Cultures and Beyond: The Podcast Transcripts

Learning to create a unique, immersive cultures one episode at a time.

A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists

World building strategist Randy Ellefson turned his successful book series, The Art of World Building, into a popular podcast of the same name, with episodes loosely drawn from each book in the series. The transcripts of another 15 episodes are collected here. Ranging from 25-35 minutes each, the episodes discuss everything that doesn't fit into the first two volumes about inventing life and places.

Cultures and Beyond - The Podcast Transcripts (The Art of World Building, #6) discusses techniques on inventing names, organizations for good and evil, and armed forces like the army, navy, and air (or space) force. An extensive look into creating cultures led to four detailed episodes on determining cultural vision, scope, origins, social classes, and the all-important customs that reveal culture. A similar deep five into inventing magic systems examines the principles behind devising great ones and just what is meant by a law of magic and its applications. Other systems to create a detailed world include educational, legal, communication, health systems, and more. Creating items, how to organize our work, and whether languages are best created or delegated to others to invent for us round out the episodes.

No other world building podcast provides a permanent copy of transcripts you can take with you, and few are as highly regarded and popular as The Art of World Building Podcast.