Curious Combinations: An Everything’s Unoriginal Podcast

A podcast exploring stories including old favorites and new finds among TV shows, movies, books, audio dramas, and whatever else is out there!

”There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” So said Mark Twain.

All fiction is unoriginal. Every world, every narrative, every character, and every plot twist builds upon what came before. Our best and favorite stories share much of the same DNA as our worst and most ridiculed. When we create, we take bits of ourselves, our own pasts and histories, our friends and loved ones, our enemies, our favorite characters, our worst nightmares, and everything else we’ve ever done and seen and experienced, and we add them all up into a jigsaw puzzle unique to our own creative psyche.

Imagine writing a haunted house story. Your creation would not be the same as mine. It would not be the same as Flanagan’s Hill House or Danielewski’s House of Leaves or Wan’s The Conjuring or Spielberg’s Poltergeist. It wouldn’t even be the same as your next attempt at a haunted house story, or the one you would have written as a child, or the one you would write on your deathbed.

All stories are unoriginal. There is no such thing as a new idea. But each and every story is unique. I’m going to explore as many of them as I can, casually comparing and contrasting, analyzing, and learning as I go. I’ll be revisiting old gems like Buffy and Supernatural, singing the praises of new favorites like Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy, and exploring brand new (and new to me!) stories, often on an episode-by-episode or chapter-by-chapter basis.

Join me as I experience new narratives across all genres and media, and help guide me through all the best, the worst, and the so-bad-its-good that the world of creativity has to offer.