Jim Johnson was born about the same time Apollo XII landed on the moon (and has always been kinda spacey) and shares a birthday with the Kindle. He is the author of the Pistols and Pyramids weird western series and the Potomac Shadows urban fantasy series. He's also written a bunch of other stuff in and around the SFF genres and pen and paper RPGs.…

Kelli Fitzpatrick is a science fiction writer, gamewriter, and teacher. She is the author of Captain Marvel: Carol Danvers Declassified (from BenBella Books, 2025) and is a contributing writer for the Star Trek Adventures role-playing game from Modiphius. Her Star Trek story “The Sunwalkers” won the 2016 Strange New Worlds contest from Simon and Sc…

Dr. Jesse Rogerson is an Assistant Professor at York University. He is a passionate scientist, educator, and communicator. Whether in the classroom or on social media, he seeks to create conversations on how science and society intersect, and why science is relevant in our daily lives. Please check out these relevant links: Daydreaming in the Solar…

Dr. John Moores is an Associate Professor at York University and Director of the Graduate Program in Earth and Space Science. He is the Science Advisor to the President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and also serves as the Director of the Technologies for Exo-Planetary Science NSERC CREATE Program, which provides unique training opportunities f…

Michael Dismuke is a Certified Professional in Talent Development and Certified Leadership Development and Succession Strategist. He is a national speaker/trainer and consultant, a freelance writer for the Star Trek Adventures RPG, and a published comic creator. Please check out these relevant links: Star Trek Adventures: Klingon Core Rulebook Dune…

Michael Low is a live-scan certified CA high school English teacher, parent, story-teller, and game designer. He teaches kids non-violent conflict resolution, collaboration, confidence, critical thinking, and creative writing using games, inspired by a love of learning, not fear of failure. #LAStrong Please check out these relevant links: InfiniBri…

Welcome to our second RPG review through the lens of LitRPG! We hope you enjoy it. Please check out these links from the episode: Star Trek Adventures 2e Starter Set Star Trek Adventures 2e Core Rulebook Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason A. Kaufman to explore the intersection of life, games, science, music, philo…

Happy New Year! Sophie May is the PR Manager at publisher of tabletop games, Modiphius, working on games such as Star Trek Adventures, the Discworld RPG, and more. Having worked in PR since 2018, Sophie has previously worked in agency, where she worked for brands such as BT, JP Morgan, PizzaExpress, and more, before working in-house at sustainable …

With the holiday season approaching across the Northern Hemisphere, we are taking two weeks to explore the importance of mental health and how RPGs and adjacent canons and games can promote it. Please join us for this timely conversation...and please be well. If you are in need of talking with someone, please consider calling: 911: Emergency Assist…

Matthew Sprange is co-founder and managing director of Mongoose Publishing, where he has been running the company for more than two decades. A game designer who has designed, authored, or edited more than 50 game products, Matthew also has magazine credits in Signs & Portents and several other popular publications. Please check out these relevant l…

Dr. Peterson is an Assistant Professor of Leadership in the Department of Leadership. He teaches in the Doctorate in Professional Leadership and the Master’s in Management programs. He is also currently developing graduate courses focusing on higher education leadership. He previously worked as an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership with …

Ian Lemke is a game developer for Green Ronin and is responsible for The Expanse Roleplaying Game line. He has written for The Expanse line since the core rulebook and has also contributed writing to Blue Rose. Ian has been developing games (both tabletop RPGs and computer games) since 1993. He’s worked as a writer or developer for many companies i…

Welcome to our first "official" RPG book review through the lens of LitRPG! We hope you enjoy it. Please check out these links from the episode: Star Trek Adventures 2e Core Rulebook Continuing Conversations Episode 145 Continuing Conversations Episode (YouTube) Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Bradley Browne and Jason A. Kaufman to exp…

Al Spader is a middle school science teacher, father of five-year-old twin boys, and a freelance RPG writer and game designer. As a regular writer for Star Trek Adventures and lead designer of the Sentience 2d20 RPG, Al brings his knowledge of neurodivergence and social-emotional learning to the TTRPG community. Please check out these links from th…

Shelly Mazzanoble is an award-winning author of essays, books, two unfinished novels, some short stories, and one-act plays that have actually been produced. Most surprising, she is someone’s a mother. She loves writing about reality TV almost as much as parenting. Then there’s all the Dungeons & Dragons stuff. Shelly has written three books about …

Katie Nickolaou is the Emmy Award Winning CBS Morning Meteorologist for WLNS in Lansing, Michigan. From reporting on tornadoes live in the field to tracking multi-day blizzards, she loves injecting her forecasts with unique and detailed information that captivates and educates her audience. She is the creator of the #FandomForecast, a project she s…

