You're listening to Country Squire Radio. Welcome to Country Squire Radio. And I'm John David. Jay-D. Hey, Bo, good morning, brother. Man, it is good to have you back in the studio. Dude, I know. This is like one of the last times we'll get to see each other before Christmas. I know, right? This is crazy. It got a little weeping in my eye. We've had a great year. It's been a lot of fun. It really has, man. This has been a, it's been an awesome year. It's an awesome holiday season. Yeah. Tim, the intern. Stop by the studio earlier this week. That's right. Excellent job. Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim. He did a great job. Just in time for Christmas. We bring you Tiny Tim from the story.

That's right. That's right.

Had a lot of fun with him, man. He did really well. You are raising him up to be quite the tobacconist. You know, I hope so. You got to take folks under your wings, regardless of how desperate you think the cause is or how how hopeless it is and occasionally works out.

Now, Timothy has been, I mean, such a, such a great, he's just a great person first and foremost.

And that's, that's so much of why I love the tobacco industry, particularly the pipe industry,

is because you just make great friends.

Oh, yeah.

It's all about community.

And, you know, our burnt offerings are just a small part of it.

You know, Tolkien has inspired many people to do many things.

And we're really excited because on this show today, we actually have a guest host.

You know, typically we've done interviews in the past.

Well, this time we actually have a guest host because we're going to be talking about a subject matter that we thought, you know, you and I are knowledgeable, but we're not experts. Not experts. But we found the expert. We found the expert when it comes to Tolkien and the world of Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth. So yeah, so get ready. This is going to be awesome. I'm excited. All right. And we are joined today by Kirsten Karens, stage director, public speaker, singer, veteran of the stage, opera, music, theater, traditional music, all about. But the reason that we have her here on today is she's actually senior staffer for the One Ring.net, writer and contributor over there. Kirsten, thanks for

joining us today. Absolutely. It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

So before we get started and to what our topic is today, tell us a little bit about how you

discovered Tolkien, how you got involved in that universe and that fandom.

Well, my first exposure to Tolkien was when I was very young.

I have two older brothers, and my dad was reading The Hobbit and then the Lord of the Rings

to my older brothers.

And really, I was too young to get much out of it, but I still insisted on sitting in and listening in when

they were being read this. And I remember seeing the Ralph Bakshi animated movie.

Oh, yeah, that was a class. It was awesome.

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