Decoder Ring: You Just Lost The Game

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When you think about the game, you lose the game. When you lose the game you must declare that you have lost the game, causing all others in your vicinity to also lose the game. That’s it, that’s the game. The game is mind game that trades on a quirk of human psychology, and is so intensely viral that it went from a college science fiction club in-joke to an endemic mind virus in only a few decades. If you’re a bit older and already know about the game, you likely learned about it in the aughts, but the game continues to spread through social media, most recently on TikTok, where the game became a meme over lockdown. On this episode, we examine the game to figure out how it works, where it came from, and the curious psychology that powers its viral nature. Note: A version of this episode was originally released as a secret bonus to our 2018 episode “The Incunabula Papers”, but this is its official public release. The episode has been updated with new voice over, sound design, and minor story changes to bring it up to date in 2021. If you love the show and want to support us, consider joining Slate Plus. With Slate Plus you can get ad free podcasts, bonus episodes, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's this thing that millions of people are doing, and yet no one discusses it in public.
0:11.9	And just anecdotally, when I run into groups of people, if I mention the game, usually
0:15.4	like half the people in the room have been playing the game, and yet the other half of
0:20.1	the country has no idea this is even a thing.
0:23.3	By listening to this episode, you're going to lose the game.
0:28.1	You're going to lose it a lot.
0:30.4	My first strong memory of playing the game was going to my brother's wedding, and then
0:37.2	trying to get my brother to associate the phrase I do with, by just lost the game, so
0:44.0	that you'd have to lose it at the altar and then admit to as much.
0:48.7	That's Forest Wickman, the culture editor of Slate.
0:51.3	He's been playing the game since the mid-2000s.
0:54.0	He did not lose the game at the altar.
0:56.4	People maybe relieved to know, though immediately after the wedding, he came up to me like
1:01.5	a little teary-eyed and then lost the game.
1:04.0	Okay.
1:05.0	If you keep listening to this episode, there is no going back, because you can't unlearn
1:10.5	the game, and once you learn it, you can never stop playing it.
1:15.2	So turn off this episode right now if you don't want to know what it is.
1:19.2	We're going to give you five seconds.
1:26.1	Okay, here it is.
1:28.6	You lose the game by thinking about the game.
1:32.6	When you think about the game, you have to say, I just lost the game, and that's it.
	...

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