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Kaina spent several hours combing all eight books for keywords, mostly god names, and the result is a PowerPoint so deranged and conspiracy-board-coded that the FBI will be sending recruitment letters anytime now. By the end, she had a moment best described as "holy frickin' shit, I think I figured it out." Buckle up buttercups. We start with the promised family tree, and it is exactly as disturbing as you'd expect from a pantheon where the mother of all gods is a “mom-wife” to a real a*****e that is sexually attracted to bacon. Old gods, new gods, incest, and lots of cold-blooded murder. Game of Thrones vibemaxxing much??  From there it's a full genealogy breakdown: who begat who, who cursed who, who banished who, and who is currently being sponsored. There is a mysterious third child in this family tree that nobody's paid much attention to until now, and once Kaina lays out the clues connecting a certain fan favorite character to the Scavenger storyline, Tyson does not so much agree as have his mind blown. We won't spoil who it is, so tune in to hear all the dirty details. We also take a sad swing at the Geyrun murder mystery, still hopelessly unsolved after several books — and not for lack of clues. Plus, a full rundown on Apito, Hellik, Ysalte, Chachi, and a couple other notable deities as we head into the 12th floor. All of the deep dive PowerPoints, including this one, will be linked below for anyone who wants to review the receipts at their leisure. SPOILER WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for all currently released Dungeon Crawler Carl books, through book eight. Deep Dive PowerPoint Archive: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/16PE1Rk3_ahu7zfkB5gt9NpnG2uM67dhJIntro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: @goddess_of_fate on Discord | @avaryll.rain on InstagramTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual assault — this episode also touches on transphobia, antisemitism, gun violence. After months of talking about it, we finally delivered the episode discussing cancel culture. Buzzword alert, don't get triggered. We start with a warm up question: name someone who got canceled and came all the way back versus someone who never did. The gap between those two answers says more about power and privilege than anything else. Then it's rapid fire time with ten real cases and three answer choices: cancel, not cancel, or complicated. Cait Corrain faking reviews to sabotage rival authors. Kanye's antisemitism. Alex Jones and Sandy Hook. Kaepernick and the NFL's convenient cowardice. The Sydney Sweeney ad discourse. Conor McGregor headlining UFC after a civil sexual assault verdict. JK Rowling.  From there, why any of this works on us: moral outrage addiction is a real researched dopamine hit, and social rejection lights up the same brain regions as physical pain. We get into tribalism, the Pew data showing Americans can't agree what cancel culture even means, and a 2024 study showing people's verdicts track their political team way harder than their stated values. We draw the line between cancel culture and the quieter call-in version (Tyson's James Gunn example, old tweets resurfaced, he owned it, survived it), then ask the harder question: does canceling even work? Michael Jackson and R. Kelly's listenership went up after documentaries detailing abuse. Chris Brown just got a Grammy nomination. Verdict: it punches down way harder than it punches up. We close in the literary space, drawing a hard line between book banning (dangerous, always) and the newer trend of accusing indie authors of using AI based on detection tools that flag real human writing constantly, tanking careers off an unappealable percentage score, which is especially rich given every major AI company is currently being sued for training on stolen books. Comment your own cancel or not cancel verdicts. Fight amongst yourselves. Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: Samantha done by @lcleanforheichou on Reddit Check out our sister Kari's art (and tattoo work!) on TikTok: @markari.annTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!Business email: [email protected] ListPew Research Center, "Americans and 'Cancel Culture'" (2021)Diether, Yi, Argyle & Busby, "The Political Psychology of Cancel Culture: Value Framing or Group Identity?", Political Research Quarterly (2024)Traversa, Tian & Wright, "Cancel culture can be collectively validating for groups experiencing harm," Frontiers in Psychology (2023)Adeyemi, "The Psychological Impact of Cancel Culture," Premier Journal of Psychology (2025)Norris, "Closed Minds? Is a 'Cancel Culture' Stifling Academic Freedom...", HKS Working Paper (2020)Adrian Daub, The Cancel Culture Panic: How an American Obsession Went Global (Stanford University Press) — feature via Stanford Humanities & SciencesKennedy, "Networked Justice: The Actions and Effects of Cancel Culture on YouTube," a/b: Auto/Biography Studies (2025)The College Fix, Campus Cancel Culture Database, 2025–26 year-in-reviewHailey Gibbs, "What is 'Cancel Culture' if not just 'Consequences for Your Actions?'", Medium (2020)The Authors Guild, "Can AI Detectors Be Trusted? The Authors Guild Put Five of Them to the Test" (2026)

