#295: Lara, Link, and Josué discuss the game Tell Me Why, and have a conversation about the fallibility of memory and how it impacts relationships and life narratives.

Josué Cardona 0:00
Hello. Welcome to gt radio. I’m gonna get the Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here Geek Therapy believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. I’m joined by Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:20
What’s up?

Josué Cardona 0:21
and Lara Taylor?

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:24
hello. It’s your turn, Lara. So what are we talking? What are we talking about today?

Lara Taylor 0:28
My turn? Yeah. Okay, so I know I’m a little bit late to this train. But I just finished playing Tell Me Why. And I think is really good game for many different reasons. It’s by dontnod. And it’s so similar kind of style to Life is Strange, but which we’ve talked about at length before. But this game is, I don’t know, I, I don’t know, I might have liked it more than Life is Strange. Maybe kind of maybe, I don’t know.

Josué Cardona 1:08
if That’s true. It’s fine.

Lara Taylor 1:10
It’s okay, if it’s true. But I still I’m in love with Chloe in Life is Strange. So a little different. Um, but tell me why the premise of the game is you’re playing identical twins, one of which is a trans man. And they can talk to each other in their heads. And they also see their memories come like replay in front of them. And it got me thinking because the two of them as two different individuals will see the same situation differently. And in the game, you get to pick which one is they don’t necessarily say it as like the real one. But you go with believing whichever one of the two at certain points. Okay, it was, it was a good metaphor a few times this week talking with clients who actually played the game. And even myself, looking at how our emotions and our experiences and our internal states influence how we see things that are happening in front of us this, like, I don’t know, something happens in front of me. And my wife also sees it. And we could read something completely differently. Even if it’s an objective thing that happens, like a car crashes into another car. Well, I don’t know, somebody sees a person’s face and thinks it’s angry, and somebody thinks it’s like, they were confused and like, disoriented, I don’t know. But in the game, there are a few of these moments where you get to decide and they deliberate, like, No, no, no, no, no, you’re wrong. She was mad. She wasn’t sad that day, she was mad. And this is what happened. And this is how the argument went. It’s just a really cool, cool thing to explore.

Josué Cardona 3:23
So the game plays out that way, like it like has both characters, they, they both see things differently. And then you have to like, what is your role within the game,

Link Keller 3:34
you’re playing the two twins, you trade off on which of them you are controlling at any given scene, and they’re sort of walking around their home that they grew up in. And, you know, interacting with the townspeople and sort of like Life is Strange, just sort of walking around and interacting with things and reading, you know, the little blurbs about them its mostly just storytelling. But every so often there are these, you know, major moments where the two siblings are, you know, just discussing why it’s like, oh, hey, you remember when that thing happened when we were kids is like, Yeah, I remember this story. And they’re like, what I remember this story. And I don’t know there’s probably like four, or five that you choose as being this one is, the more believable one or as ends up being non spoilery. The last one, the big the big one that you build up to this moment where deciding which you know which version of a memory to believe it has less to do with which one is real and which one is more emotionally fulfilling for you as the player to apply to these characters you have come to learn and care about

Lara Taylor 4:57
right? Right.

Link Keller 4:59
Not There is not a right answer.

Lara Taylor 5:01
There’s not a right answer. And much like Life is Strange. It tells you which one you pick and how many what percentage of people picked. That choice is, like, the whole premise is there’s big family secrets, big family trauma, and you are trying to figure out what happened as an adult to you as a child to these characters as a child or as children. So in the same way as, and I think I related related to it, because there are a lot of things coming out now say about my mom, and how she took care of her health and other things that I didn’t know when I was a kid. And I think when our kids in the game, they’re about 11, which is about when I was when my mom died. And so learning these things as an adult, I’m like, Whoa, I didn’t, I didn’t know that happened. Um, so watching them interact with the townspeople as adults, and get to know them as adults. And like, oh, whoa, I just thought this thing was happening when we were kids. I never would have guessed that mom and her friend were having this issue or whatever it is, you know. And it’s an interesting experience, seeing how they play on the memories like that. And like how I’m, yeah, different perspectives and seeing, like, people focus on different things and different and have different differing opinions. And there’s, like Link said, there’s only so many of choices, but you see a lot more memories, and then most of the memories that will be like, Oh, yeah, I remember that. And they both remember the same thing.

Link Keller 6:55
There are also elements where you get to not necessarily see, like, flashback style, what happened in the past, but the other characters that you’re interacting with, will also refer to past events with their own particular perspective. And if you’re, if you’re paying attention, you start picking up on that stuff, and is really interesting to see. Not just, you know, how do people prioritize the things that they remember, you know, how emotions affect memory. But also, you know, the language we choose to retell stories. That ends up being more of the memory than the events is when you retell a story over and over again. And so getting to see these young adults sort of be like, I know that story that you used to say is bullshit, I’m an I’m an adult now, like, be straight with me. And the person’s like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve told this version of the story so long that that’s the that’s the true version.

Lara Taylor 7:59
Yeah. Yes.

Link Keller 8:01
Like, well, I found this post it note and the back of the freezer that says otherwise. Ooh, mystery.

Josué Cardona 8:09
Do you ever see the truth?

Link Keller 8:14
Sure. from two perspectives of two different preteens

Josué Cardona 8:19
Got it. So what you’re seeing is their recollection of events. You’ve never actually there’s never like a, like a neutral. True perspective,

Lara Taylor 8:28
no

Josué Cardona 8:28
like you’re never wrong

Link Keller 8:30
what, what would that be?

Josué Cardona 8:32
Well, umm

Lara Taylor 8:34
there is no neutral. Nothing happens in a vacuum. There is no neutral, true perspective.

Josué Cardona 8:39
What I mean is like, there are video recordings of events of like, when I was curious now,

Link Keller 8:43
there is no omniscience. Back to the Future style, where it reveals the real version, it there is no rea...

#294: The team talks about their experiences at The Applied Geek and Gaming Summit, and gushes over how exciting and validating the experience was.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Link’s stomach.

Link Keller 0:22
rarblghblgh

Josué Cardona 0:24
Link Keller

Link Keller 0:25
Hello.

Josué Cardona 0:26
and lara taylor

Lara Taylor 0:29
hey

Josué Cardona 0:32
Yeah. So you were you were asking me right before we started recording? Lara, How I’m awake because you are not awake?

Lara Taylor 0:39
I am not. I’m not burnt out just exhausted.

Josué Cardona 0:44
exhausted. Yeah. Well,

Lara Taylor 0:46
a good way, in a good way,

Josué Cardona 0:47
in a good way. Yeah. I mean, so we had over the weekend. We finally we had taggs, which was a therapeutic and applied geek and gaming summit, the first ever I think, it went very well.

Lara Taylor 1:03
So too, I

Link Keller 1:05
agreed.

Josué Cardona 1:06
I would very much like to know what you think and what everybody who is there, thanks. We’ll send a feedback Form very, very soon. And

Lara Taylor 1:17
more puppet time. more happier.

Josué Cardona 1:20
More puppet time. That’s all the people want.

Lara Taylor 1:22
that’s what they want.

