BGE's Tabletop Talk VideoCast: Stack Up and Supporting Veterans with Gaming and Geek Culture
Join Dustin for another episode of the BGE's Tabletop Talk VideoCast! Dustin is joined by Steve from Stack Up! They discuss Stack Up's mission, mental health, gaming, what gaming means to Steve and how it played a role in his life when he came back from deployment. Tune in for some great content and stories surrounding the positive impacts gaming can have. Content warning: Mental Health, Suicide, PTSD.
Watch the VideoCast
00:00 - 0:54 - Episode Introduction
0:54 - 4:57 - Let's hear from some D&D players from BGE's Tabletop!
2:23 - 9:40 - Welcome Stephen Machuga from @StackUpDotOrg
9:40 - 9:12 - Mental Health and Gaming and Connecting it to Stack Up
9:12 - 14:30 - Steve and His Gaming Story
21:58 - 24:54 - Stack Up and Tabletop Gaming
24:54 - 27:59 - All the Ways Stack Up Supports Veterans
27:59 - 34:49 - Dustin and Steve play Danger!
34:49 - Thank you Steve!
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Check out Stack Up and Get in Touch with Steve:
https://www.stackup.org/
Stack Up: @stackupdotorg,
Stephen Machuga
Stephen “Shanghai Six” Machuga is a 1998 graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Russian linguistics on an ROTC scholarship. Captain Machuga is a former Army Infantry/Military Intelligence officer and Airborne Ranger, having spent the majority of his service at Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne Division. In 2003, he deployed to Iraq with 2nd Infantry Division and whittled through the seemingly endless 13-month deployment with the help of video games.
Machuga left the service in 2006, where he spent 10 years in Washington DC as a government counter-terrorism analyst across a variety of agencies, doing charity work on the weekends. Over time, the weekend charity work was where he realized that he had found his true calling, and has since picked up and moved the entire organization to Los Angeles, where the opportunities in the games and entertainment industry are everywhere.
Listen to the Podcast