In a world where mean are monsters and monsters are men - who is the real monster? The Psychgeist of Pop Culture: The Witcher delves into the psychology of the characters and stories of this popular franchise. From the original book collection to best-selling video game series, to the hugely popular Netflix show, The Witcher is a transmedia experience that has captivated hearts and minds across the globe. In this series of edited essays, we explore the psychology behind what makes this fandom so captivating and answers the question why, in The Continent filled with magic, we found ourselves and our lives reflected within it.

It's an interdisciplinary, multi-genre, mixed-form anthology featuring poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, personal essays, interviews, and analytical scholarship about and inspired by D&D—the game, the legends, the media, and the people. The book is a playful, imaginative, and critical response to D&D’s pop cultural renaissance, particularly during and after the global pandemic, with its appearances on television shows like Stranger Things, Community, and The Big Bang Theory, celebrity players like Vin Diesel, Deborah Ann Woll, Tim Duncan, Stephen Colbert, even Dame Judi Dench, as well as the growing popularity of actual play shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20.

Roll with Advantage gathers multiple voices, new and old, and cutting-edge perspectives to explore: D&D and narrative, storytelling, and worldbuilding; the relationships between D&D and players, characters, game masters, and gaming communities; and the intersection of D&D and gender, race, queerness, intertextuality, language, material culture, nostalgia, affect, pedagogy, and more.

In our first Book Talk, we chat with Dr. Rachel Kowert about the Psychgeist of Pop Culture Book Series.
https://playstorypress.org/all-psychgeist/

Over the last few decades, interest in pop psychology has grown faster than most of our Netflix backlogs. This series from Dr. Rachel Kowert highlights iconic pop culture content from television, film, literature, and video games through an examination of the psychological mechanisms that endear us to these stories for a lifetime.