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"You're not real. None of this is!"
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COD POD is a series of podcast-like videos by Activision about the Call of Duty franchise, hosted by Miles Ross and Stephanie Snowden. The first episode was released on July 15th, 2024 with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as its main topic.
Overview[]
Episode 1[]
Episode 1 of the COD POD released on July 15th, 2024, and discussed aspects of the Black Ops 6 Campaign, Multiplayer and updated movement systems and gameplay mechanics.
The episode began with discussion on the Campaign mode, announcing the game would be a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War that is set in the early 1990s, featuring the return of Frank Woods, now handicapped after the events in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as well as Troy Marshall, Woods' trainee within the CIA.
Following the Campaign talk, Miles and Stephanie talked about the new Omnimovement system, that is present in all game modes, as well as discussing the return of the Classic Prestige system. The two would also reveal that Black Ops 6 would feature 16 brand new Multiplayer maps at launch, as well as the return of Round-Based Zombies.
Later on in the episode, Miles and Stephanie interviewed Matt Scronce, Associate Director of Design at Treyarch, who talked more about the new Omnimovement and Intelligent Movement systems.
The two then discussed the announcement of the Open Beta for the game, and the new dedicated melee weapon available for players. They finally talked about Season Five of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III being themed around cel-shading and the final chapter of Operation Deadbolt.
Episode 2[]
Episode 2 of the COD POD released on August 30th, 2024 and was filmed during CODNext 2024, which brought discussion for the event itself as well as Beta and Zombies news for Black Ops 6, and the upcoming Warzone map, Area 99.
The episode began with Stephanie's and Miles' favorite moments from CODNext, which ended with talks of a Call of Duty wedding at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. prior to CODNext. They then talked more on Omnimovement as well as tips for players during the Beta to easily acquaint themselves with the game.
After the Multiplayer discussion, the two brought out Kevin Drew, Design Director at Treyarch, and a Zombies YouTuber MrDalekJD to discuss the upcoming Zombies mode. They mentioned the return of GobbleGums, the narrative and dedicated crew, as well the game's difficulty.
Following the discussion of Zombies, Stephanie and Miles talked about Area 99, a new Resurgence map for Warzone 2.0 and that it will be released during Season One of Black Ops 6.
The episode ended with the two discussing The Haunting event that will take place during Modern Warfare III Season Six.
Episode 3[]
Episode 3 of the COD POD was released on October 10th, 2024 and featured a guest host, Miles Leslie, Creative Director at Treyarch, and how the developers connected all the Black Ops lore when making Black Ops 6.
Ross, Stephanie and Leslie talked about how a Black Ops title is made, and the core pillars each game has. They revealed the canon ending of Black Ops II being the one where Woods killed Alex Mason in Panama and the story it would follow in Black Ops 6.
They then talked about the story they would tell in the game being a rogue CIA task force trying to uncover a conspiracy in the CIA and the new Pantheon and their infiltration. They talked about new characters such as Troy Marshall, Sevati "Sev" Dumas, Felix Neumann and Jane Harrow.
Leslie would leave the episode following talks of Modern Warfare III where Ross and Stephanie discussed The Haunting event. The episode then ended with a Community Mailbag where the questions on Campaign Rewards, Seasonal Events, Party Mode, Liberty Falls and Round-Based Zombies where answered.
Xbox Podcast Episode[]
On October 22nd, 2024, Miles and Stephanie joined the Xbox Podcast, Ethan Rothamel and Kelly Lombardi, to discuss the start of the COD POD itself and how to engage with the community and player base, invoking discussion with them. The four of them talk about their history and memories of the franchise itself, looking back at their gaming moments.
Ethan and Kelly discuss that Black Ops 6 is going to be on Xbox Game Pass at launch for the game. Afterwards, they discuss Campaign, Zombies, Multiplayer and Warzone, and what players can expect in both the games.
They then discussed their favorite Black Ops title, missions, game modes and Multiplayer maps. They then reminisce on Blackout from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and their favorite memories from the games life cycle.
Miles and Ethan bring up the cultural significance of the Call of Duty series and Xbox's rich history it has brought. Finally, they end the episode going over the Black Ops 6 Collector's Edition, showcasing the Xbox Controllers, Console and wraps that players can get.
Episode 4[]
Episode 4 of the COD POD released on December 2nd, 2024 and was dubbed their "Holiday Special". Miles and Stephanie recapped the launch of Black Ops 6 and Season One for the game. They would then preview the upcoming Season One Reloaded update and the new weapons and events coming with it.
The two would then be joined by Kevin Drew, who discussed the new Directed Mode and upcoming Zombies map, Citadelle des Morts with its new set of Wonder Weapons, The Bastard Swords. Kevin would reveal the return of the Vulture Aid Perk-a-Cola, Tesla Storm Field Upgrade and the all new Light Mend Ammo Mod.
The three would discuss the positive reception the Zombies mode has revealed and the upcoming Jingle Hells game mode that would feature a holiday-themed version of Liberty Falls with themed enemies and new gameplay modifications. Kevin would leave the episode following this announcement.
Miles and Stephanie would then introduce Karen David, Sevati Dumas' actress, as a special guest for the remainder of the episode. She would share her experience playing Sev, the motion capture and her favorite lines. She also discussed the work video game actors have to do and the hard work it brings.
