Lured Up - A Pokémon GO Podcast

Lured Up Podcast 390

Live Streamed on - 4/14/2026

Publish Date - 4/17/2026

As we make our way out of the first of two, “no-event” weeks in April, this would be the perfect time to start talking about GO Fest prep. Nothing will be worse than showing up to GO Fest unprepared. We run through our best recommendations for both on and off screen prep. 

When it comes to in-game prepping for an in-person event, you will likely be spending some real cash, so it will be important to identify a budget that you feel can carry you through a weekend of serious gameplay. Look for deals and take advantage of boxes that have the items you care about. Start thinking about ball maintenance and stockpile A LOT of balls. Depending on your gameplay, you will likely have plenty of opportunity to restock. Your effort now will pay off during GO Fest when you don’t have to spend any energy on it during the event. Utilizing the tag system will help you stay organized and manageable. Finally, make sure you plan your Park Experience gameplay to fit your needs and style. Remember that the bulk of your weekend gameplay will happen outside of the Park, so you will want to be as efficient as possible.

Off screen prep is extremely important. From things like sunblock to having comfortable shoes and extra socks, there is plenty to think about now to get prepared. Battery packs, charging blocks and cables, and even things like phone coolers can be important over your event weekend. If you run hot you can consider a neck cooler, which offer a silent and hands free way to drop your overall body temperature. Don’t forget about food, and remember that things will likely be more expensive than you’re used to.

Finally we run through the current event announcements that take us into early May. Sustainability week will have us on the new Pokémon and Shiny Costume hunt. This weekend brings Replay: Rioulu Hatch Day. Next week we have another event week off, but you will need to save your energy for the GMAX Battle Day coming next weekend.

Keep Training Trainers!

Tinkatink Community Day

Sustainability Week

Replay: Riolu Hatch Day

Pokémon GO x MLB

Lechonk Community Day

Learn the Metro System

Neck Cooler

Power Banks

Phone Cooler

[email protected]    

Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork 

Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork 

Hosts

Ken Pescatore

Adam Tuttle

Writer and Producer

Ken Pescatore

Executive Producer 

Xander

Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons

▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾

http://instagram.com/GameChops

http://twitter.com/GameChops

http://soundcloud.com/GameChops

http://facebook.com/GameChops

http://youtube.com/GameChops

http://www.gamechops.com

Intro Music

Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix) 

Tetracase

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/

https://soundcloud.com/tetracase 

https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0

Break Music

National Park

Mikel & GameChops

GameChops - Poké & Chill

http://smarturl.it/pokechill

https://twitter.com/mikel_beats

Outro Music

Vast Poni Canyon

CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix)

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ 

http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats

https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity

Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo.

#pokemon #pokemongo #podcast

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Lured Up Podcast 389 - Unsportsmanlike

Live Streamed on - 4/7/2026

Publish Date - 4/10/2026

What a wild week in the Pokémon GO Community. While PvP isn’t something we typically dig too deep into on the show, this weekend’s drama from the Orlando Regionals was not only shocking, but has the community rallying. We saw Firestar73 claw his way through the losers bracket to an incredible final table run, where he defeated Nighttimeclasher, or so it seemed. Shortly after the match, Firestar73 was handed a loss for an unsportsmanlike celebration, which gave the championship to Nighttimeclasher. This is not sitting right with the bulk of the community, and many are speaking out.

First things first, there was nothing unsportsmanlike about his celebration. He tossed his headphones on the table, gave a fist pump, and immediately extended his hand to shake Nighttimsclasher’s hand. After a few short moments, Firestar73’s dreams were crushed, and Play!Pokémon is yet to make a statement. When things like this happen, they don’t fade away quickly, instead, they fester, amplify resent, and damage the brand. 

Orlando actually had a few controversial rulings, making Trainers question not only the integrity of the tournament series, but also the overall demeanor of the sport. If Pokémon GO was to ever share the stage with other competitive games, this is not the way to do it. Could these rulings sterilize future events and squash the excitement? We hope not, however things are not looking good.

After the break we rip through the news and talk about how April still has plenty to offer. Even with two weeks of vanilla spawns, the calendar is still healthy as we learn about the event slate that will carry us into May. We are also speculating on how Memories in Motion got its name, as we are seeing 2 more Replay events with Riolu Hatch Day and GO Bigger. Is this the new normal for the middle months of a season, or is it unique to April? Time will tell as we get through the rest of the month!

