• Board games with plot: What makes Pandemic: Legacy different than vanilla Pandemic
• How a board game can evolve with its players
• Adventure romance, competency porn, and why Archer’s heroines are so appealing
• Where to start with Archer’s backlog.

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Uprooted and the the dark, bloody history of fairytales
• Why friendship as a fairytale motivator is so unusual
• Trespasser as humanism porn
• How Trespasser gives Inquisition a much-needed change of perspective

Plus: Your emails!

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• A quick update about LC’s health and posting schedule
• How did a dating sim about birds get to be so good?
• How does one romance a bird, anyway?
• Allegra Clark’s Hatoful Boyfriend streams

Thanks for listening! See you next week.

• The Terminator as humanity’s case for existence
• The man in the machine, the machine in the man: Where does Kyle Reese – or Sarah Connor – end and the Terminator begin?
• Dissecting the hell out of that love scene
• Why The Terminator and T2 have to be watched together
• Why the rest of the franchise never quite achieves what the first two movies did (SPOILERS for Terminator: Genisys starting at 55:35)

Plus: Daniel Jose Older’s Shadowshaper; whitewashing heroines in YA fiction; Sunset; and Tales of Xillia!

Main topic starts at: 21:56
No emails this week

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How a movie without words can communicate so much about family, aging, and horses
• Why do grandmothers and aging starlets threaten the French mob?
• Exploitation and the inexorability of change as running themes
• Why a bunch of monkeys made LC so uncomfortable

Plus: The Cat Lady and other adventure horror games; Grave Phantoms, revisited (WARNING: spoilers for Jim Butcher’s Changes at 15:30); Jeff Whitty’s Head Over Heels; Kiva’s comic for The Mary Sue on Public Secrets; an update on The Feminist Deck; Kim Swift; Steven Universe; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 25:46
Emails start at: 47:03

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Ellie Satler: Fending off velociraptors and gross male academics since 1993
• How Lex Murphy got a generation of girls interested in STEM
• Our lasting impressions of The Lost World: Crushes, gymnastics and LC’s embarrassing childhood confession
• Jay reviews Jurassic World, and gives LC a heart attack about Chris Pratt

Plus: Jenn Bennett’s Grave Phantoms; Bitten; Friends; a shocking Dragon Age AU; Portal redux; Star Wars; Knights of the Old Republic; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 16:07
Emails start at: 46:11

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

Pretty Little Liars; Sue Ann Jaffarian’s Odelia Gray mysteries; Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency; Ann George’s Southern Sisters mysteries; Final Fantasy VI, IV and VII; Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries; Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game; Jaipur; Kobolds Ate My Baby!; Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game; Resistance; Mysterium; Dixit; TimeWatch; and the World Wide Wrestling RPG!

Jen’s segment starts at: 0:00
Kate’s segment starts at: 10:10
Kittylexy’s segment starts at: 17:29
Ariel’s segment starts at: 31:06
Sam’s segment starts at: 37:47
JennSka’s segment starts at: 44:58
Lola’s segment starts at: 53:23

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Looking back on Chell as a heroine, eight years later
• GLaDOS as the dark mother, and how a computer got to be so good at emotional abuse
• Why LC never finished Portal 2
• The loneliness of first person shooters, and Portal as a purgatorial crawl

Plus: The E3 Roundup Boogaloo: Dishonored 2! Mass Effect Andromeda! The Last Guardian (with bonus Shadow of the Colossus)! Uncharted 4! Final Fantasy 7 Remake! Horizon: Zero Dawn! Rise of the Tomb Raider! ReCore! Firewatch! Unravel! Beyond Eyes! Yoshi’s Wooly World! Earthbound: Beginnings! And much more! Also, the films of Luc Besson; Dune; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 27:47
Emails start at: 56:38

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Drama with heart, characters without shame: How Jane the Virgin subverts stereotype
• How women propel the action, while men struggle with emotion
• Magical realism, and how fate is in the eye of the beholder
• Sylvia’s blog for GeekGirlCon on Jane the Virgin

Plus: Dragon Age, Dragon Age and more Dragon Age! (Sorry Blackwall fans, you might want to skip our opening section this time); creating narrative tension and high stakes; DA2 as an immigrant story; Axiom Verge; Guacamelee; Princeless; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 22:03
Emails start at: 49:05

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Why we love Kamala Khan and the parts of her that are “too big, too weird”
• Why so many adults struggle to write believable teenagers
• Kamala Khan’s family and the second-generation immigrant experience
• In defense of teenage girls searching for their “authentic self”
• Editor Sana Amanat’s TEDxTeen Talk: Myths, misfits and masks

Plus: When Marnie Was There (big spoiler at 5:35); From Up On Poppy Hill (big spoiler at 4:40); Grave of the Fireflies; the worst anime we’ve ever sat through; Steven Universe; magical girl anime; Madoka Magica; and your emails!

