Worldbuilding for Masochists
Episodes
Episode 183: Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
17 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It's the start of our eighth season! And we thought this would be a good time to examine what, exactly, we mean when we say "worldbuilding". There's ...
Episode 182: Stranger than Fiction, ft. GABRIELLA BUBA
03 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, the truth is weirder and stranger than anything we could make up -- and that's something a worldbuilder can use to their benefit! Guest G...
Episode 181: Journey to the Past, ft. SHANNON CHAKRABORTY
20 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
History underpins so much of what we do in the fantasy genre, directly and indirectly. So how do we make that history feel real in an invented world? ...
Episode 180: Subgenre Spin, ft. FONDA LEE
06 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In previous episodes, we've discussed how some genres are more aesthetic-driven (like sci fi & fantasy) and others are more structure-driven (like...
Episode 179: That's Me in the Spotlight, Worldbuilding My Religion, ft. VAISHNAVI PATEL
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Faith is an element of society that intersects with a lot of other structures of power and privilege -- So what do we need to think about when incorpo...
Episode 178: Character and Conflict, ft. CARISSA BROADBENT
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It's an oft-cited (though poorly citationed) aphorism of writing that you should “chase your character up a tree and throw rocks at them." Well, wor...
Episode 177: Getting in Tune: Music in Worldbuilding, ft. MIA TSAI
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Music is a cultural universal, something human societies have been producing since our very earliest days – So how do we use it when writing novels?...
Episode 176: Atmospheric Conditions, ft. H.M. LONG
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things that can make a novel memorable is its atmosphere. So what do we mean, exactly, when we use that word, and how do we craft it? Guest...
Episode 175: Folklore Monsters and Their Origins, ft. AMÉLIE WEN ZHAO
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the char...
Episode 174: Stress-Testing Your Worldbuilding, ft. ANDREA STEWART
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We often start the worldbuilding process with a lot of exciting ideas, shiny notions, and fun experiments -- so then, how do you make it make sense? E...
Episode 173: Talking about Writing: A Crossover Episode with SFF ADDICTS (Adrian M. Gibson, M.J. Kuhn, & Greta Kelly)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There comes a time in the life of every author when they have to do that truly terrifying thing: Talk about their book. In this special crossover epis...
Episode 172: Inquiries and Interrogatives
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It's our first episode of 2026, and that means it's time for another listener Q&A episode! From nitty-gritty craft details like writing good dialo...
Episode 171: Eight Days a Week
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As we turn the pages of our own calendars, let's think about how the cultures we build in fantasy and science fiction mark the passage of time! What s...
Episode 170: Save It for the Patreon
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We know we’re worldbuilding masochists – But when is too much really, really too much? Some of us try to do all our worldbuilding at the start of...
Episode 169: For the Cartography-Curious
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Few things are more glorious than opening up a fantasy book and seeing a gorgeously detailed map right up front. So what goes into making that master...
Episode 168: It's Bigger on the Inside... of Book Two, ft. APARNA VERMA
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
So: Whether it was always intended and contracted, you told the “standalone with series potential” fib, or the public has simply demanded more, yo...
Episode 167: Spice Up Your Worldbuilding. ft. NIA DAVENPORT
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
So, you've decided it's time to turn up the heat on your worldbuilding. Maybe you're writing a full-on romantasy, or maybe it's a smaller component of...
Episode 166: The Histo-Remix, ft. ALIX E. HARROW
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We use history a lot in our worldbuilding, whether as a direct re-interpretation or as inspiration for a secondary world that we’re creating. So… ...
Episode 165: Pour One out for Your Worldbuilding
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From beer to gin, from caffeine to tobacco, from mushrooms to hallucinogenic snails, a culture's options for achieving altered states of consciousness...
Special Episode: ArmadilloCon 2025!
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was recorded live as a panel at ArmadilloCon 2025! We give a little history of the podcast, re-introduce ourselves for the in-room audi...
