Earlier this season Jen dedicated an episode to her Dad. Now it is her Mom’s turn. Fight on Linda.

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Some careers read like a straight line. This one is a map of brave detours, timely breakthroughs, and the stubborn belief that story and technology belong together. Vicki Dobbs Beck—VP of Immersive Content at Lucasfilm and ILM—to unpack how a kid from Kirkland, Washington, rode a love of books and big ideas to help launch ILMxLAB and push real-time storytelling into the mainstream.

We trace the arc from a palm-tree dream of Stanford to an unlikely first win at ILM: drafting the company’s first business plan by interviewing senior creatives and stitching their wisdom into direction. From there, the conversation travels through Lucasfilm’s early experiments in location-based entertainment and the visionary but early Lucasfilm Learning, where a mystery about disappearing ducks introduced project-based, no-single-answer learning—an immersive idea before VR could carry it.

When real-time rendering finally hit cinematic quality, the door opened for ILMxLAB. Vicki breaks down the creative-operational engine behind XR: align high-fidelity media with interactivity and give audiences agency without sacrificing story.

If you’re building a creative career, rethinking education, or chasing the edge of immersive tech, this conversation will change how you plan and how you dare. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves story and innovation, and leave a review.

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What happens when rhythm, science, and vulnerability collide inside one artist? We sit down with Ahmed Best to explore a creative life that refuses boxes: a South Bronx kid raised by drums and physics, a performer who treats movement as first language, and an educator who teaches students to design for feeling rather than stumble into it.

Ahmed opens up about being an “emotional athlete,” choosing vulnerability on cue, and why social media’s loudness can’t replace true listening. He walks us through his Dramatic Narrative Design framework at USC—start with the emotion you want the audience to feel, then build story choices to deliver that outcome with intention.

We also talk frankly about Jar Jar Binks and the cost of pioneering performance capture. Ahmed helped shape tools and techniques still used across film and games, yet the backlash nearly ended the work he loved. His reflections aren’t bitter; they’re practical, generous, and deeply human. He explains how to endure critique without losing truth, why mastery is a series of new beginnings, and how returning to Star Wars came from love rather than nostalgia.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more curious listeners can find us.

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