Mary-Kate and Moira might as well have some sort of blood oath as they are such sweet friends and cocreators, and it was a true joy to chat with them about why they feel drawn to vampire stories. From strong female blood suckers (Carmilla, Dracula's Daughter) to lamer lady vampire loves (I'm looking at you, Twilight), these two bad asses can't get enough of the exploration of what makes vampires, and in turn humans, tick.

Expect a good episode from Eileen Tull as we unpack why she gets wrapped up in anticipation of things like a new Star Wars film or a first date with a guy she met online. Rest assured she's already got [three separate sets of] tickets for The Force Awakens and plenty to talk about where Harrison Ford is concerned (that factors into the dating stuff, too).

Katie [Bell] and I get all witchy with it as we discuss her mad [eye] love of Harry Potter. We share a mutual favorite book (Goblet of Fire), which Katie tells me is the pivotal book of the series - the others mirror one another in themes and storylines (1 and 7, 2 and 6, 3 and 5). She learned this from an entire course on Harry Potter she got to take as a student at Columbia College. Dope. She also covers how the series taught her the importance of representation in media and conquering one's fears.

I could easily make a list of ways Joke Laughstein is a total bundle of giggles and joys, but I'd rather let him show you with his own bevy of lists. These lists, that he visits and maintains on at least a daily basis, run the gamut from ridiculous ideas to self betterment to consumption recommendations.

For Caitlin Costello, St. Patrick's Day has more significance than plastic hats and green beer. The holiday means corned beef and potato dishes with her huge family at her grandmother's house in Notre Dame, IN, and how she's managed to recreate that kind of community and celebration in Chicago. 

Meaghan Strickland spent every summer of her youth bouncing around from basketball camp to basketball camp due to her dad's position as a high school/college basketball coach. Her own journey as a player from childhood through her high school days was always colored by his insistence on mastering the fundamentals, so we pass stories back and forth of our summers: hers being bball camp-learned skills, mine being getting (mostly cross-) cast in numerous community theatre productions. We most certainly meandered topic-wise, but I cannot stress how much fun this was to record. Meaghan makes me laugh as easily as LeBron James makes a routine layup.

Alex Cox, Deputy Events Manager at Cards Against Humanity and cohost of the Roboism podcast, came on MBSing to talk of her love of all the little robots in her life. From R2D2 to Siri and an MIT robotics lab to Ex Machina, we cover a lot of AI and Sci-Fi robot ground all within a discussion of gender, feminism, and general altruism and humanity as it relates to robotics and the empathy that makes us humans. 

Time for some spooky scary movie talk with dear friend Lee Russell. Lee and I have taken the stage together in the Annoyance Theatre's send up of slasher movies, Splatter Theatre, for three years now, and in this ep we get to really break down the source material. From Nightmare on Elm Street to It Follows, Lee has grown up with horror films from a probably too early age and is willing to get into the why of his love for them. The emotions and drive behind these scary stories intrgue him more than the startles and blood, and he aspires to one day make a horror film of his own.

John Hartman's love of The Smiths was kindled in college but really seems to have reached its pinnacle in recent memory: John tells stories of finally catching a Morrissey show that wasn't cancelled, getting pranked by the MD at Second City who slipped a song from the morose, Manchester band into a show, and connecting with other huge fans of the band via comedy. 

Becca Brown has been attending concerts since she was five or six watching Carlos Santana with her father and realized that was an actual thing people could do for a living: be a performing rock musician. (Yes, she IS young enough that this was around the time of Santana's collaboration on "Smooth" with Rob Thomas, and yes we DO both unironically enjoy that song.) From here through more concerts (Elton John) and more exploring of strong women in rock (Janis Jopin), Becca solidified that she wanted performing and watching rock music to top her list of priorities. Her experience acting in School of Rock sealed the deal: she had "sold her soul" to rock.