The Three Links Odd Cast

There's a little corner of South Seattle that has been a burial ground for centuries, starting with the Duwamish Tribe and continuing through years of changing ownership and management.  About half of that cemetery is left now, existing as an off-leash dog park.  The other half was sold to builders for houses.  That's only part of the tragedy of Comet Lodge Cemetery, so named because it was supposedly owned by Comet Lodge #139, located in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood.  On this episode, Toby, Ainslie, and Meredith discuss the story of the cemetery, from the razing of the "Garden of Angels" infants buri...

Jody Jedlicka just finished her term as Grand Master of Illinois.  She was the first woman to hold that position.  As such, she got a great insiders' view of the inner workings of one of our Order's larger jurisdictions.  In this candid conversation with Ainslie and returning co-host Mike, she gives her observations of what worked during her term, what didn't work, what she would like her successors to continue, and many other invaluable insights for Illinois and beyond.  This episode is a must-listen for those curious about what happens when a jurisdiction decides to embrace and use technology to i...

In the last couple years, a new frontier has opened up in the culture of Odd Fellowship: music.  There has always been music by, for, and about Odd Fellows, but a new group of creators is using the tools of artificial intelligence to create songs for the Order.  Ainslie, Toby, and Meredith talk to Amanda Robinson, PGM of Minnesota, Tommy Howe of Palacky Lodge #630 of Illinois, and Mike Duminiak, DGM of West Virginia and past co-host of the Three Links Odd Cast.  What follows is a wide-ranging conversation about the emerging new culture of Odd Fellowship and how new mus...

Sovereign Grand Lodge is over for another year and we did another live recording.  This year, we were asking the attendees in Frisco, Texas about whether their jurisdictions were growing or dying, and why they felt that way.  We got a wonderfully diverse group of members from all around the US and Canada to tell us about what's going on in their jurisdictions.  We heard all kinds of stories, from the triumph of a new lodge in Halifax, Nova Scotia which draws on international migrants, to the disappointment of a Rebekah Assembly President in Maine who lost her home lod...

One of the questions that comes to us frequently is if we have any training materials to help prepare members to step up and serve in an elected office.  To that end, we have recorded a series of training episodes to help members feel more comfortable moving up into those roles.  The fourth in our series is about serving as Secretary.  Since most lodges are small and don't have a separate Financial Secretary, we have combined those roles in this episode to match the most common practice.  Those lodges with a Financial Secretary may split out the duties in this...

One of the questions that comes to us frequently is if we have any training materials to help prepare members to step up and serve in an elected office.  To that end, we have recorded a series of training episodes to help members feel more comfortable moving up into those roles.  The third in our series is about serving as Treasurer.  These are by no means completely comprehensive; we may have missed something in the process.  However, we made every effort possible to present the material we have in an easy-to-follow, conversational style.  If you're a member looking to move...

One of the questions that comes to us frequently is if we have any training materials to help prepare members to step up and serve in an elected office.  To that end, we have recorded a series of training episodes to help members feel more comfortable moving up into those roles.  The second in our series is about serving as Vice Grand.  As the line of officers is progressive, the Vice Grand needs to be familiar with the duties of the Noble Grand should it be necessary to assume those duties at any time, so we recommend listening to the...

One of the questions that comes to us frequently is if we have any training materials to help prepare members to step up and serve in an elected office.  To that end, we have recorded a series of episodes to help members feel more comfortable moving up into those roles.  The first in our series is about serving as Noble Grand.  These are by no means completely comprehensive; we may have missed something in the process.  However, we made every effort possible to present the material we have in an easy-to-follow, conversational style.  If you're a member looking to move...

Season six brought some exciting developments to the Three Links Odd Cast.  The biggest one was Meredith Moore joining as co-host and Director of Institutional Research.  We expressed our gratitude for Past Co-host Mike Duminiak and his years of hard work on the show.  We also reviewed and discussed our various episodes from throughout the season.  Some of those highlights included the on-location episode recorded in Yreka, California for the Cave Degree, an interview with Past Co-host Duminiak about his book "Oddtistic," a look at the fraternal cemetery business with Brother Jon Hart of the Odd Fellow Memorial Gardens in L...

