The Hero's Journey Endgame
Ever since George Lucas cited Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” as the inspiration for Star Wars, Hollywood screenwriters have used Campbell’s theory of The Hero’s Journey ...
3 Apr 201933min
Slaughterhouse at Fifty
50 years ago this month, Kurt Vonnegut introduced Billy Pilgrim and the aliens who gave him time traveling powers in his novel Slaughterhouse Five. Many critics were baffled as to why Vonnegut used sc...
20 Mar 201931min
Tales of Margaret Brundage
In the 1930s Margaret Brundage was the hottest pulp fiction magazine illustrator. She primarily painted covers for Weird Tales magazine, which published the works of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft a...
7 Mar 201928min
The Man Behind Conan’s Sword
Conan the Barbarian is generally thought of as a muscle-bound brute who fights his way through a made-up ancient world. But the character actually has a deep, rich history. I talk with experts Rusty B...
21 Feb 201931min
The Power of the Makeover Mage
In some video games, you can choose which character you want to play, and you can customize the look of those characters. For many transgender players, that option played a significant role in their l...
7 Feb 201929min
Designing Morality in Role-Playing Video Games
One of the unique aspects of video games is that you can control the characters. But game developers are often torn between wanting to give the players as much freedom as possible, and wanting to guid...
24 Jan 201931min
Flipping the Narrative on Greek Myths
Madeline Miller received critical acclaim for her novels The Song of Achilles and Circe – which reimagine The Iliad and The Odyssey told from the perspective of minor characters in the original texts ...
10 Jan 201932min
A Visit by Three Ghosts
In a special stocking stuffer of an episode, Stephanie Billman and I discuss why A Christmas Carol set the template for SF stories to come -- from Back to the Future to X=Men. Plus, we have a special ...
24 Des 201826min
