Eden
00:00
But you do want to play a profoundly sad game about going home and finding everyone you knew basically is dead and then having to clean up after it. Go play this game. Welcome back to the Middle of Culture. I'm one of your hosts, Eden. And I am your other host, Peter. Hey Peter, how you been? It's uh, you know, it is dear listeners, uh, full disclosure, it's the first day of 2026. We're welcoming the year in with a bang by hopefully recording a banger. But uh how you been, Peter?

Peter
00:42
I have been very good. I have. Had a little time off starting Yesterday, I'm very confused about the days because I I was on call the weekend before the week of Christmas. And then I worked the whole week of Christmas and had to go in for a couple hours on Christmas Day, had to go in again the day after Christmas, was on call those next two Saturday and Sunday. Then worked Monday Tuesday and then was off yesterday and I'm off until next Tuesday. So I am having an absolute just disastrous time remembering what day of the week it is. But the good news is when I do remember, it is earlier in the week than I expected. So my brain was like, yeah, exactly. My brain yesterday was like, oh yeah, this is Saturday. I'm like, no, this is Wednesday. And today I'm like, oh, I gotta go to work in a day or two. I was like, no, I don't have to go to work. So I'm doing great. How are you?

Eden
01:38
Also very confused in terms of uh what day it is. Um, you know, I I don't know if I mentioned it here uh or not last time, but with the two kid the kids, as I like to call them, the two younger folks who work at the comic shop, both went home for Christmas. So I didn't want the boss man to be stuck doing everything by himself. So I've worked a lot of extra hours at the comic shop. I did some sweet old double dipping where I was like. . using my PTO at my day job to go work at the comic shop during work hours. It's great. Who doesn't love to double dip?

Peter
02:15
Um I mean I think it sounds brilliant to I gotta figure out a way to do that personally.

Eden
02:20
It's great. How do you think I can afford to buy a DAP? But anyway. I've been working a lot at the comic shop, but that also means that like my perception of time is off because I normally work Wednesdays and Saturdays. And then I worked every day for like a week and I could never keep track of what day it was.

Peter
02:40
Yeah, that'd do it.

Eden
02:42
Yeah, it was just weird. It was really, really weird. Um, and then the worst part is on uh Sunday, uh I'd ridden my bike in to work. And then by the time I was leaving, the weather had really changed. Like it had dropped in uh dropped in temperature precipitously. There were drifting snow everywhere, but I was like, I can do it. I can get home. Listeners, I regret to inform you, I did not make it home unscathed. I come up to the corner of Summit and Burlington, and I'm having to stop because the light changes. And right then a 35 mile an hour gis gust of wind hits me right as I hit a patch of like loose snow. Whoop boom bike went right out from underneath me. So I have some bruised ribs. Uh not comfortable. Have not slept since because of course Of course, I went down on my left side, which is of course the side that I have to sleep on. Because I don't know. Are you like are you like a ritualistic sleeper in that way, Peter? Is there a particular like position you need to be in in order to fall asleep.

Peter
03:54
Oh boy. So and I take some crap from this from people who know, yes, there is a position I have to be in. And that is completely straight, flat on my back, with my two hands on top of my chest, sort of like this, as if I were a corpse lying in state.

Eden
04:09
I was gonna say it sounds like Tutankhamun is in the house.

Peter
04:13
That is that is exactly how I sleep, yes. But yet that is how I have to go to sleep.

Eden
04:18
Yes. And this is the same way, not that exact position, but uh in order for me to be able to fall asleep I need to lay on my right side for approximately three to seven minutes. Okay. Long enough to start feeling a little sleepy. And then I have to move to my left side. And that is the only way that I can fall asleep is slightly curled up, not quite fetal, but like legs sort of tucked.

Peter
04:44
Sure, sure.

Eden
04:44
Arms not crossed anymore, because I used to cross them and then it was starting to give me carpal tunnel because my My wrists were bent like this all night every night. Um, so I had to stop doing that. And I was able to stop doing that, but I still have to be on my left side. But of course, that is the rib that I the ribs that I fell on. So every time I get into that position, I mean it it hurts already to go from vertical to horizontal. Like right now I'm not in any pain, but the minute I try to go horizontal. my body like the ribs move just right to be like okay then and it really really starts flaring but then as I need to swap from side to side it's miserable. So I've not really slept well. Since Sunday.

Peter
05:28
Yeah, I I believe that. I have to do that.

Eden
05:30
It's rough out there. Bruised ribs, no fun. But other than that, I'm doing pretty good. How you been? What have you been up to? Like uh here's the thing. I I didn't I'm springing this on you last second, but it is the first of January. What you been up to? And then what are your bigger thoughts on 2025? as a cultural phenomenon, like the media that you engaged with during the year. How are you feeling about it? What what's 2025 like in your pop culture life?

Peter
06:00
That is an interesting question. So why don't I I'm going to intertwine those two questions because part of what I had prepared to to share in this time is is kind of what were my musical highs? What are my top musical things? So I'll I'll work that in here. In terms of new things that have come out or that I've been checking out recently in the last couple of weeks, let's talk about games briefly. Uh still playing Megabonk and Ball Pit. Uh did get a little further in Ball Pit, kind of beat the next level down in the pit, uh building out my town some more, getting people a little bit stronger, unlocked a new character. And and just enjoy that game. It is great. It is another one of those games that. And I don't know. I have a theory. And this theory could be absolutely wrong. But over the last few years, there seems to really have been a proliferation of these $20 and less games that are very engaging, good gameplay mechanics, not super graphically heavy. And you know what one of the reasons I think we've seen this perfect proliferation is I think that it is the success of the Steam Deck. And not just the Steam Deck, but then all of this this glut of other handhelds that have come out over the last few years between Lenovo and MSI and uh Asus and and you know these Chinese companies, I mean OneX player and all this stuff. But there are so many handheld video game consoles, honestly, available right now. And so many of these games are just perfect for that. You know, you can sit down again, ball pit, you're if you defeat a level, you're gonna defeat it in about 15 minutes. In Megabonk, you're gonna either defeat it or you're gonna get killed in again about 10 minutes. So you're getting these little chunks where you can sit down, you can break out a handheld, you can play. They run beautifully on it. And I love it. I think it's great because for a while it felt like it was either real, real, real kind of low quality, just sort of crapped out stuff, or you were looking at that AAA. And let's be honest, while we can't really say those are crapped out, a lot of them are crap. But I love this proliferation of even even kind of the double A category, I think most people would consider Claire Obscure Expedition thirty three, which won the game of the year at the VGAs, the video game awards and stuff. I think most people would consider that a double A game, not a triple A game. But then also, you know, these again, like I say, sub-20 relatively can be shorter kind of contained game experiences. And I've just been really enjoying that stuff because I've been having a hard time finding something bigger to sink my teeth into.

