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A Mystery for Every Occasion

Five Ways to Liven Up Zoom Calls With Your Family and Friends

9/23/2020

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Picture this: You get on your weekly Zoom call with your parents and grandparents. For the first 5 minutes, Gramma can't figure out how to turn her audio on. Once that's solved, she's still not sure where the camera is, so all you see are Gramma and Grampa's foreheads. Meanwhile, Dad's making dinner in the background, so the conversation is punctuated by pots and pans clattering. And after all that, in this, the sixth month of COVID, the conversations tend to be: "What have you been up to?" "Well...you know...not much. We left the house once this weekend."

Sound familiar?

Many of us have turned to the internet to stay in touch with family and friends during this time. And while the ability to see our loved ones safely at a distance is a blessing, it's also fraught with obstacles, especially for the less tech-savvy among us. While it still may not be safe to see our far away fam, here are some suggestions to make your virtual hang-outs a lot more satisfying.
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Give Tech-Averse Participants a Walkthrough in Advance
Just because someone struggles with new technology doesn't mean they can't take part in virtual hangouts in a meaningful way. If one of your friends or family is new to video chat, set up a one on one video meeting with them beforehand so you can walk them through the process. That way, they get a chance to explore and ask questions without ten people all sharing their two cents at once. Useful things to point out include: how to connect to audio, how to turn video/audio off and on, how to use a virtual background, how to access the chat, and how to share their screen.

Participate in a structured activity
With every day seeming to blur together into "COVID-time," it can be hard to come up with new conversation topics each week. Try mixing up your weekly call with a specific activity or game! There are tons of ways to play games online, including board games and trivia. If your group isn't into games, or if the learning curve is a little too steep, you could plan an in-home scavenger hunt, organize a show & tell, or take turns asking interview questions about each other's lives. Now is a great time to learn a little more about your friends and family, and planning an activity with some amount of structure creates the opportunity for people to share and interact beyond talking about the weather.
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Set Group Guidelines
Remember in kindergarten when you passed a talking stick around at circle time to show whose turn it is to talk? If your virtual hangouts turn into a jumble of cross talk, it may be time to bring back the talking stick. While it might seem a little formal, setting guidelines can help your hangouts run much more smoothly, with less frustration for everyone. Consider guidelines like: everyone muting until it's their turn to talk, using the "hand raise" or other reaction button to signify who goes next, and asking everyone to put their phones on silent during the call.

Pick a Theme
Even varying the little details like your background or your clothes can make a weekly call feel more fun! Choose a theme, then have everyone pick an outfit and a virtual background to correspond. Themes can range from super simple (a specific color or pattern) to outlandishly fabulous (a black tie gala, a Halloween extravaganza) or anywhere in between!
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Let Dainty Dames Events Take Care of It!
If the thought of planning a family talent show or picking a creative theme sounds exhausting, we totally get it. Coming up with creative ideas for a virtual gathering can take a lot out of you, especially now. Luckily, we're happy to do it for you! Our virtual murder mystery brings family and friends together, creates hilarious interactions, and provides a welcome escape for a couple hours. We take care of the whole process from start to finish, sending out all the information you need in advance, guiding the event with our expert actors, and deftly taking care of any technical uncertainties along the way. So if you're looking for a new way to virtually bond with your loved ones, look no further! Contact us for a private show today!
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Six True Crime Podcasts Telling Underrepresented Stories

9/8/2020

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True crime podcasts tend to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of thing. For avid listeners, the very best true crime podcasts create an escape from the day to day, and a reminder that whatever your personal problems are, they could always be worse. These podcasts certainly accomplish that, and each also provides an extra dimension to take the listener beyond the initial morbid details. From a mental health care perspective to underrepresented stories of marginalized communities, these podcasts are a must listen for any true-crime fan.

Caught up on podcasts, but still looking for a macabre escape? Try our interactive, virtual murder mystery event! Put your investigative skills to the test in our hilarious and engaging show. Who knows? Maybe the murder was you all along! Contact us for tickets today!

Criminal

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A classic that manages to both define and defy the true crime genre, Criminal explores the world of true crime with a nuanced, complex approach. The podcast's description, "Stories of people who have done wrong, been wronged, and/or gotten caught somewhere in the middle," points to the breadth and depth of host Phoebe Judge's reporting, telling complicated stories with a mesmerizing style. Criminal goes beyond the blood and gore to look at the systems underneath and focus on the people caught up along the way.

What Did You Do?!

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​Hosted by two friends and mental health experts, What Did You Do?! brings a unique perspective to the true crime genre, exploring the connections between crime and social services/mental health care. And it's also a comedy podcast! What Did You Do?! ​will both entertain you and leave you with lots of food for thought.

Missing & Murdered

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Connie Walker, the award-winning journalist behind Missing & Murdered, set out to create a podcast highlighting the systemic oppression of Canada's indigenous population, through the structure of a true crime series. The first season explores the unsolved murder of Alberta Williams in 1989. The second season, "Finding Cleo," dives into the story of a young Cree girl taken from her family in the 1970s as part of a decades-long government policy to forcibly separate indigenous children and put them into white families. Connie Walker, who is Cree herself, deftly explores the lasting aftereffects of this cultural genocide through the lens of one family's search for their missing sister.

Suspiria

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​The majority of true crime podcasts center on crimes from North America, or the US in particular. Suspiria aims to bridge that gap, with Brazilian hosts Carol and Stephanie discussing crimes from Latin America that were formative for many Latinx communities, but remain relatively unknown by the rest of the world.

Affirmative murder

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​In addition to being US-centric, most true crime podcasts also focus on white victims. Enter Affirmative Murder, the "podcast trying to bring equality to True Crime in its own weird way." Each week, friends Fran and Alvin tell each other the story of a murder involving people of color, covering historical cases, unsolved mysteries, and current events.

Scam Goddess

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​Do you love the investigation and mystery of true crime podcasts, but could do without all the blood and death? Try Scam Goddess! Each week, host Laci Mosley explores fascinating fraud from history - and digs into modern day chicanery, too! With comedian guests on each episode, Scam Goddess delivers on its promised premise - "true fun crime!"
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