Darts and Letters

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Darts and Letters episodes

May 14, 2021EP20: The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed (ft. Destiny, Trevor Strunk, Cypheroftyr & T.L. Taylor)
It was billed as “the biggest event in the history of the terminally online.” A debate: socialism vs. capitalism. On your left side, the esteemed Marxist economist Richard Wolff. On your right, a StarCraft player-turned-Twitch intellectual: Steven Bonnel II, better known as Destiny. We dissect the debate, and its limitations. But more broadly, we ask, why are gamers becoming an emerging political commentariat, and what does that mean for the rest of us? Twitch is reshaping political and intellectual discourse, whether we like it or not; is it making that discourse more vibrant and more inclusive, or more phoney and more bro-y?
First (@7:09), Steven Kenneth Bonnell II, better known by most as Destiny, is a Twitch streamer and liberal political commentator with over 350,000 subscribers on YouTube. He talks about Twitch-stream intellectualism — or a lack thereof — and how it intersects with gaming. He also digs into his debate with Marxist economist Richard Wolff and the politics and pageantry of making a living online.
Next (@33:55), Trevor Strunk has a PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and hosts No Cartridge, a podcast about Marxist dialectical action. He breaks down the Destiny vs. Wolff debate and takes us into the world of gaming politics — including the “them versus us” mentality that draws and keeps our attention.
Then (@51:47), T.L. Taylor is a Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT who researches online communities and gaming culture. She wrote the book on Twitch. Literally. It’s called Watch Me Play. She explains the history of gaming spaces and the evolution of gaming that brought it about — and what that means for streamers and those who follow them.
Finally (@1:11:22), Tanya DePass, known as Cypherofyr, is a Twitch streamer, activist, and journalist. She’s also the founder of the not for profit organization, I Need Diverse Games. She introduces us to her online community and discusses the struggle to create more inclusive, diverse gaming spaces while reminding us that many games are inherently political, despite what some suggest.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters.
This week, our generous Patrons can listen to Gordon’s full, completely unedited interview with Destiny.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
For more on Destiny’s story from Starcraft player to Twitch gadfly, we recommend his profile in Mother Jones. Plus, Visit Destiny’s Twitch stream or YouTube channel. Watch his debate with Richard Wolff and his clash with a far-right interlocutor.
Check out Trevor Strunk’s podcast No Cartridge, including episode 175: Why Games? and Patch Notes 2.15: Jet Set Biden Future. Watch for Trevor’s forthcoming book Story Mode: Video Games and the Interplay Between Consoles and Culture.
Pick up T.L. Taylor’s book Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Live Streaming and have a look at her research.
Visit Tanya DePass’s YouTube channel and Twitch stream. And be sure to visit her not for profit I Need Diverse Games.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Ren Bangert, and our managing producer is Marc Apollonio. Our research assistants are Addye Susnick and David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor. It was also part of a wider project looking at the politics of video games, housed at UBC and also advised by Lennart E. Nacke at the University of Waterloo.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 25 min
May 06, 2021 Cited: America’s Chernobyl (2 of 2)
We’re on break for two weeks. But we thought this was a good opportunity to celebrate our predecessor show, Cited Podcast. America’s Chernobyl is our favourite episode. Here’s part #2. Hanford is the most-polluted place in America. On our last episode, you heard about the nuclear plant’s largely-forgotten history–how it poisoned the people living downwind. … Read More Read More
57 min
April 30, 2021 Cited: America’s Chernobyl (1 of 2)
We’re on break for two weeks. But we thought this was a good opportunity to celebrate our predecessor show, Cited Podcast. America’s Chernobyl is our favourite episode. Here’s part #1. Richland, Washington is a company town that sprang up almost overnight in the desert of South Eastern Washington. Its employer is the federal government, and … Read More Read More
51 min
April 23, 2021EP19: Seizing the Means of Run Production (ft. Dave Zirin of the Nation)
America’s national pastime is being taken over by a woke mob and a global communist cabal. So say the Republicans. If only…! Racism, conservative nostalgia, and economic exploitation is baked into the MLB. We discuss what’s wrong with baseball, why baseball matters, and what needs to be done to fix it.
First (@6:51) Dave Zirin of the Nation breaks down the recent GOP hysterics over the 2021 MLB All-Star Game, and we have a wider conversation about left-wing sports journalism, and why sports ought to matter to the left–sports fan, and non sports fan alike.
Then (@32:42), Jeremy Wolf was drafted in the 31st round by the New York Mets. He recounts the struggles of his short-lived minor league career, including the crummy food, poverty-level wages, and frightening economic precarity. Minor leaguers need support, and Wolf is doing just that through his work with More than Baseball.
