roald dahl

Eulalia!  We're jumping into the first of Brian Jaques Redwall series, the eponymous story that started it all.  And to make it even more special, we're joined by Nat Scott (Sarah's husband, Sam's brother), an english teacher who loves this series!

This week we are reading the 1999 Newberry Medal winner,  Holes by Louis Sachar. Join us as we journey with Stanley Yelnats to Camp Green Lake as he digs some holes (and learns so much more). 

2021 was the year acceleration stuck. It was also the year in which the “passion economy” gave birth to the “ownership economy”, which blurs the line between creators and fans into communal ownership. All driven by the Web3 boom. And it reveals a glimpse into a possible future where all platforms are built, operated, funded, and owned by their users, who are rewarded with tokens that are proportional to the value that they’re able to create. 

Chris and Andrew explain this paradigm shift, summarizing in just 20 minutes the 15 industry articles, 31 podcasts, and 7 industry watch lists the RockWater team published in 2021.

Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up link

Learn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater website

Email us: rounduppod@wearerockwater.com

--

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Chris Erwin:

So Andrew, it is the end of January and we are recording our first Roundup podcast of the year. I think we've left our listeners hanging a bit.

Andrew Cohen:

Pros and cons of not being a full-time media company, try our best to turn out excellent content, but not always the most timely we do our best

Chris Erwin:

We're full-time advisory and just added doing some direct balance sheet investing this year into digital goods as well, trying to have all of... Stay updated on all things content, a little bit of a challenge, but we do our best. So we just published a piece that summarized all of our amazing thinking and all of our articles and podcasts in 2021, it was our year in review and we talked about two key themes. So I'll talk about the first one. And then you could talk about the second. How does that sound?

Andrew Cohen:

Sounds good.

Chris Erwin:

All right. So looking back on 2021, one thing that didn't surprise us was sticky acceleration. So we defined this as that there was certain things, dynamics of the economy that were pulled forward during COVID in 2020. These things include e-commerce penetration, content consumption, and content spending. And what we saw in '21 was that this acceleration, it wasn't a reversion back, it was sticky. It stayed with us in 2021, actually continued along it's trajectory. So let me review a few key stats on that front. On the e-commerce front, reminder that in 2020 during COVID e-commerce sales grew 32%, 2021 they grew by another 16%. Incredible. On the audio front in 2020, 52% of consumers said they began listening to more podcasts. Last year, monthly audio listenership was up 7%.

Chris Erwin:

In OTT video by the end of 2020, 73% of consumers were streaming more OTT video content than they were before the pandemic. Last year in '21, the average number of streaming services per consumer increased 28% year over year. For the creator economy 2020, we saw Cameo grow its bookings by 350% and its GMV by 4.5 times while Only Fans grew its user base by 75% month over month during COVID. But last year in '21, the number of digital creators increased 48% year over year growing the total value of the creator economy market to $104 billion, which we covered in a pretty foundational piece at the end of last year.

Chris Erwin:

So look, a lot of things I think people had been anticipating were going to happen in the digital content e-commerce economy for a while, got pulled forward during COVID 2020, that stayed the trend last year. But as a result of these macro shifts, capital flowed accordingly, right? So we saw $5 billion of investor capital flow to the creator economy, total telecom, media, tech, aka TMT investments hit $233 billion, 27% year over year increase from 2020 and total content global spending increased 14% to $220 billion. Really some staggering numbers here, Andrew. So that was sticky acceleration, but something else happened here too. Tell us about that.

Andrew Cohen:

That might have surprised some people that kind of sticky acceleration, but I think we were always bullish that COVID was more of an accelerant than an aberration and I think that proved true in 2021. But I think one thing I could admit that I definitely did not see coming the beginning of 2021 was the birth of the ownership economy. So just take a step back first, we had the attention economy, let's call it 2010 to 2020, where social media incumbents empowered traders to reach and engage audiences at scale and monetize that reach through ad revenue and grant partnerships. Then last year we wrote about this at top of 2021, we were seeing the birth of the passion economy, where immersion creator economy platforms and services were empowering creators to monetize their fandom directly with things like subscriptions, merch, tipping, you name it.

