Pixel Therapy Pod

Welcome to Co-Op Mode, a whole new segment from your Pixel Therapy Pod co-hosts, Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her). In this one-on-one bonus episode, get to know your co-hosts a little better as we dive deep into a specific topic around why we game and how we relate to gaming. This week, we answer two questions: Why do we both tend to avoid multiplayer? And what do we look for in a video game?

Donate to the Transgender Emergency Fund: https://transgenderemergencyfund.org/

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every other Tuesday. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) & subscribe! Thank you!

Welcome to Co-Op Mode, a whole new segment from your Pixel Therapy Pod co-hosts, Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her). In this one-on-one bonus episode, get to know your co-hosts a little better as we dive deep into a specific topic around why we game and how we relate to gaming. This week, we answer two questions: Why do we both tend to avoid multiplayer? And what do we look for in a video game?

Donate to the Transgender Emergency Fund: https://transgenderemergencyfund.org/

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every other Tuesday. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (or your listening app of choice) & subscribe! Thank you!

Y'all, your co-hosts have just returned from a long night on the Zero -- Kentucky Route Zero, that is! Spencer and Jamie do a little review and excavation of our emotions about this beautiful, haunting, and painfully real series from the folks at cardboard computer that culminated earlier this year after a 7-year journey. This is a generation-defining game that truly defies the bounds of the medium. It's a story about people; but it's also about all of us. It's a masterpiece, and we can't wait to tell you about it (or at least try).

Then, we are certifiably BLESSED to have Jamila Bradley (they/them/theirs) in the studio with us, where we discuss the role of gaming in understanding one's place in the world, as well as how Final Fantasy X taught Jamila how to build resilience in themself -- and awakened some other things in them, too!

Other topics discussed: Gaming as self-care, Tomb Raider hot takes, learning a little something about yourself, that empath life, badass women, wishing Spira was real, applying the sphere grid to real life, getting through childhood, moving through the systems around us, inclusive design, dreaming about the future, and also like, what is real?

About Jamila

Jamila Bradley is a non-binary icon! In Massachusetts, they co-authored the State Plan to End Youth Homelessness, and designed critical research initiatives on marginalized youth experiencing homelessness. Jamila has spent YEARS lifting up LGBTQIA+ youth, and as a political and community organizer they have developed language for rallies, protests, and demonstrations together with trans, indigenous, and immigrant activist groups. Oh, you thought that was it? Jamila is also a fragrance artist and an olfactive anthropologist, currently based in Italy where they're exploring the art of fragrance to tell human stories!

Follow Jamila on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightblackhoney/

Donate to Y2Y - Young Adults Uniting to End Homelessness: https://www.y2ynetwork.org/get-involved/

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every other Tuesday. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate us, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & subscribe! Thank you!

ZombaeKillz, rising Twitch streamer star, joins the Pixel Therapy podcast to talk Blacktivism, invisible disabilities, parenting, and her video game history. Then, she shares how ARK: Survival Evolved taught her how video games could help her manage and overcome chronic pain-- and how she built an inclusive community of gamers on Discord that continues to grow and push back against the "overwhelming monolith of whiteness" that Black folks, non-Black POC, queer and transgender folks, and the disabled and chronically ill community often experience when trying to break into the video gaming industry. Other topics covered: what's it mean when streamers say 'no politics?', gaming with kids, privilege, dealing with racists sliding into your DMs, being on 75 Discord servers, survival games, poop management, paying it forward with love, self-care, living with lupus, moving through grief, lifting each other up, the Black Lives Matter movement.

About ZombaeKillz:

ZombaeKillz is a variety streamer, activist, BLERD and swear word extraordinaire. Zombae's popularity has exploded in her year-long career-- she's appeared all over the internet, from streams with Lowco, to chatting on Spawn on Me with Kahlief Adams, to mentions in articles from GameStop and TIME. As an activist and community organizer, she advocates in Jackson, Mississippi for the rights of women who are incarcerated, people who are houseless, and the hungry. Follow ZombaeKillz for "C+ gaming but A+ entertainment!"

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/Zombaekillz

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZombaeKillz

Donate to Draw A Smile in Jackson, Mississippi: https://www.drawsmile.org/donate/

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every three weeks on Tuesdays. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate & subscribe!

Dillon Yruegas (he/him/él) is a queer, trans, Latinx and Coahuiltecan theatremaker. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dillon has participated firsthand in conversations about the future of theatre in a post-pandemic world-- and has a lot of feelings about all-digital art forms, which have actually been around for a LONG time. We also chat about dating sims--particularly Dream Daddy and Hatoful Boyfriend--and how he uses them to create experimental performances where queer and trans folks can be silly, have fun, and hang.

Other topics covered include: How does being a trans gamer change your relationship with video games?, interactive art, white cis het identity, hot takes on first-person shooters, toxic masculinity, getting into gaming as an adult, competition culture, dating birds, and unapologetic queerness.

About Dillon

Originally from the Austin area, Dillon now resides in Boston, where he works to produce and devise performances on a national scale. Through his artistry as an actor, director, and writer, Dillon strives to give a voice to those whose history has gone unnoticed, unseen, or has been eradicated by colonialism and white supremacy.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dillonyruegas/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dillonyruegas

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every three weeks on Tuesdays. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate & subscribe!

Get cozy, Pixel Therapy is now in session! In this introductory episode, Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her) discuss what Pixel Therapy means to us and what our goals are for the podcast.

Topics discussed include: Our personal histories with video games, Ghost of Tsushima, why pronouns are important, being a QTPOC trying to enjoy games, who gets to call themselves a "gamer"?, the stigma that video games are a lazy hobby, are video games empathy machines?, feeling connected to others.

About Pixel Therapy

New episodes drop every other week on Tuesdays. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate & subscribe!

Launching Sep 22, 2020, Pixel Therapy Pod is a podcast about the emotional connections we form with video games. We believe that video games can serve as tools for understanding ourselves, each other, and the world around us— and we want to celebrate gaming in its many contexts: as a hobby; as an art form; as therapy.

Every episode, hosts Spencer (they/them) and Jamie (she/her) invite a guest from inside (or completely unrelated to) the gaming industry to chat about their relationship to gaming, how gaming connects and interacts with their identities, and how a specific game has influenced their life in a meaningful way. The show focuses on people who have historically been underrepresented or invisible in the industry, centering the experiences of QT/+POC folks and challenging conventional notions of what it means to be a gamer— and who gets to call themselves one.

New episodes drop every other week on Tuesdays. Learn more at pixeltherapypod.com or follow us on social media @pixeltherapypod. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rate & subscribe!