Reality Escape Pod - Escape Rooms & Immersive Games

" Am I really playing with Neil Patrick Harris?" In keeping with the theme of Box Two, Neil Patrick Harris is back for his second appearance on our podcast. And not only that, he also brought a friend. Jonathan Bayme, CEO of theory11, is a longtime collaborator and Neil's bestie. They first met at a magic show Jonathan created for the Nomad Hotel in New York. Neil and Jonathan quickly bonded over...

 " An outlandish approach to meta puzzles" "Congratulations and Condolences" is the default phrase when a team of puzzlers has just won the vaunted MIT Mystery Hunt. This is because according to tradition, the winning team must write next year's Mystery Hunt. This daunting task was recently undertaken by Death and Mayhem, the team that wrote the 2025 MIT Mystery Hunt titled "The Case of the Shadow...

In one of our between seasons Patreon exclusive episodes, Rich Bragg and Dan Egnor joined us to share some of the wilder experiences they had playing escape rooms in Beijing, China.  If you want to hear more, become a Room Escape Artist patreon member at the $5 level or higher. Join now and support all of our work at patreon.com/roomescapeartist  

A few months ago, David was interviewed by Corey and Helena on the ESCAPUZZLED Podcast, a UK-based show that interviews folks from around the escape room world.  They talked about Room Escape Artist, Reality Escape Pod, and covered a wide variety of topics. If you want to hear David pontificating, this is him at his most self-indulgent.  If you'd like to hear more of Corey and Helena's work, check...

In this clip, Lisa and David share their truly wild experience of visiting the outdoor escape rooms of Escape Woods.   Listen to the Whole Episode: When you support Room Escape Artist on Patreon at $15 per month (or above), you get access to the Spoilers Club, our exclusive podcast where hosts David Spira and Peih-Gee Law chat in depth with creators about iconic escape rooms... spoilers and all!

Let's revisit most interesting, entertaining, and impactful moments from REPOD Season 8. Can't wait for the next season REPOD? Don’t worry, Season 9 of the podcast will be back in the very near future. To pass the time until then, have a listen to some memorable clips our editor Steve Ewing selected from each episode of Season 8. And there's a bonus clip from the brand new show PG's Playhouse! It’...

A few months ago, Lisa and David played Ghost Light at Myss Tic in Brooklyn, NY, with Eric Molinsky, host of the podast Imaginary Worlds. Eric has been a long time immersive theater and larp fan, but he had yet to be sold on escape rooms. They were convinced that he (like so many others!) just hadn’t had the opportunity to experience what great escape rooms have to offer - so they pitched him on d...

We're sharing one of our many Patreon exclusive Bonus Shows. We put a lot of love and have a ton of fun continuing the conversation after each episodes. We also record many extra episodes in-between seasons. All of this is available exclusively to our Patrons at patreon.com/roomescapeartist. Curtis Ratliff and Derek Townsley join us for more discussion about The Escape Ventures. They share an abso...

 Terry Pettigrew Rolapp and Tommy Wallach of Hatch Escapes in Los Angeles, California joined us to talk about their overwhelmingly ambitious game, The Ladder.   In this clip, we talk about the genesis of The Ladder, and the design philosophy behind this game, exploring the nature of difficulty. You can find the rest of this Spoilers Club episode by supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com/roomescap...

We're trying something new and doing a throwback episode. Season 1, Episode 4 was an early darling amongst REPOD listeners. Guests Anne and Chris Lukeman of CU Adventures were such delightful guests.  Back then, neither David nor Peih-Gee had played their in person games (but they loved their digital and tabletop games). Since then, David has gone to Champaign-Urbana, and fell further in love with...

This is the final preview for PG's Playhouse being released on the Reality Escape Pod feed. Please go subscribe to PG's Playhouse wherever you get your podcasts to listen to future episodes.    What's a roadtrip without a visit to that Giant Ball of Twine or a glimpse of a giant Muffler Man? If the sign says "World Famous" anything, I'm pulling over for it. Our guests today are Anne & Chris Lu...

In between Reality Escape Pod Season 8 and 9 we are starting a brand new show. PG's Playhouse.  Remember Y2K? The end-of-the-world that came and went without a hitch? Guest Tommy Honton joins us again to explore what really went down in this episode of PG's Playhouse. Our game today is called New Beginnings, where we take the names of old fads and transform them into something new by changing the...

