For the very last episode of Games People Play, Hannah and Alanna return to Christmas once more to talk about spending the holidays alone. It's kind of weird to walk the empty streets when all the stores or closed.

Diving deeper into dating. Hannah talks with designers Meg Baker, Liz Chaipraditkul, and Nathan Black about overlaps between the questions "what defines a real date?" and "what defines a real game?"

Hannah and Alanna talk social games around first dates. Pick up artists, unwritten rules, dating dolphins, and why we still haven't found a reliable algorithm for good chemistry.

Something a little different. Hannah goes solo to talk about meta games around recording Games People Play: wanting to sound articulate for guests, verbal tics, too many "likes," and hating the sound of your own voice.

Hannah and Alanna talk phobias! Babies, bed bugs, and the gut-twisting horror of clowns. Can you design a game around something squicky you can't even engage with? We give it a whirl!

We're joined by special guest Stephen Dewey, designer of the Ten Candles roleplaying game, to talk parties! Stephen proposes a fourth party player—the aquarium keeper—and has great suggestions for incorporating game convention community guidelines into home parties.

Episode CW for discussion of alcohol and non-consent.

Hannah and Alanna talk about who's allowed to cry, when and where we're supposed to cry, and the trouble with onion memes.

Hannah and Alanna talk about which players benefit most from the nostalgia game, and who gets left behind.

We're joined by special guest designer Evan Rowland to talk about the controversial history of standardized testing in the United States. With an extended D&D metaphor from Alanna, who has never played D&D.

Desperate times call for bananas.

We're joined by tabletop game designer Joshua A.C. Newman to talk about...grocery stores! We cover self-checkout machines, queuing theory, toilet paper preferences, and panic attacks in the spaghetti sauce aisle.