The Sword Guy Podcast

Listen in as Guy interviews a wide variety of interesting swordspeople and historians from around the world. Learn more about the practical, the tactical, the theoretical and the just plain awesome from a diverse group of voices.

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Podcast Tag: writing

Katie and Guy

Episode 153

Behind the Scenes at The Sword Guy, with Katie Mackenzie

It’s the 150th(ish) episode! So to mark this momentous occasion we’ve got a guest who can’t think of any reason at all why she would want someone to run at her with a pointy sword. Katie Mackenzie is the organising principle behind the show, as well as an excellent author’s assistant. She is an author herself, of the very approachable, Easy Fitness for Quitters: How to Become a Happy Exerciser. And she wrote these […]

Episode 131

The episode in which Guy gets challenged to a duel, with Auri Poso

Auri Poso is a long time student of Guy’s and one of the first teachers he ever trained. Auri now runs her own school, the Gladiolus School of Arms in Helsinki/Espoo, Finland. In our conversation we talk about Star Wars, which leads to a disagreement about Luke Skywalker needing a good slap. Whether lightsabers would be a suitable weapon to use in the ensuing duel between Guy and Auri causes another difference of opinion… […]

Episode 127

From Katanas to Creating the Metaverse, with Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is a best-selling author, futurist, tech geek and swordsman whose works include Cryptonomicron, Seveneves, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash. He has also co-written several other books and graphic novels which we discuss in this episode. His latest book, Termination Shock goes into depth and detail about Sikh martial arts, which he had to research during the Covid lockdowns. Of course, Neal’s main claim to fame is that he wrote the preface to […]

Episode 104

Living the Nobler Dream, with Christian Tobler

Christian Tobler is a chivalric combat instructor and author of many books, including Secrets of German Medieval Swordsmanship, which launched the study of Liechtenauer in the Anglosphere. He also wrote Fighting with German Longsword, In St. George’s Name: an Anthology of Medieval German Fighting Arts, In Service of the Duke, and many more. Not to mention his latest, which is Lance, Spear, Sword and Messer, a German Medieval Martial Arts Miscellany. In 1979 Christian […]

Episode 103

Duelling and a Day in the Life of Guy Windsor

Welcome to episode 100 of The Sword Guy Podcast! In this special episode, Ariel Anderssen (episode 93) interviews Guy about a whole load of stuff, including how Guy got into swords in the first place, the vision up a Scottish mountain that told him to open his school in Helsinki, injuries from duelling, Guy’s best ever sword fight, feminism, getting through the pandemic, and learning to fly. Ariel also asks Guy about his typical […]

Episode 102

A Two-Handed Sword to Fight a Griffin, with Marie Powell

It’s episode 99 of The Sword Guy Podcast! Next week we have a special 100th edition, so look out for that. While you’re waiting, you can enjoy this week’s episode with writer, journalist, editor and author, Marie Powell. Marie lives in Canada, but a search for her Welsh heritage inspired her to write her latest sword and sorcery epic, The Last of the Gifted. It is based on the events of 1282-1283 in Wales, […]

Episode 78

YouTube by Lauren Danger Adventure Ranger

Lauren Shaw is from Calgary, Canada and is a founder of the Calgary Fellowship of the Sword, where they practice 14th – 19th century martial arts, including longsword, sword and buckler, and – since Covid social distancing rules came in – quarterstaff. Lauren is also known for her YouTube videos as Lauren Danger Adventure Ranger, where Lauren posts videos on just about every single historical martial arts topic imaginable, and each one of them […]

Episode 69

Swashbuckling with Sebastien de Castell

Sebastien de Castell lives a life of music, adventure and swordplay. He is the author of the Greatcoats series, which is full of sword action, and the Spellslinger series, which features magic finger guns! For all Sebastien’s books, see here: https://decastell.com/all-books/ In this episode we talk about how to write a great sword fight for stage, screen and literature, including these two classic scenes: Inigo and Westley in The Princess Bride The first duel […]

Episode 64

Steven Pressfield on Spartans, Romans and Hollywood

Steven Pressfield is the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Gates of Fire, The War of Art, and many other novels and non-fiction titles about writing. His latest book is A Man at Arms, and he has a YouTube channel in which he investigates the warrior archetype. In our conversation we discuss what it takes to become an overnight success. We also talk about writing about Spartans, what a sword actually is, […]

Episode 43

Teaching Us to Sit Still with Tim Parks

Tim Parks is a prolific novelist, non-fiction writer and translator and perhaps most importantly from my perspective, he wrote a fantastic memoir on getting into meditation, called Teach us to Sit Still. Those of you that train with me know that meditation is one of the core parts of my practise and in this episode Tim explains the circumstances that led to him going to his first meditation retreat, how it changes people, and […]

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