My guest today is an American neuroscientist and writer. Born in New York, he earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University in 2014, researching Toxoplasma gondii , the single-celled feline parasite that infects mouse brains and may––or may not––mess with their fear of cats. As well as studying ancient genetics – specifically conducting tests on Egyptian cat mummies –– my guest is an accomplished science writer. He regularly contributes to the New Yorker, Slate, and Nautil.us. ...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Japanese video-game director, producer, and executive officer of Square-Enix . Born in 1966 in Fussa City in the suburbs of Tokyo, he studied filmmaking at Nihon University. After graduating, he was working at an animation studio when he first played Final Fantasy on the Famicom, and immediately saw the dramatic potential of the video game medium. Despite having no technical skills, he joined Square in 1990, to work as an “event planner”, involved in level design for Seiken D...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Senior Vice-President of Blizzard Entertainment and General Manager of the Diablo video game series. After attending the University of Ottawa for Computer Science, my guest joined Microsoft as a Microsoft Consultant, before he moved to the company’s games division to work titles including Microsoft Train Simulator , then the Xbox version of Counter-Strike . In 2005 he joined Epic Games where, as a producer, he helped steer the delayed Gears of War back on track. After working o...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast My guests today are co-authors of the techno-thriller novel Prophet . Helen Macdonald is an English writer, naturalist, and an affiliated research scholar at the University of Cambridge. Their 2014 book “ H is for Hawk ” tells the true story of a year spent training a northern goshawk while grieving. The book won, among many other things, the Samuel Johnson Prize for literature. Sin Blaché is an American Irish musician and writer. The pair became friends on social media where they bonded over ne...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an English broadcaster, writer, television presenter and stand-up comedian. Born in Slough, he began working as a comic in the early nineties, soon landing a gig as co-host of Channel 4’s The 11 O’clock Show , the satirical comedy programme that launched the careers of Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais. A slew of high-profile TV and radio presenting gigs followed, including for Channel 4’s video game-related show Thumb Bandits . During that time my guest often used drugs to c...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a British author and screenwriter for film and video games. Born in London, he began his career as a writer for the games magazine Commodore User , then joined the team that founded PC Gamer , of which he later became editor-in-chief. In 2010, my guest found success in Hollywood as the writer of The Book of Eli , a post-apocalyptic neo-Western film starring Denzel Washington. In 2013 he co-wrote After Earth with the director M. Night Shyamalan, then co-wrote the story for Star ...
Jan 30, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Another selection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console's amazing line-up of guests from 2023. Cast in Order of Appearance Henk Rogers Dylan Cuthbert Charles Cecil Jörg Tittel Ellie Gibson Danny Pudi Joseph Mackertich Josh Wardle Dan Vecchitto Tarn Adams Kelsey Lewin Stella Wisdom Tetsuya Mizuguchi Nolan Bushnell Thanks for listening. Back soon with Year Two. Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast It's been a thrilling first year for My Perfect Console. Here are some of our favourite clips from 2023. Cast in Order of Appearance Dara Ó Briain Heather Ann Campbell Pierre Novelli Ashly Burch Jennifer Hale Dominic Armato Phil Wang Jason Schreier Lucas Pope Meghan Jayanth Peter Molyneux Ronan Farrow Naomi Alderman Mike Rose Susan Calman Josh Scherr Marie Le Conte Tom Bissell Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...
Dec 31, 2023•58 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast A special episode announcing the winner of the My Perfect Console of the Year (2023) Tournament. It's time. Fifty-two consoles have now been whittled down to two final machines. It's an all-North American final, as the U.S.A.'s Heather Anne-Campbell takes on Canada's Phil Fish. Both machines are spectacular, potential best-sellers: Heather Anne-Campbell's "The Only Play". Tetris. Street Fighter III. The Last of Us. Fortnite. Disco Elysium. Phil Fish's "Fez II". &nbs...
