We have a special interview for you this week which arrives just in time for your holiday shopping considerations. The concept behind Restoration Games is that the team rescues fun, buzz-generating board games that have largely been lost to obscurity and brings them back in rejuvenated and modernized editions. Their bestselling UnMatched Series has generated tremendous excitement permitting characters like Daredevil or Sherlock Holmes to do battle against Dracula or King Arthur. Their upcoming release Battle Monsters already created huge excitement at Gen Con, especially for one Mr. Nathan Rouse.

We got to sit down with two key staffers at Restoration Games, Lead Marketing Alchemist Beth Erikson and Meeple Mover Josh Willenbrink, to discuss the company's primary efforts in restoring once-popular games and what makes their bestselling titles so accessible and addicting. It's a fun and lively conversation that we think you're going to love.

Check out all the fun at Restoration Games and we hope you enjoy this special interview!

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We have a unique and special interview for your feed this week. Much like our budding relationship with local Charlotte bookstore Troubadour Booksellers, our desire to highlight those doing good work in the spaces that overlap with ours continues with a special conversation with a representative from a wonderful establishment in Charlotte called the INDEPENDENT PICTURE HOUSE.

The Independent Picture House, or IPH, is a movie theater in most ways that matter, but with some significant differences from the multiplexes you might be familiar with. Nathan sat down with their Director of Education and Community Engagement, de'Angelo Dia -- who describes himself as a theopoet and mystic whose work explores culture and moral imagination through poetry, performance art, and photography. The pair of them have an invigorating discussion about the IPH, its purpose and intention, as well as broader ways of engaging culture and art and film in more intentional, thoughtful, and spiritual ways.

If you're in the Charlotte area, please check out Independent Picture House and meanwhile we hope you enjoy this special conversation!

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We have another special interview for you this week with another great book recommendation. This time, we hosted bestselling author Rachel Harrison to talk about her latest book, PLAY NICE. Rachel is a Bram Stoker nominated writer who has been remarkably prolific since her hit debut novel The Return landed on shelves in 2020.

Her latest book, Play Nice, centers around Clio Barnes, a stylist and successful influencer with a complex past: the home she grew up in wasn't just haunted, it was possessed. When her mother passes away suddenly, she returns home to find herself navigating the tricky perspectives of her upbringing. As she confronts her own perceptions about her childhood and her family, she will be forced to come to terms with some metaphorical -- and possibly very literal -- demons.

Rachel's conversation with us quickly reveals the thoughtful depth that she brings to this unconventional haunted house tale as well as her strong talents at characterization and human observation which have made her prose so captivating. Play Nice is on bookshelves now and we highly recommend you check it out. Meanwhile, enjoy our special interview!

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Spooky season never ends around here and we have a special Friday interview for you today where we host author Christina Henry to discuss her latest book, THE PLACE WHERE THEY BURIED YOUR HEART. Christina is a bestselling author of horror and dark fantasy novels, many of which include sequels or original reinventions of classic children's tales.

The Place Where They Buried Your Heart tells the story of a "house that doesn't belong" on an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago. When Jessie Campanelli's brother went into the house and never came out, it tore Jessie's family apart in irreparable ways and forever changed the course of her life. Now, grown and with a child of her own, Jessie senses a growing darkness spreading from the house -- a darkness that seems alive... and hungry.

We sat down with Christina to discuss her richly textured novel that examines the nature of communities, the haunting power of regret, and the ways that sometimes the smallest of choices may come to define our whole future. It's available wherever books are sold and we highly recommend it. We hope you enjoy this special conversation!

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Another Spooky Season (ahhhhhh) has come and gone, friends and FoGgers. In the grand tradition we've developed these past few years, we offer you a coda on our Final Destination franchise run by looking back on some of our favorite thematic observations throughout the discussions, ranking each of the films in the franchise, selecting our most "Ain't Right" moments across all six films, and -- of course -- the moment you've all been waiting for: the official Mack Daddy Kills Hall of Fame for the FINAL DESTINATION franchise.

The next couple of months will be rather unconventional programming as we wind down the year, including more interviews, some complete conversations, and a couple other surprises. But we will be back in January with a whole new slate of FoGgy episodes, because the Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, but not the end of the conversation.

In that spirit, we encourage you to fear nothing else and be on your way rejoicing.

5:15 - Reflections on FoG 2025

9:57 - That Ain't Right for the Final Destination franchise

24:52 - Ranking the Final Destination films

47:35 - Themes and Observations Across the Conversations

1:08:23 - The Mack Daddy Kills Hall of Fame

1:33:04 - Closing Credits and Special Thank Yous

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We hope you're having a safe and fun Halloween this year. As a special little Spooky Season bonus, we decided -- quite on a whim -- to drop in a little bonus chat for you wherein Nathan plays Reed's game known as TAKE FIVE.

Take Five is meant to be a kind of primer for a specific category of films, identifying unique and important entries to flesh out your understanding. What film made the most money? What film is the most representative? What is underrated? What film changed everything? And what film stands out as a cult classic?

As a special Halloween treat, we play the game of Take Five for the work of the one and only John Carpenter! Play along with us as we uncover his Blockbuster, Classic, Cult Hit, Hinge, and Gem. As we hope you have a wonderful and very Happy Halloween!

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We've reached the penultimate episode of this year's spooky season franchise run. Earlier this year, the Final Destination franchise returned after a decade and a half hiatus with FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES. The sixth installment expands upon the universe of the franchise in ways that add both thematic and narrative weight. It features strong characterizations, clever, inventive sequencing, and -- of course -- a lot of surprising and elaborate deaths. It also features the final on screen performance of the legendary horror icon Tony Todd, who passed away before the film was released and whose final lines in the film serve as a coda for both his career and the franchise as a whole.

Unpacking all of that and more with us is a host of fun guests, including Vera Goudie, Matt Ruff, Penny Rouse, Matt Murray, Steve Beckley, and Jocee Worley. It's not only a thoughtful and occasionally heartfelt conversation about the preciousness of life, it's also a laughter-filled joy machine of a discussion party. We truly find the hope in the horrific this week and we hope you all enjoy it!

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We're kicking Halloween week off with a special interview we hosted with author Nick Medina about his latest book, THE WHISTLER. Nick writes horror, crime, and mystery fiction that sits at the intersection of social issues alongside Native American folklore.

The Whistler, his third novel, centers around Henry, a man who suffers immense tragedy following his careless dismissal of an ancient traditional warning: never whistle at night. As Henry copes with the changes to his life and physical condition, he is haunted by a malevolent presence. As he is forced to wrestle with his past choices, he must come to terms with what has truly happened and what is truly haunting him.

We sat down with Nick to discuss his very scary, very thoughtful, and disarmingly moving novel that tugs at the heart strings as often as it chills the spine. It's available wherever books are sold and is a perfect choice for spooky season. We hope you enjoy this special bonus interview!

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