The episode ended with Miles and Stephanie exchanging gifts to one another pertaining to the COD POD itself, as well as the reveal of the Netflix Squid Game 2 event with a trailer.
Episode 5[]
Episode 5 of the COD POD was released on March 26th, 2025 and discussed the return of Verdansk for Warzone for Black Ops 6 Season Three.
Miles and Stephanie would introduce Mark Grigsby and Jack O'Hara, the studio heads at Infinity Ward, and how they went into making Verdansk for Call of Duty: Warzone (2020). They revealed their favorite memories and Points of Interests for the map, as well the various technical challenges that went into making Verdansk. Mark and Jack would then talk about how they released Warzone during a global pandemic and how they confronted problems and made fixes for the game.
Mark and Jack would leave the episode and soon be replaced by Pete Actipis, game director at Raven Software, and Etienne Polliout, creative director at Beenox. The two discussed how they rebuilt Verdansk from the ground up for Warzone 2.0 and Season Three of Black Ops 6. They revealed all the upcoming gameplay updates including new movement, weapons and the return of classic contracts and floating loot. They then showed off the new vehicles that would be featured on the map and all the quality-of-life updates.
Pete and Entienne would then leave the episode, where Miles and Stephanie would end it with discussion of Black Ops 6 Season Three Multiplayer, Ranked Play and Zombies with answering the Community Mailbag.
Episode 6[]
The sixth episode of COD POD was released on June 17th, 2025, and was mainly focused on the analysis of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 teaser that had dropped on June 8th. Miles Lesley returned as a special guest and provided several hints towards the tone that Treyarch wanted to set with the forthcoming Black Ops title, as well as providing explanations to several of the motifs and symbolism seen in the teaser trailer.
Treyarch's Animation Director Phillip Lozano and Performance Capture Director Mikal Vega also joined as special guests, providing some insight into their process and the importance of good animation, as well as providing behind-the-scenes footage of the animation that plays shortly before the Z-Rex fight on Shattered Veil, as well as how some of the wrestling move-inspired Finishing Moves are recorded. Near the end of the episode footage is shown of both Miles and Stephanie in mocap suits, being rigged in the air and having fun as their moves are registered into nearby software.
After Miles and Stephanie summarized what events are forthcoming in both Black Ops 6 and Warzone, as well as confirming the launch of the last map in the Black Ops 6 Zombies storyline on the launch of Season 5, they end the episode with another "Community Mailbag" vignette and confirmed a new season of the COD POD - followed by a collection of bloopers and outtakes from previous episodes.
Episode 7[]
Episode 7 of the COD POD premiered live during GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, on August 19th, 2025. This episode, whilst considerably shorter than previous ones, was also focused on Black Ops 7 -though with many more details being revealed in comparison to the previous episode, in regards to the Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies modes.
Miles and Stephanie confirmed that Multiplayer would launch with 16 6v6 maps - 3 of them being remasters of Raid, Hijacked and Express - as well as 16 new weapons, with the return of some Black Ops II fan-favorites like the Peacekeeper. Further insight into an "improved" omnimovement system was discussed, namely the introduction of wall-jumping into it, as well as the removal of tactical sprint being enabled by default and the introduction of the all-new Overclock system. Global Progression was also discussed, as well as a small discussion in regards to the Zombies storyline and its future, whilst displaying an area of an upcoming Zombies map within Black Ops 7.
Miles and Stephanie are soon joined by a returning Miles Lesley and Raven Software's Lead Producer Natalie Pohorski, who talk about several aspects of the campaign - including the setting, the characters, its co-op mode and the finale of the campaign which would be designated as "Endgame".
COD POD then ends with Miles and Stephanie revealing the dates for the next iteration of Call of Duty NEXT, as well as the Open Beta testing period of Black Ops 7.
Episode 8[]
Episode 8 of the COD POD was released on October 3rd, 2025. It featured two special guests, one returning and one new: Matt Scronce, Treyarch's Design Director, and Nolan North, voice actor for several past and current Call of Duty characters.
The COD POD began by recapitulating what was experienced during COD NEXT, which had taken place on September 30th, including new announcements such as the Blackout mode that would be introduced to Warzone in 2026, and all the promised features for both Multiplayer and Zombies modes. After the conclusion of the recap, Stephanie and Miles began their interview section with Matt Scronce, with whom they discussed the upcoming Overload mode and how it played during the Beta Testing period, as well as providing some background to the new maps.
After the interview, a small Q&A section with videos taken of content creators was made, as well with questions from social media users, where they posed questions such as if there are any forthcoming changes to the Perk system, if there would be additional game modes to Ranked Play, and if there would be enhancements to Wall Jumping.
Immediately after the Matt Scronce interview was concluded, the Nolan North interview section had started, where Nolan discussed with Stephanie and Miles how he prepares to voice such roles as Edward Richtofen and T.E.D.D., his past voice roles, his favorite voice lines, and his experience secretly voicing T.E.D.D. during COD NEXT.
The COD POD ends with a Community Mailbag section, with Stephanie and Miles answering several questions posed by online fans.
Videos[]
