Many Faces of Jekyll and Hyde

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Fiction, Arts, Society & Culture, Science Fiction

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pop culture has been full of Jekylls and Hydes: Bruce Banner and The Hulk, Norman Bates and Mother, Walter White and Heisenberg, The Nutty Professor and Buddy Love. They all echo the archetype that Robert Lous Stevenson established 140 years ago in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I explore at how these variations reflect different ideas about duality, depending on how “bad” the Hydes are and what the Jekylls choose to do about their alter egos. Lewis University professor Jamil Mustafa draws parallels between the original 1886 novel and modern stories like Twin Peaks, Fight Club, and Black Swan. Plus, I talk with Yannie ten Broeke, who teaches psychology at Touro University, about why the Jekyll and Hyde archetype reflects how little we understand our own minds. This episode is sponsored by There Is No Antimemetics Division, the national bestselling science-fiction horror novel by qntm. Get your copy now wherever books and audiobooks are sold. To support the show, you can donate on Patreon where you get access to the ad-free version and our companion show Between Imaginary Worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:40.9	This is your sign to rainforest trek to hidden waterfalls in the Caribbean.
0:46.1	Or dive into a sonote and explore ancient worlds in Mexico.
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1:05.5	At all protected.
1:06.8	You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend or disbelief.
1:12.4	I'm Eric Malinski.
1:14.9	In the last episode, we looked at how Sherlock Holmes and John Watson had been updated to the present day.
1:22.7	And while I was working on that episode, I realized there's another classic character or characters
1:28.1	from the Victorian age who still live on today, but in very different ways.
	...

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