Episode 76, CHALLENGE I w/ @seandouglass.bsky.social This week, we are continuing the @soundstone.network brand synergy assault with Sean sharing one of his favorite gaming challenges. Listen to the show on soundstone.network or on most podcast platforms. Links at the start of the thread ☝️

It’s September! New avatar! New Retro Game Zine for sale! The Mario Tennis (GBC) issue features articles by @tftblpod.bsky.social and @seandouglass.bsky.social. Get a physical copy from the link below. 👇 pixelsandpolygons.net/products/ret...

Retro Game Zine Issue 009 serves up some great tennis for everyone by covering Mario Tennis for the Game Boy Color! This issue features guest essays by @tftblpod.bsky.social and @seandouglass.bsky.social! Purchase links, both physical and digital, are at the start of this thread ☝️

New games, new guest contributors, and a new giant collection of every 2025 issue! Retro Game Zine is coming back to Kickstarter one final time for 2025! Read all about it here and get notified when it launches: www.kickstarter.com/projects/dar... Share with your friends!

Unexpected choice, but we can see it working.

It’s Friday, and if you haven’t read this towering stack of great literature, it’s new to you! This week, Ann mixes it up a bit and responds to an op-ed by David Brooks in the NYT. Is the novel really dead? Read the article, watch Ann’s take, and let us know what you think.

I am very behind on promoting things and still shaking off a nasty cold/fever thing, but it was a pleasure to join fellow @soundstone.network podcaster @darrenhupke.bsky.social on @pixelsandpolygons.net! We talk about one of my favorite 6th gen fighting games, and I hope you'll check it out.

Episode 67, AVERAGE GAMES IX w/ Sean. This week we have @seandouglass.bsky.social joining the show to talk about a game he loves that doesn’t get enough attention. Find links to the podcast in the first post of the thread. Consider giving the show a positive review while you’re at it!

💥🏀 NEW EPISODE 🏀💥 We are joined by @seandouglass.bsky.social and @doctorbutler.bsky.social to chat about NBA in the Zone ‘98 and Fighters Destiny! flashback64pod.podbean.com/e/fighters-d...

Something Good should happen

I had my final day of the school year helping to take about 200 8th graders to a state park. What I thought might get kind of hectic ended up being a very nice day of hiking to a waterfall, relaxing by the beach, and making fun of the students’ pedal boat mishaps with the other teachers.

Retro Game Zine issue 009 discussed the history of Mario Tennis GBC with contributions from @tftblpod.bsky.social and @seandouglass.bsky.social. Same great format, development history, personal essays, and a retro review! www.kickstarter.com/projects/dar...

All Robot Masters based on songs with the word Man in the title

Join us as we look through the emails sent to Sakurai's official #SmashBros website back in 1999. From character requests to parents desperate to finally defeat their kids, these letters offer a fascinating look at early Smash Bros. culture. Listen here: www.soundstone.network/kirby-conver...

Updated our cast crew and guests starter pack!

we need a wario of the left

Love video game history? To celebrate our launch, we're giving away a gaming history book bundle and a $200 video game shopping spree to one lucky winner. And there are seven more prizes to win beyond that! For all the ways to enter, follow the link below, and good luck! gleam.io/FeIFL/win-a-...

God bless the rink: Ehrgeiz *on ice*

We are Sound Stone. We are excited to share our content with you. Look forward to seeing and hearing from some of our amazing creators over the coming weeks as we launch our network. Follow along and be a part of this collective. soundstone.network

new gender neutral greeting just dropped

I’m in a longterm 8th grade math subbing assignment, and I’m coming up with creative surface area and volume problems for the students. They had to solve for a “chonky” sphere last week, but referring to any shapes as “thicc” seemed like it could be going too far.