Andrew Cohen:

And now what we saw in 2021 with the mass adoption and integration of crypto, it allowed creators to drive value beyond merely kind of transacting with their fan communities. And through the implementation of digital scarcity, web3 has enabled creators to monetize and engage their audiences in totally revolutionary new ways. So through limited edition drops and auction models, creators are now able to create and monetize new classes of the super fans, which can be capitalized upon far beyond the price of a single branded hoodie. And in these ecosystems, fans transcend the role of being mere consumers and actually become shareholders and collaborators they're incentives are now completely aligned with those of their favorite creators and their platforms. And the result is what we're calling the ownership economy, which blurs the line between creators and fans into communal ownership. And it reveals a glimpse into a possible future where all platforms are built, operated, funded, and owned by their users who are then rewarded with tokens that are proportional to the value that they're able to create.

Andrew Cohen:

And so the seeds of this ownership economy, we saw begin to sprout in 2021, and we definitely expect them to blossom beyond in 2022. Just a couple stats that really stand out from 2021. First of all, NFT sales in 2021 hit total sales volume of $23 billion, which was up from only $340 million in 2020. So again from $340 million in 2020 to $23 billion in 2021 is pretty incredible. And so as a result, we saw things like the NFT marketplace OpenSea, they recently raised a $300 million Series C for a $13 billion valuation. We saw similar valuations from Dapper Labs and other in the space. This is definitely something that we think is going to continue to emerge and grow in 2022. But as a reminder, we don't believe that this is at odds with the passion economy, see this as kind of a new subset of the passion economy. Definitely think that there's room for the web2 and web3 versions of this to continue to evolve together and not necessarily a zero sum game.

Chris Erwin:

Andrew, I'm just looking at those numbers when you say the sales volume for NFTs from $340 million in '20 to $23 billion in '21 that reminds me when I first started investing in Ethereum and Bitcoin back in 2017. And I just remember the trading volume, I felt like it probably like 10X during that year. And everyone was talking about it, all friends were like, "Are you investing in crypto? Where are you at?" And this year I could say, now the amount of texts that I got from friends and industry peers are saying, what's your status? What's your portfolio in NFT? Looking at these numbers, it explains all that context.

Andrew Cohen:

Very jealous of you, I wish my friends were telling me to invest in crypto in 2017, would be in a lot better place right now.

Chris Erwin:

Well, Andrew on the burgeoning ownership economy, right? So I think what we've established is this is going to be a recurring trend in 2022. And we have some predictions that I'll come out and talk about this. But before we get into those for the year ahead, let's take one last look back at how these trends shaped our priority coverage verticals in 2021. So as a reminder, if you go to our website, wearerockwater.com. You'll see all the different verticals where we specialize. So this includes audio, food, livestreaming, media and commerce, OTT video, and sports, and probably and it's something that we should add will be web3. I have to talk to our website developer about that.

Chris Erwin:

So we are now going to walk through across those main categories. What are the main highlights from last year? And keep in mind. There's a lot here. Our team wrote articles, industry watch lists and podcasts on all these topics. So they're all on our website wearerockwater.com go and check it out. So I think the first key theme, Andrew, is the creator economy and all things at the intersection of media and commerce. What's a highlight that stood out to you?

Andrew Cohen:

To me, when I think back on the creator economy in 2021, I think of the creator war which is yet another wars add to the list. Then we saw these emerging creator economy platforms like Patreon, Substack, how they began to establish market share and raised big money to build out tools and services, to empower and expand creator monetization. And in response, all the incumbents, the Metas, the TikToks of the world, YouTube, they began to replicate those tools in house. So like Facebook launching basically its own version of Cameo and its own Only Fans, as well as billion dollar creator funds that it launched to keep these creators in their ecosystems. I think that was really a defining characteristic of 2021. And now we're kind of beginning to see some of the seams of these creator funds begin to fray at the top of 2022. So very curious how these platforms are going to continue to evolve their models to keep creators happy in 2022.

