Your Words Against Mine: Recent Episodes
Thomas Dempsey & Elizabeth Conner
A competitive reading podcast between two siblings. Over the course of 2022, Thomas Dempsey and Elizabeth Conner will assign each other various reading challenges, all the while vying to see who can read the most words overall.
May old podcast formats be forgot! We're back after a brief hiatus with a new vision for YWAM going forward. We hope you'll enjoy this return to our roots as much as we enjoyed recording it. As always, we've got reading updates to share, as well as some book-haul chronicles and a bit of general media deliberating for the more reading averse of our listeners. Thank you all for seeing us through to another year of podcasting. We'll do our best to make this our best year yet.
Life, uhhh... finds a way... to delay our recording this podcast. We're back now, however briefly, to discuss Samanta Schweblin's NBA winning short story collection Seven Empty Houses, as well as lay out our plans for the rest of this year's reading! We're entering the final stretch!
This week's episode concerns discussions of mass illness; if that sounds too heavy, just be glad we didn't go with our first plan. Join us as we go over Veronique Tadjo's In the Company of Men, as well as our own recent reading achievements and some programing changes for the near future.
Cooler weather, a new job, and a school year in full swing shouldn't cause us to lose sight of the spookiness of the Halloween season! We got a bit more of that than we bargained for with this week's reading challenge, Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex.
Read up, me hearties! This week we're going in depth on Eiichiro Oda's pirate adventure phenomenon One Piece. And yes, one of your hosts has a new job, but he just wants you to know that he still loves this podcast very much.
There's plenty of stuff going on in your hosts lives right now, not to mention our scheduled discussion of Shruti Swamy's acclaimed short story collection 'A House is a Body.' Any of that would have sustained an episode on its own. And yet, something tells me this will go down as "the one about the pillow romance."
As hurricane winds assail the southeast, Elizabeth and Thomas have shouldered once again through illness and technical difficulties to bring you a discussion of Miya Kazuki's hit light novel, Ascendance of a Bookworm.
YWAM heads to Sweden for a discussion of Let the Right One In, John Lindqvist's hit vampire novel and film. We too will be staying out of the sunlight during this oppressive heat-wave, opting instead to catch up on our respective fantasy romance and pirate series.
Work is rearing it's head back into the lives of your hosts, with a return of students for one and some interesting prospects for the other. Meanwhile, on the reading front, Virginia Woolf's modernist classic Mrs. Dalloway poses some surprising challenges.
The heat is on, in a very real sense, with the latter half of 2023 getting underway. The two hosts had themselves some vacation goings-on to get into, before diving into all the books they have, and have not, finished.
The dew point is rising, and life has some curve balls for your hosts, but the books get read regardless. This week we discuss Hank Green's debut novel, 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.' Come for the giant robots, stay for the nuanced yet entertaining ruminations on fame and power in the internet age.
On the first day of Summer, your podcast brings to thee: a contrived premise for an overdue episode. Would like to say the wait was worth it for an in-depth discussion of Hilary Mantel's award winning novel 'Wolf Hall,' but nope! Instead you'll have to make due with more general ruminations on the historical fiction genre, some recommendations in the manga and sci-fi romance categories, and an eager anticipation for the summer's full potential now that we're almost finished with education seminars / blockbuster videogames.
Summertime is upon us! This week sees your hosts beating the heat with Ian F Martin's comprehensive journalistic chronicle of Tokyo's various music scenes in Quit Your Band!
YWAM has always been a war against time: time enough to read. All too appropriate that we should have to compete with end-of-year work and hit videogames to get in a discussion about the recent viral sensation, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone's 'This is How You Lose the Time War.'
In light of John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces' notorious unadaptability, this week's conversation winds its way around to other literary adaptations, from Bridgerton to Nimona. IRL, the last couple weeks have been particularly hectic for her, but Elizabeth powered through with a triumphant return to the world of genre romances.