Josué Cardona 1:24
Yeah. So so I want to talk about two things. One, you asked me, How am I like, awake, and okay. And like, is my brain? Okay? You didn’t ask that one. But you should be asking is my brain. Okay, after this weekend. And

Lara Taylor 1:38
that was what that question was actually going to be.

Josué Cardona 1:42
Yeah, yeah. I, I, um, this weekend was so fulfilling. It really feels like a culmination of 10 years of, of work of doing things. And gian in the chat. It says it was life changing legendary. I, it was it was so fulfilling. And so. So I’ll keep saying fulfilling but it was it was very good. My my batteries are full. I am. You know, how, again, in, in all the best shown in anime, you know, like, you exceed that 100% capacity, right? Like, you’re, you reached 150%. Right. But you’re at level two, you like your, your, your power levels above 9000. Right. Like you broke the meter. Like, like that kind of thing. Like, that’s how I felt. On Sunday. I was a little tired by Sunday night. But after three days of that, and also it got it felt it felt more good as the weekend went on. Because, and I mentioned that and I’m glad he’s in the chat. Because I don’t I don’t think I’ve I haven’t talked him I don’t think there was a moment at the end of the weekend. which. Let’s explain what taggs was, by the way, just in case. So yeah, so the therapeutic and applied geek and gaming summit, a professional conference in gaming convention to we can talk about the gaming convention part that didn’t like it wasn’t as gaming as as I as I wanted it to be. But there were games,

Lara Taylor 3:24
there were games. We did games, we played some games.

Josué Cardona 3:29
It was I’m not disappointed. I’m just just just pointing that out if you think check the schedule. But the idea was to bring together people who use geek culture and gaming culture in either therapeutic or in applied ways. I think they’re using it intentionally within their work. And the work being you know, maybe you’re an educator, maybe you’re some kind of therapist, not just mental health therapist, right? You’re working in medicine and working in community practice. All the things that we always talk about here at Geek Therapy. Let’s bring together people who do this, and let’s learn from each other. The are so we framed it like a professional conference. And it was it was a professional conference for that. And we did a call for proposals. We got a lot of great submissions. I was reflecting on that part of it. I we did not expect to have 80 events running throughout the weekend, right? There were times where that we were we had five concurrent presentations

Lara Taylor 4:29
most of the time. five concurrent

Lara Taylor 4:31
what was four Yeah,

Link Keller 4:33
I think its was four most of the time, but there was definitely a slot on Saturday. That was five

Lara Taylor 4:39
on Sunday too

Josué Cardona 4:40
know, technically, only Friday had four at a time during four time slots, and I believe Saturday and Sunday. Always had five slots running at the same time. And that’s that’s, there was a lot going on at once. And there was a point on Sunday. It was it was during The last presentations on Sunday. And I can only do so much. So I can think my brain can only monitor two at a time. So I was watching two panels at the same time, I had EarPods, air pods, Apple AirPods to two different devices, so one in each ear, so I was listening to two at a time. And then they kind of going back and forth. Fun fact, if you just if you just changed your view, like then you sync up the mouth movements of the person talking in one and then like, your brain kind of blocks the sound from the other. You don’t have to mute that. Anyway. So I was watching

Lara Taylor 5:33
that would break my brain.

Josué Cardona 5:35
I think I think my brain is broken. But at the end, there were two presentations going on. And one of them was from Gian Ramos. And he was he’s a medical doctor, he he was doing a residency in New York City. And he wrote he wrote a blog post about this story. And it’s on the Geek Therapy website. And it it’s the story where he says like, oh, listen, like I was in residency, I listened to the Geek Therapy podcast, like I was thinking about this, this, this this. And then I did this stuff with a client who was catatonic and there’s it’s a beautiful story. But there’s a sense of pride to hear him tell the story. As the presenter as he’s presenting the story to teach other people and show them and like that was one of the stories that he showed. He’s doing this simultaneously while on on the in the other room. There is Vanessa hence, who is talking about using media to address transgenerational trauma, and is talking about how do we talk about race and racism. And she’s bringing up like horror movies like um, like us and the series like them, and she’s talking about Black Panther. And she’s bringing up all these different things. And I’m and and Vanessa, I met because she was a student at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, taking the Geek Therapy, the geek culture and therapy course, that Patrick O’Connor and I co developed. He taught it there for two years. She was in one of those classes. They in I always guest lecture, but they invited me for final presentations. So I’m there I’m watching the final presentations of getting feedback. And I remember very clearly Vanessa’s presentation, she used the X Files as a as her for her project. And it was great and like, and I did meet her in person, eventually. And then but I’m seeing her right. It’s like, it’s like two students of yours, right? Like, like, like work that you’ve done over the years. And now they’re here at this conference that you set up for. You set it up for them to come and teach other people. Right. And it was like, so that was like the last thing during the weekend, right. And the rest of the day was through like, we joked about how many people like there were tears on Sunday, but it was becau...

#293: Josué and Lara talk about preparations for The Applied Geek and Gaming Summit, and review all the wonderful Geek Therapy community spaces.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:18
Yo,

Josué Cardona 0:19
yo,

Lara Taylor 0:20
yo. Link’s not here and I start changing up my opener.

Josué Cardona 0:25
Yeah, yeah. Links not here. They are working on stuff. Doing important taggs this weekend. three presentations at tags. That’s a lot.

Lara Taylor 0:36
Yeah, I’ve got three presentations to tags. How many you guys weigh a bazillion? Right?

Josué Cardona 0:41
Ah, they’re all mine. Oh, yeah, I’m, I’m, I’m going to take care of all of them. Hopefully. Not, I’m not alone in that. But um, you know, I will be,

Lara Taylor 0:54
you’ll be there all day. all the weekend.

Josué Cardona 0:55
I may be like the architect in the matrix with like, all the screens up and monitoring multiple things happening. But I, I’m not complaining. Actually. That sounds that sounds good to me. Okay, so here’s what we’re going to talk about today. And it may be a short one, because we have to keep preparing for taggs. I literally just finished the meeting before this. And I’ll go back to it. For those of you who don’t know, taggs is the therapeutic and applied geek and gaming summit, the first professional conference and, and gaming event of its kind, presented by Geek Therapy in the bodhana group. I’m very excited about it. And I’m a little tired, but it is going to be great. And if you’re listening to this in the future, after the event has past, don’t worry about it. That’s why we’re working very hard, perhaps even harder on making sure that we were able to record everything and preserve it so that we can continue to have a version of the conference that exists until yknow taggs 2022 Ooh, breaking news. I’m assuming we’ll do a taggs 2022. And until then, we will, we will keep it up. And then you can get a media pass. And just by access to all the stuff that we recorded

Lara Taylor 2:12
a pro tip probably want the media pass anyway. Because there’s like five panels going on at a time and everything looks so good.

