" Is there a whole lot of murdering going on?"

This week, we're talking Assassination by Umbrella, a slightly morbid topic inspired by our guests, Marcus Richardson and Nathan Hicken, co-hosts of the Aurelius Whitlock's Murder Museum podcast. Researching the game takes a dark and surprising turn when Peih-Gee, acting upon David's suggestion, finds herself in a shadowy corner of the internet. David gives us a fascinating historical recount of the assassination of Bulgarian activist Georgi Markov using a poison-tipped umbrella. Today's game is called Morbid Mottos, which centers around some dark phrases.

If you enjoyed today's episode and want to hear more, make sure to check out the Aurelius Whitlock's Murder Museum podcast.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

" The missing ingredient here is love."

This episode we're talking everything bagels! These chewy, crunchy, carbalicious treats are one of my favorite foods. Brent Pope, host of the popular Brentfast podcast, joins us again to dive into the culinary delight that is the bagel. David gives us a short history of the bagel, including its origins and what makes New York bagels so darn delicious. Also, did you know that you're actually NOT supposed to toast your bagels if they're freshly hand-made? Today's game is called In Other Words, a quiz about the linguistic origins of various food names. To hear more from Brent Pope, check out his podcast Brentfast with Brent Pope.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

" It's important for us to all know and celebrate Sir James Arthur Fool, who created the holiday in 1872."

Joke’s on you, April Fools’ Day... I can be fooled any day of the year. Actor, comedian, and podcaster Brent Pope joins us to explore the mysterious origins of April Fool's Day. We talk about some favorite pranks, and David almost pulls a fast one on me. We also talk about the difficulties of breaking into Hollywood, and how Asian representation in the media has changed over the last couple of decades.

Our game today is called Undercover Word Lover, where every answer is a word composed entirely of two different words.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

Every year, thousands of people (including me) gather in the Mojave Desert to live out their wildest cyberpunk fantasies. Jared Butler, owner and creator of the immersive festivals Wasteland Weekend and Neotropolis joins us this week to chat about Neotropolis, including the ever-evolving larp and missions aspect. We also talk about the variety of experiences available, including the interactive modules called "factions" and the distinct daytime and nighttime vibes.

Today's game is called New City, where every answer is a movie title with either the word "new" or "city" in it, but with a twist. I've changed a letter in the title of the movie, and players must give me the new movie title.

For a deeper dive into Neotropolis and Wasteland Weekend, check out our REPOD interview with Jared Butler in Season 7, Episode 2.

Please note that after this episode, we will be changing our publishing schedule for PG's Playhouse. We will be publishing episodes every other week, and episodes will release on Wednesday

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

"Technology will not save us."

In the shadow of neon-lit streets, kids are jacked in and tuned out. This is the world of cyberpunk, a genre with a view on what the future can look like when technology goes awry. Jared Butler joins us to explore “cyberpunk” as a genre and what it means. Jared Butler is a voice actor who has also created two incredibly immersive desert festivals—the Mad Max-inspired Wasteland Weekend and the cyberpunk themed Neotropolis. We dive into the evolution of cyberpunk, its themes and aesthetics. Jared also shares the origin story and development of his immersive festivals and their unique take on combining live-action role-playing with post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk narratives. Today’s game is called Digital Rebellion, where the titles of cyberpunk movies have been translated into Chinese and then back again.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

" If we're only going to get one trip to the salad bar, we're really going to make that one trip count."

Only one trip to the salad bar? Lettuce really make it count.

David's wife Lisa Spira, co-founder of Room Escape Artist, joins us again for a trip to the salad bars of Pizza Hut China. Pizza Hut has developed many innovative market strategies, including stuffed crust pizza and PizzaNet, but when opening locations in China, their innovation may have backfired. Peih-Gee tells the story of how Pizza Hut limited patrons of their Chinese locations to only one trip to their famous salad bars, and how that led to a brief cultural phenomenon of building these architectural towers of veggies and fruit.

Lisa and David, who run RoomEscapeArtist.com, discuss their journey in covering escape rooms and the nuances of editing and managing a team of writers. Today's game is called Lettuce Play, a friendly competitive salad trivia game testing their knowledge of salads from around the world.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

Fighting for fame, fortune, and glory? As it turns out, women also fought as gladiators. Just as with sports today, women in the ancient Roman empire had to battle stereotypes, societal norms, and adverse conditions to win a bit of freedom for themselves. Lisa Spira, David’s wife and co-founder of Roomescapeartist.com joins us on this episode exploring gladiatrix, the female gladiator. She also tells us about Escape, Immerse, Explore, their escape room tours.

Today’s game is called Off With Their Heads, where we take a word and remove the first letter to form a new word.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

What's a day of family fun at Walt Disney World without churros, Cinderella's Magic Castle, and a show so terrifying they had to strap down the hapless guests to keep them from fleeing? In today's episode, we talk about the short-lived, bone-chilling attraction, The Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter. This attraction only existed for eight short years, but it made quite an impact, earning the distinction as quite possibly the scariest Disney attraction ever. Our podcast producer Theresa Piazza joins us again to talk about working at Great Gotham Challenge, an immersive puzzle hunt adventure that takes place in New York City. Today's game is called A Ride Down Memory Lane. It's a grab bag of trivia about Disney attractions that no longer exist. There's also a bonus Before and After puzzle which combines Disney rides with movie titles.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

Theresa doesn’t sleep on the weekends, she says sleep is for the week. What is sleep, and why do we need it? Our podcast producer Theresa Piazza joins us to explore this bizarre activity that we spend almost half our lives doing. We talk about what happens when you don't get enough sleep, and share some tips and tricks for how to fall asleep when the dreaded insomnia hits. Theresa also shares some insights from producing our podcasts. The game today is called Catching Some ZZZ's, inspired in part by Theresa's last name. The first half of the game is finding words with a double Z, and the second half plays with idioms about "sleep."

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner

The story of the bat bomb begins as so many horrible things do: with a dental surgeon in Pennsylvania who had some connection to Eleanor Roosevelt. In this episode, David tells the story of a completely insane weapon that was built and tested during the World War 2 era, but was ultimately never used. Bill Sunderland and Dani Siller of Escape This Podcast join us again to dive down the rabbit hole of the bat bomb. They also tell us about their podcast Solve This Murder. Today’s game is Right Off the Bat, where every answer is a word containing the letters “B A T.”

If you enjoyed this episode, check out our interview with Dani and Bill on REPOD S5E8, and you can find all their projects at ConsumeThisMedia.com.

Full Show Notes

Hosted by Peih-Gee Law & David Spira

Puzzles by Peih-Gee Law

Produced by Theresa Piazza

Supported by Lisa Spira

Edited by Peih-Gee Law

Music by Matt Farthing

Logo by Theresa Wagner