Odd Fellowship is built around the principle of mutual aid, which implies that we should all be of service to one another.  Our current Sovereign Grand Master, Tom Calabrese, exemplifies the spirit of a servant leader.  Modest and unassuming, he has shown throughout his career in Odd Fellowship that he is always ready to pitch in and help out and that spirit of service has extended to his time as Sovereign Grand Master.  Brother Tom worked his way up from being a member of his father's lodge to becoming a Past Grand, joining the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, joi...

Brother Aiden Brink returns to the podcast to share some insight that he has gained about his lodge, degree work, regalia, robes, community involvement, and a host of other topics.  Grab your notepads and get ready to take notes because this episode is chock full of great information that will be useful for every lodge, from the smallest kitchen-table lodge to the biggest traditional lodge.  Changes that can help a lodge can start with just one member who wants to memorize rituals and make degrees more meaningful.  The Shoutout goes to Victory Encampment No. 34 of the Atlantic Provinces (yes, it...

There are many historical connections between Texas and Tennessee, from country music to Davy Crockett to Willie Nelson to the many brave Tennesseans who helped defend the Alamo.  Because of those links, it's appropriate that we follow up two very Texan episodes with one from Tennessee.  Recently, Crockett Hall Lodge #59 was re-chartered in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.  Brother Robert Gentry, who headed up the effort to revive the lodge, joins us to tell his story.  Like many of us, he first encountered historical relics of the Odd Fellows' presence in Middle Tennessee, including a road bearing the name of the Order.  That...

For nearly 150 years, prior to 2001, the Rebekahs were a strong and vital companion organization to the Odd Fellows.  However, once women were allowed to be Odd Fellows and were no longer restricted to just Rebekah membership, numbers for that unit of the Order started to decline precipitously.  Director of Institutional Research Meredith Moore attended the Testamonial of IARA President Pam Isenhower to meet with and interview many prominent Rebekahs from around the US and Canada.  Sister Meredith asked many important questions of the attendees hoping to get a feel for the future of the Rebekah branch.  What followed were some...

Odd Fellowship has  a long, proud history in the state of Texas, dating back to Lone Star Lodge No. 1 in Houston, the first lodge chartered outside the United States by the IOOF, in 1845, before Texas joined the union.  A big part of that history was San Antonio Lodge No. 11, only a few steps away from the Alamo, the cradle of Texan independence.  On April 11th, San Antonio Lodge No. 11 was rechartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas with eleven members.  Brother Daniel McGittrick joined us to preview the reinstitution of the lodge and give us the story of how it c...

Pine Island, Minnesota is the kind of idyllic Midwestern farm town that most people picture when they think of anywhere in the middle of the country: friendly people, a strong sense of community, and civic pride.  The town also had one other fixture that used to be common in every little town in the Midwest: an Odd Fellows lodge.  Unfortunately, the lodge had fallen on hard times.  Membership was low and the building was falling apart.  Evan Goranson and David Friese stepped in about a year and a half ago and started turning things around.  Sometimes that job was fun a...

Sometimes the connections which bring people to Odd Fellowship are short and direct.  Sometimes they span a continent.  In Bing Martin's case, it was his friend Thomas Guilliams of St. Helena Lodge #167 in Northern California who prompted him to find a lodge near his home in Chicago.  That lodge turned out to be Irving Park Lodge #190.  When he first made contact with the lodge, he found the classic group of elderly men who kept the lodge going but had no ideas for how to grow or expand.  Through Thomas' guidance, Bing persisted, even going out to California to take his D...