Josué Cardona 2:20
So assuming that you Yeah, you’re listening to this live? There’s no way I’m posting this before taggs. Taggs live is actually done. Exactly. But if you’re listening to this before, then yeah, definitely get your live plus. plus media pass. Yeah. Yeah, no, I’m excited. But so what I’m excited about partially, and what I want to talk about today is this. The theme of taggs is community, everybody has a seat at the table. And we have always made it such a core part of Geek Therapy, to build community. And so we have very specific community spaces that allow us to do that. So the podcast part is weird. It’s the main driver of content. But there isn’t like a place where you can go or where people go, you can go to the forum, basically. And that’s where all the podcasts are and where you could post and things like that. But it’s it’s it’s other places where people congregate. Primarily, we have two, which are the the discord which we bring up all the time, which has been refreshed.

Lara Taylor 3:34
It’s looking great too

Josué Cardona 3:36
Good, it’s got options for you know that you can opt in and out of all the channels.

Lara Taylor 3:40
all those people who say we have too many channels. You don’t have to have all the channels.

Josué Cardona 3:44
you Don’t need them all. Yep, yep, yep.

Lara Taylor 3:46
Unless you want them all.

Josué Cardona 3:48
Unless you want them all. I think I think, yeah, I think it’s working out really well. I like it a lot. And I love it. I think it’s I think it’s great. It’s got this new feature where we can do live events, just exactly the same way that clubhouse. The app does them right where people we can, we can have a live event where we’re talking and it’s and it’s audio only. So it’s very fitting for for us even though like we’re live right now on video on Twitch. We’re primarily audio content. And so that’ll be really cool because we can have these live events and then people can like Raise your hands and come up and we can include them in the conversations and it’s called stages. And we’ve got it set up. It’s It’s great. We might do some of these episodes that way in the future, or other things we’ll see. But we’ve got it all set up on the discord as well. So it’s great. And I I love the Discord. I think it is I think it is fantastic. Obviously we also have like things like this, we can be live on Twitch and Brandon comes into the comments and put emojis up. Yeah, right. So hey, so Hi, Brandon. Yeah. Right. So this is a space for that also, right? We’ve had the string team over the years, different people. streaming and different people in the in the audience and in the chat. And that’s one way for community building. But the Facebook group,

Lara Taylor 5:10
that thing is a beast of its own

Josué Cardona 5:12
Facebook group is at 4300 people last time I checked, which, again, I think two years ago, there was an episode where you were like, oh, we’re almost at 400. It’s amazing.

Lara Taylor 5:23
I think last year, I think last year, I was excited that we were almost to 1000. I think two years ago, it was like 400 or 600. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 5:34
yeah. Yeah. And I mean, there are there are specific, they’re very good reasons that I can pinpoint. For a large part of that growth. Some of it is like the teleplay group, right? They’ve been Kara and Zach, that group over there. They’ve been fantastic. They’re always telling people like, depending on what it is like, Oh, you should check out the geek therapy group. And there’s just a lot of members of the community who are constantly promoting and advocating for for our Facebook group.

Lara Taylor 6:04
Yeah, there’s I check every person that comes in and I look at where they heard about us. And there’s a lot of different Facebook groups that people are coming from mostly therapists groups, but sometimes it’s like ADHD support, kind of groups in a couple of neurodivergent affirming groups. I love it.

Josué Cardona 6:27
Yeah, yeah. My favorites are like, Oh, my supervisor recommended me sometimes.

Lara Taylor 6:32
my coworker

Josué Cardona 6:33
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so the growth has been, it has been organic, like people, for the most part, it’s people suggesting, hey, check it out to people inviting their friends. And then then coming in. And I want to talk about that today. And other groups in general, we bring them up. But it is, it is so good. It is so good. Right? It is like it in a way it is exactly. It almost feels like the ideal version of what we set out to do 10 years ago, in that somebody posts a question about an anime or a video game, or they just post like a geeky reference or something like that. And then we can answer those questions. I answered a question yesterday, that was completely just technology related. And I don’t spend enough time on that anymore. The original tagline was like how can nerdy, geeky nerdy and techie things like save the world, and as someone with an electronics engineering degree, and someone who is loves technology, and is a big tech geek? I, I, we don’t do that anymore as much. Just because content ...

#292: Lara, Josué, and Link talk about The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s first few episodes, particularly about Bucky’s therapist. We wonder if HIPAA survived the blip, and if the therapist’s questionable methods are working in context.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Link Keller,

Link Keller 0:17
what’s up gamers?

Josué Cardona 0:21
And Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hi,

Josué Cardona 0:25
it’s fine You don’t need you don’t need a catchphrase. Okay. You don’t need one

Lara Taylor 0:30
Link’s changes every week. It’s okay.

Josué Cardona 0:32
I don’t think so. I think that’s it. That’s the new catchphrase. Yeah,

Link Keller 0:36
I’m gonna zag on you. Keep y’all on your toes.

Josué Cardona 0:39
Oh, okay. All right. So this week, it’s Lara’s turn. So Lara, what are we talking about?

Lara Taylor 0:46
We’re talking about the Falcon and the winter soldier. Cuz that’s what is going on right now. In my life. Wow. That is, yep. It’s interesting. Everyone was so hyped for wandavision. And I do see a lot of chatter about Falcon and Winter Soldier right now. Mostly in our Facebook group. And a little bit on the discord. wandavision was more. I don’t know. There was a lot to unpack. But I’ve seen a lot of conversation, especially about the therapist on falcon and Winter Soldier?

Josué Cardona 1:26
Yeah, yeah.

Lara Taylor 1:28
Yeah. I don’t know how I feel about her. I don’t.

Josué Cardona 1:32
Oh, what does that mean? Like, what are you?

Lara Taylor 1:36
Like? Well, one, I like the actress but two, um, she’s she does some unethical stuff. But apparently it’s working. I don’t know. Is it working though? No, I don’t know.

Josué Cardona 1:48
Why, what is unethical?

Lara Taylor 1:51
Oh, let’s see. Let’s see. I don’t know a lot of people are upset in the first episode, she like uses her notebook as a and her writing things down because Bucky is going to court mandated therapy as part of his release, so she like threatens to write his resistance to treatment down to like, threaten him to comply with treatment. Like, oh, I’m gonna report you and I know, therapists that do that, but not in that flunky of a way, like clicking the pin and all of that. And apparently, that sets him off. And then in the second episode, she just straight up walks into like the waiting room at a jail and announces that she’s bucky’s therapist, and then says, Sam, you’re coming with me. And we’re gonna make this like couples therapy. Link’s face is priceless.

Josué Cardona 2:48
That one I understand. Yeah, that one. That one.

Lara Taylor 2:50
That one is that one really, really got me?

Josué Cardona 2:53
Yeah. What’s it there’s no HIPAA in MCU.

Lara Taylor 2:57
But it doesn’t HIPAA doesn’t matter. Even before HIPAA, we had confidentiality and privacy rules.

Josué Cardona 3:04
Yeah, yeah.

Link Keller 3:07
Also just like general ethical respect for other people’s human lives.

Josué Cardona 3:14
Yeah, yeah. Part of me wants to make a joke about not just normalizing therapy like that’s just normal in the MCU. Like, that’s just what happens like you and your therapist. just have it out in public.

