What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - TBD Tries…Roblox
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
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Summary
Under fire for what critics say is inadequate protection of its young user base, Roblox nevertheless remains incredibly popular. Are the company’s new ballyhooed protections up for the task of keeping kids safe? Or is that asking the wrong question entirely?
Guests:
Cecilia D'Anastasio, video game reporter for Bloomberg.
Mary Harris, host of the other What Next
Stella Harris, daughter of Mary.
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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, and Patrick Fort.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I am not a gamer. |
| 0:12.1 | So when I sat down with the producers of our show, Evan and Patrick, to play some Roblox, I was a bit out of my depth. |
| 0:19.3 | Bananaita Dolphini. |
| 0:28.6 | Wait, is that a brain rot or is that another person? Yeah, this is a brain rot. |
| 0:30.6 | So this is like a conveyor belt. |
| 0:33.6 | That's like Valerina Crockadea or whatever. |
| 0:35.6 | Yeah, I know. I merged two memes there. |
| 0:39.3 | Give me a break. I'm 50. |
| 0:41.3 | Anyway, we were playing one of the most popular games on one of the most popular platforms in the world. |
| 0:49.3 | Roblox. |
| 0:50.3 | The game is called steal a brain rot, and you compete against other people to steal their brain |
| 0:57.2 | rots. You can whack somebody with a bat if you want. |
| 1:02.0 | Steal a brain rot is fun, but it's not entirely representative of what Roblox is. |
| 1:09.9 | Roblox is not a video game as much as it's like a mall for video games. |
| 1:15.6 | That's Cecilia Donastasio. She writes about Roblox, among other things, for Bloomberg. |
| 1:20.6 | Maybe that game is Beast Swarm simulator where you pretend to be part of a Beast Swarm. Maybe you're role-playing a girl in a high school for |
| 1:28.9 | fairies. Maybe you're flinging yourself downstairs over and over again, or you're playing |
| 1:33.8 | steal a brain rot where you're stealing these AI-generated memes from other players who are |
| 1:39.6 | playing the game with you. Roblox launched in 2006, and its popularity has only skyrocketed in the past few years. |
| 1:48.1 | Today, the platform has almost 150 million daily users. It really blew up during COVID, and its |
| 1:55.5 | cultural influence has grown beyond its digital borders. |
| 2:00.4 | I think that for adults, it's a little difficult to discern the sort of cultural impacts |
... |
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