Journalism Is Dead, Long Live Journalism (With Lin Codega)

On this week’s episode, Nathan, Gita, and Luke are joined by Lin Codega of the brand new independent, worker-owned tabletop roleplaying outlet Rascal to discuss the grim state of journalism – Vice announced that it plans to shut down its website and lay off hundreds of people seconds before recording began – and the potential of publications like 404, Defector, Rascal, and Aftermath to build some kind of sustainable future. Then we move on to a truly illuminating discussion of the tabletop roleplaying scene, writing that’s been done about it, and the conflicts of interest that arise when developers are – more often than not – just one person designing rules in their bedroom and the relationship between publications and developers is more symbiotic than in other mediums. After that, we discuss Elden Ring’s long-awaited Shadow Of The Erdtree expansion – which contains an Egg and also other things – as well as divisive non-video game True Detective before transitioning more naturally than you’d expect into a talk about Final Fantasy VII and remakes that aren’t just remakes. Lastly, before we sign off, we go deeper than I, Nathan, the person who also writes these things, thought we wou…