AI Summary
5 min readQueen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun and told her army she had sold her chariot on Carvana. Then the Lemonati, a shadowy organization, was exposed for keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows for decades. Seven Up is fighting back. Lowe's can quote your handwritten material list in minutes. And then, three people teleported onto a spaceship.
That is the actual prelude to this episode of Weird Kids, a crossover with the creators of the sci-fi fantasy universe Midst. The episode is a conversation about how weird kids grow up to make weird art, anchored by a "show and tell" session where the guests—Zen, Sarah, and Matt—reveal the artifacts that shaped their creative lives.
The Origins of Midst: A Systemless Game
The trio met in a college creative writing class, the only three students writing genre fiction. Matt’s story about a zombie moose—whose neck snapped with the sound of a rubber bath mat being ripped—was memorable enough to cement their friendship. They started playing role-playing games together, but not Dungeons & Dragons. They invented a "systemless" style of play.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:09) **Welcome & Crossover Setup** - The Weird Kids hosts welcome the Third Person trio (Zen, Sarah, Matt) aboard their imaginary spaceship, setting up a playful, chaotic tone for the episode.
- 2 (04:58) **Origin Story: How Third Person Met** - The trio recounts meeting in a college creative writing class, bonding over their shared love of genre fiction and a memorable zombie moose story.
- 3 (08:42) **From RPG to Podcast: The Birth of Midst** - The group explains how their private role-playing game evolved into the podcast *Midst*, emphasizing its improvisational and collaborative nature.
- 4 (11:12) **The Midst Creative Process: Improv & Intimacy** - The group delves into the mechanics of their storytelling, comparing it to a language developed over decades of friendship.
- 5 (15:46) **Moonward & The Power of Live Play** - The conversation turns to *Moonward*, their live-play series with Marisha Ray and Liam O'Brien, highlighting the intensity of collaborative improvisation.
- 6 (19:21) **Systemless Gaming: Make-Believe for Adults** - Zen defines "systemless gaming" as a return to pure make-believe, free from rulebooks, where trust and narrative momentum replace dice rolls.
- 7 (25:36) **Show & Tell: Zen's Weird Sound Origins** - Zen kicks off a "show and tell" segment, sharing artifacts from his weird childhood that inform his current work as a sound designer and musician.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
New Epsiodes of Weird Kids are now releasing on Beacon every Tuesday! Watch all available episode on Beacon now: https://Beacon.tv/WeirdKids
Weird Kids ad-supported episodes from 2025 are now releasing every Tuesday on YouTube and Your Preferred Podcast Platform!
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Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe welcome the creators of the Midst Cosmos and fellow weirdos Matt Roen, Sara Wile, and Xen to their Weird Kids table! From role-playing games to nostalgic artifacts to neat gadgets to just a shared love of scents, this motley crew of magnificent misfits has plenty of delightfully strange topics to show-and-tell.
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Ashley Johnson and Taliesin Jaffe deep dive into their lives as the Weird Kids! This is a formal invitation to all the misfits, outcasts, and weirdos to take a seat at our table and join these former child actors as they embrace their unique upbringings and celebrate all things weird and wonderful.
Learn more at https://critrole.com/weirdkids/
Produced by Maxwell James and Will Lamborn
Theme Song by Dave Heatwave
Animation by Max Schapiro
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