ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
Imaginary Worlds sounds like what would happen if NPR went to Comic-Con and decided that’s all they ever wanted to cover. The host Eric Molinsky spent over a decade working in public radio, and he uses those skills to create sound-rich storytelling, pop culture analysis and cultural commentary about speculative fiction and immersive worldbuilding. Eric interviews sci-fi fantasy creators of novels, TV shows, films, comic books, video games, tabletop games and anyone who works in the field of make-believe about their creative process. He also delves into fandoms, asking why we suspend our disbelief, and what happens if the spell is broken. Fantasy worlds may be set on distant planets or parallel dimensions, but they are crafted here on Earth and they’re always about our lived experiences.
Imaginary Worlds has won Signal Awards for Best Arts & Culture podcast and Best Host (Culture), and received an Ambie Award nomination for Best Indie Podcast. Episodes of Imaginary Worlds have been featured on the podcasts 99% Invisible, Twenty Thousand Hertz, Decoder Ring, Cautionary Tales, Science Friday, and The Allusionist.
Imaginary Worlds has won Signal Awards for Best Arts & Culture podcast and Best Host (Culture), and received an Ambie Award nomination for Best Indie Podcast. Episodes of Imaginary Worlds have been featured on the podcasts 99% Invisible, Twenty Thousand Hertz, Decoder Ring, Cautionary Tales, Science Friday, and The Allusionist.
Hosts:
Update frequency:
biweekly
Average audio length:
32 minutes
Guest interviews
Has sponsors
English
United States
319 episodes
since Sept. 10, 2014
episodic
explicit content
AUDIENCE OF THIS PODCAST 🔗
~55.93% of listeners are from United States.
🇺🇸
US
55.93%
🇬🇧
GB
9.96%
🇨🇦
CA
4.41%
🇩🇪
DE
3.62%
🇵🇷
PR
3.53%
🇫🇷
FR
3.18%
🇦🇺
AU
2.23%
🇸🇬
SG
1.64%
🇮🇳
IN
1.25%
🇮🇹
IT
1.10%
🇪🇸
ES
1.03%
🇳🇱
NL
0.97%
🇮🇪
IE
0.93%
🇨🇭
CH
0.62%
🇳🇴
NO
0.61%
🇯🇵
JP
0.56%
🇩🇰
DK
0.50%
🇹🇭
TH
0.45%
🇭🇰
HK
0.43%
🇧🇷
BR
0.40%
🇨🇿
CZ
0.37%
🇧🇪
BE
0.37%
🇸🇰
SK
0.33%
🇸🇪
SE
0.33%
🇦🇹
AT
0.31%
🇷🇴
RO
0.30%
🇲🇽
MX
0.27%
🇮🇱
IL
0.27%
🇳🇿
NZ
0.27%
🇿🇦
ZA
0.26%
🇮🇩
ID
0.23%
🇬🇷
GR
0.22%
🇷🇸
RS
0.22%
🇹🇼
TW
0.20%
🇵🇹
PT
0.20%
🇵🇭
PH
0.16%
🇦🇪
AE
0.15%
🇰🇪
KE
0.13%
🇱🇹
LT
0.13%
🇹🇷
TR
0.10%
🇻🇳
VN
0.10%
Others
1.73%
* Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. real-time
LATEST EPISODE 🔗
We recently did a call-out to our listeners, asking you to tell us what movies or shows not only scared you, but stuck with you for years. Even hardcore horror fans sometimes have that one trope or subgenre they can’t handle. In previous episodes, I talk with Rob Hanton, Brandee Iampietro, Michelle…
SEARCH PAST EPISODES
Search past episodes of Imaginary Worlds.
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
Stephen King is often described as a master of horror, but I talked with fans and experts who believe that King is not actually a horror writer. Caroline Bicks (author of Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King), Neil McRobert of the podcast Talking Scared and Kim C. of the podc…
With all the talk about rogue AI potentially ending civilization, it’s hard not to think of The Matrix. When there are stories about people falling in love with ChatGPT, it’s hard not to think of movies like Her. But it’s possible that science fiction isn’t the best prism to understand AI right now…
When sci-fi movies take a big swing in depicting futuristic fashion, sometimes they end up creating iconic outfits and other times they create fashion which looks laughably outdated in a few years. I’ve became fascinated by three fashion designers whose work took center stage in sci-fi films and tr…
I’m a little obsessed with Widow's Bay. It’s a horror-comedy series on Apple TV set on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. The island isn’t as famous as Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket -- for good reason. Widow's Bay is cursed by a demonic entity. The show is nominated for 19 Emmy Awa…
Even if you’ve never seen an Alien film, you probably know about the monster in the franchise. The Xenomorph has an elongated head, a second set of jaws that protrude from its mouth and a body that’s like cross between a giant insect and a skeletal dinosaur. But the alien creature may not be the re…
The world of fanfiction has changed a lot since our 2017 episode, Fanfiction (Don’t Judge.) At the time, I thought that 50 Shades of Gray – the novel that began as Twilight fanfiction – was a fluke. It turned out to be a harbinger of a controversial fanfiction-to-media pipeline. I talk with Elizabe…
Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey is part of a long line of film adaptations, but Homer’s epic poem has quietly shaped another medium: role-playing games. The structure of The Odyssey is practically a blueprint for tabletop and video game RPGs from the ‘boss fights’ with fantasy creatures to th…
In honor of America's 250th anniversary, we're continuing our mini-series on iconic American toys and games that took on lives of their own. Strong National Museum of Play curators Michelle Parnett-Dwer and Mirek Stolee, along with game designer and author Tim Walsh, join me to unpack how Silly Put…
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the USA, we are doing a series of mini stories across two episodes that explore American toys and games. This week, we look at early childhood objects that became vehicles of the imagination. I talk with Michelle Parnett-Dwyer, senior curator at the Strong Natio…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Molinsky | Daylight Media, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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