There are big hits, and there are really big hits— and then there’s Pokémon, a kids’ game from Japan that evolved into the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise of all time. In this episode we’re time-traveling from ‘90s Tokyo— where a bug collector turned game designer first dreamed of catching pocket-sized monsters— to 2016, when an addictive mobile game helped Pokemon re-conquer the world.

TRANSCRIPT: HERE

CREDITS:

Writer and Host: Alex Pappademas

Showrunner: Colin McNulty

Producers: Taylor Jones and Sabrina Fang, with help from Tyler Hill.

Production Assistant: Stella Hartmann

Fact Checker: Savannah Wright

Composer/Sound Designer/Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis

Theme Music by: Dan Leone 

Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair

Editor: Jamie York

Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, and Janae Marable. 

Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin

Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara and Corinne Gilliard.

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