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- FAR OUT Episode 2, plus Obi-Wan, Ms. Marvel, mobile gaming, and more!
FAR OUT Episode 2, plus Obi-Wan, Ms. Marvel, mobile gaming, and more!
Hello friends! It's been a long, bad month for pretty much all of us, I think, given what's going on in the world. I'm burying myself in work (which is non-stop, thanks to the pressures of putting a show out every month + a looming book deadline). When I'm off work, I've been offline if only because I have to mitigate the constant flow of bad news somehow. If you've been struggling with this as well, and feel like you're a bad person for disconnecting, I am here to tell you that you cannot be an activist all the time. You cannot be paying attention all the time. You need to rest so you can come back refreshed.
If you need a distraction, I really enjoyed this oral history of the movie Contact from Vulture. And this essay by my close friend Eric Smith about his autistic son made me cry.
Until next month, take care of yourselves. Find joy in whatever you can, and hold onto it, my friends.
Swapna
FAR OUT, Episode 2: The future of drinking water
The second episode of Far Out, my new YouTube show on PBS Terra, is finally here! We have an amazing team that works so hard to put this show together, and I'm incredibly proud to be a part of it. If you have thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment.
FAR OUT promo!
I've also been doing a lot of cool promo for FAR OUT!
Over at the Shifting Our Schools podcast, I talked about being a science journalist and STEM communicator.
Shifting Our Schools - Education : Technology : Leadership: Being a Science Communicator with Swapna Krishna on Apple Podcasts — podcasts.apple.com
Swapna Krishna is a science and technology communicator specializing in the geek space. She regularly creates science videos on TikTok and contributes to Wired, NPR, StarTrek.com, New Scientist, and Engadget. Krishna's writing has appeared in outlets such as The Verge, Polygon,…
I also appeared on BJ Mendelson's WAYWO show to talk about what I'm working on.
Swapna joins us to talk about her new show on PBS, Far Out! We also nerd out quite a bit.
Wired Gaming
Over at Wired, I talked about the mobile game I've started playing every day, and took a hard look at my embarrassment around it.
Mobile gaming shouldn't be embarrassing, and yet, here I am.
I also detail why Pokemon Legends Arceus (my first Pokemon game) is working for my tired, anxious brain.
When I can't turn my brain off, I trick it into relaxing.
And finally, I talked about why I keep going back to Cozy Grove even though I don't usually return to video games after I've put them down.
That's why I keep going back to it.
Desi Geek Girls: Obi-Wan and Ms. Marvel
We recorded a few episodes of Desi Geek Girls over the past month. Don't worry, we do have a discussion of the Obi-Wan finale coming, I've just been traveling so we haven't had the chance yet.
This week, Swapna and Preeti are all way in on Disney+'s Obi Wan Kenobi. They also chat through the big news out of Star Wars: Celebration, give some light, non-spoilery Ms. Marvel reactions, and talk about the new Thor: Love & Thunder trailer. Plus, Preeti asks Swapna a bunch of questions about her new show on PBS digital: Far Out!
This week, Swapna and Preeti dive into the premiere of Disney+'s Ms. Marvel! Spoiler alert: they love it.
This week, Swapna and Preeti dive deep into episodes 3 - 5 of Obi Wan on Disney+. There are a lot of feelings about that flashback scene, horror at some of those fights, and in general a lot of (good) stress about where it's going. Also, they talk about disaster characterization, Tim Drake, Peter Parker, Star Trek 4, that Joker 2 news and more. Spoilers throughout for Obi Wan through episode 5.
Book and TV recommendations
I finished the audiobook of the third book in Kiersten White's Guinevere trilogy, The Excalibur Curse, and y'all. I cannot recommend this highly enough. I also want to mention Spear by Nicola Griffith, a novella about Percival that actually made me interested in Percival for once.
I started the audio of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, a novel about female anger that seems entirely appropriate right now. I'm still watching The Silent Sea but eventually I'll finish the series and move on to For All Mankind, season 3.