Downers

#179 – Jack talks about his dream jobs. And then we talk about dreams in general! Also: homeopathic heating pads, bacon grease, kisses, and aliens. You can truly never talk too much about aliens. How can we use tarot as a way to explore our desires and fears?

Plugs this week:

• Devonté Hynes' LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION (Hao)
• Netflix's Space Force (Jack)
• Toast Box Hainanese Kaya (Hao)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://eji.org/

#178 (177 is experiencing some technical difficulties) – Twitch emotes! We've all seen them, but what to they really mean? The Downers private investigators are on the case. Some of them are mean!!! Some of them are nice. Also: fruit-forward breakfasts, tea houses, and five cups of ice.

Plugs this week:

• September Skye Bags (Kate)
• Electric bike number (Hao)
• Infinity cube (Jack) (it's a fidget toy)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://eji.org/

#177 – Dungeons and Dragons (and other tabletop RPGs) can sometimes be daunting because it requires someone to be a dungeon master (to DM). Jack recently DM'd a game, and he's here to turn his life experience into Internet Content™, because, this hour, we're going to break down DMing and proffer unsolicited advice about how to be a successful DM. We answer questions including, but not limited to: What do you do when people aren't getting along? How can you roll dice in the most sexually attractive way?

Plugs this week:

• History's ALONE (Jack) (History is a TV channel)
• SCHITT'S CREEK (Kate)
• 2014's WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (Hao)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://eji.org/

#176 – Sombra: what kind of pants does she wear? These, and other questions, we gamely tackle in this hour of DOWNERS THE ONLY PODCAST ABOUT SADNESS AND KOREAN FOOD. Jack and Hao read out descriptions of Overwatch characters; Kate tries to figure out which one she would most likely "main," which is a gaming term for devoting most of your time to playing one character for the purposes of getting a higher rank in competitive play. But we mostly end up talking about gender representation in video games, and the ethics of a cartoon video game resorting to visual stereotypes.

#175 – Jack has never read Bill Watterson's CALVIN AND HOBBES, if you can believe it, so, in this episode, we tie him down and subject him to some Content from the Past™. The beloved comic strip was well known for its refusal to talk down to its target audience as well as its lessons in humanism and parenting. Along the way, we talk about violence in television and movies and what it is like, at a young age, to feel like you don't belong.

Plugs this week:

• Outdoor fans (Kate)
• Desk webcam mounts (Hao)
• Mind hugs (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#174 – Kate's gone this week, so we have to figure out what to do! The central conceit of the indie darling video game THE OUTER WILDS is that you live your life on a twenty-two minute loop. What if your real life were like that too?? That is just one of the many hard-hitting questions we ask on an episode of Downers like this one. Plus, additional content regarding: rapid memory insertion, bartering, secret bazaars, thigh tech, and Germany.

Plugs this week:

• Chinese food blogger Li Ziqi (Jack)
• Biking downhill (Hao)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#173 – Cats! They're not our friends, but sometimes they can be our pets. We ask Kate what's going on with her two new cats in our critically acclaimed, much beloved Follow-ups Corner. Also: the ending of season one of The Outlander, which Jack watched with horror. Then, it's onto our main topic of the hour: infinity. Where does it come from? Why are there so many types of infinity? Does infinity matter? How does infinity make us feel?

Plugs this week:

• Kelly Yang's PARACHUTES (Kate)
• Biking down Lafayette (Hao)
• Dwarf Fortress (Jack)

[email protected] /r/downersradio @downersradio https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#172 – Space: it's all around us. But what is space? The Downers podcast isn't afraid to ask troubling questions like this one. What's the most common way of dying in space? If space is infinite, does that mean our lives don't matter? Will Jack convince Hao to put his corpse into a black hole? Find out by consuming this content!

Plugs this week:

• Apple turnovers... in Japan (Kate)
• Birds & Beans Coffee™ (Jack)
• Cousins (Kate and Hao)
• Stepcousins (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on twitter • slowly this podcast is just becoming a podcast about clones

#171 – Well, Jack's been watching Netflix's OUTLANDER on his father's recommendation, and he wants to talk to his father (played by Hao) about the show. It's a complex show that both subverts and upholds its genre's tropes. Anyway, we have captured that audio and put it into this podcast, making it freely available for you – yes, you! – the listener. Come and listen as we drag Diana Gabaldon's name through the mud!

Plugs this week:

• Cory the Corn Person (Jack)
• Bernadette Banner's historical sewing on YouTube (Kate)
• Peter Schaffer's EQUUS (Hao)

[email protected] /r/downersradio @downersradio https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

#170 – As a wave of solidarity push elected officials to take actions of justice, we ourselves take a moment to break the rules of the podcast and take a moment to talk about recent events and the feeling of living through something that will hopefully be historical, if not monumental. We play a round of a new game we call Backup Country, where each person talks about where they'd live if they could no longer live in their current country. In Act II, we design a new species to take the flame from humanity. In that act, we learn just how little we retained from our high school biology classes.

Plugs this week include, but are not limited to:

• Golden kiwis (Kate)
• Silicone (Hao)
• YouTube channel MAANGCHI (Jack)
• "How Do We Win"
• Ways To Help
• The Great Slate 2020

[email protected] @downersradio