Arnie Niekamp presents...
Stupid Nerd #58: Assassins 2011 (pt1)

The epic Assassins game between iO Chicago and Comedy Sportz! Arnie interviews Kat Gotsick and Jon Forsythe, who ran the game, along with players David Flora, Brett Elam and Josh Logan. Also interviewed in part one: Charna Halpern, Blaine Swen, Jet Eveleth, Adal Rifai, Louis Saunders, Alex Trepka, Patrick Rowland and Nikki Pierce. Look for part two coming after the holidays.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_58_-_Assassins_2011_pt1.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 11:46am CDT

Stupid Nerd #57: Hanukkah

Harry Gottlieb (creator of You Don't Know Jack) and Evan Jacover teach Arnie all about the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

Direct download: stupid_nerd_hanukka_final.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 2:38pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #56: Adam West's Batman

Jason Chin and Matt Young talk about the campy 60's Batman television show starring Adam West.

Direct download: stupid_nerd_adam_west_final.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 12:07pm CDT

Stupid Nerd Bonus: Disney World 9/11

A quick clip from The Poor Choices Show where Brendan Jennings talks to host Mark Colomb about working at Disney World, including working there, in costume, on 9/11.

Direct download: stupidnerd_bonus_disney_911.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 2:40pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #55: Disneyland/Disney World

Lisa Linke, Sam Super and Thom Gaughan let Arnie in on their favorite things and some secrets about Disneyland and Disney World.

Direct download: stupidnerd_55_Disney.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 10:44am CDT

Stupid Nerd #54: Sports

Big Ten Network host, Mike Hall, and Second City's Tim Baltz help Arnie understand how sports can be nerdy, but rewarding. They also talk about broadcasting school, ESPN's 'Dream Job' and Ultimate Frisbee.

Direct download: StupidNerdShow54.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 4:40pm CDT

Louie Saunders, Molly Wilbanks and Ellen Haeg are back to update Arnie on serial killers for a fourth time. This time they've decided to dig in an try to investigate a case themselves.

Direct download: stupidnerd_serial_killers4_final.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 4:22pm CDT

Jorin Garguilo and Adal Rifai explain the TV show Supernatural to Arnie. It is apparently more than Route 66 meets Buffy.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_52_Supernatural.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:22pm CDT

Arnie has a new podcast, "We Wrongly Assume (People Care What We Say)." Stupid Nerd will continue, but you'll want to go subscribe to this new one as well, to make sure you don't miss future installments. For this first episode Arnie's guests are Steve Waltien and Rush Howell.

Direct download: WeWronglyAssumeStupidNerd_promo.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 11:37am CDT

Stupid Nerd #51: The Oscars

Arnie talks to Academy Awards nerds Craig Cackowski and Brendan Dowling about what's wonderful and sometimes annoying about the Oscars.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_51_-_Oscars.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 2:54pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #50: Lizard People/Clockwork Elves

Arnie learns about the lizard people who live among us and control our governments from guests Irene Marquette and Allard Laban. He also learns about the Clockwork Elves from another dimension. Just for fun, hollow earth, Mormons and Paul McCartney are also discussed.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_50_-_Lizard_People.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 11:53am CDT

Arnie learns about the underwater scifi show, 'SeaQuest' from his guests, Shane Wilson and Sean Kelley.

Direct download: stupidnerdseaquestfinal.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:31pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #48: Sierra Games

Arnie learns about classic computer adventure games made by Sierra Games (Kings Quest, Space Quest... Police Quest) from the Ryder brothers, Tim Ryder and Josh Ryder.

Direct download: stupidnerdsierragames.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:37pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #47: geocaching

Arnie learns about geocaching, GPS scavenger hunts, from his guests Rance Rizzutto, Rich Prouty and Tara DeFrancisco.   


Direct download: stupid_nerd_47_geo.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 2:24pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #46: Dr. Who (1963-1989)

Arnie learns about the classic British scifi TV series 'Doctor Who,' covering several decades of the original run of the series from guests Chris Rathjen and Shaun Clayton. (P.S. It's kind of a long one)

Direct download: stupid_nerd_46_dr_who.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 4:43pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #45: mascotting

Arnie learns about being a mascot, for college sports and summer amusement parks from Steve Heinrich.

Direct download: StupidNerdShow45.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:52pm CDT

Stupid Nerd Bonus: Arnie on Hamlet

A special bonus. From Chicago's Paper Machete show (and podcast) Arnie reads a piece he wrote for Shakespeare's birthday, about the horrible things we've all done to Hamlet.

Direct download: paper_machete_for_stupid_nerd_0.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 4:20pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #44: War of the Ring

Arnie learns about the LOTR board game War of the Ring, from Shad Kunkle. Shad owns a massive (and expensive), limited edition hand crafted version of the game. Arnie and Shad's wife, Kate Hawley, try to figure out whether it's worth it.

Direct download: stupid_nerd_44_war_of_the_ring.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 5:50pm CDT

Arnie learns about Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective that ever lived, from his guests Jason Chin and Shane Wilson.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_43_-_Holmes.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 2:37pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #42: Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Arnie is joined by the 3033's Bill Arnett and Andy St. Clair who talk about thier trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the new Harry Potter amusement park in Florida.

Direct download: stupidnerdwizardingworld.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 1:26pm CDT

Arnie learns about The Hunger Games, the YA postapocolyptic novel from his guests Sarah Maher, Megan O'Neill and Matt Meador. They actually set out to talk about the entire trilogy but got so caught up describing how they'd fight to survive that they spent the whole hour talking about the first book.

Direct download: StupidNerd41HungerGames.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:32pm CDT

Arnie learns about the torture horror 'Saw' franchise from the hosts of the Critical End podcast, Logan Lee and Ryan DiGiorgi.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_40_-_Saw.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 10:36am CDT

Arnie learns about the Great Elder God Cthulu, and the other horrors created by H.P. Lovecraft from his guests, Chris Rathjen and Jorin Garguilo.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_39_-_cthulu.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 7:58pm CDT

Arnie learns about the insanely popular on-line roleplaying game 'World of Warcraft' from his guests Sammy Tamimi and Chip Aucion.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_38_WoW.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 4:52pm CDT

Stupid Nerd #37: sci fi camp

Arnie talks to Eden Robins about attending the Clairon Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Workshop (aka "scifi summer camp"), science fiction writing in general, and having the same name as someone else.

Direct download: Stupid_Nerd_scifi_camp_final.mp3
Category:stupidnerd -- posted at: 3:05pm CDT