Bad at Magic
This is a podcast about games, life, and other things. Co-hosts Ben and Josh have been friends for 15 years. Our curiosity about life is at the heart of our great conversations about virtually anything. Come join us every other week as we look at the world around us and the things we enjoy with the perspective of lifetime gamers.
Episodes
Show Notes
- Josh joins the High School band booster club, Ben’s Optometrist “almost served” in the military, the guys recap their trip to MagicCON Vegas 2026, they discuss the “red button or blue button” dilemma, and Ben updates his thesis that the accumulation of risk controls is an uncontrolled risk (AKA “The Tyranny of Zero”).
- Intro & Follow-up...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh find out who is actually the most evil Disney baddie based on the crimes they committed, Josh cleans out his bookmarks bar (in 2026? Really??), Ben gets a cat (yes, really), and–CONTENT WARNING–the guys relive their vasectomies.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-8:56)
- Ba...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh review the fictional Project Hail Mary and the real-life Artemis II mission. They give props to the WNBA management and take them from the Chipotle app developers. The hosts explore being bad at work, sports, food, and love. And finally, they give the D&D alignment chart one last chance to help them find, well: alignment.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-39:19)
Show Notes
- Josh and Ben discuss the new Major League Baseball Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, Planar Standard, some Bad at Parenting, smelling nice vs. smelling clean, and they take on an AI-generated round of Mastermind you won’t want to miss!
- Intro & Follow-up (0-41:04)
Show Notes
- Intro & Follow-up (0-39:52)
- Bad at Tech & Work (39:52-1:35:05)
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh take on “the most dangerous room in the house”, group orders, skiing after 45, accountants as lawyers, and another dozen topics in the second Anthropocene Reviewed-style revue. Five stars.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-33:19)
- The most dangerous room in the house
- Waymo Traffic
- The Square Hole
- Vote in the Disney Baddie Show...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh debate the origins of The Bible, Josh crashes headlong into his limitations, and the guys discuss what makes a good (and bad) series and what the payoffs and pitfalls are for revisiting an intellectual property.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-27:44)
- What I’m Readi...
Show Notes
- Josh and Ben are (surprise, surprise) bad at parenting, the Cosmere is coming to TV with the oversight of Brandon Sanderson, Ben explains what a “trash bag move” is, and the guys fruitlessly debate which is better: fiction or nonfiction?
- Intro & Follow-up (0-11:55)
- Bad at Husbanding (11:55-19:15)
- Sanderson...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh talk about death, parenting, making your mark on the world, and present a new framework for analyzing business priorities they call “Ways of the Realm”.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-15:59)
- Bad at Parenting (15:59-...
Show Notes
- The Bad at Magic Disney Baddie Showdown reaches the Semifinals thanks to a sudden-death tiebreak on Patreon, Ben is bad at parenting (again), Josh’s World of Warcraft characters died to his surprising great dismay, and the hosts set their New Year’s resolutions with the now-customary bingo cards.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-11:03)
Show Notes
- Happy holidays from the Bad at Magic podcast as Ben and Josh revisit last year’s resolutions bingo cards, Josh shares some research on what probably happened to Tiny Tim in the Dickens’ classic, and the guys do a deep dive following Josh’s trip to Walt Disney World.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-15:24)
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh weigh in on the death of the penny, AI in video game development, the evils of social media, and finally a trip to the Emergency Room over the Thanksgiving holiday for Ben prompts the hosts to share their “Murtaugh List”.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-32:06)
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh discuss why Elon Musk threatened to buy Hasbro Corporation, office potlucks, fender benders, political thrillers that have come true 30 years later, some revisions that need to be made to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and finally, the new movie on Netflix called ‘A House of Dynamite’ about what could happen if someone launched an Inter-contine...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh tentatively embrace the newest Magic set (Avatar: The Last Airbender) prior to its release, Josh complains about Daylight Savings Time (again), Presidents do (or don’t) catch fainting people standing behind them, the first round of the Bad at Magic Disney Baddie Showdown “sweet 16” wraps up, and the hosts discuss the scandal surrounding Silicon Valley st...
Show Notes
- In this potpourri episode, Josh wrestles with Microsoft Corporation, Ben goes camping on Tatooine, Josh has another fast food disaster, the AWS outage turns smart beds into panini presses (#aboringdystopia), join in on the 2025 Disney Baddie Showdown, and hang in there for the first ever post-credits scene in Podcast history.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-27:03)
Show Notes
- Ben responds to the church shooting in Michigan, Josh faces a Halloween costume crisis, Ben starts Year 2 at Hogwarts, Josh has WORDS about the book he’s been reading, and the guys share their thoughts on the brand-new movie Tron: Ares (SPOILER WARNING).
- Intro & Follow-up (0-27:25)
- Bad at Society (27:25-3...
Show Notes
- Josh’s electric car almost burns down his house, Ben gets a “fat guy clap” in the office 5K, the hosts propose a Disney Baddie Showdown (coming soon!), and finally they guys do a retrospective on ‘The Siege’ (1998) starring Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-25:27)
Show Notes
- Ben goes to Disneyland but not without managing to be bad at parenting, Josh creates an intensity metric for the 3rd of the 5 Love Languages (Quality Time) in their ongoing deep-dive series on the topic, and the hosts lament the unfortunate state of political discourse in the United States.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-9:16)
- Give us all the CLIX (159 in Rom...
Show Notes
- Josh is bad at Korean, Ben almost dies in a Tesla, and the guys give the full Bad at Magic treatment to Andor, Season 2.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-10:33)
- Bad at Korean (10:33-22:16)
- Bad at Service (22:16-30:17)
- Josh’s Rule for when to fire your customer
- Bad at A...
Show Notes
- Ben and Josh court several sponsorship opportunities (NOT REALLY), are bad at A LOT of things (more than usual), Josh reads a whole bunch of trashy sci-fi (read: more Dungeon Crawler Carl), and they take on the second leg of the improvement triangle: rationalization.
- Intro & Follow-up (0-8:54)
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