Hello, beautiful nerds.

I am so excited about our new miniseries Hidden Levels.

It's a six-part show about how video games left the arcade and started reshaping the real world.

We made it in partnership with WBUR's Endless Thread, and it's co-hosted and created by Ben Brock Johnson.

The show launches wide on both the 99PI and endless thread feeds on Tuesday, October 7th.

But if you're already a serious XM podcast plus subscriber, the first two episodes are already

waiting for you right now.

Ben and I wanted to get the word out about the show to video gamers everywhere.

So we went on the great Get Played podcast to talk with hosts Heather Ann Campbell and Matt Apodaca.

And it was such a great conversation and they were such gracious hosts that we wanted to share that conversation with 99PI listeners.

You'll hear about how Ben came up with the idea for the series and a sneak peek at some of the things that we'll be covering.

And as the kids say, a whole lot of new Roman Mars lore gets dropped.

So if you're ever curious about what I was doing from around 1997 to 1999 and what it has to do with video games, stay tuned.

All right. Well, Heather, why don't we introduce our guests? Okay, Matt. Let's do it. Okay. From the podcast, 99% Invisible and WBUR and their new series, Hidden Levels. Hidden Levels. What could that be about? Well, I'll tell you, it explores the impact of video games on modern culture. It's Roman Mars and Ben Brock Johnson.

What's up, guys?

Hi, guys. Hey, hey. Nice to see y'all. Welcome to the show. Welcome to Get Played the show. This is like, we're actually doing the show in a very serious way now. We sound so professional. Yeah. And normally, none of this tone is present. No, no. Everyone is like, this is false.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is not true.

This is not.

There's an artifice here. Matt and Heather have been replaced with AI. Yeah. They've got like just avatars doing the show. I was just sitting with my fingers, like, laced. Yeah. In the hand. Little, uh, uh, gendo from Evangelian. I was being Gendo from Evangelion. Yeah. In the hand. Little, Gendo from Evangelion. Yeah, I was being Gendo from Evangelian. Get in the robot. Yeah. Roman, get in the robot. Thanks for being here, you guys. So you guys have a new podcast series that's coming out. You said the street date was October 7th. Why don't you tell us a little bit about Hidden Levels? Go for it, Ben. All right. Well, Hidden Levels is something that I started talking to Roman and his team about about a year ago. Wow. And it came out of this thing that I was seeing. And look, this is going to be a statement of the obvious for you and your audience, right? Like video games impact the world beyond

video games. Hell yeah. And I think it's it's one of those things that people who are in gaming

and who play video games, they know. They see it all the time as they walk through the world.

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