Morph Club: An Animorphs Podcast!

long story short: tune in on september 2!

Intro music is "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us)
by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read THE LAST BOOK!!! buckle your seatbelts because this book spans like 4 years and will make you feel every emotion. And also manages to fit in multiple references to the cinnabon franchise. HOW IS THIS THE END ALREADY but also THESE KIDS WENT THROUGH SO MUCH IN SO SHORT A TIME? process all these feelings along with us.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey get their souls crushed(again)when they read Animorphs 52: The Sacrifice! Ax is all grown up and everyone is suffering! The end is coming for us and it's a rough time! At least we get one last gorilla-in-a-car moment, I guess.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Book 51: The Absolute!

This book is... kind of a fun romp, honestly? We meet the governor of California! The Animorphs fall in love with her (and so do we). Ax is in truly fine form. Tobias shows off his flying (and... driving...?) skills. Cassie and Jake have very little screen time but manage to devastate us anyway.

Capers continue right up until the very last page, at which point the invasion is made suddenly, jarringly public. Open warfare has snuck up from its usual spot just around the corner and is cuddled right up next to you on the couch.

We've got three books left. We are very, very worried but very, very grateful that all of you are along with us for this horrible ride.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

It's the beginning of the end and Marco has a very terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Join us as we talk about Animorphs #45: The Revelation. We recommend checking this book out before listening, it's worth wading through a bunch of filler for. We're coping with the intense stakes and heartbreaking consequences by focusing on things like: Ax eating a bunch of oreos purchased by a dog robot family and the fact that canonically, the kids all got to hang out with some nice dogs for a while there. While, you know, Marco's heart broke into 10 million peices.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read book 42: The Journey!

The Helmacrons are back... and they're ready to PARTY*!

*Invade Marco's nose.

That's it. That's all I got. You wanna know what this book is about? It's about the kids gettin real small and having to follow the helmacrons into Marco's nose. Did you watch that episode of Magic School Bus? Did you see Osmosis Jones? Did you catch The Incredible Journey? Remember Double Dare? It's all here, baby, and it's all gross!

Marco deals with the inevitable depression of any-second-now-my-tiny-friends-might-kill-me by joking his way through life. Rachel shows some surprising softness. Ax admits to possible failure (?!). There are a lot of fun moments in this book! Just be prepared: you're gonna need to wade through a lotta mess to get to them. Snot an easy task.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

There won't be any new episodes until January 9th, but here's a little afternoon snack of an episode to tide you over while we all collectively hibernate for a couple weeks. Enjoy a snippet of ooooooold audio from before we (sort of) knew what we were doing with podcasting! And before we knew what we were getting ourselves into emotionally and spiritually.

As always, Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read about Big Jake getting Big-ed in Animorphs 41! With special guest Dante Shephard! (survivingtheworld.net/ and @danteshepherd on twitter)
We have hit one of the most nonsensical books so please join us try to make sense of things as Jake has the worst dream/alternate reality adventure/multidimensional vision quest? in the chaotic worlds that is New Yeerk City.

Our conversation with Dante starts at about 30 minutes in, if you want to skip our recap!

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

We read Megamorphs #4 with special guest star Gale Galligan (http://galesaur.com/; https://twitter.com/robochai)!

This is a good one, folks. I mean: obviously every episode of Morph Club is a good episode, and guest star eps especially so, but in this case, also, the book was very good. You should read it.

Join us for a frank discussion of time paradoxes great and small, honest delight in seeing the core of these kids preserved even without the whole morphing thing, and the sweetness of remembering how much we really do love these books.

We start things off with a cliff notes plot summary, but skip ahead to about 20 minutes in if you'd like to hear our discussion with Gale.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

You see the cover of Animorphs book 40 and you think, oh no, being a bee will be so terrible. Have we learned nothing from morphing ants and termites???? But in reality there's about 3 pages of bee antics and then 120 of tragic andalites.
Do you want to get: baffled by how spatial realities of a new character, intensely frustrated by children's lit circa 1999's handling of gay characters, nostalgic for Unsolved Mysteries and kinda mad at andalites in general for being flawed and cruel to each other? Pull on your D.A.R.E. shirt and join Megan and Carey as they read Animorphs book 40!

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Animorphs # 39: The Hidden!

Hey. Heyyyy. Hey. You know how animorphs is like, heavy on the body horror, as a series, in general? Friends, we're here to say: this has some of the worst of it yet. It's very effectively chilling and creepy! So if you're ready to get spooked, buckle up. But like, spooked existentially in addition to by graphic descriptions of horrible creatures that the ellimist could not bear to look upon.

BUT: ALSO: ax learns a very important Human Skill, and everything was worth it all along!

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

We got to the girl andalite book!!! Is there anything more relatable than one of her first """missions""" on earth just consisting of slamming a bunch of jelly beans and flipping out at the mall? You gotta taste those mouth pleasures while you can before the inevitable reveal of your nefarious plan. We understand.
We talk this all out with the excellent Claire Hummel (@shoomlah, www.shoomlah.com/) at about 40 mins in, if you would like to skip ahead to that!

Also tiny tiny warning: we curse a lil bit during that convo in case you are listening with kids! We got too excited about those morph kid memories.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Animorphs #37, The Weakness!

Listen. This book, was, maybe, not, the FINEST quality. It was maybe a bit of a rehash. And not like, a tasty sweet potato and fried egg hash. Like, a hash of heavy-handed cobbled-together bits that retread some familiar ground for Rachel, Empire King, who honestly deserves better.

