Imaginary Worlds

Traditional fairy folklore was no fairy tale.

How classic sci-fi and horror radio dramas set the stage for stories that couldn't be told yet without advanced SFX

Writers and chefs discuss the roles that food can play in sci-fi fantasy worlds.

Three years after my Dungeons & Dragons episode, where I first learned how to play, I discuss the epic and surprisingly personal journey I've been on with my D&D group.

Francesca Coppa explains the fascinating history of fan fiction, and why she's become an advocate for it in academia.

Constructed langauges -- or conlangs for short -- are a valuable tool in worldbuilding. But once a conlang is let out in the world, the fans can do anything they want with it.

Listeners discuss how they've grieved the loss of their favorite fictional characters.

Why did Fahrenheit 451 jump to the top of bestseller lists after the 2016 election? Neil Gaiman and others explain why this classic novel may be more relevant than ever.

As Magic the Gathering celebrates its 25th anniversary, I talk with designers at Wizards of the Coast about how they create a cohesive sense of story in over 10,000 non-sequential playing cards.

Catherine Webb writes different styles of fantasy novels under various pseudonyms, but the quality of her work always shines through.

To promote season 2 of Westworld, HBO built the town of Sweetwater at the SXSW festival. But what happened at the exhibit reflected the TV show a little too much.

Avengers: Infinity War brought together Marvel characters from across the universe, but many of them already shared a common bond -- their creator Jack Kirby.

People dream of living away from the Earth, from an impossibly curved space habitat to a moon base on the verge of breaking apart.

What do aliens, God, the KGB, and ancient Romans all have in common? They each may have tried to contact sci-fi author Philip K. Dick in 1974.

What does it take to create digital humans that can pass for the real thing?

Filmmaker Arwen Curry discusses her documentary, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, and the time that Arwen spent with the master of fantasy.

The Doctor's arch nemesis The Daleks look like they were built out of household appliances. So why are they the scariest beings in the universe?

In the second of my three-part series on Doctor Who, I look at the companions traveling with The Doctor, and how that experience changes them in ways they never expect.

I kick off my three-part series on the alien who has no name and no possessions, except for a spaceship/time machine that he stole. Even his face (or her face) isn't for keeps. But perhaps The Doctor's regenerations are the key to his popularity.

In the second audio drama I wrote with The Truth, a cryogenically-frozen man is revived centuries from now to find himself in a world that's not quite what he expected

As Star Wars fans argue over The Last Jedi, I revisit my 2014 episode on sci-fi canons and bring the discussion up to date.

The creators of The Expanse novels and TV show discuss why a future war between human colonies across the solar system feels relevant to our politics now.

Are we prepared for a future where robots are the most sought after employees?

We all know it and love it -- but the The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland actually had a fraught 12-year long development where many people wondered if the ride would ever get built.

In the second half of my mini-series on musical worlds, I talk with Sammus and Mega Ran, hip hop artists that create concept albums about their favorite childhood video games.

UK podcast star Helen Zaltzman helps me figure out why some technobabble is good, bad or just plain baffling.

This week, we'll hear one of my favorite 99% Invisible episodes on user interfaces in science fiction. Good or bad, they're mostly blue.

This week I open the vault to play an extended cut of my 2014 interview with the Batman comic book writer Scott Snyder.

The evil plan is the much maligned trope of superhero and other fantasy genres. But it doesn't have to be that way.

How do Muslims readers feel about Dune -- a book which appropriates many aspects of Islam and Arab culture to tell an unconventional hero's journey?

Players from around the world explain why they live a double life in a virtual galaxy called EVE Online.

How did sci-fi authors imagine social media and the Internet before they existed?

What happens when an animation voice actress leaves the show that made her famous -- and her cartoon alter ego isn't happy about it?

Twin Peaks may feel like an unreal place, but some people wonder if their hometowns share too much in common with David Lynch's show.

Lisa Hanawalt explains how her love of drawing horse people lead to being creative director of the Netflix series Bojack Horseman.

