SURVEY_PROGRAM: A podcast about DELTARUNE

Lucretia boldly asks Kate an unexpected question: Is Chapter 5 even good? Is Deltarune good? We talk about the criticisms we have about the game, take a closer look at the gameplay mechanics, and think about the folks that don’t connect with the game. Then we escape on the money plane. Check out Lucretia on YouTube , home of the Money Plane YTP collab featuring Kate and many others. Topics: Hallow...

Kate and Sophia talk about their experiences going to Undertale: The Determination Symphony , including talk about the business of special symphony shows, thoughts on the arrangement, and re-experiencing Undertale. Topics: Colorado’s crazy-ass local politics. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra . The Canadian Rockies. Cosplayers. Crowd-favorite characters and cheering etiquette. The arrangements. Undertale...

Valerie and Jackie discuss Kris and the Knight as T-for-Teen analogues of modern media about school shootings, troubled teens and problem children. (Featuring a lot of discussion of Matt Johnson’s The Dirties .) Topics: Seriously looking at dark worlds. Kris brings a weapon to school! Dess as a bad influence. Deltarune’s use of humor to couch serious topics. The Roaring. The sword route as a Doom...

Shadow of Roserade returns to talk to Kate about Deltarune’s flowers and how they’ve changed the world of talking about Undertale humans, as well as post-demo updates from Undertale: Cooking with Kindness . At the end of the episode, we get an exclusive preview of a new Cooking with Kindness NPC. Check out the Undertale: Cooking with Kindness soundtrack on Bandcamp, or previous Shadow of Roserade...

Nillin and Serena talk about Kingdom Hearts and what we can get out of viewing Deltarune through its lens, plus what makes it such a weird, unique and enduring story. Topics: Forgetting about Disney. The pervasive aesthetic influence of KH on 2000s youths. Light-dark duality across fiction. Mickey Mouse is here. The world without adults. There’s so many of these games dude. Sora gets shot with a g...

BQ’s blind playthrough series continues with Chapter 3. Kate asks them about being the only person on Earth who has played Ch 3 but not Ch 4, and how it stands on its own. Check out BQ’s past episodes in the blind playthrough series. Topics: Huge tone shift. Actual Spamtenna discussion on SURVEY_PROGRAM. Doing taxes while drunk. Kate briefly forgets the name of the podcast. The overall plot. The o...

Deltarune video essayist Andrew Cunningham joins Kate to discuss his oeuvre of video essays, his background with the game, how theorizing and the community has changed over time, and his upcoming Ink Theory Part 2. Topics: Initial letdown at Chapter 1. Differences in sentimental approach between Undertale and Deltarune. What got us into thinking more deeply about the game. The Device Theory. Mad a...

The top international logistics podcast in the world returns to discuss the crisis in international shipping due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Kate, Jackie and Jade also discuss romance, shipping and fanfiction in Deltarune. Topics: We play Tradle . Shipping in Deltarune vs. Undertale. Berdly fans’ people’s war. Suselle investment advice. The Festival. Somehow even more discussion of Piz...

Kate is joined by Malady to discuss the yellow lizard scientist/teacher lady, her flaws, relationships, and her place in the worlds of Undertale and Deltarune. Topics: Marmite. Golf. Jay Leno. Undertale as a gateway to literary analysis. Mental health, masking and guilt. Does Alphys suck? Relationships with Undyne, Sans, Asgore, Gerson, and Mettaton. Hetgems. Loneliness and alienation in Hometown....

Kate and Goomy are joined by first-time guest Ana for a discussion on their papers “ Who Is Carol Holiday? ” and “ DELTARUNE: Life Advice ” plus more discussion about the Knight, Carol, the main narrative thrust of Deltarune, and more. Check out Goomy’s new Lost Girl remix and Bandcamp . Topics include: Basic narrative structure. When Deltarune really hooked us. YOU are an obsessive. Time capsules...

Political organizer Samuel Lipson joins Kate for questions about the politics and government of Hometown and a perspective from outside the fandom. Topics: Escapism vs. reality is a little more complicated. Prophecy talk. Sword Art Online . Our history as political organizers. Ettingermentum. Graham Platner and Abdul El-Sayed. Primary night stories. What makes New England small towns different? Ho...

Okay it’s not actually a Milklooker episode. It’s a filler episode. Xtine returns to terrorize Kate for an hour of somewhat Deltarune-related talk. I dunno guys. This one got out of control.

Kate hears BQ’s reactions to playing Chapter 2 for the first time in 2026. Check out their previous episodes: Undertale without Deltarune and Chapter 1 . Topics: Charlie Rose for some reason. Kris’s room. The funniest theory of Ralsei’s origins yet. Dangerous amounts of Benadryl and weed. Berdly as Scott Pilgrim. Increased scale and scope of Chapter 2. Metaphorical Darkner designs. A World Cup div...

