The Parentacons

It's a question parents might ask their kids, "just because you can, does that mean you should?" That's right, we're getting inside the mind of Dr. Ian Malcolm and his dino hunting pals in this installment of our series on Fatherhood in Geek Media. Who's the best parent in Jurassic Park? How do you feel about freaking kids out by grabbing an electric fence that you know is turned off? Or the grandfather who brings his grandchildren to an island sized genetic experiment before the insurance company signs off? There are so many questions to ask here, and we had a blast taking a new look at one of our favorite movies as geeks and as dads.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

We've said before that Derrick is a scientist, and it's true! Every year, as part of his job, Derrick travels to Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, where he spends a week thinking about ways innovation and development in consumer electronics can be leveraged in the aerospace industry. For The Parentacons that means we get to release an annual show pestering Derrick with all of our social media driven questions. Did he see the robot dog? What about cool VR experiences? Anything mind–blowing in the parent space? What about lawn care! Sit back and enjoy a half hour of Ian, Jay, and Nate tossing out questions and doing their best Owen Wilson's at the answer. A 43 inch curved OLED monitor that's 4K at 120Hz? Woooowwwwww!!!!!!We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

It's pizza night at The Parentacons! Every Friday night–like parents all across the United States–Ian, Derrick, and Jay sit down to share a pizza with their families. Whether your pie is delivered from that special place, baked on a pizza steel to aid energy transfer, or crisped to perfection in your brand new Ooni, everyone has a preference and opinion on what goes into the perfect pie. This week, we sit down with our new friend Eidref, host of the What's Good Dough podcast, to see what's he's learned after dozens of interviews with the pizza pro and experts he hosts on his podcast. Eidref also happens to be, by now, a new dad. Congratulations, Eidref! When we sat down with him, he was eagerly anticipating the birth of his first child, who was born a week after our recording. He was kind enough to share his hopes, pizza dreams, and trepidations headed into fatherhood, including his plan to nail his first official baby pickup.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

It's time for the second installment in our annual recap of everything life, Star Wars, the wider geek universe had to offer us in 2022. Nate joins for this special edition, where we share our top picks for 2022, biggest disappointments (somehow DC made both those lists!). As you wind down your 2022, we'd love to hear what you thought of this year! Feel free to drop us a line with your favorite thing of 2022, what most disappointed you this year (unless it was us...hehe), and something special you're thinking back on as the year wraps up. See you in 2023, when we'll kick off the year, literally, ninja style, with another installment in our Fatherhood in Geek Media series, this time covering the OG 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's gonna be shell-tacular.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Family, no matter what kind, is truly the best gift of all. This year, as our holiday gift to you, The Parentacons are reviewing Disney's recent Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which was more of a Christmas special, but more on that later. This episode, as part of our Fatherhood in Geek Media series The Parentacons break down Drax and Mantis's quest to bring home the ultimate gift for their fearless leader—StarLord, aka Peter Quill. And, if you haven't seen the special yet...spoiler alert! That gift is Kevin Bacon, who turns out to be one heck of a guitar player.Strap in, sit back, and grab your little man...I mean some candy canes...it's holiday time on The Parentacons.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

It's like this. The X-Wing fighter piloted by your kid was making its final approach to the Death Star, but took an unfortunate hit from the turbolaser on the coffee table. Better grab some glue, some paint, and maybe a little epoxy, cause that X-Wing needs some serious maintenance.Whether you're saving a toy from the trash, building a new geek cave, or just trying to the vacuum to, well, vacuum DIY is a necessary skill for every parent's tool bag. In this. episode, Derrick, Ian, and Jay share their own experiences with doing it themselves, including how to get started, how to tell when you're over your head, and which projects are honestly best left to the professionals.Grab your toolbelt, put some extra batteries on charge, and turn off the power...it's time to get busy on this episode of The Parentacons!We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Let's be honest. Detective Comics...the franchise that gave us Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin, The Green Lantern, The Flash...is a mess. Whether it's numerous cinematic universes that don't connect, too many recasts of key characters, the cancellation of release ready movies, and a willingness to discard once-in-a-generation casting opportunities; DC Comics is a dumpster fire.So The Parentacons thought we'd weigh in, as experts, with our thoughts on how to right the BatBoat, and take the Invisible Jet off autopilot. Of course, since then, DC has hired the amazing James Gunn to do this. So Jimmy, if you're looking for three expert geek consultants with a combined century's worth of wisdom, we've got you covered. For everyone else, we hope you enjoy.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