Eden
09:04
Here's a thought that I have about that. This is related to a conversation I had with a friend the other day. I think that this is an important like avenue for games to develop in for multiple reasons. I think what you mentioned about like the the bite-sized nature of it is really, really good. But there is another thing that I think is currently overlooked in wider discourse, but I think is going to become even more prevalent. As the year presses on. And that's that no one can fucking afford parts for a PC anymore.

Peter
09:38
Yeah, that's true.

Eden
09:39
So what can especially? So what can we get? A Steam Deck. for $500. Yeah. Or a Switch 2 for $400. Or even a PS5 or an Xbox. But like I genuinely think that the PC master race era where that was like this is the best way to play games. is unfortunately and hopefully temporarily going to come to a close as the AI bros um lose their fucking minds. Um and until that crash comes, hopefully sooner rather than later, this inevitable b bubble burst. No one's gonna be able to build PCs. So we're gonna need things that can run on Steam Decks, on the Steam Box that they're putting out, which I think is gonna do gangbusters. I think that is gonna sell crazy.

Peter
10:26
If they are able to get it at a reasonable price, I mean look, I'm gonna buy one. Do I need to probably gonna buy one too But I'm gonna buy one and I'm gonna plug it in to my big TV downstairs. Yeah. So that I can, you know, instead of sitting, if I want to sit downstairs and play games, right now I do it on a Steam Deck or something like that, which is great, which I love. I mean, I I have the Steam Deck and I have more powerful handhelds and you know which one I use all the damn time. It's the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is just the sweet spot. But and it runs, but I was the things just run on it.

Eden
10:58
And you don't have to like there's no tiki-tacky. I feel like even the Windows-base to handhelds, there's some sort of tiki-tacky where it's like, yeah, the The things don't always work right. The the inputs aren't always working the way you want them to. Blah blah blah. No, if it says it's gonna run on the Steam Deck, it fucking runs on the Steam Deck.

Peter
11:16
Yeah. No, I agree. I think that's a really, really astute point to mention because RAM is just especially RAM. Yeah. Even video cards too, but RAM is it's absurd.

Eden
11:28
It's absurd. Um, but I think that it is a positive thing because I think that that avenue, that middle ground Between the like true indie and the AAA is where there is a lot of room for growth, a lot of room for experimentation, a lot of room for just trying stuff that you can't try otherwise. And so I hope that the smaller studios are realized are seeing the writing on the wall that we just talked about, that like no one can afford a high-end PC. So we've got to start like designing games specifically and explicitly to run on this lower-end hardware because I think those constraints are good because it means that you need to actually make a game that runs. Um, which is a problem. Like there, the amount of times that a game comes out and they're just like, well, sorry, your PC sucks. And you're like, no, that's your fault. You needed to make the game better. You can't just say, well, I made it in UE5, and if you don't have a $4,000 rig, you don't get to play my game right. Well, that's on you. That's not on me. And so I think that as the uh a as the small form factor market continues to explode in the face of the fact that no one can buy a PC anymore, I hope that that means that they design for those and that that means we get smaller games. With worse graphics made by people who are getting paid better, as the old Sonic the Hedgehog meme joke says. And I'm not joking. I want smaller games that are worse by people who are paid better. That's what I want.

Peter
13:08
Well, and and it's really interesting. This this brings to mind an article I read a while ago, but the you know, m some of my highlights from it have bubbled back up in readwise frequently enough lately that I was reminded of this. And and as we get to the end of the year and everybody's talking about, you know, their New Year's resolutions and all that stuff, which I hate, go listen to the most recent episode of Generations when Aubrey and I talked about why New Year's resolutions are bad and and and it's a terrible system. But the the title I think of this article was You Don't Need Goals, You Need Limits. And this the whole premise of this article falls back to this where we shouldn't be setting you're not doing yourself big favors if you're setting these great big goals for yourself. You're better off if you say, okay, well, what are my limits and how do I work within these limits? And maybe where do I set new limits to help me progress. And I think that's a lot. What you're you're pointing out is okay, here are some limits that are being imposed by this hardware situation. So make better games within those limits. And it's interesting, you talk about the graphics, and I'll mention this briefly. For all the other things about them that bug me, but one of the things that Nintendo's always done is they have such good art style in their games. that you don't care that their hardware is in some cases generations behind everybody else. Case in point, for fun, because I'd never played it, I started playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Nintendo Switch 2. Super Mario Galaxy came out in 2007. Now does Super Mario Galaxy look as good as, say, Donkey Kong Country and the Mario Kart world? No, you can tell it's older, but does it still look really pretty good because of Nintendo's consistent, excellent art direction. It absolutely does, because they learned how to work within those limitations.

