Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan cover art

Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

By: TruStory FM
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Hey folks. Mandy Kaplan here. I’d like to share a bit about my intentions and mission for MMAN if you’ll indulge me. You will? Huzzah!

Look, I am a lot of things. I’m a writer, actress, mother, and lover of musicals and cats, but NOT Cats, The Musical. Give me a little bit of credit, would ya? So...throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded (and intrigued) by all things nerd. A sister who plays D&D, a Star Wars-obsessed husband, friends who love anime, comic books, video games, and...well, you get the picture. Somehow, I have always held it all at arm's length. Not to get too deep, but maybe I never thought I was smart enough to follow it. Or maybe I have control issues and have never been able to embrace fantastical things like dragons and time travel. Until now!

So, with an open mind and heart, I am ready to join this massive (and beautifully inclusive) club and GEEK THE #%$ OUT! It’s time for all my wonderfully strange friends to baptize me into NERD-DOM. Please join me on this journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover or remember a side of yourself along the way. Or at least make fun of me as I try!© TruStory FM Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Dr. Horrible’s Sing a Long Blog with Krissy Lenz & Kyle Olson

    Dr. Horrible’s Sing a Long Blog with Krissy Lenz & Kyle Olson
    Jun 29 2026
    This week we have a three-act superhero musical, shot on a borrowed studio lot during a labor strike, financed by one guy's personal credit card, in which approximately none of the songs are allowed to finish. Weird as it may be, it all clicks into place, and you understand why a generation of nerds has had this thing memorized for going on two decades.This week, returning guides Kyle Olson and Krissy Lenz walk our favorite mainstream mom through Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. We’ve got all the hits: Neil Patrick Harris fan mail that borders on a restraining order, the deeply important economics of the Henchmen's Guild, why Felicia Day was building the internet before the internet knew it needed building, and a shiny new Australia offered up purely for the sake of a rhyme. There's a horse who is also a chairman. There's a tragedy you will not see coming. There's a meaningful high note. Press play.GUEST SPOTLIGHTKyle Olson is an award-winning writer, producer, and podcast host, and a recurring nerd-whisperer here on Make Me a Nerd. He's the co-host of Craft and Chaos on TruStory FM, creator of the steampunk queer radio drama The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society, host of The Story Well, and logged 300-plus episodes of The Marvel Movie Minute.Craft and Chaos: trustory.fm/craft-and-chaosKyle's host page on TruStory FM: trustory.fm/host/kyle-olsonKrissy Lenz is Mandy's most frequent guest and partner in nerd crime. She co-hosts The Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast and Gank That Drank on TruStory FM. Her Most Excellent episode on When Harry Met Sally — featuring a certain mainstream mom — is on the way.Krissy’s host page on TruStory FM: https://trustory.fm/host/krissy-lenz/REFERENCE LINKSThe Main EventDr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008 miniseries) — WikipediaPeopleNeil Patrick Harris — WikipediaNathan Fillion — WikipediaFelicia Day — WikipediaSimon Helberg — WikipediaJoss Whedon — WikipediaJed Whedon — WikipediaZack Whedon — WikipediaMaurissa Tancharoen (co-writer; one of the three superfans) — WikipediaBen Edlund (Bad Horse champion; creator of The Tick) — WikipediaDavid Fury (newscaster cameo) — WikipediaMarti Noxon (newscaster cameo) — WikipediaLin-Manuel Miranda — WikipediaBo Burnham — WikipediaSarah Michelle Gellar — WikipediaShows & SeriesFirefly — WikipediaBuffy the Vampire Slayer — Wikipedia"Once More, with Feeling" (Buffy musical episode) — WikipediaHow I Met Your Mother — WikipediaThe Big Bang Theory — WikipediaThe Guild (Felicia Day's web series) — WikipediaCritical Role — WikipediaGame Changer (Dropout) — WikipediaPhineas and Ferb (home of Dr. Doofenshmirtz) — WikipediaScrubs — WikipediaSupernatural — WikipediaFilmsSerenity (2005) — LetterboxdStage & AdaptationsHamilton — WikipediaHadestown — WikipediaSix — WikipediaThings & CuriositiesBox ONE (Neil Patrick Harris's solo escape-room game) — theory11The Magic Misfits (NPH's children's book series) — AmazonGeek & Sundry — Wikipedia"Brand New Day" / "A Man's Gotta Do" / "Everyone's a Hero" — YouTube Music searchThe 2013 Tony Awards opening (NPH's "Bigger!" number, with the closing recap rap) — YouTube searchFrom the TruStory FM VaultGame Changer with Kyle Olson (Make Me a Nerd) — trustory.fmMake Me a Nerd show archive — trustory.fm/make-me-a-nerd---Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit
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    59 mins
  • Batman Pulled a Gun: Batman Beyond with Jason Yeung