Tyson is filming this one in from the field, with boots on ground at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine, Texas for QuakeCon's 30th anniversary, and Kaina's holding down the home base for a very special episode: why do we actually love gaming? We start with a trip down core memory lane. The twelve hour Minecraft marathon that counts as the start of Kaina’s obsession. The Wii era. City of Heroes back when Atlas Park was basically a hangout spot and nobody had jobs to get to. Half-Life and Left 4 Dead. Tyson's Apple IIe childhood running Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on five and a half inch floppy discs, because if it wasn't educational, it wasn't allowed in our cult childhood. And obviously, the sacred memory of getting absolutely destroyed by Tyson playing Princess Peach in Super Smash Bros after talking so much smack about her. Following that, we get into the actual why. For Tyson, gaming was survival math and a safe place to land in the post cult years, and also somehow the thing that made him better at real life along the way. For Kaina, it's the same reason she loves fiction: life is a lot, escapism is necessary, and a good open world game is basically a book you get to live inside. And since these two don't get to see each other often, slaying hordes of evil together has become an avenue of quality time and staying close over distance.  Current rotation talk: an extremely detailed Vermintide 1 vs. Vermintide 2 breakdown (methodical tactical slaughter vs. chaotic satisfying slaughter but with incredibly amazing voice lines either way), Tyson's 683 soul crushing hours in Rocket League, the Baldur's Gate 3 run that's been stuck in Act One since the podcast started, and Kaina's nightly Red Dead Online ritual of riding her horse around while collecting wildflowers and listening to one of her lil audiobooks.  And then there's QuakeCon itself, which sounds amazing in every way. A cat room and a dog room both run by local rescues. An atrium that looks like Jurassic Park. Real life Rocket League with remote control cars. Multiple new games discovered mid convention including an RV survival sandbox where someone fell off a bridge and died (RIP Nick) and Windrose, which Tyson describes as Valheim except everyone's a pirate, which led directly to drinking loads of rum so he and friends could "properly" play it. We close out hyping the games on the horizon: the new God of War Laufey (and the exact kind of guys mad that it centers a woman's story), Witcher 4, 1666 Amsterdam, Dragon Twin, and the Fable reboot. Plus a very real plan brewing to livestream a Vermindtide gaming session as its own episode, so keep an eye out for that. Comment your gaming origin story below. We want to know what got you hooked and why you love the hobby. Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of intimate media and cultural attitudes. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language and mature themes. Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts!Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

The Ballad of Falling Dragons picks up everything we loved about the first book and then turns the emotional dial up all the way. Kaina ugly cried multiple times, and Tyson maintains that all of his crying was quite beautiful. In this episode, we dig into all the dirty details about the series that is now one of our god-tier romantasy reads, despite being unfinished. Book Two of the Moonfall series (and fall they did) is an action-packed wrecking ball with no brakes and no mercy, and we are equally feral about the spice as we are about the uniquely beautiful writing style of Sarah A. Parker. We spiral through the reveals that broke us, the theories we're clinging to for dear life, and the questions that are going to haunt us until the trilogy completes…which, given Sarah A. Parker's timeline, may be a while. Which is just totally, absolutely, FINE. Not like it’s gonna consume our every waking thought until then. Also: why Tyson has a bone to pick with the Fate Herder's name, the silver ribbon theory that might connect more characters than we initially thought, whether Grimm and Ahra are gonna come through to save one of our favs, Rave's journey through icy trauma, and the devastating realization that Essie's butterman loaf involves way too much work and we just simply do not have the range. Rule numero uno going into book three: NEVER assume anyone is dead ever again.  Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art Spotlight: @redmurphy.art & @ekilateral.art Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

