Imaginary Worlds

Sinners got a historic 16 Academy Award nominations, which was remarkable for a film with vampires. But the film is also a rich exploration of race, religion, culture and music in 1930s Mississippi. Professor Yvonne Chireau played a key role behind the scenes. She’s a historian of the spiritual tradition of hoodoo. Since hoodoo and voodoo have long been reduced to horror tropes, she was brought on as a consultant. She also worked with actress Wunmi Mosaku, who earned an Academy Award nomination for playing the character Annie, a conjure practitioner in the story. I also talk with Professor Kinitra Brooks, who is writing a book on conjure women. She explains why Annie’s wisdom, bravery and romance felt validating for her – partly because Kinitra’s great-grandmother was a conjure woman.    This episode is sponsored by Mizzen & Main. Get 20% off your first purchase at mizzenandmain.com with the promo code IMAGINARY20. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scarlet Hollow is a successful indie video game – and that’s no small feat. It’s been a long journey, and the game is made almost entirely by two people: Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias of Black Tabby Games. Along the way, they even took a break to make another hit game called Slay the Princess. I talk with Abby and Tony about how animating Abby’s drawings allowed them to build a game where the players have seemingly endless choices and romance options in a Southern Gothic town under threat from supernatural forces. After a three-year wait, chapter five of Scarlet Hollow is finally being released in February.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Darby McDevitt is a narrative director and writer at Ubisoft . He’s worked on multiple games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which spans time periods from Ancient Greece to Victorian England. But what does it mean to be a writer on a massive video game where your character is mostly running, climbing, jumping and fighting? The key to his work lies in historical research, but he is sometimes torn between what would actually happen and what pop culture has trained us to expect from different eras of history. We also discuss his new novel, The Halter, which imagines a future where virtual reality is so realistic and addictive that people abandon their real lives and have to be tracked down. This is the first episode in a multi-part series on video games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In my annual audio drama, I interview several folklore figures who are synonymous with the holiday season outside America -- but they’ve been overshadowed by the cultural juggernaut of Santa Claus. So they’re on a tour to reintroduce themselves. While I went into this press junket with the best of intensions, some of my interviews went off the rails. It turns out when a supernatural being has been around for centuries, their personal history can get complicated. Featuring André Refig, Vili-Oskari Körkkö, Begonya Ferrer, Teresa Mastrobuono, and Bill Lobley. There will be no episode of Imaginary Worlds on December 31st. The show will return on January 14th. Happy Holidays, everyone! This episode is sponsored by MiracleMade and Uncommon Goods Get 15% off your order at uncommongoods.com/imaginary. Go to TryMiracle.com/IMAGINARY to save over 40%, and when you use promo code IMAGINARY, you’ll get an extra 20% off plus a free 3-piece towel set. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/

When I was growing up, Bigfoot appeared regularly on the covers of supermarket tabloids, so I assumed he was a joke. But I’ve discovered that he’s part of a larger and even stranger world of cryptids – creatures that people believe are real but haven’t been scientifically verified. Cryptids are having a cultural moment, and they’re a vital part of folklore. Native Alaskan storyteller James Dommek Jr. discusses his podcast Alaska Is The Center of The Universe and his audiobook Midnight Son. James has been collecting tribal stories about cryptids because he sees them as cultural treasures that need to be preserved. I also talk with J.W. Ocker, author of The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters, about why so many small towns in the U.S. are embracing their local cryptids as a last ditch effort to revitalize their economies. This episode is sponsored by MiracleMade and Uncommon Goods  Get 15% off your order at uncommongoods.com/imaginary.  Go to TryMiracle.com/IMAGINARY to sa

As longtime listeners know, I worked in the animation industry before switching careers and going into broadcasting. Today’s episode features a trio of conversations that trace the history of animation in my lifetime, and my life in animation. The interviews come from Between Imaginary Worlds, a chat show that’s available exclusively to listeners who pledge $5 a month or more on Patreon. Act I: I bond with comic book and children’s book author Judd Winick over the creepy world of 1970s children’s TV – which scared us as kids but makes us oddly nostalgic today. Act II: My friend Caleb Meurer and I reminisce about his experience working with the original crew of SpongeBob at Nickelodeon, and how the creator of SpongeBob indirectly told me I was in the wrong field.   Act III: Aidan Sugano and Denis-Jose Francois talk about the heartfelt effort it took for the animation studio DNEG to make the film Nimona after Disney dropped the project.  This week’s episode is sponsored by The Perfect Jean and Uncommon Go

When director Guillermo del Toro asked Tamara Deverell to be the production designer on his film adaptation of Frankenstein, she had a good idea of what he wanted. Del Toro had been dreaming of making a Frankenstein movie for years, and she had worked with him on several projects before. She told me they’re so much sync, “I find with Guillermo, it’s not speaking in words, it’s speaking with images.” But that didn’t make the production design any less challenging. We discuss where Tamara looked for inspiration, why it’s important for her to build physical sets no matter the size, and how she reimagined the signature set piece of every Frankenstein adaptation -- the lab where The Creature comes to life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In honor of the spooky season, we present two monstrous origin stories --Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We know when these books were written in the 19th century. But what inspired the imaginations of the rebellious teenager Mary Shelley, or the beleaguered theatrical promoter Bram Stoker? I talk with biographer Charlotte Gordon and Professors Gillen D'Arcy Wood and Ron Broglio about how “The Year Without a Summer” may have sparked storms in Mary Shelley’s mind. And I talk with UC Davis professor Louis Warren about why he believes an American entertainer was the unlikely model for Count Dracula. Featuring readings by Lily Dorment and John Keating. This episode is a combination of two previous episodes that were broken apart, reassembled and brought back to life. This episode is sponsored by The Perfect Jean and Uncommon Goods To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com/imaginary To get 15% off your first order use the code IMAGINARY15 when you check out at theperfec

