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Several years ago I was on an NYC subway and my friend told me to listen to this speech he had on his primitive, first-generation iPhone. We listened together, one earbud in each of our ears, as an older white dude spoke about systems of privilege and oppression. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what […]

Every new year I say to myself, “Self, keep track of the media you love this year so when December rolls around you know exactly what to write about,” and every year, I don’t do it. This year is no different. Trying to come up with some of my favourites of the year often results in […]

It’s no secret that I put a premium on compassion and humanity in games and really, in all art, but if ever I felt a particular need for art that said something about hope, friendship, partnership, love, and our connections with each other, it was this past year. Thankfully, it was a banner year for games […]

For me, this was the year of the podcast. Whether waiting in an airport terminal or securely seated on a train, I was happy to temporarily retreat from the world and listen to folks speak for hour-long stints on a whole host of fascinating topics. Talk about an excellent way to pass the time – especially […]

Cinema, like all the arts, felt particularly urgent and necessary to me this past year. In the midst of all the sometimes overwhelming shock, rage and fear of 2017, these are the five films that most effectively grounded me back in my own humanity, helped me understand this particular moment in time, and made me remember […]

For what it’s worth (quite a lot, actually), there were moments of solace and triumph in the largely fetid swamp of 2017. For my money, 99% of those moments were born from the work, passion, and creativity of trans folks, the disabled community,* and people of color. I learned more and laughed harder this year than […]

In times of particularly intense struggle or hardship, people sometimes say that it’s difficult to see why film or TV or video games might matter. To me, it’s often times like this when the necessity of art in our lives becomes the clearest, and in 2017, I found television particularly important as a way of trying […]

NOTE: This piece references events that take place at the end of Stranger Things season two. I want to tell you about Eleven, and why she’s my favorite in a long line of young magical outsiders. I wonder, would she prefer I call her Jane now? Jane strikes me as too plain a name for her […]

SPOILERS: Super Mario Odyssey’s climax sees our hero Mario, who has made a 30-plus-year career out of rescuing Princess Peach, once again doing battle with Bowser to save her from his vile clutches. Okay, okay, you probably saw that coming, but just to be clear, this post discusses endgame story events in Super Mario Odyssey in […]

Happy fall, y’all! We’ve added a new recommendation to our list of nonfiction feminist media: Sara Ahmed’s newest book, Living a Feminist Life. Anita can’t put it down, and my copy is here beside me as I type, sitting in a spot of honor on my bedside table. As a long-time student of gender studies, I’ve […]