Lara Taylor 3:28
you have it out in Public, but like, you know, you’re sometimes friend current, like, frienemy, right? Like they aren’t getting along. He can just get sucked into therapy without his consent. Like, literally, Sam didn’t want to go and she’s like, no, that’s, that’s not an option. You have to come. And he’s not even like the way they’re working the show. Right now. Bucky and Sam are outside of the military. Like she has no authority over this guy.

Josué Cardona 3:59
I don’t see him like Sam getting dragged in as like, therapy.

Lara Taylor 4:07
They literally sat in a soul gazing exercise, like a couple in the therapy room. Link, you have to watch the clip.

Link Keller 4:15
I guess I got I gotta watch this. Yes, I have no I have not seen these episodes yet. I was honestly I was waiting to hear from you guys. If it was, like wandavision worth giving some of my time to. Sounds like that’s gonna make me really mad. But

Lara Taylor 4:32
it might be but they’re all they’re addressing a lot of things. Yeah. Obviously I am not a person of color in this country right now. But they are also addressing being a veteran being a veteran of color. There’s a racial profiling scene. There’s dealings with the police in the military, it is all kinds of things, all kinds of things.

Josué Cardona 4:57
But this, this show, I if you like the MCU you got to watch it. It’s more MCU it’s not like the one it’s not like wandavision that was weird shit. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Link Keller 5:10
i want weird shit.

Josué Cardona 5:11
I know. That’s the thing. So like, it’s hard for me to like, yeah, like, I don’t know, like, like, my mom was like, oh, is wandavision finally done? I want to watch it all, you know at one time like yeah, Mom, it’s done. And she was like I did not. I did not enjoy that. I don’t know if I’m gonna keep watching. I was like, Mom, it’s fine. Go watch falcon and Winter Soldier. It’ll give you your action, then you know, your MCU what you expect from the MCU I gave her the like, you gotta watch four episodes, you know, for the exposition thing in wandavision, and she’s like, Nah, I don’t got time for that. I’m old.

Lara Taylor 5:44
but really? It’s only two episodes when you count like the wandavision episodes are only half an hour. So I still

Josué Cardona 5:51
still still

Link Keller 5:54
but have to watch all eight minutes of credits. Otherwise you might miss something.

Lara Taylor 5:58
Yeah, spoiler alert. You don’t miss anything. Unless you skip the credits in the last couple of episodes.

Josué Cardona 6:05
I am Yeah, I mean, at least my mom watched all 21,000 movies you have to watch before

Lara Taylor 6:12
she’s gonna love Winter Soldier, Falcon and Winter Soldier. It’s gonna be great.

Josué Cardona 6:17
Oh, yeah, this is much more her thing. Yeah, so I don’t know if I would recommend Falcon, Falcon and Winter Soldier Link,

Lara Taylor 6:26
unless you want to watch a sam and Bucky? in there. I’ve seen a lot of talk in the queer community about it being very queer baity.

Link Keller 6:36
Do they smooch?

Lara Taylor 6:37
I haven’t seen smooches yet but they smash each other and in an action thing and then roll in a field and fall on top of each other Ala Attack of the Clones.

Link Keller 6:51
okay. alright.

Josué Cardona 6:52
Look after after. After listening to the queer comics podcast on the Geek Therapy network. I I I see subtext everywhere. I see queer subtext ever. I there’s nothing. Yeah. So is I see it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lara Taylor 7:10
And I’ve heard I have read. I can’t remember the name of the character. But Bucky, the MCU. Bucky. his backstory is based on a character in the in Marvel Comics, who is gay, who is and that’s the childhood best friend. Like the whole thing other than the name for Bucky Barnes is,

Josué Cardona 7:35
is not the bucky barnes from the comics?

Lara Taylor 7:38
not from t...

#291: Josué, Lara, and Link discuss an article ‘Streamers are not your Therapist’ shared by a community member. We cover streamers, parasocial relationships, and how context matters to therapeutic relationships.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to GTradio on the Geek Therapy network, here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona, and I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:20
I never know, and never know why you gotta throw me off hey everyone.

Josué Cardona 0:25
and Link Keller?

Link Keller 0:27
Hello,

Josué Cardona 0:29
hello. Alright, so today we’re talking about an article that was shared with us by Bryce, who reached out to Geek Therapy on Facebook, and asked what we thought about this. It’s an article that says streamers are not your therapists on ritual motion. And I think we’ve talked about this in the in the past, it’s definitely worth talking about. Often, every now and then I think it’s, it’s a, it’s important. So I kind of gave Bryce my my thoughts about it. I’m, I’m curious what what you think about this article? Basically, or I can review it real quick, which is basically that, you know, the Let me see the headline says that the streamers you’ve been watching starts to feel more like a personal friend, someone you could ask for advice or confide in. And basically the author is saying like, don’t, don’t do that. Just stop. Just don’t streamers are not your therapist. I have feelings about about the about the, the author’s opinion on it, I have I have my own. So what do you what do you think in reaction to it?

Link Keller 1:48
I think it does, it does suck to ask strangers to be your therapist is not not a cool thing to do. And

Josué Cardona 1:56
why? Why?

Link Keller 2:01
Because you don’t have the context for that kind of relationship.

Josué Cardona 2:09
mmhmm.

Link Keller 2:10
your relationship with your therapists. I mean, granted the past year with COVID, everything’s been a little bit different. But traditionally, you have a space that is dedicated and a time that is dedicated to having that interpersonal relationship with your therapist, as opposed to them being available anytime that they are online. Is is very different. Also, most streamers aren’t trained to be therapists, that it’s not fair to ask people to do things that they aren’t trained in.

Josué Cardona 2:45
Also, Lara’s off the clock.

Lara Taylor 2:48
I am off the clock. I don’t give out therapy for free. Damn, yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, not only link you said, strangers aren’t your therapists, friends, aren’t your therapists. It’s not okay to just dump that on friends, too. So even if you go to your friend’s stream and start asking advice. That’s not necessarily good, either.

Josué Cardona 3:16
That’s, yeah, that’s where that’s where, right around there is where I started having. It gets complicated for me. Because you may have a relationship or some sort of relationship parasocial relationship right with, with a personality on on Twitch or a streamer or, you know, any anyone else who you see online and

Lara Taylor 3:39
a tiktoker

Josué Cardona 3:40
a tiktoker I think that relationship can be meaningful. And if they are in a in a place where they are going live and want to engage with the audience, then then yknow, like maybe, maybe we’re kind of maybe we’re not friends, friends, but we’re kind of, we’re friendly, right? Like, there is a relationship there. So we can talk about stuff, maybe we can confide. And that’s where I, I, I don’t know that. It’s always someone. I don’t know if that people are looking for a therapist, or the things that you would go to a therapist for when you’re engaging in those relationships, because a lot of those things you might just be going to a friend for. Right, right. It’s like you, my friend, I’m gonna go. I have a therapist, and I also have friends and I talked to my therapist. My therapist relationship is one thing and my friends. My friend relationships are very different. And we wouldn’t necessarily talk about the same thing or I wouldn’t expect the same things. But that’s where there’s like, there may be a line there may be something in there that does get. There are relationships with therapists that aren’t healthy in their relationships with friends that aren’t necessarily healthy and there are lines that we tend to cross. in both areas, there are boundaries there that often get violated, I guess is is a is a is the only word I can think of like you cross these lines. And it might it might be just, it may not be dangerous, necessarily. But if you can’t tell the difference, right? If it’s like, oh, I don’t know, like, I feel like my therapist is my friend, just like, my friends are my friends. And but they give me better advice? Like, I don’t know, it’s like, once you’re looking for, like, looking for advice is also like, depends on what you’re asking me advice about? Because I might ask

Link Keller 5:39
i feel like most therapists, I would say that they they don’t like to give advice. as a concept.

