Say No to Santa World Tour: An Audio Drama
In my annual audio drama, I interview several folklore figures who are synonymous with the holiday season outside America -- but they’ve been overshadowed by the cultural juggernaut of Santa Claus. So...
17 Dec 202541min
Searching for Cryptids in Folklore America
When I was growing up, Bigfoot appeared regularly on the covers of supermarket tabloids, so I assumed he was a joke. But I’ve discovered that he’s part of a larger and even stranger world of cryptids ...
3 Dec 202540min
This Animated Life: A History of Cartoons in Three Acts
As longtime listeners know, I worked in the animation industry before switching careers and going into broadcasting. Today’s episode features a trio of conversations that trace the history of animatio...
19 Nov 202540min
Worldbuilding Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein
When director Guillermo del Toro asked Tamara Deverell to be the production designer on his film adaptation of Frankenstein, she had a good idea of what he wanted. Del Toro had been dreaming of making...
5 Nov 202534min
The Real History of Dracula and Frankenstein
In honor of the spooky season, we present two monstrous origin stories --Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We know when these books were written in the 19th century. But what insp...
22 Okt 202541min
How Forbidden Planet Refined the Music of Sci-Fi
In the 1950s, the avant-garde music scene in New York and the movie studios of Los Angeles might have seemed like opposite ends of a cultural spectrum. But they came together (and blew apart) when MGM...
8 Okt 202535min
The Battle to Make Star Wars Becomes a Graphic Novel
Movies that change cinema often come from outsiders – whether it’s Orson Welles making Citizen Kane or George Lucas making Star Wars a.k.a. Episode IV: A New Hope. The excellent graphic novel Lucas Wa...
24 Sep 202537min
Lifting the Curtain on Theatrical Effects
I’ve covered digital and practical effects in film and TV, but creating special effects for live theater is a whole other challenge. J&M Special Effects has been up to the task for 40 years. Their cre...
10 Sep 202534min
