Online games can be a positive space with rich storytelling and social connection for young people. But they can also be a powerful influence – one where parents and caregivers often don’t have visibility into what their children are experiencing. In this episode, leading extremism expert Cynthia Miller-Idriss explores the potential real-world effects of online hate by looking at the world of online gaming. She talks to Rachel Kowert and Galen Lamphere-Englund  — two of the world’s leading experts on the intersections between gaming, misogyny, and extremism — about what it’s like to be a young person online, how bad actors can take advantage of these spaces, and how we can build a better gaming world together.

Host:

• Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Founding Director of The Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University

Guests:

• Rachel Kowert, Research Psychologist, founder of Psychgeist® multimedia content production studio  

• Galen Lamphere-Englund, Co-founder of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN), Senior Advisor and Consultant at Englund Consulting

Read more in Miller-Idriss’s book, “Man Up: The New Misogyny & the Rise of Extremism” published in 2025 by Princeton University Press, available here.