A writer and filmmaker explain why they love horror films not just for the thrills, but because the genre helped them mourn for lost loved ones.

Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel imagines how New Yorkers would adapt to sea level rise by turning the city into a Super Venice.

Soviet science fiction reveals the hopes and anxieties of people living behind the Iron Curtain.

How Will Eisner became the "father of the graphic novel."

A social media hashtag celebrates black Cosplayers and the spin they put on classic characters.

How the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender captured the Asian-American experience.

How did Live Action Role Play (a.k.a. Larp) become an obsessive hobby worldwide -- and a new kind of art?

How did Live Action Role Play (a.k.a. Larp) become an obsessive hobby worldwide -- and a new kind of art?

The book "The Art of Atari" is full of eye candy, but it's also about how Atari became a superstar company -- until it was Game Over.

In memory of Carrie Fisher, I'm replaying my 2015 episode on the infamous gold medal bikini, and how its been interpreted over the years.

The 1994 film Clerks posed a moral dilemma that Star Wars fans -- and George Lucas -- have wrestled with for decades.

The creators of the Amazon series talk about building a world we don't want to imagine -- but we need to.

"If Harry Potter were in our world, wouldn't he do more than just talk about how awesome it is to be Harry Potter?"

Reading Harry Potter helps trauma survivors understand their experiences, and feel less alone.

The Sorting Hat has transcended the Harry Potter books and become a phenomenon that makes us question who we really are.

Fantasy novelists work hard to make us believe in magic, but scientists say we already do.

What Google Maps and Middle-earth have in common.

J.R.R. Tolkien was baffled why the counter-culture in the 1960s had embraced his world of Middle-earth.

Stephanie D'Abruzzo reveals the craft of puppeteering on Sesame Street and Ave Q.

This week, I revisit my origin story with a flashback to my superhero training (or at least how I learned to produce audio stories.)

Ten years after the great writer passed, her work continues to be more relevant than ever.

Scarlett Johansson's casting in a live-action remake of an iconic Japanese animated film stirs a debate over race in anime.

How did a quirky low budget indie video game take the gaming world by storm?

How a cataclysmic volcanic eruption inspired a teenage girl to write a literary masterpiece.

An immersive theatrical show takes me inside the asylum of Alice in Wonderland

How much does the legacy of slavery haunt our visions of the future, where we expect robots to do our bidding?

The villains on the show Orphan Black are based on a real movement of people who want us to take control of our own evolution.

Sci-fi and fantasy writers play with economics principles to imagine worlds of great scarcity and abundance.

A Godzilla superfan sets out to make a full body costume, and discovers what it takes to become a monster.

Imaginary Worlds and Here Be Monsters team up to make a radio drama inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Dungeons & Dragons may have the answer as to why our most popular superheroes are fighting each other rather than the bad guys.

The Amazon warrior princess is finally making her big screen debut. Can they get her right this time?

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 "layouts") in Warner Brothers cartoons of the 1950s and '60s. Noble's work was revolutionary, but it got...

We all know that novelist Bram Stoker based the character of Dracula off Vlad the Impailer, the Romanian prince who fought off the Turks -- or that's the urban legend. Stoker actually didn't research Vlad that much, or vampire folklore. So...

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 Fontana had a mischievous streak -- and a soft spot for crossovers. So when he came up with a trick ending...

Warning: Spoilers ahead! When The Force Awakens came out, millions of fans flocked to the theaters to find out what happened to the characters in the 30 years since Return of the Jedi. But hardcore Star Wars fans knew what happened to them...

In 1997, the Star Wars trilogy was re-released in theaters. Longtime fans were excited to see the new digital effects, while younger fans couldn't wait to experience Star Wars on the big screen. But George Lucas had made a fundamental change...

The gold metal bikini that Princess Leia wears in Return of the Jedi has become the dominant image of her from action figures to Cosplay. But the context of that costume -- being a sex slave for a giant slug monster -- has sparked a debate...

The epic battle between the Evil Empire and the Rebel Alliance has become a metaphor we love to use in sports and politics. But what happens when you realize that you're the Empire in someone else's story? Do you tell them they're wrong? Do...

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire...  Before those words crawled up movie screen screen in May 1977, what did people think the...

In this bonus episode of Imaginary Worlds, I look at how Back to the Future Part II might have been a better movie if it took place in our 2015 -- yes, the one without flying cars. 

They arrive out of nowhere in shockingly large ships, brandishing weapons we've never seen, offering false promises of peace when they really want our land, our resources and our labor. The alien invasion film is a...

FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are reopening The X-Files in January. And the Internet couldn't be more excited. Every casting update, every on-set photos has sparked a dozen tweets or blog posts. Is this just nostalgia? Or is concept...

SEASON 2 PREMIERE: I spent the last two months learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons. That's right, I never played as a kid. But I've been reading so many interviews with interesting creative people who credit D&D with their success, I kept...

Season 2 of Imaginary Worlds will kick off on September 22nd. In the mean time, I wanted to play an interview my colleague Sean Rameswaram did with Kristian Nairn, who plays Hodor on Game of Thrones. Sean hosts a podcast from PRI called Sideshow,...

"The Strong Female Character" sounds positive, but it's actually a term used by culture critics to describe the token girl let into the boy's clubhouse of action-adventure movies. She's supposed to kick ass -- but she has no character...

Superhero costumes used to be stand alone works of fashion that over time became dated or cringe-worthy. But lately, movie and TV superhero costumes have been looking good -- with fewer complaints from the fans. I talk with costume...

I have a thing for doppelgangers. Partly it's because my brain always falls for this trick and believes on some level that the doubles are being played by different actors. Thanks to digital effects, it's easier to create doppelgangers on a TV budget...

At the height of his career, Richard Williams was hailed as the next Walt Disney -- and he won two visual effects Oscars for Roger Rabbit. But Williams wanted to prove that animation was high art, not just something to sell toys. So he spent...

New York City real estate is not usually a hotbed of fantasy, except the fantasy that you could afford that $20 million condo 50 stories up. But an unusual ad campaign for 15 Renwick St. in Hudson Square defied conventional thinking and focused on a...

Ronald D. Moore is best known for rebooting Battlestar Galactica for the post-9/11 era, but he got his start writing on Star Trek: The Next Generation. In fact, he really got his start in science fiction by watching the original Star Trek as a kid...

A few years ago, I reported a story about a safe house program for vampires in New Haven, CT. The city supplied the vampires with blood if they agreed to live under police supervision. But the funding for the program got cut and the vampires...

Ed Skoudis built a different kind of imaginary world. It's a three-dimensional model of a town that the military uses for cyber war games. Ed's team plays the role of the terrorists who keep trying to hijack a train or contaminate the water...

Game of Thrones is huge in every way. Why does this medieval fantasy with knights and castles speak to our time? Politics. There are a surprising number of international relations experts that see parallels between...

Zombies. I hate them the way Indiana Jones hates snakes. I know it's a ridiculous phobia -- they're not real, and zombies are a classic genre full of rich ideas. So I decide to undergo zombie immersion therapy. My friend Patrick O' Connor forces me to...

Science fiction writer James Tiptree Jr. wouldn't talk on the phone or appear in person. He developed friendships with contemporaries like Ursula le Guin and Philip K. Dick purely through letters. And he became a mentor to Chelsea Quinn Yarbro when...

A French philosopher is certain his ideas will help human beings evolve -- not just emotionally or psychologically. We will start to grow tails. And that inspires his disciples to start a socialist commune in the Wild West of 1850s Texas....

They say you shouldn't meet your heroes because you might be disappointed.  What happens when you're told from now on you are your childhood hero? For many people that would be a metaphor but that actually happened to Scott Snyder when DC Comics...

The desirable robot has been a trope in science fiction for almost a century. American University professor Despina Kakoudaki (author of "Anatomy of a Robot") says watching actors play robots is a wish fulfillment -- imagining what it would be like to...