u/FundamentalPolygon

For context, the only Tony Hawk game I've ever played was Proving Ground, and it was one of my favorite games as a kid. I absolutely adored roaming around the three cities doing tricks and traveling at high speeds. I'm on PC these days, and I've picked up that you guys aren't too crazy about THPG, so I started looking into Pro Skater 1+2, and I found out that it's organized in levels and isn't open world. That's a bit disappointing to me, but the more I think about it the more I feel like I could still enjoy it. I've also seen some indication that maybe I should just emulate Underground. Or maybe this thing called THUGPRO I keep hearing about. What do y'all think? I've been playing Skate 4 and enjoying it as well but I know it's a different, less arcade-y style.

I've played Civ 6 (my only 4x game so far), and while I enjoy it, or am at least addicted to it, I tend to feel a little too constrained, like I'm just trying to spam the districts I'm _supposed_ to build for each win condition, and if I don't do that I lose. This leaves me feeling like I'm more just playing a straight game and don't have time for exploration or actually crafting an empire with its own character.

I'm interested in Stellaris because I love space stuff (e.g. Elite Dangerous, Kerbal Space Program, Star Trek), but I also feel like it's supposed to be "bigger" and maybe have more opportunities to feel like I'm really crafting an empire and giving it a distinct fingerprint. My only concern is that I'll be overwhelmed with all the options, since I do often feel overwhelmed by all the different options in Civ, though that might partially be because I feel like I can't really use many of them and still win.

That was a lot, but what do y'all think? Should I get Stellaris on the next sale?

I've long loved a good pop-sci book on particle physics, string theory, or astrophysics. And I mean legit pop-sci, not new age interpretations of physics like Deepak Chopra or anything. But the truth is that those subfields represent only a small part of what modern physics is about! I know condensed matter physics is huge, and I'm ashamed to say that I know practically nothing about it. There are other fields that I probably don't even realize exist. So bring on the less-sexy pop-physics recs!

FYI I'm perfectly fine if the book is a bit more rigorous; I have a degree in math and study physics in depth on the side (currently QM).

There have been many complaints here over the last year or two that Sam hasn't had many interesting guests on to talk about anything outside of his now-usual beat: Trump, wokeness, and AI. I'm among those currently dissatisfied, but there must be some listeners on here who think the podcast is genuinely doing great right now. If that's you, what are you enjoying? What keeps you coming back?