The Legend of SwordQuest

1. Introducing: The Legend of SwordQuest Trailer

   Show notes

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   Sep 5, 2024 2 min

Season 1

1. 1: The Sword and the Stoned

   Episode 1

   Show notes

   In the early 1980s, Atari is one of the biggest entertainment brands in the world and seeks to promote the biggest video game contest to date, promising $150,000 in prizes. But what starts out as a promising adventure quickly devolves into chaos.

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   Sep 13, 2024 39 min

2. 2: Gentlemen, Start Your Joysticks

   Episode 2

   Show notes

   Expert gamers are invited to an all-expenses paid trip to California for the first round of Atari’s SwordQuest contest and a chance at the first treasure: a $25,000 medallion. The problem? Solving the game’s central puzzle will prove nearly impossible.

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   Sep 19, 2024 37 min

3. 3: The Chalice

   Episode 3

   Show notes

   SwordQuest players discover that being video game rock stars comes at a price. Meanwhile, delays in the contest raise suspicions among contestants that Atari may not intend to see it through to the end—and that the prizes may not even exist at all.

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   Sep 26, 2024 36 min

4. 4: Descent Into Darkness

   Episode 4

   Show notes

   Atari’s financial problems force the company to issue an ultimatum to SwordQuest players—one that may involve a top-secret gaming tournament closed to the public.

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   Oct 3, 2024 40 min

5. 5: Stay Gold

   Episode 5

   Show notes

   Years after SwordQuest came to an abrupt and disappointing end, a gamer makes a surprising discovery in a Brooklyn thrift shop.

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   Oct 10, 2024 41 min

6. 6: Plunder

   Episode 6

   Show notes

   An unreleased SwordQuest game suddenly surfaces online; the fate of the missing prizes undergoes fresh scrutiny by gaming historians.

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   Oct 17, 2024 37 min

7. 7: The Swordsman

   Episode 7

   Show notes

   The trail to find the missing SwordQuest treasures leads back to one of the most controversial figures in Atari history.

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   Oct 24, 2024 36 min

8. 8: Endgame

   Episode 8

   Show notes

   After decades of speculation, a mysterious source emerges that may solve the mystery of the missing SwordQuest treasures once and for all.

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   Oct 31, 2024 43 min

9. Bonus Episode: The Landfill Bonus

   Show notes

   A waste management specialist unearths thousands of Atari games buried in a New Mexico landfill. As gaming historians rejoice, he plots to turn Atari’s unwanted trash into cash.

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   Nov 14, 2024 26 min

1. Very Special Episodes: Live From New York, It's Your Grandmother

   Show notes

   During its first 50 seasons, Saturday Night Live has welcomed legendary actors, superstar athletes, and notable politicians. But for one memorable night in 1977, Lorne Michaels turned the show over to an 80-year-old amateur.

   *

   On the Very Special Episodes podcast, we tell one incredible story each week. Follow Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday. Search 'Very Special Episodes' wherever you listen to podcasts.

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   Feb 14, 2025 51 min

2. The Secret Lives of Snape Wives

   Show notes

   Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favorite professor was real. A god in an alternate universe that bled into our own. Nothing in the world could shake their devotion to Snape.

   Until their sisterhood imploded.

   Listen to Very Special Episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.

   *

   Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
   Written by Katie Mattie
   Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
   Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
   Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
   Additional Editing by Mary Dooe + Josh Fisher
   Voice Actors are Jonathan Washington, Bee Haskins, Katie Mattie, and Josh Fisher
   Original Music by Elise McCoy
   Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
   Executive Producer is Jason English

   Special thanks to our guest Dr. Zoe Alderton, author of Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion Within the Harry Potter Fandom.

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   Oct 22, 2026 53 min

3. My Sister the Rockefeller [from Very Special Episodes]

   Show notes

   Wherever Sioux singer D.Z. Ironwing performed in New York, the same woman was waiting afterward to say she loved his voice. Seven years later, his phone rang in a freezing South Dakota trailer. It was her — the first of countless calls that began an unlikely bond with one of America’s richest families.

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   Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English
   Written by Lucas Reilly
   Senior Producer is Josh Fisher
   Story Editor is Virginia Prescott
   Editing and Sound Design by Jesse Nighswonger
   Original Music by Elise McCoy
   Show Logo by Lucy Quintanilla
   Executive Producer is Jason English

   Today's episode was produced in partnership with School of Humans. For School of Humans, Producers are Emilia Brock, Edeliz Perez, and Lucas Reilly. Executive Producer is Virginia Prescott.

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   Oct 28, 2026 35 min