Samanta Schweblin's phantasmagoric debut novel Fever Dream has your hosts asking a lot of questions, some of which they (re: Thomas) may feel a little embarrassed to have on record. Meanwhile, the competition hits a surprise milestone!
Today's episode about Jason Reynold's acclaimed young adult novel Long Way Down provides us with a jumping off point for a broader discussion on the topic of banned books.
Looks like that bonus episode was just what we needed to kick this reading competition back into high gear. Both hosts rebound nicely this week with stronger book and word totals, as well as a burgeoning interest in the history of airships.
When it comes to interrupting our recording schedule, life - uh... finds a way. And speaking of movie references, the intervening weeks have afforded both your hosts rare opportunities to get back out to theaters. Enjoy the movie talk as we build up steam to discuss Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
As seasonal illness continues to weigh on our competitors, we look to nature for answers in this week's reading challenge, Hope Jahren's vibrant autobiography 'Lab Girl.'
This week, YWAM is tackling The Cabin at the End of the World, the basis for the new M Night Shyamalan film! You'll also hear about our recent trip to Columbia, and thrill to a surprising upset in the reading challenge totals.
The first reading challenge of 2023 takes us through Sylvain Neuvel's The Themis Files, a sci-fi series whose iron giants are anything but gentle. Before that, we share our pursuits of various accreditations by way of online and i.r.l. seminars.
The race for wordcount is officially underway in 2023! Elizabeth is back from the Kindle Unlimited mines with a fresh crop of romance series, and Thomas has his first reading challenge of the year to issue, as well as some books you'll just have to wait until next episode to hear about.
The curtain closes on another season of Your Words Against Mine. Elizabeth and Thomas recall their favorite reads of 2022, share holiday stories, and finally reveal whose wordcount came out on top. Furthermore, with the new year dawning, your hosts are setting their next round of goals even higher! Join in the fun with a fresh new seasons of YWAM!
A Merry Christmas and Happy Final episode of 2022! As our hosts prepare for next year's big new framing device, visions of cataloguing software dancing in their heads, we'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who tuned in. We hope we've been of some comfort to you, and we welcome you to join us again in season 3!
With 2022 winding down, there has been a lot of house keeping to take care of. Nevertheless, if there's two things you can always count on, it's reading and podcasting (way better than those other two things.)
Happy Thanksgiving from Your Words Against Mine. This year, we're grateful to be recording in the same room again, and to both be on the exact same page when it comes to the latest reading challenge.
The end is in sight for this season of YWAM, but your hosts still have a lot of reading to go if they want to meet their goals. Life, as it will, throws some curveballs into the mix, but we're back again to talk Josh Malerman's Bird Box follow-up, Inspection.
Plans for the week ahead lead off a relatively laid back episode, where we discuss Edward Ashton's thrilling and existential sci-fi adventure.
Fresh off a long overdue vacation, Elizabeth & Thomas get into a reasonably (and necessarily) spoiler-lite discussion of Jessica Knoll's bestseller and its recent Netflix adaptation.
Nabakov's beguiling and audacious 1962 novel makes for a surprisingly complementary topic to accompany an extended discussion of social media trends and celebrity drama. Add to that an impending storm and a long overdue vacation, and you'll hardly notice how little we actually read this week!
Whatever the multiple technical difficulties and interruptions would have you to believe, this episode was produced entirely sober. You might need something to take the edge off all the talk of tiktok rabbit holes, sexy dragon-folk, and cephalopod paintball.
YWAM looks to the future with travel plans, career moves, and reading challenges. Right now, though, the question remains: how haunted is too haunted for a haunted house story?
The world does not stop for podcasting, as this week's discussion of non-reading events makes clear. With a potential spin-off podcast in the works, where will we find the time for reading at all? But let's not get all defeatist! There's always room for books!
A highly, HIGHLY contentious episode of YWAM sees our hosts nearly coming to blows and having to walk back some truly hurtful claims. Granted, drama is pretty relative, so take all that with a grain of salt. Regardless, we've got the sci-fi romance and magical-realist ennui that you crave, so don't touch that dial!