Plus (@50:04), Blue Jays writer Andrew Stoeten gives us the corporate history of Gordon’s favourite team, the Toronto Blue Jays. Canada’s team is owned by one of Canada’s major telecommunications monopolies; what does that mean for the Blue Jays baseball, and what does it say about corporatization in the wider MLB?
Finally (@60:06), philosopher Mark Kingwell reminds us why baseball is beautify, and why it ought to be protected. We discuss Kingwell’s philosophical, personal, and political reflections from his book Fail Better: Why Baseball Matters.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
Subscribe to Jeremy Wolf’s The Grind Podcast and check out the work he’s doing with More than Baseball.
Subscribe to Andrew Stoeten’s Substack the Batflip for regular deep dives into all things Blue Jays.
Read more of Dave Ziron’s writing in the Nation, especially his article the the 2021 All-Star Game, the story about how things went very differently when something similar happened a decade ago, and his moving obituary of Hank Aaron.
Find Mark Kingwell’s op-ed in the Globe and Mail about the GOP’s recent hysterics around the 2021 MLB All Star Game, and listen to an old episode of CBC’s Ideas if you want to hear more about Fail Better.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers — such as Janice, Hart, and Sean — usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Ren Bangert and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. Our research coordinator is David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 23 min
April 23, 2021 EP19: Seizing the Means of Run Production (ft. Dave Zirin of the Nation)
America’s national pastime is being taken over by a woke mob and a global communist cabal. So say the Republicans. If only…! Racism, conservative nostalgia, and economic exploitation is baked into the MLB. We discuss what’s wrong with baseball, why baseball matters, and what needs to be done to fix it. First (@6:51) Dave Zirin … Read More Read More
1 hr 23 min
April 17, 2021EP18: The People’s President (ft. Steve & Larson of Going in Raw)
Last weekend was Wrestlemania. There have been 37 Wrestlemanias. That’s a lot of wrestling. And a lot of entertainment for the millions of people who enjoy watching wrestling, including our host, Gordon Katic. Maybe you’re a fan, maybe not. Fans and non-fans alike have often dismissed wrestling as frivolous. But there’s more to wrestling than meets the tombstone piledriver. Pro wrestling is like a Rosetta Stone for our politics; It brought us one President, and a recent poll suggests it might give us another. On this episode, we jump from the top rope into the wild, layered, complex world of pro wrestling and the folks who love it.
First (@10:46), Steve and Larson are the hosts of Going in Raw: A Pro Wrestling Podcast. They break down the history of Vince McMahon as a boss, character, and more — including what happens when the lines between the two become blurred inside and outside of the ring. PLUS: the full unedited interview is available on our Patreon. Subscribe today.
Next (@37:15), Brian Jansen is a lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Maine who writes on professional wrestling and labour. Wrestlers are workers, and as workers, face challenges shared by other workers — and some unique to their profession. And their fans, it turns out, are more progressive than you might think.
Then (@53:06), the Spider Baby, Terrance Griep, is the world’s first openly gay wrestler. He wrestles in the Midwest Independent Wrestling Scene. He takes us into the world of wrestling, the building and presentation of a character, the immersive theatricality that is part of the experience for both wrestlers and their fans, and the “civil war” between the profession’s old and new guard.
Finally (@1:09:30), Heather Levi is an anthropologist at Temple University who wrote her dissertation on lucha libre in Mexico. She even trained in lucha libre. She explores the fascinating world of a sport that is closely bound up with the country in which it thrives and finds a way of making meaning that brings together writers, wrestlers, and the public.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
Follow Steve and Larson’s Going in Raw on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
Check out Brian Jansen’s article “It’s Still Real to Me: Contemporary Professional Wrestling, Neo-Liberalism, and the Problems of Performed/Real Violence.” (sorry it’s paywalled)
Pick up Heather Levi’s book The World of Lucha Libre: Secrets, Revelations, and Mexican National Identity, and have a look at her co-edited volume Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism.
Go even deeper into the world of wrestling through the Professional Wrestling Studies Association, their journal, and their online conference: WrestlePosium. And be sure to follow the PWSA’s CarrieLynn Reinhard.
Plus, read Jay Shah’s article on late Toronto mayor Rob Ford and pro-wrestling, from the Pilcrow Pamphlet, “Enough to Eat at Home.”
