The Three Links Odd Cast

Brothers Aiden Brink and Will Sparks both joined their respective lodges in the past couple of years.  Each have become very active and spurred growth in their areas.  They were both kind enough to join us to discuss their perspective on Odd Fellowship: what we get right, what we get wrong, and what we can do to build a solid future for our Order.  Some of the answers may be surprising, especially to long-time members, but they are...

Although it's tempting to think that Odd Fellowship has been handed down from the past completely unchanged from some visionaries at an ancient building site, that's not the case.  Odd Fellowship has adapted and changed through its history to meet the needs of members and the Order as those needs have changed.  In this episode, Kris Gratz of Virginia shares his research into the developments in Odd Fellows' regalia t...

In 2016, an exhibit opened at the American Folk Art Museum showcasing various artifacts from American fraternal orders, most notably the Odd Fellows and Freemasons.  The collection shared the best of fraternal folk art with the wider world.  One of the curators of that exhibition, Dr. Aimee Newell, joined us to talk about the collection and give us some background and history on where the items came from, their significance, and th...

Most of us know about our local lodge and may be familiar with a couple other lodges in our area.  However, Odd Fellowship is global in scope and scale—or is it?  Brother Chuck Hillberry of the State Of The Order Committee of Sovereign Grand Lodge joins us to discuss exactly how much global reach Odd Fellowship has and how various overseas groups are connected to the Sovereign Grand Lodge.  The truth is a lot more complicated than ...

We think we all know the story of how Odd Fellowship began in North America: five brave souls, led by Thomas Wildey, held the first meeting in Baltimore in 1819 and, from there, Odd Fellowship exploded across the continent spreading friendship, love, and truth from sea to shining sea.  The reality, though, has a lot more detail and challenges than what we know.  Mike, Ainslie, and Toby delve into the history of the founding of our ...

Thirty years ago, in a small town in Washington State, a young twenty-something man stood surrounded by five elderly men in a leaky, damp building doing something that would change the trajectory of his entire life.  In that moment, Kelly Hughes made a commitment that would shape his destiny and give him a new purpose in life.  From that time forward, as an Odd Fellow, Kelly would work tirelessly for the betterment of his community...

Every lodge wants to grow—but how many lodges are actually able to incorporate new members successfully in such a way that the new members feel valued?  Brother Matthew Thornton, NG of Houston Heights Lodge #225 in Texas, joins us to talk about how his lodge maintains a healthy lodge culture with a mix of everyone from oil workers to urban hippies.  Spoiler alert: their secret is holding a lot of events that give people an opportun...

Based on the classic holiday film "It's A Wonderful Life," this year's Christmas episode is an Odd Fellows' retelling of the old favorite in which George Bailey is the harried Past Grand of Bedford Falls Lodge #310.  Straining under the weight of his lodge's expectations, he finally breaks and wishes he had never been an Odd Fellow.  The ghost of Thomas Wildey visits him to give him a glimpse into the ...

Eating together is an integral part of Odd Fellowship and has a long tradition of inclusion within our Order, from formal banquets at Grand and Sovereign Grand Lodge meetings to sandwich platters during a Degree Rally, to tried-and-true fraternal staples like spaghetti feeds, pancake breakfasts, and pie auctions.  Mike, Ainslie, and Toby discuss these various modes of eating and other ways that food helps bolster the fellowship of ...

In high school, Dustin used to wander past the dusty old Odd Fellows Hall in Wenatchee, Washington.  Intrigued by the music blaring out on to the sidewalk one evening, he went in to find an all-ages punk rock concert.  Joel was the producer of those concerts and made sure the teens and young adults of Wenatchee had a safe, fun place on Friday nights.  Now, nearly thirty years later, they are both members of the lodge where those co...

Our Sovereign Grand Master, the Honorable Gerald V. Workman of West Virginia, sat down with us for a wide-ranging discussion about his path in Odd Fellowship and how it led him to the top job in the Order.  He tells about his early days joining the Junior Lodge, his many years working in his local lodge, his eventual path through the chairs of the Grand Lodge of West Virginia, and his journey into the Sovereign Grand Lodge.  Along ...

As has become tradition at the Three Links Odd Cast, we like to take a turn to the spooky for Halloween and talk cemeteries.  We're joined by Brother Michael Duplantier to discuss the progress on restoring New Orleans' famous Odd Fellows' Rest Cemetery.  Brother Duplantier does a wonderful job of giving us the history and background on the cemetery and how it fell into disrepair along with the recent efforts to resto...

Usually, by the time we at the Three Links Odd Cast hear about a new lodge being chartered, it's already meeting regularly.  However, in this instance, we got to talk to Brother Garrett Hite of Oklahoma as he's in the process of re-chartering Durant Lodge #57.  Brother Garrett shares his story of how he first came to join the Odd Fellows, his time away from his home lodge, and the eventual need to form a new lodge in his ...

Mike, Toby, and Ainslie are all safely home from their trip to Pittsburgh and back to their usual lodge activities.  The brothers got together to discuss their experiences at Sovereign Grand Lodge and how they felt the Order was progressing as a result.  They all had wonderful experiences at the event and enjoyed the fellowship and are energized with all kinds of great ideas for the future.  They discuss all those ideas in this epi...

The 2024 Annual Communication of the Sovereign Grand Lodge was noteworthy for many reasons, not least of which was our live recording of the first episode of Season Five of the Three Links Odd Cast.  We had a packed meeting room full of members from jurisdictions all across the US and Canada on hand for this lively discussion of the state of Odd Fellowship today.  Mike, Ainslie, and Toby had a great time directing the discussion an...