A Life Well Wasted

Latest episodes

Showing 13 · updated from the feed

Game Over

Robert Ashley catches up with a former guest of the show, gets some layoff numbers from the current downturn in the games industry, and talks to several developers who wo

Sep 4 2025
1 h 04 min

Memory

Robert Ashley finds out what it takes to speedrun games in a blindfold, visits a museum in Moscow dedicated to Soviet-era arcade machines, and talks to a group of friends

Dec 12 2022
1 h 00 min

Work

Robert Ashley talks to a developer at a big game studio about his strange trip from blue collar work to video game work, gets a lesson in work ethic from legendary game d

Mar 20 2013
1 h 04 min

ALWW update: Eternal Life Vol 2

Robert Ashley returns from the mysterious deep with another musical offering that won't satisfy your desire for more episodes of A Life Well Wasted, but might hold you of

Mar 20 2012
24 min

ALWW update: Eternal Life Vol 1

Robert Ashley checks in with you to see how you've been. Oh, did you hear that he has a new album coming out? Want to hear it?

Jul 11 2011
23 min

Big Ideas

Robert Ashley edits listener-submitted game ideas into one big, crazy game, talks to the guy who owns the rights to Tetris about his plans to save the world, gets a lectu

Jun 23 2010
58 min

Help

Robert Ashley helps people in videogames instead of helping people in real life, meets a comedy group who spend hundreds of hours every year playing the most boring video

Nov 25 2009
45 min

Artists, Fans and Engineers

Robert Ashley visits a cosplay enthusiast, talks to the founder of an art show about videogames, discovers the strange world of fan fiction radio plays, and profiles a se

Aug 31 2009
1 h 00 min

B-Side: Why Game?

Listeners tell stories about why they play videogames.

May 28 2009
25 min

Why Game?

Robert Ashley wonders why he spends his free time playing videogames, asks random people on the street about it, talks to a researcher whose work attempts to harness the

Apr 29 2009
53 min

B-Side: The Henry Lowood Interview

Pretty much the opposite of A Life Well Wasted, this is the unedited, full interview with Stanford University gaming curator Henry Lowood, as partly heard in Episode 2.

Mar 11 2009
1 h 03 min

Gotta Catch 'em All

Robert Ashley explores the world of collectors and archivists, visiting a massive underground collection of videogames, a vintage pinball museum, and a program at Stanfor

Mar 3 2009
44 min

The Death of EGM

Robert Ashley talks to former Electronic Gaming Monthly writers and editors about their experiences at the long running magazine.

Jan 27 2009
45 min

Chart trend

Position in the Video Games chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#94#186JunJulAugSep

all-time peak

days in the top 3 since Jan 2025

Chart positions

Where A Life Well Wasted ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 24, 2026).

#172 NEW Video Games US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

I come back to this podcast and give it a listen through every couple years, and it just seems to get better with age. Each episode is a brilliant standalone piece in itself. Many of the older episodes are like time capsules, they transport you back into the gaming culture of the past and what it was like, what people were excited about and what it all meant to them. It’s a shame we haven’t had this, or anything like this, since then. My favorite episode is „Why Game“ (both the A and B side). Words cannot describe what it means to me

BothersomBanana · Nov 2022

Gosh, listening to Fans, Artists, and Engineers again, and wow, Jerry (?) made themselves a Switch decades before it came out. I swear, the series gets better every time I listen to it and the number of reviews past the last episode should demonstrate the evergreen quality of these episodes. Unlike a lot of podcasts about video game culture, this show really touches on what draws people into the community, as opposed to whatever the latest, hot release or controversy is. Also, the music is amazing!

Lotloxa · May 2021

While this podcast appears to be dead, going through it's archives is well worth your time. It's a very intruiging podcast that explores aspects of the gaming world that, while interesting and important, are often given little real attention.

mikedaws0n · May 2017

This is by far the smartest and most enjoyable video game podcast I've ever heard. The production quality is on the level of This American Life or Radiolab, but it's all done by one guy. Each episode is a masterpiece. The downside of his meticulous and detailed (and no doubt, time consuming) approach is that there are only a handful of episodes to listen to. Public radio should hire this guy and give him a show, a staff and a nice budget.

frankenbutt · Jan 2014

We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.