The Optimist Behind Blade Runner's Dystopia

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The late Syd Mead was a visual futurist who was hired to imagine the worlds of Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, Elysium and other sci-fi films. His work in Hollywood has been lauded for decades, but there’s a new exhibit in New York that shows a different side of the artist. Syd Mead: Future Pastime is a collection of his personal and commercial paintings, which are all works of science fiction. Despite his connection to the dystopian world of Blade Runner, Mead’s personal vision of the future was unwaveringly optimistic. I talk with Mead’s husband and business partner Roger Servick, and the curators of the exhibit, Elon Solo and William Corman, about Mead’s predictions for the future of technology, sexuality and spirituality. (Image courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.) This week’s episode is sponsored by ShipStation and Hims Go to shipstation.com and use the code IMAGINARY to sign up for a free trial. Get your free online visit at hims.com/IMAGINARY. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What's Siegel in Spanish Granddad?
0:03.0	El... Seagull.
0:06.0	And what's a beach ball?
0:08.0	El Beachball.
0:09.0	What about a sunbed, Dad?
0:11.0	El Sunbed.
0:13.0	Retirement planning with Aviva can help make priceless family holidays possible.
0:17.0	You're really good at Spanish, aren't you, Grandad?
0:20.0	I'm pretty much a local, love.
0:22.6	From insurance to wealth and retirement, we can help solve life's financial puzzles.
0:27.6	Making a click, it takes a Viva.
0:29.6	You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our
0:34.6	disbelief.
0:35.6	I'm Eric Malinsky.
0:36.6	In the early 1980s, Sid Mead was an industrial designer.
0:42.3	He had been working for decades, designing cars and other vehicles and machinery.
0:47.3	But he was starting to pick up work in movies.
0:50.3	At that point, he had designed the computer world in Tron and the sentient machine Viger in Star Trek,
0:56.7	the motion picture.
0:58.5	And then Ridley Scott hired him to design the flying car for the character Deckard in the movie Blade Runner.
1:06.2	As the story goes, Ridley Scott is only hiring Sid to design Decker's spinner car.
1:11.3	That's it.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Molinsky, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Eric Molinsky and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.