Chris Erwin:

Yeah. Everyone's talking about that recent Hank Green piece on the TikTok creator fund, but love to save that for a separate podcast. So yeah. Look, I think in a similar vein in livestream shopping, right? So this is a trend we started covering a couple years ago when we saw a hundred billion plus market size out of China. And we're asking ourselves, why haven't these capital flows and investor conversations been happening here in the U.S.? Well, that changed. So all the major incumbents, they enter the race within livestream shopping, we think of YouTube and Meta and TikTok, Twitter, Pinterest. And we even saw some big livestream shopping festivals during the Q4 holiday season from YouTube and Facebook.

Chris Erwin:

But in addition to the incumbents, we also saw the emergent livestream, commerce, native platforms, raising big money to compete with and establish market share against those incumbents. So Whatnot became the first unicorn to emerge in a livestream commerce space at a $1.5 billion valuation. We also saw NTWRK raise a massive Series C and then other investments to Popshop and a bunch of other upstarts that raise rounds as well. So I think we're going to increasingly see capital flows to these upstarts in the new year, but we'll get to more of the details there in our upcoming predictions.

Andrew Cohen:

Absolutely. So moving to audio, what happened in audio in 2020? To me, the biggest defining trend of audio in 2021 was the birth of social audio. If you would've said the word social audio to me, 16 months ago, 18 months ago, I would've had no idea what you're talking about. And just within the first six months of 2021 Clubhouse raised at a $4 billion valuation. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, Spotify, Reddit, Discord, they all invested and launched major social audio initiatives. Twitter acquired Breaker, Spotify acquired Locker Room to support these endeavors and it still has yet to be seen where this trend is going to go.

Andrew Cohen:

Definitely Clubhouse is not what it was at this time last year, but we are seeing a lot of activity on Twitter Spaces. And it seems like the space is very much influx, but led by Facebook, Spotify, a lot of the big platforms are really taking this seriously and continuing to invest in it. So I don't think that we can say that the story of social audio is over quite yet, but it began in 2021 and excited to see where it goes in '22.

Chris Erwin:

Totally agree. In addition into social audio, there's also some major acquisitions across a traditional podcasting space. So we saw SiriusXM, Pandora acquire Triton digital for $230 million and we saw Libsyn acquire AdvertiseCast for $30 million. So the capital's still flowing in the traditional part of the audio space. On top of that, we saw some major talent and IP deals from the top audio platforms that are vying for early stage market share, all with the goal of winning what we describe as the 'audio wars'. So we saw Call Her Daddy the podcast migrated over from the Barstool network, go over to Spotify for a $60 million licensing fee. And then Smartless was licensed by Amazon for an $80 million fee. So yeah, the money is still moving towards these tentpole talent and tentpole IP in audio, which is also what we're seeing in traditional video and OTT video as well. And we'll get to that in a moment.

Andrew Cohen:

So then moving on to sports, definitely 2021 was an exciting year for sports. Two things to me that really stuck out in terms of how to capture what happened in the world of sports business in 2021, I would say one, the explosion of sports betting in the U.S., cannot talk about sports in 2021 without talk about betting. Sports betting revenues doubled in 2021, putting it now at $52 billion and it's only skyrocketing up from there. And as part of a downstream result of this, but also as a result of several other factors like streaming wars cord-cutting, the increasing value of live content, which we've written about before, but the live rights values for sports teams are also continuing to explode. So this past year, the NFL re-upped its live media rights packages bringing in $110 billion over an 11 year deal, which is an 80% increase from its last deal cycle.

Andrew Cohen:

The NFL also re-upped its live rights package, doubling it in total value. And so as a result, we're seeing a ton of private equity capital moving into this space as well, especially in European markets. We're seeing American investors begin to invest in the media entities and live media rights packages for European sports leagues. So most recently we're seeing a bunch of U.S. PE funds bidding on French soccer leagues, media rights packages, which are being valued at about $14 billion right now. So a big reason why the overall sports economy is continuing to skyrocket at the pace that it is, I would say it's because of gambling, but also because of the huge valuation growth that we're seeing in their live media right packages, which is really the biggest revenue driver for all the major leagues.

