What is Life

We had such a lovely conversation with our friend Flynn DeMarco this week about poking the nest and building authentically inclusive, kinder spaces within communities. We originally met Flynn in the mid 2000s during his time as founder of Gaygamer.net, the first prominent gaming website to cater to a primarily queer audience. Flynn and his husband Richard also appeared on Season 1 of LEGO Masters in the US and are helping shepherd the same feeling of inclusiveness and representation in the LEGO community. “We’re all worthy of love, we’re all worthy of being seen, and we’re all worthy of our talents being recognized for what they are.”“Wait a minute we’re gonna be a gay married couple on the first season of a reality competition show that has to do with a toy that is made by the largest toy company in the world that has massive reach not only to adults but also to kids? The significance of that was amazing… and also a little intimidating...”Find Flynn and Richard on YouTube on their Tricky Bricks channel, and find Flynn on social media as @trickybricks.Find Chris and Jinny on the socials as @chrisfurniss and @jinnyjuice, respectively. And follow along on Jinny’s bladesmithing adventure @pinkbladesmith.SUPPORT THE SHOW - leave a rating and review, or just tell a friend about us! We'd really appreciate it!SHOW NOTES:Games journalism in the mid 2000sStarting GayGamerBreaking the hypermasculine gamer stereotypeShit disturbingQueer representationThe Top 10 Gayest Characters in video games articleIf the nest has not been poked, somebody’s gotta poke it at some point. How to deal with toxicity in communitiesPoking the nest at E3Finding representation in communitiesMale-dominated maker communitiesMetal shop mastersCommunities with entrenched powerWhen do you stop fighting for a seat at the table and start making your own table?E3, Bioshock and meeting Ken LevineGamers with entitlement issuesGetting into LEGO as an adultMissing FlickrThe LEGO Masters casting processRepresentation on the screenLEGO LGBTQIA+ related setsHow to solve the yellow figure problemRELATED LINKS:Flynn and Richard on YoutubeLEGO Masters on HuluMetal Shop Masters on NetflixRae Ripple from Metal Shop MastersLEGO Fab 5 LoftLEGO Everyone is Awesome set

This week on What is Life Jinny and Chris are joined by Tasha Sounart, Parks Creative Director at Pixar. Tasha has been an internet friend for ages and we were so excited to talk to Tasha about her passions and life in animation, games and theme park design. We had a lively discussion about meeting people on the internet who you consider friends, even if you’ve never met in real life - as well as Pixar movies, Kingdom Hearts, Costume Quest, journal comics, cooking and cookbooks. Audio note: Our chickens make an appearance constantly throughout the episode, and Jinny and Chris try out a new microphone situation. We will be improving said microphone situation in the next episode.And Jinny finished her first knife!SUPPORT OUR SHOW IF YOU WANNA:Follow @whatislifecast on Twitter!Follow @whatislifecast on Insta!Visit our website!Subscribe to the show!Leave a review on Apple Podcasts!Links to things mentioned in the show:CRKT everyday carryBluescape work platformThe Big Board - Zak McClendon @ PRACTICE 2018Jinny’s EDC - the CEO BambooWhat is a euphonium? Tasha’s comicChris’ journal comicsJon Nielsen’s journal comics - Cars Don't TalkKeiler Roberts journal comicsHilda on NetflixCook Korean! - Robin HaYES PLZ coffee (referral link)Cooking My Way Back Home: Recipes from San Francisco's Town HallJinny finished her first knife!

We (Jinny and Chris) kick off the first episode of What is Life with a retrospective of the decade since we ended our previous podcast, The Weekly Geek (welcome, Weekly Geek fam, we missed you!) We catch you up on what we’ve been up to in this extended hour-and-a-half-long episode covering a wide range of topics like blade smithing, parenting, comics, reality shows, corporate life and using creativity as a conduit for mindfulness. What is Life is a show about the things in life that make us stop and take notice, the things that activate us and keep us looking forward to the future. Future episodes will feature guest co-hosts, but for this intro episode we wanted to spend some time introducing ourselves first. We hope you enjoy it. Audio quality note: Being that this is our first time back in podcast land there is some background noise from our dog walking around on our hardwood floors and us shifting in our seats, screwing and unscrewing our coffee thermoses and so forth. This will be improved in future episodes! We will also get a proper theme song soon but for this episode it’s Stem by Lower Dens off the album Nootropics. There are also a few curse words here and there, so if you’re listening with kids around please be aware we drop a few F bombs from time to time.Connect with us on Twitter and Instagram @whatislifecast or leave a review and let us know what you think! We also have a website at whatislifepodcast.com. Find Chris and Jinny on Instagram and Twitter @chrisfurniss and @jinnyjuice respectively.