David Arndt, author of Philosophy of Writing and a literature and philosophy professor at St. Mary's College of California, joins Tammy and Tim for a conversation that moves from the origins of a 25-year book project to what writing does to the person doing it.

Arndt teaches in the Integral Program of Liberal Arts, a Great Books program at St. Mary's, where he has been on faculty for thirteen years. Before that, he taught at Deep Springs College in Eastern California, at a university in Ankara, Turkey, and at a state university in Pennsylvania. His first book, Arendt on the Political, was published by Cambridge University Press; his second, Philosophy of Writing, is out now from Bloomsbury.

They talk about why it took Arndt 25 years to finish Philosophy of Writing, what Heidegger's concept of truth has to do with the experience of reading, why contemporary philosophy rarely mentions wisdom, how discussion-based teaching differs from filling buckets, and the four types of thought — demonstrative, interpretive, dialogical, and narrative — that structure the book's argument. Arndt also reads passages from Epictetus, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault that shaped his thinking, talks about studying with Jacques Derrida at UC Irvine, discusses his twin brother Michael Arndt's screenwriting work (Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3), and makes both books available for free as open access.

Mentioned in this episode:

• David Arndt on Facebook (author page)
• Philosophy of Writing (Bloomsbury, open access)
• Philosophy of Writing on Amazon
• Arendt on the Political (Cambridge University Press, open access)
• Michael Arndt — Endings: The Good, the Bad and the Insanely Great (YouTube)
• Deep Springs College

Follow David Arndt:

• Facebook

Listen wherever you get podcasts.

AJ Porfirio and Evan Derrick of Van Ryder Games join Tammy Coron and Tim Mitra to talk about what it takes to build an independent board game company.

AJ started with a solo zombie game he designed in his living room. Evan came aboard a few years later. Together, they built Van Ryder Games into the publisher behind Final Girl, the first solo-only title to crack the BoardGameGeek Top 100.

AJ is the founder and president of Van Ryder Games, designer of Hostage Negotiator, and co-designer of Final Girl. Evan is the creative director and vice president, designer of Detective: City of Angels, and the other half of the Final Girl co-design.

On this episode, they get into how the mechanics of Hostage Negotiator became the foundation for Final Girl's solo board game design, why the modular double-sided feature film box came close to breaking the company before it became its defining signature, what it meant for a solo-only game to reach the BoardGameGeek Top 100, how fifteen years of Kickstarter board game campaigns changed how AJ and Evan think about tiers and stretch goals, and what Era Two of Final Girl will and won't change for people who own the game.

They also talk about manufacturing in China, the current tariff situation for hobby board games, and what running a board game business looks like beyond the design work.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Van Ryder Games
• Van Ryder Games Discord
• Final Girl
• Hostage Negotiator
• Dark Moon - published version of Evan's BSG Express
• Friday - solo board game by Friedemann Friese, 2011
• Search Engine podcast, episode on making a product in America
• Power Publishing - AJ's YouTube series on board game publishing

Follow AJ Porfirio and Evan Derrick:

• Van Ryder Games
• Van Ryder Games Discord

Listen wherever you get podcasts.

Matt Parkin — 3D artist, game developer, and creator of The Polygon Pilgrimage — joins Tammy and Tim to talk about building games solo, shipping his first commercial title, and what it actually takes to go from a whiteboard idea to something playable on Steam.

Matt has been running The Polygon Pilgrimage, a weekly tutorial series on YouTube, for over a decade. The channel covers 3D modeling, texturing, and game art using tools such as Blender, Substance Painter, Unity, and more, and has grown to over 10,000 subscribers. He also streams 3D modeling live on Twitch and has been featured by 80.lv for his tutorials on Substance Designer and Unity. Outside the tutorials, he works as a senior programmer for the Air Force, runs his own design LLC, and has spent 25-plus years in 3D art.

In this episode, Matt talks through his background — drawing since age three, picking up 3DS Max in high school, earning a bachelor's degree in multimedia arts and animation, and teaching himself four programming languages along the way. He walks through the making of 1325 Maple Lane, a parody horror game about the terrors of home ownership, now on Steam. He also gets into his philosophy on using asset packs versus building from scratch, why he left Unreal Engine for Unity, how he manages color in his work as someone with achromatopsia, his approach to teaching beginners (start with the smallest complete circle you can make), and a Twitch-integrated game project currently in development. The after-show covers AI in 3D art pipelines, optimizing geometry for game performance, the importance of building the bottoms of the feet, and the games that helped shape his career.

Mentioned in this episode:

• 1325 Maple Lane on Steam
• Paws & Play Studios
• The Polygon Pilgrimage
• Unity
• Substance 3D Painter
• tldraw
• Disney's 12 principles of animation
• BrickTownBust quickplay

Follow Matt Parkin:

• TikTok
• Discord
• Twitch