Dice in Mind

Episode 118: Al Spader and Jim Johnson (Part 1)

Al Spader is a middle school science teacher, father of five year old twin boys, and a freelance RPG writer and game designer. As a regular writer for Star Trek Adventures and lead designer of the Sentience 2d20 RPG, Al brings his knowledge of neurodivergence and social-emotional learning to the TTRPG community.

Jim Johnson was born about the same time Apollo XII landed on the moon (and has always been kinda spacey) and shares a birthday with the Kindle. He is the author of the Pistols and Pyramids weird western series and the Potomac Shadows urban fantasy series. He's also written a bunch of other stuff in and around the SFF genres and pen and paper RPGs. He's currently the project manager and line editor for Modiphius's Star Trek Adventures RPG.

Please check out these relevant links:

Al Spader (Twitter/X)
Sentience RPG
Jim Johnson
Jim Johnson (Twitter/X)
Star Trek Adventures: The Federation-Klingon War Tactical Campaign
AlphaSmart Neo

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

If you like what you hear, please leave us a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!

Episode 117: Carl Niblaeus and Death in Space

Sorry for the late episode, we had a technical glitch: Jason was on spring break.

Carl Niblaeus is a Stockholm-based tabletop RPG designer, one of two behind the gritty sci-fi RPG Death in Space and part of the creative coven Stockholm Kartell. With a PhD in astroparticle physics focusing on dark matter, he has a special interest in the cosmos and its inner workings. Today he spends his days working in data science, on evenings and weekends he takes the chances he can to escape to cold dark space and strange universes beyond our own. He is mostly an omnivore when it comes to RPGs, exploring all kinds of experiences the hobby can offer, but shies away from high page counts and large rulesets.

Please check out these relevant links:

Death in Space
Microscope

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space. Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

If you like what you hear, PLEASE leave us a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!

Episode 116: Seth Skorkowsky

Gravitating to the darker sides of fantasy, Seth Skorkowsky has always preferred horror and pulp heroes over knights in shining armor. When not writing, Seth enjoys cheesy movies, tabletop roleplaying games, making YouTube videos, and traveling the world with his wife.

Please check out these relevant links:

YouTube
Twitter
Website
Books

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 115: It's Dr Trek! Larry Nemecek

Author, interviewer, host, archivist, producer, voiceover, actor and and fan: Larry Nemecek has a background in news and theatre, but it is “Trekland” where he’s worked for over 25 years. A renowned Star Trek authority, Larry is the author of the bestselling classic, Star Trek The Next Generation Companion, and a regular convention guest worldwide, often referred to as “Dr. Trek.” Larry now brings his Trek insight, resources, and archives to the ultimate deep-dive experience for Trek fans at Portal 47.

Please check out these relevant links:

Trekland
Portal 47: Your Inside Access to all Things Star Trek
Trekland Treks Tours
Trekland on YouTube
Twitter

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 114: Jim Johnson and Leadership at the Table

We're going long with this episode!

Jim Johnson was born about the same time Apollo XII landed on the moon (and has always been kinda spacey) and shares a birthday with the Kindle. He is the author of the Pistols and Pyramids weird western series and the Potomac Shadows urban fantasy series. He's also written a bunch of other stuff in and around the SFF genres and pen and paper RPGs. He's currently the project manager and line editor for Modiphius's Star Trek Adventures RPG.

Please check out these relevant links:

Scribe Ineti (website and books)
Twitter
Star Trek Adventures

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 113: The Year of the Big Five-O

In which we talk about our achievement, respectively recent and pending, of the age of 50. Also, the GM Corner is now Audubon Court! The tea must flow.

Please check out these relevant links:

Imperial Tea Court
Star Wars Outlaws
Star Trek Adventures
Star Wars Roleplaying Game
Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition
The One Ring
Dune: Adventures in the Imperium

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 112: Welcome to Potterversity!

Emily Strand is an author, podcaster, teacher, speaker, award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She holds an MA in theology from the University of Dayton and has taught religion on the college level for nearly 20 years. She has published two books on Catholic sacraments and several peer-reviewed chapters and essays on the religious, symbolic and spiritual themes in popular fiction such as Harry Potter and Star Wars. With Dr. Kathryn N. McDaniel of Marietta College, she co-hosts Potterversity: A Potter Studies Podcast, a show in the MuggleNet family of podcasts.

Please check out these relevant links:

Potterversity: Essays Exploring the World of Harry Potter
Potterversity: A Potter Studies Podcast
Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks
Fantasy Age Second Edition Core Rulebook

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

Episode 111: Retrospective 2023

Join us as look back at what 2023 meant for Dice in Mind as well as the RPG industry more broadly. We also share some of what you can expect from this fair little podcast in 2024.

(Correction: Jason goofed on the name of the restaurant in Kraków. The link is below.)

Please check out these relevant links:

Tawerna Wilczy Dół
Witcher RPG
Fantasy Age (2nd Edition)

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.

A New Year Rerun: It’s Dragon Talk!

We are thrilled to bring you this chat from Episode 73 with Shelly Mazzanoble and Greg Tito, the wonderful co-hosts of the Dragon Talk podcast and authors of the upcoming Welcome to Dragon Talk: Inspiring Conversations about Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Love to Play It. We spend most of our time exploring the book, diving into the potential for D&D to make the world a better place through fostering community, mental health, and so much more. And did we mention you can preorder the book?

Please check out Shelly's and Greg's book and other work:

Welcome to Dragon Talk
Dragon Talk (the official podcast of D&D)
Shelly Mazzanoble
Greg Tito

Every week, Shelly Mazzanoble and Greg Tito go inside the walls of Dungeons & Dragons for exclusive interviews and previews! This D&D team sits down each week with celebrities and personalities from across gaming and pop culture to discuss one of the greatest fantasy brands of all-time. They talk about the tabletop roleplaying game, as the latest in D&D video games, comics, novels, movies, and television.

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Music by Kevin McCloud courtesy of Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 license (https://www.youtube.com/c/kmmusic/featured).

Episode 110: Prof. Ben Rogers on the Hero’s Journey

Prof. Benjamin Rogers’s research explores the meaning of work and narratives in the workplace, specifically the way that the stories we tell manifest in our organizational experiences to shape our well-being. His work particularly focuses on how these narratives can be used to design effective and scalable psychological interventions to help workers—and people, more broadly—to find more meaning and improve their well-being. His findings have included how a growth mindset can lead employees to help others at work, what leads workers to conclude their boss has naively “fallen for flattery,” and how seeing your personal narrative as similar to a “Hero’s Journey” can give life and work more meaning.

If you are in need of talking with someone, please consider calling:

911: Emergency Assistance
988: Suicide and Crisis Lifeline

You can also check out this list of resources curated by the American Psychological Association.

Please check out these relevant links:

Boston College Website
Scientific American Article
TIME Article

Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philosophy, and creativity through interviews with leading creatives. All are welcome in this space.

If you like what you hear, consider buying us a cup of coffee or becoming a patron.  You can also join the conversation by following us on Facebook.

Royalty-free music "Night Jazz Beats" courtesy of flybirdaudio.