetry.</li>
<li>Coyotes begrudgingly scampering away after you honk loud enough.</li>
<li>A small family of black bears walking down your street and effortlessly demolishing all your trash cans.</li>
<li>Dressing your dogs up like bear cubs so the mama bear takes care of them.</li>
<li>How are you going to keep your trash safe?</li>
<li>Trying to design a trash can lid that can be operated by a drunk human but not by a smart bear.</li>
<li>Putting up bear crossing signs on every street in hopes that you'll discourage traffic driving through your neighborhood.</li>
<li>What is this, an overpass for bears?!</li>
<li>A salmon tube but for bears.</li>
<li>Things in nature that want to kill you that you routinely interact with.</li>
<li>Animals that are great except they have way too many legs.</li>
<li>Entangled Burglars.</li>
<li>Sharing thoughts and sensory inputs over long distances.</li>
<li>Wrapping yourself in mummy wrappings so nobody can observe you directly.</li>
<li>The Timid Butthole.</li>
<li>Where does the cat end and the cat fur begin?</li>
<li>Sneaking into the archives and discovering a picture of your dad's butthole in the files and wondering "How did they get this? Why do they have this?"</li>
<li>The Three Names of an Elf.</li>
<li>Why Cort is one of the most researched developers on Mobygames.</li>
</ul><p><a rel="payment" href="http://patreon.com/topiclords">Support Topic Lords</a></p>]]>
  </itunes:summary>
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