Conservation and protecting Wisconsin's vast and valuable natural resources is core to who we are as Wisconsinites—it's in our DNA! Whether planting trees, recycling old electronics, or fixing a leak at home, there are endless ways to celebrate. Happy Earth Day, Wisconsin! 🌳🌎

When people say that some concept is too complicated for voters to understand, I remember Stephen Sondheim's line about the "West Side Story" movie. He was told that it didn't have "hummable" songs. Then United Artists spent a ton of $ promoting it, the movie was a hit, and suddenly it was hummable.

written nearly a decade ago by eastern Europeans acutely aware of the authoritarian’s playbook, this list of 15 things to expect in the first year of an authoritarian regime rings eerily true today in the United States A 🧵 1/x

“I’m the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped. I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky” 3/19/25 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trying to grow this pack, if y’all have recommendations, let me know! go.bsky.app/Dk4GNY9

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

I know a fun play with Roy Cohn in it

the senators recoil in horror as a wounded Caesar rises from the floor and a second health bar appears on the screen

Our latest episode is all about Taiko no Tatsujin, Donkey Konga, and all the unexpected ways you can drum to #Kirby music. 🥁🎶 It might even make you want to pull those old DK Bongos off the shelf… #Nintendo open.spotify.com/episode/1zpW...

I was subbing for one period of an 8th grade choir class today, which, usually, had no lesson plans left for me. One girl suggested we watch and analyze Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show—an excellent suggestion! So that’s what we did. There was time left at the end, so we watched Rihanna’s, too.

Just saw a farmer say, "you don't have to admit you were wrong, you have to admit you were lied to, " and idk that seems like a good framing to call people in

Best thing anyone’s said to me about the current emergencies. “Writing matters because someone needs to write the truth of our times, because we will be told it didn’t happen.” @csvich.bsky.social

Wild to read about an autocratic madman steering those in his command to certain doom while they argue about whether to defy him and change course or to trust that he knows something they don’t and they’ll all prosper if they just surrender their will to him. Yep, MOBY-DICK is quite the book.

who called it final fantasy xvi and not fantasyfinal_final_final2_finalfinalfinal_V5_v6_ffsthisisthefinalone_master_finalapproval_revised__rerevised_finalnomorechanges_FINAL_iquitifthisisnttheFINAL_finalsendtoprinters_v16.pdf

nintendo switch 2? more like…nintendo switch 2 to the polls

This is from November, but I appreciated this excerpt from The Cap Times on how MMSD’s process of renaming Southside Elementary is going.

So far so good!

Played the original #SoulCalibur for the first time yesterday. I’ve always really liked this series, and hopefully we’ll get an SCVII someday.

Had a good phone chat catching up with a friend and former boss from back when I was a theater journalist. It turns out all the articles from our old website have been saved as pdfs. I was never quite sure what happened to that content after the site ended, but it’s nice to know it was preserved.

Check out this giveaway we are doing with the fine folks from Kirby Conversations!

Join us and @flashback64.bsky.social for a retro-meets-modern holiday giveaway, where you can win $300 in Switch and eBay gift cards. Complete the audio scavenger hunt in the Google Form and follow us both on Bluesky to enter. Good luck! #Kirby #Nintendo64 #Nintendo forms.gle/LdVFVKFcvfEh...

The heist framing of Operation Italy was so entertaining and well-edited! Maybe the best single episode of the New Era. #Survivor

Listening to this as I do preparations for Thanksgiving tomorrow and very pleased with the collective approval of Kalimari Desert, my favorite of all the Mario Kart tracks.

Reminder that this poem exists: The Tiger by Nael, Age 6 826dc.org/student-writ...

People have asked us sometimes if we're on YouTube, and now we are! Sort of. We have no goals to be a full video podcast, but if YT is your podcast home base, we hope you enjoy these new, more visual versions of the show. As they say on YT, please like/subscribe! www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH4k...

Very sorry to learn that Chicago arts journalist Kris Vire has passed away. Condolence to all who knew him and who appreciated his work.

Who are some of your favorite short story writers?

Bluesky Giveaway! 🎁 Win a $50 gift card of your choice! To enter: -🦋 Follow Kirby Conversations here on Bluesky. (We’re a #Kirby and #Nintendo podcast.) - 🔄 Repost this post One winner will be randomly drawn next Sunday, and if we get over 100 reposts, we’ll pick two winners instead!