Eden
15:09
Yeah. Yeah. There's something to be said about limitation as a design ethos. Like Some of the best movies that you've ever seen were made on small budgets and and with those types of constraints where they were like, we have this very narrow window in which to do this thing we want to do. And it's not the blank check filmmaking that are the best films I've ever seen. Like Are those fun to watch sometimes? Sure. I don't really know. I haven't seen Avatar 2 or 3. My friend was raving about Avatar 3 to me all day at work yesterday. And I said, I'm so happy that you're happy with Avatar 3. I don't give a shit. And I never will. Yeah. Um Yeah. I hear you. But the fact of the matter is, I find that that art is at its best when there is those constraints to it. And I think that that's true of games. You know, when are some of the most productive and and most affecting games that I've ever played? are games that came out in tough situations, you know? Like, why is uh Kotor 2 so good because their back was against the wall and they had nine at months to make a video game. Why is New Vegas such a good Fallout game? Because their back was against the w- and maybe this is just Obsidian stuff, but their back was against the wall and they had 10 months to make a video game. You know, why why are seven, eight, nine, ten some of the best Final Fantasy games? Because they were coming out one a year or one every two years. It wasn't eight years between entries in the Final Fantasy series. It was like we put these fuckers out one after another after another after another. Use we're using assets, you know, using baked-in things, tr keeping our scope smaller. Because it keeps it from making a mess. It keeps you from getting lost in the weeds. Yeah. Anyway.

Peter
17:07
Yeah, like I say, I think that and and this is interesting. We'll we'll see how you feel, but I think a lot of this conversation that we just had is pertinent to our main topic. Oh, I think so too. We'll leave it there. I think so. I'll leave that there and we'll come back later. A couple other game things really fast. Diablo 4, they've announced another expansion for it. And if you're a sucker like me and you pre-order the expansion, you have access to the Paladin class already. I really liked the paladin class in Diablo 3. And so I did recently fire it up and put about an hour or two in playing as a paladin in Diablo 4. I'm not in deep enough to know uh what sets it apart and haven't gotten to the place where I mean the paladin in Diablo 3 was was really fun because you could just do so much damage and you were so tanky. You'd unlock the ability to wield massive wo two-handed maces with one hand, so you still had this massive shield and you're just cruising around decked out in armor, big old shield, massive you know, flail that you're just mall mowing things down with. Um and I'll be I'll be interested to see. I yeah, I never did finish the first expansion for Diablo 4. The Spirit Born class just didn't, I don't know, it wasn't snagging me like some of the others. We'll see. We'll see how the paladin goes. Uh and then the other thing I'll mention is I decided this week I was gonna fire up Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Okay. And I played about 80 minutes and I asked myself, do I really want to play a game where I gotta sneak around this much? And maybe you don't have to sneak around that much the whole game, but so far I've had to do a lot of sneaking around. And so I'm struggling if I want to come back to that or not. We'll see.

Eden
18:46
I again I talked about it a few months ago. I thought the game was really cool. I didn't finish it because, you know, I just didn't feel like finishing it. It was cool. I liked what I played. I, you know, I got about halfway through it and then I was like, I got other things to do.

Peter
19:00
Yeah. We'll see. Uh on the book front, I uh finished the first book in the three body problem series. The three body problem. I liked it. It was good. It was interesting. It starts to go places. I did start to there's kind of a big revelation as the book gets to the end. Where basically the Tricellarins, the alien race, they have launched their fleet towards Earth in an effort to. They're just gonna take it over. They're gonna wipe out humanity. They want Earth. It's a much better, you know, they're in awe because of their three sons and the chaos that it invokes. They have these stable eras and chaotic eras. And it's blowing their minds that, hey, there's a planet that is in a stable era all the time. How can that be? Well, we want that. We're gonna take it over. But see, the problem is, is in looking at human history, they've become very concerned at humanity's technological advancement rate. We took so many thousands of years to get, you know, from hunter-gatherers to like, I don't know, to and then you look at, okay, from this to this to then get to the industrial era, from the industrial era to this. And then they're looking at it and they're like, yeah, but they went from landing somebody on their moon to this in, you know, just this short, this accelerating pace. They know it's gonna take their f ships 450 years to get to Earth. And they are concerned that while at the moment they launch the ships, they are technologically advanced beyond what humanity is. Tri-Solaris has never advanced their technology as quickly as Earth has in the last two centuries. And so they're very concerned that by the time we get there, they're going to be technologically far beyond where we are. We gotta do something about it. And that something involves taking protons, which they refer to as 11th dimension objects, and unfolding them down to become two dimensional objects, so they have the mass of a proton, but is a an expansive sheet that is basically so big it can surround the planet Trisolaris, so that then they can etch on the surface of that the instructions to turn it into basically like a computer, fold it back up to its 11th dimension, accelerate these protons at near the speed of light to Earth, and then they have similar protons or they call them sofons, on Trisolaris, and via quantum entanglement, they can communicate instantaneously between these protons. And these protons are getting they're getting sneaky. These sofons are zipping into uh little uh particle accelerators and futzing up the results so that basically all of our science is now getting stalled because we can't make advances. And that was a little there were parts about that that I was like, mmm I know I don't know enough about particle physics and stuff, but but I don't know. I don't know. But I I started the second book yesterday, so I still plan to continue through those because I am intrigued. I am intrigued at where the series is going to go and I enjoyed that. Um that's really about it in terms of new stuff. So 2025 is 2025, this is this was a tough year to really sort of go, how do I feel about it? Because while from a pop culture standpoint, there were some good things. There were so many other ways in which 2025 was just an absolute shit show that it's it's sometimes it's hard for me to separate the two out. Um 2025 is the year that I got into Taskmaster, which I absolutely love and adore. And it was thanks to series 19 earlier this year with Jason Matsukis that kind of did that for me. So Uh so that was good and we continue to plug away at Tac Taskmaster. Uh I find it just utterly enjoyable. I think it was nice that 2025 gave us two of the maybe I was gonna say better, but I actually might say just two of the best Marvel movies since Endgame and kind of Spider-Man No Way Home, that kind of those sort of we sort of wrapped up. that first or I guess Spider-Man No Way Home was in that phase five or four. I don't know where we're at. But I I think that the I think the Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four. um really two of the strongest entries into the Marvel universe since the Infinity Saga wrapped up. And so I like that. That was good. Um 2025 was interesting in that It's the year where for me Brandon Sanderson's cracks really started to show. Uh and I don't know if that's because I read so much Sanderson this year that it w just became more obvious, but uh those cracks really did start to show. At at the beginning of 24, I wouldn't have hesitated to say that he was my favorite author. Uh right now, I'm like, I don't know that I could tell you who my favorite author is, but it's definitely not Brandon Sanderson. Um because the Lost Metal and then Rindon Truth just uh there were enough things about reading those two most recent books of his in those kind of key core uh series that I I took a step back and said, okay. Maybe you should write less. Maybe you should write fewer books. And maybe you should write better books. Maybe, maybe you should just take the break, take the foot off the gas a little bit. Give give things a little bit of a break and and and write books that are better. Just just maybe just write books that are better. So yeah. Uh but I will say the highlight in terms of books for me for the year really was uh Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes. Uh such a fun book, such a delightful thing. And to just be this surprise that came out of nowhere, again. My wife bought it for me because she knew somebody who opened a physical bookstore in town and she wanted to support them, walked in and was just walking down shelves and saw a book that said murder your employer and she thought. Even if he never reads it, Peter will love the title of this book and bought it for me. And then I finally read it and it was a delightful book. I loved it. So Um, and then, you know, music has been an interesting year this year. There have been some real highs. Um, I think that Allegiance rated latest album, The Ossuary Lens, was really good. uh kind of progressive technical death metal. Uh Bellwitch and Arial Ruins, Stygian Bao Part 2, or Volume Two, uh continues to be one of my favorite albums of the year. Just beautiful, haunting uh almost epic kind of doom funeral doom metal uh black braid three just brilliant brilliant black metal It definitely is my favorite black metal album of the year, though the more time I spent with Abigail Williams uh Avoid Within Existence, uh the the narrower the gap between those two c became. Uh dormant ordeal, just in terms of straight up just death metal, absolutely my favorite death metal band or album of the year. uh 1914's Viribus Unidas, uh again diving back into World War I. Um just just brutal ugly in all the ways that I think uh story about World War I needs to be. Uh Loved, Frail, Heretics and Lullabies, that was great. Obscure Sphinx, so good to hear from them again. Their last LP, the previous one came out in 2016, so it had been nine years since we had new music from them. Uh loved Spirit Box, uh Tsunami C. I think it's it was a great album and it was a ton of fun to go and see them live this year with uh with my kids, with some of my kids. And then Raphael Weinroth Brown, brilliant, brilliant album in lifeblood. Absolutely love it. Probably, well no, not probably, definitely my album of the year. The final thing I want to mention that I kind of discovered in 2025. I didn't discover. I'd been aware of, but 2025 was when I finally said, okay, I'm going to give this a listen. And that is, are you familiar with the podcast The Rest is History, Eden?

Eden
27:19
I can't say that I am.

Peter
27:21
So it is a podcast that's been around, I think it started in 2020. Uh it's a couple of uh historians from the UK. And um they've both written, you know, a bunch of history books and very, very smart guys. I've heard about the rest is history. A couple of the hosts on some other podcasts that I listened to talked about it. uh and and talk about it frequently. And I kind of subscribed and and in the past and tried to listen to an episode or two. I don't know why it didn't click for me. But as they were getting to the end of the year and they were just raving about it and this podcast won Apple's Podcast of the Year award, I thought, okay, let me check it out. So I downloaded one of the most recent episodes. This was probably only like a month, month and a half ago. I downloaded an episode and it was the first of a series of episodes about Jack the Ripper. And I realized I don't know anything about Jack the Ripper. Nothing. So I started listening to it, and each episode's about an hour, hour and twenty minutes long. And I'm listening to this first episode, and I was just enthralled. I was so drawn in. To this story. And they tell the story, but they're bringing in a lot of other historians, research, and and what they said, and they're offering their own opinions and they're comparing and contrasting. And they have this fun dynamic where Often one of the two of them will be a little bit more the expert in whatever topic they're talking about and will kind of play the the okay I'm gonna really teach you about this while the other one like interjects and kind of comes in and out. But what about this? And and they just they they've really got the format nailed. I finished the end of that episode and realized that it was going to be like a four or five episode series that were each gonna come out every week or two. But if you were a member of their paid the rest is history club, you got the whole series right then. And I just was so engaged by the end of that one episode that I said. Oh hell yeah, I'm signing up. And so I signed up and I listened to all of the Jack the Ripper episodes, then I listened to a few episodes about Walt Disney that actually culminated in them. Uh they had a sit-down interview with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. And then he actually, Bob Iger took them to Disneyland and like took them on rides and stuff like that that you can go see on their YouTube channel. uh listen to a series about uh there's been a bunch of series about world war two and I mean all of their things they kind of break up into smaller chunks where it's okay. Here's four episodes just about this aspect of this event in history. Listen to that. Listen to a really, really interesting episode where one of the hosts sat down with this kind of antiquities historian from the UK. And she went into, there was a piece they found that was found in like a field, and there were some hints that maybe this actually came from the time of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. And then it was her talking about how did they demonstrate the provenance of this artifact and prove that yes, it actually was authentic. Um And now I'm currently listening to one about Horatio Nelson and the uh Napoleonic Wars, and it's going to culminate in the uh the Battle of uh Trafalgar. And it's just fascinating. It is an outstanding podcast. Um I, yeah, it is quickly becoming one of the best things I look forward to listening to whenever I have time. But it's also one of those where As opposed to some of my other podcasts where it's like turn it on, do something else. This is like turn it on and do something else that doesn't require my brain so that I can fully engage in what they're talking about. Um and and so it was it was a fun year to to find some new things that I didn't That don't really fit. You know, this podcast, not really what I would normally listen to. Murder Your Employer, not generally the type of book that I would read. Um so yeah, it was it it was there were some highs and some some lows, I'll put it that way.

Eden
31:35
Nice. Well, that sounds exciting.

Peter
31:36
I talked for a long time. It's it you know, please.

Eden
31:39
That's okay. We had a big digression about video games as well. Um yeah, I I don't have a whole lot to talk about that I've done in the last couple of weeks um that's worth mentioning that isn't just continuing doing things that I've already been doing, which is part of why I wanted to do like a, hey, let's look back at 2025. I think you're exactly right in that it it was A mixed bag year. Um, I think uh, you know, outside of pop culture it was a terrible year, but hey, what are you gonna do? Yeah, no, it was a real rough year. Um, but you know. What are you gonna do? Uh you know, we're all still here. We made it. It's 2026.

