(Bonus audio: "Glasses", by Jonathan Coulton, the S.S. Librarianship theme song. Used by permission).Back in the heyday of Television Without Pity, when a show went off the air, they would often assign it the status of "Indefinite Hiatus." In

Episode Eighty-One - "Short answer is... too bad?"

Feb 7th, 2017

Mind Grapes: We get after those early December blockbusters! Doctor Strange, Arrival, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are all discussed. We also talk some books with The Expanse series, wildly popular television with The Great Briti

Episode Eighty - "Extroverts = VAMPIRES"

Nov 2nd, 2016

SPOILER WARNINGS FOR WESTWORLD, THE FLASH, LEGENDS OF TOMORROW AND SUPERGIRL. Mind Grapes: Sam is super up-to-date and tells us about her latest TV obsession, Westworld. Mary has been getting into the DC Television family of products, especial

Episode Seventy-Nine - "Don't you death-shame me!"

Oct 18th, 2016

Mind Grapes: Matthew is on again, so that means comics! Lots of comic and manga suggestions from both Matthew and Melanie. Also a few additional podcasts - one new and one previously mentioned, but it has gotten super super good. Class Z(ed):

Episode Seventy-Eight - "Limp Wrists, Old Maids, and Diabolical Deviants"

Sep 21st, 2016

BiblioFiles: We got to talking and just couldn't stop! Christing Neigel, amazing librarian, teacher, and now PhD student, talks to us about her research project that examines librarian stereotypes from the last couple of decades. This fascinati

Episode Seventy-Seven - "Written in crayon and human blood."

Aug 23rd, 2016

Mind Grapes: An idle question of "Hey, have you heard of this Stranger Things show?" turns into an internet sensation. Of course we saw it. It is fantastic (with reservations from Sam). But perhaps more shockingly - Sam's childhood remains in t

Episode Seventy-Six - "Open source toasters..."

Jul 26th, 2016

Mind Grapes: You get comic recommendations! And YOU get comic recommendations! But first, Alli talks about her latest podcast binge, the wonderful 2 Dope Queens (showing especial appreciation for Hari Kondabolu’s story). Sara shares some of her

Episode Seventy-Five - "I done gone drank the haterade..."

Jul 12th, 2016

This fortnight... Mind Grapes: Alli has been having less than perfect media experiences and complains bitterly about Ernest Cline's second novel, Armada, and the mostly disappointing latest handheld Mario title, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. Sam

Episode Seventy-Four - "Crazy Socialist Canadians."

Jun 29th, 2016

Mind Grapes: Sam is inspired by a recent episode of This American Life and Lindy West's new book Shrill to pick up Jes Baker's Things No One Tells Fat Girls. Alli was dragged to the Jane Austen adaptation Love and Friendship, but LOVED IT. But

Episode Seventy-Three - "Feminism and Super Grover."

Apr 13th, 2016 1h 2m

Mind Grapes: The Vancouver Public Library has been challenging its staff to read diverse books, and Sam is endeavoring to win the challenge! While she's won a few points with Ms. Marvel, she's hoping to get a few more with Erika Johansen's The

Episode Seventy-Two - "...worth doing at least once."

Mar 15th, 2016 1h 28m

Mind Grapes: We get through our post-vacation blues by talking about some new stuff, re-reading some old stuff, and talking about reading very old stuff for the first time. Alli saw Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the new Tina Fey vehicle about a war co

Episode Seventy-One - "We Saw a Star War"

Feb 15th, 2016

We're Alli & Sam. We met in a pub the night before our first day of library school, and since then we've been through a lot together - classes, jobs, weddings, D&D campaigns - always finding ourselves engrossed in wide-ranging conversations abo

Episode Seventy - "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter."

Nov 23rd, 2015

* SPOILER WARNING FOR SCREAM QUEENS AND CRIMSON PEAK * On a slightly overdue Halloween episode, we watch one of Fox's new fall lineup from the brains of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. In a collision of their other projects (American Horror Stor

Episode Sixty-Nine - "The story of The Story and The Story."

Oct 27th, 2015

Episode Sixty-Eight - "...too peripheral to latch on to."

Oct 5th, 2015

This week... Mind Grapes: Very librarian. Much books. Wow. Literacy. Both Sam and Alli were feeling very bookish, so we share our thoughts on The Family Trade by Charles Stross, Redshirts by John Scalzi, The Book of Strange New Things by Micha

Episode Sixty-Seven - "I think I intended it to be more of a rant than it became..."

Sep 14th, 2015 1h 2m

Mind Grapes: Alli finally saw Spy, so she and Sam are able to have some conversations around how it feels to have a woman of size who looks like us play a real spy movie hero person. Not going to lie, it's pretty cool. We then seque into anothe

Episode Sixty-Six - "It's this great love story - between a girl and her rocket ship."

Sep 1st, 2015

This week, with very special guests Matthew Murray, Anna Ferri, and Meghan Whyte... Mind Grapes: Our guests this week are founders of The Book Club for Masochists, which every month is dealt a random genre for the members to try to read. This

Episode Sixty-Five - "...really amazing things can happen."

Aug 17th, 2015

Episode Sixty-Four - "Free market, or something?"

Jul 21st, 2015

Mind Grapes: It's hot, so thinking deeply is not really a priority right now. Alli has four words for you: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Also a brief foray in to the film The Sapphires in a display of Australian media love. Sam talks about a

Episode Sixty-Three - "You know what I like to see blown up in movies? Gender roles."

Jul 8th, 2015

Mind Grapes: Alli had one of those "buy a book" feelings and so picked up the Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang graphic novel In Real Life. We talk about the impulses we have to use art for messages or have art for art's sake. Sam gave up on The Parad

Episode Sixty-Two - "Publishers are people too..."

Jun 22nd, 2015

This week with special guest Sarah Felkar... Mind Grapes: Sam is still riding her wave of Philippa Gregory books and found some more historical romance in the form of the television series The Paradise. Sarah, a huge fan of the military sci-fi

Episode Sixty-One - "It's cool, and you should come."

Jun 8th, 2015

Mind Grapes: In a rapid fire Mind Grapes, Sam and Alli cover Philippa Gregory books (like The Constant Princess and The Other Boleyn Girl, the steam indie game Catlateral Damage, and Travis McElroy and Brent Black's (Brentalfloss) new podcast T

Episode Sixty - "Both Sides Now" (Live from BCLC 2015)

May 27th, 2015 1h 23m

We had the great pleasure of moderating a panel on the intersections among different library professionals at this year's British Columbia Library Conference. It was a fascinating, frank and inspiring conversation, and we're glad to be able to

Episode Fifty-Nine - "I don’t think we should throw any babies out with any bathwater here."

May 12th, 2015

Mind Grapes: We're all compliments with our TV shows. Sam's been catching up on the surprisingly amazing sixth season of Community. Dan Harmon is back in all of his glory, making the season sweet, funny, and totally weird. Alli has been watchin

Episode Fifty-Eight - "Sort of a sad, sexy puppy dog."

Apr 28th, 2015 1h 34m

MIND GRAPES: OK, so yes, we each talk about a thing - but this week's grapes are about 75% Daredevil, which Alli loved for more than just Charlie Cox's abs, she swears. Also Jon just binge-listened to Serial, and brings us up to date on the cas