Coulterville, California is a relic of the Gold Rush; a small mountain community nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  There are 110 residents of the town, which is situated at the crossroads of two state highways that take tourists to and from mountain tourist attractions like Yosemite National Park.  Like so many other towns of the Old West, Coulterville has an Odd Fellows Lodge, but one that was on the verge of closing.  Just when it seemed like the lodge was about to join so many other Gold Rush-era lodges in the history books, along came Erica Wol...

The annual Odd Market hosted by Tuscola Lodge #316 in Illinois has become a community mainstay.  It didn't start out that way, though.  The beginning had a lot more variety—and lizards.  Sister Rain Martin and Sister Renee Moore join us to talk about the current Odd Market, how it started, how it grew, and how other lodges can copy its success.  There were a lot of challenges along the way (some involving food trucks) and a lot of re-evaluation but it has grown into a major event in the area and is a main recruiting tool for Odd Fellowship.  The Sho...

The new year finds us with a new co-host: Sister Meredith Moore of Dallas Lodge #44 in Texas.  Meredith brings a wonderful background in Odd Fellowship and in data collection and analysis to the show and we waste no time in putting her skills to work.  She developed and posted a survey on member burnout that got responses from 37 jurisdictions.  The results are, in most cases, not surprising.  Members like meaning, ritual, and regalia.  The real question is whether any action will be taken based on the data from the survey or if higher levels of leadership will just continue on as...

What exactly is a Grinch, anyway?  Is it a person?  A creature?  An outlook on life that sours every interaction?  The Three Links Odd Cast does another adaptation of a timeless holiday classic focused on Odd Fellowship as we present, "How The Grand Master Stole Christmas."  In our version we get to explore what happens when individual desire supersedes our duties as Odd Fellows and how we can get back in touch with those duties.  Our all-star cast returns for this episode, with Gil T. Rodelo, Ian Love-Jones, Matthew Thornton, Evan Ochs, Mason Wolf, Michael Greenzeiger, Steven Cross, Meredith Moore...

Odd Fellowship isn't something that can be joined casually.  It requires a certain amount of effort to be expended on behalf of those joining the lodge to fill out an application, pay the application fee, and proceed through the interview and initiation.  For the applicant, this process should ensure that they get an opportunity to find out about the nature of the lodge to which they are applying.  For the lodge, this process should help them decide if this applicant should become a candidate for membership and, ultimately, a member.  For the process to work as intended, the Interviewing Comm...

Waxahachie Lodge No. 80 is one of the largest and best-known lodges in North America.  Because of their excellent promotion on social media, they have become household names in the world of Odd Fellowship.  We talk with their Noble Grand, Alex Freeman, about his journey into Odd Fellowship, how it intersects with his professional life, (spoiler alert: he's a tattoo artist) and what it's like to be in charge of such a large, active, prominent lodge.  Brother Alex offers some fantastic advice and insight for others on the journey through Odd Fellowship.  The Shoutout is back for this episode and it g...

We always like to do a cemetery episode during October in keeping with the "spooky" theme of the season.  This year, however, we're not playing up the spooky or macabre side of cemeteries.  Instead, we're looking at the compassionate, caring side of cemetery operations with Brother Jon Hart, manager of the IOOF Memory Gardens in Livermore, California.  Brother Hart had a meandering path to the job, starting with joining the Livermore Lodge and then jumping in to help save the cemetery when it looked like the lodge would need to sell it.  Since then he's been able to use his...

Mike fills two roles on this episode: one as host, and one as guest while we discuss his newest book, "Oddtistic."  The book looks at how Odd Fellowship has become a refuge for those seeking acceptance in a world that is often dismissive and uninviting.  It also outlines how community heals isolation and structure provides an anchor, all giving those seeking community a place to go with real prospects for inclusion and belonging.  The Shoutout goes to yet another brand-new lodge, Stillson No. 77 in Vermont.  In this episode's Odd Podge, Toby shares his observations from Reddit, Ainslie talks about the...