Fanfiction and manga are back with a vengeance in this dual reading challenge episode! A decidedly modern take on the Harry Potter universe is paired with a world literally overrun by demons. Nothing relatable about that at all!
This 4th of July, Tamsyn Muir's deliciously dark work of fantasy sci-fi has got your hosts seeing fireworks! With half the year left ahead of us, the show still has a long way to go, both in ambition and literal trips to be taken. Stick with us for more talk of romance, mystery, e-reading metrics, and cats.
Season Two hits the halfway mark with this discussion of Aiden Thomas' coming-of-age (& undeath) tale, along with some talk about baseball, Top Gun, manga, and more!
With Summer break under way, this year's reading competition just will not stop piling on the surprises. Join your hosts for a discussion of a classic of Colombian literature, some good old-fashioned mysteries, and a full-on dive into the world of other people's IP.
Your hosts are still recuperating from last week's shop-a-thon, so enjoy this low-key episode about Covid, roof maintenance, vet visits, and the quirks and issues with southern romantic fiction.
On a long anticipated episode, Thomas and Elizabeth hit the road to Atlanta for an all-out book shop-a-thon. Join your hosts as they struggle to beat the heat, grapple with world-class arthouse cinema, and come out the other side with their sanities (and wallets) intact. Get ready to journey along "The Broken Spine!"
Elizabeth & Thomas hit the hard streets of Clawville in this episode's visual novel-based reading challenge. There's also talk of phones, cats, moms, and some big plans for the near future!
After cabin retreats, bird attacks, and some good old fashioned spring cleaning, we return with a new episode discussing Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. This tees us up surprisingly well for further discussions of an impending Mother's Day episode, as well as a recent hit Kung Fu film!
Summer may be a ways off yet, but we're in the road-trip spirit on YWAM this week, discussing Amor Towles latest novel as well as television adaptations, engrossing puzzle games, and more!
This week we're discussing Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko's 2014 short-story collection. Rounding things out is a healthy side of video game talk and musings about the declining relevance of an Oscars telecast in the internet age.
Our hosts reminisce on their school days while discussing Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed historical fiction series. There's also romantic space dragons, because come on, you know what show this is by now.
While big game launches loom over more mundane affairs, there's still the great new work from acclaimed novelist Colson Whitehead to keep our heads in the page, not to mention sprawling sci-fi romances and Hungarian lit-fic.
This week we jack into the metaverse for a discussion of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Other books discussed include Kira Jane Buxton's Feral Creatures and the Maze of Shadows series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley.
As the winds of winter abate, your hosts take a dive into virtual reality fiction with Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller's young adult sci-fi novel. There's also some health updates and a fearsome serial killer series begging for an adaptation.
Winter is finally rearing its head in the south, as talk turns to romantic ice giants and videogame journalism. Plus, with a new year comes new numbers, as Elizabeth and Thomas start to compare their current reading stats with last year's. A whole new reading race is under way!
May old word totals be forgot? NOT SO FAST! A new season of YWAM brings a mysterious new abbreviation with which to contend. There's plenty to deal with before we get to that, however, including some recent book hauls and our picks for best reads of 2021! Thanks for coming along with us this past year; you better believe the best is yet to come!
This final episode of season 1 is all about looking forward... to the start of season 2, where we'll look back on the last season in its entirety. Speaking of looking back, a surprise trip down bookstore memory lane rounds out a discussion of toothsome cats, gingerbread romantic leads, and a page-turner of a non-Russian Russian novel. (Did that last sentence track? If this year's taught us anything, it's that we here at YWAM are more than willing to make things unnecessarily complicated.)
The holiday season is in full swing with the end of another year, and our first reading contest, just around the corner. For as locked in as things may seem, surprises still lay in wait, along with discussion of Christmases' past, challenges' present, and podcast seasons' future.
A new addition to the family makes for an extra thankful (and extra late) episode, one where we dive into award winning children's books & fantastical romance stories. With the issuing of the final reading challenge of 2021, we enter the final phase of the competition!