Lara Taylor 5:47
I don’t I don’t give advice.

Josué Cardona 5:50
I hope that is true. universally. It is it is not. But, but that’s a good point. That’s a very good point. But you’re still going with a problem, right? So like coming to someone with a problem or even asking for an opinion or thoughts or anything or? Yeah, it’s it’s that’s kind of where I have issues with that. I don’t disagree. streamers are definitely not your therapists. But what you’re looking for in those relationships or any parasocial relationship? Is, is Yep, there’s, there’s two sides there that we’ll get into. But that’s kind of what I what I told Bryce, when he wrote to us on on Facebook, it’s kind of my, my take on it.

Link Keller 6:38
I mean, I think that there are certainly, like rare instances where where people are, you know, outside of online, they’re friends and one of them streams. And then one of them always shows up to support that stream or whatever, and maybe having more intimate conversations in that space than you would otherwise. But I feel like for a majority of people, they are watching the streams of people they don’t know, personally. And so the parasocial relationship is is a big, big, big part of it. So

Josué Cardona 7:19
yeah, yeah. That’s it. What How would you define? We’ve done this a million times. But how would you define a parasocial relationship?

Link Keller 7:26
A relationship with a fictional or semi real character? That is, by function one directional.

Josué Cardona 7:41
Yeah. We just got a comment from gian, which we, you know,

Lara Taylor 7:50
in true gian fashion, it’s like a little mini novel. side of my

Josué Cardona 7:57
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so I was gonna make a joke about that. Right. So we’ve been broadcasting on Twitch, right. And I don’t always announce that at the beginning of every episode. But pre podcast listeners, right, but we’re recording. We’re broadcasting live on Twitch. And, and I don’t know, I think there’s some amazing relationships that we’ve built through the Geek Therapy community through streaming through our discord through the Facebook group. And, I mean, I haven’t met in person, most people that I that I, that I appreciate so so much from the community. gian, we appreciate him so much that we can make fun of him. So we’re gonna do that. Now. He He is the reason why we started the f...

#289: We chat about Wandavision, and how many of our predictions were correct! We touch on grief and perseverance as the central focus of the show and how it succeeded (and missed the mark) in its execution.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media. We care about my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:17
what’s up?

Josué Cardona 0:18
And Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:20
Hey.

Josué Cardona 0:22
A few weeks ago, we talked about Wanda, grief and loss. Tonight, we’re talking about Wandavision, grief and perseverance. We finally finished watching the day. I mean, just like everybody else, apparently, it’s been very popular wandavision.

Lara Taylor 0:40
Very popular. And yeah, who thought it was really weird at the beginning.

Josué Cardona 0:45
Also, also very popular for us an episode, like a lot of people found us because of that episode, a lot of people googled wandavision and, and, and we popped up.

Lara Taylor 0:55
I just, I was just gonna say I just want to bring up that we were right. About most thingswe said

Josué Cardona 1:01
yeah, so So welcome to Episode 289.

Link Keller 1:06
We were right.

Josué Cardona 1:09
I mean, to be fair,

Link Keller 1:10
great episode everyone.

Josué Cardona 1:12
Yeah, to be fair, we, we speculated all over the place. So we couldn’t not be right, because we pretty much covered every possibility. The only way that we could have been wrong is if it was all a dream, and nobody guessed that. So it was so we did good we did good. We weren’t we were some of us. Were right. Some of us were more right than others. It doesn’t matter who it was. You can go back and listen, it’s fine. But I think I think that was a lot of fun. After the first four episodes, there’s definitely something going on there. At least we were all correct. And that there was definitely it was wanda dealing with her with her grief. And now that the show is over, and yeah, we got to the end. So yeah, so this will be full of spoilers. So if you haven’t seen the show, and don’t care to, be sure to stick around. But if you want to see the show, and you haven’t yet, save us for later, you know the drill. So yeah, wandavision ended. And we were right about a lot of things. A lot of grief going on. But there were there was, yeah, I mean, yeah. Either of you can start with whatever whatever you wherever you want to go. There’s a lot to cover.

Link Keller 2:28
Well, I want to start by saying I was very much on the train of Wanda’s story being about grief, and dealing with grief. But after the finale, I think it really has less to do with her grief over losing vision and more to do about her general life trauma, and dealing with trauma. Obviously, visions death was traumatic. So that still fits in there. But I think the way that they wrap the show up was less to do with grief and acceptance of loss and more to do with really coming to understand how all of these series of traumatic events in her life fed into each other up to the point that she created this magical world to escape from it.

Lara Taylor 3:21
Interesting, interesting, because I would argue

Link Keller 3:23
that’s where I’m gonna start us off,

Lara Taylor 3:25
you’re going to start off, I would argue that a lot. There are other traumas in her life, but most of her traumas deal with the death of a family member, both of her parents, her brother, her brother, and then her life and she’s literally alone. So

Josué Cardona 3:45
there’s, there’s something that happens in episode eight, I think it was. That’s the one that explained everything and showed everything from before. And they show her going. She says that she’s going to retrieve visions body. And I believe her like she’s like, he’s like, you can’t have the body. Right. The Hayward is like, Well, you can’t have it. You can you can see his dismembered body right there. But you can’t you can’t have it and then she’s so angry that she but she’s telling him like, I don’t want to bring him back to life. And he’s like, I think you want to try to bring him back. And she’s like, that’s not what I want to do. Like, I want to try to, like I just I just want to bury him. And and I don’t know,

Lara Taylor 4:39
he’s like no, no, bring bring him back. Bring him back so I can use him.

Josué Cardona 4:44
Yeah, maybe maybe. Yeah, that could that could that could have been it actually. Yeah.

Lara Taylor 4:48
I’ve seen I’ve seen a lot of commentary about how that’s

Josué Cardona 4:50
exactly what’s happening. Okay. Okay,

Lara Taylor 4:53
because that’s what he was trying to do the whole time was bringing him back.

Josué Cardona 4:55
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that makes sense that he was manipulating her but I feel She was, she was ready at that point to, to go through that process of laying him to rest. Right. And, and again, like she had already at that point she had already accepted that she couldn’t bring him back to life. Right. Like, I don’t think she was even trying. And then maybe when Hayward was manipulating her, she got get close. And she’s like, I can’t, like I can’t feel him there. like, I don’t, I don’t feel you, I think is what she said when she touches the body. And then, and then she then she gets upset, and then she can’t like proceed with this with the with just the grieving of going through the ritual of grief that she wanted to. That was taken from her. Um, although she’s super powerful, she could have just like, murdered everybody there. But again, like at that point, I think she was still she was good enough that like, she was like, I’m not gonna do this. And then like the sorrow of when she went to the house and started thinking of everything that could have been that couldn’t be, that’s when she she like exploded and created this entire world, including creating a version of vision. Which, which I think, I don’t know, in episode eight is where there’s a quote, where vision tells her What is grief, if not love persevering? That’s been like shared all over the place.

