"Picking Up the Pieces" — The Silicon Sasquatch Podcast: Episode 59

Silicon Sasquatch

My wife and I started Westworld last week, before the election. As a couple we're fairly slow TV binge-watchers; balance is achieved between my all-you-can-eat buffet style and her properly portioned consumption. Historically, and if I don't jump ahead out of impatience (a cardinal sin, I know), we watch just an episode or two of a new show each week. However, Westworld's cowboys and androids thriller glued our eyes to the television: we're four episodes in after just a few days--a rarity for us. But something else about the show stuck to my ribs. In the days since the election, as I'm piecing together my own shattered perceptions, a show about the power of perceived reality and the battle for freedom within the human soul offered surprisingly vital context to my feelings of shock and disappointment. Fear, as Westworld tells it, is a powerful motivator for humans both real and constructed. The powerful--the elite--need but ignore the despair of their subjects to expedite their brutal undoing.

Though we don't get into Westworld in this episode, our first in almost two years*, Nick, Doug and I pick through the rubble of politics and media within the smoking crater left by last Tuesday. You'll hear us grapple with how liberal white guys raised on the west coast and running a games blog can contribute to rebuilding America's shaken confidence.

Spoiler alert: part of that answer comes from an effort by Silicon Sasquatch to prod, push and demand inclusion and diversification within the industry.

Show notes:

• "Video Games are Boring" by Brie Code.
• *On our recording we introduce this as episode 58, but it's actually our 59th. (Yup: we're professionals!)
• Header: Original image, "Trump" by João Martinho. Edited by Aaron Thayer. Used under the Creative Commons CC-BY 2.0 license.

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