In Gweek episode 044, I interviewed Sarah Vowell about her book Unfamiliar Fishes. It's a history of Hawaii between the time of the arrival of the first Christian missionaries and its annexation to the United States in the late 1890s.

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My co-hosts on episode 043 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney, and Veronica Belmont, the co-host of three great shows: Tekzilla, Sword and Laser, and Game On!

Below are the show notes for Episode 043.

Dean recommends so cool indie games he checked out at the Game Development Conference (Proteus, Uprok, Joust, and Chicken Bandit)

Veronica and her friends, Bonnie Burton, Felicia Day, and Kiala Kazebee, have a new monthly book club podcast about the latest in paranormal romance called Vaginal Fantasy Hangout

Veronica says her Kindle has been committing acts of violence lately

Veronica says that Mass Effect 3 is the first game to tear her away from Skyrim.

Mike's made his first batch of moonshine!

Mark shares Myshkin Ingawale's amazing TED Fellow presentation at TED2012.

Dean went to the Image Comics Expo in Oakland and said his two favorite discoveries were Reed Gunther and Street Comics.

Mike reports that the creators of the comic Atomic Robo (which was John Hodgman's pick when he was on Gweek a while ago) have a Kickstarter to produce a video short.

Mark's Audible pick this week is the literary thriller, The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber.

Veronica recommends the dramatic science fiction story, Another Earth.

Mark and Veronica talk a bit about Reamde (Veronica liked it, Mark liked it except for the end) and 1Q84 (Veronica said she "slogged through it" and Mark is probably not going to read it now).

Mark enjoyed the science fiction movie Chronicle, about three teenagers who gain the power of telekineses. It's like a A Simple Plan for high schoolers.

Dean invites you to click on omfgdogs.com at your peril, but if you don't visit cashcats.biz, you will miss out on something amazing.

Mark shares one on his longtime favorite music sites, Bedazzled.

Veronica likes an iPhone apps called CatPaint, which lets you add all kinds of cats to your photos.

Mike shares a useful and free shopper's price comparison and unit conversion calculator called Apples2Oranges.

Dean says Superfeet insoles are his "secret weapon."

We have a discussion about the new iPad. Verdict: we all want one.

Mike likes the functional bike stem caps at Stem Captain. I'm disappointed they didn't call it Stem Cap'n, though.

Mark explains why the Clevercat Litter Box is a gopodsend.

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

I was at the TED2012 conference in Long Beach last week, so I didn’t have time to record a regular episode of Gweek with the other Boing Boing folks. So this week, I’m running an interview I recently did with Dave Asprey, a very interesting guy who has spent the last 15 years experimenting with ways to "hack his own biology." Dave experiments with supplements, sleep techniques, medical devices, fasting and dieting, and other things to improve his physical and mental health. You can find out more about him at bulletproofexec.com.

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My co-hosts on episode 41 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, and Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney. Visit his blog, cruftbox.com.

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 40. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion about whether or not Tarzan shrank in Tarzan and the Ant Men or not.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Dean went to the Rineke Dijkstra exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Mike talks about a new TV-to-any-device-you-want-service called Aeero.

Mark and his daughter Jane went to a at Arts ReFoundry in Los Angeles to make bronze mini-sculptures. Even if you don't live in LA, you can order a bronze buckle kit for $110, which includes pouring.

Mark announced the winner of the Gweek Secret contest. Congratulations, Eric Z. Goodnight!

Mike recommends Under the Moons of Mars, a book of contemporary short stories that place in Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom. Mentioned: Philip Jose Farmer's Tarzan novels: Tarzan Alive, A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin and ERB's Tarzan and the Ant Men

Mark recommended Baby's in Black a graphic novel love story about photographer Astrid Kirchherr and Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe in the early days of the band.

Mark also recommended the stunning new graphic novel by Tom Gauld, Goliath, the biblical tale told from the giant's perspective.

Mike's soundtrack while he worked this week was Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians

Dean likes Command Line Fu to find neat commands

Mike scared me with a personal information search site called Melconcard.

Mark is enjoying the Kameoka Diaries, a webcomic about Lars Martinson's experiences teaching English to students in Japan.

Mark likes Timehop, a web service that sends you an email each morning with your Tweets, Facebook postings, Foursquare, and Instagram activity from a year ago today.

Dean has been enjoying Super Going, a site where your friends send you on fun missions.

Dean bought two "indispensable" low-priced accessories for his phone and computer: the Wrapster and Power Curl, both by Quirky.

Mike explains why One Good Earbud from Far End Gear is a good idea for people who like to run or ride bikes and listen to music at the same time.

Mark enjoys play with the HDR and tilt-shift functions on his Canon S95 point-and-shoot camera.