Lara Taylor 6:27
Beautiful line. When Nina and I watched the finale, and Wanda says, I think it was she says, You are my love. And Nina said, it is a missed opportunity that she didn’t say, You are my love persevering.

Josué Cardona 6:44
I think it’s implied. I think it’s implied. That’s it. That’s what I’m getting at.

Lara Taylor 6:47
But it would have been a good call back.

Josué Cardona 6:49
I’m just saying doesn’t have to be. So on the nose. Some people need it on the nose.

Link Keller 6:54
it feels very on the nose to me, but

Josué Cardona 6:56
already, right

Link Keller 6:57
already.

Josué Cardona 6:58
So So he says, So vision vision says, You know what, what am I and she says you vision are the peace of the mind stone that lives in me. You are a body of wires and blood and bone that I created. You are my sadness and my hope. But mostly You are my love. And then he says, have been a voice with no body, a body, but not human. And now a body. Oh, no, and now a memory made real. Who knows what might be next. And, And to me, that’s where like, the show makes a lot of sense. But it’s like, you have all these feelings and they change over time, right? Like you’re experiencing these things, and they can at one po...

#288: Josué and Lara discuss the premiere episode of Superman and Lois, and their son Jonathan’s social anxiety diagnosis.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:18
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:19
yo, let’s put our names up. Oh, there we go. Oh,

Lara Taylor 0:25
now people can tell the difference between Lara and Josué.

Josué Cardona 0:28
Yep. listeners. We’re broadcasting live on Twitch, which we do every week now. And I forget to mention every week. That’s why we have visual gags now. that don’t translate well

Lara Taylor 0:41
and then we forget.

Josué Cardona 0:43
Yeah,

Lara Taylor 0:43
yeah.

Josué Cardona 0:44
Yeah, at least we can see each other, which is good. And you can join us every Wednesday at around 8pm. Central. 7pm. Eastern 6pm. Pacific.

Lara Taylor 0:56
That’s very wrong. 7pm. Eastern.

Josué Cardona 1:01
That’s right now it’s 9pm. Eastern, 8pm, Central, and 6pm. Pacific. I get

Lara Taylor 1:11
somewhere in there. Usually we’re up and going by like the 20 of the hour. Sometimes we’re not

Josué Cardona 1:19
depends. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Link isn’t here this week. So that was a last minute thing. So we just switched up the topic that we were gonna do.

Lara Taylor 1:31
Okay, hey. Yeah, I wanted to talk about one thing. And then we’re like, Huh, Superman and Lois came out started airing. And you texted me right away? That I needed to watch it until I watched it. Yeah. And we figured since we both watch it, we should talk about it.

Josué Cardona 1:52
Yeah, yeah. I actually watched a second episode today. I’m

Lara Taylor 1:55
I haven’t watched that one yet. Yeah.

Josué Cardona 1:57
So but but I’ll bring up some stuff that I think is relevant, too. So yeah, so why do you want to talk about Superman Lois?

Lara Taylor 2:05
Cuz like, you texted me that in the first three minutes, they talked about social anxiety disorder, and name it as a character having it.

Josué Cardona 2:16
So first of all, this show is on The CW. Technically, it’s an arrowverse show.

Lara Taylor 2:25
We’ve seen the Superman and Lois before.

Josué Cardona 2:29
This does not feel like an arrowverse show to me. It is.

Lara Taylor 2:35
It looks cinematic. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 2:38
yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I don’t want to disparage the other shows,

Lara Taylor 2:42
because they’re very good too.

Josué Cardona 2:45
I remember thinking the same way about the flash as I am thinking about Superman now. in context, right thinking like, Wow, I can’t believe that a show like the flash is on television. Because these effects look really good and everything like so many things feel high quality. I don’t feel that way anymore about the CW in general. I haven’t felt that way about the CW in a long time. I think Marvel has a lot to do with that. But so do other shows

Lara Taylor 3:16
Marvel’s got the very bright and shiny world. But the high quality special effects.

Josué Cardona 3:23
Yeah, I mean, the only one that really did it. The only real Marvel TV show before like in humans

Lara Taylor 3:30
shield, shield and humans.

Josué Cardona 3:33
Yeah. And humans was cheap. Yes, yeah. True. True True. True Agent Carter to Yeah, but in humans felt cheap. Agent Carter felt, I’m gonna say middle of the road in terms of like, feeling expensive

Lara Taylor 3:51
TV budget, right

Josué Cardona 3:52
to budget and shield started cheap. And then

Lara Taylor 3:59
got better

Josué Cardona 4:00
looking very expensive. And it looking like MCU level. And of course, like wandavision is just like whoa, what is this this is this is another level and so other DC shows like Doom patrol and even Titans. Not so much Titans but like Doom patrol feels pricey, right? Like it feels like like a cost like it feels it feels like I don’t know how much you know, any of these shows costs over another. But this Superman and Lois is on another level. And just in general, right? Like there’s the same

Lara Taylor 4:32
felt like I was sitting down to watch a movie.

Josué Cardona 4:34
It feels like a movie even the aspect ratio is is shorter. So it feels more cinematic in that sense, but everything the colors the way it’s shot. And the effects are really really good. And I thought Oh, is this only the pilot? No, the second episode feels exactly the same. And I am so me surprised.

Lara Taylor 4:57
The laser eyes felt the same. I think as supergirls laser eyes I think but the but the after effect like the explosions and the all those things. Yeah a little different.

Josué Cardona 5:10
Yeah, there’s I don’t know there’s something. There’s a

Lara Taylor 5:13
giant ice cube look like a giant ice cube. I’m just saying

Josué Cardona 5:18
it. It looked really good. It looked really good. I can just imagine. Like Ruby Rose, or what’s the actress who plays Supergirl?

Josué Cardona 5:29
Melissa Benoist

Josué Cardona 5:31
Melissa Benoist like both of them being like, whoa, wait a minute. Why didn’t our shows look like this? Like I could have imagined Ruby Rose sticking around if?

Lara Taylor 5:38
ruby rose would’ve stayed if it was that good

Josué Cardona 5:41
that but there’s something so far it’s two episodes and and there’s no monster of the week. Like that is like this is I think we’re going to talk about the show more often because this is a family drama. And this is like there’s a reason why it’s called Superman and Lois. This is about they’re, It could have been called the super family, but that’s not as good of a title.

Lara Taylor 6:04
One thing that I loved about this show is this is a Clark Kent we haven’t gotten to see yet like in TV comics, you might have seen them. But seeing him with teenage sons. I think being a parent. I think that’s a whole other level. And I think they’re tapping into like, nerds who are parents right now.

Josué Cardona 6:27
No, that’s, that’s probably that’s a good point. So do you remember the Lois and Clark show?

Lara Taylor 6:32
Oh, I loved that. That was my Superman.

