My guest in this episode is Jaroslav Švelch, an expert in media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. Dr. Švelch is the author of a fascinating social history titled Gaming the Iron Curtain, published by MIT Press. Feb 7 sees the release of a new book called Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity. In our interview we talk about the history of monsters, the role monsters play in video games and what they tell us about ourselves. We discuss aesthetics, transgressive elements, horror and comedy as well as how video games and video game narratives brought fantasy and science fiction into the mainstream .