Games can serve as an escape from reality—but they can also shape our understanding of trust, collaboration, and what might be possible IRL. Megan Garber talks with C. Thi Nguyen, an associate philosophy professor at the University of Utah, to better understand how games can help us safely explore our current reality and shape new realities, too.
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Jun 2024
How to Know What's Real: How to be Immortal Online
With digital spaces regularly evolving and updating, and the infinite scroll beckoning to us at all times, this episode questions if we have, as a culture, fully embraced the end of endings. Hanna Reichel, an associate professor of reformed theology at Princeton Theological Semin ... Show More
37m 23s
Sep 2024
How to Know What's Real: How to Know What’s Really Propaganda
Peter Pomerantsev, a contributor at The Atlantic and author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, is an expert on the ways information can be manipulated. For this special episode, Megan talks with Peter about the role of propaganda in America and how ... Show More
23m 38s
Nov 2024
Best of “How To”: Spend Time on What You Value
This new season of How To is a collection of our favorite episodes from past seasons—a best-of series focused on slowing down, making space, and finding meaning in our hectic lives. This first episode, from our third season called How to Build a Happy Life, features the Harvard B ... Show More
34m 57s
Oct 2015
16. Jane McGonigal (Game Designer) – Game On!/Death to "Gamification"
Fantasy can save your life but how much is too much? This week on Big Think's podcast we discuss three surprise ideas with game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal, author of the new book SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resi ... Show More
21m 31s
Oct 2022
Ep. 17 – Learning the Human Game
Alan Watts pulls back the veil of ‘the human game,’ digging into language, ethics, finding balance, and the art of the controlled accident. Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterh ... Show More
43m 44s
May 2021
How zombies, dragons, and superheroes could make you a better person (with Christopher Robichaud)
Roleplaying games and the Marvel universe may be fictional, but they can also teach us a lot about morality in the real world. Christopher Robichaud is a Lecturer in Ethics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. In this episode, he shares ways we can explo ... Show More
33m 32s