For more details on how you can get the chance to co-host an episode of your very own, check out The Heroine’s Journey Patreon page.

Main topic starts at: 13:32
Emails start at: 36:00

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• What makes Mrs. Brisby such an unusual heroine for a kid’s movie
• Women are from the field, men are from NIMH – gender and community
• Behind the toxic yet necessary friendship between Brisby and Auntie Shrew
• How Don Bluth respects both the magic of childhood and its dark and fearful things

Plus: Contrast; Jane the Virgin; real talk about the cult of mommyhood: abortions, pregnancy and lactation, oh my!; the Feminist Deck Kickstarter; Bitch Planet; Mad Max – sort of; A Nameless Witch; Nerdgasm Noire; Spawn on Me; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 18:25
Emails start at: 38:54

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• A strong disclaimer — is The Fifth Element really a good example of a lady story?
• Our problems with Leeloo, and why we love her anyway
• How Besson’s bright and colorful futures serves an antidote to post-apocalyptic malaise
• How Ruby Rhod and Korben Dallas turn masculinity on its head

Plus: Supergirl! Why we’re excited for a superheroine like us; differences between the MCU and comic book audiences; female comics fandom across the decades; and why Netflix could change everything; also – male versus female player characters, roleplaying in mmos versus singleplayer games; and your emails!

Note: There was an audio artifact during the time in the closer where I usually tell you where you can find the guest host online. You can follow Apple Cider on her blog, on Twitter or, of course, on the Justice Points podcast.

Main topic starts at: 19:42
Emails start at: 37:42

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Raindrops, tentacles and body swapping: When we fell in love with Aeryn Sun
• Zhaan, Jool, Noranti, Grayza… so many women, so little time!
• Is John Crichton the “competitively ineffectual” girlfriend? Or a priestess of Ishtar in a universe full of Enkidus?
• Farscape goes bananas: The value of committing to the crazysauce

Plus: The Babadook (NOTE: a spoiler for Downton Abbey at 3:13); motherhood and the culture of silence; Does The Dog Die?; Ms. Marvel, Volume 1; Linnea Sinclair, Susan Grant and sci fi romances; Smart Bitches, Trashy Books; in praise of Archive of Our Own; and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 15:32
Emails start at: 44:33

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• What makes Final Fantasy’s female characters so unusual?
• Heroine’s Journeys and humanism porn: Why these games are our catnip
• Defending the Sorceress and the Knight trope
• Why the all-male FFXV cast is such a let-down

Plus: Daredevil The Karen MFing Page Show (NOTE: Spoilers for earlier episodes); Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; our favorite female action stars; a list of trash movie recommendations; and your emails!

LC says: Sorry for the terrible audio quality on my end, everyone. My mic apparently wasn’t working properly. I did my best to salvage the audio, and I’ll fix the issue for next week.

Cohost info: Jay Kateel’s blog, Incorrect Dragon Age

Main topic starts at: 13:27
Emails start at: 38:34

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How the “Internet-ization” helps female musicians and makes the gatekeepers obsolete
• Why it’s never been a better time to be a black nerd girl
• What she’s listening to right now
• Details of her upcoming project, due out this fall

To learn more about SΔMMUS’s music, check out her SoundCloud or YouTube channel. You can also follow SΔMMUS at her website or her Twitter.

Music at 4:04: “Fly Nerd” by SΔMMUS
Music at 8:29: “Smash Bruhs” by SΔMMUS
Music at 10:25: “Brinstar” by SΔMMUS
Music at 12:32: “A Woman” by SΔMMUS
Music at 16:11: “Rap (Mario Kart)” by SΔMMUS

Music used with permission

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Behind “the plot twist of the century”: Why Samus’s gender both matters and doesn’t matter
• Dark, slow, quiet: Metroid as “a game for introverts”
• How Samus challenges the narrow definition of Strong Female Protagonist™
• The first rule of Metroid is that you don’t talk about Other M.

Plus: Mixing creativity and social science – what it means to be creative in a capitalist structure, and creativity as a gendered trait; Garfunkel and Oates; we coin a new Internet blessing; Papa Sangre; Super Mario RPG; Trans Girl Next Door; Witchy; Bitch Planet; and your emails!

