What’s Wrong With The French (With Jacob Geller)

In September 2026, Jacob Geller, our guest on this episode, was credibly accused of sexual assault stemming from an incident that took place in 2016, which he publicly confirmed shortly after. You can read our report on that situation here: aftermath.site/jacob-geller-minnmax-allegationsIn the interest of transparency, we've decided to keep this episode up instead of taking it down. Too often, companies remove content featuring objectionable themes or people in an effort to sanitize their own histories. We do not want to do that. We would instead prefer that our readers and listeners have access to the whole truth, warts and all.This week, Nathan and Gita are joined by games and culture video essayist Jacob Geller ahead of his 24-hour stream to raise money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. We discuss video game criticism in the age of drive-by culture wars on social media and conclude that – despite how bleak things might seem – there’s still a hunger for truly substantial, meaningful criticism, one that is not decreasing. We also learn about the ins and outs of creating heady essays on YouTube, specifically: Why do they keep getting longer? How do you write for a specific audience without becoming somebody who pre-reacts to every bad faith YouTube comment? Then we move on to this week’s big news: Ubisoft is delaying the new Assassin’s Creed following weaker-than-expected sales of its Star Wars game. Amid all that, as well as an ongoing campaign against Assassin’s Creed for featuring a Black samurai, Ubisoft also decided to issue a statement about how its goal is “not to push any specific agenda.” Grimacing emoji. Lastly, Christmas comes early for Nathan and Nathan alone, because the mailbag is chock full of questions about Goku and karaoke. Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Gita Jackson, and special guest Jacob Geller- Subscribe to Aftermath! About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.