Peter
32:18
We are all still here.

Eden
32:20
We're here. Um, but there are a lot of things I think like you said that were new to me in 2025. um that I really, really am happy that I found. I'll start with podcasts since you ended with podcasts. I have been listening to podcasts with Michael Hobbs on them for years. I listened to You're Wrong About for a lot of years back in the day. Um and I listened to If Books Could Kill from after its very first episode dropped. I've listened to it multiple times. I think it's a very fun podcast. One of my all-time favorites. Um, you know, I really love those two hosts, but I knew that Michael Hobbs had this other show that he did with Audrey Gordon called Maintenance Phase, which is specifically about diet culture and body image stuff and all that sort of stuff. And so for years I had kind of avoided listening to it because I didn't really want to put myself in that headspace. Um, you know, that is uh it it is a topic that it can be hard to talk about, can be hard to listen to people talk about, all those sorts of things. Um, but this year I finally did take the plunge and started listening to maintenance phase, and I've really come around to to really enjoy it. I think it's a really meaningful podcast. I really think that both of the hosts uh approach um fitness, health, weight, um, diet, all those sorts of things from really good positions um and I think that they do really important work. So I've really been enjoying listening to that podcast. Like you said, enough so that I immediately like. joined their Patreon and so I get their Patreon episodes too. Um because I feel like I want to pay people for the good work that they do And this is one of those podcasts that has no ads. So there's literally no way for me to just be like, well, they're getting my ad revenue. No, they're not, because they don't do ads. So the one thing I could do to support them, back them on Patreon. So I did, and I'm glad that I have. Um, I feel like it's been really Um, it it's made me think a lot about um the fat phobic nature of modern culture, the ways that in many regards, and I think that this this goes along with a thing that we kind of talked about last episode that has been really big for me in 2025. It truly feels like While there has been backslides, it's a lot easier to ridicule people for being LGBTQ than it was a few years ago. Like it has become a little more popular, a little more accepted. Um, and I feel like we were to a point where that really wasn't the case and it kind of has become that way again, you know? Sure. There are two things that has always been okay to make fun of. Um, and that that has gotten even worse in the last year. And that is fat people and disabled people. Um, those fat phobia and ableism are alive, well, and Everyone loves to point out point them out and and nail down on people for those two things Um and and I think that it's fucking disgusting. I truly do. Um I think that it is reprehensible behavior. Um, you know, the the repopularization of the R-word as a slur that people just say. Like you just go around on the internet and you just see it all the time, or you'll be scrolling on TikTok and you'll just hear people say it and it's like, what the fuck, guys? Like I a decade ago we all decided you don't say this word anymore. Um, but no, it's cool. Everyone's saying it now. Um, and it's always been fair game to make fun of fat people or just people who are not, you know, bodily normative in the ways that we have decided as a culture is that way. And I think that maintenance phase has helped me come to terms with a lot of those things, both in my own body and the way my own fat phobia both works against me and the way that I perceive my own body and the way that I perceive other bodies. Um, you know, I have lost a fair amount of weight this last year, um, you know, in no small part thanks to uh pharmacological intervention. Um, and it has made me think very differently about my own body. Um, and it has made me reflect on the ways that Even as a fat person, you come to resent and look down on other fat people instead of standing in solidarity with them and being like, no, everyone treats us all like shit. I am part of this. this group that is treated this poorly. And especially, you know, this is so common. There's a lot of research about like once a fat person loses a fair amount of weight, they become that much more judgmental and fat phobic and and and really act reprehensible to people who are bigger than them. And so that has been a a a thing that I've thought a lot about. in 2025 and have worked really hard to try to excise from my brain. And it's not easy because like the culture in which we are ensconced at all times is so fundamentally against, you know, atypical bodies in any of these ways, be they queer, be they disabled, be they fat. Um and society is just not built for people like that. And so because you are non-normative, you are seen as aberrant And and I think it's really important to see the ways that that works in our own brains. And I think that this podcast has helped me, at least a little bit. And it's made me think a lot broader about those things. Um, and then have those kind of hard conversations with people. I think that's been good.

Peter
37:53
Interesting. Well, that sounds good.

Eden
37:55
Um, it's also worth mentioning. I read a lot this year. Um, you know, I pulled out my little notebook. Uh I ended up m reading my 238th book on New Year's Eve. Wow. That's impressive. So many books I read. Uh I think I did the math the other day. I think I did 82 prose books and then the rest of that is comics. uh that I read. So I read a lot. Um, but I read a lot of things that I had never read before for the first time that have really impacted the way that I've thought about culture and the things that I enjoy. I think notably things worth mentioning, Adachi and Shimamura is incredible and I have gushed about it multiple times here. I did not even hear about that book series until this year. Um the works of Keichi Arawi, um both Nichio and City, were both like comics that really blew my mind and have made me really think about what you could do in the medium um and and and the sort of things that comics can do that you can do in other medium, but are hard to do in other media, and that there's there's a real benefit to using this format to tell those types of stories. Um, and then lastly, I just mentioned apothecary diaries, which is another one that I've really enjoyed. Uh, I've enjoyed revisiting as I've been reading them aloud to Cassie. We were talking just last night that You know, it's been a couple of weeks since I've read out loud to her. And we really need to get back to that. So that's one of our again, we're not we're not also not resolution people, but You do make goals and goals are different than resolutions, fundamentally, I believe, to my core. So one of my goals this year is to just do that more often. Just, you know, spend a little more time with my wife, reading books out loud to her and I want to get back to uh apothecary diars. We're part way through book six. We still got ten to go before she's caught up. That's cool. But yeah, I I feel like again, pop culture-wise, it's been interesting. There's been a lot of interesting stuff. Um I think that my own interactions with pop culture have changed in a lot of ways. I there have been times when I've been playing a whole lot of gacha games and I have really pared back on those in the last couple of months. I don't have a single one of those Hoyo games installed on my PC anymore. I'm not out here playing Genshin or Star Rail or Zenless Zone Zero because I'm just like I reached a point where I just kind of burnt out on them. And that's okay. And that's good. And I could move on to other things. Um, spend my time doing other stuff. So, you know, that's kind of where we're at.

