Episode 593: The Horse Cannot Be Contained

This week we cover a little bit of everything, including a brutal browser puzzle game, new tabletop RPG pickups, meditation meetups, comic books, and a short film with a great twist. REAL LIFE Ben kicks things off talking about the puzzle game that has completely taken over his brain, Enclose the Horse (https://enclose.horse/). The goal is simple but cruel: build the biggest possible enclosure using limited walls, while the horse avoids water, ignores diagonal movement, and sometimes teleports through portals. Steven shares some new tabletop RPG pickups including Orbital Blues from Soul Muppet Publishing and Star Borg by JP Coovert, plus updates from his latest Mutant Crawl Classics game where he's running as Judge. Ben also talks about attending a meditation Sangha he found through Reddit, sitting silently with about twenty people and ending the night with an unexpected cookie tailgate. FUTURE OR NOW In Future or Now, Ben brings up an issue of Absolute Batman where Batman fights white supremacists, leading Steven to attempt a recap that goes about as smoothly as you'd expect. The conversation shifts into Superman Smashes the Klan, a graphic novel Ben highly recommends for its powerful storytelling and accessibility. The discussion touches on why Superman works so well as a symbol against hate, along with how modern comics are tackling real-world themes more directly. A related video discussion can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ5ID_k_iBA. BOOK CLUB For Book Club, we talk about the short film Likewise, Olive from Omeleto (https://youtu.be/lwEssWpRrxg). Both Ben and Steven enjoyed it, even though Ben didn't see the twist coming while Steven guessed it halfway through knowing it was a time travel story. Either way, the film still lands emotionally and is well worth watching. Next week's reading is The Song of a Non-Human Intelligence by Mical Garcia, published January 12, 2026, available at Strange Horizons: https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/the-song-of-a-non-human-intelligence/. The story explores cetacean communication, memory, and hope carried across oceans and time. That's it for this week. From fencing in digital horses to tabletop chaos, meditation cookies, thoughtful comics, and time travel feelings, it's a full episode. We'll see you next week for whales, non-human intelligence, and a whole lot of hope.