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Calling it now. The mystery project is Stormlight 5, which he needed to write so he could figure out how to write Stormlight 4.

I just wanted to quickly say for a moment how awesome all the Arcanists are. They spent MANY hours and evenings going through plenty of audio, hunting down random things on Twitter and Reddit. They are really the rock stars. They are also rock stars for dealing with me being a grumpy manager and pestering them about tasks The Shadowdays of finding WoBs and researching are done, friends. We did it. This changes everything. This is so surreal to me, because I obviously wanted a system like this for so long. There's nothing on the internet quite like this system, to my knowledge, so designing how it should function, along with its look-and-feel, was terrifying. It's brand-new! This is also the largest project 17th Shard has ever done, to code something from the ground-up. It's crazy. Not only was coding intense, but on the input side of things, we basically redid all of Theoryland. How crazy is that? It's finally here for you to see and browse, and it will be around for the duration of the fandom, I assure you. There's still a lot to do. I'll be posting an Upcoming Features topic pretty soon, explaining what we still have left to do. We'll be very open about everything with Arcanum. But it's here, in time for Oathbringer, and that's incredible. Special thanks to Mestiv, who is the true hero. Without him, this would not exist. He changed this entire project and coded this all. What a boss. He's also the nicest guy ever (second to, I think, Brandon Sanderson himself), so you should pour a ton of adoration his way. He got all this audio stuff working. It's incredible. I hope you like it <3

Brandon writing one secret book is on-brand. Brandon writing five secret books is borderline parody of himself.

Hey y'all, thanks for the writeup! As the composer (not orchestrator) of the lullaby, I thought I'd chime in for context if you were curious. I actually wrote the piece based on the preview chapters before release. I knew Brandon's father in law wrote the lyrics, and I thought it would be fun to set to music before the book came out, so a reader who searched for it while reading would have at least one take on how it could sound. Because of that, I had NO clue about Shallan singing it again. So, when I wrote it, it was from the perspective of a broken man comforting a child during a highstorm. The second, orchestral part, was me imagining zooming out from the residence and sensing the scale of the storm sweeping across Roshar, and eventually diminishing as they always have. That being said, the cool thing about art is that it can evoke anything and it's never wrong, really, because every experience and listener is different (see Hoid storytelling to Kal, for example). I hope you enjoy and thanks for supporting the project! -Alex

Man, this makes me happy to see fully released. I made those two maps just for fun and to see them linked to a project of this scale is really just the most amazing thing. Huge props to everyone that worked on the project, it is amazing

You all were so interested in Dawnshards and Aimia that you broke the Coppermind for a bit. I think it seems better but I'm monitoring this now

*Thunderclast breaks down wall and pokes its head in* "Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour Odium?"

Señor Brandon? Es is me, Argenito, unrelated to that fool Argent. Spare a few WoBs?

I posted this in the wrong forum, so here it is I'd like to step in to raise some toasts here. Quite a few people contributed significant amounts of time to this...masterpiece of Cosmerology. I feel like it's dominated my minimal spare time for a while but I was a later and lesser contributor (and helping was something I was both honored and duty-bound to do given my WoBsession). Sharders we all know and love like Jofwu, Kurkistan, Windrunner, Calderis, Blightsong, Oversleep. Particular praise to Pagerunner and Argent for their outsized contributions. Unsurprisingly Chaos is magnificent, delegating like a demon and pulling endless long nights, working on this thing long, long before I was even a member of this site. (And my involvement with this is recent so forgive me if I've under-credited people). I may have contributed a bit but I'll get so much more out of Arcanum than I could ever give to it. Many of you know my WoBsession and this transforms the ability to gain a black belt in WoBfu. But my endless thanks for truly making this Wonderland of WoBs happen go to two people. Firstly, Mestiv. The Codebringer. He has done so much in making this dream happen. I don't speak code but I understand what he's done is not easy and I know the results are beautiful. He has enabled our addiction. And, this cannot be emphasised enough - he's not even a WoB fiend. He did this for the community, for you. What a guy. But my endless gratitude, admiration and love are for Weiry. the Master of WoBs, a guy I looked up to even before I realized the scope of this and his part in it. He made this happen. Since long before i was a member of this site he plotted and planned, and of course WoBbed. He put in the work. He had the vision. This was his Citizen Kane. For years and years from now, when you can learn the Cosmere more easily, you have Weiry to thank. He's my hero, and he'd better be your storming hero too. So go! WoB like you've never WoBbed before. Browse over seven THOUSAND WoBs, many never before seen, with full sources. If you've ever wondered where that WoB is you swear you remember, it's here. If you've ever wondered about Brandon's intonation in that doubtful WoB, or wanted to hear his hilarious reaction to bizarre theories (e.g. Wayne stole a Returned Horse), the audio snippet awaits. If you're obsessed with a particular topic and want to research it, it's one search away. So go! Enjoy the labor of love of many, inspired by one. Soak it up. So go. Dance with the WoBs.