Peter
40:20
But very cool.

Eden
40:22
Talking about video games. Let's move on to the main event for today.

Peter
40:25
Talking about video games.

Eden
40:26
Um so after our last chat, Peter and I were talking and I was like, I'd really like to play a game, but I want to find something short. Um, but I think something that we'd both really enjoy. And I had seen this uh talked about on Blue Sky, I think. I I, you know, saw conversations about video games. And so I said, hey, uh, I haven't played this before. I'm not really familiar with it, but maybe we should give it a try. Here it's pretty short. And so today we played the game Ambrosia Sky, which has was pitched to me as, hey, what if. Power Wash Simulator had more of a story and was in like a weird sci-fi setting. And I was like, okay, I like Power Wash Simulator. We've talked multiple times, but how we both really like Power Wash Simulator. Um, and so I kind of side unseen was like, hey, let's both play this game, and you were up for it. And so that is what we did. Um, and I think that that I I I'm curious to see how you felt about it, but I think that that sales pitch of power wash simulator in a dystopian sci-fi setting Really sell short what this game is in comparison. What did you how'd you feel about this game? Or what what'd you think about it, Peter?

Peter
41:40
So I'm I'm gonna start with this and say 60 to 90 minutes in, I was a little worried that I was gonna sit down to record and say, Yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't finish it. And then when I finished it, I was so bummed that the story wasn't done. Yeah.

Eden
42:02
Yeah. This is important to note. This is only act one that is out, listeners.

Peter
42:07
Yeah. So so it was really it was a bit of a journey in that regards, in that at first I really did. I didn't know if I was gonna actually be able to play this to completion. Yeah. Because I was kind of bouncing off a few aspects of it. But then once I'd figured a few things out and, you know, you unlocked a few things and then stopped kind of stressing about stuff. Then I really, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a very interesting, uh, an interesting story that was told in a an effective way, even if there were definitely times where I was like, I kind of wish things were a bit more explicit. So that I knew better what was going on.

Eden
42:56
Yeah. I feel like I ended this with a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. Very, very, very few answers. Especially in regards to a lot of the proper nouns of the work, like, you know, what is the Ambrosia Project? I don't know. What does a scarab actually do besides shoot water at things to make the fungus disappear? I don't know. You know what is a leviathan and why are there organs around and what does that mean? What does any of this mean? Yeah.

Peter
43:27
Yeah. What what exactly are you doing when you biologically reclaim a body and it turns into a little flower that's grown out of what looks like a strand of DNA? I mean

Eden
43:40
Really evocative. Really evocative. I gotta say, like I I think that the art direction is really good in this game, especially for I it's one of those things where I you can tell that this is a small budget game that is made by a small studio with, you know, a a couple dozen people max, probably even smaller than that. You know, I I watched the credits. There was a lot of repeat names and there were not many of those names. So this is a small studio doing a thing. And again, like you said, releasing the first part of a game. And you know, I I I think that that is uh both a brave and a tough move. Um because they could have done early access um and they didn't. They chose to do it in acts rather than do early access. I think that's probably the right move because I wouldn't have bought it or paid for it if it had been an early access game

Peter
44:32
But I did I agree.

Eden
44:34
I did pay for it and play it because it told me it was Act One, which told me, okay, this is a product that they felt comfortable releasing, saying this is the product. We'll give you more. There will be more available for sale in the future. But this is the product as it is. And so I think that that was the right choice. I do, you know. I will say, you know, I think we'll get into uh a little bit of spoiler territory, talk through stuff, but the last the last map uh gave me some some issues. I had to do a I I tried to do some digging to find out how do I uh open these fucking doors and nothing was did not find any good answers online, I will say that, but I did stumble onto the Steam discussion forums. Where there was a fair amount of conversation about the idea of why did you do this as an Act One? Now I'm gonna have to pay for the rest of this game. And it's like Don't be such assholes. Like the developers are here in the wheel.

Peter
45:34
Wait, no, no, no, no. Just a second. Are you really trying to suggest that gamers in any way, shape, or form are gonna stop being assholes? I'm saying they should. I'm not saying they will.

Eden
45:44
Yeah, I know they should, but we all know that they're never going. I mean

Peter
45:49
I don't disagree with everything you've said.

Eden
45:51
Especially the type of people who post on the Steam discussions forums. Because those are the biggest losers who have ever lived. If you are on Steam in the discussion forums. sauceless, maidenless behavior. What are you doing?

Peter
46:06
It's true. It's true. That's interesting. So do we want to just like

Eden
46:11
Let's do it. Here's what I'll say. If you don't want to be spoiled, but you do want to play a profoundly sad game. About going home and finding everyone you knew basically is dead and then having to clean up after it. Go play this game If you want to hear him talk about it, then stick around.

Peter
46:33
And before we actually go into spoiler territory, I think it's important to highlight something that you already mentioned, and that is Yes, I guess some of these things are spoilers, but nothing is answers.

Eden
46:46
No.

Peter
46:47
All this is, all we're gonna talk about are things that raise more questions.

Eden
46:50
We're gonna talk about a lot of proper nouns. Uh, we're gonna talk about some characters who we know very little about, um, and probably some gameplay that is mostly pretty fun and occasionally extremely annoying.

Peter
47:04
Yeah, definitely.

Eden
47:12
So, the premise of the game, Ambrosia Sky. You are a you play as a character whose name starts with a D, and I can't think of what it is right now.

Peter
47:23
Now that you said it, I can't remember it's like Dahlia, I think.

Eden
47:26
Dahlia. It's Dahlia.

Peter
47:28
I think it's Dahlia.

