| Pronouns | he/him |
| My website | https://benmckenzie.com.au |
| Terry Pratchett book club podcast | https://pratchatpodcast.com |
| First episode of Night Terrace (free) | https://nightterrace.com/listen |
My first proper academic publication is out today in Educations Sciences!
“Recruitment Rush!” is a card-based game about recruiting participants for a study, designed for use in the classroom. I was the game designer and also worked on playtesting.
Our paper presents it as an example of how a bespoke, specific game can provide an authentic learning experience.
Huge thanks to lead and co-authors @MelissainAU and Elisa Bone.
Heads up that the Discord face video age verification system requires you to remove your glasses, then has written instructions on the screen, including moving closer or further away.
No doubt verification is partly an estimate of how bad your eyesight is based on how long this takes, and how much you squint.
Is that a steam train - in Ankh-Morpork? Psychologist Craig Hildebrand-Burke joins Liz and Ben to put on our anoraks and write "40" in our notebooks for a gradely discussion of #TerryPratchett's penultimate #Discworld novel: Raising Steam! #Pratchat90
https://pratchatpodcast.com/2025/12/08/pratchat90-mind-the-ginnungagap/
Been a while since I had a #DoctorWho take, but I have a wish for the Christmas special for next year: that Billie gets one big amazing adventure and then regenerates. This will showcase the best consequence of the Timeless Child arc: that the occasional short-run Doctor is now possible with big names.
I also kind of hope she briefly teams up with or at least visits Fourteen, perhaps at the end of his life. That’d bring an end to his story, give the Rose/Ten fans a last hurrah, and potentially clear up the confusion with bigeneration a bit. But I’m not wedded to this idea.
Our next episode, #Pratchat89, is recording this weekend - and we’re discussing the #Discworld point and click adventure game from 1995!
Ben may have lost the box and the disc but he still has his original manual…
If you have questions, get them in ASAP!
If you like #comics, #scifi and/or #poetry, please check out my comic nerd friend Adam Ford’s Kickstarter for a book of poems inspired by Rom Space Knight!
Adam’s a great poet, a massive Rom fan and a real good egg. Let’s help get this book into the world!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/choosingsides/choosing-sides-a-speculative-poetry-chapbook
New #TTRPG thing from me - my first dungeon!
A collaboration with amazing artist Brendan Barnett, “Flee the Flying Saucer!” is a light-hearted A3 “dungeon” in which your characters try to escape a UFO.
An entry in the 1-Page TOONgeon Jam inspired by season two of the #QuinnsQuest podcast #PlayToFindOut, in which the gang played Toon.
GNU #TomLehrer, perhaps the greatest musical comedian to have ever lived. His songs are, incredibly, still funny and mostly unproblematic sixty years later - and all in the public domain as of 2020.
Hard to pick a favourite, but since I’m currently dealing with a possible COVID exposure…
Mostly for COVID reasons, I haven’t been to a cinema since late 2019, when I saw The Rise of Skywalker.
I’m going tonight, though.
(Been waiting fifteen years for a good reason to wear this T-shirt out.)
Ben McKenzie
Pratchat Podcast