Arcanum: over 300 unique Brandon "uhh" and "hmm" sounds!

Ammanas - With Kickstarter, you become part of the community that makes the KALADIN album happen. So, while it may be more expensive than it ultimately sells for, without you, it won't happen at all. In the case of KALADIN, some of the songs are already recorded with the orchestra. But... they aren't finished being produced. Some of them still need soloists recorded. All of them still need to be mixed (which costs a fair amount of money). Now, with that in mind, there are also a lot of rewards and add-ons on the Kickstarter that won't be sold after the Kickstarter ends. For example any non-album related artwork products are 100% Kickstarter-exclusive. There are also some pretty sweet Kickstarter-only rewards coming up. Finally, we are going to put out an edition of the album on the Kickstarter that will also be Kickstarter only! The packaging will be like a hardcover book rather than a jewel case, and it will contain a LOT of artwork as well as some other interesting things. So hop on, and keep an eye out for the big things coming. And THANK YOU for your support!

I just wanted to thank Grey for saying some things that definitely needed to be said about the anger of the oppressed being villainized, and how there really aren't many differences between "good lighteyes" and "bad lighteyes". She made a lot of valid points from very nuanced angles, and as a POC, I wanted her to know that her views were very appreciated.

Team Odium all the way. I keep coming back to the Eila Stele's description of him as "...the void. The empty pit that sucks in emotion", the way he encourages Dalinar to dull his own emotions ("Give me your pain"), and this exchange in Ch. 121, right before the Fused pass on Odium's command to kill Jezrien: Odium may speak of passion very... passionately... but his actions are those of someone who views it as merely a tool. I hadn't seen the "I don't think Odium is capable of being honest with himself" WoB until I listened to this episode, but since I've never bought into his claim to be Passion, I felt somewhat vindicated upon hearing it. Really though, I do think it casts serious doubt on Odium's self-concept (or Rayse's concept of the shard he holds, perhaps). So while I'm on the topic of Odium being a liar: in the same speech where Odium claims to be Passion, he makes some other claims which, to me, are obvious falsehoods: 1. "I am emotion incarnate." - As noted in the podcast, while Dalinar's desription of Odium covers more than hatred, it still does not cover the full gamut of human emotion. 2. “Honor cared only for bonds. Not the meaning of bonds and oaths, merely that they were kept." - The Stormfather explicitly refutes this in Ch. 111: 3. "Cultivation only wants to see transformation. Growth. It can be good or bad, for all she cares. The pain of men is nothing to her." - Admittedly there is more wiggle room on this one since Cultivation is mysterious, but her scene in Ch. 114 certainly did not leave me with the impression that Dalinar's pain meant nothing to her. 4. "Separate the emotion from men, and you have creatures like Nale and his Skybreakers. That is what Honor would have given you.” - I would argue that the order most representative of Honor is the Windrunners. Also, I don't think Nale's current state is representative of what Skybreakers are "supposed" to be like; Odium's reference to him and the modern Skybreakers as if they are "normal" Skybreakers strikes me as deliberately deceptive. Something else that, to me, casts doubts on Odium's purported relationship with emotion/Passion, is that Honor has been associated with human emotion at least once: Emphasis mine. Granted, "ideal human emotion" is not quite the same thing as passion-as-framed-by-Odium, but this three-way juxtaposition of nature vs ideal emotion vs void is, I think, a more accurate picture of Cultivation, Honor, and Odium than something like nature vs bonds vs passion would be. Without getting into a giant rabbithole about the complexity of Honor's nature, we do at least have to account for the fact that Roshar's various non-sapient emotion spren are tied to Honor. Oh, and one last thing: I don't think we can rule out the idea that Dalinar's description/vision of Odium was manipulated by Odium himself. I don't really think this is the case, but the possibility still seems worth mentioning.

All y'all better like me or I'll cry.

So I know of kickstarter, but the finer details of it elude me. My questions are: if they meet all of their goals will it eventually be something you can buy from amazon, wallmart or wherever? So with kickstarter it is more expensive bc you are basically funding their project, but the benefit is you get the first look at the product (or potentially only look if they don't meet their goals)? By the way great write up!