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers — such as Janice, Hart, and Sean — usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Polly Leger, and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. Our research coordinator is David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which provided us a research grant to look at the concept of “public intellectualism.” Professor Allen Sens at the University of British Columbia is the lead academic advisor.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 25 min
April 17, 2021 EP18: The People’s President (ft. Steve & Larson of Going in Raw)
Last weekend was Wrestlemania. There have been 37 Wrestelmanias. That’s a lot of wrestling. And a lot of entertainment for the millions of people who enjoy watching wrestling, including our host, Gordon Katic. Maybe you’re a fan, maybe not. Fans and non-fans alike have often dismissed wrestling as frivolous. But there’s more to wrestling than … Read More Read More
1 hr 25 min
April 09, 2021EP17: Pathological: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith
Dr. Charles Smith performed autopsies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, ON. The cops kept turning to him with new corpses, and he kept claiming that these deaths were the result of foul play. He was thought of as a God in his field–few people were willing to question his work. That is until a 2008 inquiry, which found evidence of errors in 20 of the 45 autopsies they reviewed. Dr. Smith’s judgements played a role in 13 wrongful convictions. On this episode, we tell one of those stories.
First, Tammy Wynne was wrongfully convinced of the murder of her son, Kenneth. She spent over 13 years in prison.
Next, Wynne’s lawyer James Lockyer tells us the story of her exoneration and what came of Dr. Smith.
Finally, cognitive neuroscientist Itiel Dror helps us understand what’s wrong with expert decision-making.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
If you haven’t already, check out part one of our series on forensic expertise. That’s episode EP16, Derailed: The Crisis of Forensic Expertise.
For more on the story of Tammy Wynne, read coverage from the Toronto Star, and a detailed rundown on the Charles Smith Blog by journalist and lawyer Harold Levy.
For more on Dr. Charles Smith, read the full report from the Inquiry Into Paediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario, i.e. the Goudge Inquiry.
Finally, three papers from Dr. Itiel Dror helped us understand why this kind of thing might happen, including: his editorial in Science about bias in forensic experts; his detailed discussion of the bias blind spot and other problems in expert decision-making; and his ground-breaking research on forensic pathologists.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers — such as Janice, Hart, and Sean — usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters’ is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Polly Leger, and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. Our lead research assistant was Roland Nadler and we had academic advising from Professor Emma Cunliffe, each from the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. We had further research support from David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which is funding our mini-series on the state of forensic science. The scholarly lead on that project is Professor Emma Cunliffe.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
1 hr 16 min
April 09, 2021 EP17: Pathological: The Work of Dr. Charles Smith
Dr. Charles Smith performed autopsies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, ON. The cops kept turning to him with new corpses, and he kept claiming that these deaths were the result of foul play. He was thought of as a God in his field–few people were willing to question his work. That is … Read More Read More
1 hr 16 min
April 06, 2021EP16.1: Mesmerizing Convolutions: The Rise of Fingerprint Identification
In this bonus episode, Gordon Katic speaks with Simon A. Cole, a professor of Criminology, Law and Society at University of California Irvine. He’s the author of “Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification”. We do a deep dive into the social and political story of fingerprinting, and how it took more than a century before anyone tried to figure out if it actually worked.
——————-FURTHER READING & LISTENING——————-
Read Simon A. Cole’s excellent book, “Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification”
Cole is also a co-author of Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting
Listen to EP16, Derailed: The Crisis of Forensic Expertise to hear the story of Brandon Mayfield, a man the FBI fingered as the person behind the 2004 Madrid train bombing because they thought they had a 100% match to his prints. But Brandon had never even been to Spain.
—————————-CONTACT US————————-
To stay up to date, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. If you’d like to write to us, email [email protected] or tweet Gordon directly.
——————-SUPPORT THE SHOW——————-
We need your support. If you like what you hear, chip in. You can find us on patreon.com/dartsandletters. Patreon subscribers — such as Janice, Hart, and Sean — usually get the episode a day early, and sometimes will also receive bonus content.
Don’t have the money to chip in this week? Not to fear, you can help in other ways. For one: subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. It helps other people find our work.
—————————-CREDITS—————————-
Darts and Letters’ is hosted and edited by Gordon Katic. Our lead producer is Jay Cockburn, our assistant producer is Polly Leger, and our chase producer is Marc Apollonio. Our lead research assistant was Roland Nadler and we had academic advising from Professor Emma Cunliffe, each from the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. We had further research support from David Moscrop. Our theme song was created by Mike Barber. Our graphic design was created by Dakota Koop.
This episode received support by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research, which is funding our mini-series on the state of forensic science. The scholarly lead on that project is Professor Emma Cunliffe.
Darts and Letters is produced in Toronto, which is on the traditional land of Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat Peoples. It is also produced in Vancouver, BC, which is on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
55 min

About Darts and Letters

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This is about ‘arts and letters,’ but for the kind of people who might hack a dart. We cover public intellectualism and the politics of academia from a left perspective. Each week, we interview…