Wizard's Treasure designer Grant Leucke joins us to take a deep dive into his design philosophies, he talks to us about how he built this game. In this clip, we talk about the importance of testing and maintaining your games. You can find the rest of this Spoilers Club episode by supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com/roomescapeartist

In between Reality Escape Pod Season 8 and 9 we are starting a brand new show. PG's Playhouse.  In the inaugural episode of PG's Playhouse, Peih-Gee Law and David Spira are joined by immersive creator Tommy Honton to explore the controversial topic of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. We kick off with a game called "Christmas-fied" where non-Christmas movies are transformed into Christmas-the...

This week, we're joined again by episode guest Victor and Francine from Sherlocked in the Netherlands. They tell us about the escape room they built for Hotel Zoku during the pandemic, and we also explore outdoor escape room style adventures, what to call them, and some logistics to consider when designing them. We also talk about escape room tour logistics, especially when it comes to a potential...

“A vision into the future of what I want escape rooms to be.” After 1,200 escape rooms, it certainly takes something remarkable to capture the #1 spot on David Spira’s list of favorite games. As he tells us in this episode, his favorite game shifts from  moment to moment, but in this particular moment, that game is The Alchemist, created by Francine Boon & Victor van Doorn of Sherlocked Escape...

 In this Bonus Show, we're joined again by guest Sarah Dodd. We cover a whole range of escape room topics, including well-crafted small scale escape rooms, whether we should introduce more categorization in escape room awards, and we also talk about taxonomy and the jargon of escape rooms. In this preview, we talk about designing for neurodivergent friendly escape rooms and the importance of acces...

“Finding escape rooms has been finding my community and my joy.” When people find out I’ve played 400 escape rooms, they react with awe and wonder, to which my usual response is “That’s nothing—my podcast co-host David Spira has played over 1,200 escape rooms!” However, as it turns out, even David is not the final boss when it comes to the most escape rooms played.  Enter Sera Dodd, who alongside...

Puzzle designer Sandy Weiss joins us again to talk all things puzzles. We dive more deeply into creating elegant puzzles that connect within their narrative context, and we talk about bringing puzzly games to various audiences. Sandy shares his perspective on Noms, or nicknames, at the National Puzzlers League, and we also talk a bit about his course curriculum and our shared love of Blood on the...

“Inelegant is a lot of random noise.” For a long time, I thought that puzzle hunts weren’t for me. They seemed completely inaccessible, like something that only geniuses from MIT could solve, with the price of admission being a massive brain and a penchant for quantum computing. Then, over the pandemic, I discovered The Pilcrow Bar . This was a free, online puzzle hunt commissioned by Michelin 3-s...

In this Bonus Show puzzle designer Oskar van Deventer tells us about some of the latest designs he's working on, and we talk about different types of mechanical puzzles. We also share some tips for how to start solving them, and dig deeper into speed-cubing, ending with discussing mechanical puzzle design in escape rooms. In this clip, we talk about how to get started solving packing puzzles which...

“The Pursuit Of Difficulty” I’m on a first date, sitting at a hip bar in Los Angeles. In the course of making semi-awkward conversation, he discovers that I like escape rooms. Ta-dah! He brings out a weird little metal ring, pulls it apart into two pieces, hands it to me, and challenges me to form it back into a ring. I was pretty much in love after that… with mechanical puzzles. While that relati...

Curtis Ratliff and Derek Townsley join us again for more discussion about The Escape Ventures. They share an absolutely outrageous escape room story. We talk more about game stores and the importance of inclusivity. David gives an argument against longer games and escape rooms. We also get into some of the regional differences between the Orlando and Los Angeles scene. in terms of escape room cult...

“We try to do something new every three months.” In 2018, Curtis Ratliff and Derek Townsley were both attending college, studying business management and theater set design. Additionally, they were both working at an escape room when the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day happened. Severely understaffed, beset with disasters, and lacking resources or appreciation from the owners, Curtis and...

Yannick Trapman-O'Brien joins us again to share some valuable insights on what I think is an especially great episode of our Bonus Show. He tells us about how he accidentally got admitted to college in Abu Dhabi, and we also talk about the importance of Arts Funding and Grants, and how to leverage it. Yannick takes a very thoughtful approach to designing his intimate experiences, and he really get...