Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

Shoot Again! Talking Pinball with Clark Hill

Pinball looks like two buttons and a ball. It is not two buttons and a ball. It is a 300-pound machine with layered rules, competitive leagues, wrist injuries, a flow state, and — this will surprise you — an expectation that you will physically grab the machine and move it while playing. That last part is legal. Encouraged, even. This week, Mandy's new neighbor Clark Hill, who carries quarters at all times in case he passes a machine in the wild, joins her to watch Shoot Again, a documentary that is essentially pinball propaganda, and to explain why none of this is as simple as it looks. The conversation covers flow states, wizard modes, the Dolly Parton machine, a proposed cats-themed machine (the cats, not the musical), and at least one incident involving a toddler on the glass. Press play. GUEST SPOTLIGHT Clark Hill is a theater nerd, Magic: The Gathering player, pinball league competitor, and Mandy's new neighbor — a convergence of circumstances that the universe has clearly been building toward. He is currently active in a pinball league in Van Nuys, California, carries quarters on his person at all times, and has a deep personal relationship with the work of game designer Keith Elwin. He has also, on at least two occasions, had to ask a father to remove a toddler from the glass surface of a pinball machine. Connect with the Show Follow Mandy on Instagram: @mandy_kaplan_klavens [https://www.instagram.com/mandy_kaplan_klavens?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] Make Me a Nerd runs on curious people. If that's you, the inner circle is at makemeanerd.com/join [https://makemeanerd.com/join] — it's where the show goes deeper between episodes, and where Mandy's most embarrassingly enthusiastic fans have found their people. --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website [https://makemeanerd.com/join] to learn more.

The Truth is RIGHT HERE: X-Files with Chelsea Stardust

The X-Files is, technically, a show about two FBI agents investigating extraterrestrial activity, government conspiracy, and the unexplained — which is why it's mildly hilarious that filmmaker Chelsea Stardust's curated onramp for Mandy contains, by Mandy's own count, exactly zero alien episodes. What it does contain: a man who hibernates in a nest every thirty years and squeezes through air ducts; a parasitic humanoid Flukeman swimming around the sewer system (related, somehow, to Chernobyl); a gentle psychic played by Peter Boyle who can see exactly how everyone is going to die; an inbred Pennsylvania family hiding their quadruple-amputee mother under the bed; and Bryan Cranston's head, which will explode unless he keeps driving west. Mandy was, against every instinct she possesses, completely charmed. What emerges across the conversation is a love letter to a show whose secret weapon turns out not to be the monsters at all. It's the writing (Vince Gilligan, pre-Breaking Bad, was already writing Vince Gilligan episodes). It's the sparing use of special effects, which means the few times you actually see the Flukeman, you really see him. It's a theme song Mark Snow created by smashing his forearm onto a keyboard in frustration, which is the most rock-and-roll origin story in television scoring. And it's the Mulder-Scully dynamic, which Chelsea makes a passionate case is the actual core of the entire enterprise — the relationships first, the body horror second, the Cigarette Smoking Man a distant third. By the end, Mandy has watched five episodes, formed strong opinions about Scully's footwear ergonomics, identified Roseanne's Dan Conner's best friend Chuck in a guest spot decades later, and developed genuine sympathy for a sewer-dwelling parasite. Chelsea has confessed that she's never gotten to talk about The X-Files on a podcast before, which feels like a crime against nerd culture and is hereby corrected. GUEST SPOTLIGHT Chelsea Stardust is a writer, director, and producer with a deep bench of horror credentials. She made her directorial debut with the sci-fi thriller All That We Destroy (Hulu, part of Blumhouse's Into the Dark series); directed the horror-comedy Satanic Panic (written by novelist Grady Hendrix, available on VOD); and most recently co-directed Grind, a horror anthology about the gig economy that premiered at SXSW 2026. She co-hosts the horror movie podcast Sitting in the Dark with Tommy Metz III on TruStory FM, runs the Losers Book Club in Los Angeles, and is generally the kind of person who treats nerdiness as a vocation. Find her on Instagram at @chelseastardust and her book club at @losersbookclubla. * Chelsea Stardust on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/chelseastardust/] * Sitting in the Dark podcast (TruStory FM) [https://trustory.fm/sitting-in-the-dark/] * Losers Book Club LA on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/losersbookclubla/] Chelsea’s Films * All That We Destroy (2019) [https://letterboxd.com/film/all-that-we-destroy/] * Satanic Panic (2019) [https://letterboxd.com/film/satanic-panic-2019/] * Grind (2026) [https://letterboxd.com/film/grind-2026/] The X-Files Episodes Discussed * “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_(The_X-Files)] * “Squeeze” (Season 1, Episode 3) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeeze_(The_X-Files)] * “The Host” (Season 2, Episode 2) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Host_(The_X-Files)] * “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (Season 3, Episode 4) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Bruckman%27s_Final_Repose] * “Home” (Season 4, Episode 2) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_(The_X-Files)] * “Drive” (Season 6, Episode 2) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_(The_X-Files)] * “Monday” (Season 6, Episode 14) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_(The_X-Files)] People Mentioned * Grady Hendrix [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_Hendrix] — novelist; wrote Satanic Panic * Dave Grusin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Grusin] — composer of The Firm score * Tommy Metz III on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/tommymetz3/] — Sitting in the Dark co-host Referenced Books * The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Southern_Book_Club%27s_Guide_to_Slaying_Vampires] by Grady Hendrix * It (Stephen King novel) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(novel)] — referenced for thematic parallels with “Squeeze” Referenced Films & Series * Scanners (1981) [https://letterboxd.com/film/scanners/] — Cronenberg; cited for the “Drive” cold open * Speed (1994) [https://letterboxd.com/film/speed/] — the spiritual cousin to “Drive” * The Goonies (1985) [https://letterboxd.com/film/the-goonies/] — Mandy’s prior episode reference * The Firm (1993) [https://letterboxd.com/film/the-firm/] — for Mandy’s Dave Grusin score reference * It (1990 miniseries) [https://letterboxd.com/film/it-1990/] — Tim Curry as Pennywise * Disclosure Day (2026) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disclosure_Day] — the Spielberg UFO film Chelsea referenced Past Make Me a Nerd Episodes * It’s Our Time Down Here: A Goonies Comfort Rewatch with Krissy Lenz [https://trustory.fm/make-me-a-nerd/] — series hub (specific episode page) Make Me a Nerd * Make Me a Nerd membership [https://makemeanerd.com/join] * Mandy Kaplan on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mandy_kaplan_klavens/] * @mandymiscast on TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@mandymiscast] --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website [https://makemeanerd.com/join] to learn more.

