Alternate Worlds Podcast

Alternate Worlds Podcast #7: Albert Birckhead of The Tranquil Domain In this episode, Brian sits down with Magic historian, content creator, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Albert Birckheadfor a wide-ranging conversation about Magic history, storytelling, competition, community, and the surprising parallels between games and martial arts. What begins as a discussion of old-school Magic culture...

Ben Seck is a Hall of Fame-eligible Magic player who has also gone on to have a fabulous career in game-making. Fun tidbit: TBS has played with every set of Magic: the Gathering, and has played on every continent where the game is played. Only Antarctica remains. (Get on that Wotc!) Despite the fact that Ben and I have been near each other’s lives for years (in the 90’s, 00’s), we didn’t really ge...

Alternate Worlds Podcast #5: Brandon Bozzi, MTG Creative Team In this conversation, Brian reconnects with longtime friend and former Wizards colleague Brandon Bozzi for a wide-ranging discussion that blends Magic history, game design, parenting, creativity, career evolution, and a healthy dose of Wizards-era absurdity. What begins as a look back at Brandon's time on Magic's creative team expands i...

Alternate Worlds Podcast #4: Alex Shvartsman, former MTG pro that now writes popular sci-fi & fantasy books In this episode, Brian sits down with longtime Magic player, entrepreneur, author, editor, translator, and game designer Alex Shvartsman to explore a life spent pursuing curiosity. What begins as a conversation about Magic's earliest days evolves into a broader discussion about entrepreneurs...

Alternate Worlds Podcast #3: Paul Barclay, former Rules Manager for Magic: the Gathering Former Magic Rules Manager Paul Barclay joins Brian for a candid look inside Wizards R&D, revealing how iconic mechanics, creative teams, and leadership decisions shaped the future of Magic—and what those lessons mean for builders today. Note from Brian: Paul Barclay was Director of Production at Wizards of th...

Alternate Worlds #2: Gaming Entrepreneur Bradley Ross Bradley Ross joins Brian to discuss creator communities, AI, Twitch, Substack, startup lessons, and why the future belongs to people who build things together. Today’s chat is with Bradley Ross, a two-time founder, who has built companies closely related to the sphere and headspace Substack lives in today (Cointent, Captain.tv). Note from Brian...

Nate Heiss has been designing card games and video games for the last 25 years. If you’ve played Magic: the Gathering, Dominion, the Plants vs. Zombies card game, or hundreds of other titles, feel free to complain to Nate with anything you don’t like about them. :) Nate’s a wonderful human being, and it was fun to do a first test run with him to understand how we want to do podcasts like these mov...