Chris Erwin:

The numbers coming out of the sports media space, Andrew, which you've really educated me on, have just been so eye-popping over the last year and a half. I just can't believe it and it continues. Something that we covered extensively last year was the rise of creator competitions. So this is often merging traditional and digital native talent together for a tentpole competitive event that is then wrapped in a lot of different content that helps to market it and amplify the fandom. And it really led to some pretty incredible figures. So we saw Logan Paul fight Floyd Mayweather that drove over $50 million in pay-per-view revenue.

Chris Erwin:

We saw House of Highlights drive a hundred million views across their platforms for the first of its two showdown event series. So shout out to Doug Bernstein and Drew Muller, some of our friends over there. And just in December of last year, Triller announced its plans to go public at a $5 billion valuation, which I think is quadruple what it was last valued at. And as a reminder, Triller is one of the platforms that has actually really gotten behind these creator competition series and a lot of them actually go down on their network.

Andrew Cohen:

Bullish on creator competitions, bearish on Triller, save that for another episode.

Chris Erwin:

We'll have to see how that IPO goes. It's been planned, but it has not yet happened. And I think that'll be a good bellwether of the market here.

Andrew Cohen:

So then moving on to OTT video and the streaming wars, so really continue to escalate in 2021. And especially with really a subset of the streaming wars, which we're calling the IP wars, where, because of these huge arms races for user acquisition between all of the highly capitalized streamers, we are seeing tons of investment capital, M&A activity around studios and production companies. And that really kicked up this year. So a couple examples, MGM studios was acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion, which is 27.5X EBITDA. Roald Dahl, story company, so all of the IP by author Roald Dahl was acquired by Netflix for $686 million with a planned billion dollar production spend behind it to put into original content, video games, everything.

Andrew Cohen:

And Candle Media, new venture by Mayer, Staggs and Blackstone made a couple big acquisitions, including Moonbug for three billion and Hello Sunshine for $900 million. So as the streaming wars are picking up, we've said the production companies to studios, they are the bullet makers, they're the arms dealers and they're more valuable than ever before. And that really became true in 2021.

Chris Erwin:

Shout out to Roald Dahl's estates. He is my favorite author. Favorite book is Boy, his autobiography. It was just cool to see that happen. Hopefully Netflix is a good servant of the IP that he's created.

Andrew Cohen:

I'm ready for a Matilda sequel bring back Danny DeVito.

Chris Erwin:

Dude, Danny DeVito all day. And also from New Jersey. Rise of kids screen time. So I think another thing that we saw in OTT video is 2020, there's a big inflection point here where I think kids in 2020 for the first time started watching and consuming more content on digital than they were in linear, that is a big deal. And so as a result of this, we started doing a little bit more work in the kids space. We were hired by a kids audio company and also a kids retailer and toy manufacturer. So we really believe in the space in that there's a lot more headroom here. So a few quick stats, kids screen time increased 50% since March 2020, 70% of kids spent at least four hours per day on screens. That's 10% year over year increase. 85% of kids under 11 spend an average of 85 minutes per day, watching videos on YouTube.

Chris Erwin:

And as a result platforms like Amazon, Spotify and Roku, they're all launching kids focused platforms. Instagram tried to launch a kids’ social network, but ran into some snafus there that might emerge again this year. We also saw YouTube, Netflix, ViacomCBS, Warner, Apple, Disney, all increasing their spends on kids' content. So it led to some things like what you talked about, Andrew, the $3 billion acquisition of Moonbug. And then we also saw Like Nastya a massive kids' YouTube personality that is also on a bunch of other platforms signing a major deal with Will Smith's Westbrook studios to produce a portfolio of animated content together. So yes, again, this is the kids and family screen time and retailer space and area that we get really excited about.

