the link

Finally, I can share with you, a little taste of my pride and joy: "Card Sharks" an upcoming novel by yours truly, Mike Szego.

Luckily, since I am the author, and will self-publish and produce, I have the green light to share a little bit with you ahead of time, so here are  the first 5 chapters, narrated by your favorite voice aside from Morgan Freeman: me.

This is just the tip of the dingleblop, but more on that later.

Want ...

I wrote out a really fun description for this episode, and was ready to turn over a new leaf into the new year. I talked about how beautiful it was that you've joined me to listen. How nice it is that I'm able to take in all of this content and share it with you all. How it's weird that you might be listening to this episode while you read this, so you're listening to me twice in a way, and do you hear my voice when you read this p...

Avatar 2: The Way of Water is, for my money, the movie with the biggest disparity of how awesome it was vs. how many people are trying to find a way to hate on it. James Cameron is the king, and the cheese god, but more on that in the episode.

TJ came back on to tackle this behemoth of a movie, Christmas movies in general, releasing big movies around Christmas, and just general gushing over Jimmy Cameron's best projects. 

If y...

Ho ho ho, the shot is framed perfectly...the camera is on the yule log...mistletoe hangs overhead. A woman steps into the frame from stage right, draped in shadows, only the light from the fire outlining her entrance into the scene. From stage left, a man, clearly handsome despite the shadows, steps toward the center of the frame. They meet and lock eyes. Suddenly, the woman's hand raises with something in it. An ornament? A Christ...

Ho ho ho, we're back in the Christmas groove. In fact, the groove is what brought us here. We're bringing back bracket episodes on the link and what better time to do it than at the holidays. This is was our way to decide, once and for all: who sits atop the North Pole as the best Christmas song ever? It was hard enough to narrow down to 16, but we got there, and ultimately argued it out until there was only one. 

Who better t...

Ho ho ho, it's officially time. Last week we were on the cusp, now we dove...dove? Not the bird, but is there another past tense of dive? Dived? Someone get me a dictionary for Christmas. Now we've jumped into the Christmas pool (something, something polar bear plunge), and there's no turning back until the new year. 

We have some more fun Christmas episodes coming, but to kick things off, I wanted to break down some of the mo...

It's post-Thanksgiving, but pre-Christmas season...or is it? This episode falls into a little bit of a limbo, but the spirit is alive in us, and on Apple TV+. If you haven't seen the new Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds movie, I do recommend it, but more on that in the episode.

Watching it did give me some more thoughts on the evolution of streaming, how the companies goals vary by the financial standing of their biggest shareholders...

I love some friendly competition. I also love a competition with $3,000,000 on the line. I also love drafts. Fantasy drafts, real sports drafts, or just good old fashioned "don't-you-dare-steal-my-pick" kinds of drafts. When Laura came on for the Halloween episode, we did a candy draft, and had the listeners vote on Instagram for who got the better team. She edged me out, but it's like y'all have never heard of a hustle before...

T...

Aaron Carter's untimely death, Judaism, robots, and Shaq's anatomy really bring this one together, but the fun doesn't stop there...

If you haven't listened to any episodes with Chad yet, it's probably best to just dive in feet first (head first dives are best suited for something with more depth, pun intended...although if you say pun intended doesn't it ruin some of the "inside" nature of the joke for people who already got it? T...

Since my episodes drop on Mondays, I want to give everyone what they want for their perfect Monday, which is to be able to complain freely about how things are annoying you. You're not alone. I don't care if they're trivial, or goofy (good film), or serious. They're under fire in this ep.

Mayo takes up 50% of my daily hatred, yes, but there's plenty more where that came from (not the mayo, I pray there's no more, I'd destroy the fa...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

If you've been a listener of the pod for a while, you know we're just entering holiday season, and with that comes a lot of themed episode. We'll do at least one for Thanksgiving, and Christmas themed episodes all throughout December, leading into our top 5 favorite things of 2022 episode to kick off the new year. First, we have to kick it all off with the Halloween episode, so Laura came back on the pod to talk ab...

The finales of "House of the Dragon" and "The Rings of Power" have now come and gone, and I've been waiting to compare these two in an episode since they were announced. I love(d) "Game of Thrones" and "Lord of the Rings" so much, and with them airing at the same time, it was a match made in the dragon pits. When I started really taking a deeper look at them though, I wasn't 100% sure whether they actually should be compared as dir...

Explicit warning

This one got freaky. Everyone has played the "F@%k, Marry, Kill" game, but if you haven't, you pick 3 people (or things...or pizzas...or days?) and decide which one you would f@%k, which one you would marry, and which one you would kill. Pretty straightforward, so Jess and I (who has been on the podcast twice before, but is going by a different name these days...allegedly), came up with 10 each, and deliberated tho...

A week of winning the war against COVID didn't leave a lot of time for recording, or a silky smooth voice for you to listen to, plus I've always wanted to do a clip episode like a 90s sitcom, so here we go. These are some highlights from each and every episode, and a good taste of any episodes that you might have missed along the way. 

Follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram for more clips of upcoming episodes, tea...

Feeling under the weather (but more about that in the episode), so the write-up will be 80% less ridiculous. 

During a trip to Arizona, we sat around the table, poured a couple of fine glasses of Alka Seltzer-filled water, and went to battle over music. 18 different matchups. 

Follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram to tell us who you think should have won some of these showdowns. You'll also find some podcast...

I was traveling this week, so while this might not be one of the longer episodes in the bunch, it struck me as meaningful. To be honest, I didn't even plan on doing this one, but after attending two sporting events during my trip to Cleveland, it begged to be talked about. With all the good vibes I had, nice people I met, and my naturally opinionated nature on the ways professional sports leagues should operate, it seemed like a go...

The D23 Expo took place last week, where Disney makes their yearly announcements on upcoming plans, movies, shows, upgrades to the parks, and injects hype into the fanbase. After doing an episode on Marvel recently, and prognosticating on the future of big-budget IP movies in general, it made sense to follow up on some of the news, and try to figure out the future landscape of Disney as a whole. Laura came back to try and help me a...

For starters, this episode is brought to you by Bum Bums & Winkies. Go to www.bumbumsandwinkies.com and enter promo code: "THELINK" for 50% off your order. 

You know that reminds me of Twinkies but...more on that at the end.

Nick Emel rejoined the podcast as the first leg of a double-episode we're running this week. You can listen to him guess the top 10 HBO shows of all-time in this episode, then listen to yours truly on ...