by Logan Drake

Just as there are many, many kinds of television shows, there are many kinds of podcasts. Some tell original, fictional stories through audio. Some are simply a group of friends sitting around and talking. Some tell the news, some discuss the news. Some discuss philosophy, others politics, television, movies, music or science. Some do original reporting, and some are essentially audio documentaries. 

Some release weekly, some daily, some monthly. The world of podcasts is incredibly diverse. So far though, all (or all easily available podcasts at least) are free to listen to. Yay.  

Above you can see Apple's podcast app which offers too options once you've subscribed to a podcast: "Unplayed" and "Feed." Unplayed shows you the episodes that have been released since you subscribed, and feed shows you that podcast's entire catalog of episodes. 

When do people listen to podcasts? Many like to listen while walking or running. Personally I love listening while walking but can't focus well enough when I'm running. It's also very popular to listen while cleaning up around the house or doing chores. If you have a way to connect your phone to your car's stereo system (with an aux cord or bluetooth), it's also great to listen while driving. Then it becomes just like radio, but customized to your taste and completely in your control! And of course you can always just sit (or lay) back and listen for a relaxing time. My dad, for example, likes to listen to podcasts right before bed. 

I know this might all sound a bit complicated, but trust me, it becomes very simple once you get started, and it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. Before you know it, listening to podcasts will be a natural part of your week, something you enjoy and do without effort. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask in the comments below and I will get back to you. 

If you're still feeling lost, or want more help picking out what to listen to, I've put together a massive list of all the podcasts I listen to (thirty podcasts and counting). The list breaks down by category and also includes a short description of each podcast to explain what it's about, how long it is, and how often episodes come out. You can check out that list here.

And as always, if you have your own podcast recommendations, be sure to share them in the comments. 

by Wyatt Smith

Disclaimer: this article will contain spoilers and analysis from the first season as well as the first 4 episodes of season 2 of Bloodline. Also, this review of bloodline will be a three part series in which I review the first four episodes in this piece, followed by two more pieces reviewing three episodes each. Enjoy!

Season 1 of Bloodline began with shots of each of the members of the Rayburn clan living their own individually successful lives, then coming together on a beautiful weekend at the Inn. The final scene of season 1 is John holding his brother's head under water screaming "When's it going to end?!" The juxtaposition of the opening and closing scenes parallels the juxtaposition of the Rayburn family's public image and their true nature. While the family consists of good-natured people, trouble can't escape their lives and handling it in a responsible manner is far from their strength.

Most shows revolve around issues regarding the characters in the show and how the issue is resolved and in what way. Once the issue is resolved it's usually put to rest and other problems appear to keep the viewer entertained. The first four episodes of season 2 in Bloodline take a much different approach. 

Episode 1 acts as a bridge episode from season 1 to season 2, reminding the viewer of each character's situation. But it also serves as a glimpse into the post-traumatic stress that Kevin, Meg, and John face following the cover-up of Danny's legal troubles and death. All three continue to lie to their families, and all three of them fail to sustain their normal lives due to the guilt and fear their actions have caused. Kevin's boatyard is falling apart and his business is going under, along with his restraint for drug abuse. Meg isn't handling the stress of Danny's death coupled with her new career in New York, and is ultimately fired in the fourth episode. And John is knee-deep in potential trouble and has to deal with it every day at work as the investigation into Danny's death and the drug ring that Wayne Lowry runs is starting to unfold. On top of all this, Danny's unknown child turns up and his intentions are unclear to the family. 
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While most television shows resolve an issue and move on, Bloodline has devoted four hours to the mental and emotional fatigue that the Rayburn family deals with following Danny's death. While John takes on the role of keeping everything together and assuring everyone that everything will be okay, he's clearly suffering from a mental breakdown of his own due to stress. He regularly has vivid hallucinations in which Danny plays his conscious and the two speak aloud to each other, and in the fourth episode he envisions his family dreading a prison visit to see himself in the future. Kevin decides to start dealing cocaine and becomes caught up in a violent situation when his clients mistake him for an undercover cop. Episodes 1 through 3 feel like a whirlwind of despair as each character continues to crumble under the pressure. The constant stress and fear that these three struggle with is so clearly toxic and seems to wedge its way into every scene in an unsettling way. It's very interesting to see how a series of poor decisions in the first season lead to a situation that the Rayburn family seemingly can't fix in the second season. 

If the previous three episodes are an arc of desperation and regret, episode four is the peak. Wayne Lowry has a hold on John because he owns a tape that Danny recorded revealing what illegal steps John took to protect his brother before he died. Since John is running for Sheriff, he acts as Lowry's puppet and feeds him inside information. This is when John's hallucinations start becoming frequent, as he tampers with evidence and helps Lowry traffic humans and drugs into the Keys. Kevin, who Meg bails out of jail, faces a DUI and possession charge and doesn't know who to turn to following his breakdown. And Meg gets fired from her job in New York for failing to return in time for a client meeting and failing to alert her firm, along with her previous poor decisions.

But back to John. This episode serves as a cross roads for his character and judgement. As he talks to Danny (his conscious), he faces the dilemma of following in Danny's footsteps as the "bad boy" in order to protect his image or double crossing Lowry and facing the consequences. The last 15 minutes of the episode are riveting, and John's inner conversation alternates with Lowry's trafficking operation occurring at the same time. As the operation proceeds, it appears that John has decided to lie to his fellow detectives and protect himself, but at the last moment Lowry's people are apprehended by the police. John gets called down to Lowry's bait shop to help with the arrest, and as he arrives Lowry is found dead. I, along with John, let out a huge sigh of relief to see that the situation has come to an end and anyone who had any knowledge of John's illegal activities is terminated.