Kate and Sophia talk dads, dads and more dads: Asgore, Rudy, Gerson, King, and even Mr. Cattenheimer. They break down the role of fatherhood in the story, and the ways dads fail across the story. (This is a sequel to Episode 3, on moms .) Topics: Cat yurts. Deltarune is a land of contrasts. Milves. More Pink talk. Deltarune dads are dead or distant. Asgore’s contrast with Undertale. Child murder....

Kate and Jackie reconvene for a follow-up on new advancements in the Chapter 5 weird route, and the complicated feelings playing it surfaces. Previous WR episode: Episode 11 . Topics: Noelle’s agency. What’s wrong with Hometown. Dess’s absence. Lore-character reconciliation. Can anyone escape? Looking for who to blame. What is the nature of the soul? You can’t even say “stop” like you used to. Car...

Kate and Valerie reconvene for a Chapter 5 update on what Deltarune is saying about gender in what is the trans-est chapter yet. (This is a sequel to our Kris and Mettaton episodes.) Topics: Kris fans be like “I love when they suffer,” the blue closet of subtext, Flowery did nothing wrong, more musing on what Ralsei represents, the Forgotten Man, MEW MEW MAGIC RETURNS!, Pink/Kris/Spamton parallels...

Kate and Elsie kick off Season 2 with their first reactions to Chapter 5. Full spoilers ahead! Topics: Deltajune. Outfit gonermaker? We’re normal about Tasque Manager. Festival choices. Rudy will be fine, don’t worry about it. GASTER’S GOONS ATE ONION! Anime. Anime. Anime. The seven human flowers. Seth is just like me fr. Going to the Killing Myself Room. IMAGE FRIEND Phantasm Gaster Dess medias....

Substitute Games Month is brought to a shuddering halt by the arrival of Chapter 5. But, before the drought ends, Kate and Lucretia gab about ZERO PARADES: For Dead Spies , the controversial sort-of successor to Disco Elysium . Topics: BREAKFAST_PROGRAM. Lucretia counts to 100 and I leave it in. Five Iron Frenzy is Asriel’s new theme. Speculation about Chapter 5. Apple Girlington. Shitty CEOs are...

It’s SUBSTITUTE GAMES MONTH, where SURVEY_PROGRAM talks about new games that aren’t Deltarune before Chapter 5 snipes us! Kate and Nillin kick off festivities by breaking down AP Thomson’s Titanium Court , modern fae stories, and metatexuality. Within, Kate grapples with the question: can you love a game to death? Topics: Fairies and ferries. The Mountain Goats. Games that don’t want you to play t...

BQ rejoins the show after discussing playing Undertale but not Deltarune in Episode 19 to react to playing Chapter 1 for the first time. Reactions include gonermaker, religious ska, gender, Greenster, divorce, school experience, the symbolism in the Dark World, and first encounters with every new character, and checking back in with Undertale favorites, immediately picking up on Kris-player dichot...

Kate interviews Shadow of Roserade about Undertale: Cooking with Kindness , a new Undertale fangame about the green Kindness soul, with cooking minigame mechanics. Can you make the greatest restaurant the Underground has ever seen? Topics: What makes a prequel or sequel worth it? Indie dev timelines. Fate and death. Luna!!!! Why climb the Mountain of Dying? Minigame design and conveyance. Kate is...

Kate and Valerie discuss Undertale and Deltarune as art made by a millennial and ask “what defines millennial art?” For this, they define what a generation means as an analytic context, what experiences millennials share that go into their art, and the indie game as the modern equivalent to the personal film. Topics: Other generations flippantly characterized by Friends , Tung Tung Tung Sahur, Bud...

Jackie tells Kate about playing Earthbound for the first time in 2026. They discuss the game’s influence on Undertale, Deltarune and the genre at large. We talk about coming-of-age stories and what looking through the eyes of children in our narratives tell us. Topics: RPG mechanics, grinding, the recent translation and tour controversies, Kate learns a distressing fact about Chick Corea and share...

PODISM 1999 is back with our 23rd episode about YIIK: A Postmodern RPG! In our latest deep dive into the defining indie RPG of this era, Kate asks Lucretia the most important YIIK question yet: What kind of ska would Alex Eggleston listen to? Music: “ Into the Mind ” by Toby Fox and “ Ska Battle ” by Andrew Allanson. Support PODISM 1999’s Green Room for bonus episodes! Join the PODISM 1999 Discord...

Kate and Goomy finally discuss the spammy little mailman and ask YOU for help defining the difference between a blorbo and a tumblr sexyman. At the end, we get an EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE (56:40) of the all-new Black Knife remix by Hywell. Topics: Slay the Spire 2 . First playthrough reactions. Whither Jevil? Comparing Spamton to Harry du Bois. Pre-Tenna yaoi. Half-Life VR but the AI Is Self-Aware . It’...