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PODCAST

This Thing Rules

Brian Altano and Max Scoville

This Thing Rules is a show where we celebrate our favorite things. What kind of things, exactly? All kinds of things! Movies, foods, cities, bands, shows, books, albums, toys, pictures, moments. Each episode, join long-time collaborators and best pals Brian Altano and Max Scoville as they focus on a different subject, ask themselves what’s so great about it, share some anecdotes about how they grew to love it, unearth some trivia about it, and celebrate the fact that it exists.

leisure hobbies

All Episodes

00:44:33

Breakfast Sandwiches Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/04/18

Not just part of a complete breakfast, but a complete breakfast in and of itself, the quintessential blue collar morning meal is an American staple to rival the noble cheeseburger… But what makes a good breakfast sandwich? Eggs, cheese, some kind of meat, stuck between some sort of complex carbohydrate. Surely no one could screw that up, right? Well, you’d think so. Join us as we discuss the merits of various mystery meat, from the controversially named Taylor Ham/Pork Roll to its weird Amish

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00:55:41

Easter Candy Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/03/28

From Cadbury Creme Eggs to Peeps to the ubiquitous egg-adjacent jelly bean, Easter candy is one of the sweetest parts of springtime. The vaguely pagan animal-centric traditions that come along with it really don’t make a ton of sense, especially in relation to the main event’s significance in Christianity, but we’re not complaining. So, let’s talk about oviparous lagomorphs, marshmallow baby chicks, and some of our fondest pastel-colored memories.It would totally rule if you helped support the show

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00:52:46

IKEA Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/03/21

Whether you love labyrinths, mystery meatballs, funny sounding words or great deals on housewares and modular furniture, IKEA has it all. Join us as we follow the arrows on the floor through the history, charm, quirks, and shockingly dark side of the world’s largest furniture chain… that also sells cat leashes and hot dogs.It would totally rule if you helped support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/thisthingrules, You can also show your support by following us on Bluesky and Twitter

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00:47:24

Arcades Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/03/14

Arcades, as in a place where a bunch of arcade cabinets, pinball tables, and other assorted large and loud coin operated distraction units were collected to entertain people, started in the late 70s/early 80s. For the sake of this episode we’re gonna skip to this era and not dwell on the penny arcade/nickelodeon era of old timey crank machines you can still find at Disneyland or Fisherman’s Wharf or whatever. So yeah not, the ones you fed chump change to that showed a horse running or other stuff

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01:08:18

Far Cry Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/03/07

Do you know the definition of insanity? Well, doing the same thing over and over again, but especially when that thing involves using a grenade launcher to blow the door off a wild animal cage, simultaneously freeing the dangerous beast, but also setting it on fire and pissing it off so much that it runs around biting bad guys in the neck while also setting them on fire too. And that’s a thing you can do (and which we’ve done) in numerous Far Cry games. Ubisoft’s long-running open world first-person

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00:43:07

Tom & Jerry Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/02/28

The most iconic cat and mouse duo have been ruthlessly trying to kill each other for almost a century, and there’s something timeless about good old fashioned slapstick animal violence. Join us as we dig into the history of this timeless, hilarious, often messed-up, and occasionally flat-out problematic cartoon.Also, friendly reminder you can help support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/thisthingrules, follow us on Bluesky and Twitter @ThisThingRules, or find our little corner of our old

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00:49:43

Teeth Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/02/21

What? They do! They let us chew our food, smile, grimace, and give us something to floss in a literal, non-Fortnite dance fashion. Join as we marvel at those fascinating, slightly creepy lil’ pearly whites, their place in popular culture, and various anecdotes involving dental professionals, tooth fairies, and everything in between. Special thanks to A.C. MacKenzie for writing in and suggesting such a mundane yet bizarre subject for a podcast. Also, friendly reminder you can help support the show on

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01:02:04

Model Kits Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/02/14

In this 1:1 scale recreation of a conversation between two friends, Max gives Brian a crash course on plastic model kits, something he had a passing interest in as a kid, but which escalated into a full-on obsession in adulthood. We discuss the origins of the hobby compared to what it’s like now, from pre-WWII models of planes that would eventually wind up in WWII to intricate replicas of very boring objects. Of course, we don't gloss over the timeless frustrations involved with cutting,

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00:49:37

Mornings Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/02/07

In what’s possibly our most divisive and controversial episode to date, we tell you why we both enjoy a particular time of day that a whole lot of people would rather spend being unconscious than doing anything else. Ironically, two guys who used to host a show called “Up At Noon” are, in fact, “morning people.” But wait, let’s talk about how we got this way, what’s keeping us this way, and why we don’t really mind that much.Also, friendly reminder you can help support the show on Patreon at

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00:50:04

Stickers Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/01/31

Who doesn’t love stickers? Colorful, cool, funny, shiny, informative and occasionally stinky little pictures or messages that can be used to decorate objects and surfaces, giving a personal possession (or public property) a little more personality. We run down some of the more novel places stickers have come from and where they’ve wound up, from Ray Avery’s original “Kum Kleen Price Stickers” in 1940, to the earliest political bumper stickers, to the origins of using “Hello My Name Is” labels to