Watch Me Fly… Serenity with Krissy Lenz

Here is a fact about Firefly, which is to say the beloved Joss Whedon space western that aired on Fox in 2002: the network, in its infinite wisdom, decided to air the two-hour pilot — the one designed to introduce you to the entire world, its characters, and the general vibe of a Western in space — not first, but somewhere in the middle. This is approximately like hosting a dinner party and opening with dessert, except the dessert is also on fire, and also you've invited the guests' most confused relatives. The show was cancelled. The fans — who call themselves Browncoats, because of course they do — responded not with acceptance but with a multi-year grassroots campaign that eventually produced a movie (Serenity, 2005), a documentary about the making of said movie (Done the Impossible), and a fan-organized party circuit called Shindigs that still runs today. This week, returning champion Krissy Lenz walks Mandy through all of it. The movie itself, Mandy discovers, is tonally bewildering in the best way — part heist, part Star Wars homage, part horror film, part comedy, with Chiwetel Ejiofor showing up as the most civilized, polite, and unnervingly calm assassin in the 'Verse. ("He believes in this better world that even he's not welcome in," Krissy notes, which is, frankly, the kind of villain thesis statement most movies wish they could pull off.) Summer Glau is doing ballet-grade choreography in combat boots and a slip dress. Alan Tudyk is delightful, briefly, and then — for contractual reasons Krissy helpfully explains — permanently unavailable. And Nathan Fillion, the internet's favorite convention dad, spends the climax in a physical fight that looks suspiciously like the end of every Star Wars movie you've ever seen. Along the way, the conversation takes its requisite detours: how to separate the art from the artist when the artist is Joss Whedon and the allegations are what they are; the rehabilitation economy around Louis CK; whether Mal is charmingly brusque or just, on closer 45-year-old inspection, kind of a dick; and the enduring question of whether Joel McHale should be allowed to play anyone other than Joel McHale. By the end, Mandy has agreed to watch the series, consider attending a Shindig, and do a future episode on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog — which is, by any reasonable metric, a successful recruitment. Find Krissy * The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast [https://trustory.fm/the-most-excellent-80s-movies/] * Gank That Drank [https://trustory.fm/gank-that-drank/] * Neighborhood Comedy Theater (Mesa, AZ) [https://nctphoenix.com/] Connect with the Show Follow Mandy on Instagram: @mandy_kaplan_klavens [https://www.instagram.com/mandy_kaplan_klavens?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] Make Me a Nerd runs on curious people. If that's you, the inner circle is at makemeanerd.com/join [https://makemeanerd.com/join] — it's where the show goes deeper between episodes, and where Mandy's most embarrassingly enthusiastic fans have found their people. --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website [https://makemeanerd.com/join] to learn more.