Looking to get his life on a better track, Bro. Niles Schumm took his mother's suggestion and joined the Odd Fellows.  That led him to his local lodge where he started to get more and more involved in lodge activities.  After not too many more years, he started to get interested in serving at the Grand Lodge level and is currently the Grand Warden of Illinois.  Bro. Schumm recounts his journey into Odd Fellowship and talks about his philosophy of desiring to bring about cooperation among members in Illinois and neighboring jurisdictions.  He also shares some of the things that...

When we last spoke about the Cave Degree, it's fate was left uncertain.  The deck in the cave was in disrepair and there was a fundraising effort underway to restore it to a functional condition.  Now, in its second year post-revival, the Cave Degree has evolved into a full-blown Cave Weekend, with a meeting of the Richard Brouse Degree Lodge No. 190 and an English Country Dance on Friday evening, the Initiatory and First Degrees Saturday morning, instructional session later in the afternoon, the Second Degree in the Cave by the light of the moon, the Third Degree and Rebekah De...

Season six kicks off in Grand—or, should we say—Sovereign Grand style!  We recorded this episode of the podcast live from the historic hall of Kanawha Lodge #25 of Charleston, West Viriginia, host of the 2025 Sovereign Grand Lodge Session.  We were joined by a wonderful live audience and guests who told us about what's going on in their jurisdictions.  We heard about a tiny lodge in Rhode Island that suddenly had an influx of members, the growth of Encampments and Cantons in Texas, a roundabout way of getting the mayor of Pine Island, Minnesota to join that town's lodge, and man...

Five years ago, a new podcast emerged on the fraternal landscape, the Three Links Odd Cast.  Shrouded in mystery, the reclusive hosts have done their best to keep knowledge about the show secret—until now.  Join host Ian Love-Jones of Peninsula Lodge #128 of Portland as he guides this exposé of the Three Links Odd Cast.  Host Love-Jones digs into the shady past of the show, calling on disgruntled former hosts for their perspective.  Marvel as he reveals the secret process of choosing show topics.  Listen with rapt attention as the planning of each episode is captured with secret audio recordin...

As more and more people are searching the Internet for Odd Fellowship, many of them are finding this podcast.  As a service to them, we put together this episode where we give an introduction to Odd Fellowship, including what it is, how it's structured, how to join, and what members get out of it.  We hope this will be helpful to those of you looking for a way to connect with your community through Odd Fellowship.  As always, you can contact us for help in finding a lodge to join.  The Shoutout goes to the newly-rechartered Glacier Lodge #77 of Vanc...

Spring is here and many jurisdictions are having their Sessions, which means electing new Grand Masters who will be traveling around to visit lodges.  In response to a listener's question, we discuss the process and protocols involved in a Grand Master's visit.  Should you feed the Grand Master?  When does he or she get introduced?  Where should they sit?  When do they speak?  Who else gets introduced with the Grand Master?  There are a lot of questions to answer and we do our best to get to all of them.  The Shoutout goes to yet another new Encampment, Razorback No. 100...

Not everyone understands fraternalism or takes the groups at face value.  The suspicion of Freemasonry by the Roman Catholic Church is well known.  Lesser known is the skepticism of so-called "secret societies" by Evangelical Christians.  In response to a listener question, we asked Paul Michaels (not his real name), an Evangelical pastor, to come on the podcast and shed some light on why some Evangelical Christians are highly suspicious of Odd Fellowship and other fraternal groups.  By keeping him anonymous we were able to get candid and honest answers about why Evangelicals distrust Odd Fellowship as an institution.  Some of th...

Brothers Aiden Brink and Will Sparks both joined their respective lodges in the past couple of years.  Each have become very active and spurred growth in their areas.  They were both kind enough to join us to discuss their perspective on Odd Fellowship: what we get right, what we get wrong, and what we can do to build a solid future for our Order.  Some of the answers may be surprising, especially to long-time members, but they are incredibly insightful and provide a very appealing pathway to future growth.  Hint: newer members see a lot of value in our hist...