Josué Cardona 6:35
Yeah. So So

Lara Taylor 6:36
Dean Cain is my Superman.

Josué Cardona 6:38
Yeah. Wow. Wow. So when that show, at the end of that show, Lois is pregnant. And they had plans for them to have the baby but the show that like it was canceled. And so they never I don’t remember if the last episode they had the baby, but we never got to see them having a family. So when they announced that this new Superman show was going to pick up from the last time we saw Superman on the Supergirl show are on the crossovers which was Lois is pregnant we’re going to have the baby we’re going to go off to

Lara Taylor 7:12
they went to Argo city

Josué Cardona 7:14
Argo City oh okay. Yeah. And so they went and they’re like no, we’re gonna have a baby there boba. After that the world kind of I don’t remember where exactly. That happened in terms of the

Lara Taylor 7:25
it was right over the multi right before the multiverse crossover

Josué Cardona 7:30
Yeah. Was it b...

#287: Josué, Lara, and Link discuss how using video game rules as a framework can help us better understand how to succeed in real life systems. When we deeply understand the rules, we are better at knowing how to play within the rules – or how to break them.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network. During Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:19
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:20
and Link Keller. yo,

Link Keller 0:24
what’s up?

Lara Taylor 0:26
It’s always it’s always like, I don’t know, my heart stops, are you gonna say me first? Or Link first? who has to say, hey, first?

Josué Cardona 0:35
I never know who it’s gonna be. All right. So it’s my turn this week. And I’ve been thinking a lot about rules. Okay, and specifically, like framing them in the sense of video games and how useful it can be to do that. So let me let me bring up a few examples of what I mean. I’ve been thinking about Breath of the Wild. Lately, I’ve talked to people who the few people I’ve ever heard from who do not like Breath of the Wild. It’s because it’s too open. Like, there’s no direction like you don’t you don’t know where to go. You don’t know what to do. Right? And, and I get that, I get that, right. It’s like, Oh, I need instructions. I need a waypoint. Please tell me what to do. The moment I step out there, and I see 10 different possibilities. I don’t know where to go, and I don’t know what to do, etc. I’ll say, okay, that’s interesting. That’s interesting. And then I’m thinking about the people who are still playing with the physics of the game. And having fun with it, years after it came out, trying to figure things out. And they’re not hacking the game, right. They’re just, they understand the rules of the game. The rules of the world. And they’re, they understand them so well, that they’re able to do things that we never thought were possible to do. And and I think that’s really cool. I think that’s really cool, right? But but it requires a type of understanding of the game mechanics and everything that you can possibly do within that world. When you can, you can’t do to then possibly do these amazing things. And, and it’s not just completing the game, right? It’s like it’s going, just doing all these things that maybe, I don’t know if the game designers weren’t intending for you to do but they definitely weren’t expecting you to do. So I remember, I was working with very small children. I think it was, I think it was still an intern I was like, it must been like 10 years ago, I was around around gt origin story. Time, at the same place the same, I was looking at the same supervisor who told me all video games are stupid. And remember doing a group with these kids. And I remember there being a conversation. It’s I mean, but just seven and eight year old in sitting around this table. And they’re complaining about how they hate that their parents are always telling them what to do. Right. And like you they hate. They hate the rules of their home and tell somebody Okay, so like, What? What do you like to do? Not only like, what are your favorite games, right? And I was like, Oh, I love to play video games with my dad. I remember this one girl was like, Yeah, I love I love playing Call of Duty. I’m like, Okay, cool. So, do you know how to play? Like, like, what are the rules of the of the game? Take Oh, you have to do this. Alright, so what if, what if there weren’t any rules? What would that be like? And then we all start thinking about what a game without rules would be like. So and they came to the conclusion that it would suck. Right?

Link Keller 4:07
chaos

Josué Cardona 4:08
It would really suck. Like, call duty? Wouldn’t be fun if it were if there weren’t any rules? I was like, Okay, so, you know, like, and I get like, sometimes the rules aren’t? Aren’t. We don’t like them. We don’t like the rules. But I feel like only when we understand the rules, can we? And when we accept them, can we then start to play in those spaces and start to do something that you can’t win the game unless you accept the rules of the game. Otherwise, you’re just going to be complaining the entire time, about the rules, and then you’re not playing and then you’re you’re not gonna win it there’s no way to win the game. If if that’s what you’re doing. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about that idea in, in my in my day job and multiple areas of my life. And I even revisit it over the weekend. Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. This is like i think i think it’s relevant. I think there’s something relevant about it. And I’m not a logotherapy expert. So I do not know if this is a good representation of Victor Frankl’s theories, and what logotherapy is about. But in that story, like the first half of the book is him. And I just read read their prologue. And he’s like, this isn’t a story about being at a concentration camp. This is a story about people’s experiences. And basically, he’s in this place, and he’s observing why some people are more miserable. Right, then other people, and why some people are, are actually thriving in this space. That’s horrible. I like the comments where Steve is in the house. Yeah, man. Yeah, my search for meaning is always relevant. Thank you, thank you for validating my idea steve. And so, I, I’ve been thinking a lot about that, in that. I remember all my clients, and there’s something about accepting that sometimes feels like, like, you’re like, you’re compromising, or you’re yielding, right? Like in your, in your in your real life. But only when you get to the point when you can, like, accept that like, Okay, this is something, this is what’s going on. But then you understand the rules. And when you can, and you can’t do and then you can kind of move within that. There’s, at at my job, right, I do I do diversity inclusion work at my, at my, at the university I work at. And this idea has been on my mind, in a way there to where, like, Oh, you know, like some students? Like, why are some students thriving and some not? Right? What is it? about it? And it’s like, yeah, like, you can be in a class with a professor that kind of sucks, right? Then you can either like complain the entire the entire semester about it. But that’s not gonna, like, you’re not gonna get to the to the, you’re not gonna pass the class. Like, it’s like, that’s not helpful. Right? And, and so, obviously, like, I’m thinking about that I’m thinking about clients I had in the past, I’m like, Oh, no, no, this is this is, this is the thing. But for me, it’s been super helpful to frame it in the sense of games, right? Now I’m thinking about it in terms of rules of the game, if I understand the rules of the game, then I can actually get to the get to the end, or I can win, or I can actually do something with it otherwise. And this is where it gets where it’s hard. Like, I think the part where I always remember my clients getting hung up, and it’s the part where I still get hung up. And it’s, I don’t like the rules so hard, you know, that I don’t want to play the game. But some games like you’re just like, they’re just they’re like, they’re just, it’s all just the rules, right? Like you can, sometimes you can change the rules. And sometimes maybe, maybe that’s part of it. But But sometimes you can’t, or sometimes to get what you want, maybe changing the rules isn’t the most effective or easiest thing to do. So it’s been like a, like a, like, I’m revisiting this life lesson that I learned a long time ago. That’s been super relevant this week. And it was a metaph...

#286: Link, Josué, and Lara discuss the negative emotions that can happen when we find out the creators of beloved media have done awful things in real life.