Cohost info: SΔMMUS’s website, Twitter, SoundCloud, Tumblr

Main topic starts at: 12:06
Emails start at: 40:12

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

Music at 12:06: “Power Ups” by SΔMMUS
Music at 40:12: “Mae Jemison” by SΔMMUS

Music used with permission

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• What Rat Queens and D&D have in common
• Women getting ugly: Why it matters
• Is Rat Queens getting women back into comics?
• The power of word of mouth: Which other comics are we picking up?

Plus: Resident Evil Revelations 2; why LC should never got a record contract; Parks and Recreation; Elizabeth Moon & Wiscon: because the third time’s a charm; demi-divinity, biraciality and bisexuality – being in-between; how to see Tanya at C2E2, and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 11:34
Emails start at: 27:55

Cohost info: Tanya DePass, I Need Diverse Games on Tumblr and Twitter, #INeedDiverseGames

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Maxi pad first aid, space DMVs, and weddings as the death of self: Jupiter’s trials as a heroine
• Who are you: Is it genetics or your choices?
• How Jupiter’s social awkwardness and dismal combat skills actually make her special

To learn more about the Heroine’s Journey archetype, check out this show’s very first bonus episode, “Why ‘The Heroine’s Journey’?”

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Jupiter’s bad choices, period dresses, and space rollerblades: The Wachowskis’ celebration of being a 14 year old girl
• What Jupiter Ascending has in common with Fushigi Yuugi and Pacific Rim
• Why the movie’s many, many (MANY) plot holes are a gift to fandom
• Hero’s vs. Heroine’s Journeys: How the Matrix compares to Jupiter Ascending

Plus: Legally Blonde; Howl’s Moving Castle; what makes a good romance novel; Victoria Dahl, and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 15:14
Emails start at: 40:20

Cohost info: myjusticecake

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Falling into a vat of atomic liquid: The Doubleclicks “origin story”
• What they’re playing now, including which game is best for drunken con shenanigans, and how they spice up games about subsistence farming
• Everything you need to know about the #NerdNightOut tour

You can catch more of The Doubleclicks on their website, Twitter and YouTube channel, where you can check out their April 16^th YouTube show, featuring special guest nerdcore rapper Sammus.

Music used in this episode:

• 2:00 – “Clever Girl“
• 8:00 – “Cats and Netflix“
• 11:20 – “Can’t You See the World Is Ending?”

Music used with permission of The Doubleclicks

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How mechanics new to 5^th ed reward roleplaying instead of min-maxing
• A childhood of playing the “girl character”
• Why we love the diverse body types, identities and classes in the 5^th ed rule book
• Fiasco, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and other D&D “gateway drugs”

Plus: Webcomics! Questionable Content; Candi Comic; The Devil’s Panties; OGLAF; Girl Genius; Plume; Oh Joy Sex Toy; Dinosaur Comics; XKCD; Lumberjanes; Rat Queens; Princess Princess, and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 13:05
Emails start at: 35:14

Cohost info: The Doubleclicks, YouTube Channel, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

Music at 13:05: “This Fantasy Life“, by The Doubleclicks
Music at 35:14: “Tabletop“, by The Doubleclicks

Music used with permission of the Doubleclicks

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How do you make drow elves not racist? (no seriously how)
• Sexual assault as advertising and difficult women as “being on the rag”: horror stories behind the curtain at a major video game studio intentional.”
• How the invisibility of female players reinforces the invisibility of female developers
• Details on the upcoming PaizoCon in May **NOTE: the dates cited in the episode are wrong. PaizoCon is actually May 22-25, not 18-21.**

You can catch more of Jessica at her tumblr, where she blogs about everything from the tabletop industry to 13^th century Chinese heroes.

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Gendered conflict, and why angry Roslin is much scarier than angry Adama
• How the Pegasus is like a Randian playground – with Cain as its terrifying “dark mother”
• What’s so worth saving about humanity anyway? And why did such an interesting question fail the later seasons?
• How to lose friends and alienate people with the BSG board game

Plus: Frustrations with urban fantasy (editor’s note—I was thinking of Laurel K. Hamilton), Tanya Huff, The Hunger Games, RWBY, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, bi-LI mods in DAI, the problem of problematic creators, and your emails!

Sorry in advance for all the coughing, everyone!