⚠️ FULL SPOILER WARNING: All eight books, plus kinda sorta REALLY major spoilers for Mistborn Era 1 and The Stormlight Archive at around minutes 24-25. Cascadia voice — Sorry bout that.  YO! DADDY! What the actual frick frack snick snack did that coming out party mean?!  A Parade of Horribles contained a significant lore dump about the true nature of the dungeon, primals, and the history of the universe more than any other book thus far. In this episode, Kaina & Tyso walk through all of it: what happened to the primals, what the macro AIs actually are, The Eulogist, The Apothecary, and more. From there we get into the current state of Daddy Primal — what it controls, what it can't control (the gods…for now), as well as what the out-of-dungeon version of the nine-tier attack (I REPEAT, THE OUT OF DUNGEON VERSION) is already doing to the broader galaxy. Kaina also breaks down her casual crack theories about Lamashtu the donkey as a metaphor, the nature of subjugation, and what the Ascendancy winner will be able to do…to which Tyson responds, “So the prize is a quarter-powered donkey? Congrats.” Then, we touch on the Outside Intelligences — macro AIs assumed to be dead by the Mantids that yeeted them into stars. Speaking of…those weird bugs deserved everything they got. Some of these OIs are already on the playing field and vying for the Ascendancy, and Tyson has a rather curious theory about who they might be (if we’ve even met them yet). As we close, Kaina shares a theory that’s been living in her brain rent-free. It revolves around the myth of Scolopendra, another of its kind, and what it might mean that Carl is a primal in a story where a primal AI is carrying out the nine-tier attack on the universe. And for the record, Tyson has now been fully converted on the importance of Carl's primal race.  Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN Music🎨 Donut fan art (slides) from the Dungeon Crawler Carl Wiki Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

We're alive!! Welcome back to Cosmic Donut Holes. It's been a few weeks since we've recorded, and since then, Kokaina moved to a new city, went to Puerto Rico for a birthday, survived a wedding weekend, and is now back to cosplaying as a sourdough baker that totally has their life together. Tyso fell hopelessly in love, went clubbing more than a few times, ate fried cheese, and received the most adorable coke spoon in a mystery vending machine box. We catch up on all of it — Tyso's new relationship and the balboa dancing origin story, the Berlin club experience that has no American equivalent, Kaina's first (sort of) international trip and Puerto Rico's ongoing water crisis that nobody in the US is talking about, the upcoming family reunion, festival plans, and the absolute nightmare that is moving across states. Also, we touch briefly on our ongoing TBR crisis, roller skating, and tent soup. This one is all over the place. Enjoy our chaotic lives as ✨content ✨ and our regular programming shall resume soon!  Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicDCC Fan Art: Joe SchlottachTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