Dec 25, 2023•29 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an American scientist, entrepreneur, and a founding father of the video game industry. Born in 1943, he grew up in Utah, in a Mormon family, before leaving to study engineering and business at Utah State University. While a student he played Spacewar!, one of the earliest digital games designed for the PDP-1 computer. After graduation he joined an electronics company, and there met Ted Dabney, with whom he founded a start-up company with the aim of creating a commercial version...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an American writer and narrative designer for video games. After graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Animation, he worked as an animator in Hollywood, contributing to an early version of Shrek at DreamWorks, Dinosaur at Disney, and to the music video Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers . In 2001 my guest joined the video game studio Naughty Dog and worked as the cinematics animation lead on seven titles including Jak and Daxter and the first...
Dec 12, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Scottish comedian, writer, television presenter, narrator, and Twitch streamer. It was during his final year studying law at the University of Edinburgh, the city in which he grew up, that my guest first tried stand-up comedy. At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that year he reached the final of the Chortle Student Comedian of the Year , taking second place to Joe Lycett. After being spotted at a gig, my guest then became one of the main presenters for CBBC , working along...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is founder and director of the independent game publisher No More Robots . After graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, he became editor-in-chief of IndieGames.com . From there he worked as UK editor of the North American video game industry website Gamasutra ––today known as Gamedeveloper.com . After a brief stint working in PR, in 2017 my guest founded No More Robots . Since then, the Manchester-based company has published...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a New York Times-bestselling author and journalist. After graduating from NYU with a degree in writing, he worked as a freelance journalist covering video games for Wired magazine, Joystiq, Edge , Paste , and others. In 2012 he joined the staff of Kotaku , the video game website run, at that time, by Gawker . There he made a name for himself as a tenacious reporter, particularly with his empathetic coverage of crunch culture –– the term given to the egregious overtime working p...
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Canadian cartoonist and creator of one of the best-loved graphic novels of the 2000s. Born in London, Canada, he joined the Film Studies programme at the University of Western Ontario, but dropped out and moved to Toronto, where he became involved in the city’s comics scene. His first graphic novel, Lost at Sea , was published in 2003. The following year, he published Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life , a graphic novel featuring a distinctly Canadian superhero, who must ba...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an award-winning novelist, journalist, writer of games, and presenter of radio programmes. She grew up in London, studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University, then received an MA in creative writing at the UEA . Her first novel, Disobedience , was released in 2006 and later adapted into a feature film starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. In 2012 she co-created the story-based fitness game Zombies, Run! – which has been downloaded several million times a...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an award-winning writer and narrative designer for video games. As a child she split her time between Bangalore, London, and Saudi Arabia before settling in the UK to study English Literature at University. After a stint commissioning games for the BBC , she wrote the script for 2014’s BAFTA-nominated narrative adventure game, 80 Days , then contributed to the hit indie titles Sunless Seas and Boyfriend Dungeon , as well as the Sony blockbuster Horizon: Zero Dawn . My guest has...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 23 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the American designer of two of the most highly regarded experimental games yet made. He grew up in Virginia, where his interest in hobbyist robotics led him to study mechanical engineering at Virginia State University. At that time he started designing mods for Quake , which eventually led to a job at Naughty Dog where he worked on the first two games in the Uncharted series. In 2009 he left the studio and moved with his wife to Japan. It was while travelling abroad that my gu...
Oct 23, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 44•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is the former Director of Communications for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe . After graduating from the University of Exeter , he joined Dennis Publishing where he worked as deputy editor of Your Sinclair , before becoming the games correspondent for News International’s Today newspaper. In 1992 he left journalism for the world of PR, assuming the role of Head of European PR for Electronic Arts , where he promoted the launches of the earliest FIFA and Madden titles. Then, in A...
