Derailed Trains of Thought

Hosted ByNick Hayden & Timothy Deal

Derailed Trains of Thought is your premiere podcast on storytelling for the creator and the consumer. Hosted by Nick Hayden and Timothy Deal, Derailed Trains of Thought discusses a wide range of storytelling topics, from the practical to the philosophical, in a engaging, conversational manner. It also includes bouts of fiction, brainstorming, Internet weirdness, puns, and a general enjoyment of the intersection between the written word, film, story, and meaning.

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Episode 131 – What’s a Storyteller Worth?

July 29, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:05:32 0 Comments

Imagine you’re part of a hunter-gatherer tribe. Who do you value most? That awesome hunter dude who brings home the boar bacon? The guy with the big muscles who...

Episode 130 – Beyond the Chess Board

July 1, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:05:46 0 Comments

Perhaps you’ve sat down for a seventeen-hour session of Monopoly. You roll dice, you take cards, you pay fake money, and you build houses. But you can also imagine...

Episode 129 – Hurdles to “Higher” Art

May 31, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:12:42 0 Comments

Everyone has at least one–a piece of art that they keep meaning to experience someday. You know, things like War and Peace or The Rules of the Game or...

Episode 128 – I Ain’t No Hero

April 30, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:15:29 0 Comments

Not every hero is squeaky clean. Not every hero wants to save the world and then go back to living a decent, unassuming life. Some heroes cheat. Some heroes...

Episode 127 – You, Like, Know What I Mean, Right?

March 30, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:09:39 0 Comments

This episode might be about stories that are too ambiguous and thereby confusing. On the other hand, this episode might be about stories that are just ambiguous enough and thereby powerful. Perhaps hosts Timothy Deal and Nick Hayden can find a definitive

Episode 126 – Details, Details, Details!

February 26, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:11:59 0 Comments

You’ve heard the story before–a young man from a remote village is thrust into the larger world because he takes on the responsibilty of a great quest, where he’ll have great adventure and meet strange creatures. You know, Star Wars. I mean, The Lord of

Episode 125 – Live by the Sword or Turn the Other Cheek?

January 29, 2022 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:11:53 0 Comments

POW! WHAM! The hero slugs the bad guy. Unconscious henchmen lay sprawled everywhere. The city is saved! All in a day’s work for an average action-adventure protagonist. BUT–is there another way? Why do we enjoy violent endings and are there satisfying no

Episode 124 – Like the Lilies of the Field

December 19, 2021 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:09:47 0 Comments

Every story, whether long or short, written or visual, occupies a space of time–and then it’s over. Gone. Unless, of course, you can read or watch it again. Still, there is a transience to stories, a space they occupy in our lives that ends and can never

Side Track 13 – We Were There 3000 (20) Years Ago

December 3, 2021 Derailed Trains of Thought 00:40:27 0 Comments

This December is the 20th Year Anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring movie. For Tim, this was a seminal movie in his life. Nick, on the other hand, has probably only seen it once or twice. But now, they are watching the movie together (

Episode 123 – How (Not) to Jump a Shark

November 2, 2021 Derailed Trains of Thought 01:08:15 0 Comments

We’ve all been there. We’re watching season 17 of our favorite show or book 26 of our favorite series and suddenly wonder–Wait, what? What just happened? Whether it’s something too insane or too dumb or too out-of-character or simply too much, “this isn’