The Death of Fiction: Why We Can’t Just Enjoy a Story

In an era of infinite information and technical optimization, many people find themselves hitting a "preposterousness wall" where fictional stories feel like illogical systems to be debugged rather than experiences to be felt. This episode explores the psychological shift toward a "non-fiction bias," where the brain prioritizes high-utility data and begins to see the structural seams of storytelling through an algorithmic gaze. By analyzing Narrative Transportation Theory and the "Wikipedia Effect," we examine whether we are losing a vital cognitive simulator for empathy and speculative thinking, and why the distinction between fact and fiction is blurrier than we think.