Oct 16, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a stand-up comedian, writer, radio host and podcaster. Born in South Africa, his family then moved to the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. He studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic languages at Cambridge University , where he became vice-president of the Footlights comedy society. In 2014 The Guardian newspaper described his debut show at the Edinburgh Festival as marking the “dawn of a major talent”. Since then, my guest has delighted audiences with his wry and quick-witted observ...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a is a Canadian American actor for video games, television and film. Born in Labrador in Canada, she soon moved to Alabama in the United States, where, as a teenager, she began working as a commercial voice over artist for radio. After graduating from Alabama School of Fine Arts, she took on voice roles to fund her dream of becoming a musician. Soon, however, the acting took over. After securing some roles in regional TV series, she moved to Los Angeles. There, a part in the ca...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an award-winning creator and writer of comic books. Born into a Staffordshire working-class family, he was a student of Applied Biology at Bath University when he started contributing to the prominent computer games magazine Amiga Power . Upon graduation, my guest joined the staff of PC Gamer , then left the magazine to go freelance in 2003. The following year he published a highly influential manifesto calling for a new mode of first-person, subjective writing about video game...
Sep 25, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a British-Ghanaian writer and advocate for inclusion and diversity in the video game industry. Having graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in creative writing with English literature, she founded Melanin Gamers , a support community for people of colour who play video games, or who want to join the game industry but feel unsure that there is a place for them within it. The initiative, which has more than four thousand members worldwide, has hosted tourname...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a Canadian video game designer and director. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with an MFA in creative writing, he joined Ubisoft Montreal where he co-wrote the script for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell . In 2005 he directed a sequel to that game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory , and three years later released the oppressive and acclaimed sandbox shooter, Far Cry 2 . In 2010 he left Ubisoft and joined LucasArts , then Valve , then Amazon Game Studios , before fi...
Sep 11, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is an English video game designer and programmer. In 1984 he designed The Entrepreneur , a simulation game about running a start-up company. When it sold just two copies, however, my guest left the world of video games and began exporting cans of baked beans to the Middle East. When the computer manufacturer Commodore mistook this venture for a software company with a similar name, my guest signed a deal to design a database system for the Amiga . This benign deception eventually ...
Sep 04, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a game designer and Founding Chair of New York University’s Game Center . An influential writer, speaker, and thinker on video games he has taught generations of emerging young designers. The New York Times once described him as the “reigning genius of the mysteries of games.” My guest’s experience is not merely academic, however: in 2005 he co-founded area/code , the studio which subsequently released one of the best regarded puzzle games yet made: Drop7 . Most recently, he jo...
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is Digital Curator for Contemporary Collections at The British Library . After graduating from Aberystwyth University with a degree in Library Studies and Art History, my guest was awarded an MA in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester . Then, having worked as curator of maps at the National Library of Scotland , my guest joined the British library, and began to devise creative reuses of digital collections, including via video games. This work has led to collaboratio...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is a game director who has pioneered new forms of nonlinear storytelling that blend film and games. After twelve-year stint at the British development studio Climax, where he directed Silent Hill: Shattered Memories , he began work on an independent project, Her Story . In the game, partly inspired by Sharon Stone’s audition tapes for the film Basic Instinct , you sift through a trove of police interview footage to uncover a mystery. Her Story’s style of disconnected, live a...
Aug 14, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is editor-in-chief of Time Out London . After graduating from SOAS University with a degree in religion and the history of art, he moved to China for a few years, then struck out as a freelance writer contributing to, among other publications, The Times , the Observer , Heat magazine and the New Statesman . In 2012 he assumed the role of features editor at the men’s magazine FHM , of which he later became deputy editor. From there, he edited the pioneering newsletter Mr Hyde , and...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast My guest today is multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. Born in Edgware London, to a Punjabi Sikh family, he was in his mid-twenties when he first tried stand-up. Five years later he became the first British act to perform at the Caribbean Comedy Festival in Trinidad. Since then he has been a guest panellist on 8 out of 10 Cats , performed twice at Live at the Apollo , and is one of the most memorable contestants on the hit show Taskmaster , having appeared in season 3. In 20...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast 
