Taking a little Break from Podcasting, but not geeking

July 09, 2021 by Michael Boyce

I’ve decided to take a short hiatus as I rest and recuperate after one of the busiest, most intensive years of my life. I have lots of ideas for future guests and special audio essays, so have no fear: I’ll be back.

I have some holidays and I plan to catch up some television and movies I’ve missed. I bought a few things over the past year and haven’t had a catch to dig into them: a Billy Wilder box set, some Criterion titles (including a few David Lynch films). I’m also catching up on some podcasts I love - Best Pick Podcast; Truly, Darkly Creeply; Film Guff; Unspooled; and The House of Hammer, which has become a new favourite.

If you like Geek 4, please, tell a friend .

If you’re desperate to hear my voice (hi, mom), you can always re-listen to a favourite Geek 4 episode or catch me as a guest on other podcasts. I was recently featured on episode 0095 of the James Bond and Friends and will be on an upcoming episode of Film Guff.

Episode 029: Bang your head with Jeremy Maron

June 22, 2021 by Michael Boyce

Jeremy Maron’s TOP 3 METAL PICKS!!!

1. Eluveitie, a Swiss folk metal band.

2. Amon Amarth, a Swedish medolic death metal band.

3, The Hu, a Mongolian folk metal and heavy metal band that uses tradtional Mongolian instrumets and throat singing into their music.

On this episode, I talk to Jeremy Maron about his love of all things metal. We discuss his deep love of classic metal (AC/DC, Guns N Roses), 80s metal (Poison, Warrant, Judas Priest) and his passion for lesser known subgenres of death metal, specifically melodic death metal and folk metal (Amorphis, Amon Amarth, Eluveitie. Cellar Darling, The Hu).

We also talk about our shared loved of Winnipeg’s The Park Theatre, which brings in some great bands .

"On a Very Special Episode of Geek 4"

June 06, 2021 by Michael Boyce

This episode of Geek 4 is a little different. Instead of an interview with someone or an audio essay by me, this week I'm presenting a conversation between Brenton Dickieson, Emily Strand, and myself about Mary Doria Russell's 1996 debut science fiction novel, The Sparrow.

The three of us were all featured in Refuge 31's The Science Fiction Makers, and since have connected over Twitter. At some point, we decided to start a science fiction reading group and chose The Sparrow as our first novel to read and discuss.

We've already agreed to set up another of these, and we'll be talking about Russell's 1998 sequel, The Children of God as well as wrappin up any final thoughts we have on The Sparrow (like actually talking about Sandoz’s. hands!).

Goodreads.com summarizes the plot of The Sparrow thusly: "In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be 'human'."

Or, watch the video!

You can follow Brenton on Twitter @BrentonDana and follow his blog , A Pilgrim in Narnia

You can follow Emily on Twitter @ekcstrand and follow her website (emilystrand.com) or her blog (LiturgyandLife.com)

You can follow Michael on Twitter @mwboyce and Instagram @mwboyce and follow my website michaelwboyce.com

Episode 028: 10 Points for Emily Strand!!!

May 28, 2021 by Michael Boyce

Emily Strand wears many hats: author, teacher, scholar, liturgist, singer-songwriter, and podcaster. She teaches comparative religions and cultural competency to nursing students at Mt. Carmel College in Ohio. She writes and speaks on religious and spiritual themes in a wide range of popular fiction, film and television. She was one of the talking heads (along with me) in the recent documentary, The Science Fiction Makers . She writes about pastoral liturgy and popular culture for her blog LiturgyandLife.com. She also cohosts the academic Harry Potter podcast, Potterversity and it's her love of Harry Potter we're going to talk about today.

You can follow Emily on her website (emilystrand.com) or her blog (LiturgyandLife.com)

She's on Twitter @ekcstrand

You can find Potterversity on Apple Podcast and Instagram

Emily also mentioned a Call for Papers, for a collection about Star Wars and Star Trek she’s co-editing. If you're interested in submitting a proposal, go HERE

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Episode 027: Star gating with Hannah Foulger

May 16, 2021 by Michael Boyce

Hannah Foulger is a writer and theatre artist with a disability, as well as an accessibility consultant. She joins me today to discuss her love of the Stargate franchise. I don't know much about Stargate -I think saw the Roland Emmerich film back in the mid 1990s ; but one of the great delights of this project is listening to people explain (with enthusiasm) why something matters to them whether I'm familiar with it or not.

Hannah started watching Stargate: Sg1 with her dad and has continued to revisit that series and followed the other shows in the franchise including Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Infinity and Stargate Origins. We discuss the tensions the show presents between the humanistic perspective of Daniel Jackson and the militarism of Jack O'Neill; the show's new colonialism" as Hannah calls it; how the show incorporates different mythologies into its narrative, and how the tone of the show has changed in later series, particularly when it comes to gender.

You can follow Hannah on Twitter @FoulgersCovfefe and on Instagram @speakstory

You can follow me on Twitter @mwboyce or Instagram @mwboyce to pass along feedback or ideas. I'd love to hear from you.

You can follow the podcast on Twitter @geek4pod and on Instagram @geek4pod

Episode 026: Tall Tales with Kerri Twigg

May 06, 2021 by Michael Boyce

Kerri Twigg is author of The Career Stories Method: 11 Steps to Find Your Ideal Career—and Discover Your Awesome Self . She's a career coach who uses stories to help people discover their ideal career and their best self. She's a TedX speaker and a LinkedIn Top Voice. and is a highly sought after conference speaker. She's also my sister in law.