In the 1950s, the avant-garde music scene in New York and the movie studios of Los Angeles might have seemed like opposite ends of a cultural spectrum. But they came together (and blew apart) when MGM hired Louis and Bebe Barron to write the score for the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. It was the first all-electronic score for a Hollywood film, but not everyone was ready for the future of film music. I talk with Louis’ son David Barron, composer Dorothy Moskowitz, University of Chicago associate professor Jennifer Iverson, and broadcaster and writer John Cavanagh about how the Barrons built a Rube Goldberg-style electronic music studio long before electronic music could be generated with the push of a button -- and why it took decades for their work to be fully appreciated. Thanks to Thomas Rhea (author of Electronic Perspectives: Vintage Electronic Musical Instruments) for permission to use audio from his 1998 interview with Bebe Barron. You can learn more about the Louis and Bebe Barron archive at Forgo

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 unsung heroes who helped make Star Wars happen -- like Lucas’s ex wife Marcia and studio mogul Alan Ladd Jr.   Imaginary Worlds was just nominated for a Signal Award for Best Arts & Culture podcast! That also means the show is eligible for a Listener's Choice Award. You can vote for the show at vote.signalawards.com. The deadline is October 9th. Thank you! This episode is sponsored by Hims and Remi. Go to shopremi.com/IMAGINARY and use the code IMAGINARY to get up to 50% off your nightguard at checkout.

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 Chernick, along with pyrotechnician Bohdan Bushell, about how theatrical effects have evolved with new technology -- and why they can sometimes be too good at their jobs in making the impossible seem possible.    This episode is sponsored by Remi and ShipStation. Start your 60-day free trial at ShipStation.com and use the code IMAGINARY. Try Remi risk-free at shopremi.com/IMAGINARY and use the code IMAGINARY to get up to 50% off your nightguard at checkout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice

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 famously chaotic filming of Jaws, and he explores whether we can learn any lessons from the ordeal that young Steven Spielberg went through. This week’s episode is sponsored by Hims and The Perfect Jean. For simple, online access to personalized and affordable care for hair loss and more, visit Hims.com/IMAGINARY GET 15% off your first order plus Free Shipping, Free Returns and Free Exchanges at theperfectjean.nyc when you use code IMAGINARY15 at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastcho

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 historian and novelist Kevin Baker about why Dreamland remains so intriguing and deeply problematic. We also hear voice actor Lofty Fulton read a passage from Kevin’s novel “Dreamland.” Plus, I talk with visual artist Zoe Beloff. She was fascinated that Sigmund Freud visited Dreamland in 1909. So she invented an alternative history where Freud’s disciples in Brooklyn tried to rebuild the park with overtly Freudian rides and exhibits. This week’s episode is sponsored by Hims, ShipStation and ButcherBox.  For your

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 unpredictable gameplay. And video game historian and RPI professor William Gibbons explains why the technological limitations of ‘80s and ‘90s games actually fueled composers’ creativity.   This week’s episode is sponsored by The Perfect Jean. Our listeners get 15% off your first order plus Free Shipping, Free Returns and Free Exchanges when you use code IMAGINARY15 at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, Randolph Hoppe, and Arlen Schumer about where we can see Jack Kirby's influence on comics like The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America and Black Panther. And I explore Kirby's childhood at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, where every day was “clobberin’ time,”and he first learned how to use a garbage can lid as a shield. This week’s episode is sponsored by ButcherBox, Hims and ShipStation. ButcherBox is offering our listeners $20 off their first box and free protein for a year. Go to Butcher

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 author who ponder what Adams was trying to tell us, and whether the great humorist always meant what he said. I talk with Arvind about the origin of the audiobook, and we hear an excerpt on why Adams publicly rejected the label of being a science fiction author -- even though he had created a sci-fi cultural phenomenon with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 tightly plotted two-season arc, and all the ways in which society would change if uploading our minds becomes a viable technology. Featuring readings by actress Eunice Wong. This week’s episode is sponsored by The Perfect Jean, ButcherBox and Hims. Our listeners get 15% off your first order plus free shipping, free returns and free exchanges at theperfectjean.nyc with promo code IMAGINARY15 at checkout.   ButcherBox is offering our listeners $20 off their first box and free protein for a year. Go to ButcherBo

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, about the challenges of adapting the books for television -- from casting choices, to translating Murderbot’s anxious inner monologue into voice-over narration, to finding the right balance of comedy, action, and sci-fi. This week’s episode is sponsored by ShipStation. Go to shipstation.com and use the code IMAGINARY to sign up for a free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 talk with Danielle Gelehrter (host of the podcast Terror at Collinwood) and authors Mark Dawidziak and Jeff Thompson about why the show had a meteoric rise and fall, what the series reflected about the 1960s, and whether Dark Shadows can have eternal life as a form of IP. This week’s episode is sponsored by Hims and Remi Get your free online visit at hims.com/IMAGINARY. Go to shopremi.com/IMAGINARY and use the code IMAGINARY to save up to 50%. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch

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 Flesh: The Philosophy of Body Horror in Film”) and author Xavier Aldana Reyes (“Contemporary Body Horror”) about how this subgenre taps into fundamental aspects of being human that we often try to put out of our minds. Plus, I speak with listener Lillie Andrick about why some transgender fans, like her, feel a special connection to body horror. This week’s episode is sponsored by ShipStation. Go to shipstation.com and use the code IMAGINARY to sign up for a free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas