Authors Die Twice

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan are joined by special guests James Martell and Erik Larsen to discuss Dead by Daylight. They discuss experiences with multiplayer games, ideas about horror and Lovecraftian tropes, and the ephemerality of that first time.James Martell is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Lyon College, and was a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge in 2025. He is the author of Beckett and Derrida (2024) and Modernism, Self-Creation, and the Maternal (2019), and the editor of Understanding Sade, Understanding Modernism (2025). His current projects are Thinking Surfaces in French Contemporary Thought and Foiled Reflections: Mirror Stages for Stupid Times in Literature, Art, Film, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy.Erik Larsen is an associate professor of Health Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester. His research and teaching focus on biopolitics, critical theory and medicine, and the many intersections of narrative and healthcare. He holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Notre Dame. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan talk about the 2023 action role-playing game Lies of P. They think through some impressions (or lack of impressions) of it, wonder about the intertwined roles of the clown and the puppet in the game and in horror more broadly, and briefly touch on Heinrich Von Kleist’s 1810 story “On the Marionette Theater” to consider the relationship between the automaton and the human. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by games writer Martin Dolan to discuss indie games.Read Martin's essay "Indie Squeeze": https://strangematters.coop/indie-games-renaissance-is-over-what-comes-next/Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

In this episode, Nathan and Bryan return to Ebisugaoka to talk more about Silent Hill f. They discuss the abstract nature of horror, Hinako’s two worlds, and the worst room in the game.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan welcome back friend of the show Justin Carpenter to talk about Metal Gear Solid 3 and the larger Metal Gear saga. Here's a link to Justin's recent essay on Kentucky Route Zero (subscription or library access required): https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/abcsj-2025-0022Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan return to Silent Hill to discuss Silent Hill f (2025). They talk about the question of origin, moments of horror in gameplay, the banality of horror, and the horror of banality.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan wrap up their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2 by talking about the trippy sequence in the game's final location, and begin their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 3 with Bryan's initial impressions of the game.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Join us for a special holiday chat.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan continue their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2. They talk about its elaborate structure of nested simulations, the importance of chance, and why "postmodern" feels like an unsatisfying term to apply to the game. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are back with another Formless One. Bryan starts off the episode recounting his recent experience seeing the metal band Ulcerate, while Nathan shares some thoughts on the 2002 remake of the original Resident Evil. They then turn to Algernon Blackwood's eldritch short story "Secret Worship" to discuss Abstract Horror, Blackwood's relation to H. P. Lovecraft, and whether a demon is still a demon if it's just the outline of a man. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by Michael Barr to discuss David Kanaga's experimental indie game Oikospiel (2017). Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan begin their discussion of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001). They talk about the game's unique interplay between immersion and abstraction, its deep silliness, and the complexity of its simulated embodiment.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Please enjoy this bonus Halloween episode on Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC. We'll post a full episode next Monday as usual.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

In this episode, Bryan and Nathan discuss Jonathan Boulter’s 2015 book Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience, published by Wayne State University Press. They discuss the concept of posthumanism and how games help us elaborate on it. Nathan proposes an alternate framing (“prehumanism”) and talks about why Boulter’s book feels so prescient in the context of the Metal Gear Solid series in particular. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan discuss Chill Games, "Smart Games," Dumb Games, and Dumb Smart Games, and Bryan shares his early impressions of Metal Gear Solid 2 (the topic of an upcoming episode). They also cover the second half of Kentucky Route Zero, including the brilliant Xanadu sequence and the risks of narrative complexity creep. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan get "enfrenzied" as they continue their discussion of Bloodborne. They discuss the role of madness, the empty form of knowledge, and why scholars need so much sedative. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

