Authors Die Twice

In this episode, Nathan and Bryan are joined again by Luke Barnhart, this time to discuss the painting of Giorgio de Chirico. Find Luke's work on Instagram @luke.a.barnhart De Chirico's The Soothsayer's Recompense (1913): https://www.philamuseum.org/objects/51288 Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

In this episode, Nathan and Bryan are joined once again by filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell to discuss his 2025 short film The Confection , as well as video game remakes. Failed State : https://means.tv/programs/failed-state Sign up to MeansTV with the code CHRISBELL for 10% off a subscription! Substack: https://bestmonthsfinalpdf.substack.com/ The Confection : https://vimeo.com/816045136/42279aaa...

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan expand on the occasional segment, "Bryan's Metal Corner." They talk about form, harshness, prettiness, and neutrality. Most importantly, Bryan finally got Nathan to listen to some metal, resulting in a dubious comparison between Neurosis and Katy Perry. Isis, "Dulcinea" ( In the Absence of Truth ): https://isistheband.bandcamp.com/track/dul...

Nathan and guest host Justin Carpenter speak with Daniel Fedor and Corey Waite Arnold about their new space noir sim Ostranauts . They talk about the game’s mind-boggling number of systems, simulating the quotidian within fantasy, the theater of the mind, and attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Ostranauts : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1022980/Ostranauts/ Corey's website: htt...

Bryan and Nathan talk to novelist Sean Thor Conroe about his new book  The Walk Book  (2026) .  Sean Thor Conroe is the author of  Fuccboi  (2022) and the forthcoming novel  Savior . His work has appeared in  The Paris Review ,  Playboy , and  Vice , and he also hosts the book podcast 1storypod. The Walk Book :  https://www.littleengines.shop/shop/p/the-walk-book Sean's podcast:  https://podca...

Bryan and Nathan are back once again with a Formless One. They discuss the Devil May Cry franchise, Michael Clune's White Out: A Secret Life of Heroin , and Sean Thor Conroe's recently published The Walk Book . Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

This week Bryan and Nathan return to Dark Souls 3 , joined once again by friend of the pod, writer, and co-host of Reel Rap , Shane. They talk about what makes Dark Souls 3 stand out, for better and worse, including playerly progression, moments of silence, and the tropical melancholy of the final area. Shane's writing: https://www.splittoothmedia.com/author/spfender/ Reel Rap: https://podcast...

Bryan and Nathan are back with another Formless One. They discuss the Diablo franchise and a handful of books: Vacated Landscape by Jean Lahougue; Train Lord by Oliver Mol; The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson; Living on After Failure by Irving Goh; and The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. Bryan's appearance on Reel Rap to discuss Vacated Landscape : https://podca...

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan discuss FromSoftware’s 2016 game Dark Souls III . They talk about the game’s traversability, fan service, repetition, memory, and its relationship to the other games in the trilogy.  Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan are joined by special guest Luke Barnhart to discuss the work of American painter Cy Twombly. Luke's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luke.a.barnhart/ Fifty Days at Iliam: https://www.philamuseum.org/objects/85709 Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

After a break, the podcast is back with another Formless One. Bryan and Nathan discuss the YouTube channel Eleftherios, the 2016 remake of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (originally released in 2007), Fallout 4 (2015) and the series more generally, and the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail...

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan are joined by special guests James Martell and Erik Larsen to discuss Dead by Daylight . They discuss experiences with multiplayer games, ideas about horror and Lovecraftian tropes, and the ephemerality of that first time. James Martell is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Lyon College, and was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambr...

Bryan and Nathan talk about the 2023 action role-playing game Lies of P . They think through some impressions (or lack of impressions) of it, wonder about the intertwined roles of the clown and the puppet in the game and in horror more broadly, and briefly touch on Heinrich Von Kleist’s 1810 story “On the Marionette Theater” to consider the relationship between the automaton and the human. Find us...

Bryan and Nathan are joined by games writer Martin Dolan to discuss indie games. Read Martin's essay "Indie Squeeze": https://strangematters.coop/indie-games-renaissance-is-over-what-comes-next/ Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

In this episode, Nathan and Bryan return to Ebisugaoka to talk more about Silent Hill f . They discuss the abstract nature of horror, Hinako’s two worlds, and the worst room in the game. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Bryan and Nathan welcome back friend of the show Justin Carpenter to talk about Metal Gear Solid 3 and the larger Metal Gear saga. Here's a link to Justin's recent essay on Kentucky Route Zero (subscription or library access required): https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/abcsj-2025-0022 Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at auth...

Bryan and Nathan return to Silent Hill to discuss Silent Hill f (2025). They talk about the question of origin, moments of horror in gameplay, the banality of horror, and the horror of banality. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Bryan and Nathan wrap up their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2 by talking about the trippy sequence in the game's final location, and begin their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 3 with Bryan's initial impressions of the game. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Join us for a special holiday chat. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Bryan and Nathan continue their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2 . They talk about its elaborate structure of nested simulations, the importance of chance, and why "postmodern" feels like an unsatisfying term to apply to the game. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Bryan and Nathan are back with another Formless One. Bryan starts off the episode recounting his recent experience seeing the metal band Ulcerate, while Nathan shares some thoughts on the 2002 remake of the original Resident Evil . They then turn to Algernon Blackwood's eldritch short story "Secret Worship" to discuss Abstract Horror, Blackwood's relation to H. P. Lovecraft, and...

Bryan and Nathan are joined by Michael Barr to discuss David Kanaga's experimental indie game Oikospiel (2017). Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Bryan and Nathan begin their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001). They talk about the game's unique interplay between immersion and abstraction, its deep silliness, and the complexity of its simulated embodiment. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

Please enjoy this bonus Halloween episode on Bloodborne ’s The Old Hunters DLC. We'll post a full episode next Monday as usual. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice Have questions or comments? Email us at authorsdietwice@gmail.com

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan discuss Jonathan Boulter’s 2015 book Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience , published by Wayne State University Press. They discuss the concept of posthumanism and how games help us elaborate on it. Nathan proposes an alternate framing (“prehumanism”) and talks about why Boulter’s book feels so prescient in the context of...