Blerd On The Street

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In this episode, the Blerds discuss the horror (and by extension, suspense and psychological thriller) genre.

We ask each other:

• What was the last horror, psychological thriller, or suspense show (or movie, etc) we watched?

• How do we feel about the genre?

• What recent additions that have more diverse characters and storylines do we like, and how do we see them enriching Black people taking up space in horror?

IMPORTANT EDITOR CORRECTION:

A movie cited as Day of the Dead is mentioned in the first part of the episode, which should be Night of the Living Dead (specifically the 1990 remake)

CW: Though both movies are older, we spoil the endings/twists of Night of the Living Dead, and Deep Blue Sea during the discussion that takes place around time tags from 8:15-10:45.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Get Out (briefly, important plot development)

The Purge (briefly)

Stranger Things (briefly)

The Forest Demands its Due by Kosoko Jackson (Book/YA)

Goosebumps (TV series/Hulu)

Fright Krewe (TV series/Hulu)

We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado (Book/YA)

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

CW: Brief mentions of Ezra Miller and Armie Hammer

The Blerds bring complaints to the jury, and rule on each other's cases.

Mentioned in the episode:

DC, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises

Banned Book Week

1899 (Netflix series)

Poirot

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised*

As Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever is now available for streaming on the Disney+ platform, the Blerds take another look at the movie and expand more on their praise and criticism.

CW: France as a colonizing country and their anger at their depiction in the movie (skip first 10 min if this is a sensitive subject for you)

**Listener Discretion Is Always Advised**

The Blerds- Jillian, Lillie, and Jenna- talk about the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and what's in store for Black History Month.

At the end, we make some TBE (to be experienced) recommendations.

For today's episode, we are joined by Walter Johnson of the Blerd Point of View blog (https://www.blerdpointofview.com/) to discuss the greatly anticipated follow-up to Marvel's Black Panther, Wakanda Forever. 

We do a shot-by-shot breakdown of the latest trailer and diver deeper into what it means to see ourselves on screen. 

We hope you enjoy and please be sure to give Walter some love on his blog or on Instagram (@blerdpov2.0)!

Welcome back to Blerd on the Street! For our first episode of season 3, we sit down for a chat with author Gabrielle Prendergast. If you're on TikTok, you may have seen her Young Adult novel, Zero Repeat Forever, blow up among book lovers. We discuss that and her other books, how she got started writing and what the heck is up with her publisher (we want the last book!!!!) We hope you enjoy.

You can find Gabrielle on Instagram and Tiktok at gsprendergast and be sure to pick up a copy of her books!

If you like us, follow us and give us a rating or review on Apple or Spotify. We’ll be back with another episode soon.

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised*

The Blerds discuss the YA novel, The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould. General spoilers for the book, including the author's CWs at the top of the review. 

No major content spoilers for the mystery or the ending.

Mentioned in the episode

TV series: 

The Haunting of Bly Manor

Riverdale

Veronica Mars

SurrealEstate

Books:

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

Blackout (anthology)

Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, body, and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters

The Dominion of Leviathan by Manish Melwani: https://www.tor.com/2022/04/13/the-dominion-of-leviathan-manish-melwani/

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

Jenna, Jillian, and Lillie discuss Welcome To South Africa, the first episode of Netflix's: Young, Famous and African.. 

Spoilers throughout for events that happen in the episode.

A note to our listeners: The audio in this episode has a few issues. the main one being a near constant, soft, staticky or clicking noise. There is also some background noise from all of us, that usually isn't heard or gets filtered out. While we hope you listen and enjoy the episode, we also recognise that these noises may trigger certain types of misopohonia. Please keep this in mind, and if you have to skip this episode, we hope you'll return for our next one.

Thanks,

From The Blerds

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The Blerds take on the first episode of The Courtship, the new NBC/Peacock show about dating, regency-style. There are spoilers for the events that take place, as well as for the men that are eliminated.

Mentioned In The Episode:

The 1619 Project (book)

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (graphic novel)

Boom Studios

The Love Con (book)

Blood Scion (audiobook)

Okoye To The People (audiobook)

Bahni Turpin (voice actress)

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised*

Mentioned In This Episode:

Scholastic Book Fair

Star Finder! by DK Publishing

What Makes A Hero by Pamela Bobowicz, Eda Kaban (Illustrator)

My Superhero Is Black by John Jennings and Angelique Roche (roe-SHAY)

Amalgam Comics and Coffeehouse

MCU: 

Moon Knight

Spiderman: No Way Home

CW/Spoiler:

Spiderman: Homecoming

Spiderman: Far From Home

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

It's Black History Month, so there's lots of white people doing us dirty in the news, and the Blerds use this episode to mostly discuss headlines.

CW:

Mention of the KKK

Discussion of sentencing trial for Daunte Wright's killer

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

Blerds Jenna and Jillian soldier on without Lillie, mostly talking about the Plight of the Single Black Woman

Recommended in the episode:

Miss Rochester's Ghost (book)

The Castle School for Girls (book)

The Poster House (museum in NYC)

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

The Blerds make their feelings clear on the Spotify controversy. (Transcript below)

Jillian: Hello listeners. Jenna, Lillie, and I would like to take a moment to address some concerns about Spotify that have been in the news lately. If you’ve ever gone to our landing page, you’ll have noticed that Blerd On The Street is hosted by Anchor, which is a Spotify company.