After realizing a single deep dive into book 8 would’ve been approximately 8 hours long, we decided to turn this into a series — because too much happened in A Parade of Horribles to cover in one sitting, and we refuse to half-ass this. Vol. 1 is crawler character arcs. We start with Donut's two prophecies, digging into her motherhood arc, the cost of her insane level of power, as well as what her title (Champion of Nekhebit, Harbinger of Doom, Assassin of the Great and Feral Sekhmet) is setting up for the 12th floor. Then Carl: the five-sided coin, the tree-and-abyss prophecy, his dark side getting harder to keep in check as the pressure builds, the Bedlam Bride still lurking, and his primal race — is it just a label or does it actually mean something in the context of what we now know about Primals? From there we move through the remaining 12th floor crew: Ellie's four seasons build finally coming online, Imani's reason to survive now more than ever and whether that makes her more or less likely to make it out, Pony's incredible arc and his Midnight Epicure connection, Florin's possibly sentient shotgun, and the ticking time bomb that is Lucia. Over in Sheol, we check in on Louis — including a Matt Dinniman interview answer that reframes how you read him entirely — werewolf Chris, and Britney, whose worsening condition and cryptic message to Carl have us very suspicious. We also touch on the Pineapple Cabaret crew and Katia at the Kinder facility, who is still very much on our minds.  And then Sexy Scolopendra, of course. We both arrived at a fun theory before the episode even started, and it means Carl will probably f**k a centipede. Plus her paramour biscuit stats, class potential, and what the Donut dynamic is going to look like…mortal enemies, or girl besties? Vol. 2 + more are coming. The AI deserves its own episode after “coming out”, and Kaina is going to have a whole god family tree diagram for us to unpack very soon. Stay tuned, Donut Holes! ⚠️ FULL SPOILER WARNING: Everything. All eight books. Every death, every lore reveal, every prophecy. If you're not caught up, go read and come back. We'll be here. Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN Music🎨Fan Art: @the.doodlemancer on TikTok | KatiBeast on Reddit🎨 All slide fan art from the Dungeon Crawler Carl Wiki except the Scolopendra art by high_stream on RedditKaina’s Samantha shirt: https://www.highart-apparel.com/ TikTok shoutouts: @valgoworth (Beatrice theory) & @dis_pat (Scavenger’s Daughter theory)Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

We have opinions about conspiracy theories, and Tyson wore his Illuminati shirt for the occasion.  This week, we are running through a stack of conspiracy theories — mainstream, weird, plausible, and deeply unhinged — and rating each one on a scale of Nah, Hmm, Actually Though, and I Need to Lie Down. With a special bonus category Tyson invented on the spot: I Just Really Want This to Be True. Before we get into the bingo, we spend some time on the bigger question of why conspiracy theories are so compelling in the first place. Having grown up inside a high-control religious group, we recognize the machinery of them more than most. The need to feel like you have special knowledge nobody else does. The us-versus-them certainty. The way any evidence against the theory somehow becomes proof of how deep it goes. These are familiar concepts, and they make us both more skeptical and more curious than the average person.  Then we get into it. The Simpsons predicting the future. The moon landing (hell nah…just stop). The JFK assassination…although Umbrella Academy did clear that one up. 9/11 as an inside job. Chemtrails, which turns out to be more documented than Kaina expected. The Illuminati, the lizard people, and Denver International Airport, which we both agree, leaned into it brilliantly. Government alien cover-ups and the congressional hearings that made this one significantly less fringe. COVID19 and vaccines. 5G towers, which Tyson dismantles completely and correctly using electromagnetic wave science so we can all sleep better at night. Epstein didn't kill himself (obviously). The Wayfair furniture listings and how Jeffrey Epstein’s emails give it more weight. Birds aren't real. Chuck E. Cheese pizza. Zuckerberg as a lizard person (compelling evidence: his face). We close with the ones that stopped being conspiracy theories because they turned out to be true: COINTELPRO, MKUltra, Operation Mockingbird, the tobacco industry's cancer cover-up, and Purdue Pharma's very intentional opioid crisis. The pattern we keep coming back to: the theories that turn out to be true almost always involve money and power protecting themselves. The ones that don't tend to require increasingly elaborate explanations for why there's no evidence. Moral of the story: never let your certainty get too strong. Approach everything with curiosity, not your self-righteous ego. Mainstream media is failing us and a lot of what fills the gap is garbage, but some of it isn't. And just remember folks, if the government could – they would, and they probably are. Comment your favorite conspiracy theories below. We want to know. ⚠️ CONTENT NOTE/TW: This episode contains discussion of child abuse networks and related conspiracy theories.  Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: Willow Roxas | Ekath ArtTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