BUT: WE UNDERSTAND, these things happen on deadline!

AND ALSO ax is a treat, there are some good emotional beats where the kids talk through taking responsibility for your mistakes, and visser 3 has a FAST RIVAL!!! who is maybe sonic the hedgehog?? jury's still out.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

We read Animorphs #36, The Mutation! Things are not great for Jake. Or for those random orcas that follow the gang on the mission of the week. Also going bad: Life as an underwater mutant. And as a hork-bajir.
At least things are looking up for Visser 3, who added a new horrible morph to his morph wardrobe? So that's??? something???

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey both read Visser for the first time(!) Do you want a story that combines beach volleyball, courtroom drama, psychological trauma, war, forming a cult and 80's Hollywood? Welcome to Visser!
We dive in to the book that has a holographic Visser 3 on the cover, but has a homicidal Visser 1 as its star.

please note: we give a brief content warning early in the episode, since this book deals with some heavy topics (like the gulf war, suicide, addiction) so proceed with care!

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey puzzle out what the prophecy in book 34 The Prophecy is?? Join us in our metaphorical audio clubhouse where we talk about: Chee imposter requests, holding your friends in your mouth, mystical space magic, Aldrea not appreciating Cassie, alien planet morph marathons, What's an Arn look like?, Aldrea FINALLY appreciating Cassie and Toby the Hork-Bajir being a perfect angel child.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Book 33: The One Where Tobias Is (no joke) Literally Tortured. There's some very sweet and good stuff in this book, but the middle third of it is Very Rough, so: heads up.

THAT SAID, join us for: a beautiful school dance; a good bird date; Ax's continued love affair with cotton candy; Visser 3 cameos; a very good controller break room; and a really interesting one-off villain who maybe starred in the video for Blank Space. Maybe.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Hey all! just a quick message to let you all know the next ep will actually be next week! Carey's been having some computer issues, so she needed a little time to resolve them. We'll be back on 5/30!

Megan and Carey read book 31: the Conspiracy! Join us for the saddest but also weirdest cabin weekend trip, a gorilla punching cars, tips from us for making The Sharing more cool, more World War II references that you would expect, and confirmaton that Jake's dad's favorite child is: his car.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

We read book 30: The Reunion and mostly we want to know: why must everything be so bad for Marco. Would it be so terrible for these kids to have a nice time. Just once? Just once. Can't he just skip school to watch a movie in peace. Does Visser 1 HAVE to resurface again. Not that we don't enjoy her and Visser 3 sniping at each other but. Look, can't this interstellar war just be settled with a dance-off.
Anyway we do love the tragedy a little bit, so enjoy us talking about poor, poor Marco taking a dark character turn and also morphing a goat.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey chose their own adventure in Alternamorphs: The First Journey! And what an adventure they chose. There are many questions you may find yourself asking. For example: how many times will we die? Do we get any good morphs? How does this tie in to animorphs canon. Did we get too invested in our incredible teen OCs? Did we maybe think too deeply about our fictional construction, the andalite holodeck™ that allows us to live our deepest dream of becoming animorphs? Will Plop and Elbow ever pass their andalite tests and get to taste the delicious food stuff known as "pizza" on Earth????? The answers are in this delirious fever dream of an episode.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

a groggy megan and carey dive into the first ghostwritten Animorphs book, #25: the extreme! In this book it's so cold! so cold! also discussed: shark-head aliens? Marco's failed date, Visser 3's decorating tastes, butt scratching, baby seals and Sploot: Suddenly Fingers.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Animorphs book 24, The Suspicion!

Get ready for this wonderfully weird Nonsense Romp, featuring: Tiny Aliens... Big Adventures!!!; just how small are Helmacrons, really; Rachel's batting cage hour; a rad alien matriarchy; figurehead captains; Big Big Jake; a dramatic leg battle; and a tragically brief pocket-sized Visser 3.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Animorphs book 23, The Pretender!
Check yourself into one of a popular hotel chain's fine rooms and probably also get ready to cry with us as we discuss: Tobias's terrible (and also kinda good?) birthday, hawk and rabbit metaphors, where Visser3 is now on our sliding scale of horrible, crocodiles with toupees, how much we ship Tobias/Rachel and Ax continuing to be a Very Good Shorm.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read the Hork-Bajir Chronicles with special guest Natalie Riess! (@snarlbear, www.snarlbear.com)
Turns out the Hork-Bajir's last stand against the yeerks is not a fun time?? Lots of war crimes?? but: Alien kisses (but less alien kisses than we remembered), mention of andalites having cloud-makers, our fave villian is like super bad news (but in not like a fun way), Dak Hamee is different (In a tragic way to be honest) and Aldrea kills a jubba-jubba.

(If you want to skip our recap, our conversation with Natalie starts about 40 mins in!)

Intro and interstitial music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)

Megan and Carey read Animorphs book 22: The Solution! We talk about: the worst mall trip ever, how bad David is at identifying animals, a horrible lunchroom confrontation, the perils of not sleeping, Rachel's identity crisis, a brief good cousin hug, how hard it is to fight an Animorph, a bad trip to Taco Bell, one horrifying MouseTrap adventure, and oh, Cassie. Nobody is happy with this.

Intro music is a clip from "All of Us"(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…04_-_all_of_us) and outro music is a clip from "We Are The Resistors" (freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Ski…_the_resistors)
both are by Eric Skiff(freemusicarchive.org/music/Eric_Skiff/), available under CC BY 3.0. (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/#)