In this episode of Study Hall, returning guest Joe Ostrander (of The Joeys fame) helps unpack the Killers of the Flower Moon. Does Scorsese still have the juice? When is the best time to pee during this movie? Should Joe be tried at the Hague for his current top ten 2023 movies list? These questions and so much more on the latest episode of Study H…

Jacob Geller is a YouTube video-essayist whose work grapples with video games, history, politics, empathy, and more. Recently his criticism has engaged with the politics of climate change and art in the pre-apocalypse as well as media preservation in the digital age. We talked with him about video essays as an art form and what it means that they a…

Christine Lai grew up in Canada and lived in England for six years during graduate studies. She holds a PhD in English Literature from University College London. Landscapes was shortlisted for the inaugural Novel Prize. Christine currently lives in Vancouver. We talk to Christine about Landscapes and our enduring relationship to art - even at the e…

Jamel Brinkley is the author of a new short story collection called Witness and previously published the short story collection A Lucky Man which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Story Prize, the John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and winner of a PEN Oakland Award and the Ernest …

In this episode of Study Hall, returning guest Joe Ostrander (of The Joeys fame) helps unpack the Spiderverse. Can two lit majors finally make peace with the canon? Will Miles Morales be forced into a flesh-and-blood body? What was Pter Ptarker's canon event, anyway? Find the answers to these questions and more on the latest episode of Study Hall. …

Hannah Nicklin is the creative director at Die Gute Fabrik, an award-winning game studio based in Denmark. Their latest game, Salt Sea Chronicles, was recently announced to release later this year. Hannah previously worked on the narrative design, writing, and production of the game Mutazione. Outside of making games, Hannah is an artist and perfor…

Victor LaValle is the author of a short story collection, five novels, and is also the creator and writer of two comic books. His novel, The Changeling, will soon be airing on Apple TV+ starring LaKeith Stanfield. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, Bram Stoker Award, Whiting Writer…

Josh Sawyer is a studio design director for Obsidian Entertainment. He has worked as the director on Pentiment, Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, and Fallout: New Vegas. His most recent title, Pentiment, has won numerous awards including the Nebula for best game writing and best narrative and game of the year at the Game Developers Choice Awards. Pentim…

Austin Walker is the IP Director at the game studio Possibility Space. He has an extensive background in gaming journalism and criticism. He holds a Masters in Aesthetics and Politics from CalArts and also served as the Editor in Chief for Waypoint and Host of Waypoint Radio. Since 2014, Austin has hosted the popular tabletop roleplaying podcast Fr…

In this episode of Study Hall, Ben and Phil talk about Resident Evil. Specifically, the new release of Resident Evil 4 Remake, how it holds up compared to the original and how Ben is getting a little scared while playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp Visit our website: Originstory.show Follow us on Twitter @origins…

We're back to shoot the shit about what we're reading, playing, and watching. Why The Black Count by Tom Reiss rules and a long discussion of The End of the English Major. Come listen. Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp Visit our website: Originstory.show Follow us on Twitter @originstory_ Do you have feedback or questions for us? Email us the…

Natalie Watson is a producer at Half Mermaid Productions where she worked on Immortality. Previously she was a games critic for Vice’s games outlet Waypoint. She also co-owns the successful Star Wars podcast "A More Civilized Age” alongside former editor-in-chief Austin Walker, Rob Zacnay, and Ali Acampora. We talked to Natalie about her work on Im…

Xalavier Nelson Jr. is a writer and narrative designer who also founded the game studio Strange Scaffold. He is most well known for titles such as Hypnospace Outlaw, Can Androids Pray, An Airport For Aliens Currently Run By Dogs, and more. He’s currently working on titles such as Sunshine Shuffle, and the neo-noir shooter El Paso, Elsewhere. We tal…

It's a new year and Phil has a new job and a new lease on life. We give a general life update and see whether the new job offers any new insights into game dev. Plus a look back on some of our fave things of 2022 and one of the games we're both enjoying right now: Chained Echoes. Come listen. Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp Visit our websit…

Come one, come all to an episode where we introduce and announce the Joey awards. Named after special guest Joe Ostrander, who represents the entire voting body of the Joeys, we discuss his picks for best movies, performances, and directors of the year. It may *seem* a lot like the Oscars but no, it's absolutely not, it's the Joeys. You can follow …