Episode 164: Worldbuilding and the Lens of Perspective, ft. MARTIN CAHILL
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A point-of-view character's experience of the world will shape the information that the reader gets about that world. So, a lot depends on who that ch...
Episode 163: Gryphons and Dragons and Owlbears, Oh My!
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mythical and magical creatures are a staple of the fantasy genre, sometimes as obstacles for heroes to face, sometimes as healers and dispensers of wi...
Episode 162: A Leap of Faith: Worldbuilding Fantasy Religions, ft. DEVA FAGAN
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fantasy religions often feel like reskins either of ancient Greek or Norse pantheons or of the medieval Catholic church. But what more interesting cho...
Episode 161: The On Ramp
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we're taking a closer look at something we refer to a lot when we're talking craft: the on-ramp. Which is to say, at the beginning of...
Episode 160: Cozy Worldbuilding, ft. SARAH BETH DURST
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a story -- and a world -- "cozy"? What are the conflicts, challenges, and obstacles like when, instead of taking the Ring to Mordor, you he...
Episode 159: Holding Out For A Heroic Worldbuild, ft. JOHN WISWELL
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is the measure of a true hero? What a society consideres heroic can say a lot about their values, needs, and ethos -- but it's also something tha...
Episode 158: The Invisible Hand of Worldbuilding, ft. ELIZABETH BEAR
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In one way or another, economy touches almost everything in a world. Even without currency or capitalism in the sense that we currently know it, the i...
Episode 157: How Far We've Come, ft ROWENNA MILLER
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's the start of SEASON SEVEN! And original co-host Rowenna Miller is back to join us in a reflection of how multiple years of doing this podcast ha...
Episode 156: From a Certain Point of View, ft. KATE ELLIOTT
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's one of the first choices you'll make when writing a story, consciously or not: what point of view are you writing from? First person singular? Th...
Episode 155: The Rule of Cool, ft. JIM C. HINES
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We often think about "making things make sense" in worldbuilding and building internal consistency, scientific realism, and other logic-based consider...
Episode 154: Judge Worldbuilding by Its Size, Do You?
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We often think of worldbuilding happening on a grand scale, with huge maps and the sweeping narratives of nations and world-changing events. But that'...
Episode 153: A Long, Skilled, Satisfying Cunning Linguist Session
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can language help shape your worldbuilding? We're not necessarily talking about conlang here -- that can certainly be part of worldbuilding, but ...
Episode 152: Setting the Scene, ft AI JIANG
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, people will say of a book that "the setting is another character". But what does that really mean, and how can a writer craft it? Ai Jiang...
Episode 151: Everybody’s Working for the Worldbuild, ft AUGUST CLARKE
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In amazing fantasy and science fiction worlds -- Who's doing the work? Where does the food come from? The clothes? Who does the caregiving? Guest aug...
Episode 150: Team Efforts, ft. THIRD PERSON (Xen, Matt Roen, and Sara Wile)
12 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Worldbuilding means getting to “play god” – so how does that take a different shape when you’re part of a pantheon rather than the One True Ru...
Episode 149: Especially the Lies: Building Unreliable Worlds, ft. MARINA LOSTETTER
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when the world your characters -- or your readers -- first find themselves in turns out to be not quite what it appears? Marina Lostetter...
Episode 148: Horny on Main: Smutting Up Your Worldbuilding
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In honor of Valentine's Day, the season of Carnivale, and our own amusement, we bring to you this extra-long episode, where we heat things up and get...
Episode 147: Something Is A-Myth, ft. KRITIKA H. RAO
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mythological retellings have been having A Moment in fiction for a few years now. So, why do we do that? Kritika H. Rao joins us to explore the power ...
Episode 146: A Matter of Character (ft SOPHIE BURNHAM)
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world a character exists in shapes their identity on many axes of power and privilege. So how do those various scales affect the emotional stakes ...