Nearly two years ago, we had the opportunity to interview RPG royalty. Bill Smith is the writer and editor of the much hailed Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (2nd ed.) core rulebook, Game Master Handbook, and more from West End Games. He was so humble and kind when we spoke. We hope you enjoy listening to the chat half as much as we did having it! …

Michael Dismuke is a Certified Professional in Talent Development and Certified Leadership Development and Succession Strategist. He is a national speaker/trainer and consultant, a freelance writer for the Star Trek Adventures RPG, and a published comic creator. Please check out these relevant links: Michael on Twitter Continuing Conversations Star…

Sarah Al-Ahmed holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley. After some time as a data-taker for a supernova research team using instruments at Lick Observatory in Mt. Hamilton, California, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in science communication. Sarah spent six years as a museum guide, …

Brad and Jason are doing a bit of summer traveling. So, please join us this week for a rerun of one of our most popular episodes: Katie Nickolaou is the Emmy Award Winning CBS Morning Meteorologist for WLNS in Lansing, Michigan. From reporting on tornadoes live in the field to tracking multi-day blizzards, she loves injecting her forecasts with uni…

James L. Sutter is a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games. From 2004 to 2017, he worked for Paizo Publishing, starting out as an editor on Dungeon Magazine, going on to do foundational work for Pathfinder, and eventually becoming the Creative Director in charge of launching Starfinder, as well as the Executive Editor of the…

Michael Dismuke is a Certified Professional in Talent Development and Certified Leadership Development and Succession Strategist. He is a national speaker/trainer and consultant, a freelance writer for the Star Trek Adventures RPG, and a published comic creator. Please check out these links from the episode: Confirmation Bias (excerpt) Continuing M…

Dante Lauretta is a Regents Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is an expert in near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution. He is the leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return mission, the United States' premier mission to visit one of the most Potentially Haz…

Scott Fitzgerald Gray has been flogging his imagination professionally since deciding he wanted to be a writer and abandoning any hope of a real career in about the fourth grade. The time since has seen him indulge in educational forays in science, arts, and film, and the bewildering variety of occupations that have driven his search for the secret…

Christina Mitchell is a senior multimedia specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, where she has worked since 2020. Christina specializes in production coordination but as a passionate storyteller she is always striving to find new and creative ways to engage audiences. Most recently, Christina led the creation of NASA’s f…

Jeff Ashworth is the author and editor of the bestselling Game Master series of 5e sourcebooks, including The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters, The Game Master's Book of Non-Player Characters, and The Game Master's Book of Traps, Puzzles and Dungeons. When he isn't working on special projects for Media Lab Books, he enjoys playing and design…

Al Spader is a middle school science teacher, father of five year old twin boys, and a freelance RPG writer and game designer. As a regular writer for Star Trek Adventures and lead designer of the Sentience 2d20 RPG, Al brings his knowledge of neurodivergence and social-emotional learning to the TTRPG community. Jim Johnson was born about the same …

Al Spader is a middle school science teacher, father of five year old twin boys, and a freelance RPG writer and game designer. As a regular writer for Star Trek Adventures and lead designer of the Sentience 2d20 RPG, Al brings his knowledge of neurodivergence and social-emotional learning to the TTRPG community. Jim Johnson was born about the same …

Sorry for the late episode, we had a technical glitch: Jason was on spring break. Carl Niblaeus is a Stockholm-based tabletop RPG designer, one of two behind the gritty sci-fi RPG Death in Space and part of the creative coven Stockholm Kartell. With a PhD in astroparticle physics focusing on dark matter, he has a special interest in the cosmos and …

Gravitating to the darker sides of fantasy, Seth Skorkowsky has always preferred horror and pulp heroes over knights in shining armor. When not writing, Seth enjoys cheesy movies, tabletop roleplaying games, making YouTube videos, and traveling the world with his wife. Please check out these relevant links: YouTube Twitter Website Books Welcome to …

Author, interviewer, host, archivist, producer, voiceover, actor and and fan: Larry Nemecek has a background in news and theatre, but it is “Trekland” where he’s worked for over 25 years. A renowned Star Trek authority, Larry is the author of the bestselling classic, Star Trek The Next Generation Companion, and a regular convention guest worldwide,…

We're going long with this episode! Jim Johnson was born about the same time Apollo XII landed on the moon (and has always been kinda spacey) and shares a birthday with the Kindle. He is the author of the Pistols and Pyramids weird western series and the Potomac Shadows urban fantasy series. He's also written a bunch of other stuff in and around th…

In which we talk about our achievement, respectively recent and pending, of the age of 50. Also, the GM Corner is now Audubon Court! The tea must flow. Please check out these relevant links: Imperial Tea Court Star Wars Outlaws Star Trek Adventures Star Wars Roleplaying Game Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition The One Ring Dune: Adventures in the I…

