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The Twist Podcast 326: Luggage Cart Wars, Rick Joins Substack, and An Interview with Angela Luna
Welcome to The Twist, episode 326. We have a packed show for you today. The luggage cart wars are real — we’re talking about the unspoken battlefield of airports and hotels where perfectly reasonable people turn into territorial strangers over a metal cart on wheels. Rick Rose has officially joined Substack, and we’ll get into what drove that decision and what he’s planning to do with it. We also have a terrific interview with Angela Luna that covers some real ground.
Beyond that, it’s a full episode — we get into what’s been bugging us this week, because there is always something. We have our Hit List recommendations, the things we’ve been watching, reading, eating, and generally can’t stop talking about. And Jo stops by with her weekly wisdom, because every episode needs a little Jo.
All of that on episode 326 of The Twist.
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AI and the End of Talent
AI and the End of Talent
By Mark McNease / EditorHaving been given something I know was written by AI and asked what I thought of it, as if the person had written it themself, and responding with “That’s very well written,” I realized that the end of talent – the years of development, the craft, the skill, that unique something that makes a writer a truly good writer – may be upon us. I know a lot of what I read now online is not written by humans, but it’s only recently that I viewed it from the perspective of someone who has been writing for 55 years and who has always enjoyed the thrill of discovering someone who was truly gifted), and realizing that AI is getting so good that it can make talent obsolete.
I’m not a hater. I use Claude, and find it very helpful when I’m stuck on plot, or I need to figure out a transition. But there is a not-so-fine line that, when crossed, makes decades of learning and growing and honing and crafting almost pointless. And that, I think, is the true imposter syndrome: not to believe that we are writers when we’re not, but to believe we are good ones when all we have written are prompts. I started writing at the age of 10 because it was and remains a magical experience, a zone of imagination that requires skill and time and effort and finesse and revision and listening and more revision and the silence of the blank page. To find ourselves approaching a point where “anyone can do that” with ChatGPT or Claude makes it all nearly pointless. I still want to thrill to the discovery of a wordsmith and a talented writer, without wondering if they actually wrote it. Will I stop using AI as a tool? No. Will I let it make me irrelevant? I hope not.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic ‘The Mystery of the Yellow Room’ by Gaston Leroux (Chapters 1 – 6)
Today we continue our serialized audio journey through one of the great classics of detective fiction: The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux — presented here in the Vivid Press Edition.
First published in 1907, this novel gave the world one of its most enduring puzzles: a woman attacked in a room locked from the inside, with no possible means of escape for her assailant. No hidden doors. No passable windows. No explanation — until a brilliant young reporter named Joseph Rouletabille decides to find one.
If you’ve never read it, you’re in for something special. If you have, welcome back to one of the finest locked-room mysteries ever written.
In today’s episode, we bring you Chapters Seven through Ten.
Sit back, settle in, and enjoy “The Mystery of the Yellow Room” by Gaston Leroux. Narration provided by Wondervox.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 22 -24 w/YouTube)
Welcome back to Fearsome Fiction, and to Night Flight to Murder Town: A Marshall James Thriller.
When we last left Marshall, he was finding his footing in a New York City that was as thrilling as it was foreign — a city that moved faster than he did, that asked more of him than he expected, and that seemed to be keeping secrets at every turn.
In tonight’s chapters, those secrets begin to take on weight. Trent hands Marshall a small yellow envelope — a floppy disk he calls “insurance” — and refuses to say more. It’s the kind of thing a man hands off only when he’s afraid of what might happen to it. Or to him.
Marshall puts the envelope away and goes on with his evening, because what else do you do? You put on a borrowed coat, you navigate your first New York City subway ride — tokens and all — and you head to Chelsea for what you tell yourself is just dinner. And maybe something more.
What he finds at Leland’s apartment, though, isn’t dinner. It’s a little white pill and a great deal of persuasion. And with one small word — sure — Marshall James crosses a line he can’t uncross.
Chapters twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four. A disk full of secrets. A train into the dark. And the first of many falls to come.
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The Twist Podcast Gets a New Video Promo
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The Twist 325: Weekly News Roundup Returns, Road Trip Fun Facts, and Rick Interviews Enjoyiana Nururdin
Episode 325 of The Twist is packed. Mark and Rick dig into the week’s biggest news stories in their Weekly News Roundup — the headlines, the highlights, and the takes you won’t get anywhere else. Then things get a little lighter with Road Trip Fun Facts, just in time for the open road season. And Rick sits down with Enjoyiana Nururdin, journalist and lifestyle content creator, for a conversation about her work, her voice, and what drives her to tell the stories she tells.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic ‘The Mystery of the Yellow Room’ by Gaston Leroux (Chapters 1 – 6)
Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Genre Classic Series The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux — Chapters 1–6
Let’s talk about a book that has been quietly influencing mystery writers for over a hundred years. The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux was published in 1907, and it did something so clever, so carefully constructed, that readers and writers are still talking about it. You may know Leroux from The Phantom of the Opera — but this is the book that made him a legend among mystery aficionados.
And once you spend the first six chapters inside the Château du Glandier, you’ll understand why.
An Impossible Crime
Here’s what we know. Mademoiselle Stangerson was attacked inside her laboratory — a small room with yellow wallpaper that gives the novel its name. The door was bolted from the inside. The windows were secured. No one could have gotten in, and no one could have gotten out. And yet the evidence of violence is everywhere: blood, a weapon, signs of a brutal, terrifying struggle.
Leroux doesn’t bury the lead. He plants the impossibility right in front of you in the opening chapters and essentially says: go ahead, figure it out. Most readers can’t. That’s the fun.
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This Week’s Survey: What’s Your Preferred Way to Travel?
What is your preferred way to travel?
- By plane — I love getting there fast and going far
- By car — I enjoy the freedom of the open road
- By train — I prefer a scenic, relaxed journey
- By cruise ship — I like the destination to be part of the experience
- I don’t enjoy travel and prefer to stay close to home
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April eBook and Audiobook Giveaway: One Thing Or Another – Life, Aging, and the Absurdities of It All (Second Edition)
Welcome to the Second Edition of One Thing or Another, a collection of humor columns that takes a look at life, aging, and the absurdities of it all. It’s been a few years since the first edition, and even more since they were written. The Big Six-Oh is now the Big Six-Seven, and life is just as absurd as it was the first go-round.
From our culture’s refusal to use the word ‘old,’ to the sometimes comical consequences of aging in body and mind, if not always in spirit, you’re sure to enjoy this skewed look at life’s foibles for the ages. Collected from the author’s personal columns, these short essays will make you chuckle, recognize yourself, and sometimes grimace at the not-always-funny price we pay for simply staying alive.
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The Twist Podcast 324: Venal Virtue Signaling, Gardening Goodness, and an Interview with Alexandra Paul
This week Mark and Rick reveal fun facts about cloning, the benefits of gardening, and cringey virtue signaling. After that we soak up some wisdom from Jo, following Rick’s interview with actor and activist Alexandra Paul.
