Pixel Therapy Pod

Our little break behind us, we're so happy to be back! This week Spencer and Jamie kick things off with a deep dive into the mysterious island of Die Gute Fabrik's Mutazione -- a breathtaking game about friendly mutants, small-town gossip, chosen family, and redefining our relationship to the earth. Omg, just typing this has me in my feels all over again. Then we're joined by the hilarious and eff...

Hey y'all! Your co-hosts both have some stuff going on: big house moves for both of us, and an opportunity to see family after over more than a year for Jamie! With that in mind, in lieu of introducing you to a new guest this week, we're sharing our first-ever live episode! This was originally recorded in February during UPLINK 2021- the largest gaming conference celebrating gaming history and ret...

OMG y'all, why's everyone keep talking about "return to work" when we never stopped working? Not just in places like jobs, but literally working to emotionally, physically, and mentally survive a literal pandemic? This week, Spencer and Jamie kick things off by chatting through the feelings of overwhelm and tiredness that a lot of folks seem to be able to relate to right now, especially as technol...

Spring has sprung and our backlogs are already piling up! Spencer kicks things off by spotlighting a few under-hyped indie titles that have come out recently: Studio Seufz's 9,600hr long idle adventure The Longing, Captilight's charming puzzler Path of Kami (https://www.captilight.com/pathofkami), and 4615 Theatre Company's QTBIPOC-led solar punk visual novel DARK CITY (https://www.4615theatre.com...

Hey, y'all! This week we're so excited to welcome the_juliancito to hang with us in the virtual studio! Juliancito is a queer, trans, Puerto Rican, and Jewish Twitch streamer who is a member of Radically Kind Gamers (a stream team founded by our Episode 1 guest, ZombaeKillz). He has also been a super vocal advocate for the inclusion of a trans tag on Twitch - and why it matters to have one for the...

CW/TW: Since this is a space where we hold our pain as well as our joy, we just wanted to note that Spencer takes a moment [3:44 - 9:49] to share some feelings about the recent rise of anti-Asian violence in America, which may be triggering for some. Thanks for being here with us. On a lighter note, Spencer concludes Firewatch (no spoilers) despite being too gay to read a map, and Jamie breaks dow...

Note: Major plot spoilers for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim from 38:15 to 50:00. We recently hit 10k downloads - thank you so much! This week, Jamie concludes her journey with the sprawling, 2019 sci-fi epic 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - and you know we have some insights to excavate together! Meanwhile, Spencer's started the spooky walking simulator Firewatch; we muse over its themes of isolation, grief, a...

We got tea to spill this week! Turns out Troy Leavitt, the lead developer of Hogwarts Legacy (an upcoming open-world Harry Potter RPG), is a far-right conspiracy theorist with the YouTube receipts to prove it. And this is on top of JK Rowling already outing herself as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), which makes things complicated for her queer and trans fans to contend with. Yikes! M...

Y'all been hitting that pandemic wall lately? Us too. Spencer's coping by working through half the Assassin's Creed series, which just HAPPENED to be super on sale in the Playstation Store, and getting elbow-deep in the lore. Meanwhile, Jamie's cleansing her palate from 200+ hours of Persona 5 with Aegis Rim: 13 Sentinels, a reality-altering JRPG starring high schoolers jumping into another realit...

We're joined by Keridwen Luis (she/her) and Jude McLaughlin (they/them) this week, a queer power couple who share decades of experience making games, running games, teaching on the intersections of queer theory and fandom, writing Lambda Literary Award-nominated science fiction and fantasy, and still managing to find time to sit with us and chat about fandoms, queer bodies, representation, and how...

We're joined by Danielle Brathwaite Shirley (they/she) this week, a game maker and artist living and working in London. Danielle creates work that seeks to archive the Black Trans experience. In Danielle's words: I USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMAGINE OUR LIVES IN ENVIRONMENTS THAT CENTRE OUR BODIES...THOSE LIVING, THOSE THAT HAVE PASSED AND THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN FORGOTTEN. We were thrilled to share space wit...

We kick off the new year with CelesMeh, a queer Latina scientist who edits genes and builds robots by day, streams games on Twitch with an emphasis on mental health and self-care by night, and is an all-around badass and delight 24/7! Celes joins us for an energizing conversation on the power of games to help us overcome our inner challenges and see our own resilience. Please note: This episode co...