Be sure to let us know your feelings about the Orlando Regionals situation, we are eager to hear from you!

ItsAXN Tweet about Orlando

Firestar73

Nighttimeclasher

Hungrybox

GO Hub

IGN Coverage

Ethan Chen - Junior’s TCG

FishNugget4 - TCG

Guest Lineup

A Shockingly Good Time

GO Pass: April

Sustainability Week

Replay: Riolu Hatch Day

Replay: GO Bigger

Steeled Resolve

Steeled Resolve: Taken Over

April Content Update

GO Pass April

Fashion Raid Day

Replay: Riolu Hatch Day

An Egg-cellent Adventure

Sustainability Week

Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account!

[email protected]    

Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork 

Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork 

Hosts

Ken Pescatore

Adam Tuttle

Writer and Producer

Ken Pescatore

Executive Producer 

Xander

Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons

▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾

http://instagram.com/GameChops

http://twitter.com/GameChops

http://soundcloud.com/GameChops

http://facebook.com/GameChops

http://youtube.com/GameChops

http://www.gamechops.com

Intro Music

Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix) 

Tetracase

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/

https://soundcloud.com/tetracase 

https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0

Break Music

National Park

Mikel & GameChops

GameChops - Poké & Chill

http://smarturl.it/pokechill

https://twitter.com/mikel_beats

Outro Music

Vast Poni Canyon

CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix)

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ 

http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats

https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity

Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo.

#pokemon #pokemongo #podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 388: Pokémon GO Anonymous

Live Streamed: 3/24/2026

Publish Date - 3/27/2026

Listen to this Podcast ad free on Patreon!

We jump head first into this episode’s deep dive as we explore some of the symptoms of gaming addiction. Pokémon GO does have some systems in place that make it difficult for players to disconnect. We discuss the line between being an avid hobbyist and someone obsessed or addicted. From not wanting to stop playing, to over spending, to neglecting responsibilities, having this game in our pockets could be a slippery slope.

We also take a look at the topic of how the game has been heralded to have therapeutic qualities. It’s no surprise that this game can be a great platform to use while exercising, exploring, or in some cases, escaping. We look at how escapism and addiction can cross paths, by posing the question of how being locked out of the game for 24 hours would make you feel. For most of us, it would be a pretty rough day.

We want to hear your perspectives on the topic, and encourage everyone to join the conversation. Let us know how the game makes you feel, and if you ever have concerns that you are putting the game ahead of your responsibilities. Our live chat did an incredible job of opening up and sharing stories. We would love to hear more of them.

After the break we recap the last week of gameplay. We had the conclusion of the Bugout as well as Water Research Day this past weekend. The April Content update has been released, and we will be sing the return of many legendaries, but the release of a few new Pokémon. Will next week’s A Shockingly Good Time event satisfy our Spotlight Hour fix, or will the flood of Pikachu lose its spark a few days into the event? Let us know your thoughts!

Video Game Addiction

Hanke CNBC Interview 2019

Class Action Lawsuits

Bug Out

Replay: Water Research Day

GMAX Pikachu

A Shockingly Good Time

April Content Update

Sustainability Week

Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account!

[email protected]    

Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork 

Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork 

Hosts

Ken Pescatore

Adam Tuttle

Writer and Producer

Ken Pescatore

Executive Producer 

Xander

Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons

▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾

http://instagram.com/GameChops

http://twitter.com/GameChops

http://soundcloud.com/GameChops

http://facebook.com/GameChops

http://youtube.com/GameChops

http://www.gamechops.com

Intro Music

Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix) 

Tetracase

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/

https://soundcloud.com/tetracase 

https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0

Break Music

National Park

Mikel & GameChops

GameChops - Poké & Chill

http://smarturl.it/pokechill

https://twitter.com/mikel_beats

Outro Music

Vast Poni Canyon

CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix)

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ 

http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats

https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity

Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo.

#pokemon #pokemongo #podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 387 - Clutch Your Pearls

Live Streamed on - 3/17/2026

Publish Date - 3/19/2026

We switched up the show format this week as the community news was too good to hold off on discussing. Social media was on fire thanks to a hit piece style tweet from a non-credible source was viewed over 20 million times. It shared the horrors of Niantic building a network to train automated pizza delivery robots using data collected through Pokémon GO. The pearl clutching and fauxrage was rampant with so many feigned gasps of air coming mainly from X.