"Study Hall," a series of short conversations between Ben, Phil, and people they admire about a particular work or what's fueling their creative lives right now. Expect informal conversations with new and familiar names in the games, film, music, and writing world. Think of it like an audio newsletter, a taste of what we're up to off the air, now r…

Sam Barlow is the writer and director of Immortality, Telling Lies, and Her Story and the founder of the Half Mermaid production company. His most recent games are interactive fiction experiences that allow players to search through archives of footage such as police interrogations and video calls. Sam’s latest game, Immortality, asks players to co…

Graham Parkes is the Writer and Creative Director of Before Your Eyes, a game about the fleeting nature of life that garnered attention because of its eye-tracking technology and the integration of blinks into the narrative of the gameplay. We talk to Graham about trying to capture the fleeting nature of life in a video game. We also discuss how Gr…

In the second episode of Study Hall, we're diving into the Xenoblade series with writer Autumn Wright. Autumn has written extensively about the Xenoblade games, including with their coverage of Xenoblade 3 for Polygon. We talk with Autumn about what drew them into the series, why you have to go all in on the games, and how to know if you're suscept…

Episode Description Gareth Damien Martin (They/Them) is an award-winning writer, designer and artist. Their first game, In Other Waters won the Jury Prix at IndieCade Europe. Most recently, they’ve released the critically acclaimed role playing game Citizen Sleeper which places players in the role of an escape worker on a lawless space station on t…

Episode Description Neil Jones is a game artist currently working out of Detroit, MI. Jones is an artist and game designer who worked on indie titles like Clique and Aerial Knight’s Never Yield. Neil garnered a lot of attention after his game was featured as part of Nintendo's 2021 indie world showcase. We talk with him about creating new DLC for N…

We present you our new side show "Study Hall," a series of short conversations between Ben, Phil, and people they admire about a particular work or what's fueling their creative lives right now. Expect informal conversations with new and familiar names in the games, film, music, and writing world. Think of it like an audio newsletter, a taste of wh…

After years of working in the service industry, Eric Obenauf had an idea for an indie press that opened up space to publish bold, edgy, new voices he admired in the literature he loved. With the help of his wife Eliza the couple created Two Dollar Radio. Two Dollar Radio is an indie press founded in 2005 with the mission to reaffirm the cultural an…

Devin McKnight is a musician and songwriter currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Previously hes played guitar in rock projects such as Speedy Ortiz, Grass is Green, and Philadelphia Collins. At the moment, his main focus is the rock band he fronts, Maneka(Monica), which fuses elements of jazz, improvisation, math rock and shoegaze. Under this project h…

Abhi is a Game Designer and Programmer working on his new narrative cooking game, Venba. Together with his Sam Elkana, the Art Director for the game, the two head Visai Studios, based in Toronto-based. Venba is a narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian immigrant mom, who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Players will co…

Chandana Ekanayake is the Co-Founder and Studio Director at Outerloop Games and has over twenty years of experience as a video game designer and art director. Outerloop's first game Falcon Age is a sci-fi VR action adventure about raising a baby falcon and reclaiming a cultural legacy from a force of automated colonizers. Outerloop’s second game, T…

JES (John Elizabeth Stintz)i is a non-binary and trans writer, educator, and visual artist who grew up on a cattle farm in northwestern Ontario. Their work has been awarded the 2019 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and The Malahat Review’s 2019 Long Poem Prize. Their writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Fiddlehead, Th…

Allegra Hyde is the author of Eleutheria" as well as the short story collection, Of This New World which won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award through the Iowa Short Fiction Award Series. In her debut novel, Eleutheria, is a story of idealism, activism, and systemic corruption, centered on a naïve young woman's quest for agency in a world ravage…

Matthew Milia is a critically acclaimed songwriter, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for Frontier Ruckus. He is also a poet and visual artist. He’s released three solo records as well as five records with his band Frontier Ruckus. His music explores themes of suburbia, nostalgia, mundanity , and his lyrics paint a sprawling landscape of …

Podcastings most handsome duo is back to try and convince you that they're still relevant and have good things to say. But do they? Find out on this, our intermission episode. Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp Visit our website: Originstory.show Follow us on Twitter @originstory_ Do you have feedback or questions for us? Email us theoriginsto…

Joshua Karpeh, more widely known as Cautious Clay, is a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter from Cleveland, OH, and currently based in Brooklyn, NY. His music mixes hip-hop and r&b, and blends organic and electronic instrumentation to create a unique sound. He’s collaborated with musicians like Taylor Swift, John Mayer, Billie Ei…

