Imaginary Worlds

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1. The Back Row: An Audio Drama

   4 november 2026 · 28 min

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   This week, we’re playing an episode from the audio drama podcast The Truth. Longtime listeners might remember that I used to be a writer on The Truth, and I played the stories I wrote for them on my podcast. I wanted to share one of my favorite stories they’ve done recently called The Back Row. It’s about a man named Jake who is flying to an important business conference. But his experience on the plane becomes an increasingly strange and surreal journey that challenges everything he believes about getting ahead. It’s a great episode to listen to if you’re actually on a plane. Lees meer

   The Back Row was written by Hunter Nelson; directed and sound designed by Jonathan Mitchell.

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2. Boo! What Scares Our Listeners

   21 oktober 2026 · 40 min

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   We recently did a call-out to our listeners, asking you to tell us what movies or shows not only scared you, but stuck with you for years. Even hardcore horror fans sometimes have that one trope or subgenre they can’t handle. In previous episodes, I talk with Rob Hanton, Brandee Iampietro, Michelle Dwyer, Adam Bennington, Maje Adams, and Jonathan Stark about the sneaky demons, haunted mirrors, and chemical mutations that took hold in their minds, and why they haven’t been able to shake them off. Lees meer

   This week’s episode is sponsored by Monarch. Use the code IMAGINARY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.
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3. Stephen King and the Horror of the Ordinary

   7 oktober 2026 · 38 min

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   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 writer. Caroline Bicks (author of Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King), Neil McRobert of the podcast Talking Scared and Kim C. of the podcast The Year of Underrated Stephen King discuss the essential ingredients in his stories besides the scares, from the psychological demons of his characters to the isolation of living in a small town. We also explore how King meticulously crafts language, why so many film adaptations have missed the mark, and his impact on pop culture. Lees meer

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4. Is Mythology the Key to Understand AI?

   23 september 2026 · 41 min

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   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 falling in love with ChatGPT, it’s hard not to think of movies like Her. But it’s possible that science fiction isn’t the best prism to understand AI right now – even if it feels like we’re living in a sci-fi story. Some experts are using ancient mythology instead. I talk with Berkeley researcher and author Nina Beguš, journalist and author Vanessa Chang, and Truman State University professors Amy Norgard and Josh Nudell how myths like Pygmalion or Pandora reflect primal human desires and fears that have an effect on the development of AI. I also talk with audio journalist Rebecca Nolan about her experience trying to bring her father back from the underworld as a chatbot. Lees meer

   This episode is sponsored by Monarch. Use the code IMAGINARY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.
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5. Sci-Fi Walks the Runway

   9 september 2026 · 34 min

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   When sci-fi movies take a big swing in depicting futuristic fashion, sometimes they end up creating iconic outfits and other times they create fashion which looks laughably outdated in a few years. I’ve became fascinated by three fashion designers whose work took center stage in sci-fi films and transcended the films themselves. I talk with fashion historians and authors Raissa Bretaña and Thèresa Winge about the influence of Paco Rabanne on Barbarella, the work of Jean-Paul Gaultier on The Fifth Element and the way Alexander McQueen was influenced by dystopian sci-fi, which informed the McQueen style in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Each of these collaborations left a lasting impact on cinema and fashion, from the runway to the shopping mall. Lees meer

   Thèresa's book Fashion Adventures in Science Fiction Cinema comes out in December.

   This episode is sponsored by Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to Quince.com/imaginary.
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6. Widow’s Bay Builds a History with Horror

   26 augustus 2026 · 42 min

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   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. The island isn’t as famous as Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket -- for good reason. Widow's Bay is cursed by a demonic entity. The show is nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, including Best Comedy, and I talked with their Emmy nominated production designer, Steve Arnold. We discuss the careful worldbuilding needed to blend horror and comedy, real and fake history, and subtle references to Jaws, The Fog, Halloween, The Shining, Carrie, and other works by Stephen King. We also look at why some of the props on the show became viral hits, like a set of creepy fake board games. Lees meer

   We also have an update on our 2022 episode "Monsters in the Static: Why Gen Z Is Afraid of Analog Horror." I talk with digital folklore expert Diane A. Rodgers about why the web series Backrooms became a blockbuster film that resonated with younger fans this summer. The full version of my interview with Diane can be heard on our Patreon show, Between Imaginary Worlds.

   This episode is sponsored by Monarch. Use the code IMAGINARY at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50.
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7. Economics in The Alien Franchise Isn't Science Fiction

   12 augustus 2026 · 35 min

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   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 set of jaws that protrude from its mouth and a body that’s like cross between a giant insect and a skeletal dinosaur. But the alien creature may not be the real villain of the franchise. This week’s episode comes from the NPR podcast Planet Money. They explore whether the true monster is the sinister corporation pulling the strings in the background. Even more specifically, the real villain might be the economic system that allowed it to have so much unchecked power.
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8. Is Money Ruining Fanfiction?

   29 juli 2026 · 44 min

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   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 – the novel that began as Twilight fanfiction – was a fluke. It turned out to be a harbinger of a controversial fanfiction-to-media pipeline. I talk with Elizabeth Minkel, editor of the site Fansplaining, about how a financial motivation has altered the way fanfiction writers tell stories and the characters from pop culture they choose to focus on. We also discuss how the conversations around representation in fanfiction have become more complicated over the past decade. Lees meer

   This episode was inspired by an episode of The Allusionist podcast. If you like this episode, you should check out our interview with Archive of Our Own co-founder Francesca Coppa and our episode Swept Away by Romantasy, which looks at how the blending of romance and fantasy took over the publishing industry.
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9. Choose Your Own Odyssey

   15 juli 2026 · 41 min

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   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: role-playing games. The structure of The Odyssey is practically a blueprint for tabletop and video game RPGs from the ‘boss fights’ with fantasy creatures to the way Odysseus levels up through the tale. Professor Roger Travis explains how ancient bards engaged in a similar type of immersive storytelling as game masters today. Laura Jenkinson-Brown argues that Odysseus’s choices are like a dialogue tree in a choose-your-own-adventure book. That’s why she wrote one called “You Are Odysseus. Plus, John Haygood and Jonathan Drake tell me how they’ve created tabletop role-playing games that tap into Greek myths and reward players for embracing the values of the Homeric world. Lees meer

   To support the show, you can donate on Patreon where you get access to the ad-free version and our companion show Between Imaginary Worlds.
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10. The U.S. of Play - Part 2: Silly Putty, Twister and Monopoly

    1 juli 2026 · 43 min

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    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. Strong National Museum of Play curators Michelle Parnett-Dwer and Mirek Stolee, along with game designer and author Tim Walsh, join me to unpack how Silly Putty, Twister, and Monopoly slipped between the complicated world of adults and the realm of childhood. HSE University professor Roman Abramov tells me how Soviet kids in the '80s built their own DIY versions of Monopoly behind the Iron Curtain. And I travel back to middle school to relive my role in a children's theater group that staged an original musical about Monopoly that was also a critique of capitalism. Lees meer

    To support the show, you can donate on Patreon where you get access to the ad-free version and our companion show Between Imaginary Worlds.
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