Andrew Cohen:

Absolutely. And so last but not least in food, media and commerce. We've always said that much like the kids and family vertical, food, media, really over-indexes on commerce conversions. And we saw that kick off in 2021 where we've previously seen a ton of activity in the CPG space with things like Complex and their Hot Ones hot sauce. During COVID we saw that continue, Barstool launched their frozen pizza line all across Walmart's nationwide. We also saw it expand into the experiential realm, both digital and IRL. So Ghost Kitchens really came on the scene this year, headed up by MrBeast Burger, which sold a million burgers in its first three months and has expanded rapidly since then. Also seeing companies like VDC, Virtual Dining Concepts, and our friends at Popchew build really exciting companies around turnkey style Ghost Kitchen platforms made for traders, brands, publishers to activate their audience in this kind of virtual restaurant and business model.

Andrew Cohen:

And now that things are moving back into brick and mortar, I wouldn't say post COVID, but now that we're not all locked down in our home, we're also seeing the success that some of these virtual restaurant models have had move back into the real world. Again, Barstool has launched a chain of some bars, sports bars, pizza restaurants. And I think with the success that we saw of tying out food markets globally before COVID, I think we're going to see that come back in 2022 in a big way and have these omnichannel food experiences between Ghost Kitchens, in-person restaurants, as well as more CPG activation. So it's an industry that's continuing to kick up steam in 2021 and [inaudible 00:19:54] that really excites us.

Chris Erwin:

Andrew, so I think we're definitely past our time limit. So just a reminder to our listeners guys, we wrote about all these topics in 2021. So if you go to our website, wearerockwater.com go to the content section and you'll get industry articles, industry watch list, podcast about everything that we just talked through. There's a lot there. And then upcoming Andrew, I think we just started to drop our predictions. I think our first one that's out is How Future IP Investments Will Super-Serve Under-Served Audiences Like the 40% of Non-Whites. So I think our next microcast is going to have to cover that topic as well as some other predictions that we have. I'm just looking at our recording. I think we might be a bit past our 15 minutes, Andrew, but maybe that's the new normal for 2022. We're going to be a little bit long-winded this time.

Andrew Cohen:

New normal. All right. See you next time.

Chris Erwin:

All right. Later.

Welcome to Season 1 of Snubs & Dubs! This season we are covering the 69th Academy Awards, featuring the films of 1996.

On Episode 23, we're talking about Henry Selick's film adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. Featuring stop-motion animation and live action, this inventive adaptation of Roald Dahl's beloved children's tale follows the adventures of James (Paul Terry), an orphaned young British boy. Forced to live with his cruel aunts (Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margolyes), James finds a way out of his bleak existence when he discovers an enormous enchanted peach. After rolling into the sea inside the buoyant fruit, James, accompanied by a crew of friendly talking insects, sets sail for New York City.

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We have hit a milestone. Welcome to our 50th episode. How did we get here so soon?

Find a golden ticket, take a trip to the chocolate factory and hold on to your snozberry. We are joined by past Choose Film Host - Ashley Sutherland to discuss Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (which turned 50 this year)

Synopsis
A sweet boy from a poor family dreams of finding one of five golden tickets hidden inside chocolate bar wrappers which will admit him to the eccentric and reclusive Willy Wonka's magical factory. One after another, tickets are discovered by ghastly children - but will the lad find the last remaining one and have all his dreams come true?

Links In Conversation
https://saynotograndpajoe.com/
https://twitter.com/ashsutherland4

Today in our Disney Detective, we’ll take a look at a 4 year old true gentleman in the magic kingdom, an an extra magical way to skip lines at the parks

In our Tales from the Edge of the Galaxy, Hasbro newest wares are on display plus The Art of Star Wars the Mandalorian Season 2

And for our Entertainment News, Who’s going Around the World in 80 Days plus Netflix buys the chocolate factory and more

And as always we’ll finish up with our Insightful Picks of the week....and some afterthoughts

Patrick and Michael earn their orphan, marriage, and scholarship merit badges this week

Welcome back! In this episode, Brittney and Joshua discuss how to navigate your reading life around problematic authors, offering some helpful tips on mindful reading and countering harmful viewpoints.