Their schedule is like the Highstorms, regular and unpredictable at the same time. Like Highstorms, Shardcasts are also magical!

For the "what would endowment's description be like?" question I'd like to submit; She was a force that gave from an infinite well of power. A thread that started with the first aspect of life, and continued on until the end of all things. She was that which connected all things, the inheritance of the first ancestors to their very last descendants. She was the talent of a craftsman, the belief of a martyr, the knowledge of a genius, the wealth of a merchant, and the strength of a warrior, for she was every trait that was passed to an heir. She was passed from father to son, mother to daughter, teacher to student, mentor to protégé, since the beginning of mankind and until its end. She was the light that gave sight, the blood that gave life, and the air that gave Breath.

Because Brandon just doesn't know how to do only one thing at a time.

So, multiple things... I agree with the majority of the views in the podcast that Adolin is in a much better place, maturity-wise and emotionally, to provide support and understanding for Shallan as she is learning to integrate her multiple personalities in her psyche, for lack of a better way to put it. The huge red flag for me was in Shadesmar when Kaladin was like "YES! I could create a whole new Me like you, Shallan, and hide away from all my problems!" and Shallan was cringing and thinking inside "umm....sure....it sucks and it's tearing me apart and I need to fix it" and Kaladin is completely oblivious to this. Shallan opens up a bit with both Kaladin and Adolin over the course of the 3 books and they react in completely different ways to that revelation in their relation to Shallan. For whoever said, "Why didn't Radiant choose Adolin at the end?" It's because of who Radiant is. Radiant likes Adolin but agrees to go along with Veil because "there are definite advantages to two Knights Radiant getting together". If Veil is the approximate id, the transgressive side of Shallan, Radiant is the superego of Shallan, the part that would be more than ready to submerge her feelings for Adolin for a "better pairing" with Kaladin's new status. As someone who has watched way too many romantic movies on dates, I agree that Shallan/Kaladin is far and away delving into boring cliche Nicholas Sparks territory, from the girl-boy meet-cute to the I-hate-you now I-can't-stop-thinking-about-you to the forced companionship in the chasms and the inevitable soul barings. While Sanderson does have a string of arranged marriage successes, like you guys said, Dalinar/Evi and Gavilar/Navani definitely show the other side of what happens with not-so-rosy arranged marriages. And if someone is really anti-arranged marriage, Sebarial/Palona is definitely the Sanderson example that worked out really well. With all that, I don't think Kaladin/Shallan is necessarily done, either. Until Shallan truly resolves Veil/Shallan/Radiant, Veil (and really, Shallan deep down) is going to crush on Kaladin, no matter how much she stuffs it into a deep dark hole or whether or not she stays faithful to Adolin. (I could see a Guinevere/Arthur/Lancelot thing developing later down the road.) And, to pull an example from Dalinar and Navani's marriage to Gavilar, Kaladin can "give up" on Shallan and accept her relationship with Adolin without the attraction going away, either. The relationship I really was sad over in Oathbringer was not any part of the Triangle; it was Dalinar/Evi. I feel like present day-Dalinar and Evi would have been an amazing pair, and all of Evi's advice and nurturing for Dalinar turned out to be spot on. It was just the right relationship at the wrong time for Dalinar, and watching it develop to its abrupt end through the flashbacks in Oathbringer killed me. I forgive you, at the last, was the bittersweet knife twisting. Without Evi, Dalinar could never have developed into the man that could become Unity, but Evi never gets to see the payoff at the end (unless you're counting her spirit/ghost).

I work in branding/marketing and graphic design, and personally, I love the new looks for the logos. Cohesion among the 3 of them will allow people in the fandom to recognize that the 3 websites are run together! I didn't know that you guys also ran the Coppermind, somehow, until this year. It's particularly smart to give new, dedicated logos to the Arcanum and Coppermind. No direct visual reference to the cosmere = no problems with copyrite laws! The flat styles are also just visually satisfying + modern. Great choices! I happened to finish the Shardcast episode today where you guys were discussing the Part 2 Epigraphs in Rhythm of War, and your excitement had me CACKLING! Y'all are ballers. I spend so many hours a week listening to your voices in traffic (I drive a lot from NJ to NY). Thanks for being the best!

I for one, would definitely watch Chaos and Brandon fight with Stabby awards.