After mentioning the game in almost every episode so far, Bryan and Nathan finally have a dedicated discussion about Bloodborne. They talk about Nathan's recently published book (Grant Us Eyes: The Art of Paradox in Bloodborne), Bryan's recent replay, Evil Santa, and the one area in the game that still makes no sense. Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by games scholar Erick Verran to talk about video game criticism and writing. They discuss the pitfalls of professional scholarship, the differences between European and American games writing, and the beauty of classic gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly. Find Erick Verran at https://linktr.ee/erickverranFind us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by literary and games scholar Justin Carpenter (University of Utah) to talk about Kentucky Route Zero. They discuss the game's amazing art style and sound design, its literariness, and the ways it challenges ideas of play, agency, and control.Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwiceHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are once again joined by Shane (cohost of the terrific Reel Rap, a podcast about adaptations) to talk about Dark Souls 1. They discuss sentences lost to time, the meaning of humanity (!?), and why the game's world of Lordran resembles a giant haunted house. Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan finish up their conversation about Silent Hill 2 (2024), focusing especially on the game's final boss and discussing (again) the game's structures of repetition, the warehouse setting, and why spider enemies in games usually suck.Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell (Miss Me Yet, Failed State) to discuss Final Fantasy VII. They touch on the generative capacities of technological limitation for gameplay and narrative, what motivates the various graphical iterations of the game's characters, and the role of paratext in the experience of playing.Find Christopher Jason Bell at https://linktr.ee/christopherjasonbellHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by author Debbie Urbanski (Portalmania, After World: A Novel) to discuss her work and the 1963 novel The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. They touch on the gamelike qualities of narrative, environmental storytelling, and the metaphysics of invisible walls.Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan inaugurate a new series, "Abandoned Old Workshop," where they are joined by colleagues in a focused presentation of their recent or forthcoming academic work. In this episode, they speak with Joseph LaBine, editor of terminal 1: Arrivals (Flat Singles Press, 2025), a collection of poetry by the Irish architect, artist, and critic Niall Montgomery. Among other topics, they discuss Montgomery's status as a figure in modernism, and his friendship with and influence from authors like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and T. S. Eliot. terminal 1: https://www.flatsinglespress.com/shop/p/terminal-1-arrivalsHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan embark on another "formless one," discussing the coziness of survival horror games, different valences of horror in the metal genre, and American author Bennett Sims's short story "Portonaccio Sarcophagus."Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan continue their conversation about Silent Hill 2 (2024), discussing the game's fascinating structures of repetition, déjà vu, and anonymity.Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan discuss Bloober Team's 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2. They talk about the game's incredible sound design, the multiple ways one can and cannot identify with a video game avatar, and why this might be the smelliest game of all time. They also debut a new segment on video game atmosphere called Wainstein and Smog. Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

It turns out Bryan and Nathan aren't done talking about Elden Ring. This time they're joined by Shane, a Living Success and the co-host of Reel Rap, a podcast about adaptations (you can find him at @crealoya on Twitter). Together they discuss the game's soundtrack and atmosphere, the irrelevance of its plot, and the question of a possible film adaptation.

In their first grab bag episode, Bryan and Nathan talk about the games they've been playing and the texts they've been reading, including Monster Hunter: Wilds, Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, "House-sitting" by Bennett Sims, and After World: A Novel by Debbie Urbanski. They then discuss Jorge Luis Borges's 1939 short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" and introduce their Enigma of the Week. Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan conclude (for now) their discussion of Elden Ring and its DLC by talking about their hard-won victory over the DLC's final boss in co-op (spoilers), engaging with Souls multiplayer systems for the first time, and the jubilation of being "smooched" on stream.Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

In this week's episode, special guest Sam Tett (University of Utah) joins Bryan and Nathan to talk about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011). We discuss open world boundaries, the game's (underrated?) combat, the joys of ledging, and why the Dragonborn might be his own dad.The Eurogamer essay mentioned by Nathan is "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is Anything but Overrated" by Chris Tapsell: https://www.eurogamer.net/games-of-the-decade-the-elder-scrolls-5-skyrim-is-anything-but-overratedHave questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan continue their conversation about Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree by discussing oversized objects, the DLC's strange sky, and why every Souls game might need a single un-openable door.Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Nathan and Bryan talk about spatial design and wonder in Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan introduce the themes of the podcast, take a stab at explaining the title, and touch on their shared history with games.