# 392: Robert Steen. The beautiful story of his late son Mats, what his family learned after Mats passing and the power of gaming. ('Ibelin')

An episode of [Pop Culture Confidential](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/986166282), 12 Feb 2024, 54 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/1130e65f0/podcast/play/120602516/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-27%2F424970020-44100-2-7a8351677e74ae09.mp3

When Robert and Trude Steen's son Mats passed away at age 25 from a degenerative muscular disease they grieved over what they thought had been an isolated and lonely life but what they found out would change everything. Mats, a gamer known as 'Ibelin' in World of Warcraft, had despite his physical disabilities formed strong friendships, fallen in love and was a beloved and vibrant member of his digital community. Christina was honored to talk to Mat's father Robert Steen about Mats, his story and how it can give us deeper perspectives on gaming, on life and everything in between. A new documentary by Benjamin Ree called 'Ibelin' just won top prizes and accolades at Sundance and several Nordic festivals & will be out soon on Netflix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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