Our friend Mikhael Tara Garver dropped by this morning for a chat about how she integrates social impact into her work -- for entertainment, causes, and brands -- and how immersive and experiential work are uniquely suited for creating long term social change.

Here's one we wish could be longer, and it pairs well with the conversation we just had on EXP*DSN.

Mikhael Tara Garver has been directing and creating immersive work for 18 years. She is an experiential architect integrating live and technology for brands, social impact, and storytelling. 

Catch up with MTG on Instagram.

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We sit down with the founder of Presence, which aims to be a kind of Patreon for experiential artists, Damian Madray to talk about his own life as an experience designer and why he decided to built a platform for other makers.

Damian is also the co-host of the upcoming EXP*DSN, aka Experiential By Design, a live web show that features conversations between pioneers in experience design. The show kicks off on August 2nd, and will feature director Lynsey Peisinger who produces participatory work with The Abramovic Method. It will also have some weirdo named No Ha Nel son. 

Oh, wait. That's me.

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Think Tank Gallery impresario Jacob Patterson invites Noah over to the studio to share the scoops on Think Tank's latest projects in LA. They've got three big shows opening in the next few weeks, including the Sea-Saw residency on the Santa Monica Pier which will feature local favorites like The Guest & The Host, #Metaforyou, and Lola Kelly.

Plus it's Jacob and Noah, so you know the convo gets off the rails and into some ish.

Brought to you by Meow Wolf and our generous Patreon backers.

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Once upon a time Sean Stewart was a science fiction novelist. Then, one day, he got a call asking if he wanted to take part in a little world-building project. One based around a Steven Spielberg movie. 

That movie was A.I. and that project would become known as "The Beast," the first Alternate Reality Game. Now Sean works for Magic Leap, the secretive company in Florida that is working on augmented reality. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about making participatory stories.

Sean plays Jedi Master to Noah's padawan learner. This is a very, very good episode.

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Last week your host, Noah Nelson, was in Qingdao, China for the Sandbox Immersive Festival. This week he's back, solo, to talk about some of what he observed there and about the emerging thinking around XR -- the term being given to all of immersive technology -- and how that relates to live immersive.

This being Noah talking into a microphone, you know that we get into a few tangents, including thoughts about what it means to become a bit jaded as a reviewer, and what incoming designers need to be thinking about when they approach immersive work for the first time.

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At the heart of many an immersonaut's journey is #SOMEDND, the "DND" being Dungeons & Dragons, and as it just so happens that hashtag stood for a recent livestream extravaganza called the Stream of Many Eyes. 

Now, why is NoPro talking about live-streaming D&D?

Well for one, the lead up to the stream was a multiverse hopping alternate reality game (#NoStoneUnturned) that called upon the powers of transmedia producer Emmett Furey and puzzle designer Elisa Teague, who join us on this week's episode to talk about the ARG, mixing tabletop gaming with escape room like puzzles, and the renaissance in roleplaying games.

Look: we always knew it was going to come down to Dungeons & Dragons. It's almost a surprise it took this long to get here. 

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Our hard-hitting reporters have revealed a nest of bloodsuckers in the beating heart of Los Angeles. This den of the undead appears to the outside world as the lobby of one of those newfangled "escape rooms" co-owned by a woman named Rachel Foti. Our intrepid host dares to enter this lair of sin and uncover the secret origin of this nefarious gathering point for a "micro-community" of the vampire's mortal pawns.

Follow us into The Count's Den if you dare.

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There's something magical going on in Downtown Los Angeles. Something simple, and oh-so-needed in this day and age.

It's called The Silent Play Experiment, and it is exactly what it says on the tin. Host Noah Nelson sits down with its co-creator Olivia Hamilton to talk about the experience, the company that gave birth to it, and the road to embracing play.

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Negin Singh has been a lot of things: founder of Cartel Arts Collaborative LA, leader of the Inspiration team at AR pioneers DAQRI, and now she's the Executive Director of the Santa Monica Pier.

She's bringing her experience as a producer of immersive and interactive events to one of the biggest travel destinations in all of Southern California, and taking our friends at Think Tank along for the ride. This episode is a barn burner: art, augmented reality, and how theatre kids are stealth taking over the world. Okay. That last one is implied. We don't say it, but it's soooo there.

Brought to you by the generous support of Meow Wolf (!!!!) and our amazing Patreon backers.

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This edition replaces the messed up original file.

Lisa & David Spira of Room Escape Artistand Michael Andersen of ARGN.comjoin us to talk about how we talk about this immersive thing of ours. 

From how to handle spoiler discussions online to designing for discovery after the fact, this conversation is all about the unique problems that face immersive entertainment of every form -- from live theatre to escape rooms to Alternate Reality Games.

Good thing we've got people who specialize in each of those on the show today!

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