Everything we know about RoW... Here are a few things you didn't mention: Navani was the most enjoyable for him to write recently (Nov. 26) There is a scene where Dalinar is being flown to a different part of the world by non-Kaladin Windrunners Jasnah has a couple viewpoints - (transcribed below) Rysn will not be a main character, but will have an interlude Group 2 climax is in Part 4, Group 3 climax is near the epilogue, and Group 1 climax is in the normal spot Scientist that was in Warbreaker will be in RoW, talking about some things he got wrong There wasn't room for Rock's narrative that would have been in his novella in RoW Brandon chose Bulgarian cover art that depicts Shallan and Adolin in Shadesmar The author of in-world Rhythm of War is not human There is a character moment in RoW that Brandon had planned from from the beginning as one of the two or three pillar scenes of the entire series, a moment like which we will not get again until SA 7 or 8

Did anyone else hear Chaos say how Evi "tried so hard" and immediately think, "and got so far, but in the end, it didn't even matter"?

#ZaneDidNothingWrong

It seems there really is always another secret project.

Uh-oh, it looks like you double-posted, @Chaos! I am afraid we discourage this kind of behavior in these forums and I am going to have to go ahead and merge your repl-- Oh. I can't...

Things I hope it is: Silverlight novella Nightblood Secret History 2 Secret History: Roshar Edition Threnody book What it probably is: Alcatraz 6 (wouldn't mind that much actually) Dark One Something new

I think you're being pretty pessimistic here, unduly so. The cosmere is his primary love, and his primary work. His top priority in his life is to finish the cosmere, and I have no doubt that he is excited to do so. I imagine a huge amount that he is excited about in Stormlight back half and later space age cosmere are so amazing, exciting, and awesome, but he literally could not tell us about it because they are huge spoilers. Stormlight is designed as his truly "big" single series, and I guarantee you, he loves it. Please note that after every book, Brandon says, "I am sick of this book and I'm glad to have that over with." Revisions are brutal. These books are massive. But rest assured, he does get pumped for Stormlight drafting. I think you only need to look at the Stormlight 5 prologue to see how excited Brandon is to write a killer conclusion. But that doesn't mean it isn't a ton of work. It's just so, so much, and the timeline of drafting Stormlight to getting that final draft is actually very fast given how huge it is. It's like eighteen months of straight work. If you spent eighteen months on a single project day-in, day-out, with Brandon's work ethic... yeah. I think you can see why he wants to work on a few other things after he finishes such gargantuan books. He's pumping out nearly a Lord of the Rings sized tome every 3-4 years (yes, really, LotR is 480,000 words long), and doing 5+ drafts of it. I'm sorry, I think it's absolutely insane to imagine that that isn't exhausting work, even if you think this story is the coolest thing ever. Like, if you have a job you like, even love, you can get burnout. Purely on a numerical basis, I think it is completely reasonable for him to be, "wow, that was awesome, but I am so glad to work on something else for a bit." So I think it's really important to keep that perspective. I am worried the amount of time he devotes to doing adaptations and potential showrunning. That will take a long time. But Brandon has an entire story to tell in the cosmere, and he is going to make it work. Brandon has proven his work ethic. He comes back to every Stormlight book energized and ready to go. I guarantee you, if he wasn't into it, he wouldn't bother pushing the boulder up the mountain at all. He does it because he does love it. I think he said the in-world time between the two is a decade, not that the break between those books would be a decade.

There are no words to describe the feelings I felt watching that video.

Oh I like these! Clearly a lot of thought went into them, and yet it didn't compromise the "feel" of the logos. I like the distinct colour schemes for the different sites. When the websites get updated, will there be any time/energy devoted to adding more alt text and image descriptions?

I'm really looking forward to the daily Fortnite tutorial uploads from Chaos on the Youtube-channel.

I haven't even finished listening to this podcast and I've already been inspired to create this meme, thanks guys!

Awesome podcast, like usual. What if Vax is just a name for the vacuum of space?

All the talk of the dead spren, mentioning the word "deadeye" over and over, made my mind go off in interesting directions. "The Knights Radiant?" Lukaren asked. "An ancient order," Master Khonobi said in a solemn tone. "They once kept peace throughout the Cosmere, wielding mighty Shardblades and the power of the Investiture." "The Investiture? What's that?" "A force that permeates all things, and binds the Cosmere together." Lukaren blinked, slowly digesting this new information. "And you say my father was one of these... Knights Radiant?" "Anekal was one of the greatest of their number," Master Khonobi nodded, "until he was destroyed by the evil Darth Sader, a fallen Radiant who was seduced by the Voidish side of the Investiture, to become what is known as a Deadeye Knight..."