Eden
47:29
You play as a woman named Dahlia. Who goes back to the weird colony in the asteroids around Jupiter or Saturn where she grew up? And where she ran away from 15 years ago. And she has to go back now because she works as a scarab, which are. Qu again, question mark, question mark, question mark, people who go around cleanup after weird fungus, like exofungus that's growing all over the solar system. and also reclaim bodies that have been dead less than 48 hours and who have ceded their genetic code to the Ambrosia product project. And you basically dissolve their bodies if they are not more than 48 hours dead. And they turn into DNA that turns into a flower. Um, you also are collecting leviathan parts. uh which are parts of a Leviathan question mark. Again, that's all we know is that this colony was built in the guts of a dead Leviathan. And so they use Leviathan parts to try to make things grow. Question mark. But you go back, you have been gone for 15 years. You go back, your bitch of a stepmom. Game never uses that term, but it's fairly clear. Your stepmom is a terrible person. Everyone hates her. She is the administrator of this colony. She is why you ran away. Leaving your girlfriend Maeve behind. And boy, was she mad at you about that? And understandably so. Um but you get called back 15 years later because the fungus is out of control and they need a scarab to come clean it up. And everyone is dead or missing. And you don't know where anyone is. You're finding a lot of dead bodies. You are cleaning up a lot of fungus. You are reading a whole lot. This is very immersive, Simi, in that you are reading a lot of terminals. You are reading a lot of emails or personal journals. you are kind of interacting with and trying to solve the question of what happened since I left through these data objects rather than through actual conversations. You don't hold a single conversation with a single person during the course of the game. Um But you just kind of explore, clean up, collect things until you get to the end. And as you said, it leaves you with nothing but questions. You finish the last level and I thought surely there'll be a level after this one. where I meet with Mave because, you know, your your handler dude says there's life signs out there. Mave is still out there. Ali she's out there alive. And so I thought maybe we will reunite with her and that is where it will end. No, sir, not at all. You finish that last level and then it just leaves you. in like a call with her as she is like growing fungus from her body and you just go, Mave, what have you done? And then the game is over. It was good. It was really good. It was so evocative. That's the thing that I really liked about this game. Is It used the constraints of being an indie game, having a small budget, to, I think, tell a story pretty effectively. Well You know, occasionally having quibbles with it. I don't know.

Peter
50:56
What were your thoughts on that? Uh like I said, I initially, well, uh there's an interesting thing that I'm gonna mention at the beginning. For reasons I still don't fully understand, this game kept reminding me of parts of Mass Effect Okay. I think it was exploring derelic space ruins in kind of an eerie haunting way. Because there's a fair amount of that in in different Stages and different missions in the Mass Effect game.

Eden
51:27
There's at least one in every single Mass Effect game.

Peter
51:30
So I I think that that's why it kept that was the thing that it kept making me think of. But It's again, there's almost like a a very mild, thank goodness, but a but a mild sort of Metroidvania aspect to it. In that you're going to go into go on little missions and depending on when you choose to go to that particular mission, because You do like the first one, and then from there, here's just a few other missions, and you can just pick whatever order you want. And then you're gonna pick more until you you get to the last one. But you absolutely could go on a mission where you're not going to be able to go everywhere and do everything because you haven't uh unlocked certain upgrades. And you can go back to those missions afterwards and try and clean a hundred percent. And I don't know, did you ever do that? Did you ever go back to a place after you had gone to it?

Eden
52:34
Because I wanted to keep moving.

Peter
52:36
Yeah, I mean I only did it once and it was interesting and going back to one that I had completed. You had across the top a little percentage cleaned both for the whole place you were at and then for each room that you went into. To kind of help you clean it out if you wanted to do that. Again, I I went back once just to go into one room that was obvious I couldn't get into because I didn't have the the burning, flamey one yet.

Eden
53:04
Yeah.

Peter
53:04
And then I went in and I popped in there and I was like, oh, I think I got one of the little things.

Eden
53:09
You got a scrimshaw thing.

Peter
53:10
Yeah. Yeah. That was all. So I didn't ever bother to go back because I did. I wanted to just continue the story because I was interested. Um But but there was there there is a it was very good at creating atmosphere and it was interesting that The one mission where I felt that the most was actually the one that was completely outside when you're cleaning the outside of the ship. Yeah. And you're just kind of floating around in space and You know, you're you're cleaning the exofungus off of the outside of this ship and then trying to figure out how to reroute the power to different different places so you can activate things and then eventually get to a point where you can unlock it and get inside. Um but it it was I really appreciated that aspect of it, that atmosphere that really it committed and it did a very, very good job of building that.

Eden
54:10
And I uh it you gotta say the soundtrack really sells it. Like it's got a very eerie atmospheric soundtrack that I think really helps sell the loneliness. sell the isolation, um, and ultimately the sadness that your character feels as they walk through this space that they used to You know, uh she she walks through this space and she keeps mentioning things to herself, um, where she's talking about her memories of the old farmer who used to let her hide from her terrible stepmom. or how she wished she had met the teacher because she seems like a really good person and like was doing all these important things, but that sh they'd never met each other and she feels sad that there is this whole life that she never got to interact with.

Peter
54:57
Yeah, I agree. No, it was it was it's a it is I don't want this that I'm gonna say this and this is gonna sound like I mean it negatively, and I actually don't. It's a bit of a thin game. Mechanics-wise, there's not a lot. Yeah. It really is. Let's spray stuff to get rid of stuff. And then mostly the only other real mechanic of any note is figuring out how to get power to certain things so that doors will open for you. I mean that's that's about it mechanically. Yeah And in terms of the story, again, there is a story there, but it is told in small little snippets through either emails or people's sort of like logs or journal entry type things that are there. And so that's all it's a little thin in that regard, but they do so much with what's there that it makes it very compelling. This isn't a game that had this been stretched out to 10 hours, I would not have finished it.

