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EP. #1295 Manufactured Nightmares: When Science Fiction’s Monsters Crawl Out of the Lab

Monsters were never meant to be real. They were warnings.

In the final chapter of our four-part series on Science Fiction & Reality, we confront the most unsettling idea of all: the creatures that once haunted novels and movie screens were never fantasies — they were prototypes. From mutants and cyborgs to engineered viruses, mind control, cloning, and immortal elites, science fiction didn’t invent our fears. It documented them in advance.

Tonight, with Professor Mark Brake, we ask the forbidden question no one in power wants answered: What if the real monster was never the creature… but the human who created it?

GUEST: Professor Mark Brake is a leading science communicator and author exploring the hidden feedback loop between imagination and innovation. He is the author of FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science and numerous bestselling books examining the real science behind Star Wars, superheroes, time travel, and the multiverse. Known for translating complex ideas into gripping narratives, Brake argues that science fiction doesn’t merely entertain — it quietly shapes the laboratories, technologies, and futures we eventually inhabit.

LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/profmbrake

BOOKS:

FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science

The Science of Star Wars

The Science of Harry Potter

The Science of Star Trek

The Science of Doctor Who

The Science of Jurassic World

The Science of James Bond

The Science of Sherlock

The Science of The Beatles

The Science of Super Heroes

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