Genre

Episode 146 – Someone in This Story is a Killer

There’s a dead body in the isolated small-town bed and breakfast. All the weekend guests have been kept indoors because of the storm. Luckily, a famed detective is also a guest this weekend. It’s time to figure out whodunit! Everyone is familiar with some version of this setup. Mysteries are a well-loved and entertaining genre–but…

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Episode 138 – There Better Be a Wedding at the End

The Rom-Com. It’s boy meets girl. Or girl meets boy. Or hard-working single woman meets arrogant British chap. Or womanizing marine veterinarian falls for an art teacher with amnesia. Or…you get the idea. The romantic comedy is a genre with its own beats and its own fans. What makes rom-coms appealing? How have they changed…

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Episode 132 – What’s Everyone Laughing At?

In Episode 132, Timothy Deal and Nick Hayden discuss the dark side of comedy and share their annual summer movie (and streaming) review.

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Episode 130 – Beyond the Chess Board

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 yourself as a budding real estate tycoon, trying to avoid jail, consolidating your own personal Potterville in which to squeeze every last penny out of your…

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

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

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Episode 121 – Destiny, Free Will, and the Multiverse

What if…you decided to defy fate. Could you succeed? And what would it mean if you did? What if…whenever you made a choice, a new universe spun off? What does that mean for your alternate selves? What if…you listened to hosts Timothy Deal and Nick H

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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 118 – Indie Comics with Nate Chen

Superman. Captain America. Wolverine. You’ve heard of these superheroes, and most everyone has held a comic from Marvel or DC in their hands. But there is an entire world of independent comics waiting for curious readers beyond the shadow of these two com

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Episode 110 – The Weird, The Bizarre, and The Ugly

Some stories are safe; some are nightmare fuel. Some stories reflect the world we live in; others subject us to worlds of pure imagination. Some stories present us with pleasant characters; other star David Bowie in tight pants. What is the appeal of thes

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Epiosde 105 – The Greatest Stories Ever Told

Merry Christmas! ‘Tis the season for nativities and stories of the Nativity, which put Tim and Nick in the mood to discuss Biblical adaptations. How do you adapt a Bible story, and what makes it different from a normal adaptation? Then, for this month’s W

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