I'm very grateful she took the time to talk to me about something she's a geek for: storytelling. We talk about the awesome stories her dad used to tell and how story telling has shaped her - from the tales she tells her kids, to playwriting, acting and teaching, to her work as a career coach.

You can follow Kerri on Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn ; you can also find out more about her courses and speaking engagements HERE, including how to buy her book, The Career Stories Method: 11 Steps to Find Your Ideal Career—and Discover Your Awesome Self .

If you listen on Apple Podcast and like the show, please consider leaving a 5 star review. The more reviews we have, the more we show up in searches.

Or, tell a friend. Word of mouth remains one of the most effective marketing tools.

Episode 025: Weaving it Together with Carolyn Mount

April 18, 2021 by Michael Boyce

On this episode, I'm joined by Carolyn Mount. Carolyn is a talented artist who works in a variety of media. She speaks passionately about the role of art in every day life and the value of the simple practices of every day life. For the past number of years, her primary form of artistic expression has been weaving, producing beautiful, functional pieces. We discuss her journey as an artist, how she fell into weaving and has turned that passion into her own business.

You can support Carolyn by purchasing something functional AND artistic (like the best tea towels you'll ever own) at https://www.naturalbornweaver.com

You can follow her on Instagram @naturalbornweaver and FACEBOOK

You can follow me on Twitter @mwboyce to pass along feedback or ideas. I'd love to hear from you.

You can follow the podcast on Twitter @geek4pod and on Instagram @geek4pod

If you listen on Apple Podcast and like the show, please consider leaving a 5 star review. The more reviews we have, the more we show up in searches.

Or, tell a friend. Word of mouth is an effective tool.

Episode 024: Digging into the Past with Dr. Douglas Ross

April 12, 2021 by Michael Boyce

This week I'm talking to Dr. Douglas Ross. Doug holds a PhD in Archaeology from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, specializing in the lives of early Chinese and Japanese immigrants on the West Coast. He is Currently living the high life in sunny California, where he’s a senior archaeologist at Ablion Environmental, an archaeological consulting firm in Santa Cruz.

Doug was also my very dear friend and former university roommate. We met in first year and became fast friends. In fact, he's one of the only people I have ever sung in public with. During the years we were at WLU, we both introduced each other to things that we're still passionate about and discovered things together.

Doug and I have similar approaches to our fandoms - we like to collect and learn as much as we can about them; and they're eclectic. Doug recently contacted me, after listening to the podcast, and had realized how many of his seemingly varied interests actually trace to a fascination with the darker side of human existence: the folkloric, the superstitious, the "supernatural." Our conversation, the kind that only happens between good friends, goes all over the map: corpse medicine, fears of being buried alive, vampires, Doug's recent interest in gothic literature, tiki bars and Dutch painters.

If you'd like to be in contact with Doug, he's at Dross@albionenvironmental.com

You can follow me on Twitter @mwboyce to pass along feedback or ideas. I'd love to hear from you.

You can follow the podcast on Twitter @geek4pod and on Instagram @geek4pod

If you listen on Apple podcast and like the show, please consider leaving a 5 star review. The more reviews we have, the more we show up in searches.

Episode 023: The House That Dripped Cev Moore

March 22, 2021 by Michael Boyce

Cev Moore Is a UK based musician and podcaster. He cohosts Film Guff Podcast, which offers low brow talk about low rent movies, and Here Lies Amicus, which explores the work of the decidedly low rent British horror studio Amicus Productions. His love of movies - particularly the under funded and under appreciated - is infectious. We cover the schlocky, and not so schlocky, British horror - from Ealing's Dead of Night, to Amicus and Hammer. We're talking The Psychopath (1966), Dr. Who and the Daleks (1963), Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), Taste of Fear (1961), Asylum (1972) Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee!

Listen to Cev's podcasts: Here Lies Amicus and The Film Guff Podcast

Follow him on Twitter and Instagram

And if you happen to listen on Apple Podcast, consider leaving a 5 Star review. It really helps the podcast get noticed and featured.

Episode 022: Once More with Kendra Monk

March 14, 2021 by Michael Boyce

It's usually pretty easy to become a fan of thing . Something grabs our attention and appeals to us on a gut level - whether it's a show,a sport, a movie, a book, a type of art., gardening

When you love something, you can usually weather small disappointments - a bad season, a bigg loss, an ill conceived spinoff, some poor casting, or difficult technique that you just can't seem to master

But what if the disappointment is much more profound? What if it has to do with the actions, behaviours, or opinions of some key person in whatever it is you love? When a creator, founder, player, writer, actor has been accused of some criminal or immoral behaviour , predatory practice, hate speech. How does that impact your ability to identify as a fan of something. Does being fan mean you have to ignore such accusations or charges? Do such charges or accusations mean you have to stop being a fan of something? Is it ever cut and dry?

Today we're talking to Kendra Monk. Kendra is the organizer and brains behind the annual Sing Along with Horrible Feeling, Once More, the Buffy/ Dr Horrible Sing along event here in Winnipeg. She's a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and has had to navigate her fandom through some pretty damning accusations made against Buffy creator, Joss Whedon.

If you're in Winnipeg and are curious about attending or just experiencing the magic of the Sing Along with Horrible Feeling, Once More, which will be held at the newly renovated Park Theatre, you can follow the event on on their Facebook page Instagram @wpgdrbuffy or Twitter @wpgdrbuffy Also, follow #WPGDRBUFFY to see people's posts about past events.

And if you listen on Apple Podcasrt, please consider leaving a 5 Star Review. It helps other people be able to find the show. Thank, geeks.