Episode 145: To Worldbuild or Not to Worldbuild, That Is the Question
01 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
And obviously the answer is yes! But in this episode, we answer your questions! We talk about the "rules" and common advice of worldbuilding -- and t...
Episode 144: What Do You Do with a B.A. in Magic?
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do the people in your world learn things? Lessons learned might come from formalized institutions, but knowledge might also get passed down throug...
Episode 143: Children of the Revolution
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss purely fictional, 100% not-at-all real, nothing to do with contemporary life ideas about rebellions and revolutions. Any ...
Episode 142: Law & Order (DUN DUN)
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
So once you've got a government, what can that government do? What does it regulate, and how is it, itself, regulated? Laws can be created for a lot ...
Episode 141: More Perfect Unions
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Government is a set of rules agreed upon, and politics is how a society determines those rules. So how do you create the systems by which civilization...
Episode 140: Practical Magic, ft. ROWENNA MILLER
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As with the last two “back to basics” episodes, we thought we’d spend some time looking the thing that (usually, though there are exceptions) ma...
Episode 139: 2 Crunchy, 2 Curious
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re spending a couple of episodes going back to the basics of worldbuilding, talking about the questions that it’s often fruitful to ask oneself...
Episode 138: Crunchy Questions
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every once in a while, it's good to go back to the basics. And for us, that means the basics of worldbuilding! When you're getting started out with a ...
Episode 137: Smile and Be a Villain, ft. CHLOE GONG
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A villain may not have excuses for their behavior -- but they probably have reasons. How can worldbuilding feed those reasons? Antagonists are often ...
Episode 136: Live from WorldCon in Glasgow!
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We were all in the same room! And that room was in Scotland! In this episode, your WFM co-hosts were able to record a special episode at WorldCon. We ...
Episode 135: Philosophical Acts of Translation, ft. KEN LIU
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What can translation and transmission of ideas and stories over time teach us about a society -- and about storytelling? Guest Ken Liu joins us to ta...
Episode 134: Print The Legend: Weaving Myth and History into One, ft. NALO HOPKINSON
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Where does mythology come from? How does it tie us together? What does one world's mythology tell us about its people, how they view themselves, and t...
Episode 133: The Devil in the Details, ft. M.J. KUHN
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A perennial question that our listeners often have is: How do you organize your worldbuilding? Do you have templates to use? Charts to fill out? Once...
Episode 132: Just a Small Town Worldbuild, ft. CHERIE PRIEST
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of the time, fantasy worldbuilding invokes huge maps, spanning civilizations and continents, with characters traversing vast distances on their ...
Episode 131: Projects!
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's the start of our sixth season! And we've got some projects going on. The Traveling Light anthology, which we Kickstarted -- with the help of m...
Episode 130: Large-Scale Worldbuilding for Character-Centric Worlds, ft. REBECCA ROANHORSE
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Massive worlds require massive worldbuilding -- or do they? Sometimes, a narrower, character-centric scope can create a tight and compelling narrative...
Episode 129: Motorcycles and Magic, ft HANA LEE
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Traditional" fantasy novels often hold themselves to a pre-gunpowder/pre-steampower level of tech. So, what’s fun about setting a fantasy world in ...
Episode 128: The Carousel of Progress
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Making fantasy worlds into living, growing worlds means giving them a history of change and growth and shifts in technology and culture, not to mentio...
Episode 127: Expanding Worlds
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a while since we spent some time in the world of the MNG! So in this episode, we apply some topics from recent episodes as well as some worl...
Episode 126: When Worldbuilding Gets Wild, ft PREMEE MOHAMED
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Critters, creatures, and things that crawl -- part of the fun of building a new world is getting to populate it with not just sapient characters, but ...
Episode 125: Monstrous Worldbuilding, ft. JOHN WISWELL
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the Minotaur to xenomorphs to the undead, monsters and their ilk have long been a staple of the sci-fi and fantasy genres. But what exactly is it...