No Time To Play… Ender’s Game with Erica Cochran

Mandy Kaplan has been handed a Hugo-winning, Nebula-winning, Mormon-authored military sci-fi classic about a six-year-old being psychologically tortured into committing accidental alien genocide, and reader, she has THOUGHTS. This week, her son Casey's high school chemistry teacher — the proud Trojan, theater company founder, and science-and-theater double-nerd Erica Cochran — walks Mandy through Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel Ender's Game, a book that predicted the internet, iPads, online political discourse, and rogue AI with such unsettling accuracy that you kind of want to check if Card also has next week's lottery numbers. Before they even open the book, there's The Orson Scott Card Problem to address — namely, that he is an anti-gay-rights activist who appears to have written a scene in which his six-year-old protagonist convinces a naked bully to also get naked before their fistfight. Mandy has some thoughts about this. Erica has some thoughts about this. Everyone has some thoughts about this. They proceed with their "art vs. artist" disclaimer firmly in place, with Mandy reserving the right to get in a few jabs. She gets in several. What unfolds is a joyful, slightly unhinged, deeply thoughtful conversation about a book Mandy read every word of and still couldn't quite follow ("I got a lot of beeps and boops"), while Erica — who has reread the series multiple times and done "a lot of therapy" — sees the full emotional architecture underneath. They dig into why so many of these dystopias center on children (the innocence, the smallness, the inability to consent), why Ender is Valentine with the capacity to be Peter, why the government commissions a third child from a family whose parents are, diplomatically speaking, not geniuses, and whether the book's climactic religion-founding is a defense of the Book of Mormon or a sly admission that anyone can make up a religion. Also discussed: Scientology's youth promotion track, the 2013 movie (Erica: "two thumbs down"), the inexplicable prevalence of the insult "fart-eater," and the fact that Petra is doing her absolute best and does not deserve Mandy's Gen-X scolding. By the end, Mandy is converted — not to loving the book, exactly, but to seeing what she missed in it. Which is, honestly, the whole point of this podcast. Connect with the Show Follow Mandy on Instagram: @mandy_kaplan_klavens [https://www.instagram.com/mandy_kaplan_klavens?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==] Make Me a Nerd runs on curious people. If that's you, the inner circle is at makemeanerd.com/join [https://makemeanerd.com/join] — it's where the show goes deeper between episodes, and where Mandy's most embarrassingly enthusiastic fans have found their people. --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website [https://makemeanerd.com/join] to learn more.

One For The Kids: Battle Royale with Jimmy Aquino

Mandy Kaplan has thoughts about 42 Japanese ninth-graders being forced to murder each other on a deserted island, and honestly, who among us doesn't? This week, Jimmy Aquino returns to Make Me a Nerd for his fourth-or-fifth appearance (he's lost count, we've lost count, the green jacket situation remains unresolved) to drag Mandy through 2000's Battle Royale — a film he insists inspired The Hunger Games, and which Suzanne Collins insists she has absolutely never heard of, nope, never, why do you ask. What follows is a spirited investigation into whether a Japanese dystopian thriller about government-sanctioned child-on-child violence can be considered a cultural touchstone (yes), whether Mandy watching the English dub instead of the original Japanese constitutes a personal betrayal of Jimmy (also yes), and whether the evil teacher's Tony Soprano velour tracksuit is the single most baffling costume choice in cinema history (unclear, but a strong contender). Along the way: a five-year-old shoves her would-be molester down a stairwell, Chigusa stabs a guy in the junk, Mitsuko emerges as the Regina George of Murder Island, and Mandy discovers she would survive a battle royale by hiding in the bushes like she hovers near the kitchen door at a catered event — which is, frankly, a strategy. Also discussed: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Jimmy loves it, the public apparently did not, Mandy is caught in the crossfire), Dane Cook's alleged joke-stealing from Louis C.K., the exact linguistic convention for Japanese first and last names (pending verification), and whether a dystopia needs to be in the future or just generally, you know, bad. Mandy concludes she would die begging and crying. Jimmy concludes he would "Mitsuko the crap out of it." Both are probably right. Links & Mentions * Jimmy Aquino — Comic News Insider: comicnewsinsider.com [https://comicnewsinsider.com/] | Instagram: @JimmyAquino | Bluesky * Mandy Kaplan — Instagram: @mandy_kaplan_klavens (both with K's) * Support the show — makemeanerd.com/join [https://makemeanerd.com/join] for ad-free episodes, early access, and Mandy's eternal gratitude --- Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website [https://makemeanerd.com/join] to learn more.