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PODCAST

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky | QCODE

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 reporter and producer, and he uses those skills to create thoughtful, sound-rich episodes about science fiction, fantasy, and other genres of speculative fiction. Every other week, he talks with filmmakers, screenwriters, novelists, comic book artists, game designers, and anyone who works in the field of make-believe

arts science fiction

All Episodes

38:30

The Battle to Make Star Wars

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/09/24

Movies that change cinema often come from outsiders – whether it’s Orson Welles making Citizen Kane or George Lucas making Star Wars a.k.a. Episode IV: A New Hope. The excellent graphic novel Lucas Wars by artist Renaud Roche and writer Laurent Hopman just came out in English (the original French title is Les Guerres de Lucas.) I talk with Renaud and Laurent about why the making of Star Wars was such a long shot, and how the production changed the lives of everyone involved. Plus, we discuss the

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35:50

Lifting the Curtain on Theatrical Effects

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/09/10

I’ve covered digital and practical effects in film and TV, but creating special effects for live theater is a whole other challenge. J&M Special Effects has been up to the task for 40 years. Their crew has worked on shows from Hadestown to Harry Potter and The Cursed Child to Disney musicals like Frozen and Aladdin. I get a behind-the-scenes tour of their Brooklyn warehouse, where failure is part of the process in figuring out how to make the magic work. I talk with partner and designer Jeremy

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47:39

The Shark That Ate Hollywood

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/08/27

I didn't want the summer to end without joining in on the 50th anniversary celebrations of Jaws. I spent summers on Cape Cod as a kid, where I often heard that Jaws was filmed nearby on Martha's Vineyard. In fact, I recently went back and visited an exhibit on the 50th anniversary of Jaws at the Martha Vineyard Museum. So this week, I'm playing one of my favorite reflections on the 50th anniversary of Jaws -- an episode from the podcast Cautionary Tales. The host Tim Harford dives deep into the

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42:21

Dreaming of Coney Island's Dreamland

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/08/13

Coney Island still has the classic amusements you’d expect today like roller coasters, water slides, and carnival games. But over a century ago, it looked more like a proto–Disney World, with multiple theme parks, colossal buildings, and wildly imaginative rides. The most extravagant park along the boardwalk was Dreamland. At Dreamland, you could take a trip to Hell, experience the end of the world, ride through fake Venetian canals, or visit a city built to scale for little people. I talk with

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38:37

8-Bit to Orchestras: Video Game Music Scores

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/07/30

Creating a musical score for interactive video games is like trying to hit a moving target. Luckily, Hans Zimmer’s studio Bleeding Fingers has developed some clever strategies. I talk with their CEO Russell Emanuel and musicians Thom Lukas and Giovanni Rios about how they create innovative scores for games like Arknights, and why they thrive under creative limitations. Grammy-winning video game composer Winifred Phillips discusses how she builds adaptive scores that shift and respond to

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42:07

How Jack Kirby Made His Mark on Marvel

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/07/16

The production design of the film Fantastic Four: First Steps is an homage to the early ‘60s comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. While Kirby is best known for his bold, fist-popping drawing style, he was also a great storyteller who redefined what comic books could be. He was appreciated by hardcore fans at the time, but he never got the same media attention as Stan Lee and wasn't compensated for the fortunes his characters made. I talk with Kirby experts Charles Hatfield, Mark Evanier,

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44:53

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Douglas Adams

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/07/02

When Arvind Ethan David was a student, he decided to adapt the Douglas Adams novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency into a play. Arvind didn’t imagine that Adams would show up to see the play (which he did), nor that Arvind would grow up to become a caretaker of Adams’ legacy. Arvind just released an audiobook called Douglas Adams: The Ends of The Earth, produced by Pushkin Industries. It features unheard archival audio of Douglas Adams and interviews with friends and colleagues of the late

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44:43

Imagining the Digital Afterlife

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/06/18

The animated TV series Pantheon (streaming on Netflix) asks what if you could upload your mind to the Internet? Would still be human? Would we create a virtual paradise where everyone got to live forever? Or would we find new and more sophisticated ways to destroy each other? I talk with Pantheon showrunner Craig Silverstein and Ken Liu, the author of The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, which the TV show is based on. We discuss how they adapted a series of loosely interconnected stories into a

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38:44

Murderbot Is Ready for Its Close-Up (But Not Eye...

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/06/04

Murderbot is a killing machine in the far future that would rather spend its time binging an intergalactic soap opera. Shooting bad guys with lasers is much less stressful than making eye contact or engaging in small talk with humans. Murderbot is also the main character of Martha Wells’ best-selling series of books, The Murderbot Diaries. The books have been adapted into a fun new show on Apple TV+ starring Alexander Skarsgård. I talk with Martha Wells, and the showrunners Chris and Paul Weitz,

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40:45

The Bright Legacy of Dark Shadows

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/05/21

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Dark Shadows. The gothic soap opera wasn’t originally intended to include a vampire, but when creator Dan Curtis introduced the character of Barnabas Collins in a last-ditch effort to avoid cancellation, he inadvertently launched a cultural phenomenon. As portrayed by actor Jonathan Frid, the character of Barnabas sparked a never-ending debate among horror fans as to whether vampires should be depicted as pure predators or tragic, misunderstood outcasts. I

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38:25

Body Horror Gets Under My Skin

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/05/07

We all have that one thing we just can’t watch. For me, it’s body horror -- the kind of horror where grotesque and disturbing things happen to someone’s body, like in The Thing, The Fly, or The Substance. There is a long history of body horror as a form of social commentary and special effects showmanship. I respect the artform, but I can’t stomach the art. So I decided to figure out why. I talk with Chioke l’Anson (horror fan and voice of NPR underwriting), author David Huckvale (“Terrors of The

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51:06

Bonus: Syd Mead Full Gallery Tour

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/04/30

Last week, we heard about a new exhibit in New York called Syd Mead: Future Pastime. The exhibit closes on May 21st, and I know most listeners won't be able to see it in person. So in this bonus episode, you can hear the entire tour I got from Elon Solo and William Corman, who organized the exhibit. You can also see some of the images on the Imaginary Worlds Instagram and Facebook pages.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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37:34

The Optimist Behind Blade Runner's Dystopia

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/04/23

The late Syd Mead was a visual futurist who was hired to imagine the worlds of Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, Elysium and other sci-fi films. His work in Hollywood has been lauded for decades, but there’s a new exhibit in New York that shows a different side of the artist. Syd Mead: Future Pastime is a collection of his personal and commercial paintings, which are all works of science fiction. Despite his connection to the dystopian world of Blade Runner, Mead’s personal vision of the future was

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40:14

Blueprints for Utopias

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/04/09

The golden age of sci-fi was filled with utopian visions the future. These days, when sci-fi creators project ahead several decades, the world is looking a lot more dystopian. But there is a group of artists who believe that a better tomorrow is possible if we can imagine it first. Architects are finding that science fiction can be a great way to understand how their buildings will adapt to a rapidly changing world. I talk with architect and Texas Tech professor Jes Deaver about why she thinks

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37:12

Mary Blair: Coloring Outside the Lines at Disney

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/03/26

In honor of Women’s History Month we’re producing a two-part series about two artists who were visionaries and trailblazers. In part 2, we look at the career of Mary Blair. She changed the way Walt Disney wanted to make animation and brought modernist sophistication to his style. But not everyone at the studio was on board with Walt’s dream to “get Mary in the picture.” I talk with animation historians John Canemaker and Mindy Johnson about the influence of Mary Blair, and how we’ve experienced her

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17:36

Bonus: Superstar Stuntwoman of Silent Cinema

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/03/19

In the previous episode, I talked with author Mallory O'Meara about Milicent Patrick, but there wasn't room to include this bonus material about Mallory's new book, Daughter of Daring. It tells the amazing story of Helen Gibson, the first superstar professional stuntwoman in Hollywood. She was like a combination of Annie Oakley and Michelle Yeoh at a time when silent movie stars were trying to outdo each other in their death-defying stunts.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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34:22

Milicent Patrick: Disney Magic to Monster Mayhem

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/03/12

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re producing a two-part series about two visionary and trailblazing artists: Mary Blair and Milicent Patrick. They went to the same art school. They each began working at Disney during the Depression. They were both singled out for their talents but left in 1941. From there, they went on to have wildly different careers, but each had a lasting impact on pop culture. In part one, I talk with authors and historians Mindy Johnson and Mallory O’Meara about Milicent

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38:49

Pokémon and The Art of Dubbing Anime

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/02/26

This week’s episode comes from our Patreon podcast Between Imaginary Worlds. It’s a more casual chat show that appears between ad-free episodes of Imaginary Worlds for listeners who support the show on Patreon. I wanted to play this episode for you because it gives a good sense of the types of conversations we’re having on Between Imaginary Worlds. I talk with the anime voice actress Veronica Taylor about her career dubbing characters in shows like Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, One Piece and

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35:10

Filk Fusion: Where Sci-Fi Meets Folk Music

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/02/12

In the 1950s, an article about the popularity of folk music among science fiction fans had a typo where “folk” was written as “filk.” From then on, filk music became a staple at grassroots sci-fi conventions. Filkers would either write parody lyrics to existing folk songs, or they’d invent entirely new speculative worlds in 3-4 minute songs. Filk has evolved beyond just being folk. It's gone electric and embraced other genres of music. But sci-fi fantasy fandom has changed a lot as well. Does filk

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38:30

Dance With The Devil Under Wall St.

Imaginary Worlds ·

2025/01/29

The writer Jon Ronson and the producers of the immersive theatrical experience Sleep No More have teamed up to make a vast new immersive show that unfolds beneath a Wall St. skyscraper. Life And Trust tells the story of J.G. Conwell, a bank president on the eve of the 1929 crash who makes a Faustian bargain to return to his youth. We accompany him back to New York’s seedy and turbulent past of The Gilded Age. The experience of spending hours in the world of Life And Trust is almost indescribable

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