Hey everyone, it's Roman Mars.

And today I want to tell you about a special mini-series we're going to be running on 99% of Visible the next few weeks.

It's a collaborative show we're making with WBUR's podcast about internet culture, endless thread.

And here to help me introduce our special series is the host of

Endless Thread, Ben Brock Johnson. Hey, Ben. Hey, Roman. So, Ben, you've been on our show before.

Yeah, that's right. We work together on an episode about the history as Falbar, the home of the

global seed vault in Norway. You've also featured an episode from Endless Thread about the Punisher Skull and how that

imagery is used by white supremacists. Yes, which continues to be relevant today. So I feel like

our shows have always been Sympatico. And last year, you came to us with a really cool idea

for a collaboration all about video games. Yeah, I'm so excited about

this. I was really fun to work on with y'all. Roman, do you know what you call two people

collaborating to beat a video game together? Is this like a riddle or is this like a real thing?

It's a real question. It's called the couch co-op. Oh, okay. Okay. So we're sitting next to each other on the

couch, like trying to defeat a level. Got it. That's right, man. You got the soda. I got the snacks. We're ready to go.

Now, I am not a hardcore gamer. I mainly like play solitaire on my phone or the New York Times puzzles each day.

Yeah. How about you? I play several hours a week, I will admit.

I'm in the Hell Divers 2 zone right now, playing that game a lot.

But one of the things I love about your idea for this series is that it's all about how

video games and video game design have changed the world beyond video games.

So you could be a very casual gamer like me or a more serious one like you,

and you will still get a lot out of it.

That's exactly right.

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