Talks Machina

Talks Machina is a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Wayne Foster, where the events of Critical Role are discussed. Each week there were several guests who answered questions sent in by fans. The guests were usually some of the regular cast members of Critical Role, but there have also been guest players such as Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Will Friedle, several of the crew members from Geek & Sundry, and fans such as Andrew from @CritRoleStats.

On 16 August 2021, both Critical Role and Brian Foster's Twitter accounts announced that Brian would be moving on from the company to focus on personal projects.

Format and episodes
The episodes could be watched live on Critical Role's Twitch channel. The first four episodes, the Critmas 2016 episode, and the live WonderCon episode were uploaded to the Geek & Sundry website, with episodes through available on a playlist in roughly reverse chronological order. and later were posted to the Critical Role website the Thursday after they air.

In January 2017, Talks Machina added an "Extended Q&A" segment on Project Alpha, which included 15–20 minutes of extra cast questions pulled from Alpha viewers, later coined Talks Machina: After Dark by the fans. This ended when Alpha folded in March 2019.

As well as questions for the cast, fans submitted their fan art and cosplay photos (which replaced the Gif of the Week). The winners were featured in the Fan Art of the Week and Cosplay of the Week segments, respectively, and received Critical Role or Wyrmwood Gaming merchandise.

From onwards, Talks Machina began being additionally available as a podcast when Critical Role started their own channel. Talks Machina episodes were included with the Geek & Sundry Critical Role podcast, interspersed with the campaign episodes themselves.

Talks Machina originally aired on Tuesdays at 7pm PST/PDT (Los Angeles time). The show ceased production temporarily during the COVID-19 Hiatus, from March through September of 2020. From 15 September 2020 to May 2021, it returned in a new, bi-weekly, pre-recorded and socially distant format. Questions were generated by members of the production team rather than gathered via social media from Critters.

Behind the scenes
Laura haggled for the original set furniture at a flea market.

Running gags and recurring segments
Are we on the internet? One of Brian's standard lines at the beginning of the episode.

Thank My Guests Brian deliberately mangles the cast names in new and creative ways when thanking them for appearing on the show at the end.

Denise There is no staff member named Denise yet Brian constantly refers to her off-camera.

Lord Have Mercer Brian replays a clip from the previous episode where the players argued and engaged in rules-lawyering with the DM.


 * They frequently reference Québec, the only Canadian province where you legally can't win Talks Machina prizes.


 * When Brian asks fans to submit their artwork and cosplay, a quasi-subliminal message "SUBMIT" flashes quickly across the screen.


 * The cast often jokes that Brian smells like cabbage.


 * Sometimes Brian will pretend to be in the middle of a conversation when the recording resumes, such as at the beginning of the "After Dark" segment.


 * For a while during campaign 2, Dani Carr would open the episode with an off-screen comment or "fun fact" and Brian would response with a joke.