Each week, Mandy Kaplan is introduced to some form of nerdery way outside her comfort zone. Welcome to a full-blown sci-fi/D&D/Ren Fair-loving quest to expand her horizons and recruit her to nerd-dom.

From Basement Nerds to Amazon Prime: The Improbable (and Inevitable) Rise of Vox Machina with Hem Brewster

Mandy finally meets the world where improv, fantasy, and a Goliath with a ginormous hidden heart collide — and it turns out The Legend of Vox Machina was designed exactly for people who need a good fart joke before they’ll commit to an eight-hour campaign. Hem Brewster, lead producer at Blighthouse Studio and D&D lifer, joins from Iceland to explain how a group of voice actors playing in someone’s basement became one of the most successful Kickstarters in history — and why none of that required knowing a single rule.

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Recently on Make Me A Nerd

From Basement Nerds to Amazon Prime: The Improbable (and Inevitable) Rise of Vox Machina with Hem Brewster

Mandy finally meets the world where improv, fantasy, and a Goliath with a ginormous hidden heart collide — and it turns out The Legend of Vox Machina was designed exactly for people who need a good fart joke before they’ll commit to an eight-hour campaign. Hem Brewster, lead producer at Blighthouse Studio and D&D lifer, joins from Iceland to explain how a group of voice actors playing in someone’s basement became one of the most successful Kickstarters in history — and why none of that required knowing a single rule.

Listen Now »

Nate McWhortor Makes Mandy a Future Folk Fan

A 2012 micro-budget alien bluegrass musical starring the lead singer of Twisted Sister somehow became one of the most charming films you’ve never seen. Mandy watched it skeptical, played a drinking game through it, and came out the other side recommending it far and wide.

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It’s Manga Madness with Helen McCarthy!

Manga is one of the biggest storytelling mediums on the planet, and Mandy has been successfully avoiding it her whole life — until now. World-renowned expert Helen McCarthy hands her three wildly different titles, explains why a pirate cartoon is secretly a manual for surviving childhood, and makes a convincing case that the comics your mom threw out were probably worth something.

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