“Introducing Philosophiraga: The Video Games and Philosophy Podcast.”

If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.
– Yogi Berra

Well, it’s been a long time coming.

Many months ago, I pitched Moses Norton (man, myth, Mage) a series of written columns which would be a sort of introduction to philosophy via the lens of #AwesomeKoolGamez. I quite liked the concept: let’s do something which is kind of slightly educational, which isn’t some super-academic thing but which can be an interesting listen for people who maybe like the sound of philosophy but don’t really know all that much about it, which is fun and engaging. I started drafting the as-yet-untitled column over the next few weeks, until the fateful day when Red said to me:

You know, maybe this would work better as a podcast.

He might not have said that. I don’t remember the exact words. Maybe it was ‘YO CHRIS, MAKE DEM WORDS OUT LAAAAAOOOUD, YO’, but that seems less likely somehow.

I was all like whaaaaaaaaat, because I did student radio for a bit and wasn’t really very good at it. Talking aloud is way less my jam than doing typey stuff, which is a delicious fruity jam. (For more on how I feel about this, see here.) The more I thought about it, though, the more I came to think that perhaps a podcast would be a really cool thing to do.

I’ve spent several months of thinking, drafting, pre-productionising, and generally wondering why on earth I would agree to such a peculiar commission, but it’s finally happening:

Philosophiraga, the video games and philosophy podcast (well, there are a couple of others, but this is the only one that’s part of the TWRM family and therefore the only one worth talking about) is coming to an earhole near you on November 23rd.

That’s right: you’ll be able to listen to the show in a bunch of places (see the bottom of the post for links)! Hopefully one of those places will be a place where you like to listen to stuff. We’ll do another announcement as they go up, so if you keep an eye on thewellredmage.com you shouldn’t miss it. (Enable push notifications, why don’t ya? –Red)

The 23rd? Sweet. When will there be moar of this sexy content?

The current plan is that the first three or four episodes will be uploaded on launch day. Subsequent episodes will release monthly, on the Saturday closest to the 23rd of the month. (I know that’s weirdly specific, but if I went with ‘last weekend of each month’ I’d have some releasing at the very end of a month and some up to a week before, so this seems more consistent to my strange brain.) I may well go for an episode every two weeks in the future, but this is all new to me. We’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, let me introduce you to the very first bit of Philosophiraga content:

We’ve got a trailer. Aww yeah.

You can listen to it using the links at the bottom of this post, or the (hopefully working) embedded player right here!

It’ll take you no time whatsoever to listen to, and I’m confident that you’ll enjoy it SO MUCH that you’ll immediately start yelling on every available channel about how great Philosophiraga will definitely be and how everyone should definitely listen to it.

There are some little bubbles just below with links to places you can listen. Don’t worry, there’ll be more in time.

Thank you to everyone who’s paid any attention to me going on about this to date. I really hope you enjoy the show.

(Oh, and I lied. This isn’t the first bit of Philosophiraga content, I now realise: you can get merch! Buy it at Teepublic and support your favourite video-games-and-philosophy show that isn’t out yet.)

Look! Look how beautiful is this mug, and you could own it!

(The actual drinks mug, not the mug as in my head.)

Though he’s been known by many names across the vast and peculiar landscape of the Internet, every iteration of The Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage has shared an urge to look far too closely at tiny details and extrapolate huge, important-seeming conclusions. These days, in addition to Mage duties, he can be found discussing gaming and other pop culture (and occasionally sharing some of his own musical and fictional creations) at the Overthinker Y blog and on Twitter.

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