I also don't care for the Spook/Beldre relationship for the same reason I hated Padme/Anakin: I don't think whining is attractive. I hazard to guess that most other women are not into whining. Listening to a guy whine about himself makes me want to slap him, not kiss him. While I enjoy Wayne as a character, I don't really like being in his viewpoint, sounds like I'm not alone there! I think the way he treats Steris and women in general is intentional. So often sexist behavior is only something villains do in books and they are super creepy at it. This kind of casual objectification is more representative of what most women experience so it is more realistic. And guys who do this aren't monsters, sexism isn't perpetuated by monsters, it is perpetuated by ordinary people who don't see it as a big deal. I figure if characters don't annoy me sometimes then they aren't very realistic because humans annoy me. I just thought of a beef from Oathbringer, but it's spoilerific:

Hey guys, I now ship Hoidonalsium. And yes, thank for reminding me I'm supposed to be making that.

Good discussion. I particularly enjoyed hearing some new voices: welcome to Matt and Shannon! Your input was great. Regarding the triangle as a whole, I felt that it was made more palatable because it was not there for its own sake. Yes, the relationships are important, but in my view the primary narrative purpose of the triangle was to highlight Shallan's fracturing psyche and to provide her personas the opportunity to conflict with each other. Since I LOVED Shallan's mental journey, having the triangle work in support of that made it a useful tool rather than a set of occasionally cringey interactions. I wanted to mention one major point in Adolin's favor. You brought up Shallan's aversion to being protected (which is kind of Kaladin's whole purpose in life, so there's another reason their pairing wouldn't go well). She has lived a very circumscribed life and is just now experiencing independence. She reacts badly to the renewed constraints of her wardship, and she seeks in each of her personas to avoid any hint of impotence. She needs to be capable. That's why Adolin's confession about Sadeas is so perfect. Shallan opens up a little about her insecurities, and rather than telling her what to do or how to fix it, he responds by saying, "Yeah, I know what it's like to lie to everybody. I have no idea how to deal with it. When you figure it out, please help me." That trust in her ability, the assumption that she'll figure it out before he does, and the invitation for her to be a strength to someone else is exactly the validation and empowerment that she is able to accept.

It wouldn't be very good exercising, since you'll never put it down.

We now know who holds the shard of Whimsy!!!

Everytime any of you did a gay reading of any characters or situations, the rest of y'all's smirks slowly rose up, up, up, up Anyway, that was a great Shardcast and happy Pride Month to all of you as well! Also, hey there Ene!

Is that a stylized version of Chiri-Chiri on the cover? Chiri-Chiri is a Dawnshard! As I've always thought

I think it's pretty unfair to compare the leatherbound Kickstarter to Kickstarters not managed by Dragonsteel directly. Brandon has always been very consistent in his Stormlight plans and books, and knows it would be his top priority. Maybe the book you wanted, sure, but again, he's always executed Stormlight solidly. I think this is pretty unnecessarily harsh. Lost Metal will be one of the things right after Stormlight 4, and it's in the very near future. Seems good to me. Sure, if the novella fails, then I'm right there with you complaining about it, but I think your comment is much harsher than I'd put it.

Lost Metal has been a year away for five years now. I'll wait until a progress bar pops up before getting my hopes up. Lost Metal has become the new Warbreaker and Elantris sequels; always just on the horizon, but never quite the right time to do it, apparently. Brandon has a good sense of how long it takes to write a book once he starts working on it, but his future project list changes about once a month. Since Stormlight is almost over, I expect he knows what's going to come next; Skyward 3 is my guess, since he has to keep both his publishers happy and Tor just got a big ol' book. But after Skyward 3... who knows. Maybe he'll take longer than expected on it, and "need" to go straight to Skyward 4. Maybe one of his other side projects, like Dark One (with its big TV show just around the corner) or the Mistborn screenplay (which nobody will buy) or Apocalypse Guard (which he's figured out for sure this time) or new audiobook content for finished series (since everyone's been clamoring for more Legion and Reckoners) or Adamant or Silence Divine or who knows what other Secret Project jump up on the priority list and bump everything else out. Incidentally, this pattern also has me concerned about the Stormlight novella for the leatherbound Kickstarter. The other Cosmere Kickstarter projects haven't come close to keeping their timetables, because they offered products that had yet to be developed and the creators haven't been able to hold to those production timelines. The House War expansion will be three years late on what was supposed to a be a 1-year wait, but at least it's being manufactured right now. I've flat-out written off the $50 I spent on the Stormlight art book from the Kaladin soundtrack, since they're back to square 1 on that again. I was expecting an Kickstarter done by Dragonsteel would be more professional and not have those issues, but here we are, about to pay for a novella that hasn't been written yet by an author who has not demonstrated he can write a given book in a timely manner. Yes, he's always publishing something, but often it's not what he had planned to publish a year before. When he finishes a book, next he writes whatever he's passionate about writing at that moment. When he's shared plans before on social media or in States of the Sanderson, it's always been informal, so there's nothing wrong about breaking that "promise." But once we give him our money, he will actually be making a real promise to write this novella; we'd better hope we get lucky and he gets passionate about the novella in the middle of other Stormlight work. Before the replies come in, of course Brandon is allowed to write what he wants to write. When he says "here's what I'm gonna write," I have not said "he should write this instead." What I am saying is: "I doubt that. Fans, don't count your chickens until he's started writing them."

