88 Names Podcast

In this bonus episode, author Matt Ruff reads from his novel 88 Names. This episode was recorded live on AltspaceVR on April 13, 2021.

Co-hosts Blake Collier and Matt Ruff sit down to discuss their thoughts and takeaways from two seasons speaking with engineers and developers and artists working on the cusp of Virtual and Augment Reality and Immersive spaces.

Co-hosts Matt Ruff and Blake Collier speak with Locusium Founder Drew Stone about helping to guide new users in VR spaces that are friendly and safe.

Co-hosts Matt Ruff and Blake Collier speak with Dr. Todd P. Chang about the role of VR technology in medical fields.

88 Names author Matt Ruff and co-host Blake Collier talk to Monty Martin and Kelly McLaughlin, the Dungeon Dudes, about Dungeons & Dragons, video games, VR, immersive theater, and more!

Matt & Blake talk to Sasha Samochina, an award-winning creative technologist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Matt Ruff and Blake Collier speak to Mike Pondsmith, creator of Cyberpunk.

In this bonus episode, author Matt Ruff reads the first chapter from his novel 88 Names and takes questions from a live audience. This episode was recorded live on AltspaceVR on April 17, 2020.

Matt Ruff and Blake Collier speak to Amir Ebrahimnia and Simón Rojas, co-founders of Derooted Immersive, about what creativity looks like when working with major brands, how the quarantine has shifted the work they do and affected their day-to-day business, and what they see as the benefits and potential drawbacks of immersive technology.

Noah Nelson has made a life of exploring the numerous ways that the audience transcends the proscenium, or stage, that separates them from the experience on the stage or screen. In this delightful and very human conversation, Blake Collier and Matt Ruff dig into the worlds of immersive theater and technology, everything from escape rooms to immersive Shakespeare. Noah breaks down the moving parts of these forms of immersive experience and lets the listener in on the power of acting and storytelling and how these things only make the experience more powerful. We also dig into where Noah sees the most visceral effects of technology in the world and gives us a glimpse at his biggest hopes and fears for the future of immersive technology. 

Noah Nelson is the founder of No Proscenium, a publication dedicated to exploring the immersive and experiential arts and a co-founder of LEIA – the League of Experiential & Immersive Artists. He holds a bachelor in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. His reporting has been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and APM’s Marketplace.