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Howl’s Moving Castle, released in 2003, is one of the most famous movies in the Ghibli canon of films. Clearly, Hayao Miyazaki had some interesting ideas for this film when he first conceived of it – apparently being directly inspired to make the film by the horror he was feeling from the American invasion of … Continue reading #56 How to End a War (Howl’s Moving Castle)

Would you choose to live forever? It’s an age-old question, and while the thought of not dying is tantalizing, the Greek gods might be one of our best glimpses into what life would really be like if we were to live forever. Sure, you have power, and life is relatively easy, but would there be … Continue reading #55 Do you want to live forever? (Circe)

This pandemic has certainly shifted human behavior in ways that we hardly imagined possible only a few months ago. For one, we are spending a lot more time inside than we regularly would. Like many people, we have found this time challenging, but also interesting and in this episode we try and address how you … Continue reading #54 Finding Nature Indoors

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In this episode of the Pixel Meditations, we discuss minimalism, a topic that has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years. We discuss the various reasons why minimalism has become popular and some possible applications of it in our own personal lives. We talk about it from a physical perspective, as well as just … Continue reading #53 Exploring Minimalism

In this episode, we discuss the rise of Sega in the console hardware market. We talk about the Sega Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, CD, and 32X. The history of Sega's golden years are retold here.

In this episode of the Pixel Meditations, we talk about the preponderance of remakes in media right now. We start by talking about if this is a new trend in media and whether or not it has historical precedence. We get into the ways in which video games, movies, and tv shows have been remade … Continue reading #51 Remake the World (Remakes and Reboots in Media)

In the 50th episode of the Pixel Meditations, we cover one of the greatest game that has been released for the PS4 thus far, Nier: Automata. We cover all of the amazing aspects of this game from the incredible music, gameplay, and enigmatic story – getting deep into the meaning and underlying philosophy that motivated … Continue reading #50 Robots vs. Androids (Nier: Automata)

What was it like to grow up playing video games in the 90s? In this episode, the consoles, the Pokemn craze, the lack of internet, and growing up with video games is all covered.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. In this episode, Steve and Toby talk about Jack London’s famous novel, Call of the Wild. Seeing as Hollywood just released a movie based on the novel, it seemed like an appropriate time to make a podcast episode … Continue reading #48 Call of the Wild

In this episode, Steve interviews Daniel Rios, who is about to finish climbing all of Taiwan's top 100 peaks, which mostly difficult alpine treks over 3,000 meters. They talk about the history of these peaks, the difficulties and reason to even attempt these hikes, the skills needed to mountaineer, and their favorite and least favorite part of these hikes. There is a short conversation about gear and hiking in the rain, and anyone who is interested in trekking and mountains is bound to enjoy this episode.

Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. In this episode of the Pixel Meditations, we uncharacteristically weed into this developing and profound world event. Nobody knows where this crisis will go and how long it will last. We get into differences between different responses around … Continue reading #46 Coronavirus Crisis

In this episode, we talk about the classic video game, Bioshock. We talk about the atmosphere, the audiotapes, the story, and the combat. Everything from Rapture, to Big Daddies and Little Sisters, to plasmids is covered. The philosophy of Bioshock, objectivism, determinism, and the lack of free will also plays a huge role in this podcast episode.

Subscribe To our podcast on your favorite podcast app! Such as Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. In this episode of the Pixel Meditations we talk about the development of hiking in the 20th century. We cover aspects of hiking during this time such as its early philosophical underpinnings represented by thinkers such as John … Continue reading #44 All Hikers Welcome (Hiking in the 20th Century)

In this episode, we talk about Matthew Walker's book "Why We Sleep." We cover how and why we sleep, which includes circadian rhythm and adenosine, as well as how caffeine works. We then move on the benefits of sleeping for memory and for learning new skills as well as how students and employees can do better work with more sleep. On the flip side, we also talk about the negative effects of sleep deprivation, especially on mental health and performance, but we also had to mention how fatigued drivers can actually be more dangerous than drunk drivers. We had to talk about dreaming and REM sleep. We go into the benefits of dreaming and whether or not we should analyze dreams or not. Lastly, we talk about society and sleep. We argue that sleep should not be stigmatized.

In this episode we cover one of the most beloved classics of modern video gaming. We tackle this episode from the perspective of what it was like to play this game when it was first released and what it is like to play it in 2020, highlighting the aspects that truly stand out and aspects … Continue reading #42 Living in a Materia World (Final Fantasy VII)

In this episode, we talk about Studio Ghibli's most successful movie, Spirited Away. This famous animation from Miyazaki is one of the best selling animations of all time. We talk about the plot, our favorite characters, fan theories, and themes such as capitalism, Japanese culture, and conservation.

In this episode, we add another addition to our Nature series which we recently started, this time with the focus on the history of hiking. We cover the topic from prehistory, through the middle ages up until the industrial revolution and right up until the beginning of the 20th century. We get into aspects of … Continue reading #40 Hiking then, and Now

In this episode, we talk about the 2010s. We talk about our personal experiences, trips in nature and how nature shaped our life experience, our favorite video games for each year, and the end of the 7th generation and beginning of the 8th generation. We end the discussion by talking about the state of podcasting, what makes a good podcast, and some of the podcasts that inspire us. Join the Conversation thepixelmeditations@gmail.com reddit.com/thepixelmeditations Twitter: @thepixelmeditation Special Thanks to Jonathan McDougall for creating our outro song. YouTube – TaiwanJon

In this episode of the Pixel Meditations we talk about our shared interest and love of nature. Particularly coming at it from the perspective of our own unique experiences in nature and what aspects of it we find the most interesting or compelling. We get into a bit about the philosophy of “What nature is” … Continue reading #38 Nature and Us