Voices of VR

Agog is having their first open call on Climate Futures + Immersive Media that closes on June 12, 2026, at 11:59p PDT. Agog is "committing up to $1 million in grants to support innovators, technologists, artists, organizers, researchers, organizations, studios, and creative teams using immersive media to engage people on climate, from awareness to action." Their official page has a lot more details, including a FAQ as well as a link to an info session held in VRChat.

I had a chance to catch up with Agog's co-founder and executive director Chip Giller as well their chief of programs and strategy Amy Seidenwurm. I got some updates on where some of their initial $6.5 million of funding has gone so far in order to support the broader XR industry around immersive storytelling in what has been a lot of foundational field building. Most of this money has been done through private invitations, and this open call is the first time that Agog has opened up funding to the wider XR industry.

We dig into more details about this Climate Futures + Immersive Media open call, and be sure to check out my previous three conversations for more context: Episode #1720 on the Immersive Impact Review hybrid journalistic / academic magazine launched at SXSW, Episode #1721 on the Impulse Impact Study that came out last week, and #1722 is the keynote on Patterns of Meaning, Transformation, and Impact that I gave at the Meaningful XR Conference over the weekend that explores my phenomenological framework for understanding the unique affordances of experiential design and immersive storytelling as well as some theories of change for XR. Giller said that each proposal will need to have their own theory of change with plans for how to engage existing communities and be able to track the success or failure of your work.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I gave the opening keynote of the Meaningful XR Conference on May 30, 2026, and here's the video version of my keynote talk titled: "Patterns of Meaning, Transformation, and Impact in XR" and here is the PDF of the slides with clickable footnotes. In this talk, I cover my Experiential & Phenomenological Framework, discuss the Impulse Impact Study that came out on May 28th (see my discussion in episode #1721). I cover a bit about the Transformation Economy (see my interview with Joe Pine in episode #1718), Mission-Oriented Change, & Co-Creation, as well as cover some Other Models for Paradigm Shifts, and finally dive into AI & Friction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-XNH4upTVw

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

On May 28, 2026, Anagram released a report titled: "Results of Impact Study Carried Out for Mixed Reality Experience Impulse: Digest for General Public," which was commission by Agog. This 43-page report was written by Dr. Alexandra Sierra, and there's also a more extended 121-page version from December 2025 that's titled "Impulse Research Study Detail and Results" that was also written by Sierra (it is in the process of being made available). The study tracked the behavioral shifts of over 100 people across three different cohorts who watched the Impulse: Playing with Reality immersive documentary experience that was first launched in 2024. You can check out my previous interviews covering this experience in episodes #1378 and #1421. But I had a chance to speak with co-director May Abdalla about some of her highlights of this study, as well as some deeper reflections as an artist what it means to have pieces of art quantified and evaluated with such rigor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJIdBEKnniA

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

The Immersive Impact Review launched on March 13, 2026 at 4p CDT in Austin Texas during SXSW, and they describe themselves as "a hybrid journalistic and academic magazine examining immersive media’s strive for social impact." The first issue theme is titled “Value(s) in Practice: Impact and Sustainability in XR,” which is investigating the following questions: "How do we measure and demonstrate social impact? How do we justify costs and tradeoffs in immersive vs. more traditional media?" I spoke to managing editor Michael Epstein at SXSW four days after their launch to get a bit more context on their founding with support from Agog, and we unpack some of the articles from the first issue.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

On March 30, 2026, Rec Room announced they would be closing on June 1, 2026 at noon PDT. I had a chance to speak to former Rec Room employee Shawn Whiting, who previously the roles of Head of Creators, Head of User Acquisition, and Head of Community. He shares some additional context for the past decade of Rec Room including reflections of some of their top milestones, riding the Metaverse hype, the benefits of costs of being available on so many different platforms, the impact of Meta's competing Horizon Worlds, and the challenges of monetization. We also share some of our favorite memories of the platform, and Whiting's time working for Rec Room. Rec Room is officially are closing everything down today at noon PDT, and you can check out their final AMA that was posted yesterday.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality