Plumbing Game Studies

About Plumbing Game Studies

Philosophy is like plumbing for ideas - it makes connections and keeps everything flowing. In this podcast, Graham and his guests are doing some philosophical plumbing for game studies. We'll be asking questions like: Why are philosophers always talking about games? Is philosophy itself a game? How can we use games to understand philosophy - and how can we use philosophy to understand games? This podcast will use philosophy to study games and games to study philosophy. Anyone interested in philosophy, games, and how they interact should enjoy it! Remember: the unexamined game is not worth playing

Publisher

Graham Culbertson

Category

leisure · leisure · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

7 Mar 2024

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

22 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   School as a Game -- Ethan Hutt

   If the goal of school is to learn, school isn't a game. But if the goal of school is to get a high score on a test, or raise the rankings of your university, or beat the competition to get into med school, then school looks an awful lot like a game, with winning more important than learning. Ethan Hutt joins me to discuss the idea of school as a game, and how we can reduce the distance between learning and scoring. Check out Ethan's book (co-authored with Jack Schneider) here: https://www.offthemarkbook.com/ (https://www.offthemarkbook.com/)

2. 

   24 Aug 2026

   Markets and Models as Games -- Donald MacKenzie

   Donald MacKenzie rejoins the show to talk about his book An Engine, Not a Camera, which is about how financial models aren't designed to reflect the world economy, like a camera, but drive the world economy, like an engine. This means that a large part of economics is driven by trading that resembles a Reiner Knizia or 18XX game. It also means that trading and gambling can be pretty hard to differentiate. You can read more about Donald's book here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262633673/an-engine-not-a-camera/ (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262633673/an-engine-not-a-camera/)

3. 

   6 Jul 2026

   Games Are More Like Toasters Than Movies -- Ian Bogost

   Ian Bogost joins me to discuss The Small Stuff (https://flyleafbooks.com/book/9781668062630), his book about finding gratification in physical things. We discuss his road from game studies to gratification, the place for gratification in games, and how something as small as pushing a button or cradling a joystick can make us happy.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 29 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

35

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

Contact Plumbing Game Studies

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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