John and Craig investigate our primal instincts and how they motivate our characters. Often referred to as the four F’s, these are the impulses hardwired into every animal in order to survive. But how do these base impulses guide a character’s behavior? And how can they be harnessed to make sure you don’t overcomplicate your character’s want?

We also look at impermanence in our digital world and the ways people are trying to preserve lost media. But first we answer listener questions on comics, digital de-aging, and closed captions.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we ask: why are we better swimmers as kids than we are as adults?

Links:

• Can’t Hear the Dialogue in Your Streaming Show? You’re Not Alone by Brian X. Chen for the New York Times
• No, You Do Not Have a Lizard Brain Inside Your Human Brain from Mind Matters
• Prey Drive
• Scriptnotes, Episode 364 – Netflix Killed the Video Store
• The Dream Was Universal Access to Knowledge. The Result Was a Fiasco by David Streitfeld for the New York Times
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Tweet by Chris Miller
• Hydrostatic Life Vests
• British Airways safety video
• Highland 2
• Writer Emergency Pack XL
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Adam Pineless (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and is edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.