We want to make it clear that we do not condone or support ANY of the statements that Joe Rogan has spread on his show, nor do we altogether think that Spotify has satisfactorily explained their non-actions in the past, toward these inflammatory and, quite frankly, dangerous and racist viewpoints.

Jenna: However, at this time, we are going to continue hosting Blerd On The Street at Anchor. We started our podcast in June of 2021, and have been working to grow our listenership. But, we do not have ad revenue, sponsors, or patrons, so every penny that needs to be spent to produce a quality podcast comes out of our pockets. The tools that Anchor provides for producing and editing Blerd On The Street are essential to us airing the type of episodes you have become accustomed to hearing.

Lillie: Do we wish we could immediately find an alternative to Anchor? Yes! It would be nice if there were more free all-in-one platforms that were specifically geared toward marginalised podcasters, and beginner producers and editors. I’ve looked. I do the majority of the editing and production, and I love it! But, it’s work, and Anchor has the tools to mitigate that work, as I learn.

Listeners, we absolutely support any choices you make about your personal relationship with Spotify and its companies. You can continue to support Blerd On The Street by choosing any other of the podcatchers that we are available on like Stitcher, Apple, Google, Pocketcast, and others.

Jenna: Thank you all, Street Team.

*Listener discretion is always advised*

We're finally finishing our analysis of the Disney+ Marvel show, Loki. Spoilers included.

CW: mention of musophobia, trypophobia, skeletonized remains

Mentioned in this episode:

Mutter Museum

Disney's Encanto

Marvel's Eternals

Deaf Performers: bluejay19xx, itscharmay

Queer ASL Language Program

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

The Blerds are back from a little rest and holidaying!

We start off talking about some media we consumed, and offer a few recommendations, then move onto reactions and discussion about some recent headlines. Finally, we close with Jillian presenting some of the funnier profile answers she sees on her dating app.

Mentioned in the episode:

Acorn TVs The Long Call and Vera

Netflix's Arcane: League of Legends and Misha and the Wolves

D&D 5E Actual Play: Death2Divinity

BookishHeaux on Etsy

Writual Tarot Journal

Friendsmas Celebration! Jillian and Lillie introduce Jenna to the old claymation classic, The Year Without A Santa Claus, just to get her reaction. 

*Listener Discretion Always Advised*

We finally finish out the second half of our Monster of the Week one-shot. 

GM: Lillie

Players: Jillian and Jenna

Today we are joined by our dear friends at The Blerd Bar as we celebrate Blerdsgiving! We keep it light today playing a geeky version of Would You Rather. 

Be sure to support the Blerd Bar: https://flow.page/theblerdbar 

*Listener Discretion is Always Advised*  

Like our podcast? Follow us on other platforms: https://linktr.ee/blerdonthestreet

Please consider giving us a 5-star review on your favorite platform. The more reviews we get, the more people we can reach.

Thanks Street Team!

Jenna, Jillian and Lillie ramble through news from Marvel and DC, dissect some of the DCEU shows, and recommend recent graphic novel and comic reads. *Listener discretion is always advised*

Mentioned in the show

Possible return of Daredevil and The Punisher

DC shows: 

Titans, The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Doom Patrol (*spoilers for the season three opener*)

Graphic Novels: 

Moonshot, The Eat Bang Kill Tour: Harley Quinn, The Animated Series, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Dark Blood, Nubia and the Amazons #1 , Harriet Tubman: Demon Slayer

Audio Drama: Sandman

*Viewer Discretion is Always Advised*

The Blerds discuss 

Loki Episode 4: The Nexus Event

Loki Episode 5: Journey Into Mystery

CW: 

Spoilers for the entire Loki series, MCU events, DC's Flashpoint and Arrowverse

Blerd Jillian interviews The Blerd Explorer, a Black man living in South Korea, who's written two guidebooks on Black living and travel in the country.

Editor's Edition Short

Often when editing for continuity and time, some genuinely fun bits get left out. In the future, we hope to offer outtakes and other cutting room content on Patreon, but for now, he's a bonus that didn't make it into our episode review of Shang-Chi. Enjoy!

A short from the cutting room floor, about MCU magic.

Jenna, Jillian, and Lillie dig into Marvel's Loki Season 1 Episode 3: Lamentis, which is available on Disney+, along with the rest of the complete first season.

If you like our podcast, please give it a positive rating on Apple, or your podcatcher of choice. 

Listener Discretion is always advised.

CW: 

Memory and reality manipulation performed by Sylvie

Let's talk about TTRPGs!

*Viewer discretion is always advised*

Questions for the hosts: 

What RPG is your favorite of the ones you have played?

What RPG is on your wishlist, or are you really excited about?

What game (or person, or AP/audio drama, etc) got you interested in participating in an RPG?

Mentioned in this episode:

Masks

Dungeons and Dragons

Call of Cthulhu

Good Society

Into the Motherlands (kickstarter)

Blades in the Dark

Scum and Villainy

We talk about Marvel's Loki: Episode 2 

*Spoilers Included

Listener Discretion Advised

Spoilers for Loki: Episode 1

In this, our inaugural episode of Blerd On The Street, we talk about the first episode of Loki, the newest Marvel TV show on Disney+. 

Icebreaker: If you could sit down with anyone from the past up to now, who would it be? What would you do with them?

Closer: What item would you put in a time capsule to be opened in ten years time?

Mentioned in this episode: 

Jurassic Park

Doctor Who: Turn Left

Wizard of Oz

Spiderman: Far From Home

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall