If I could just stick to one or two interests, I would probably have an easier time describing what I do. As it is, I've got a lot of other projects and esoterica that I want to tell you about! Let's dive in!
I Get That A Lot is a podcast where I interview all sorts of fascinating people about the jokes they hear all the time, whether it's about their name, their job, their height or their hair. It's silly, it's earnest, and I'm really proud of it. You can listen to it in all the usual podcast places, or follow it on Instagram. Here's one of my favourite episodes to get you started:
In Escape Hamilton, my co-host Kirsty and I do and review all manner of escape rooms. We started in the city of Kirikiriroa Hamilton (because we lived there) but have since expanded out to escape rooms around New Zealand (season 2) and now Sydney (season 3).
I would say it's about a 40/60 split between game design analysis and absolute nonsense, that nonetheless appears quite highly on a popular online list of escape room podcasts.
You can listen to it in all the usual podcast places, or follow it on Instagram.
Every year I put out a puzzle designed to be solved on the couch with your friends and family. All the clues are some sort of wordplay. Some are cryptic-crossword-style nerdery. Many are horrendous puns. It's a good time.
The full compendium of all the puzzles is available on itch.io, and features lovely design by Ellie Featherson. Go check it out!
I have a regular(ish) newsletter that partly shares what I'm up to, but is mainly links to nifty things that I've read/heard/seen/encountered(?) recently.
You can read old issues and sign up for more here.
I'm a contributing question writer for the BBC2 quiz show Only Connect!
One of my questions was profiled in a newspaper article for being 'outrageously hard'. No such thing as bad publicity, right?
Many years ago as a coding project I built a website that will pitch you a new theatre production. I originally made it to be snarky about some of the shows I was seeing other people put on, but I found I actually quite like some of the things it's proposed. Let me know if you ever stage one of them!
Several years later I also made a twitter account that automatically generates contestant introductions for Only Connect (y'know, the one from above). Twitter is now X and they also banned fun bots so now it's gone to sleep.