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My hosts on episode 40 are are cartoonist Ruben Bolling, whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug premieres weekly on Boing Boing, and Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard. Our guest this week is two-time Eisner Award winning cartoonist Derf Backderf, creator of the amazing comic The City, which has been running in alternative weekly newspapers for 22 years. He’s the author of the graphic novel Punk Rock and Trailer Parks, which was selected for The Best American Comics 2010. He’s got a new autobiographical graphic novel out about his high-school friendship with the infamous serial murder and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, called My Friend Dahmer. Robert Crumb, who rarely gives endorsements for anyone or anything, says My Friend Dahmer is a “well-told, powerful story. Backderf is quite skilled in using comics to tell this tale of a truly weird and sinister 1970s adolescent world.”

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 40. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion about whether or not Terry Richardson owns more than one flannel shirt.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Most of this episode of Gweek is a fascinating discussion with Derf about his high school pal Jeffrey Dahmer, and Derf's new graphic novel My Friend Dahmer.

Dean turned us on to Maddie on Things, a blog of photos of a coonhound named Maddie who likes to stand on things that dogs don't normally stand on. What will Maddie stand on next?

Dean gives a thumbs up to fashion photographer Terry Richardson’s Diary

Mark likes Comic Viewer, an iPad app for reading digital comics.

And once you've installed Comic Viewer, head over to The Big Blog of Kids' Comics! and fill your iPad with mid-century four-color wonder.

Ruben likes Sugar & Spike comics so much that he's willing to pay $59.99 for this archive edition. But who can blame him? This is one of the best kids' comics of all time!

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly is a massive anthology of old comic book stories for kids, and is a big hit around Mark's house. The oversize format and 350 pages make for a delightful reading experience.

I'm so happy that lots of old comic book stories that otherwise would have been forgotten are being reprinted in fat, inexpensive anthologies like this one: The Golden Treasury of Krazy Kool Klassic Kids' Komics, edited by Craig Yoe. My daughter and I are having a wonderful time reading these funny and deeply weird children's comic book stories from the 1940s and 1950s, featuring art by some of the tops names in the field: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and other cartoon giants. At 304 pages, we'll get many nights of entertainment out of this collection.

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My hosts on episode 38 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, Rob Beschizza, Boing Boing’s managing editor (who gets cut of because he had a crappy Skype connection), and Michael Pusateri, a lifelong tinkerer and former television tech executive for Disney. Visit his blog, cruftbox.com.

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 39. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on our discussion of a foolproof method for winning big at the horse races.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

The Elevation iPhone dock on Kickstarter breaks $1 million.

A partially crowd funded sci-fi epic called Iron Sky.

Double Fine Adventure’s Kickstarter breaks $1m in 24 hours.

Michael says The Wool Omnibus is terrific science fiction. Twenty 5-star ratings on Amazon and no 4-, 3-, 2-, or 1-star ratings!

Mike also recommends It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels, about a guy who presents the history of the bicycle while build his dream bike, part-by-part.

Mike explains why the new Aquaman comic book is worth reading.

Giants Beware is a wonderful graphic novel about a tough little girl who goes after a monster that eats babies' feet, says Mark.

Dean's listening to Planet High School by Mux Mool.

Mark's listening to Lana Del Rey’s Video Games slowed to 3 hours.

Say hi to Mike, Dean, and Mark over at Chime.in.

Dean leads us down the sometime NSFW but always fascinating The Internet K-Hole. It's the best photo book of America I've ever seen.

The Steam Workshop for Skyrim, is cool, says Mike.

Back when Bill Gates was an indie game developer, he co-wrote the thrilling DONKEY.BAS.Now you can play it on your iPhone.

It's easy to make your own moonshine with gear from Home Distiller!

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My hosts on episode 38 are Dean Putney, Boing Boing's coding and development wizard, Boing Boing alum Joel Johnson of Animal New York, and Dannel Jurado, a software engineer from Peru who's working at Etsy and, by Dean's description, "is deeply ingrained in 8 bit music, geek culture, craft and software."

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 38. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on the mind-blowing insights we shared in the episode.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Johann Sebastian Joust in Yerba Buena Gardens "basically like high-tech tag. Each person has a Playstation Move controller, and the object of the game is to jostle other people's controllers so that you're the last man standing."

Playing Dungeons and Dragons via Skype.

A new Jim Woodring T-Shirt in the Boing Boing Shop!

After doing all sorts of cool stuff for Gawker Media, Joel is going to Animal New York.

Joel reviews the book, Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens.

Dean digs LibriVox, a site where volunteers record public domain books into audiobooks.

Joel recommends Conan Doyle's The White Company (free on Gutenberg), "about archers from England who go to France to wage war and plunder ... it comes off like Jack Vance."

Mark reviews the graphic novel Pigs: Hello Cruel World.

Joel saw two movies this week: A Dangerous Method (and Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, "the beautiful but disturbed young woman who comes between them") and The Rum Diary (based on Hunter S. Thompson's autobiographical novel).

