Kenneth Hite and Robin D Laws
500 episodes listed below
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Podcast by Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Game-design thinking gives cultural history, political lore, and unexplained phenomena a playful but exacting second look.
Robin D. Laws and Kenneth Hite turn conversation into a lively collision between game design and cultural history. Questions about dice, campaign frames, and the meanings of role-playing share space with CIA front operations, fantasy film, saints, surrealism, and strange sites…
St. Cuthbert clears an island of demons, and your next game night suddenly has a setting.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, reference-heavy conversation that treats the detours as part of the point.
Ken Hite and Robin D. Laws start with the two meanings of role-playing, then range out to Ethel Cahoon, fantasy film essentials into the 50s, and some well-placed badgering of John Ruskin. The thread is loose, but that looseness suits the episode.
A brisk run through odd topics, with a frontier story and a steady stream of well-aimed detours.
This episode moves from PC Identity Crises to Rufus Climax Jim Nephew, then keeps rolling into Post-War Fantasy Film Essentials and Occult Immortality.
A brisk, sideways conversation that keeps a mystery open instead of closing it down.
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff moves through campaign frames, the Margate Shell Grotto, Wartime Fantasy Film Essentials, and the Michigan Dogman with a steady taste for uncertainty.
A saint story that reads like fantasy rules in disguise.
The episode treats St. Cuthbert as saintly lore first and story second, with miracles that land like fire suppression, demon removal, and island taming.
A brisk tour of the wily servant that shows how the type keeps resurfacing in new forms.
This episode follows the wily servant from Elizabethan stage stock to Commedia dell'arte trickster, and it makes that line feel easy to follow.
A diagnosis opens into ghosts, silent-era fantasy, and a shipwreck.
Ken and Robin start with a diagnosis that feels clinical for a minute, then quickly drifts into questions of voice, persona, and the harder truth that the literature never really hands over a neat answer. The best stretch comes when they lean into that uncertainty.
Covert power, folkloric scandal, and a patient circuit through institutional bad faith.
This episode moves from bad guys steering the authorities to CIA front operations, the swill milk affair, and the New England vampire epidemic without losing its line of thought.
A brisk mix of game history, structure, and one very strange goblin.
Ken and Robin move from Skipping the Big Battle into Milton Bradley the Person, Journey Narratives, and the Hopkinsville Goblin, so the episode feels like a conversation across design, structure, and folklore rather than a tidy topic list.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
Philosopher Barry Lam turns reported stories — gig algorithms, AI music, vampires — into philosophical inquiry.
Economist Glenn Loury interviews one guest at a time on race, religion, and geopolitics.
Peter Boghossian applies street epistemology to guests debating free speech, immigration, and belief.
Vox's narrative reporting on factory farming, pandemic risk, and its Good Robot AI safety series.
Ken and Robin discuss RPG design topics and promote the Meowtropolis Kickstarter for Magical Kitties Save the Day.
Ken and Robin promote the Meowtropolis Kickstarter, a superhero expansion for the Magical Kitties Save the Day RPG.
Ken and Robin discuss wrapping a Fall of Delta Green campaign, a new superhero RPG setting for Magical Kitties, and other topics.
Ken and Robin discuss the dual meanings of 'role-playing' in gaming, explore artist Ethel Cahoon's occult surrealism, review fantasy films from the 1950s, and humorously tackle John Ruskin's 'pathetic fallacy' with a time travel twist.
Ken and Robin discuss RPG character identity crises inspired by the film Companion, explore the legendary outlaw Rufus Climax Jim Nephew, review essential post-war fantasy films, and delve into occult methods of immortality across history and gaming settings.
Ken and Robin discuss campaign frames versus settings in tabletop RPGs, using examples from World of Darkness and Marvel.
Ken and Robin discuss the card game Vicious Gardens, reimagine the listserv Project Wombat for occult horror gaming, explore St.
Ken and Robin discuss gaming the apocalypse with tips on campaign structure, explore the wily servant trope from ancient times to modern media, highlight essential 1930s fantasy films, and investigate the controversial Grimes Graves goddess archaeological find.
Ken and Robin discuss the role of dice in RPGs, a strange medical case of hallucinatory diagnosis, silent era fantasy films, and a historical naval battle with time-travel implications.
Ken and Robin discuss game design tips for handling corrupt authorities in RPGs like Night's Black Agents, explore CIA black budgets and covert operations, delve into the 19th century swill milk scandal in New York, and examine the New England vampire panic linked to tuberculosis outbreaks.
Ken and Robin discuss game design techniques for making off-screen battles suspenseful, explore the history of Milton Bradley and board games, analyze journey narratives in RPGs, and delve into the 1955 Hopkinsville Goblin UFO case with gaming applications.
Ken and Robin discuss game design principles, including bending historical accuracy for fun, explore the mysterious map of Niccolo Zeno, delve into the culinary history of snake cakes, and propose a time travel mission to remove Woodrow Wilson from office.
Ken and Robin discuss time slip mechanics for a colonial Pennsylvania RPG scenario, share a trip to Roswell's UFO crash site, analyze the failing Washington Bridge in Providence, and debunk new pseudo-archaeology claims about underground structures at Giza.
Ken and Robin role-play navigating a fictional puzzle adventure at Castle Slogar, referencing a game book.
Ken and Robin navigate a fictional interactive story set at Castle Slogar, using a puzzle book to find a missing party.
Ken and Robin discuss a puzzle book adventure set in Castle Slogar, blending role-playing game elements with interactive fiction.
Ken and Robin promote a new card game called Vicious Gardens, a competitive gardening sabotage game.
Ken and Robin discuss tabletop RPG topics including prepping for a techno-thriller game and a new edition of Ars Magica.
The hosts perform an improvised comedy skit about cats on a space station.
Ken and Robin role-play navigating a gloomy party at Castle Slogar using a puzzle game book.