Picture this: a 15-year-old girl walks into a high school cafeteria for the first time, sees everyone already deep in their friend groups, and quietly takes her lunch to the bathroom instead. That girl was Kaina. And yes, we're blaming homeschooling…at least partially. This week we're doing something we've never actually sat down and done before: comparing notes on what our homeschooling experiences were really like, why they were so wildly different from each other, and what the long tail of that looks like 10-15 years later. Tyson had engaged parents, a solid curriculum, science kits, Lincoln Logs, and regular homeschool co-op meetups. Kaina had a computer, unsupervised hours, and quickly discovered that if you get about 80% of the answers right, nobody notices you cheated. The gap between those two outcomes tells you almost everything you need to know about what homeschooling actually is: a mirror of whoever's running it. We get into the cult years: how joining a high-control religious group at young ages respectively transformed homeschooling from an educational choice into an instrument of sheltering. The books disappeared, music had to be pre-approved, birthday parties were a hard no. We also dig into why, despite all of that, Kaina still wants to homeschool her own kids someday, and what doing it “right” would actually require. Then we turn to the public school system, which is not exactly offering a compelling alternative right now. We cover the data: 30% of 12th graders who can't demonstrate basic reading proficiency, teacher burnout at record highs, seven hours a month lost to behavioral management instead of instruction, a dwindling Department of Education that is becoming a political weapon. Neither option is clean. So what do you actually do? Moral of the story: both options kind of suck in different ways. But intentional parenting is the variable that matters most in either one. Do your research, unpack your own stuff before you pass it to your kids, and for the love of everything — tell them why. ⚠️ CONTENT NOTE: This episode contains candid discussion of growing up in a high-control religious group, disordered eating, and the long-term effects of sheltered upbringings. Discussed openly and honestly, not gratuitously. 📚 RESOURCES MENTIONED: Barbara Oakley: Learning How to LearnStarTalk Podcast with Neil deGrasse Tyson (fluid dynamics / parenting bit)Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: Dominik Broniek | Steve ArgyleTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected]

⚠️ FULL SPOILER WARNING: If you haven't finished Book 8: A Parade of Horribles, SCRAM. SKERDADDLE. We’ll see you after you've recovered. Still here? Good….NOW WTF WAS THAT?! After the early access version Dungeon Crawler Carl Book VIII on Matt Dinniman's Patreon left us reeling, we decided to open up the recording studio, pull up our Kindle highlights, and just…ramble at each other in a state of delirious awe for an hour while we recount all the best (and craziest) moments. This is not our deep, intelligent, fully theorized breakdown — that one is coming — this is the book hangover episode. The "wait, I forgot THAT happened?!" episode. The "oh god, thanks for reminding us this is a tragedy Matt” episode. We cover the chaos from Donut absolutely dismantling Chandra in chapter one (she will never recover), to the Scolopendra twist that had us screaming at our Kindles, to the glorious ending that was classic Carl & Donut. We dig into the Eris coin and why Mordecai's prophecies have us stressed, revisit Dong and Corcunda's final charge (RIP), mourn the group getting smaller, make fun of the Maestro, try and mostly fail to pronounce Chachi's full name, and spiral into the early workings of theories for the next two books.  We also shout out the Soundbooth Theater Audio Immersion Tunnel experience for anyone who thinks the regular audiobooks can't be topped (they can, go listen), remember why the karaoke bar fight scene is peak DCC, and make our best guesses about what the Ascendancy Battles on Floor 12 are going to look like. Also, don't pirate Matt's books, you absolute jerks. His Patreon link is below — give the man his well deserved coins. SPOILER WARNING: All the spoilers. Every single one. For all eight books. Matt Dinniman's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dinnimanIntro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: phantom_nisnow on Instagram (DCC) & Andrew Mar (DCC)Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of storytelling, pop culture, and two people attempting accents they have no business attempting. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language, mature themes, and crimes against the Russian language.

