Our fearless scholars break out the much-loved Danish bricks and consider the essence of LEGO. This episode’s drama revolves around a seemingly innocuous yet highly controversial piece of plastic which called into question what it even means to play with LEGO. Cue David Graeber’s theory of value which Alastair uses to reflect on how we assign meaning to our experiences, whether Lego is made to be taken apart, or if Shelf Queens have it right. 

What’s up, noobs? Join our three Dramanauts on an epic dungeon-crawl in the World of Warcraft of the early 00s to seek a juicy piece of drama that starts out petty, takes a turn for the weird, and ends up questioning citizenship in the 21st century. Also there are naked gnomes. Equipped with Foucault’s ideas on Governance, we investigate how disagreements between players and game developers were negotiated at the time and have changed since. And again: Lots of naked gnomes. Enjoy!

Our intrepid researchers look at a drama from 2022 that began, unsurprisingly, on Reddit. Those considering unconventional methods to cheat at chess, particularly any involving anal beads, may want to hear how that accusation turned out for (unfairly maligned?) Hans Niemann. To understand how this controversy moved from relatively niche community to global phenomenon, Leri uses Sara Ahmed’s theory of affective economies. Spoiler alert: heteronormativity plays a big part.