Episode 124: Worldbuilding in Review, ft. PAUL WEIMER
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We spend a lot of time thinking about how to work with worldbuilding as writers -- but how does a reviewer approach the topic when they're reading wor...
Episode 123: Worldbuilding in Your Underpants, ft. JOHN HARTNESS
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you're creating your world and bringing it into a story, how much do you let show? Guest John Hartness joins us to discuss balancing the off-page...
Episode 122: Now Kiss: Building Romance into Your Worlds, ft. GWENDA BOND
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We've talked before about the difference between aesthetic-driven genres, like sci-fi and fantasy, and structure-driven genres, like mystery and roman...
Episode 121: Brave New Worlds, ft. FONDA LEE and MELISSA CARUSO
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you've put your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into building a world -- what happens when you then have to leave it behind? Most SFF author...
Episode 120: World Bibles and the Gospel According to Tolkien
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When you're creating tomes of information about your world -- spreadsheets of demographics, maps at every level of geography, tomes of lore -- how do ...
Episode 119: Worldbuilding Philosophy and Practices
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we worldbuild the way that we worldbuild? The start of a new year seems like a great time to take a zoomed-out view of how we do this thing tha...
Episode 118: Passing the Torch
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this final episode of 2023, we have a momentous announcement! Rowenna Miller is stepping down as a full-time co-host of the podcast, because... wel...
Episode 117: More Queries and Quandaries
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's another listener Q&A episode! Many thanks to the folks who submitted their questions! In this episode, we tackle some things that can block a...
Episode 116: Choosing, Presuming, and Decision Fatigue
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Worldbuilding is great! You get to make all the choices! On the other hand... you have to make all the choices. "Choose, don't presume" has long bee...
Episode 115: When Not Writing Is Writing, ft. MUR LAFFERTY
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows that writing is writing. And everyone knows that authors are super great at finding things to distract us from our writing. But under ...
Episode 114: The St Crispin’s Day Special, ft. ANNA SMITH SPARK
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When the glorious hero calls for his allies to follow him into battle... why should they? And how can that hero convince them? In this extremely-niche...
Episode 113: Trust Your Instincts, ft. SEANAN MCGUIRE
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of work and thought can go into worldbuilding, but sometimes, you just have to go with what feels right. In this episode, guest Seanan McGuire j...
Episode 112: Whirlwind Worldbuilding ft. JAMES L. SUTTER
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This one's for the folks who don't want to spend a few eons building their world before they can start their story. Author and game designer James L...
Episode 111: Let’s Pick a Fight: Balancing Realism and the Fantastical in Martial Matters, ft. S.L. HUANG
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Shiny swords, sharpshooting archers, magically-assisted martial arts: all these things are staples of fantasy literature. But how do you do fights rig...
Episode 110: In Your Leisure Time, ft. MATT WALLACE
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hobbies and leisure activities aren't just neat ways to give your characters something to do in-between plot beats -- they can also communicate a lot ...
Episode 109: Seer-iously: Religion, Prophecy, Politics and Tradition, ft. APARNA VERMA
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our discussion of integrating religion and faith into your fantastical world continues! In this episode, guest Aparna Verma joins us to examine the d...
Episode 108: The Myth, The Legend, The Cultural Impacts, ft. EHIGBOR OKOSUN
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What role do myths play in culture and tradition? Often, mythology is, itself, a form of worldbuilding, a way that people use story to make sense of t...
Episode 107: Livin’ on a Prayer: Religion, Worldview, and the Individual
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What do your characters believe? Like, really truly deeply believe? Is it part of a codified religion? Is it a faith without much external structure?...
Episode 106: Lighten Up: Making your World a Little Grin-Dark, ft. M.J. KUHN
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In our continuing exploration of aesthetic and its interplay with worldbuilding, we're thinking about one spectrum with labels that often get applied ...
Episode 105: We’re Going on an Adventure!
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the fifth season of Worldbuilding for Masochists! And we've got some big news in this episode! After many episodes talking about the Magic...
Episode 104: Riffing on the Real World, ft. KAT HOWARD
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes, the world you're working in is already built... because it's the one we live in! But that doesn't mean you don't still have choices to make...
Episode 103: Worldbuilding - It Builds Character, ft. KRITIKA H. RAO
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We sometimes see people complain, "Worldbuilding is just pointless background info; I want to know about characters!” But what are your characters ...
Episode 102: Side Dishes and Second Helpings: Serving Up Some Food Culture, ft CHANA PORTER
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From sumptuous feasts to the standard stew, food plays an important role in flavoring a lot of speculative fiction. But how do the people living in yo...
Episode 101: All About the Zhuzh
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's time to get specific -- about magic! When you're building a magical system for your fantasy world, there's a lot to consider. Where does it come ...
Episode 100: The Game is Afoot! ft. CATE OSBORN, ANDREW NOME, and SHARANG BISWAS
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's the 100th Episode! Because we know how many of our listeners play TTRPGs and worldbuild for those, rather than for prose fiction, we wanted to ce...
Episode 99: Connect the Dots
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of a season full of amazing guests, we take a little breather to reflect on some of the recent topics and to apply them to our co-built ...
Episode 98: Mysterious Worlds, ft. ANDREA STEWART
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is your world so big because it's full of secrets? From lost civilizations to prowling cryptids, from Unidentified Aerial Phenomena to covert cabals, ...
Episode 97: Perfect Pairing - Intersectionality and Worldbuilding, ft SUYI DAVIES OKUNGBOWA
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you're building a world, how do you think about all the different levers of power and privilege that your characters may encounter -- or manipula...
Episode 96: The Big Blue World: Oceanic Worldbuilding, ft DARCIE LITTLE BADGER
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In worldbuilding, we think a lot about the cities and towns that populate our worlds, as well as the enchanted forests, the treacherous mountain range...
Episode 95: Building and Bending Gender, ft. G.R. MACALLISTER
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you're building a society's conceptions of gender and gender roles... where do you start? Do you want to draw from historical precedent (for good...
Episode 94: Natural and Supernatural Disasters
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes... unstable wormholes, hellmouths, murder hornets, sharknados... When you're writing speculative fiction, t...
Episode 93: Queries and Quandaries
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Happy new year, listeners! In this episode, we take some questions from you! But not just any questions -- questions that probe specific worldbuildin...
Episode 92: Ringing in the New Year
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As 2022 draws to a close, your WFM hosts take a moment to celebrate winter traditions, especially those commemorating the start of a new year! But... ...
Episode 91: Making the Incredible Credible, ft. CHARLAINE HARRIS
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When you've added a fantastical, super-science-y, or paranormal element to your world, how do you make that feel well-integrated, baked-in, and totall...
Episode 90: The Editor’s Take ft. BRIT HVIDE
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're big believers in doing all the work when it comes to the worldbuilding, but when it comes to putting it in the book, how do you know how much y...
Episode 89: Stealing the Best Parts of History, ft. LAURA ANNE GILMAN
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many fantasy authors draw from history to shape their worlds and inform their worldbuilding choices. Where do you draw the line between hewing to the ...
Episode 88: Hashtag Aesthetic, ft. MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We throw the word "aesthetic" around a lot on this podcast -- but we've never really slowed down to talk about what it means. How do we define the aes...
Episode 87: Building Up Hope, ft BRANDON CRILLY
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Can you see the climate fiction for the trees? In this episode, Brandon Crilly joins us to discuss solarpunk, cli-fi, hopepunk, and the places where t...
Episode 86: Live at WorldCon!
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was recorded in a panel session at WorldCon/ChiCon 8 on September 4th, 2022. Many thanks to everyone who attended in-person! We had a bla...
Episode 85: Falling in Love Again… with Worldbuilding Ft SARA MUELLER
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where's the love? It makes the world(building) go 'round and 'round and 'round... At least, it does when things are going well! In this episode, gues...