The Nerds Awaken
Come on now, we all NERD hard over something pop culture. Perhaps it's that show that will never disappear from your "Keep Watching" queue, or that book you stan so much, you can recall the exact page of any given moment. Maybe you nerd out for that actor you have more pictures of in your phone than you have of your actual loved ones. The Nerds Awaken celebrates all things pop culture - from fledging interests to hardcore obsessions - with unabashed joy, laughter, and a passion that our family members would call, "grounds for an intervention."
Episodes
San Diego Comic Con is officially underway and we’re bringing you a real quick recap of preview night and Thursday’s schedule. We visited activations from Paramount and Peacock, attended TV panels, and got to see Deadpool 3 in person with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (and a lot of other surprise guests!)
Look for our recap of Friday at SDCC soon! Follow us here for all of our SDCC coverage!
We gathered with friend of the pod Andee to breakdown season one of the Acolyte and that stunning season finale.
We had high hopes for The Acolyte after breaking down the series premiere, and even with a few hiccups in the middle, we were not disappointed and have fingers and toes crossed for a season two announcement. We discussed our favorite moments, the shocking twists, our exciting for a possible dark side romance, a...
It’s the most wonderful time of the year (or of July)-San Diego Comic Con time!
The Nerds Awaken will be back at SDCC 2024, but first we chatted about the schedule, surprises, and everything we’re looking forward to see from panels and activations to favorite authors and friends.
Follow The Nerds Awaken on social media for all our SDCC coverage!
We were delighted to welcome author Liana de La Rosa back to the podcast, whose latest novel Isabel and the Rogue is available now from Berkley Romance!
We ADORED Isabel and the Rogue, book 2 in the Luna Sisters series, and loved talking to Liana all about her characters and the historical setting of the series. Liana really is putting the history back in historical romance, and we couldn't get enough. We also picked ...
We are back breaking down Part 2 of Bridgerton Season 3 (Eps 305-308) with Big Gold Belt Media!
There was so much going on in Part 2 (too much, even), but we think we managed to cover all the different arcs and characters in the last four episodes. We had fun talking about the things that worked for us, but were also honest about the areas that we were disappointed in.
You can find the video version of this recap ...
We had so much breaking down the first two episodes of the new Star Wars series The Acolyte, which premiered June 4th on Disney+.
While we were cautiously optimistic about the idea of show after it was announced in 2020, we did not anticipate how much we would love the first two episodes. From the mystery-thriller plot to the vibrant new characters (hellooooo Master Sol), we were immediately sucked in to this fresh story s...
Polin Season is upon us, and it is glorious.
We collaborated with Big Gold Belt Media to review Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1, which premiered May 16th on Netflix. You can also find the video recording of this episode on Big Gold Belt Media's Youtube channel.
In this episode we had a very spoiler-filled discussion of the first four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3. We adored every part of Colin and Penelope'...
We're excited to announce the launch of a new series, Read Before You Watch! With book-to-screen adaptations becoming increasingly common, we thought it would be fine to have a series devoted to reading and reviewing books before watching the adaptations.
With Season 3 of Bridgerton premiering on Netflix on May 16th, we thought we would get things started with the book behind the couple of the season, Romancing Miste...
We had a very special guest back in The Nerds Awaken studio! Elise Nelson was the first author we ever interviewed way (all the way back in 2021!) and we are thrilled to be having her back to talk about her new novel The Light in Hades, book 1 in the Olympus Retold series.
The Light in Hades is a powerful Hades and Persephone retelling, and we loved Elise's fresh take which delved in mental health, healing from trauma...
We are Ali Hazelwood stans until we die, but when we say that her newest novel Bride is far and away the best thing she's ever written, it's a BIG DEAL.
We can not shut up about good this book was, with its weres and vampires and marriages of convenience. And yes, even with its knots, which aren't our favorite but were as tastefully incorporated as we could have hoped for. We dive deep into our favorite mome...
If you too are #blessed with an unhealthy Adam Driver obsession ...
We were so lucky to welcome Katrina Kwan, author of Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love and an all around gem of a human being, as our very last Writing Reylo author.
We had an awesome time chatting with Katrina about her fanfic origins, her career as a ghost writer, and all about her debut novel. We loved this sweet and spicy romance, which is set in the fast-paced, cut throat world of haute cuisine.
Find ...
We were so thrilled to welcome Kirsten S. Blacketer as the first guest in our new Author Spotlight series. A self-published author with an impressive backlist, Kirsten was a wealth of information on self-publishing, genre tropes, and improving your writing craft.
We loved talking with her about the importance of romance novels with happily ever afters, learning how she gets inspiration for her books (and sexy male leads),...
If there's one thing our friendship is built on (that isn't Adam Driver), it's spending hours on the phone talking/gossiping/venting about pop culture and entertainment. So this time we thought, why not let people listen in? So congratulations! You all get to be flies on the wall while we discuss everything that's been on our radar lately-the books we're reading, the TV shows and K-dramas we're watchin...
We were so happy to welcome Katie Shepard back to talk about her new book Sweeten the Deal, out October 17th from Berkley!
We loved Katie's debut novel Bear with Me Now and went into Sweeten the Deal with high expectations that were absolutely met. With a gender-swapped sugar baby plot and vibrant, likeable characters, the story completely sucked us in with its themes and romantic tension. We had a great conversation...
Somebody pinch us, we must be dreaming...because our literary hero Thea Guanzon is in The Nerds Awaken studio!
We were so privileged to talk with Thea about her gorgeous debut fantasy novel The Hurricane Wars, out October 3 from Harper Voyager. We heard about her writing and research process (mostly just vibes), her fanfic origins (plus the first time she was caught reading smut) and how her Filipino culture inspired much...
We were DELIGHTED, overjoyed, ecstatic, and all other possible synonyms for "extremely excited" to welcome one of our all-time favorite fanfic writers, Jenna Levine (aka Jeeno) to The Nerds Awaken to talk about her greatly anticipated debut novel My Roommate is a Vampire!
We learned all about Jenna's fanfic origins, the inspiration for her book, and why a 300 year old vampire and a 30-something starving arti...
We were so excited to sit down with Ashley Hawthorne, whose debut novel Deliver Me arrives July 18th from Creative James Media!
We chatted with Ashley about how The Rise of Skywalker inspired her to become a writer, learned the inspiration for her novel and the tough themes of trauma that the story explores (and found out which character was inspired by Rian Johnson!). Ashley also had great advice for other writers on how ...
We were thrilled to welcome back Julie Soto, whose debut novel Forget Me Not arrives July 11th from Forever Publishing!
Whether you know her as Julie or as her fanfic alter ego Lovesbitca8, anyone who has read her works knows her incredible talent for storytelling. We were so excited to chat with her about how Forget Me Not was born, hear about exciting TV adaptation news, and see what advice she had for other writers ho...
Have you ever had to break up with a TV show or book series? We have, and that show/book series was Outlander.
But thanks to our friend Nagier at Big Gold Belt Media, we had the opportunity to interview some of the cast and producers behind the Starz hit show, and we asked ourselves the question: could the new season of Outlander convince us to come back?
We explored that and more, remembering our heady early days...
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