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Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz

Next on Showcase: The Polybius Conspiracy

Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz

Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.31K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2017

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Introducing our new Showcase series! In The Polybius Conspiracy, producers Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto investigate the decades-old urban legend of Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpetuate information in the internet age.

Stay tuned for the first episode, “The Player,” coming up October 6th.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Radiotopia presents from PRX's Radiotopia.

0:07.0

Coming up next on showcase the Polybius conspiracy. I think that Portland, Oregon is in a place where it very much wants to try to construct an identity

0:19.4

for itself, like the whole key Portland weird thing, which we stole from Austin, Texas.

0:23.0

It's always been a city that loves the odd.

0:26.7

You can go days without seeing something, and I think that that feeds into the psychosis for folks

0:32.4

to buy into these legends.

0:34.6

Whether it's Bigfoot, aliens, or the infamous Skyjacking case of D.B. Cooper,

0:39.5

Oregon has a bit of everything for enthusiasts of the unexplained,

0:43.3

including a sinister arcade game.

0:45.8

There's a game in the Pacific Northwest

0:48.0

that was really popular.

0:49.6

Lines out the door to play the game,

0:51.1

but this game would make every kid who played it go crazy people would come

0:55.2

away and they would feel changed kids would have epileptic seizures lose control of their

0:59.8

thoughts or feel like they're being controlled someone Someone died after they play the game.

1:04.5

This is the legend of Polybius,

1:06.2

which allegedly surfaced in arcades

1:08.0

for only a few short weeks in the fall of 1981,

1:11.0

but left an indelible mark on pop culture.

1:13.0

The only question is, did it even exist?

1:16.0

How much is fact and how much is fabrication?

1:19.0

Would the advent of video games, the government was thinking,

...

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