Stephen King and the Horror of the Ordinary
Stephen King is often described as a master of horror, but I talked with fans and experts who believe that King is not actually a horror wri...
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Arts
Imaginary Worlds
Imaginary Worlds sounds like what would happen if NPR went to ComicCon and decided that’s all they ever wanted to cover. Host Eric Molinsky spent over a decade working as a public radio repo...
Episodes
20 of 318 episodes
Is Mythology the Key to Understand AI?
With all the talk about rogue AI potentially ending civilization, it’s hard not to think of The Matrix. When there are stories about people...
Sci-Fi Walks the Runway
When sci-fi movies take a big swing in depicting futuristic fashion, sometimes they end up creating iconic outfits and other times they crea...
Widow’s Bay Builds a History with Horror
I’m a little obsessed with Widow's Bay. It’s a horror-comedy series on Apple TV set on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. Th...
Economics in The Alien Franchise Isn't Science Fiction
Even if you’ve never seen an Alien film, you probably know about the monster in the franchise. The Xenomorph has an elongated head, a second...
Is Money Ruining Fanfiction?
The world of fanfiction has changed a lot since our 2017 episode, Fanfiction (Don’t Judge.) At the time, I thought that 50 Shades of Gray –...
Choose Your Own Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey is part of a long line of film adaptations, but Homer’s epic poem has quietly shaped another medium: ro...
The U.S. of Play - Part 2: Silly Putty, Twister and Monopoly
In honor of America's 250th anniversary, we're continuing our mini-series on iconic American toys and games that took on lives of their own....
The U.S. of Play - Part 1: Wagons, Bears and Dolls
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the USA, we are doing a series of mini stories across two episodes that explore American toys and games...
How Folklore Spirited Anime Away
Anime and manga are a global phenomenon, and their popularity continues to grow. Many of these stories are populated by supernatural beings...
The Father of Sword and Soul
Charles R. Saunders loved Tarzan as a kid, but he was also repulsed by the racism in those books since Charles was Black. So he created a co...
Many Faces of Jekyll and Hyde
Pop culture has been full of Jekylls and Hydes: Bruce Banner and The Hulk, Norman Bates and Mother, Walter White and Heisenberg, The Nutty P...
Holmes and Watson: True Crime Podcasters
John Watson is a former army doctor who became a true crime podcaster when he met a consulting detective named Sherlock Holmes. You can hear...
Celebrating 300 Imaginary Worlds
Imaginary Worlds has reached another milestone – 300 episodes! We already celebrated the 200th episode and the 10th anniversary of the show,...
Puppeteering Project Hail Mary
When I interviewed Andy Weir in 2021 about his novel Project Hail Mary, he told me that the movie adaptation was already being planned starr...
How D.C. Fontana Helped Star Trek Live Long and Prosper
Gene Roddenberry’s name is synonymous with Star Trek, but he relied on a team to bring his vision to life. Most of his writers were men with...
Absolute Reimagining of DC Comics
Imagine if Bruce Wayne had no money, if Superman grew up on Krypton and came to Earth with emotional scars, or if Wonder Woman had been rais...
Sinners Gives Hoodoo Its Due
Sinners got a historic 16 Academy Award nominations, which was remarkable for a film with vampires. But the film is also a rich exploration...
Scarlet Hollow Draws a Picture of Success
Scarlet Hollow is a successful indie video game – and that’s no small feat. It’s been a long journey, and the game is made almost entirely b...
Making History with Assassin's Creed
Darby McDevitt is a narrative director and writer at Ubisoft . He’s worked on multiple games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which spans...