AIO Thought of the Week: [Image description: Poster which reads “If a Bible bowl were a man I’d marry him…” on the top and on the bottom reads “Did I say that out loud?” In the middle is a floating head of Mandy Straussberg and smaller text which reads “-Mandy Straussberg, Adventures in Odyssey #437b The Long Way Home”] We’re doing a Way Back Wednesday! This way, back all the way from 2019, when it finally occurred to me that I could make my own merch and/or fanart. I was looking at my bare walls and was like, “Ya, know some people have posters in their room that reflect their interests.” This Mandy poster was one of the first 3 real AIO fan pieces I made and I haven’t stopped since then. I love to see I made sure I put the episode reference even back then.
Ps. Shout out to all the Bible Bowlers who participated this week at nationals. They all should be proud!
Welcome back to the Odyssey 33! There is a sure bit of Adventures in Odyssey news to get to this week, so let’s get it!
Content of the Week
What Adventures in Odyssey Episodes to Listen to this Summer! (2025 Edition)
It feels like the month of June just started, which is why it’s a little strange to say this episode guide came out over three weeks ago on the first of the month. It has more than enough fuel for the rest of the season, including independence episodes, road trip episodes, and lots more. It’s one of our more extensive guides, so go check it out!
From Elsewhere on the Block:
AIO Playlist Sharer
Adventures for Odyssey Fans shared a piece of tech that Discord user CATEIN has mentioned working on for some time now, and that will be truly exciting to use. It is an AIO Club Playlist distributor, where essentially a Club user can upload and share a playlist they’ve created. As chief here, I’m considering utilizing this for the AIO Writer’s Block episode guides we’ve been creating. We’ll see where it takes us, but in the meantime, feel free to check this out and use it to share playlists with your friends!
What’s New in Odyssey?
Album 79 Releases
On June 12th, Crossing the Line, Part 1 released on the Adventures in Odyssey Club. This is one of the earlier releases for a fall album, as many fans have noted. We put out the rapid review of that episode on our Instagram story. While we’re at it, here’s a rapid, spoiler-free review of part two:
As you can imagine, Jules finally has to face the consequences of her untruths and lies, but what she does at the end of the episode means that it doesn’t seem to really have as much of an impact. We’ll see what happens to her in the future, but for now, the message of these episodes is a little shot. Here are the ratings:
Music: 4/5
Making: 3/5
Message: 2.5/5
Emotional Weight: 4/5
Adventures in Odyssey Club Seasons Recategorized
AIO has made a recent shift in album categorization, certainly in preparation for a Club-centric future beginning with Album 81. All club seasons from as early as 2014 are now designated as “1/2” following the album released at the end of the previous year as the header. (For example, Club season 1 is now “Album 57 1/2”) It’s a little confusing and seemingly experimental, especially going into the years where more than one album came out at once, otherwise known as when six-episode albums began releasing. For that, AIO’s solution just tracks what I said before, using the album released at the end of the previous year as the header. For every two albums released after 2015, the second is given a “half.” However, there is a completely different method for the 2023 and 2024 Club seasons. Odyssey spits them so each album from the past two years has a “half,” “part one,” and “part two” of the Club seasons. (For example, the first half of Club season 10 is now “Album 74 1/2- Club Season 10, Part 1). In essence, interesting things are going on at Adventures in Odyssey in a hopefully experimental program. What this does tell fans is that Adventures in Odyssey clearly doesn’t plan on ditching numerical nomenclature for episode collections in the future, and that they don’t plan to stop collecting episodes for fans. What they do need is a clear way to do it.
Blackgaard (And Whit) Return
Adventures in Odyssey may have been able to take the thrill of Amazon leaks for album covers away from us, but they haven’t been able to swipe the heat of book reveals. “Bishop’s Block”, the sixth installment of the Blackgaard series, shouldn’t be as much of a surprise to fans. Phil Lollar has mentioned it repeatedly at this point through the official podcast and Facebook. What is a bit of a stunner is Young Whit and the Shell Game, the next novel in the series thought concluded. All good sources indicate it was uncovered exclusively by our good friends over at Adventures for Odyssey Fans. Both the Blackgaard book and this Young Whit story will publish this fall, releasing on Amazon on October 7th and November 4th, respectively.
Conclusion
Once again, it’s a pleasure to be back through this newsletter. You’ll see it again in two weeks (on a Sunday!) when we deliver more Adventures in Odyssey news you need to know. Goodnight!
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