Eden
56:01
Yeah, I think that the it was the exact right length. And I I can go back if I feel, you know, the if I had got the druthers in the next week. I can go back and hop into some of those levels I've already done and do some cleaning, you know. Spray spray some water. um get some scrimshaw. And that's nice that I can go back and revisit those things, but like I think I, you know, I I can pull up Steam and find out exactly how long I spent, but it wasn't longer than three hours, three and a half hours. And I think that was the perfect length for it.

Peter
56:37
Yeah. Yeah, I think it was too. Um, so it was, and and I agree with you, and I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it. I they did make the absolute right choice in making this Act One because I bought it expecting That it wasn't going to complete the story, but that I had this whole game. And that's the big thing with early access games, and why even if I do buy them I often don't play them until I know they're done. Yeah. Because I don't want to put in time and get to a point where it's like, okay, well, that's as far as you can go now. Yeah. And who knows, who knows when our next update's gonna come out and you're gonna be able to get any further. But uh but this I think I appreciated basically their honesty. It was just honest. They were very forthright in a here's what we have so far. This is Act One to completion. Boom. There you go.

Eden
57:39
And you know, they've ten they say according to their site, tentatively act two and three are supposed to come out in 2026. So we shouldn't have to wait too long. Hopefully this is not a uh silksong situation where they said, oh, this will be out next year, and then nine years later it finally comes out. You know. Yep. Granted, it's it doesn't have the cultural cachet of Hollow Knight, and I think that's to its benefit because boy, I got I gotta imagine it sucked to make Hollow Knight and then have everyone have their expectations through the roof for whatever you followed it up with. That's why it takes eight years to make another one. Um I think it's worth mentioning the way that the mechanics work, I think, in this game. It is, for all intents and purposes, like PowerWatch Simulator, you are spraying liquid everywhere, but it's a lot messier. Um, and there are a lot of things that that I think Would make sense in a more robust game like the explosive uh squirty juice, like the electric squirty juice. Like the the hey this doesn't damage the seeds of squirty juice that I just didn't really use them very often because I didn't feel like I needed to. I used the electric one when I had to open a door And I never used the only time I used it. I never used the fire one once in a time where I was like, I needed to use the fire one. It was just like occasionally I felt like throwing the fire one out there.

Peter
59:01
Oh, see the only time I literally ever used the fire one were the times where I would come around and I'd see the fungus that you have to use the fire one on.

Eden
59:09
Yeah. I know yeah. I like I just never engaged with that fungus. I didn't realize that's what that's for, is for that one particular fungus. Now I'm like, oh, I thought those were just like weird Leviathan bits, and that's why I couldn't get through it.

Peter
59:22
No, that kind of darker purplish red that kind of looks sort of wavy stuff that wasn't the clusters. Yeah, that was specifically for the fire for the fire stuff.

Eden
59:31
So I can go back and visit that stuff now.

Peter
59:34
Yeah, so it'd burn that away. And again, all that was ever found behind those was like a scrimmage or something like that. So it wasn't anything essential. But that was literally the only time I ever used that. That's all that was ever for. And and I actually found the electrical one a little finicky at times. Because I'm like, okay, I'm spraying, I'm spraying. And and and there were there were other times where I'm like, well, this thing has electricity, but you're not recognizing that it has electricity. So the game is basically telling me, oh Well you can use it but but you can't use it here.

Eden
01:00:07
There's another solution you need to solve. And you're like, but I don't need to. I I shouldn't need to. I should be able to squirt my uh electric juice. Um I I mostly liked the you have like a grappling hook thing that you can use to both drag yourself to places and also drag the seeds to you, which I mostly liked. Occasionally it was really finicky, but it mostly worked the way I wanted it to. Um

Peter
01:00:31
And I think that part of my acceptance of how finicky it was was just my brain going, hey look, this is a budget title in a small team. I expect a certain degree of jank.

Eden
01:00:43
Absolutely.

Peter
01:00:44
And so I was okay with it. Like I found it annoying when I'm like, my bullseye is dead on this electrical or this explosive seed. And I activate it and it doesn't come to me.

Eden
01:00:56
Yeah.

Peter
01:00:56
But at the same time, it's like, yeah, you know, I'm like, this is small team budget title jank.

Eden
01:01:02
Yeah. But ultimately, I think it was really fun. I'm glad that we played it. Um I am very curious to see what happens with Dahlia and Maeve. Cause you can just tell leaving Dahlia Lee even fucked Mave up bad. And you know, she eventually moved on and had another relationship that also ended poorly because we found that person's corpse. Uh but she never really moved on. And I think that that's gonna be a big part of what might happen in Acts 2 and 3 is you reckoning with the the things that happened because you left. And I think that that is an interesting, an interesting storytelling device. And I think it did a really good job with it. And I'm very, very eager to see what they do next. I will, you know, we bought this one. I think part of it was, hey, it's on sale in the Steam sale. Let's give it a try. I've heard good things. I'm gonna be buying the new one on day one. I'm act two, I'm buying and playing the day it comes out because I am very curious to see where this game goes from here and the type of story that this uh team wants to tell.

Peter
01:02:07
I agree.

Eden
01:02:08
Well, any final thoughts on Ambrosia Sky before we wrap for our first episode of 2026?

Peter
01:02:14
Uh just that I am glad that you suggested it. I am glad that we played it. And I'm glad that I didn't let myself bounce off at that 60-ish, 90-ish minutes where I was kind of not really invested. Uh because by the time it was done, like I say, by the time it was done, I was very eager for continuation uh of of the story and hopefully maybe some answers.

Eden
01:02:42
Absolutely. Cool. Well, uh we'll be back in a couple of weeks, dear listeners, to chat about another fun topic, I'm sure. Um in the meantime, feel free to leave us a rating or a review, or you can reach out to us at feedback at the middle of culture. com. And I hope that everyone listening has a better 2026 than 2025, even if by some uh in amazing happenstance. Your 2025 was great. Well I hope your 2026 is worse. But if you are like most of us and you're like, man, 2025 sucked, may 2026 be better for all of us, dear listeners.

Peter
01:03:20
We can only hope.

Eden
01:03:23
All right. We'll be back in two weeks. See all then.

Peter
01:03:26
Bye.