This week, we called in an expert. Nate is always saying we need more Star Trek on the podcast, so as part our Fatherhood in Geek Media series, Ian, Derrick, and Nate sat down with Jeff Akin, host of Starfleet Leadership Academy, an award-winning leadership development podcast told through the lens of Star Trek. Jeff's spent over 20 years as an executive business coach, helping high performing leaders be better. Jeff also happens to be a parent, and he's got a unique view of the crossover between executive leaderships skills and parenting skills. So, looking through his parenting visor, Jeff offers positive and not-so-positive examples of fatherhood in Star Trek from across the canon including Picard, Sisko, and Janeway.Beam me up Scotty, make it so #1, and let's fly.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Communication is hard, but talking with your spouse? That can be even harder. Especially if your kids are watching. No one enjoys fighting, but conflict is part of life, and role modeling healthy conflict followed by meaningful resolution is a critically important part of parenthood. Of course, it’s way harder in practice. In this episode Derrick, Ian, and Jay discuss their own marriages, how they communicate with their spouses, strategies for building stronger relationships, and why professional help can be such an important part of that journey.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

What's not to love about a brotherly quest to  find a little bit of magic in the world, and bring their father back to life for 24 hours. Along the way they bond, and connect with one another in ways they never imagined. Plus, they have a super cool van! Onward was slated to be Pixar's next big hit, but then the pandemic struck, and its themes became more relevant than ever. As part of our Fatherhood in Geek Media series, The Parentacons rewatched Pixar's Onward, and spent some time reflecting on the feelings and emotions this movie brought up—about fatherhood, death, passing on traditions, and always looking out for magic, even in suburbia.Have a movie or show you think if chock full of parenting motifs? We'd love to hear about it! Send us an email or visit www.parentacons.com.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Every family has its fall traditions. Some go apple picking, some pumpkin patching, and others take a long drive or hike for some good ole fashioned leaf peeping. There's another fall tradition, though, tucked away in a wooded fantasy realm, where kings and queens reign, knights joust, mead flows, and blacksmiths...well...blacksmith? Forge! Blacksmiths forge. Nailed it. :)The Parentacons are huge fans of Renaissance Faires, and happen to know the fine folks running one of the best out there—The Midsummer Renaissance Faire in Ansonia, CT. Ian and Jay at down with Bella Greenwolf, Daniel Greenwolf, and Ken Briodagh to get their take on why a trip to the Renaissance Faire is an ideal family outing. We also get their take on Amazon Prime's Rings of Power, which wasn't out at the time of this recording, and has totally wrapped up its first season before this episode was released. How'd our guests do on their predictions? Eerily prescient.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

You might not know this, but 3 out 4 Parentacons, is an avid gardener. Sometimes, you just have to get your hands dirty! The Parentacons have dug into hobbies before, but this time we’re getting specific, talking about our love for planting, tending, and harvesting plants in our gardens and on our decks. Jay shares his strategy for keeping those tiny critters away, Derrick talks about gardening with his son, and Ian gives his wife (the science teacher) all the credit for teaching him how to water “sad looking plants” without accidentally killing them!Gardening is a great way to engage your kids with healthy eating habits, teach them where their food comes from, and set them on a lifelong path of good nutrition, and healthy relationships with food. Into this type of content? Check out our Hobbies episode!We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Sometimes the long play, is the best play. When we sat down to plan Season 2 of The Parentacons, Ian said, "we have to talk about The Phantom Menace." Turns out, he was right! Time has been well to this classic movie. It gave a new generation of fans a chance to see NEW Star Wars in the theaters. It allowed John Williams to compose Duel of the Fates. And, honestly, it helped push cinema forward, dramatically. (Darth?) Jar Jar made Gollum better...there, we said it. We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Previously on the Parentacons…Our intrepid heroes, Derrick, Ian, and Jay traveled near and far across the galaxies, bringing you all the best in geek culture and dad life.But what does Season Two possibly have in store?  We’re ready to fall in love again with the Phantom Menace, talk about doing our own projects, interview some really great guests about their lives, and so much more….Season 2 premieres October 26th so keep up with our social media at the Parentacons on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

The Parentacons are hard at work gearing up for the release of Season 2 on October 26, 2022. In the run up to release day, we decided to share some of our favorite episodes from Season 1. Some are from when we first started out (and sound like it!). Others are more recent. We're super proud of every single one of these episodes, and we know you will be too!In this episode, the Parentacons talk about their experiences dealing with deaths in the family, how they’ve experienced it, and how each of them approached the topic with their kids.  You’ll get a look into one of the most challenging aspects of parenting. It’s something that every parent will eventually have to do… but no one is ever prepared to do it no matter how old, or experienced we are with it.  All the experts in the world could give you their opinions.  You could study and read up on it.  Yet, when faced with it, you might freeze, or say something that confuses you… and your kids even more. Let's be honest. I's hard to talk with your kids about death. We’ve included some resources to provide context for the discussion:Be Honest and Concrete (NPR)How to Talk to Children About Death (Fatherly)We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

