Blerd On The Street

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised* In this episode, the Blerds discuss the horror (and by extension, suspense and psychological thriller) genre. We ask each other: What was the last horror, psychological thriller, or suspense show (or movie, etc) we watched? How do we feel about the genre? What recent additions that have more diverse characters and storylines do we like, and how do we see them enriching Black people taking up space in horror? IMPORTANT EDITOR CORRECTION: A movie cited as Day of the Dead is mentioned in the first part of the episode, which should be Night of the Living Dead (specifically the 1990 remake) CW: Though both movies are older, we spoil the endings/twists of Night of the Living Dead, and Deep Blue Sea during the discussion that takes place around time tags from 8:15-10:45. Also mentioned in this episode: Get Out (briefly, important plot development) The Purge (briefly) Stranger Things (briefly) The Forest Demands its Due by Kosoko Jackson (Book/YA) Goosebumps (TV series/Hulu) Fright Krewe (TV series/Hulu) We Don't Swim Here by Vincent Tirado (Book/YA)

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* CW: Brief mentions of Ezra Miller and Armie Hammer The Blerds bring complaints to the jury, and rule on each other's cases. Mentioned in the episode: DC, Marvel, and Star Wars franchises Banned Book Week 1899 (Netflix series) Poirot Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised* As Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever is now available for streaming on the Disney+ platform, the Blerds take another look at the movie and expand more on their praise and criticism. CW: France as a colonizing country and their anger at their depiction in the movie (skip first 10 min if this is a sensitive subject for you)

**Listener Discretion Is Always Advised** The Blerds- Jillian, Lillie, and Jenna- talk about the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and what's in store for Black History Month. At the end, we make some TBE (to be experienced) recommendations.

For today's episode, Lillie, Jenna, and Jillian are joined by JHawk from The Blerd Bar for our annual Blerdsgiving podcast. This year we're serving up hot takes (that might be lukewarm, but we'll let y'all be the judge).  Please be sure to support our guests by listening and subscribing to The Blerd Bar podcast here. You can also find them on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. The Blerd Bar, serving you content, cocktails, and culture.

For this episode, Jillian sits down with Cool Colas to discuss the recent controversy following an IGN article interviewing the head developers for Final Fantasy 16. We also get into the importance of representation and what we can do as black creatives to get our stories out there. Cool Colas also known as the Pro-black Blerd King is an author, comic and board game creator and black media analyst. He is a native of Oak Park, Michigan and stands for creating a brand that empowers blacks in the entertainment media realm. He is the owner of Cool Colas LLC, has written one book called Rem Realm:Curse of a Billionaire thus far and establishes himself as an enthusiast of comics, games and other relevant forms of blerd culture.  Please be sure to check out his podcast, The Pro-Black Blerd Kingdom Podcast and visit his website. You can also follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. As always, thanks for listening and we'll be back soon with another episode.

Jillian sits down with Spencer Waddell (aka Simply Samurai on Instagram) to talk about his journey as a professional swordsman.  Spencer has been studying martial arts since he was 8 years old. He discovered Historical European Martial Arts in 2005 while stationed in Germany and his current focus is full-contact armored steel fighting or “buhurt” as it’s known in Europe. He is the 2022 USA Historical Medieval Battle Men’s Longsword Champion. Spencer currently serves as a council member for the Historical African Martial Arts Association. He is also one of the founding members of the Wandering Sword Project, a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to the education of swords and general weaponry as well as martial cultures from around the world. Be sure to follow Spencer on his Instagram @simply_samurai. To learn more about the Wandering Sword Project, follow their Instagram @the_wandering_sword and support them on Patreon! Also show some love to Spencer's sponsor: @american_buhurt. 

For today's episode, we are joined by Walter Johnson of the Blerd Point of View blog (https://www.blerdpointofview.com/) to discuss the greatly anticipated follow-up to Marvel's Black Panther, Wakanda Forever.  We do a shot-by-shot breakdown of the latest trailer and diver deeper into what it means to see ourselves on screen.  We hope you enjoy and please be sure to give Walter some love on his blog or on Instagram (@blerdpov2.0)!

Welcome back to Blerd on the Street! For our first episode of season 3, we sit down for a chat with author Gabrielle Prendergast. If you're on TikTok, you may have seen her Young Adult novel, Zero Repeat Forever, blow up among book lovers. We discuss that and her other books, how she got started writing and what the heck is up with her publisher (we want the last book!!!!) We hope you enjoy. You can find Gabrielle on Instagram and Tiktok at gsprendergast and be sure to pick up a copy of her books! If you like us, follow us and give us a rating or review on Apple or Spotify. We’ll be back with another episode soon.

