Settle in for bagels and a schmear with comics retailer Joel Pollack as we discuss what the pandemic has done to the comics shop business, the comic his mother bought him which changed his life, the card game which led to him getting his first piece of original art, how his run-in with a young Howard Chaykin convinced him he wasn't cut out to be a professional comics artist, what opening day was like at the first of his Big Planet comic book stores, the biggest sales event he's seen during his 35-year retailing career, what inspired Bernie Wrightson to draw a freaky issue of <em>Swamp Thing</em>, how he fights back against the Comic Book Guy cliche to makes his shops welcoming places, our joint distaste of slabbing, why he doesn't like doing appraisals, and much more.

Savor spanakopita with Nick Mamatas as we discuss why there's a generational divide when it comes to what potential readers might think his upcoming novel <em>The Second Shooter</em> is about, our joint Brooklyn heritage and history with professional wrestling, why he threw away the first dozen stories he wrote, the reason Marvel Comics was always better than DC, his encounters with the famed monologuist Brother Theodore, the first bad book he ever read, the way having been a journalist helps him collaborate without killing his co-writers, why work for hire assignments can be difficult, how we feel about our refusal to pick a genre lane, and much more.

It's time for cookies and conversation with writer/editor/publisher Ian Randal Strock as we discuss what he said upon meeting Isaac Asimov which caused the Grand Master to refuse to write him a limerick, why he prefers <em>The Princess Bride</em> novel to the movie, the reason his father advised him not to name his publishing company after himself, why the 1,000-word short story is his natural length, the question editor Stan Schmidt asked before purchasing his first story for <em>Analog</em>, the essay which so thrilled him he felt compelled to start his own magazine, the most difficult aspect of running your own publishing company, why ending a story too late isn't as great a sin as starting one too early, how his fascination with presidential trivia began in the bathroom, and much more.