As we collectively drag ourselves towards the 2020 finish line while tempering our expectations for 2021, we're taking a break from guest interviews this week to bring you a special end of year episode! Join us as we share our completely unofficial picks for this year's Pixel Therapy Game Awards (cue applause). From Jamie's nomination for Best NPC Hugs to Spencer's pick for Game That Lived Rent-Fr...

This week we're joined by game engineer, narrative designer, and journalist Sisi Jiang (they/them)! Their work is known for covering themes of queerness and orientalism, and their critically-acclaimed game LIONKILLER got nominated for the Independent Game Festival's Excellence in Narrative award. We talk all about the importance of narrative design-- and tbh, how lots of folks have the wrong idea...

This week, we're joined by molten glass sculptor and artist Momoko Schafer (she/her)! Momo starred in season 1 of Netflix's glassblowing competition show Blown Away, and also founded Self Love Social Club, a QTBIPOC-led platform for your healing journey! This is definitely Momo's first video game podcast, and we're stoked to have her. We talk about gaming culture through the lens (lol, glass, get...

It's been a rough couple weeks. We hope you're all hanging in there and protecting your space. Recharge and hang with us! This week we're joined by Courtney Craven (they/them), a video games industry accessibility consultant, captioner for Epic Games, and the editor-in-chief of Can I Play That?, the online destination for gamers and developers to find reviews, news stories, and features spotlighti...

This week, we're joined by Black queer YouTuber, musician, model, and artist Mars Dixon (they/she/he) , who streams games everywhere as @wii_gay from Twitch to PornHub (you read that right), builds computers for trans people, believes in making gaming content more accessible to non-gamers, and is an absolute ray of gay light. Mars shares how The Sims gave them a place to visualize a queer future,...

Norio is best boy in Ghost of Tsushima, and we refuse to hear otherwise. Just like Norio, actor, director, fight choreographer, and dreamer Earl T. Kim is an absolute cinnamon roll, and we are overjoyed to have him on the podcast! We chat about queer fat Asian representation, the NUANCE in Jin Sakai's and Norio's relationship, and the parallels Earl found to Norio's story in his own life, from his...

Welcome to Co-Op Mode , a whole new segment from your Pixel Therapy Pod co-hosts, Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her). In this one-on-one bonus episode, get to know your co-hosts a little better as we dive deep into a specific topic around why we game and how we relate to gaming. This week, we answer two questions: Why do we both tend to avoid multiplayer? And what do we look for in a video ga...

Y'all, your co-hosts have just returned from a long night on the Zero -- Kentucky Route Zero, that is! Spencer and Jamie do a little review and excavation of our emotions about this beautiful, haunting, and painfully real series from the folks at cardboard computer that culminated earlier this year after a 7-year journey. This is a generation-defining game that truly defies the bounds of the mediu...

ZombaeKillz , rising Twitch streamer star, joins the Pixel Therapy podcast to talk Blacktivism, invisible disabilities, parenting, and her video game history. Then, she shares how ARK: Survival Evolved taught her how video games could help her manage and overcome chronic pain-- and how she built an inclusive community of gamers on Discord that continues to grow and push back against the "overwhelm...

Dillon Yruegas (he/him/él) is a queer, trans, Latinx and Coahuiltecan theatremaker. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dillon has participated firsthand in conversations about the future of theatre in a post-pandemic world-- and has a lot of feelings about all-digital art forms, which have actually been around for a LONG time. We also chat about dating sims--particularly Dream Daddy and Hatoful Bo...

Get cozy, Pixel Therapy is now in session! In this introductory episode, Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her) discuss what Pixel Therapy means to us and what our goals are for the podcast. Topics discussed include: Our personal histories with video games, Ghost of Tsushima, why pronouns are important, being a QTPOC trying to enjoy games, who gets to call themselves a "gamer"?, the stigma that v...

Launching Sep 22, 2020, Pixel Therapy Pod is a monthly podcast and YouTube Let's Play Channel focused on queering and transcending video games for all kinds of gamers. We believe that games can serve as tools for understanding ourselves, each other, and the world around us— and we want to celebrate gaming in its many contexts: as a hobby; as an art form; as therapy. Every episode, hosts Spencer (t...