Mystery, Puzzles, Trivia, Oh My! 4 Podcasts for Escape Game Fans

Photo: Casey Fiesler (CC BY 2.0)

It’s no secret that if you’re a fan of escape games, you have wide and varied tastes. How else are you going to learn all that trivia?!

However, there are a few topics we’re pretty sure every escape game fan is into. Mystery? Check. Puzzles? Check. Creepy going-ons? Check.

In the magical era of the podcast, you can be sure someone out there is making a show about a subject you want to plug into. Here we list four of podcasts that really satisfy our escape room brains.

Serial

OK, so this is one of the biggest podcasts since, well … ever. But if you haven’t listened to NPR’s Serial yet, we’re telling you, now is the time. Each season is one single intriguing story of true crime told masterfully by host Sarah Koening over several episodes. Spine tingling.

Check out Serial here: https://serialpodcast.org/

Pints and Puzzles

You like conspiracy theories? Then this is the podcast for you! TJ Counihan discusses strange unsolved events, from little green men to unexplained explosions, and throws in some tasting notes on various beers for good measure. Both a strange and fun time!

Catch Pints and Puzzles here: http://pintsandpuzzles.libsyn.com/

Good Job, Brain!

If you like to stuff your brain full of random useless facts—and who among us escape room fans doesn't—then do let the four hosts of Good Job, Brain! fill your grey matter up to the brim. As they put it, this podcast is “part quiz show, part offbeat news, and all awesome.”

You can get factual here: http://www.goodjobbrain.com/

Welcome to Night Vale

Something else all escape gamers share is a vivid imagination and a love of immersing themselves in story. Have you ever heard of the town of Night Vale? No? Well, that’s because it doesn’t exist, but in Welcome to the Night Vale it does, and this twice monthly podcast enlightens us about all that happens there. Sure, there are a few weather updates, but Night Vale is “a town in the desert where all conspiracy theories are real,” so you can expect things are going to get strange on a regular basis.

Visit Night Vale here: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/

Immerse yourself in your own trivia, mystery, and puzzle filled fun by booking a go in one of our escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Escape Game Training: 5 of the Biggest Brain Busters

One of the things that keeps escape game fans coming back again and again is their love of puzzles. You never know what sort of jumping jacks your brain will be asked to do, so it’s never a bad idea to get exercise with all different sorts of puzzles.

For you puzzle fanatics (and that very much describes us here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game), we’ve pulled together five of the hardest brain busters out there to construct the Ninja Warrior course of the puzzle world.

1. Test your selective attention

Think you’re an ace at evaluating your surroundings and picking up on what other people miss? See how well you do with this awareness test devised by psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris.

2. Flex your Mensa muscles

Ever heard of Mensa? Of course you have. It’s only a society of the biggest brains on the entire planet. You can see how you stack up against all the geniuses of the world by exercising your brain with the Mensa Workout available on the official Mensa site.

3. The ultimate NYT crossword

The New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle is notorious for being the most difficult puzzle available in any given week. So how about the most difficult of the most difficult: the December 26, 1987, puzzle devised by Daniel Girardi.

You can download and attempt the hardest NYT crossword of all time here.

4. Go on a puzzle adventure

OK, so you’ll have to actually get your hands on one of these puzzles, because this one exists in the real world: the Isis Adventure Series. Considered one “the hardest puzzle” in the world, this puzzle set requires you to solve one before you can move on to the next, each getting progressively more difficult. You can get your set directly from the Sonic Games website.

5. Get your logic on

Why do one incredibly hard logic puzzle when you can do ten? Scientific programmer Patrick Min has got you covered with this list of the hardest versions ever of ten different logic puzzle types, including Sudoku and Go. Click to bend your brain.

Now that your brain is in peak condition, see if you can bust all four of our escape rooms at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.