We look at the actual article that sparked interest in Niantic Spatial’s dealings from the MIT Technology Review. We discuss how Niantic’s vision for a complete 1:1 digital to IRL map of the world has always been the goal. Could we have known that pizza delivery robots would be amongst the fist to benefit from the map? Of course not but it is amazing to see Niantic’s vision start to be realized.

The VPS is an amazing tool and LLM that Pokémon GO, Ingress, and Wayfarer have always been a part of. Wayfinders and keepers of the Gameboard have been enthusiastic about being a part of this process. Anyone saying they had no idea that this GPS based game is tracking our GPS data is simply feigned ignorance. 

We run through some wishlist ideas that we have for the game, where the gameboard and environment is the focus. From persistent AR instances to the introduction of HMs allowing you to traverse different terrains, the gameboard truly is paramount to our experience. The question is, with Niantic Spacial separating from the Niantic brand which was acquired by Scopely, will we ever see the technology behind the VPS be utilized in PGO going forward.

Finally we recap the last week of gameplay including the Pokopia Event and Scorbunny Community Day. We have some new Event announcements and nao everything out on our Google Calendar. 

Newsforce Hit Piece

MIT Technology Review

Dexerto Article

Niantic Spatial VPS

Pokopia Event

Scorbunny Community Day

Fashion Raid Day

April Community Day

Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account!

[email protected]    

Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork 

Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork 

Hosts

Ken Pescatore

Adam Tuttle

Writer and Producer

Ken Pescatore

Executive Producer 

Xander

Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons

▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾

http://instagram.com/GameChops

http://twitter.com/GameChops

http://soundcloud.com/GameChops

http://facebook.com/GameChops

http://youtube.com/GameChops

http://www.gamechops.com

Intro Music

Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix) 

Tetracase

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/

https://soundcloud.com/tetracase 

https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0

Break Music

National Park

Mikel & GameChops

GameChops - Poké & Chill

http://smarturl.it/pokechill

https://twitter.com/mikel_beats

Outro Music

Vast Poni Canyon

CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix)

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ 

http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats

https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity

Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo.

#pokemon #pokemongo #podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 386: The Highs And Lows

Live Streamed on - 3/10/2026

Publish Date - 3/13/2026

The 30th Anniversary Event is a perfect example of how the changes being delivered by the game can impact Trainers differently. Even with the basic wild encounter pool during an event can be dissected in countless ways. We saw Legendaries in the wild for the first time, but super low catch rates and super high flee rates, the experience was soured for some.

March has been really strong so far, and the upcoming events look to continue the trend. Pokopia, Scorbunny and the Bug Out will keep us busy for a few weeks, while Pikachu will join us at the end of the month. We are also seeing more GO Passes, which aren’t that much different from the amount of Event Tickets that we were previously seeing. We will need some month over month data to really determine how the shift has impacted our spending habits.

The GO Memories campaign is underway and Niantic is looking to hear your best stories and memories made through Pokémon GO. We live for this stuff, and can’t wait to dig into some of the stories that are shared. Also, you can win an all expense paid trip to any of the three GO Fests! Be sure to share your favorite GO Memories with us!

Finally we dig into how the game is evolving and changing with Memories in Motion. The Scopely Effect is becoming more and more noticeable, but we can’t tell what the Community thinks just yet. Multiple GO Passes a month sounds scary at first, but once you realize that it is the same frequency of cost as the now retired event tickets, you can see that the value is actually greater. We have PLENTY to unpack here!

30th Anniversary Event

Pokopia Celebration

Scorbunny Community Day

Bug Out

A Shockingly Good Time 

GMAX Pikachu Max Battle Day

GO Memories

Monk’s Pub

Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account!

[email protected]    

Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork 

Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork 

Hosts

Ken Pescatore

Adam Tuttle

Writer and Producer

Ken Pescatore

Executive Producer 

Xander

Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons

▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾

http://instagram.com/GameChops

http://twitter.com/GameChops

http://soundcloud.com/GameChops

http://facebook.com/GameChops

http://youtube.com/GameChops

http://www.gamechops.com

Intro Music

Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix) 

Tetracase

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/

https://soundcloud.com/tetracase 

https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0

Break Music

National Park

Mikel & GameChops

GameChops - Poké & Chill

http://smarturl.it/pokechill

https://twitter.com/mikel_beats

Outro Music

Vast Poni Canyon

CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix)

GameChops - Ultraball

http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ 

http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats

https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity

Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo.

#pokemon #pokemongo #podcast

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices