June 2025 Newsletter

[note: Michael wrote this newsletter two weeks ago and CMRN forgot to post it, so here it is in a time capsule to remind you what we were up to last month!]

We're a few days into a new month, which MUST mean it is time for the Ranged Touch monthly newsletter! Tip back your hat and sit a spell while I get to work rounding up all the mischievous little podcasts we've unleashed upon the plains of the internet this past May.

The Monthly saw CMRN and Danni returning to Adepticon once more, metaphorically, to discuss their respective hauls. CMRN also dropped by the newly launched Visual Decay podcast to chat about academic game studies, media, miniature painting, and the lot, so check that out and see what the Visual Decay folks are up to!

GAME STUDIES STUDY BUDDIES, meanwhile, took a deconstructive journey with David Gunkel's book GAMING THE SYSTEM, which gave CMRN and Michael plenty of time to talk Derrida but left them feeling like the monograph is a victim of both history and scope as it doesn't quite hit on games in the way they want it to. Next month, they'll be reading John R. Raser's SIMULATION AND SOCIETY, a book so old and obscure that it cannot be listed on our Bookshop page, but I'm sure you can find a copy if you try.

Meanwhile, to prep us for the beach months, JUST KING THINGS headed down to Florida to check out Steve's big weird haunted house/magic painting novel, DUMA KEY, which is pretty good! And then over on the Bonus Episode they checked out master of horror Mick Garris's miniseries adaptation of BAG OF BONES, in which Pierce Brosnan has a lot of weirdly erotic interactions with a tree. June will see us discuss the short story collection JUST AFTER SUNSET and Oz Perkins's THE MONKEY, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

TOO MUCH FUTURE returned at the tail-end of May, as the guys finally talked about what everyone on earth wants them to talk about: the official Fallout TV show's branded tie-in coffee and the Magic The Gathering set from last year. Maybe some other episodes will be heading your way in June–maybe subscribe to us on YouTube to keep up.

And to keep us right in the post-apocalypse, SHELVED BY GENRE with buddy Austin Walker saw the beginning of its variety unit on post-apoc fiction, starting with Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s deeply influential and deeply strange A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, with one and then another episode covering the first-two thirds of the book. Next month we'll finish it and begin Philip K. Dick's DR. BLOODMONEY, which you can also grab via our Bookshop. There was also a SBG bonus ep, our big Q&A on the William Gibson unit, and next month we'll be talking about THE ROAD WARRIOR.

As always, we could not do any of this without the help of our stalwart producer Jordan Mallory, and we couldn't keep him around if you folks weren't kind enough to support us here on Patreon! Thanks so much, enjoy your June, and maybe pass along word of our shows to anyone you think may find our perspectives enjoyable.

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