Numerous times throughout the first four episodes a situation escalated to its peak and then fizzled out. It seems as though this will become a recurring theme as important characters face their demons and sit on their hands rather than clear their conscious. I also think that the theme of deception and the destruction and chaos it can cause will remain prevalent. Whether or not John ends up confessing to some or all of his crimes, the trouble surrounding Danny's murder won't go away and my guess is that Marco will stumble onto something and pursue it to John's displeasure. The Bloodline writing is great and the acting is even better, so whatever is in store for the next three episodes will be reviewed again by yours truly in the coming days. ​

By Logan Drake

One of the most brilliant things about Game of Thrones (the HBO series and the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire) is that we, the watchers and/or readers, still don't know, with any real confidence, what the story of Game of Thrones is. 

Is it the story about the fall and possible rise of the Starks? Is it the story of the return of a once great and powerful family (the Targaryens)? Is it a story centered on the Lannisters? Is it the story of a continent thrown into violence and chaos by the death of a king? Does Dorne somehow play the central role? 

Game of Thrones certainly contains these stories, but it seems clear to me, based on the evidence so far provided in both the books and the series, that when everything is said and done, answering the question "what is Game of Thrones about?" with anything about a specific family or talk of who could end up on some pointy throne will feel like an incredible simplification, if not outright inaccurate. 

While I don't yet have an argument for exactly what the Game of Thrones endgame is going to look like, two points make it seem that it's definitely going to be something much larger than any single character, any one family, or even who ends up "on top" by claiming the Iron Throne. 

SPOILER WARNING: This section contains spoilers for all 5 books and the show through season 6 episode 5, "The Door."

You could argue that these are simply "world building" efforts, that George RR Martin and his legion of nerds just happen to love super detailed and complicated fictional worlds. While that fact may very well be true, there is substantial evidence that history is somehow going to play a massive role in the story's endgame:

1. The show is starting to deal with the past too. Through Bran's wacky adventures with the Three Eyed Raven, we are starting to see the past in a way more vivid than even the books have thus far offered. The fact that the show is now making an active point of diving into the past is a good sign that the past plays a more important role than simply showing us that Ned maybe embellished some of his achievements.
2. The whole Hodor thing. It would be nonsensical to go to all the effort of introducing the Three Eyed Raven, the magical see-into-the-past-tree (yes, I know it's called a weirwood), and all of Bran's greenseer visions (or maybe more than visions?) of the past all just to make Hodor's death extra tragic. Obviously Bran essentially destroying young Willis' life serves not only to make us cry when Hodor's history is revealed, but also to show us the true extent of Bran's powers, and to provide yet another hint that the past is important.
   
3. Tyrion loves history, Joffery hated it. This is more of an interesting tidbit than a real piece of evidence, but still. Throughout the story we have seen many smart, knowledgeable, and "good" (in the way anyone in Game of Thrones is good) characters know a lot of history. Tyrion, everyone's favorite imp, has expansive knowledge of both history and myth (or what many assume to be myth). Sam, everyone's favorite vomiting sailor, also has extensive historical knowledge. Meanwhile, Joffery, everyone's least favorite piss-ant, makes a point of chopping up his uncle's one-of-a-kind history book wedding gift thing. If there's a more clear statement that the past is important, I don't know what it could be.
   

SPOILER WARNING: This section contains spoilers for all 5 books and the show through season 6 episode 5, "The Door."

We saw very little in the way of the magical arts in the first season and first book, until the very end when Dany's dragons were born. We heard about a lot of things, sure, but they were mostly myths, stories of long forgotten magics that may or may not be completely fictional. By now we've seen shadow demon babies, numerous characters brought back to life in various fashions, an army of ice zombies, a weird, knowledgeable man who lives in a tree in a cave, a species of small, child-like little things with exploding pine cones (or something?), a group of ice people made by the child-like things, and more. (When you list it all out you realize how crazy this show really is.)

The trend is in the direction of more magic. The things once thought of as pure myth are turning out to be terrifyingly real. This isn't mere luck or happenstance, this is a deliberate trend, a slow burn. It is the show (and the books) ever so slowly revealing its cards.

We've been lead to believe that the end game is "who gets the Iron Throne," but this was a slight of hand. Game of Thrones is about much more than that, and who ends up on the throne is only a small cog in a huge machine, a machine that we are only starting to see the edges of.

Hardhome was the first time we saw the world of Game of Thrones face a real, existential threat. Sure, something about Cerci having power feels weird, and it might be cool if Dany and her dragons killed a bunch of people. Hell, seeing Sansa take the Iron Throne would be amazing! But none of these conflicts have the potential to kill everyone on the continent, and presumably bring about an eternal winter akin to what we see in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

But what we saw at Hardhome could easily do exactly that, and no one beyond the Wall knows about it, or would even believe it if they were told.

Clearly, Game of Thrones' endgame is going to have something to do with what's going on north of the Wall, with Jon and Bran and White Walkers and wights and giants and magic. And where did we first hear about White Walkers and wights and giants and magic? In summaries of the story's past.

​The show starting to focus more on Bran, the past, and what's going on North of the Wall isn't a sign of the show "losing focus" or "jumping the shark," it's a sign that the end is in sight, and that the final, true conflict of the entire narrative is becoming clear. These scenes aren't a distraction from the politics of King's Landing. These scenes show us that the politics of King's Landing have been a distraction all along.

I fully expect to be surprised by the specifics of the final conflict, by the way it plays out. At the same time, however, I am completely confident that both the past and the crazy magic North of the Wall (and with Dany and her dragons) will play an integral part.