The Parentacons are hard at work gearing up for the release of Season 2 on October 26, 2022. In the run up to release day, we decided to share some of our favorite episodes from Season 1. Some are from when we first started out (and sound like it!). Others are more recent. We're super proud of every single one of these episodes, and we know you will be too!Bonus! Amanda & Bill's latest game, Romancelvania, will be released soon. Check it out on all the major consoles!-----You've seen him on the screen, and at Comic-Con, and soon in a new Netflix series...but still you wonder, who is the face of Jack in BioShock?Jay and Ian recently sat down with Amanda and Bill Gardner, who write and code original video games as The Deep End Games. Together, they're the team behind Perception, and the recently released Romancelvania, which pushes the boundaries of conventional RPGs while paying tribute to a classic genre.Bill also happens to be an industry veteran, and was the lead level designer behind BioShock, which is one of Ian's all time favorite games, and which Jay never finished. Ian took full advantage, asking all the level design questions he, and you, always wanted to know. Of course, with three kids in the house, Bill and Amanda's lives are about more than just great writing and level design. They share insight into what it takes to balance their lives, how they navigate what content to share with their kids and when, and what their eldest son really thinks about the award winning, genre defining, once in a generation video game his dad helped make.If you're a regular listener, then you already know, The Parentacons take video games seriously. We recently released the first two installments of a trilogy on "Why Video Games Matter," including a conversation about the retro arcade gaming of our youths, and one about the console wars that have transformed the gaming landscape. And because we're dads, and we don't get it right all the time, we had to go back and add a little bit of extra content for all the parents out there with our bonus release, Console Wars – The Parenting Angle.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

The Parentacons are hard at work gearing up for the release of Season 2 on October 26, 2022. In the run up to release day, we decided to share some of our favorite episodes from Season 1. Some are from when we first started out (and sound like it!). Others are more recent. We're super proud of every single one of these episodes, and we know you will be too!-----The journey to fatherhood can be all too short, long and difficult, or anything in between. We're three dads, and each of us had our own journey to fatherhood, with our own ups and downs along the way. That's without even getting into our partners' journeys, as we're all blessed to have loving and supportive parenting partners in our wives.For this episode we open up about our personal journeys to fatherhood, each of us sharing our story in case it's helpful, meaningful, or otherwise valuable to you.Fatherhood also changes how you look at the geek world, even some of your favorite geek content. For the Roundtable this episode, we each picked one piece of content that we've always loved, but which we look at differently now that we're the Homer...I mean not the Bart...I mean the responsible parent. We're all responsible parents. :) Still reading? Good! Now go listen.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

The Parentacons are hard at work gearing up for the release of Season 2 on October 26, 2022. In the run up to release day, we decided to share some of our favorite episodes from Season 1. Some are from when we first started out (and sound like it!). Others are more recent. We're super proud of every single one of these episodes, and we know you will be too!-----In this episode of The Parentacons Ian, Jason, and Derrick share the stories of how they first met. They'll also discuss how the geek culture which first brought The Parentacons together, how that culture has changed over time, and how those changes impact their kids' experience of geek culture. Along the way they'll share the toys, games, and content they're consuming with their own families, and give you their take on the latest developments from every dimension of the geek multiverse. This IS the podcast you've been looking for.We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

The Parentacons are hard at work gearing up for the release of Season 2 on October 26, 2022. In the run up to release day, we decided to share some of our favorite episodes from Season 1. Some are from when we first started out (and sound like it!). Others are more recent. We're super proud of every single one of these episodes, and we know you will be too!-----What's your happy thought? Is it the first time you heard your child's voice? The first time they squeezed your finger? Or that time your team won the Super Bowl and you DID NOT spike the baby, because you're an awesome father who would never do that? It's second star from the right and straight on the Neverland this week, as we dive deeper than a mermaid into Steven Spielberg's masterpiece — Hook.More than a Peter Pan movie, more than a fairy tale sequel, Hook is star-studded, crazy well written, and that costuming! But what about the fatherhood angles? Hook, after all, is a movie about childhood, and having fun, but balancing that fun with responsibility. You can go too far either way, as Jack, Maggie, and Pan the Man teach us. We couldn't sign off before sharing our favorite Robin Williams moments, with so much respect to the genius human who we lost too soon. Be sure to stick around until the end of the episode to hear our favorite Robin Williams movies...and see if Good Will Hunting made the list for four guy from Bah-ston!We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com

Did you hear about Kevin Feige's recent off-site? The one where he theoretically mapped out the next 10-15 years of the MCU? Wait...you weren't invited??? Well neither were we...so we decided to hold our own off-site, and do our best to set the rumor mill a milling with our hopes, dreams, and nightmares about the future of this amazing franchise. We are The Parentacons. Three dads, all BIG geeks, sharing stories from our lives as parents, as geeks, and our eternal quest to bridge the two worlds. Join our Fellowship and follow along anywhere you get your podcasts, and check out all of our content on our website. www.parentacons.com.Thanks for listening, we love you 3,000!Contact: dadbot@parentacons.com