Author, teacher, and longtime listener Katherine Finstuen (author of the book Dearly Befuddled) hops on podcast this week to talk “useless” degrees (no such thing!), peddling ice cream, and reading, reading, reading! Plus: a delightful hippo blast from the past!

Grab your favorite potion and pull up a broomstick with soul sisters Lane Moore (author of the book You Will Find Your People) & JV as they get Practical with their Magic! Forests? Check. Trust issues due to childhood crap? Check. A love of altos? Check. And so much more!

This romp of an episode brings you the out-and-out awesome Biz Ellis, from the beloved Max Fun One Bad Mother pod! So get ready for a high school the size of a small metropolis, an utter lack of dating, and our second week of the crucial and delightful Max Fun Drive!

It's part two of JV's chat with Katie, including perspective on family tragedy and the much anticipated MASH future.

This podcast is part of the #MaxFunDrive! If you love this show and want it to continue, consider becoming a MaxFun Member. For as little as $5 a month, you can help this show continue and get great gifts in the process. And if you are already a member, consider upgrading your membership to a higher level or even boosting for as little as an extra dollar a month.  Find out more at maximumfun.org/join.In honor of the #MaxFunDrive, JV is proud to welcome fellow MaxFunster Katie Goldin to the show. Katie is the host of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating and has so much to say about birds, high school, hermit crab adoption and how she came to understand her mental health.

As part of the #MaxFunDrive, this is a special preview of several episodes of the JV Club -- the full versions of which are available EXCLUSIVELY for MaxFun Members!Conversations with Tatiana Maslany, Evanna Lynch, D'Arcy Cardon, and a very special exchange of journal passages with Carrie Poppy.  Only the best for our members!When you go to maximumfun.org/join, you get access to these and hundreds of hours of podcasts across the entire MaxFun Network. It costs as little as $5 a month to set up your recurring monthly contribution. If you're already a member, you can upgrade to higher levels of membership to earn even more gifts or boost your contribution by as little as one dollar more a moth. 

Come for the science, stay for the theatre! This week’s guest, author, actor, and game designer Kate Welch blows JV away with news about her BOARDING public high school and all of the delightful mischief those mostly-unsupervised teens got up to. Plus plenty of love for sci-fi, brewskis, and a VERY close look inside one of their mutual buddies.

Okay pals! Grab your megaphone, throw on your camo, and head to the nearest fast food drive-through for nerdy hijinx with the truly wonderful writer, performer and caregiver Beth Lisick (NYT bestselling author of the book Everybody Into the Pool; host of "The Electronic Lover" podcast). This ep brings you laughter and goofiness coupled by heartfelt conversation about JV’s mom and other dear folks grappling with dementia. It’s a very special convo!

What’s happening in this episode of The JV Club? Oh, just a couple of Korras hanging out together, talking about letting go of “the cool kids” and finding your RPG and “Pride and Prejudice” crew! It’s Jacqueline Grace Lopez (Korra in Nick All Star Brawl 2; General Hospital), and she’s kicking ass on and offscreen (with a little time to play in the Pony-verse thrown in for good measure).  

It’s the other half of the fabulous Reading Glasses pod! Mallory and JV extol the virtues of hobbitry, sublime Providence, and the evergreen perfection of the werewolf-as-puberty motif. So howl your way with us from Massachusetts to (via Brooklyn & LA) the sleepy sweet town of Idyllwild… which might only be improved upon with a werewolf sighting or two.