    Batman Pulled a Gun: Batman Beyond with Jason Yeung
    Jun 22 2026
    Batman: he does not use guns. This is practically the whole point of him — a man so committed to a single rule that he built an entire personality, a cave, and a frankly concerning number of themed vehicles around it. So when Batman Beyond opens its very first episode with an aging Bruce Wayne pulling a gun, under a content warning slapped over the face of Bugs Bunny, you understand exactly why mainstream mom Mandy Kaplan pressed play and immediately thought: what, precisely, am I getting into?What she got into — with the help of voiceover actor and lifelong nerd Jason Yeung — is the 1999 series that aged Bruce Wayne out of the cowl and handed it to a teenager named Terry McGinnis, set in a grimy neon 2039, scored like a Nine Inch Nails B-side, and casually staffed with George Takei and Stockard Channing. It's darker than the Adam West you remember (Mandy has some feelings about a young Burt Ward that we will not be getting into here), weirder than you'd expect (one villain is essentially sentient ink; another is a sword-wielding assassin who never says a single word), and built on an idea that is genuinely, ambush-you-on-a-Saturday-morning moving: you can't do the thing you love forever, and one day you have to hand it to someone else.It snuck real grief, real ethics, and real "wait, why IS he a bat?" questions into a kids' time slot, and then got canceled before most of the world noticed. Mandy noticed. Press play.Guest SpotlightJason Yeung is a voiceover actor who met Mandy in the voiceover world, where the two have had the pleasure of working together. A self-described huge nerd who "grew up in the space" — and who got his start working the counter at Hollywood Video and Blockbuster, hand-selling underrated gems to anyone who'd listen — Jason can, by his own admission, talk nerd stuff for forever. On this episode he makes the passionate, deeply-felt case for Batman Beyond as one of the most criminally underrated entries in the entire Batman canon.Links & NotesBatman Beyond (TV series)Terry McGinnis / BatmanBatman Beyond: Return of the Joker — the follow-up film referencedBatman: The Animated SeriesCast & CrewWill Friedle — voice of Terry McGinnisKevin Conroy — voice of Bruce WayneGeorge Takei — voice of Mr. FixxStockard Channing — voice of Commissioner Barbara GordonLauren Tom — voice of Dana TanMelissa Disney — voice of Curaré (Mandy's friend)Kristopher Carter — Emmy-winning composer of the main themeBatman on Screen (other adaptations referenced)Batman (1966 TV series) — the Adam West versionAdam WestBurt Ward — the original RobinChris O'Donnell — the other RobinJoel SchumacherTim BurtonBatman & Robin (1997) — the "bat nipples" apology movieBatman Begins (2005)Christopher NolanChristian BaleThe Lego Batman Movie (2017) — Will Arnett's BatmanWill ArnettArnold Schwarzenegger — the live-action Mr. FreezeAlso MentionedFireflyBig Hero 6 (2014)Boy Meets WorldAnimaniacsPower RangersBeverly Hills, 90210Nine Inch Nails / Trent Reznor — the theme's sonic cousinMusicTheme: "Wonderstruck" by Jane and the BoyBatman Beyond Main Theme — Kristopher CarterWatch/Hear the MomentJoel Schumacher's Batman & Robin apologyIn the TruStory FM UniverseWatch Me Fly… Serenity with Krissy Lenz — the episode that recruited Mandy as a BrowncoatSensual Creatures: Vampires, Frilly Shirts, and Interview with a Vampire with Jonny Lee Jr. — Mandy's recent vampire deep-dive (the 1994 film + the AMC series)Superhero Ethics with Matthew Fox — the deeper-ethics show Mandy recommends (they covered Batman Beyond)---Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
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    55 mins
  • Leave the Gun, Take the Nerd: The Godfather with Seth Vargas

    Leave the Gun, Take the Nerd: The Godfather with Seth Vargas
    Jun 15 2026
    There are two kinds of people in this world: those who have seen The Godfather, and those who have built an entire personality around not having seen it (a group that, until this week, proudly included our own Mandy Kaplan — a grown woman fully comfortable assigning Rotten Tomatoes scores to a film she had never once watched). Enter Seth Vargas of the Movie Friends podcast, back in the nerd chair to commit the bold act of sitting a self-described mainstream mom down in front of the most quoted movie in American history and asking her to actually have feelings about it.She does. Boy, she does. What comes out of it is a conversation about violence and family and loneliness and whether the most beloved father figure in all of cinema is secretly the devil — the kind of talk that sneaks up and turns profound while you’re still laughing at the pasta jokes. If you’ve been quietly running your own decades-long Godfather standoff, consider this your way out. Press play.GUEST SPOTLIGHTSeth Vargas is one half of Movie Friends, the weekly film podcast he co-hosts with Michelle Rubinstein on a beautifully simple premise: Seth has seen it, Michelle hasn’t, and together they take a curious, friends-first tour through movie history one title at a time. This is Seth’s second visit to Make Me a Nerd — he and Michelle previously walked Mandy through the strange legacy of Ed Wood. Find Movie Friends on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on Instagram at @moviefriendspodcast.LINKS & REFERENCESThe FilmsThe GodfatherThe Godfather Part IIZootopiaThe ExorcistRosemary’s BabyThe OutsidersPeggy Sue Got MarriedMegalopolisTHX 1138Star WarsJawsSingin’ in the RainHello, Dolly!Miss CongenialityAnalyze ThisMickey Blue EyesAll That JazzThe Many Saints of NewarkPlan 9 from Outer SpaceEd WoodThe Filmmakers & CastFrancis Ford CoppolaMario PuzoMarlon BrandoAl PacinoDiane KeatonRobert DuvallJames CaanRobert De NiroLee StrasbergGeorge LucasNicolas CageHugh GrantRoy ScheiderMatt DillonPeople & HistoryFrank Sinatra — the rumored real-life inspiration behind Johnny FontaneJoe Colombo — the mob boss behind the real protest campaign Seth describesItalian-American Civil Rights League — the organization that rallied against the film’s productionThe Hays Code (Motion Picture Production Code)Watch & ListenSeth’s homework: the Vito Corleone mustache-to-tree dissolveTheme song: “Wonder Struck” by Jane and the BoyPreviously on Make Me a NerdMovie Friends Michelle Rubinstein and Seth Vargas on the Strange Legacy of Ed WoodThe Exorcist with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan DiasWhile you’re at it… Check out this great show!Sitting in the Dark — TruStory FM’s monthly horror deep-dive with Chelsea Stardust, Tommy Metz III, Pete Wright, and Kynan Dias---Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
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    1 hr
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