You know what I'm looking forward to? Moash dying violently. VERY VIOLENTLY.

I felt the same way too. Brandon seems like an incredible guy, Invested with tons of writing and storytelling power, but he is still a human being. I'd personally like to see him cut back on the random non-cosmere stories (especially in committing to trilogies!), but I understand that this is part of the "I make my living off of being a writer, so I also have to produce content consistently enough to survive" aspect of Brandon's humanity. I wonder if he's dealing with commitments he made in the past, prior to becoming (at least in my estimation) really successful with his work. Perhaps these commitments are less "man, I'll just keep writing more and more things because I have nothing else to write!" and more "I wasn't sure how successful my work would be, so I signed [multiple] contracts to write things for INSERT PUBLISHER HERE so I could guarantee my livelihood, so now I have to do so." I could be wrong, but this seems like a reality professional writers could face. I'd like to see him take a couple of years to bounce between books specifically within his cosmere. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the Reckoners more than I thought I would, and I'm sure I'll enjoy Alcatraz when I finally decide to read it. I know Brandon has said this "bouncing between projects" is part of his creative process (and my goodness, it seems to be working!), but the longer I've been a Sandersonian, the more the fan in me feels like he's spreading himself really thin. Seeing The Lost Metal pushed back so far was a let down for me. I agree with @Ammanas - we've been spoiled. In the back of my mind, I was thinking "Brandon is going to release Oathbringer and then reveal that he's secretly been writing COSMERE BOOK A and COSMERE BOOK B, to be released in the spring of 2018!" That's an absolutely nonsense thought (and unfair to Brandon), but to be fair to we fans, he's DONE IT BEFORE (that crafty cremling!). And, it's not like he ISN'T doing this now - it's just that his other books aren't cosmere. Again, who are we to tell the master artist what to paint, right? The last thing I want Brandon to feel from me is disappointment, especially after the incredible universe he's built for me as a fan, which pulled me into the fantasy genre, reinvigorated my love of actual reading as an adult, and which continues to provide me a fun community of people on the shard and in my personal life. We, unfortunately, don't have any Atium, so while I'd love to believe that Brandon spends his time storing up youth, he's a human being. I'll grow old with Brandon and enjoy his books as he releases them. It's funny that he finished the Wheel of Time, because my friends who first introduced me to Brandon Sanderson LOVED this series grew up and grew old with Robert Jordan. Here's to many, MANY more years of health and joy for you and your family Brandon! =)

Perhaps a better approach would have been to actually include someone who had, I don't know, a differing viewpoint and take on the triangle than those involved in the making of this cast? Upon listening, my conclusion to what I heard was that there were several people who came into this podcast with an already agreed upon conclusion, and they collectively tried to guess or anticipate what the opposing side's argument would be, and collectively worked to refute an argument none of them actively subscribed to in the first place. If you can't escape your bias when going into a discussion on a topic, the solution isn't to wave your hand and say "well there's nothing we can do about that, so bear with us". The solution is to introduce people with the opposite bias and opinion to the discussion, so that they may argue their own viewpoint. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of great content and discussion going on here. But I do find the sincerity around your attempt to be "fair and balanced" suspect when you don't have anyone speaking for the opposing viewpoint represented.

Awesome! Nothing against the Tor review, but this one does way more to get me hyped as a fanboy.

Can I post a virus that turns computers into botnet? It will unite the computers like nothing else!