Necronomicast

Hold on to your hats!   My featured guest for this episode of Necronomicast is Dr. Rizwan Virk!
A graduate of MIT and Stanford, Rizwan Virk is a successful entrepreneur, video game pioneer, film producer, venture capitalist, computer scientist and bestselling author. Virk recently finished his doctoral research at the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) and teaching classes on the Metaverse, Innovation and Simulation Theory at the College of Global Futures and the Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.
His books include The Simulation Hypothesis, Startup Myths & Models: What You Won't Learn in Business School, Wisdom of a Yogi, The Simulated Multiverse, Treasure Hunt and Zen Entrepreneurship.  
Virk founded Play Labs @ MIT, a startup accelerator, and invested in many successful startups including Discord, Theta Labs, Upland and Tapjoy.  His startups created video games played by millions, including Tap Fish and games based on Game of Thrones, Star Trek, The Walking Dead, Grimm and Penny Dreadful. Virk and his books have been featured on The Joe Rogan Podcast, in Forbes, The Telegraph, NBC News, vox.com, Techcrunch, Inc., VentureBeat, Digital Trends, BBC Science Focus, and Scientific American, CBS, the CBC, Coast to Coast AM and The History Channel.  He has been a speaker and mentor ranging from MIT's $100k Business Plan Competition and Delta V accelerator to 500 Startups, Talks @ Google and GamesBeat in Silicon Valley.
Follow him @rizcambridge, and at zenentrepreneur.com.
"The Simulation Hypothesis" at Amazon.
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For this episode of Necronomicast, it is my pleasure to welcome to the program Sterling Moon! Sterling is a fulltime, heels-on-the-ground, tarot reader, psychic medium, folk magician, animal communicator, published author, podcaster, and an educator on the mystical and strange. She has been working with clients, and teaching professionally since 2013. 
She is the author of Talking to Spirits: A Modern Medium's Practical Advice for Spirit Communication 2023) and Llewellyn's Little Book of Spirit Communication (2025), both published by Llewellyn Books.
Sterling also spent almost 20 years as a professional advocate for victims and survivors of crime in Wyoming, Minnesota, and Colorado, which will forever remind her of the importance of serving her communities. 
Sterling Moon Official Website.
Sterling Moon at Llewellyn Books.
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It is my pleasure to welcome to Necronomicast, Rachel McCarthy James!  A native of Kansas, she is the daughter of baseball's Bill James and artist Susan McCarthy. At Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, she studied political science and creative writing.
Her first book, The Man from the Train (coauthored with her father) chronicled the serial killer behind the Villisca axe murders. Published in 2017, The Man from the Train was nominated for an Edgar award for best fact crime, and won the Kansas Notable Book award.
Her newest book, Whack Job, is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Job sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present. 
Official Website of Rachel McCarthy James
"Whack Job" available at Amazon
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Joining me for this special episode is Benedict Sanderson (director) and Claire Goodlass (producer) to chat about their powerful new documentary "Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart".

 
This documentary revisits the harrowing abduction of Elizabeth Smart, exploring the investigation, the media frenzy, and the failures that allowed the case to unfold the way it did, while centering Elizabeth's own voice and survival in one of the most haunting true crime stories of our time.
 
Find out the inside story on why this is one of the most talked about shows in the world directly from two of the most talented storytellers working today.
 
"Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart" is available on Netflix (Official Website)
 
Benedict Sanderson Official Website
 
Claire Goodlass Official Website
 
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On this incredible episode of Necronomicast, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Texas Ranger James B. Holland, who has built a reputation as one of the most remarkable investigators in modern law enforcement. With more than 26 years with the Texas State Police, Holland has cracked hundreds of cases, including some of the country's most haunting unsolved crimes.  But his rare gift lies in drawing confessions from the unthinkable: serial killers.  This gripping new series pulls back the curtain on Holland's most complex and chilling cases when KILLER CONFESSIONS: CASE FILES OF A TEXAS RANGER premieres on Tuesday, January 13 at 10/9c on ID. Episodes will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max.  
 
Through Holland's masterful psychological approach, viewers are immersed in the tension of real-time confessions and given a front-row seat to retired Texas Ranger, James Holland, as he reveals his tactics in cases once considered unsolvable. Through interrogation footage, case files, and with the personal reflections of Holland himself, each episode of KILLER CONFESSIONS traces the path from the crime scene to the confession chair and offers unprecedented access into the minds of killers through one of law enforcement's most enigmatic, and successful, figures.
 
 Killer Confessions official website.
 
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