Valid Criticism

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 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 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 106 – ONE THEORY to RULE THEM ALL!!

What if I told you everything you knew was a lie? The Island is actually purgatory and all the Pixar films are connected and Aladdin actually takes place in a future post-apocalyptic wasteland and Captain Planet and the Magic Schoolbus are actually the sa

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Episode 59 – Creativity is Nine-Tenths of the Law

Once upon a time, a young man found a story in the woods. He fed it and raised it and, when it had grown, he let it out into the wild. Later, a band of merchants tamed the story and took it with them on their tour of the world. Boys and girls everywhere l

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Episode 56 – I Will Not Watch It, Sam-I-Am!

Can you believe people actually watch bonnet movies? You know, those semi-romantic historical dramas with female protagonists? Blech! Don’t they know their artistic sensibilities are morally inferior and seriously stunted? I mean, if you’re not watching O

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Episode 41 – Can’t See No Forest For All These Trees

We all have our little pet scenes and characters. You know, that one line you’ll watch again and again or that minor villain you write long fan fictions about because he’s just SO COOL. Then there’s costumes design of the palace guards (which is just so t

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Episode 33 – How to be Timeless

We’re alive! Tim and Nick emerge from their summer hiatus with an instant classic! It’s a modern masterpiece! A genre-setting podcast! The best audio entertainment since “War of the Worlds”! … Or, at least, we discuss what makes a work of fiction “class

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Episode 14 – The Frolics and Freak-outs of Fandom

Trekkies, MSTies, Browncoats, Twi-hards, Gleeks, Whovians, Deleteheads…. How does a story spawn its own subculture? Fanfiction writer Laura Fischer joins us to discuss what drives fans to create new fiction, art, and communities about their favorite sto

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Episode 13 – How to Read a Story

Dr. Suess says you can read with your eyes shut, but we’re not so sure. This episode we take a reader’s viewpoint to discover what it takes to fully engage a story. Along the way, Tim shows off his film school terminology, Nick pulls out his “I’ve read Ru

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