Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Oriana’s choice of topic: the Dwarves! Tolkien drew on Norse mythology and related traditions when he introduced the Dwarves almost from the beginning of his Middle-earth writing, and the many Dwarves in The Hobbit all have names drawn from such mythology as well. They’re one of the most distinct peoples Tolkien created, influencing endless portrayals since then, yet much like their own history in Middle-earth, there’s a lot we don’t really know about them except very particular instances. Do what degree, if any at all, did Tolkien, unconsciously or not, draw on stereotypes of Jewish people when writing about his Dwarves? How does Gimli act as a contrast to the Dwarves as portrayed in earlier Middle-earth works, and was that a specific decision on Tolkien’s part? And maybe most importantly, can there be such a thing as a hot dwarf? We also spend some in-depth time on two big news stories: the death of Christopher Tolkien and Amazon’s announcement of the ensemble cast for their TV adaptation.