Audience

Episode 142 – Free For All

Every creative work is the product of someone’s hard work and imagination. That’s why there’s copyright laws. Storytellers of all kinds should be paid for their work and own their ideas. However, at some point, all stories enter the public domain. What is public domain? What’s the role of public domain in creativity? How does…

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Episode 140 – Reaching Geek Culture

Table top games. Cosplay. Anime. Superheros. Star Wars. Conventions. These are a few of a geek’s favorite things. Those who love these things love to share them with others. Together, they make up geek culture. But behind these shared interests and hobbies are individuals who need the love and hope of Jesus Christ. In this…

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Episode 133 – A Time and a Place for Every Story

Hosts Timothy Deal and Nick Hayden tackle the importance of a story’s historical and cultural context…and Internet quizzes about which story came first.

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Episode 129 – Hurdles to “Higher” Art

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 Der Ring des Nibelungen. But it’s long and maybe it’s boring and you don’t like weird foreign names and, I mean, you could just watch Friends…

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

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

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Episode 124 – Like the Lilies of the Field

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

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Episode 123 – How (Not) to Jump a Shark

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’

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Episode 120 – Looking Beneath the Surface

If you’ve ever read a plot summary, you’ve probably thought, “But that’s not what the story’s REALLY about.” There are ideas and connections within a story that don’t show up in a 100-word Netflix blurb. That’s why this episode hosts Timothy Deal and Nick

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Episode 119 – Genres Gone Wild?

Here at Derailed Trains of Thought (your premiere podcast on storytelling for the creator and consumer), we like to talk about genre fiction. You know, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, superheroes, blah, blah, blah. But the heart of story is character

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Episode 115 – What Was That Title Again?

Remember your favorite episode of Derailed Trains of Thought? Yeah–that one. It was about…I mean, there was a funny What If? and…yeah, a great discussion about books…or something. Have you ever found yourself forgetting the details of your favorite

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