Co-hosts Robert Meyer Burnett and Mike Bawden hit the mailbag today and answer letters from listeners on the ROADTRIPPIN’ with RMB podcast.

Where have all the good stories gone?

by Mike Bawden

We received a number of letters over the weekend and spent Monday’s podcast reading and answering them. As we’ve come to expect from Imagination Connoisseurs, the letters were interesting and posed some great questions which Rob and I delighted in answering.

I’ll also be posting each letter (and our response) as a ROADTRIPPIN’ EXTRA on both our podcast platform and on the PGS website, so look for that.

But one of the main issues brought up in the letters we reviewed had to do with the lack of new, original stories. Rob and I have talked about this before and, I suspect, we’ll talk about it many more times in the future. But here’s the problem in a nutshell …

For many of us Imagination Connoisseurs who have been around long enough to make more than 30-40 orbits on this little rock we call home, we’re seeing many of the captivating sci-fi and fantasy stories that captivated us as kids get purchased by large, corporate interests interested in mining the richness of those stories and the worlds they represent to extract more revenue.

As a result, many of the characters, settings, and “lore” we loved for decades are being deconstructed before our eyes to make something that’s marketable to the masses.

Is that a good thing? Do people really see what’s going on?

I suppose time will tell.

Listen to “Letters from listeners – where have all the good stories gone? (#038)” on Spreaker.

What do you think?

Remember, you can always send us a letter. Just click here and then send us a message to let us know how we’re doing and what’s on your mind. We look forward to hearing from you.

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I invite you to listen in on my weekday conversations with my friend and business partner, Robert Meyer Burnett, as we talk about the things we love: great movies, inspiring television programming, nostalgic genre entertainment, and pop culture.

This episode was recorded on June 6, 2022.

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