Main topic starts at: 20:03
Emails start at: 50:10

Cohost info: Jessica’s blog, Pathfinder RPG, Paizo Publishing

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How late night tweeting led to a world of polyamorous diplomat fashion-conscious Vikings
• The gendering of genres, and why too many authors prioritize the “mechanics” of worldbuilding over character
• A sneak peek at Jemisin’s new book series, The Broken Earth, and why she admits that it’s “the most difficult worldbuilding I’ve ever done”.

You catch more of N.K. Jemisin at her blog, or on Facebook and Twitter, where she hangs out when she’s not furiously writing her next novel.

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• How Fable forces you to make moral decisions that actually hurt
• Paige and the invisibility of the female revolutionary
• Our favorite scene in the game (don’t play it in the dark)
• The one spoiler that everyone needs to know before playing Fable III (and, for that matter, Fable II)

Plus: Lilo and Stitch, Sex Criminals, Orphan Black, the 20^th anniversary of Chrono Trigger, dwarves gone wild, what LC has against the Qunari, the Metroid series, the bird’s guide to parenting, and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 24:52
Emails start at: 46:49

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• Why the first rule of Prometheus is that you don’t talk about Prometheus
• Reproduction, birth, and why is Alien so freaking scary?
• Aliens: A story about motherhood, Princess Ripley, and turgid masculinity
• How Alien 3 is like Terminator 2, and Alien: Resurrection is like that bad acid trip you had in college but with more Ron Perlman
• What we know about Blomkamp’s upcoming Alien flick

Plus: The 100, nuclear holocaust makes a comeback, Misty Copeland’s Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, a Very Important Message About Swearing, Elizabeth Moon revisited, the problem with PAX and Polanski, Aveline Vallen’s biceps and Cassandra’s party dress problem and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 20:41
Emails start at: 1:14:53

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

• The origins of the #INDG social movement
• Navigating anon hate and the GamerGate cesspool
• What comes next for INDG

INDG has a home on several social media platforms, including Twitter (original vintage!), Tumblr, and Facebook. If you’d like to show your financial support for INDG, check out their Patreon or their Teespring, now in its second round due to popular demand.

You catch more of Tanya’s personal musings at her blog, cypheroftyr.

A brief housekeeping note: We’re on iTunes now, as well as Stitcher. So if you like what you hear, please go rate and review! Your support will help us reach a wider audience.

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

“Episode #4: The Works of N.K. Jemisin”

This week, LC Brown is joined by Tanya DePass of #I Need Diverse Games to dig into the books of sci fi/fantasy author N.K. Jemisin, including:

• Women of color as the heroes and drivers of their own stories
• Everyone wants to be Tolkien, and why that’s a bad thing
• Why we compare Jemisin to the best fanfic you’ve ever read
• Mixed heritage as a major element of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Plus: Tanya’s Inquisitor problem, Dragon Age: The Last Flight, Adrienne Shaw’s Gaming at the Edge, female knights, Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness, Game of Thrones and your emails!

ETA: Links!

• Medieval POC
• N.K. Jemisin’s story review of Dragon Age Inquisition

Main topic starts at: 12:42
Emails start at: 36:25

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

Cohost info: Tanya DePass, I Need Diverse Games on Tumblr and Twitter, #INeedDiverseGames

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

“Episode #3 Bonus: “Comic Book Movies: A Love Affair”

This week, guest host Nadia returns with an essay on the long-standing love affair film has had with comics, including:

• the sometimes unfortunate history of comic book movies (Clooney’s Bat-nips, anyone?)
• how MCU has brought “more squirrels to the feeder”
• with more diversity in readership, will we see more diversity in heroes to match?

Also note: We’re on iTunes now, as well as Stitcher. If you like what you hear, please go rate and review!

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.

“Episode #3: Saga”

This week, we record a saga of an episode about Saga, the comic by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. LC Brown and guest host Nadia dive into why they just can’t stop reading it, including:

• Why we love a story for good sex, not good death
• Saga vs. Firefly, and the unbearable whiteness of modern spec fic
• Which single panel in Volume Four turned LC into a sobbing mess
• How a marriage implodes, and pieces itself back together

Plus: The Fall, the importance of power hair, The X-Files, corpses vs. bakeries, Carmilla and webseries remakes, Tomb Raider 2: Reboot Boogaloo, Pretty Woman, Beauty and the Beast, and your emails!

Main topic starts at: 40:26 (wow!)
Emails start at: 1:12:06 (whew!)

Intro and Outro music: “Snow World Under the White Moon“, EeL

If you’d like to leave us a comment, question, or maybe just some good old-fashioned hatemail, send us an email at info (at) hjcast [dot] com.