Alive and well in our imaginations: Dinosaurs in pop culture

We think of dinosaurs as figures from science, from history, from the fossil record.

But if I say “Tyrannosaurus rex,” do you picture bones arranged in a museum — or do you picture that one scene in Jurassic Park?

The more you think about it, the more you realize that your whole real concept of dinosaurs comes from movies and TV and kids’ books and comic books.

So this hour, with the latest Jurassic World at No. 1 at the box office, a look at dinosaurs in our popular culture.

GUESTS:

• Paul Brinkman: An associate professor in the Department of History at North Carolina State University and the author of multiple books, including The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
• Hannah McGregor: An academic and podcaster and the author of Clever Girl: Jurassic Park
• Megan Schuster: A senior editor at The Ringer, where she hosts The Ringer F1 Show
• Tom Whyman: An academic philosopher, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Liverpool, and the author of Infinitely Full of Hope: Fatherhood and the Future in an Age of Crisis and Disaster

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