Lydia Millet has written more than a dozen novels and story collections which have both won and been nominated for numerous awards - including her story collection Love In Infant Monkeys which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Her latest novel, A Children’s Bible, was a finalist for the national book award and shows children grappling with climate dis…

Greg Lobanov is a game designer from Philadelphia currently living in Canada. He is the director of Chicory: A Colorful Tale and has previously created Wandersong, and Coin Crypt, and a number of other projects. Alexis Dean-Jones Storyboarder, illustrator, animator, and character designer originally from Brisbane, Australia, and currently based in …

Jeff Pianki is a singer-songwriter based in LA. He's released two full-length albums, Paper Window, and most recently, Remember It Now, after a 10-year hiatus from releasing music. We sat down with Jeff to talk about what he's been up to for all these years, the creation of his new album Remember It Now, and his new determination for forging a path…

Steven James Aguilar is a producer, songwriter, sound engineer, and musician based in Seattle, WA. He has worked with artists including The Head and The Heart, Billie Eilish, Macklemore, Dave Matthews Band, and many more. He also releases his own music under the name Heatmaps and most recently put out his new record, Kissing Teeth. We talk to Steve…

Tali Faulkner is a Maori game developer behind Umurangi Generation, a semi-realistic photography game set in an apocalyptic future with mechs, an occupational United Nations, and the looming threat of the end of the world. The game recently won the top prize at the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. We talk to Tali about making politics explicit …

Neil Jones is a game artist currently working out of Detroit, MI. Jones is an artist and game designer who worked on indie titles like Clique and Aerial Knight’s Never Yield. Neil garnered a lot of attention after his game was featured as part of Nintendo's 2021 indie world showcase. We talk with him about how Never Yield was his last-ditch effort …

Brooke Maggs is a Senior Narrative Designer for Remedy Games in Helsinki - although she originally hails from Austrailia. She’s worked on a host of award winning games including Control, Florence, Paperbark, and The Gardens Between. In 2017 she won the MCV Pacific Xbox Women in Games Creative Impact award for her role in the game industry. We talk …

Steve Pardo is a composer and interactive audio designer in the video game industry. He’s the co-founder of audio production house SkewSound, a game developer at The Pardo Brothers, and an audio director at Authentic Artists. Pardo has a background in jazz, and his professional career began at legendary music-game studio Harmonix Music Systems wher…

Matthew Seiji Burns is a writer, director, composer, and game designer. With the help of Zachtronics game studio, he created Eliza a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it. Prior to Eliza, Burns worked on a variety of games. He’s the creator of the interactive fiction projects Apology Simul…

Owen Dennis is a writer, producer, voice actor, and storyboard artist who has worked on animated series like the Regular Show, Infinity Train, and Close Enough and movies including The Greatest Ape and Regular Show: The Movie. We talk about Dennis' frustration over the idea that cartoons are only for kids and pitching complicated shows to studio ex…

Gina Nutt is the author of the essay collection Night Rooms (Two Dollar Radio) and the poetry collection Wilderness Champion (Gold Wake Press). She earned her MFA from Syracuse University. Her writing has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, Joyland, Ninth Letter, and other publications. We talk about her relationship to horror movies and how that's info…

Greg Kasavin is the creative director and writer at Supergiant games where he’s helped create critically acclaimed titles such as Bastion, Pyre, Transistor, and Hades. Prior to working at SuperGiant Games, Greg worked as a games journalist for Gamespot where he rose the ranks from being an intern all the way to executive editor (editor in chief) of…

Nick Guérin is the creative director at Thunder Lotus Games where he directed and wrote Spiritfarer, which has been described as a “cozy management sim about dying.” Nick’s other work includes design work on several Assassin’s Creed games including Origins and Syndicate as well as design for Watch Dogs 2. In this episode, we interview Nick Guérin a…

What is the origin story of Origin Story? In this brief intro episode we break down who we are and the basic concept of the show. We'll be talking to artists across music, games, novels, and TV about how they got involved with their different craft and makes stories meaningful to them. Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp Visit our website: Orig…

Another essay about friendship

A recording of my performance of Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen

A resubmission of the latest essay

Reflection on the spirit of Christmas

A literary reflection on To Build a Fire by Jack London