Although it's tempting to think that Odd Fellowship has been handed down from the past completely unchanged from some visionaries at an ancient building site, that's not the case.  Odd Fellowship has adapted and changed through its history to meet the needs of members and the Order as those needs have changed.  In this episode, Kris Gratz of Virginia shares his research into the developments in Odd Fellows' regalia through the ages and how that has coincided with changes in our ritual and also various cultural cross-currents.  For example, gold fringe on a collar used to indicate that a mem...

In 2016, an exhibit opened at the American Folk Art Museum showcasing various artifacts from American fraternal orders, most notably the Odd Fellows and Freemasons.  The collection shared the best of fraternal folk art with the wider world.  One of the curators of that exhibition, Dr. Aimee Newell, joined us to talk about the collection and give us some background and history on where the items came from, their significance, and their influence into culture at large.  Once again, the Shoutout goes to a new Encampment, this time the re-chartered Santa Paula #118 of California.  In the Odd Podge, Toby announces the...

Most of us know about our local lodge and may be familiar with a couple other lodges in our area.  However, Odd Fellowship is global in scope and scale—or is it?  Brother Chuck Hillberry of the State Of The Order Committee of Sovereign Grand Lodge joins us to discuss exactly how much global reach Odd Fellowship has and how various overseas groups are connected to the Sovereign Grand Lodge.  The truth is a lot more complicated than most members realize and Brother Chuck shares the necessary background with us to have the right understanding of the situation.  The Shouto...

We think we all know the story of how Odd Fellowship began in North America: five brave souls, led by Thomas Wildey, held the first meeting in Baltimore in 1819 and, from there, Odd Fellowship exploded across the continent spreading friendship, love, and truth from sea to shining sea.  The reality, though, has a lot more detail and challenges than what we know.  Mike, Ainslie, and Toby delve into the history of the founding of our Order a couple centuries ago.  They reveal some of the challenges of the young lodge and structure and highlight the members who helped build and...

Thirty years ago, in a small town in Washington State, a young twenty-something man stood surrounded by five elderly men in a leaky, damp building doing something that would change the trajectory of his entire life.  In that moment, Kelly Hughes made a commitment that would shape his destiny and give him a new purpose in life.  From that time forward, as an Odd Fellow, Kelly would work tirelessly for the betterment of his community, his lodge, and his jurisdiction.  Through his work, Skookumchuck Lodge No. 129 was able to get their building renovated (no more leaky roof!) and they wer...

Every lodge wants to grow—but how many lodges are actually able to incorporate new members successfully in such a way that the new members feel valued?  Brother Matthew Thornton, NG of Houston Heights Lodge #225 in Texas, joins us to talk about how his lodge maintains a healthy lodge culture with a mix of everyone from oil workers to urban hippies.  Spoiler alert: their secret is holding a lot of events that give people an opportunity to do something.  Brother Matthew goes into more detail with us to talk about how that all comes together and how it turns out. ...

Based on the classic holiday film "It's A Wonderful Life," this year's Christmas episode is an Odd Fellows' retelling of the old favorite in which George Bailey is the harried Past Grand of Bedford Falls Lodge #310.  Straining under the weight of his lodge's expectations, he finally breaks and wishes he had never been an Odd Fellow.  The ghost of Thomas Wildey visits him to give him a glimpse into the world where he never joined the lodge.  This episode features an all-star cast including Gil T. Rodello, Kyle Fuller, Mason Wolf, Matthew Thornton, Fran Carris, Kaitlyn Osman, Ian Love-Jones, Ste...

Eating together is an integral part of Odd Fellowship and has a long tradition of inclusion within our Order, from formal banquets at Grand and Sovereign Grand Lodge meetings to sandwich platters during a Degree Rally, to tried-and-true fraternal staples like spaghetti feeds, pancake breakfasts, and pie auctions.  Mike, Ainslie, and Toby discuss these various modes of eating and other ways that food helps bolster the fellowship of Odd Fellowship.  The Shoutout goes to another new lodge in Florida, this time the re-chartered Suncoast #69.  Word has it that another lodge institution will be taking place in Florida early next yea...