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Arts

Imaginary Worlds

by Eric Molinsky | Daylight Media
Explicit ArtsFictionScience Fiction

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Ranking history · United States

Latest daily rankings: Oct 31. New rankings will appear after the next update.

Recent history only — this show has no current ranking on the Arts chart. These are recorded positions from the last 14 days, not current rankings.

Position on the Arts combined chart over the last 14 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

#128#148#167#187#206Chart rankOct 23Oct 25Oct 27Oct 29Oct 31
View as table
DateCombined RankApple Podcasts
Oct 31——
Oct 26#196#169
Oct 25#170#140
Oct 24#142#112
Oct 23#138#107
Oct 22#175#145

Latest episodes

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    October 21, 2026 · 40 min

    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…

  • Stephen King and the Horror of the Ordinary

    October 7, 2026 · 38 min

    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…

  • Is Mythology the Key to Understand AI?

    September 23, 2026 · 41 min

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  • Sci-Fi Walks the Runway

    September 9, 2026 · 34 min

    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fashion, sometimes they end up creating iconic outfits and other times they create fashion which looks laughably outdated in a few years.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…

  • Widow’s Bay Builds a History with Horror

    August 26, 2026 · 43 min

    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…

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  • Economics in The Alien Franchise Isn't Science Fiction

    August 12, 2026 · 35 min

    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…

  • Is Money Ruining Fanfiction?

    July 29, 2026 · 44 min

    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…

  • Choose Your Own Odyssey

    July 15, 2026 · 41 min

    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…

  • The U.S. of Play - Part 2: Silly Putty, Twister and Monopoly

    July 1, 2026 · 43 min

    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…

  • The U.S. of Play - Part 1: Wagons, Bears and Dolls

    June 17, 2026 · 36 min

    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…

  • How Folklore Spirited Anime Away

    June 3, 2026 · 38 min

    Anime and manga are a global phenomenon, and their popularity continues to grow. Many of these stories are populated by supernatural beings called yōkai. Even though yōkai can be portrayed as ghosts, demons, or monsters, they're rarely…

  • The Father of Sword and Soul

    May 20, 2026 · 37 min

    Charles R. Saunders loved Tarzan as a kid, but he was also repulsed by the racism in those books since Charles was Black. So he created a counter narrative about a warrior named Imaro who lived in a fictionalized version of precolonial…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

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 us and our lived experiences. Imaginary Worlds is a Gold Winner for Best Arts & Culture podcast in the Signal Awards 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.