Danswers 05: Samantha Kalman

Despite the high quality of this podcast so far, this certainly is my favorite by a mile. There was a great attention to nuance in the answers given by the group, and Samantha was able to provide some terrific insight and practical advice. I continue to be astonished by her decency/bravery/coolness.

Thanks, y'all!

This episode just cements my huge crush on Samantha Kalman (or Samantha KalDan, I guess).

LUV ILC represent!

I liked Damantha better. Unsubscribe.

This episode was fantastic for so many reasons :D, Samantha Kalman is so relaxing and informative to listen to!

Man, excommunicating somebody you supposedly love because of what makes them happy seems so fucking petty. I'll never understand.

Last Danswers, I asked FrankieOnPCin1080P advice on a girl i liked, so I messaged him again after this episode:

Ryan: "hey buddy, can I bother you again?"
Frankie: "Yeah mate, what's up?"
Ryan: "I got a friend who is getting married and my buddy is marrying my ex and I have a girlfriend who is his ex, and it's just awkward. Should I go?"
Frankie: "..........Serious, where does this come from?"
Ryan: "I know a site, which does game reviews, let's play, etc site that plays game, but their viewers can ask them questions like what they do in relationships, advice on drinking, etc. So what do you think?"
Frankie: ".......you need help. Why would you ask me advice like this? I know nothing about this."
Ryan: "just answer the damn question Frankie."

I'm working on getting him back as a friend.

Wouldn't be surprised if she got hired soon

It's seriously the best

Great stuff, love Samantha Kalman ...also think irs pretty cool that GiantBomb can participate in intelligent thoughtful conversations about transgender issues especially after everything that went down last year

Wow. Not to sound like a jerk but I had no idea Samantha was transgender. That's awesome. It's good to see that the Dan's are saving questions for people that can actually answer them. This show is great as always. Never would have seen this sort of stuff showing up on GB but this is good for everyone and I'm glad for it. This fucking Ryckert has been a tidal wave since he showed up.

Best episode by far. Samantha is such a damn reasonable person and acts as a great foil to the sometimes over-the-top answers of the other two. She eally balanced out the podcast and had some great, thoughtful, understanding answers. I love that she's become more prominent as a friend of Giant Bomb. Great work by all involved.

This is the most important pod cast series since the internet.

Sa-Dan-tha is the only acceptable variant, you monsters!

Great episode! I'm glad Samantha was on. I liked the discussions about transgender.

Dan still surprises me a little by how mature he can be with serious topics while being kinda ridiculous about other things.

I don't think anyone could mistake Samantha's camaraderie with any gross shilly business stuff. She's never once came across that way.

Now, Lang on the other hand...

(Just kidding, I love Dave Lang.)

I didn't either! She's a fun guest on podcasts.

Goddamn!

I'm only 26 mins in and this is already the best episode. Samantha is THE PERFECT addition. It's going to be hard to listen to episodes that she's not on.

I look forward to when this podcast becomes nothing but people saying 'Dan' for 90 minutes.

Its things like this that make me sit back and think to myself, thank goodness for Giantbomb :) they do cool stuff with games and cool stuff with life :D

Another great episode, this last two episodes have been great in two different and magnificent ways

@emuprime:

@amyggen: I thought so. What's with the championship belt in the thumbnail then?

@jedted: I think it's from one of the promo's she cut for one of the PAX wrestling events, I think it was for the first one actually.

The one thing I will say that I think is a shame is that it was recorded weeks ago and is only going up now, but it was said even longer ago that she would be on the show. I can imagine there were probably a good few people who've been emailing in questions specifically for Samantha in the time between this and the last podcast.

This was great - having someone from a different background really opens up the discussion to a wider array of topics! I really think Danswers is going places, and that can only be a good thing. People should be talking about these things, and it's really good for people to hear about them from people who can discuss these things so plainly, and then go back to chatting about video games without carting along a shedload of awkwardness, embarrassment and stigma.

Interesting, had no idea about any of that stuff

"Jesus is better than nothing, I guess"

- Dan Ryckert

Transgender people don't "change" genders. Rather, a person is born wired to feel a certain way, but their body and reproductive organs don't match up with that disposition. It's not merely psychological; hormones are involved as well. The vast majority of pre-transitioned transgender people experience gender dysphoria, which is the feeling of tremendous discomfort from your outsides not matching your insides. I can't possibly imagine how this feels, not being trans, but I've read that it's like drowning in one's own body.

Many medical professionals advocate transitioning as a means of lessening the effects of gender dysphoria which, left untreated, can result in severe depression, anxiety, and even suicide. Transitioning can range from wearing clothing and makeup congruent with a certain gender identity, taking hormones, or undergoing sexual reassignment surgery.

Like @samanthazero said, there's not that many movies about queer culture in the mainstream media, which is disappointing.

There's quite a few if you look into indie stuff though, and I found it helped quite a few of my queer friends to see them. Some of 'em living in more conservative places, it was great for them to know they weren't alone, even if the only contact they had with the culture was from a movie.

Anyway, I loved the podcast. Thank you.

It sounds like you're getting 'gender' and 'sex' confused. Maybe the Genderbread Person can help!

Samantha Kalman, Dan of the Year 2015.

@rusalkagirl said:

@venekor said:

Is this the Transgender developer? If so I hope this episode goes through her personal upbringing, interested to know how someone is born one gender but changes to the other. I don't understand how you can be male but feel female, it just doesn't make sense to me, be cool to find out.

It sounds like you're getting 'gender' and 'sex' confused. Maybe the Genderbread Person can help!

This is super interesting, thanks for posting! I would identify as a straight male, though I'd say I express myself in a more 'feminine' way, and while I'm sexually and romantically attracted to women, I also find myself romantically attracted to men from time to time, and generally attracted to more 'androgynous' women. It's interesting to see something like this, displaying it in a less 'binary' way.

I'd completely forgotten about Alan Partridge! Personal favourite bit: https://youtu.be/uIqa11NCbmA

Ooooh, you're gonna have a good time watching that!

Dan wanting to work for WWF/WWE reminds me that two of my friends could of worked for them as well. One friend had two choices out of college: 1) Law school 2) Writer for WWF. He chose law school.

The other friend was recruited to be "Vice President of Digital Advertising at WWE." He chose not to interview for the position because he heard from other people that it was a weird place to work. I mean, Vince McMahon is actually your boss!

Dan's attitude on sticking to plans is so fucking childish. This is the real world. Reminds me of myself in the past.

As much as I like Dan most of the time, sometimes Dan just really rubs me the wrong way.

Look, I wanna jump on the "Samantha Kalman is awesome" train, because yeah, she totally is and this was a great episode.. but on the Tested podcast she said Final Fantasy VII was bad. So yeah, she's totally awesome, but not the best thing ever..

But yeah, Danswers rule.

She looks like Okada! Rainmaker!

Awesome episode. Thanks peeps!

What a miserable attitude to have. The "real world" is what you make of it. Nothing childish about holding on to your goals and not letting go. You could learn something from your past self.

FF7 is overrated.

Im still not sure who this person is I wish I could be as excited as other people seem to be.

Samantha is rad.

Cool!

She's an indie developer that's been on Bombin' in the A.M. and Unprofessional Fridays before. I'm not really into any of the games she's made, so not someone I follow, myself.

I didn't know Samantha was transgender and I know passing can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but she's the passingest person I've ever seen.

I take issue with Dan's assertion that we should "obviously" realize that he realizes the direct similarities between plays and professional wrestling. I have watched near every piece of content on Giant Bomb that has featured Dan. It would be foolish to take for granted that Dan realizes something or "obviously" knows something. It's foolish to assume anything of Dan, short of his stance on Taco Bell and pro wrestling. That's not a mistake you make repeatedly.

Then again, maybe his entire existence has been a reincarnation of Andy Kaufman and he knows it. Just sayin' you can't rule it out...

I had no idea about Samantha's past, it was fascinating hearing her story and the advice she had.

Great episode, plus Samantha's awesome anyways.

On the one hand, if you made a plan when you were a child that obviously lacked very much thought, there's no reason to stick to it when you're an adult.

But yes, in general, if you make a commitment to something, I think it reflects well on your character to stick by it. The wedding +1 thing is a weird plan to stick to because it sounds like it just makes half the people unhappy, and the non-girlfriend +1 may not care that much if the question asker changes their mind and wants to take the girlfriend as the +1 instead.