We look back on the things we most enjoyed in 2025, covering films, games, books and whatever else strikes our fancy.
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Episode 63 – 2025 Year in Review
Episode 62 – 20,000 Lists
Over 20 years have passed since I first read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (1869-1870), so I roped in Cory and Marie for a re-read. We find 20,000 problems with the science and struggle through 20,000 lists of underwater species, but they never obstruct the fun. Additionally, Marie “does a Zork.”
Episode 61 – Imaginary Prisons
We wander through a vast mansion full of looming statues in Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (2020).
Episode 60 – Avian Attire
We try to get the jump on Canada Reads by discussing Bird Suit by Sydney Hegele (2024), the first pick for our 2025 book club. This southern Ontario gothic novel tells a story of generational trauma in a tourist town that also happens to have some bird-people living nearby. Opinions are decidedly mixed. We talk through our impressions of the book, and answer the important question: “How Canada?”
Episode 59 – Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way!
We decide to finally discuss something J.R.R. Tolkien-related on our podcast, but in the stupidest way possible: by comparing the 2024 animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim to 1980’s The Return of the King. This episode has been a long time coming, but as the orcs might say, where there’s a whip, there’s a way!
Episode 58 – 2024 Year in Review
As the end of 2024 draws ever closer, we reflect on our favourite arts and culture from the past year.
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Some things we mentioned
Episode 57 – Martian Madrigals
Our 2024 book club concludes with Roger Zelazny’s 1963 novelette “A Rose for Ecclesiastes”, wherein a poet goes to Mars and discovers he’s not very good at describing dances.
Episode 56 – That Was Just Cloud Talk, Man
We have only good things to say about The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed (2021), though that doesn’t extend to the term “hopepunk” used in the marketing copy. Is this post-apocalyptic novella set in Alberta the best specifically Canadian piece of science fiction out there? We make the case that it is.
Episode 55 – Slay, Queen
90s fantasy is back, baby! We discuss The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019).
Episode 54 – Fungus Among Us
Will we survive the fungal infestation that lurks beneath Toronto in The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan (2023)?
This horror/near-future science fiction/fantasy novel is packed with ideas and has plenty of relevant criticism of the direction Canada is heading, but doesn’t bring things together in a satisfactory way for the three of us. We talk about what we liked about the book, and the many (many) things that we didn’t.
One Last Sketch 