We gave each other books. We couldn't read the back cover. We couldn't Google it. We just had to start reading and trust the other person completely. This is either a beautiful act of sibling love or a war crime, depending on the book. Tyson handed Kaina The Descent by Jeff Long, which is a 1999 horror-thriller-sci-fi hybrid that begs the question: what if hell was literally underground, humanity found it, and then did exactly what you'd expect humanity to do about it? Kaina handed Tyson One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig, a romantasy with one of the most elegantly balanced magic systems we've ever read, a nightmare that lives in someone's head, and poetry that actually earns its place in the story. We break down both books — what surprised us, what we loved, what hit differently than expected — and Kaina reflects on why reading a book literally about Satan and the subterranean underworld lands completely differently after deconstructing the hell mythology you grew up afraid of. (Spoiler: it was a lot more fun that way.) We also get into why One Dark Window's magic system is doing something genuinely special with the idea of cost and balance, and why both of us would absolutely read more from these authors. Plus: Tyson reports live from Berlin's May Day celebrations, we spiral into a conversation about community, individualism, and why more Americans need to leave America for a little while, the secret garden theory of creative projects, a digital detox that proved nobody was paying attention anyway, and the AI chatbot episode of John Oliver that had us feeling things. We're also announcing the Book Club Blind Date as an official recurring format. Next time, we'll announce the books ahead of time so you can read along with us. ⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: We discuss plot points from The Descent by Jeff Long and One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig, including somewhat significant reveals. If you haven't finished either and want to go in as blind as we did, you've got about 18 minutes of initial yapping before we get into it. Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: Annie Doyon on Substack | Clay Storks on TumblrTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of storytelling, pop culture, and two people attempting accents they have no business attempting. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language, mature themes, and crimes against the Russian language.

In true Cosmic Donut Holes fashion, this episode is unhinged, unplanned, and unscripted. It's sweet. It's us. Now…get in the van. This episode starts strong with Kaina getting a phone call mid-recording that sends her into orbit — she's leaving the hellscape that is rural Louisiana. From there, it's the kind of hang we live for: A debrief of Tyson's weekend at Filthy Dirty Southern Fusion (a birthday party for festival organizers that involved a lot of butts), a crown vs. a roast beef sandwich, and the saga of trying to socialize post-acid on zero sleep while a friend informs you that you sound like "a caveman who's just encountered humanity for the first time." Then Kaina pulls out the We're Not Really Strangers card game — and we learn things. Who Tyson thinks Kaina's celebrity crush is (valiant guess). Whether plants thrive or die in Kaina's care (for the love of God never ask her to babysit your plants). Who ate lunch in a bathroom freshman year of high school, and why Zooey Deschanel in Yes Man is apparently someone's entire personality. We also somehow end up in a full Game of Thrones autopsy, a Valyrian language detour, and how you too can play video games at school. You’re welcome. SPOILER WARNING: Brief discussion of Game of Thrones ending (you've been warned since 2019, honestly). Matt Dinniman's Patreon (go read Book 8 early access RIGHT MEOW): https://www.patreon.com/dinnimanIntro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: @thedoodlemancer on TikTokTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of storytelling, pop culture, and two people attempting accents they have no business attempting. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language, mature themes, and crimes against the Russian language.

After last week's two-hour deep dive into masculinity left us in a full state of brain salad, we decided this one was going to be a cozy hang. A palette cleanser. A little treat. And treat it was — because this episode is (mostly) about the unsung heroes of the bookish world: audiobook narrators. The people who take the words we lose ourselves in and make them feel even more real. We break down what actually makes a great audiobook narrator (hint: it's not the voice, and that might surprise you), then we get into full fangirl/fanboy mode over our personal hall of famers. Michael Kramer and his soothing, dynamic Cosmere mastery. Elizabeth Evans. Kate Reading. And of course — the man, the myth, the one-man theater himself — Jeff Hays, narrator of Dungeon Crawler Carl and founder of Soundbooth Theater, whose relationship with Matt Dinniman is one of the greatest author-narrator love stories in modern fiction. Then we do something arguably inadvisable: we launch the very first installment of The Accent Lab — a new segment where we pick an accent, do some light research, practice approximately not enough, and perform it live for your judgment and entertainment. Kaina went Russian. She also read an excerpt from the Book 8 Early Access: A Parade of Horribles — specifically a Samantha Floor 9 recap passage — entirely in said Russian accent. It went exactly as well as you'd expect. ⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: This excerpt contains spoilers for Book 7. Tyson went Australian, pulled out some Florin quotes, and somehow made it worse and better at the same time. We regret nothing. Mongo is most certainly appalled. Matt Dinniman's Patreon (go read Book 8 early access RIGHT MEOW): https://www.patreon.com/dinnimanIntro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: OutFold on Reddit (DCC) & Levi Cleeman (DCC)Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of storytelling, pop culture, and two people attempting accents they have no business attempting. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language, mature themes, and crimes against the Russian language.