This flowchart from the Journal of the American Association of School Libraries online can help navigate books and authors with offensive viewpoints and provide some education as well!

Here are some articles that explain why certain viewpoints from authors and works can be harmful, and how to address that:

The Problem with Problematic YA Authors by Mica Johnson from the Journal of the American Association of School Libraries

How I Learned to Stop Mourning Problematic Authors by Arielle Moscati of Book Riot


Find us at:

Podcast Website: https://swordsstarships.buzzsprout.com
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Email: Starships@coosbaylibrary.org

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Find us at:

Podcast Website: https://swordsstarships.buzzsprout.com
Instagram: Brittney and Joshua (@swordsnstarships) • Instagram photos and videos
Email: Starships@coosbaylibrary.org

Our Library's Facebook Page: Coos Bay Public Library | Facebook
Coos Bay Public Library's Instagram: CoosBayLibrary (@coosbaylibrary) • Instagram photos and videos

We've got the Golden Ticket...and now we're off to the factory to meet Mr. Willy Wonka!  It's been 50 years since the release of the 1971 film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" starring the late great Gene Wilder.  Chris and Taylor discuss the enduring legacy of the film, sweet treat products, Roald Dahl novels, other adaptations and what's to come for the future where childhood fantasy meets pure imagination.

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Diane and Sean discuss the childhood cult-classic of gen x'ers the world over, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Episode music is, "Pure Imagination", by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, performed by Gene Wilder from the OST.

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In this week's episode, Craig and Geoff head back to their season one director, Robert Zemeckis's filmography, as they discuss his re-imagining of the Roald Dahl classic, The Witches. Together they discuss Roald Dahl, the 90's cult classic and the journey to screen of Zemeckis's version and so much more.

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Crackpot Theories is back for a second season with a slightly tweaked format and a whole new collection of silly fan theories!

To kick things off, Sinead and special guest BillieBBillie discuss the possibility of family ties between blood-soaked scapegoat Carrie White and bookworm wunderkind Matilda Wormwood. Do you need to be related to cause psychic havoc at your local school? Let's find out! 

Roald Dahl's The Witches is a 2020 Mexican-American dark fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis, Kenya Barris, and Guillermo del Toro. It is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel, after the 1990 film of the same name directed by Nicolas Roeg. The film stars Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, and Stanley Tucci, and is narrated by Chris Rock.

The Witches is a 1990 dark fantasy comedy film directed by Nicolas Roeg, produced by Jim Henson and starring Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson, and Jasen Fisher in his feature film debut. It is based on the 1983 book of the same name by Roald Dahl. As in the original novel, the story features evil witches who masquerade as ordinary women and kill children, and a boy and his grandmother must find a way to foil their plans.

The film was produced by Jim Henson Productions for Lorimar Film Entertainment as the last theatrical film to be produced by Lorimar before the company shut down in 1993. The film was very well received by critics, but performed poorly at the box office; however, it has retained a cult following over the years.

Thirty years since his death - Roald Dahl's family apologises for the beloved childrens author's antisemitic views. How and why was this done?

As screen and theatre gigs have dried up during the pandemic, Australian actors have been finding new opportunities in podcast audio fiction. Noni Hazlehurst and Yael Stone co-star in Winding Road, an Audible mystery drama set in Queensland.

Finally, BL + BW discuss two teen reboots, Saved By The Bell (2020) and Heartbreak High (2022) and whether they feel hungry and aroused by the trailer for A Recipe for Seduction a sponsored Lifetime 'mini movie' starring Mario Lopez as a sexy Col. Harland Sanders.

Show notes:

Heartbreak High gets a reboot: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-07/heartbreak-high-coming-back-netflix-new-generation-of-teenagers/12956722

Mario Lopez takes on a role as Col. Sanders: https://deadline.com/2020/12/mario-lopez-stirs-up-a-recipe-for-seduction-as-kfcs-colonel-sanders-in-new-lifetime-mini-movie-1234651880/

Roald Dahl's family issues apology for anti-semitic comments: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/roald-dahls-family-posts-quiet-apology-for-antisemitism-ftbx9wj09

Questions about timing of Dahl apology: https://antisemitism.org/roald-dahl-story-company-finally-issues-discreet-apology-for-authors-antisemitism-as-his-estate-signs-lucrative-hollywood-deals/

Yael Stone on a year of growth: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/nov/20/yael-stone-on-a-year-of-growth-i-dont-want-to-be-anybodys-plaything-again

Disasters, Who comes next?, The works of Roald Dahl, New York, New York and General knowledge.  These are the five topics in today’s episode, so get ready for Quizbeard number 40.

Welcome to Quizbeard – I’m going to ask 25 trivia questions, themed over five subject rounds.  You can earn a point for every question you answer correctly and can also play a Black Spot card on any one round, doubling your score on correct answers there.  If you’re going to play your Black Spot, please try to do so before the first question in your chosen round has been asked, so all you have is the round title as a clue.

Everything is explained at the website, which can be found at Quizbeard.com, including an archive of all previous quizzes, links to social media, contact information and the quiz kit, where you can print out blank answer sheets and black spot cards for your own use.

If you’d like to nominate a subject to be covered in the quiz, please get in touch and I’ll give you a mention.  If you’d like to leave a review at Apple Podcasts, that would really help more people to discover and play the quiz, and you can support the podcast further by going to quizbeard.com/support.
​
Again, I'm working on a new weekly show, which will be different because it will feature interaction with a CONTESTANT.  So, if you’d like to be on Quizbeard’s Black Spot Challenge, which will be coming out later in the year, please go to Quizbeard.com/blackspot to see more and apply.

For all Quizbeard links, please visit https://linktr.ee/quizbeard

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“This week on LOCKED IN A VACANCY we’re celebrating a milestone… having hit 25k downloads for the STORIES TELLING STORIES podcast! It may seem like an unusual metric to celebrate, as most social media looks for nice, round numbers to mark as milestones… but 25 is my lucky number and we’re going to make it count. In celebration of the occasion, I’ve got a special guest joining us this episode… She’s an actor, television presenter, content creator, dog mom, and Professional YouTuber with over 140k subscribers and counting. Her content runs the gamut from the weird to the wonderful and I’ve had the absolute pleasure getting to know her over the past few years. From Dublin, Ireland, please welcome “certified lovely human” Diane Jennings!”

Diane and I sit down over the course of an hour for an unscripted chat; asking questions and sharing our personal stories about acting, content creation, comparing and contrasting our different processes and methods, the struggles we’ve faced as fairly introverted people during lockdown and our pandemic experiences as a whole. This episode captures just a small fraction of our conversation which may be released down the road as a Patron-exclusive reward.

And after our chat, Diane and I act out a dramatic reading of THE LANDLADY by Roald Dahl.

I’d like to give a massive shout-out to the following people for supporting STORIES TELLING STORIES on Patreon…

Jim Ross
Holly
Tamara
Tom
Maddy

Thank you so much for your support! If you’d like to help support the show and hear your name listed before future episodes, head on over to Patreon.com/StoriesTellingStories

I Don't See the Branches, I See the Leaves by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/dtv/

Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/

It's our first episode! This week, Alyssa and Logan kick things off by talking about not one, but TWO spooky movies: The Witches (2020) directed by Robert Zemeckis and The Witches (1990) directed by Nicolas Roeg. Both of these films do some interesting things in terms of marketing and advertising, and we discuss what we think the films did well and maybe not so well. We also give some our own ideas, including but not limited to fake street mice and iconic British Boy quotes.

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Art by Jacob Wall. Check out his work on Instagram @JacobArtWall

Music by Logan McElroy. Check out more on Soundcloud.

Benjamin and Kaelan review The Witches, directed by Robert Zemeckis, and starring Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, and Stanley Tucci.  The review is SPOILER-FREE with a spoiler section after.