Gamers With Lives - Shawn Andrich Part 2

Gamers With Lives Episode 5 - Shawn Andrich Part Two

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Sean McKenna hosts a series of interviews starting with the GWJ Conference Call podcasters and guests. This month Sean talks to Shawn Andrich in part 2 of their long ranging interview. Future plans, the origins of Gamers With Jobs, the worst thing he ever did to his little brother and more!

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Produced by Sean McKenna

Comments

Sean is a great interviewer. Look forward to the next.

Shawn, enjoyed your answers. You are a very interesting and kind spirit.

Really enjoyed that one - learned so much about Shawn and what makes him tick.

It's weird. I have never met any of the GWJ crew, but in some ways the Conference Call feels very intimate. It's not a scripted radio or TV show, it feels more like a conversation that you happen to be listening in to. You start to think of the hosts as people you could be friends with. Of course this could be totally the wrong impression - podcasts are to some extent a performance just like any other media, but the effect is definitely there. And because of this fact, you naturally want to learn more about them. They feel like celebrities that are approachable! And people love learning about celebrities - even if they are just celebrities for a tiny corner of the internet... So thanks for this interview series!

P.S. We have Christmas crackers, complete with the awful jokes, in Australia - probably one of the few other places in the world that have them....

Of course this could be totally the wrong impression - podcasts are to some extent a performance just like any other media, but the effect is definitely there.

I mean, sure, there's some degree of being "on" for the show, but there's not much of a performance mask. I think the only reason I've been able to do this show for this long so easily is just that the conversations are exactly what you'd get if we were sitting in the room together without a microphone. The only artifice is just the structure, but other than that I can't really think of any meaningful difference in who we are, what we'd say or how we interact.

The microphone has become very incidental at this point.

Marzipan wrote:

It's weird. I have never met any of the GWJ crew, but in some ways the Conference Call feels very intimate. It's not a scripted radio or TV show, it feels more like a conversation that you happen to be listening in to. You start to think of the hosts as people you could be friends with.

I had the same impression, which is why I started listening regularly, and then eventually found my way to the forum. And Sean, it doesn't feel like a performance at all (to me, at least), but just a group of friends who really like something and are excited to talk with each other about it.

As a very occasional participant on the show, and as a friend of the crew, I can say the only real difference is the way they make room in the track for others to speak while on mic. (A trick I haven't learned too well yet myself.) Otherwise, it's really just the same conversation in a different room.

1) I will never look at Orange Crush the same way again.

2) Santa's favourite singer is Elvish Costello.

LastSurprise wrote:
Marzipan wrote:

It's weird. I have never met any of the GWJ crew, but in some ways the Conference Call feels very intimate. It's not a scripted radio or TV show, it feels more like a conversation that you happen to be listening in to. You start to think of the hosts as people you could be friends with.

I had the same impression, which is why I started listening regularly, and then eventually found my way to the forum. And Sean, it doesn't feel like a performance at all (to me, at least), but just a group of friends who really like something and are excited to talk with each other about it.

Likewise for me. I actually listened to the CC for a long time (a couple of years) before finally dropping into the forum, but this does seem like an extension of the group of friends on the CC itself.

Nice interview and thanks for opening up Shawn! It has been interesting to see your evolution over the past 15 years and going down the path of Buddhism, inner tranquility, helping others, etc. What was the name of the drug you mentioned?

I'd mentioned MDMA (maps) research and Ayahuasca.

Thanks it was the second one and an interesting read. I think almost everyone could benefit from a ceremony/medicine that achieves this:

The ayahuasca brew puts people in a state of deep introspection for about four hours. When they emerge, they often report newfound insights into their unhealthy behaviors.
LeapingGnome wrote:

Thanks it was the second one and an interesting read. I think almost everyone could benefit from a ceremony/medicine that achieves this:

The ayahuasca brew puts people in a state of deep introspection for about four hours. When they emerge, they often report newfound insights into their unhealthy behaviors.

They're leaving out the bits like wearing a diaper for when you have diarrhea and the potential for you to have a four hour nightmare.

I do hope they'll get the OK to do it outside because the DMT trials that took place were in bland, white hospital rooms. Not exactly conducive to introspection so much as freaking out.