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Imaginary Worlds

10th Anniversary Special Part 1

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.82.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When I began my podcast in September 2014, I was mostly sticking with topics that I was familiar with like blockbuster movies and animation. I liked science fiction, but I was not as familiar with traditional fantasy, literature, tabletop games, and most anime. My understanding of the depth and breadth of imaginary worlds kept expanding, and when I thought I had reached the borders of the universe, I kept discovering more. This show has also become a historical archive of the development of sci-fi fantasy genres since 2014. I talk with journalist Rob Salkowitz and editor Diana M. Pho about how the film industry, comics, and publishing industry have been on their journeys in the past decade. Plus, we hear from listeners about some of the episodes that made an impact on them. This episode is sponsored by Henson Shaving. Visit hensonshaving.com/imaginary to pick the razor for you and use code IMAGINARY to get two years' worth of blades free with your razor – just make sure to add them to your cart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show that's been chronicling how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief since September 2014.

0:09.0

I'm Eric Milensky.

0:11.0

When I get interviewed another podcast and people ask me how I came up with the idea of doing imaginary worlds, I always tell them the story.

0:18.0

Being a public radio host is a highly coveted job. I didn't know if I'd ever get to be one. But 10 years ago

0:24.4

podcasting felt like this new thing. You could start your own show and just declare

0:29.1

yourself a host. But I didn't know what my show would be about.

0:33.0

I did a lot of brainstorming and I thought about all the stories that I would love to do for public radio,

0:38.0

but I knew they were just too geeky.

0:40.0

And that turned out to be the first 10 episodes of my podcast.

0:44.0

Also 10 years ago, when public radio would cover sci-fi and fantasy,

0:48.0

not the people that I worked for, they were great, but other shows across the country,

0:52.0

I noticed that they kept mentioning how much money

0:55.0

these franchises made, as if there was no other way to justify talking about sci-fi or fantasy

1:01.0

on public radio.

1:03.6

Although I ended up doing the same thing in my first episode because I was feeling insecure

1:07.6

about doing the whole show about these genres.

1:11.0

But I also wanted to set a different tone in my reporting. I used to think that when other public radio shows would cover sci-fi and fantasy.

1:18.0

The tone of voice sounded condescending to me.

1:22.0

I wanted to take these genres as seriously as the fans did.

1:26.0

And that was a story I would tell people. But after a while I stopped mentioning the part about

1:31.0

the tone of public radio because I noticed that public radio

1:34.6

was starting to cover science fiction and fantasy seriously. And sci-fai fantasy genres have moved

...

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