e127. Dungeons & Diversity

In our contemporary moment pop culture is controlled by two forces. A focus on so-called “geek culture” and a push for more inclusive diversity across media forms. While there is certainly a long way to go, in many cases, leaps and bounds of progress have been made in the last several years, with greater attention…

Call for Comments: Revising Race in Dungeons and Dragons

Dark elves aka drow From Katya: Wizards of the Coast recently announced (by recently I mean mid-June. It’s been a YEAR y’all) ways that they’re attempting to address the game’s racist characterizations of, well, in-game races. In their announcement, they acknowledge the widespread critique of their rules surrounding races, particularly the ways that stereo-typically dark-skinned…

e113. Cartoons vs. Avatars

A couple of weeks ago, in order to placate the masses during a worldwide quanrantine, Facebook released their new “Avatar” system — a tool to allow users to create little cartoon characters of themselves for use in profile pics and stickers. Other technology companies have similar system. Apple has one built into its messaging system…

e105. Animal Crossing & Cozy Games in Worldwide Pandemics

If you’re listening to our show, chances are you live on the planet Earth (and if not, welcome!) and so that means for the last few week, you have likely been dealing with the near worldwide ramicfications of COVID-19 pandemic. That means social distancing, self quarantine, staying inside and… and playing video games . Right…

e104. 5 Victorian Parlour Games for Worldwide Pandemics

If you live anywhere on the planet Earth — and if you’re listening to this podcast, we assume you do — then you’re probably aware that we are currently in the midst of a global pandemic… the worst that the world has seen in at least 100 years. For a large portion of the planet,…

Call for Comments: The Cozy Games Stress Vaccine

From Katya: Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropped on March 20th, much to the relief of a lot of folks gaming through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the tradition of the OG Animal Crossing on GameCube or Animal Crossing: Wild World, players build up a small community of cute animal neighbors, cultivate and collect natural resources, and–…

e99. Pseudo-Academic Content: Listener Discretion is Advised

We live in a content driven world: Movies, Books, Music, TV, Comics, Video Games, and even Podcasts. “Content is king!” or so they say. But of course, different types of content are appropriate for different audiences. Anyone who has watched a movie in the last several decades knows that they have ratings, that is, a…

Call for Comments: Content Ratings and Parental Ratings Guides

From Mav: I’ve gotten into a couple conversations recently with different people about movie ratings. Not the kind of whether they’re good and bad… stars… thumbs up and down and all that. I mean MPAA ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17… or at least here in the United States, that’s what they are. Curiously, it…

e92: 2010s Decade in Review

Somehow it’s 2020. I don’t get how that happened. 2020 isn’t a year… 2020 is what you make up if you’re setting some science fiction story in the future and you’re too lazy to pick an interesting sound year like 2027 or something. But somehow it actually is 2020, which means the start of a…

e90. 30 Good Things You Missed!!! 2019 Year in Review

Happy New Year! It’s the end of 2019, and that means it’s time for all good podcasts to do a year in review episode. The thing about a show focused on pop culture like ours is that we have already devoted episodes to all of the biggest pop culture events of the year. We know…