Amby visits Seattle and interviews the hosts of the podcast DiplomacyCast, Eric Mead & Nathan Barnes in Seattle. They talk about what happened to their show, their thoughts on why face-to-face Diplomacy rocks and their variant suggestions. Plus Kaner discusses his efforts to get a face-to-face community started in Brisbane and Dip news.
Intro
The guys introduce the show, their drinks and the venue (0 mins 10 secs)

Interview with Nathan Barnes & Eric Mead from DiplomacyCast
Amby introduces Nathan and Eric in what is planned to be a joint podcast (5 mins 30 secs)
Eric explains what happened technically to the site for a little while (6 mins 10 secs)
Nathan talks about the Seattle Diplomacy scene. Amby reflects how the size of Seattle & Brisbane are about the same, but the community of players' size is radically different. They talk about what you need to do to create a strong community in a local area  (9 mins 20 secs)
They discuss how the 50th DipCon (the North American championship) is scheduled in Seattle for 2019 (11 mins 20 secs)
They go onto a bit more detail about the hard work needed to create a local community (13 mins)
Nathan reflects on his first games with Diplomacy, his initial online play before moved back to face-to-face with tournaments (18 mins)
Eric then discusses his first Diplomacy experiences (19 mins 55 secs)
They talk about why they no longer player online. Nathan says its due to the core nugget of interpersonal relationships being only achievable in face-to-face games. Eric says he no longer plays online as he found it sucked up too much of his time (22 mins 20 secs)
Nathan says he did enjoy the challenge of "pick up" games (taking over a CD'ed position) (26 mins 20 secs)
They talk about the high you get playing face-to-face (28 mins 20 secs)
They discuss "tells" in face-to-face and how the dynamics are different to online (29 mins 30 sec)
Eric talks about how a competitive face-to-face game forces more decisive decision making and considerate of longer-term strategy (34 mins)
Nathan discusses how its worth playing a tournament at least once (35 mins 45 secs)
They do recognize though that some of the best Dip players are online players (37 mins 30 secs)
Nathan puts forward the importance of having a nimble plan, Eric talks about listening to your gut on unit placement (39 mins 30 secs)
Nathan also discusses how face-to-face uses far more means to work out what is going on in the game with both body language and who is talking to who (41 mins 15 secs)
Amby asks how the guys use their Diplomacy skills in their careers and day-to-day dealings (43 mins 30 secs)
Nathan explains the key thing Diplomacy teaches you, which Eric describes as a "super power" (47 mins)
Eric explains what happens when players only think about their own agenda & the importance of empathy (51 mins)
Amby asks about what happened to the DiplomacyCast podcast while Eric & Nathan explain why they wanted a second Diplomacy podcast to happen. Eric goes into the detail for why the show is having a break (52 mins 45 secs)
Eric and Nathan discuss what they enjoyed most from their podcast... their April Fools shows (1 hr 7 mins)
They then discuss the shows they are most proud of (1 hr 15 mins 15 secs)
Amby learns all about how America is different to Australia when it comes to shift changes, tipping and voting (1 hr 18 mins 40 secs)
Amby asks what impact did running the podcast have on how other players treated them (1 hr 19 mins 45 secs)
Nathan discusses Seattle street life during a smoke break (1 hr 23 mins 30 secs)
Nathan asks Amby what he gets out of playing Diplomacy online (1 hr 25 mins 30 secs)
They discuss the dichotomy of players introduced to the game either love it or hate it (1 hr 27 mins)
Amby discusses how he likes the challenge and deciding when to stab (1 hr 28 mins)
Amby introduces the Divided States variant to the guys - a game with 50 players (1 hr 30 mins)
Eric discusses his life long dream - a life size real-time Chaos game