Lured Up - A Pokémon GO Podcast

Lured Up Podcast 398: Be Present, Not Perfect

Live Streamed on - 6/25/2026

Publish Date - 6/26/2026

First off we wanted to share a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who wrote in, shared feedback, and offered support after last week’s episode! It is truly amazing to see the community come together and rally around each other. It means the world to us and we are proud to be a part of this incredible scene. We follow up on last week’s topic, share some feedback, and look at the practice of being present, not perfect. It’s a powerful sentiment and absolutely has parallels to Pokémon GO.

In the gameplay space, it is all about IRL gameplay. With 6 new City Safari events being announced, the community will have a lot of opportunity to come together to celebrate the game. Adam and I will be attending the Boston City Safari, and we hope to have the opportunity to play along side of you! More info to come on our plans and what we have in store for the Chicago locals and inbound Trainers.

We touch on our Frigibax Community Day experiences and look forward to Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day, two events that are better when played with the community. From Community Day’s non stop gameplay to the volume and demand that Super Mega Raid Days present, we encourage everyone to get out to experience this game with others. We also look at how the Giovanni mechanic has changed and no longer arrives via balloon. This forces Trainers to get out there to track him down, adding difficulty, immersion, and some commitment to the process.While some Trainers and creators online hate everything about this change, we are all about it, as it encourages the exploration element of the game, and makes the hunt unique.

IRL Events

July Content Update

GBL Update

Road of Legends

Frigibax Community Day

Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day

Flying Taxi

Flying Taxi Taken Over

Be Present, Not Perfect

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

Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor 

LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

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

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

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 397

Live Streamed on - 6/19/2026

Publish Date - 6/20/2026

This has been a WILD week! Not just in game and on screen, but in real life too. Ken opens up about a serious health scare, and how it is a wake up call not just to take care of yourself, but also each other. With June being Men’s Mental Health Month, it is an important reminder to understand how your mental health can have a direct impact on your physical health. Stay tuned to the end of the episode to hear Ken share his feelings, and offer advice on how we can all do better at looking after on another.

In-game, the news has been completely bonkers. The Road of Legends event is by far and away the most packed event the game has ever seen, even making the upcoming GO Fest: Global pale in comparison. With a ridiculous amount of Raid Bosses in rotation, some great bonuses, and the ability to EliteTM Adventure Effects, this will be one for the record books. We still have a few weeks before the event kicks off, but we make our first pass through the blog and call out the highlights.

IRL GO Fests may be behind us, but JUne still has a lot of life left! We scan through the remaining events of the month including Frigibax Community Day, Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day, and Flying Taxi. We also had some updates to Daily Discoveries including clarifications about Friendship Friday, and a very cool direction for Scenic Sunday. Spotlight Hours also make a consistent return including the much missed Double Transfer Canty bonus.

We also look ahead to what we know for July including Raichu Super Mega Raid Day and Sobble Community Day. Also, an upcoming partnership with Lego Stores in select Countries will bring us a Stamp Rally, and special Lego Background Pikachu, exclusively obtained at Raids in-store. Check the links for the Lego Store Locator and plan an outing!

One last note from Ken -

Thank you to our entire community for supporting Lured Up for 10 years. We love what we do, and we are so proud to be able to have such a loyal and engaged audience. Your presence in our streams, comments, and at IRL events is the fuel that keeps me positive and motivated. Take care of yourself, take care of those around you, and keep things positive. Your energy is valuable, and should be treated as your most important currency. Thanks again!

Road of Legends

Frigibax Community Day

Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day

Flying Taxi

Flying Taxi Taken Over

Updates to Daily Discoveries

10th Anniversary Party

Lego Partnership

Find a Lego Store

Raichu Super Mega Raid Day

Sobble Community Day

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

Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor 

LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

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

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

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 396

Live Streamed on - 6/9/2026

Publish Date - 6/12/2026

To all the new listeners: WELCOME and THANK YOU for checking out LURED UP!

We are back home from GO Fest Chicago and we are both in agreement that this was the best IRL GO Fest that we have ever attended. There is plenty to unpack to back up our sentiment, beginning with how the introduction of different gameplay “Districts” put you right into the gameplay, as soon as you stepped off the plane. It was an amazing feeling to have the event come to life as soon as arriving in Chicago, and the barrage of geo-based Timed Research kept Trainers tied to their games as the grind through a flurry of tasks.

Even moving from the airport to our hotel kept us immersed in the game, making the gameboard come to life. If really make Trainers feel like they were looking at an in-game world map at their feet. The geo fencing of districts paired with associated Timed Research had players covering a serious amount of territory. If this is any indication of how IRL events can curate and shape real life gameplay behaviors, than this is just the tip of a very exciting iceberg.

We had a full weekend of gameplay, including countless Raids and an insane amount of walking. Both of our Adventure Sync numbers were above 120km. In typical Lured Up fashion, we had stuff going on all weekend. On Friday nights we hosted our meetup at Monk’s Pub, the same place as our 2019 meetup. You all SHOWED UP and we had double the turnout than we expected, and we are so grateful to have been able to spend time with all of you. Next year we will need a new venue!

