The Hobbits and The Hippies
J.R.R. Tolkien wanted his work to be taken seriously. But his magnum opus The Lord of the Rings was unlike most of great literature of the...
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Episodes
Latest first
Behind The Felt
In the continuation of my behind-the-scenes mini-series, I revisit the first interview I ever recorded for Imaginary Worlds -- the...
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Finding My Voice
This week, I pull the curtain back on my process and look at two public radio stories I reported back in 2008 when I began to find my voice...
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The Legacy of Octavia Butler
2016 marks the ten-year anniversary of Octavia Butler's passing. Commemorative events are happening across Southern California, where she...
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Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell was groundbreaking, visually and thematically. The 1995 Japanese animated film (or anime) was unapologetically for...
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The Year Without a Summer
June 16, 2016 is the 200th anniversary of the night Mary Shelley began to write, "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus." Scholars have...
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Then She Fell
Immersive theater is a new trend where there are no seats and no stage. The audience moves through the space like a virtual world, touching...
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The Robot Uprising
The robot uprising is coming, or at least that's what science fiction has told us. We will abuse the robots, treat them as less than us...
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Humans: New & Improved
When Graeme Manson started as a showrunner for BBC America's Orphan Black, he needed to create villains who were on the cutting edge of...
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Economics of Thrones and Starships
Whether you're running the seven kingdoms of Westeros or flying to Mars -- you have to figure out how to pay for everything. Many...
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Becoming Godzilla
This week's episode features another monster who comes from the sea and represents an existential threat -- but he's just so lovable....
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When Cthulhu Calls
This week's episode is a radio drama, and a co-production with Jeff Emtman's podcast Here Be Monsters. I've been fascinated by the monster...
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Why They Fight
On the big screen this Spring, Batman will try to take down Superman, Iron Man is going to fight Captain America, and Daredevil will battle...
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Imagining Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is finally going to make her cinematic debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Bringing her to the big screen has been a...
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Noble Effort
In 2013, I co-produced this episode of 99% Invisible with Roman Mars about Maurice Noble, the artist who created many of the background (or...
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Dracula from Nebraska
We all know that novelist Bram Stoker based the character of Dracula off Vlad the Impailer, the Romanian prince who fought off the Turks --...
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Inside the Snow Globe
Tom Fontana is a TV writer and producer who worked on St. Elsewhere in the 1980s. The show was a pretty straightforward hospital drama, but...
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The Expanded Universe
Warning: Spoilers ahead! When The Force Awakens came out, millions of fans flocked to the theaters to find out what happened to the...
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Han Shot Solo
In 1997, the Star Wars trilogy was re-released in theaters. Longtime fans were excited to see the new digital effects, while younger fans...
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