Strap in guys, we are talking man stuff and it’s a long one ;) The manosphere is not a fringe internet problem anymore; it’s a radicalization pipeline spurred by algorithms and expanded by recruitment tactics that two cult survivors recognize from a mile away. As the old-school script for being a “man” burns in the streets, young men are being left to drift in an identity vacuum created by a rapidly shifting world. We’ve all heard of the male loneliness epidemic and the men’s mental health crisis, but how did we get here? As we peel back the layers, we can see how these “alpha” gurus identify REAL problems – isolation, lack of purpose, and a lack of empathy – and then sell absolutely HORRIBLE, predatory solutions. This episode is a deep dive into what this "red pill" nonsense is doing to men AND women, and what a genuine, human representation of masculinity actually looks like. Spoiler: Tyson is the poster boy. Between the earrings, the "man friends," and being a literal glitter-covered canvas for his sisters, he’s proof that emotional intelligence and showing up for others is the real strength redefined. We also get into what toxic masculinity actually means, because the term causes scorched earth reactions in many places, and the real definition is worth understanding. It’s not an attack on men, but an examination of the rigid “man box” that culture hands boys from birth and what it costs everyone when men are rewarded for suppressing everything that makes them human. Tyson talks about how he is still in the process of defining masculinity, and how he breaks the rules about what men are “allowed” to be without losing an ounce of strength or respect.  While you might learn a lot of disturbing things in this episode, keep in mind that radicalization can be reversed. Tune in to hear our thoughts on what healthy masculinity looks like, what can be done on an individual level, and why community – the real kind, not the kind that requires you to hate women to belong – is the only actual antidote. TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual Assault Book: Men Who Hate Women by Laura BatesLouie Theroux: Inside the Manosphere DocumentaryLink to Teal Swan video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ4TsITQBaAIntro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: Ashley Nobles (When the Moon Hatched) & ModelManntastic (Stormlight)Tune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of intimate media and cultural attitudes. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language and mature themes.

No agenda. No rules. Just two people that have spent an irresponsible amount of time thinking about this series. We’re back in the dungeon for a loosey goosey session – the type where we just crack open the lore and start poking things until they move. We get deep into some unhinged theories: how changelings and primals might be related, the breadcrumbs left in item descriptions by an unhinged AI, and how little we and the Syndicate actually know about the Nothing. Plus whatever else crawled out of our brains on the day (don’t worry, no Valtay worms here). Then we play Kiss, Marry, Kill with the most chaotic character combos Kaina could devise and somehow it gets worse every round. You’ll see. (Maggie My or Clammy the Clown anybody??) AND – because we saved the best for last – we air a live excerpt from Book 8 as read by the legendary Jeff Hays. You’re welcome. OH AND ALSO go to Matt Dinniman’s Patreon RIGHT NOW and pay the man five doll hairs for a Platinum Benefactor Box because you CAN READ BOOK 8 TODAY AND NOT WAIT UNTIL MAY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL CARL! SPOILER WARNING: SPOILERS. ALL THE SPOILERS. Book 8 Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ZNKIabVF8 Matt Dinniman Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dinniman Intro Music: Synthetic Prayer by JKN MusicFan Art: @thedoodlemancer on TikTokTune into future episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts! Follow Kaina on TikTok @cosmerecat for more Cosmic Donut Holes content!Business email: [email protected] Note: This episode is a candid, humorous exploration of intimate media and cultural attitudes. Viewer discretion is advised for explicit language and mature themes.