When I was younger, I had a Transformers cassette tape.

That was just beginning to end, like a battle, like a war, and it was really scary, and all the sound effects were synths, like synth lasers and stuff like that.

No rays and explosions. They ripped through the transporter from stem to stern.

It really felt like even when I took the tape out,

I was like, God, there's a terrible war going on in this tape.

Do something!

Screamed Megatron.

And, you know, at the time I thought that was really fun

to spend some time in a war.

I know now that it's not so great.

Yeah, it was safe.

It was very safe, yes.

Yeah, that's what fiction offers us, is a safe way to have all kinds of experiences in life.

That's right. They never shot me with a laser.

This is The Truth. I'm Jonathan Mitchell, and I'm talking with Hunter Nelson, who in addition to being a lifelong fan of audio storytelling, has written many of my favorite episodes of The Truth, The Body Genius, Dan Slang, Heat Meat. His stories are often set in a familiar world, but with details that are entirely invented,

creating a sense of parallel reality that allows us to observe the world from a fresh perspective that feels both fun and revealing.

And now he's working on a new story.

I'm working on a story about a guy who owns an arcade, a pinball arcade in New York City in the 1970s, the late 1970s right

before video games come in and push pinball back to the margins. And he's helping the police,

using a specific pinball machine to draw a gangster out of the shadows, someone who's in hiding.

Yeah, I love that era. I love this, the late 70s pinball. It's so mechanical.

Yeah. It doesn't yet feel cornered into changing by video games. They're unselfconsciously continuing to be pinball.

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