On The Front Lines of Military Science Fiction
The military shows up in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy stories but the subgenre of military SF depicts soldiers holding their own in fantastical situations without needing superheroes to save the day. M...
16 Nov 201725min
Fanfiction (Don't Judge)
Sci-fi and fantasy have always been a big part of fanfiction, but fanfiction hasn't always gotten respect in return. My former colleague at WNYC Stephanie Billman guides me through the landscape of fa...
2 Nov 201731min
Why The Haunted Mansion Ride Was Almost Doomed
The Haunted Mansion is one of the most beloved rides at the Disney theme parks, yet its development was anything but smooth. Walt Disney himself could never decide if the ride should be funny or scary...
19 Okt 201727min
Rappers with Arm Cannons
In the second of my two-part episode on musical worlds, I talk with Mega Ran and Sammus -- hip hop artists that create concept albums based on the classic video games Mega Man and Metroid. They talk a...
5 Okt 201724min
Creative Process Behind a Cyberpunk Concept Album
In the first of a two part episode on imaginary worlds in music, I talk with members of Vertigo Drift, an indie band that created a cyberpunk concept album with an expanded universe of material provid...
21 Sep 201718min
Why Sci-Fi Needs Believable Technobabble
This week, I team up with Helen Zaltzman of The Allusionist podcast to help me figure out why one set of poorly understood pseudo-scientific terms can sink a scene, while another set of pseudo-scienti...
7 Sep 201727min
The Craft of Designing Sci-Fi Control Panels
This week, I'm playing one of my favorite episodes of the podcast 99% Invisible where host Roman Mars and producer Sam Greenspan look at control panels in science fiction -- the clunky, the elegant, a...
24 Aug 201724min
Scott Snyder’s Comic Book Therapy
If the previous episode was all about villains, this one looks at the other side of that equation. In 2014 I interviewed the writer Scott Snyder whose run on Batman comics is considered one of the bes...
10 Aug 201728min
