Welcome to The Credible Nerds and the Random Angst Productions website! This site is a place to read posts, check out videos, and listen to podcasts about books, movies, comic books, TV shows, and other types of media. The Credible Nerds are Marc and Justin and they host various podcasts under the Random Angst Productions banner.

Both Marc and Justin have families and work full time. The Credible Nerds podcast and website are a part-time hobby (for now) that they try to produce content whenever possible and when life allows. Their main source of content is The Credible Nerds podcast, followed by blog posts and online reviews. They have just started creating video podcasts and hope to be posting more to YouTube soon!

Justin first started Random Angst as an online venture in February 2009 as a Facebook Group for an outlet to be creative about the various fandoms he and his friends were involved in. This then lead to a WordPress blog a year later and mostly involved blogging about reviews of books and other mediums. Over the years Marc and Justin would attend various Comic Conventions, movie premieres, and book release parties together and have fun interacting with other fans and talking about various nerdy topics. After a few years, they decided to start their own podcast to talk about all their favorite books, movies, video games, TV shows, and comics and to interact with more fans across the globe!

Justin and Marc started audio podcasting with the Random Angst podcast in August 2017. They later changed the name to The Credulous Nerds in early 2018 and still used Random Angst as the name of their production company. The Credulous Nerds was used as a humorous moniker to have some fun with the whole venture, but after a couple months Justin and Marc rebranded and changed the name to The Credible Nerds to be, well…more credible. As a result you’ll hear some of the old podcast episodes and articles talk about The Random Angst podcast, or The Credulous Nerds podcast; but don’t worry, it’s still Marc & Justin - The Credible Nerds.

We often have guests join us to contribute to the conversation and to give their thoughts and opinions with us. The Credible Nerds is a platform for the average person to have an opportunity to get their voice heard on a podcast and contribute to the conversation. Our guest hosts up to this point have been:

• Aidan

• Harry

• Kimball

• Blake

• Nathan

• Austin

• Jordan

Some of you may be wondering, “What exactly is Angst and what does it mean?”.  Angst is defined as "a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish" on Dictionary.com. In any good story, whether it be on television, in a book, a comic, or on film, there are one or more characters that experience a moment in their journey when they have to make a major decision that typically ends up redefining their life and changing who they are. This decision usually comes at a key moment in the story and causes them a lot of anxiety and/or anguish. This is their defining moment and usually a defining moment in the story. This is the angst being referred to.

For example, in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (Episodes 1-3), specifically in Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker has to make a difficult decision whether or not to listen to Mace Windu and stay in the Jedi Temple, or whether he should go and intervene to prevent his “friend” Chancellor Palpatine from possibly getting killed. This decision becomes even more difficult as recently Palpatine had revealed to Anakin that he was the Sith Lord that the Jedi had long been searching for. But to make the decision even more difficult for him, Palpatine also revealed that only he held the key to saving his wife Padme from death. This indecision and uncertainty brought Anakin a lot of angst and ultimately pushed him into making the decision that he made to side with Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious instead of the Jedi. This moment and decision that Anakin made changed the whole direction of the Star Wars Saga, as he ultimately fell from the light and became the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.

Another example of angst is in the Star Wars original trilogy (Episodes 4-6) of the Star Wars Saga, Luke Skywalker has to make a similar decision in each episode. In Episode 4, A New Hope, Luke has to decide if he will join Ben Kenobi and go to Alderaan, or go back to his aunt and uncle's home and stay on the farm on Tatooine. He decides to stay on Tatooine, but ultimately is pushed by tragedy to leave Tatooine. In The Empire Strikes Back, while on Dagobah Luke has to decide to stay and train with Yoda to at last become a Jedi Knight or to go save his friends on Cloud City. He decides to leave Dagobah against the counsel of Yoda and things don't go the way he was hoping they would, as he is defeated by Darth Vader. In The Return of the Jedi, during the final duel between Vader and Emperor Palpatine, Luke has to decide to join the Sith or destroy them. He decides to not kill Vader AND to not join Sidious and instead declare himself a Jedi and throw his weapon down. These feelings of angst that Luke experiences during these moments of decisions, greatly affect the story in key moments and ultimately change Luke Skywalker.

In another great example, in the book and movie - The Fellowship of the Ring from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo Baggins has delivered The One Ring to Rivendell and believes his quest to be over. However, as the Council decides what to do next and to determine who will take the Ring to Mordor, there is fighting and disagreement amongst the Council members. Frodo then makes a decision that changes the direction of the story and ultimately who he is. He decides that he will be the one to take the Ring to Mordor and cast it into the fire to destroy it.

These difficult decisions cause these characters great angst and it is this conflict and anxiety that lead the characters to discover who they are and what they are capable of. This angst leads to great character development and also to a greater story. This is the Angst we seek in Random Angst.

The Random in Random Angst is simple. We don't just focus on one type of story telling medium, or one type of genre as we enjoy any great story, regardless of medium or genre. We will address anything and everything nerdy and discuss it.  You never know what we will talk about next, as it's random. (Except Dr. Who, as we haven’t been able to really get into that universe. Sorry Whovians!)

Thanks for looking into our site and we hope you stick around and join the conversation and listen to The Credible Nerds podcast!

- Justin & Marc, Professional Nerds