Emily Strand is an author, podcaster, teacher, speaker, award-winning singer-songwriter and musician. She holds an MA in theology from the University of Dayton and has taught religion on the college level for nearly 20 years. She has published two books on Catholic sacraments and several peer-reviewed chapters and essays on the religious, symbolic …

Join us as look back at what 2023 meant for Dice in Mind as well as the RPG industry more broadly. We also share some of what you can expect from this fair little podcast in 2024. (Correction: Jason goofed on the name of the restaurant in Kraków. The link is below.) Please check out these relevant links: Tawerna Wilczy Dół Witcher RPG Fantasy Age (…

We are thrilled to bring you this chat from Episode 73 with Shelly Mazzanoble and Greg Tito, the wonderful co-hosts of the Dragon Talk podcast and authors of the upcoming Welcome to Dragon Talk: Inspiring Conversations about Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Love to Play It. We spend most of our time exploring the book, diving into the potentia…

Prof. Benjamin Rogers’s research explores the meaning of work and narratives in the workplace, specifically the way that the stories we tell manifest in our organizational experiences to shape our well-being. His work particularly focuses on how these narratives can be used to design effective and scalable psychological interventions to help worker…

With the holiday season approaching across the Northern Hemisphere, we are taking two weeks to explore the importance of mental health and how RPGs and adjacent canons and games can promote it. Please join us for this timely conversation...and please be well. If you are in need of talking with someone, please consider calling: 911: Emergency Assist…

Al Spader is a middle school science teacher, father of five year old twin boys, and a freelance RPG writer and game designer. As a regular writer for Star Trek Adventures and lead designer of the Sentience 2d20 RPG, Al brings his knowledge of neurodivergence and social-emotional learning to the TTRPG community. Please check out these relevant link…

We have noticed that there are a few OnlyFans content creators who are participating in some fairly high-profile RPG actual plays. What is the business model that motivates this synergy? Please check out these relevant link: Glass Canon Podcast The One Ring Welcome to Dice in Mind, a podcast hosted by Brad Browne and Jason Kaufman to explore the in…

Dr. Amy Sturgis holds a Ph.D. in Intellectual History and specializes in the fields of Science Fiction/Fantasy, the Gothic, and Indigenous American Studies. She serves as faculty at Lenoir-Rhyne University and Signum University and staff for the StarShipSofa podcast. She lives with her husband, Dr. Larry M. Hall, in the Appalachian highlands of Vir…

Please check out our new project on TikTok: Star Trek: New Voyages Travis Baldree is a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. Apparently, he now also writes books. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his …

Please check out our new project on TikTok: Star Trek: New Voyages Chris Pramas is an award-winning game designer, writer, and publisher. He is best known as the designer of the Dragon Age RPG and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd Edition, and as the founder and President of Green Ronin Publishing. He has been a creative director at Wizards of the Co…

We have traditionally stayed away from current events and politics on the podcast. However, sometimes remaining silent means being complicit. We have thus chosen to share a few thoughts regarding the Israel-Gaza War (i.e., the Simchat Torah War). It is difficult to know how to help those in need during this time. We suggest contributing to either o…

We changed our music drops! Stay tuned for Episode 104 for the explanation. Michael Dismuke is a Certified Professional in Talent Development and Certified Leadership Development and Succession Strategist. He is a national speaker/trainer and consultant, a freelance writer for the Star Trek Adventures RPG, and a published comic creator. Please chec…

We changed our music drops! Stay tuned for Episode 104 for the explanation. Jason Kaufman, Ph.D., Ed.D., is a professor of educational leadership at Minnesota State University, Mankato and a licensed psychologist. His teaching uses a lean and lab-rich approach to promote scientific thinking. His research explores how nature-based and mind-body inte…

Scott Fitzgerald Gray has been flogging his imagination professionally since deciding he wanted to be a writer and abandoning any hope of a real career in about the fourth grade. The time since has seen him indulge in educational forays in science, arts, and film, and the bewildering variety of occupations that have driven his search for the secret…

Drew Nichols a television is editor and most recently an associate producer on Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard. Drew started off in reality and documentary programming about 15 years ago and transitioned into scripted television as an assistant editor on great shows like Mad Men, True Detective, 12 Monkeys, and MacGyver. Please check out these releva…

Please check out our new project on TikTok: Star Trek: New Voyages Sterling Hershey is a full-time architect and freelance game designer, who has worked on three different incarnations of the Star Wars role-playing game for West End Games, Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight Games, and also on the Star Wars Miniatures game. He has pursued freel…

Please check out our new project on TikTok: Star Trek: New Voyages Emily Care Boss is an independent role-playing game designer/publisher and conservationist living on land of the Wabanaki Dawnland Confederacy, in western Massachusetts of the United States. Emily’s designs include Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon, and Under my Skin which won the…