Mark told Joel to read Gonzo: the Life of Hunter S. Thompson, which consists of anecdotes culled from interviews with 120 of Thompson's acquaintances, beginning with his childhood in Kentucky and ending with his death in 2005 in Woody Creek, Colorado.

Roots, by Danimal Cannon. Cannon wrote: "Every song on this album was composed using a Nintendo Gameboy DMG-01 running the homebrew software LSDJ. If you download the album I've also included the .sav files so feel free to learn my tricks, remix, or whatever!" Dannel also runs a cool music blog.

Joel gives his first impression Hero Academy, a free, turn-based RPG strategy game for iOS. He also excited about news of an X-Com revival.

Dannel recommends an iOS game called Puzzlejuice, which is a bit like Tetris with the added challenge of having to spell words using tiles with letters on them.

Dean loves his Fujitsu ScanSnap sheet-fed document scanner

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My hosts on episode 37 are cartoonist Ruben Bolling, whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug, premieres weekly on Boing Boing, and Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard, and Maggie Koerth-Baker, Boing Boing's science editor. Like last week, we talked about a bunch of stuff. Listen to the episode here.

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 37. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on the sleazy gossip we shared between recommendations.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Amazon Mechanical Turk -- Dean has been taking articles and paying people a dollar to record audio versions of them. Excerpt of article that Dean got someone to read for him. Should Dean ask Mechanical Turk to read James Joyce's dirty letters to Nora?

Maggie describes what she learned at a video making workshop at Science Online 2012.

Ruben explains why NY Mets knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey is a cool geek.

Mark tells Dean how to make coconut coffee, using the Magic Bullet, and the Aeropress. This is based on the recipe on The Bulletproof Executive.

Maggie likes Garth Ennis's The Boys, comic book series about CIA operatives who are tasked with keeping corrupt superheroes in check, but she has reservations about it: "I enjoy it, but at the same time I feel like Ennis is so obviously working so hard to make me feel offended and scandalized and it seems like the harder he works at it, the less it works. It’s like telegraphing a punch. I’m starting to just feel bad for him."

Maggie reviews The Power of Habit, which is "about why we have habits and what you can actually do to change them."

Ruben reviews the 368-page Spy vs. Spy Omnibus, which has every "Spy vs. Spy" comic that Antonio Prohias did for MAD magazine since the 1960s.

Ruben gets his hands on a copy of Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes, the first volume of Fantagraphics' The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library. (Spoiler: it's superb.)

Mark review's Mackenzie Phillip's autobiography, High on Arrival. I'm glad she survived a surreal and often hellish half-century.

Ruben recommends Cartoon Brew, a great cartoon news and analysis site.

One of Cartoon Brew's editors, Amid Amidi, wrote a wonderful book about 1950s animation called Cartoon Modern.

Mark plugs a new podcast he launched called Make: Talk, which has interviews with makers from MAKE magazine as well as news from the world of MAKE, Maker Faire, Make: Online, and Maker Shed.

Dean previews a new app for iPhone called Clear, a "very slick app for to-do items."

We'd like to give a special thanks to EdgeCast Networks, our bandwidth provider and sponsor!

Download Gweek 037 as an MP3 | Subscribe to Gweek via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Download single episodes of Gweek as MP3s

Gweek is on Stitcher!

Gweek is a weekly podcast where the editors and friends of Boing Boing talk about comic books, science fiction and fantasy, video games, board games, tools, gadgets, apps, and other neat stuff.

My hosts on episode 36 are cartoonist Ruben Bolling, whose comic, Tom the Dancing Bug, premieres weekly on Boing Boing, and Dean Putney, Boing Boing’s coding and development wizard. We had a great time talking about a bunch of different stuff this time. Listen to the episode here.

Below is a list of the things we talked about in Gweek episode 36. (Sure, you could just click on the links below to learn about them without listening to the podcast, but then you will miss out on the scintillating conversation we had about these remarkable curios.)

If you enjoy Gweek, please rate it in the iTunes Store -- thanks!

Tom the Dancing Bug

Jonathan Coulton

Doc Fermento Discovers the World podcast

The Bulletproof Executive

Writing Movies for Fun and Profit: How We Made a Billion Dollars at the Box Office and You Can, Too!, by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon

Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: A Career Retrospective

The Adventures of Tintin

Crudbump: Real Art

Toothpaste for Dinner

Young Adult

Big Blog of Kids’ Comics!

Hey Skinny! Great Advertisements from the Golden Age of Comic Books

Nothing to Do With Arbroath

Kinotopic

Boing Boing’s B-Side

iSimple

Weider Adjustable Kettle Bell

We'd like to give a special thanks to EdgeCast Networks, our bandwidth provider and sponsor!

Download Gweek 036 as an MP3 | Subscribe to Gweek via iTunes | Subscribe via RSS | Download single episodes of Gweek as MP3s

Gweek is on Stitcher!