Josué Cardona 0:07
Welcome to gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves through the media we care about my name is Josué Cardona. And I am joined by Lara Taylor.
Lara Taylor 0:19
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:20
and Link Keller.
Link Keller 0:21
Hello.
Josué Cardona 0:23
We are live on Twitch. Coming back atcha i don’t know i don’t have like a thing for for live, but I’m just I’m just excited. We don’t always have our cameras on. If you want to see what we look like. Come Wednesdays. Yeah. Around 9pm. Eastern 6pm. Pacific.
Lara Taylor 0:45
So when we’ve all had long days,
Josué Cardona 0:47
when we’re exhausted and kinda sleepy and
Lara Taylor 0:50
yeah, you can watch me asleep on my desk. It’s okay. Yeah,
Josué Cardona 0:54
yeah. Don’t do that. Alright, so welcome. It is Link’s turn this week. So
Link Keller 1:01
yaay
Josué Cardona 1:02
What what are we talking about this week? what depressing topic do you have?
Link Keller 1:08
well, you’re right now. right on the money there Josué because I have been feeling some bummer feels lately related to media, and I wanted to talk about it with you guys. Most recently, it is attached to new stories of abuse by Joss Whedon. This is stuff that’s been talked about over years, but it’s sort of gained a lot of traction this past week and a half. But also JK Rowling and Harry Potter. So Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter were both big part of my adolescence. I was obsessed with both of them. And so finding out as an adult, that their creators are disappointing. Has has brought up a lot of feelings. And you know, you know me I want to I just want to talk about him. I want to talk about my feelings.
Josué Cardona 2:15
Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah. How does it feel?
Link Keller 2:21
It feels bad. Yeah, it feels disappointing. It feels cynical.
Josué Cardona 2:35
Yeah. Yeah.
Link Keller 2:40
Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s a complex miasma of various disappointed sad feelings.
Josué Cardona 2:50
Yeah. Yeah. I it’s, it’s happened so often. I was watching a show. I’m not gonna say what show the other day. And the character died. And I texted a friend. I was like, I can’t believe this character died. And then my friend wrote, yeah, I think they killed off the character because of the allegations. I was like, what, and this this wasn’t even. And this is like, slightly different. Because it’s not the creator of the thing. It was just, it was just an actor, but it’s like, ah, like, I love the show so much. I love the character so much, and that you can’t it’s hard to separate the two. It’s really hard. Yeah, but when it’s the Creator, it kind of like, yeah, I mean, there’s so much like, Where do you want to go with this? Yeah.
Link Keller 3:42
I mean, you know, obviously, there’s there’s already a distinction between Joss Whedon being the showrunner of a seven year running show with lots of different writers who were involved across several seasons and everything versus JK Rowling, who is the author of her book, obviously, in a different amount of power resides in those those relationships but
Lara Taylor 4:12
and had a pretty heavy hand in editorial for the movies, if people are less familiar with the books. But yeah
Link Keller 4:21
yes, um, yeah, she she has had a fair amount of control over all of the Harry Potter projects to an unusual amount as far as I understand. It is pretty rare for an author to maintain that much power over their IP once it has become a huge multimedia conglomerate. Adventure zone thing is like it’s, it’s kind of impressive in some ways, say is you know, as a woman, author who you really started kicking off in the in the 90s. And she’s somebody we’re still talking about today, somebody who’s still getting you know, money payout from films and video games and reprints of books and all that stuff. And part of her being such a well known name, and us continually hearing about her is it gives her a lot of social power, she has a platform, and she uses it. The unfortunate thing is, she has been lately using it to be extremely transphobic. And trans transphobia is, you know, already problem everywhere. America is awful, but it lately it has been particularly horrible in the UK. And there are connections between that, that this woman, this author, this name that people recognize, has been saying things that are untrue. not supported by science, not supported by logic, in some cases, but because she’s JK Rowling, it gets published, it gets spread, it gets news articles written about it. And it’s really upsetting and painful. To to read that kind of transphobia getting spread around, and then seeing a bunch of people support it, because they just support JK Rowling. And they just love Harry Potter so much that anything,
Josué Cardona 6:40
how much is that happening? How much is how much is is? Or do you think people are because this is one of my fears? Right? Like right now my nine year old niece is in it. And she she watched all the movies now she’s reading so she’s reading the books, right? The other day, she went to the bookstore and she bought the the Beatle Bard book, right? Like she’s like, she’s in it like she wants. She’s, she’s living and breathing Harry Potter at this point. I don’t, I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to, right, It’s like she’s, for a nine year old. I’ve seen her say things like, like, call out her parents for you know, for the way they refer to gender or things like that. Right? Like she like she is? I don’t know. I don’t know she is just like that, because she saw it on TV, or because she has adults in her life where I’ve like taught her a different way of like her school is teaching her this? Or was it in a book that she read it and she thought that that was a better way to do it. And so is she going to is she one of those people like you just described? It’s like, oh, if JK Rowling thinks that then then I’m down. Like, I’m curious, or is it like, oh, JK Rowling. Finally, she finally said, well, we’re all thinking and right. And then they come out of the Woodworks versus people who are like, Oh, you know, I never thought of it that way. You know, and so Okay, yeah, no, you’ve convinced me like, I don’t know, there’s no way to measure that. I’m just curious. Yeah.
Link Keller 8:17
I have seen evidence of both. I’ve seen people tone policing, where you, you know, don’t speak to her that way. She’s trying her best. And it’s like, we are trying to educate her about how she is directly harming people. And instead of listening, she’s attacking us. And then you unrelated viewer is now also in this tweet thread, including yourself in the conversation. I’ve also seen people who you know, on the other side of that, I know an artist who has been doing a bunch of if you got the Deathly hollows symbol tattoo I am doing cover up tattoos that incorporate that shape. So it covers it really well, which is like, Oh, okay. Yeah, and so, with something like transphobia there’s always gonna be people who have no skin in the bag at all. They don’t care about Harry Potter. They don’t care about JK Rowling, but she’s saying something. transphobic then I’m gonna get behind that because I’m also transphobic. And I want to elevate that kind of rhetoric. There are people you know, of course, who were like, ambivalent is like I don’t I don’t care what JK Rowling says.
Lara Taylor 9:39
I believe what I’m going to believe in either direction. Yeah.
Josué C...

#285: Lara tells Josué and Link about a geek therapy moment she had in counseling. From Rogue’s gloves to Batman’s Alfred, superheroes need support people and tools just like the rest of us.

– Rogue / X-Men
– Sync / X-Men
– Alfred / Batman
– The Babadook
– Magneto / X-Men

Conversation Topics:

* Burnout
* Difficult emotions
* Family
* Feeling alone
* Mental Health Services
* Resilience
* Working with others
* Other: Feeling overwhelmed

Relatable Experience:

* Clarity/Understanding
* Fear/Anxiety
* Fighting
* Other: pandemic burnout

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

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Find us at www.GeekTherapy.org | @GeekTherapy | Lara: @GeekTherapist | Link: @CHICKENDINOSAUR | Josué: @JosueACardona

Ask us anything through the Question Queue and we’ll answer on the show: geektherapy.org/qq

Who is your “person in the chair”?

The post Superheroes Need Support Too appeared first on Geek Therapy.