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00:53:07

Swords Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/01/18

Schwing! This episode is all about the S-word: SWORDS. Over the course of the next hour, you may learn a thing or two about the history of bladed weapons, but we spend most of our time goofing off and talking about our favorite swords in popular culture, from iconic movie blades in films like Lord of the Rings, Highlander, Kill Bill, and uh, Blade and also Brian’s favorite video game swords, from Ocarina of Time’s second-coolest sword to the Elden Ring sword that does bleed damage like they do on

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00:44:27

Alien (The Movie) Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/01/17

In space, no one can hear you scream, but in this episode, you can definitely hear us get real excited about Alien, the original 1979 film that started it all. Enough has been said about how it’s an undeniable classic that revolutionized cinema, etc, but it’s also a miracle it ever got made. Did you know that bringing the various forms of the iconic Xenomorph to life required actual human bones, a pile of rancid shellfish, and an industrial size oil drum full of KY Jelly - and only one of these

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00:57:07

Monsters Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2025/01/10

“Monsters!" by Brian, Age 42(?)Monsters are fictional (not real, we think) things that have existed (or not?) through basically all of human history, primarily as a mechanism to scare children or to provide cool things to torment or kill people in books, movies, TV shows, video games, comics, and campfire tales. There is not one under your bed or in your closet right now, probably, but the way the light hits at night, it might seem like it. Also the way your radiator sort of sounds like it's

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00:58:04

Special Episode: What Did We Listen to in 2024?

This Thing Rules ·

2024/12/25

In honor of the holidays (and us being pretty fried because of the holidays, and the entire year that preceded them) this week’s episode is even more laid back and conversational than normal, and we hit record without any specific topic in mind. After some muttering and grumbling about getting older, and also how we were friends with Dash Rendar without realizing it, the conversation turned to what we’ve been listening to this year, music-wise. So, something along the lines of Max and Brian’s

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00:51:35

Christmas Movies Rule!

This Thing Rules ·

2024/12/20

‘Tis the season! From wholesome feel-good classics like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to vaguely off-color classics like “National Lampoon’s Christmas” and “Love, Actually” to flat-out misanthropic filth like “Bad Santa” or “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” there are are a lot of movies about, or at least, involving Christmas. So, let’s talk about some favorites, some less favorite, and some movie franchises set in universes where Christmas doesn’t exist that we’ve somehow

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00:45:07

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2024/12/13

In 1996, Star Wars was in a weird spot. The Original Trilogy was a long time ago, and the Prequel Trilogy was still far, far away, but thanks to the rapidly expanding Expanded Universe in the form of books, comics and games, fans had plenty keeping them busy. So, to capitalize on this, and test the waters for interest in a new movie, Lucasfilm did the next best thing to making a movie: making everything BUT a movie, with Shadows of the Empire, a multimedia project that took the form of a novel, a

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01:04:56

McDonaldland Rules! Featuring Scott Bromley

This Thing Rules ·

2024/12/03

This week, we’re joined by our pal Scott Bromley to discuss one of the most beloved fantasy realms ever created by a fast food restaurant’s marketing teams: McDonaldland. Okay, so, maybe the food isn’t healthy, and the play structure is a deathtrap at best, and the Happy Meal toys and packaging are a blight on landfills, but at least Ronald McDonald, Grimace and The Hamburglar are pretty cool, right?Intro contains clips from various creepy McDonald's commercials. In case it's not abundantly clear,

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00:49:07

Being a Dad Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2024/11/29

This week, we're tackling something that's probably too broad of a subject to fit in one episode, and which is something of a moving target, but which definitely rules. We share some personal anecdotes, as well as various trials, tribulations and existential dilemmas posed by creating another human being. (Sorry if this episode description is a little scatterbrained, while writing it, my kid needed help going to the bathroom, then insisted I let her brush my hair, and then wanted me to look up how

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00:46:53

Slime Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2024/11/22

Slime has existed for all of time in some form, probably. The first slime ever was primordial ooze which many believe was made of random earth slop that came together to form life. Slime as a toy was first introduced by Mattel in 1976 and it was literally just a plastic garbage can full of slime for kids over 5 and was labeled as “gooey, drippy, oozey, cold, ‘n clammy” It was mostly made of guar gum and PVA glue. Mattel went on to put all sorts of shit in this stuff, like fake bugs, eyeballs, and

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00:46:09

Jabba The Hutt Rules!

This Thing Rules ·

2024/11/15

Hoo hoo hoo. Okay, so maybe Jabba isn't exactly a role model, or particularly family-friendly, but that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth is one of our favorite parts of Star Wars, both in-universe as a terrifying villain, and behind-the-scenes as a completely absurd achievement in special effects in both practical and CGI forms. We delve into our first exposure to Jabba, reflect on why we love him so much, and share some of the weirder Jabba items from our respective collections of toys and other

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