With all the sports hubbub going on, I'm amazed we got this episode out at all. As the end of the year looms, your hosts discuss the ways that we engage with the works of problematic artists. (trigger warnings: emotional abuse & sexual assault)
A positively "dreadful" episode... but like in a good way? Okay, so it's not an especially fitting episode for Halloween, but rather one where we talk about Metroid, sports, and high school romance (that last thing can be pretty scary though).
With the Halloween season upon us, Elizabeth recounts her horror-themed reading challenge all while dealing with a terrifying home invasion. There's also a lot of Kingdom Hearts / SSBU talk, which, while not seasonal, is certainly topical.
While the battle of word totals is all but over, the war against the whims of fate and alien hoards is only beginning! This week we discuss Xiran Jay Zhao's debut novel, a series of Scottish romances, and an indie game sensation.
From 9/11 to violent bike gangs and underworlds both mythic and alien, we tread around some dark subject matter this week. To that end, rest assured there's pontificating on diet sodas & console loyalty as well to help lighten the mood.
A shorter episode for a discussion of a short novel with a big spiritual heft. Also, we see the completion of a word total exchange that, honestly, doesn't do as much as one of our hosts had hoped to level the playing field.
ugh, what time is it?
OH!
uhhh, good mor- afterNOON, everyone! Whose ready for a... a lively discussion about Stephen King, chess, and science fiction? I know... yawns... I know I am...
It's that special occasion that comes around once every four years: our two hosts recording together in person! Join them as they chastise their pets, get distracted by Will Smith, dunk on Hallmark Christmas movies, and of course, engage in the most beloved sport: reading. (ed. note: apparently the Olympics were this week. Who knew?)
On this bittersweet episode, we return after a brief break to deal with a family tragedy. There's still some fun to be had, though, with several shakeups in the word totals and reading challenges. Not much pithy to say with this one, only that we're happy to have you with us and wish you well.
Great news! Thomas found his Ipod! Let's celebrate with a YWAM all about makeup, romance, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning gay novel.
As the title implies (we're doing titles now!), we're halfway through the first season of Your Words Against Mine. With the school year winding down and the reading challenges flying thick & fast, it's still anyone's game!
When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. When you play Your Words Against Mine, you get vaccination hangover and a bad little league umpire. (and for as late as this episode is, we're basically the George R.R. Martin of podcasting.)
This week, we shout out our fans around the world with a podcast analytics recap! Add to that some manga recommendations, awkward digressions around kinky romance novels, and a primo speculative sci-fi sports story, and you truly have a show that's got something for everyone!
Okay, you can listen to this episode about audiobooks and Webtoons, but you gotta promise not to rat us out to the library cops.Deal?
This week's episode has it all: Spongebob! Monster Hunter! American Football! (wink) And as a special treat for our regular listeners: discussion about books!!!
Joining us this week is special guest cat Bernie! We'll also have tales from the flood and a brief overview on the emotionally charged magical realism of author Aimee Bender.
Happy St. Patrick's day, with episode lucky number 7 of #yourwordspod ! We don't actually talk about the holiday that much, but we do have a reading milestone to celebrate, along with conversations about motorcycle love story crossovers and proper steak grilling etiquette.
Your hosts celebrate Black History Month with a discussion of Black musicians and authors.
Your Words Against Mine is back with its most harrowing episode to date! (sorry, I meant "to make.") Our hosts have overcome sleep and skin-stuff, but can they withstand a shocking challenge-related revelation?
Join Elizabeth and Thomas on a walk through Bridgerton as January comes to a close, and with it, the first reading challenge.
The competition is in full swing, with this week bringing the first revelation of our readers' respective word totals! Also, the question on everyone's minds: should Super Bowl Sunday be a national holiday?
Elizabeth and Thomas begin the new year with the first reading challenge, as well as some hemming and hawing over what constitutes “reading” and an awkward health revelation.
In this introductory episode, hosts Thomas and Elizabeth talk a little about themselves and a lot about how you figure how many words are in a book.