How The New Catan Board Game Can Spark Conversations On Climate Change

Short Wave

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🗓️ 29 April 2024

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Today, we're going full nerd to talk about a new board game — Catan: New Energies. The game's goal is simple: Build and develop a modern-day island without catastrophically polluting it. Although the concept mirrors the effects of climate change, those words don't actually appear in the game. NPR correspondent Nate Rott talks to Emily about the thinking behind the new game and how the developers hope it can start conversations around energy use and pollution.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You know the names of the primary players, Jimmy Carter.
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0:04.5	Ronald Reagan. We have perverted our Constitution.
0:07.1	Gerald Ford. But how they acted, it's just about the opposite of their popular images.
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0:25.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:29.6	Howdy Shortwaivers Emily Kwong here with climate reporter Nate Rot.
0:33.4	Yo!
0:34.4	And I want to declare something that at this point should be fairly obvious.
0:38.7	I am a nerd and part of my boredom is a passion for board games, tabletop board games.
0:46.5	Emily, I fully encourage you to own your nerdum.
0:49.8	I have a dinosaur lamp on my desk, a framed ewalk cartoon in my office, and a cupboard full of board
0:56.3	games, so you are in good company.
0:58.3	So I like talking to you, Nate, I feel among friends.
1:02.1	Okay, so knowing that you love board games, it is fair to assume that you've played
1:05.4	Katan or as it used to be called Settlers at Katan.
1:08.0	Yeah, I have. It's kind of like our generation's monopoly. There's the original and there's so many different spin-off versions.
1:14.5	Yeah, you can play katan in space, you can play katan anywhere. Okay, so how would you describe the goal of the game?
1:20.7	Like if somebody's never played before, like what would your advice be on how to win?
1:24.4	Well, there's a lot of strategies, but you got to manage your resources. I mean, the goal with
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