Saturday night was Adam’s idea, with a Pokémon themed Pop-Punk night. All of the bands on the bill were incredible, with Midway Down headlining and absolutely brought the house down. It was so much fun to hang with the community in that setting. We will absolutely be incorporating live music/entertainment into our plans next year!

Finally on Friday we met up with our good friend JT Valor for a final push of Raids at the end of the weekend. In typical Raid Train Fashion, we ended up picking up Trainers at every stop. It was VERY cool to see JT in action. He gives so much of himself to his fans and spends heaps of time with everyone. JT’s combination of hardcore gameplay, travel, and approachability is PGO video content at its best.

In typical live-service fashion, it seemed that about as soon as we stepped on the airplane to come home, new news was dropping about the events happening through the end of the month. We blast through the news and cover all of the new event info released post-Chicago.

GO Fest Chicago

Lured Up in Chicago

Lured Up on Fox 32 Chicago

100 Thieves

Team Leader Summer Quests

Frigibax Community Day

Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day

Flying Taxi

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

Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor 

LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

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

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

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

Lured Up Podcast 395: Forward Progress

Live Streamed on - 5/27/2026

Publish Date - 5/28/2026

We are less than 2 weeks away from GO Fest Chicago! This window of time is the funky period where some are getting ready to travel to GO Fest, while the majority of others are still ready to play and grind at home! We break down some of the details of the Chicago event as well as the Team Leader Summer Quests that we will have globally over the next few weeks. Being a live service game, Pokémon GO definitely doesn't have time to rest on its laurels, as Season 23 of the game has been unveiled.

Forever Forward will be our next season, and by the look of the promotional video, Niantic is doubling down on their core value of exploration. From Trainers walking an adventuring, to images of remote Pokéstops, the game has positioned itself as a key motivator in keeping Trainers moving forward. We unpack what we know so far, and how GO Fest season will drive the first few weeks of the season, leading right into Global in mid-July.

We also have our June Content Update, bringing back some Raid favorites like Necrozma and some Ultra Beasts. Frigibax has been announced as the June Community Day Pokémon, and we have a few events called out for the month. If IRL GO Fests are not in your future, there is still plenty to do in game and from home, which can be considered a long, winding road to GO Fest Global.

We cover some random notes like the Pokémon Fossil Museum in Chicago and the release of Excavator Pikachu. This will likely be on all Chicago Trainer’s bingo cards for the weekend. Pokémon GO has once again partnered with 100 Thieves to release some killer Mewtwo merch. We are hoping to get our hands on it, and ultimately give it away to the community. 

We also run through our announced Chicago plans so far, including our Podcast Community Mixer with the GO Cast Podcast and our Pokémon Pop Punk night. We hope to have even more news to share by next week, and GO Fest will be here before you know it!

Finally we reflect on how it has already been a year since the Scopely acquisition. We discuss our experiences working with Niantic and how our confidence in their goals has only increased since Scopely came in. If their 1 year promotional video doesn’t get you going, I am not sure what will!

GO Fest Chicago

Team Leader Summer Quests

Forever Forward

Forever Forward GBL

June Content Update

Frigibax Community Day

Pokémon Fossil Museum

100 Thieves

Lured Up at Chicago GO Fest

Scopely - 1 Year Later

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

Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor 

LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

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

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

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 394: That’s a Lot of Raids

Live Streamed on - 5/19/2026

Publish Date - 5/22/2026

Video podcast now available on SPOTIFY!

The Community is split on how they feel about the sheer volume of Raids we will be seeing during GO Fest Global. With 50 or so different Raid Bosses, Trainers were feeling like they may not have the amount of opportunities to Raid a specific Pokémon as they would like. Plus, with Mega Mewtwo only showing up at Super Mega Raid eligible Gyms, some min/maxers are a bit annoyed with the deep roster.

This led to Niantic announcing that each of the rotating, 3 hour habitats will have a specific Mega and 5 Star Raid Pool. Even with this news, some Trainers are still feeling like the Raids will be overwhelming to manage, especially if they really have their sights set on Mega Mewtwo.

Coming off the heels of successful Community Celebrations in cities like Philadelphia and Washington DC, Niantic is bringing a major wave of Celebration events across the globe. New York City is going to be a blast and both Ken and Adam will be in attendance on Saturday! It’s going to be an incredible day of gameplay and we hope to see you there!

After the break we jump into some gameplay including Community Day Classic: Deino and the upcoming Falinks Super Mega Raid Day.For the latter, we put together a little Raid Guide and Battle Party, with a flying spec Mega Rayquaza coming in as the best counter. Be sure to tag us on social using #BattleParty so we can see what you are bringing, as well as your best catches!

Looking ahead in the calendar we have a trio of weekly events being announced with the Team Leader Summer Quests. We will see events run through the IRL Go Fest window, each themed around a different Team Leader with different spawn pools for each. One thing worth noting is that the first of the three events takes place in what many presumed was another event-less week in May, but, SURPRISE! Niantic has blocked out the week, which reminds us of how great it can be when the game can actually surprise us. Sometimes, it’s better to not know all the information up front!

GO Hub: GO Fest Global Raids

GO Fest Global: Community Celebration

Community Day Classic: Deino

Falinks Super Mega Raid Day

GO Hub Mega Falinks

Pokebattler Mega Falinks

Team Leader Summer Quests

Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor 

LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639 

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

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

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