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* Blerds Jillian and Lillie sit down with bookstagrammer Emani, AKA GoldenBookHunter. Find Emani at: GoldenBookHunter on Instagram and TikTok, and GoldenBookMuse on Etsy. **Correction: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé was identified as a YA paranormal, but it is a YA thriller.**

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised* The Blerds discuss the YA novel, The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould. General spoilers for the book, including the author's CWs at the top of the review.  No major content spoilers for the mystery or the ending. Mentioned in the episode TV series:  The Haunting of Bly Manor Riverdale Veronica Mars SurrealEstate Books: White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson Blackout (anthology) Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, body, and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters The Dominion of Leviathan by Manish Melwani: https://www.tor.com/2022/04/13/the-dominion-of-leviathan-manish-melwani/

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* Jenna, Jillian, and Lillie discuss Welcome To South Africa, the first episode of Netflix's: Young, Famous and African..  Spoilers throughout for events that happen in the episode. A note to our listeners: The audio in this episode has a few issues. the main one being a near constant, soft, staticky or clicking noise. There is also some background noise from all of us, that usually isn't heard or gets filtered out. While we hope you listen and enjoy the episode, we also recognise that these noises may trigger certain types of misopohonia. Please keep this in mind, and if you have to skip this episode, we hope you'll return for our next one. Thanks, From The Blerds

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* The Blerds take on the first episode of The Courtship, the new NBC/Peacock show about dating, regency-style. There are spoilers for the events that take place, as well as for the men that are eliminated. Mentioned In The Episode: The 1619 Project (book) The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (graphic novel) Boom Studios The Love Con (book) Blood Scion (audiobook) Okoye To The People (audiobook) Bahni Turpin (voice actress)

*Listener Discretion Is Always Advised* Mentioned In This Episode: Scholastic Book Fair Star Finder! by DK Publishing What Makes A Hero by Pamela Bobowicz, Eda Kaban (Illustrator) My Superhero Is Black by John Jennings and Angelique Roche (roe-SHAY) Amalgam Comics and Coffeehouse MCU:  Moon Knight Spiderman: No Way Home CW/Spoiler: Spiderman: Homecoming Spiderman: Far From Home

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* It's Black History Month, so there's lots of white people doing us dirty in the news, and the Blerds use this episode to mostly discuss headlines. CW: Mention of the KKK Discussion of sentencing trial for Daunte Wright's killer

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* Blerds Jenna and Jillian soldier on without Lillie, mostly talking about the Plight of the Single Black Woman Recommended in the episode: Miss Rochester's Ghost (book) The Castle School for Girls (book) The Poster House (museum in NYC)

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* The Blerds make their feelings clear on the Spotify controversy. (Transcript below) Jillian: Hello listeners. Jenna, Lillie, and I would like to take a moment to address some concerns about Spotify that have been in the news lately. If you’ve ever gone to our landing page, you’ll have noticed that Blerd On The Street is hosted by Anchor, which is a Spotify company. We want to make it clear that we do not condone or support ANY of the statements that Joe Rogan has spread on his show, nor do we altogether think that Spotify has satisfactorily explained their non-actions in the past, toward these inflammatory and, quite frankly, dangerous and racist viewpoints. Jenna: However, at this time, we are going to continue hosting Blerd On The Street at Anchor. We started our podcast in June of 2021, and have been working to grow our listenership. But, we do not have ad revenue, sponsors, or patrons, so every penny that needs to be spent to produce a quality podcast comes out of our pockets. The tools that Anchor provides for producing and editing Blerd On The Street are essential to us airing the type of episodes you have become accustomed to hearing. Lillie: Do we wish we could immediately find an alternative to Anchor? Yes! It would be nice if there were more free all-in-one platforms that were specifically geared toward marginalised podcasters, and beginner producers and editors. I’ve looked. I do the majority of the editing and production, and I love it! But, it’s work, and Anchor has the tools to mitigate that work, as I learn. Listeners, we absolutely support any choices you make about your personal relationship with Spotify and its companies. You can continue to support Blerd On The Street by choosing any other of the podcatchers that we are available on like Stitcher, Apple, Google, Pocketcast, and others. Jenna: Thank you all, Street Team.

*Listener discretion is always advised* We're finally finishing our analysis of the Disney+ Marvel show, Loki. Spoilers included. CW: mention of musophobia, trypophobia, skeletonized remains Mentioned in this episode: Mutter Museum Disney's Encanto Marvel's Eternals Deaf Performers: bluejay19xx, itscharmay Queer ASL Language Program

*Listener Discretion Always Advised* The Blerds are back from a little rest and holidaying! We start off talking about some media we consumed, and offer a few recommendations, then move onto reactions and discussion about some recent headlines. Finally, we close with Jillian presenting some of the funnier profile answers she sees on her dating app. Mentioned in the episode: Acorn TVs The Long Call and Vera Netflix's Arcane: League of Legends and Misha and the Wolves D&D 5E Actual Play: Death2Divinity BookishHeaux on Etsy Writual Tarot Journal

Friendsmas Celebration! Jillian and Lillie introduce Jenna to the old claymation classic, The Year Without A Santa Claus, just to get her reaction.  *Listener Discretion Always Advised*