Ben Chicka is the co-host of TheoNerd, a podcast about theology, philosophy, faith, and ethics. Encouraged by the reception of his PAX East 2015 panel "The Science of Online Bullying: A Lesson in Diversity", Ben and fellow panelist Andrew Tripp founded the podcast to examine connections and correlations between theological concepts and pop culture. Ben attended PAX East 2016 and produced a series of audio interviews with such gaming luminaries as Susan Arendt, Patrick Klepek, Justin Amirkhani, Princess DeJesus, and Francesca Carletto-Leon.
In this episode, Ben and I discuss the difference between theology and philosophy; how to address issues in a community from the inside; the ways in which the video game community is ahead of the curve on addressing social justice issues; how narrative video games can look to religion for inspiration; harmful vs. inevitable cultural appropriation; and what games can teach us about empathy.
Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.
Links mentioned in this episode:
- TheoNerd – Conversations about and explaining theology, philosophy, faith, and ethics
- Ben Chicka on Twitter
- Ben Chicka on Less Than or Equal #34
- SOMA
- LGBT characters in video games (Wikipedia)
- Ben’s PAX East 2016 blog post: I’m Old & Gamers are Awesome
- University Of Chicago Tells Freshmen It Doesn’t Support ‘Trigger Warnings’ Or ‘Safe Spaces’
- Common Ground #8: Inclusive Excellence in the Classroom
- All the Feels: Empathy in Indie Game Narrative (PAX East 2015 panel)
- Empathy games:
- How long to beat Undertale
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:01 — 32.9MB) | Embed
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