Despite all the remarkable advances we've seen in digital technology over the last couple of decades, content creators still see story as the most immersive platform of them all. Digital media has merely extended the power of narrative to the interactive space, particularly through gaming. This episode of Media Space aims to mine this particularly rich mother lode for the Pacific Northwest -- as a center for both film and interactive entertainment. We'll convene leading practitioners on how story is now just the starting point, as these innovative content creators use it to weave whole new worlds online and offline. Joining Hanson is Lynn Shelton, award-winning director of 'We Go Way Back," "My Effortless Brilliance," "Humpday," and the MTV web series "$5 Cover Seattle," and Matt Vancil, the writer, director and creator of "JourneyQuest" and "The Gamers."

Jessica Rothenberg-Aalami, Managing Partner of the Gobee Group and co-author of "Technology at the Margins: How IT Meets the Needs of Emerging Markets," is the April guest on Media Space with host Hanson Hosein. The Media Space conversation will explore how innovation in emerging markets challenges some of our business models here in the developed world; so much so that we're either looking to partner with those who are developing those innovations, or we're importing them. Is what's good for them good for us?

In 1962, Seattle declared itself as a focal point of the Space Age, hosting the World Fair with the Space Needle as its landmark. As we approach Seattle Center's 50th birthday, our region faces a new set of priorities -- and challenges. Eric Liu is the founder of the Guiding Lights Network, as well as Bill Clinton's former speechwriter. He'll chat with Media Space host Hanson Hosein live, on-camera about his groundbreaking efforts to spark civic engagement and social change, with a unique focus on citizenship, mentorship and technology.

Did you know that we all have a laboratory in our home? It's called "the kitchen." Intellectual Ventures CEO (and former Microsoft CTO) Nathan Myhrvold will explain to Media Space host Hanson Hosein why his new 2,400-page book Modernist Cuisine is destined to turn the kitchen upside down (along with the food blogosphere) and reinvent cooking. Myhrvold will also discuss his provocative ideas on innovation and invention, and whether the technology-centric Pacific Northwest is as competitive as its citizens would like to believe that it is.

The digital media revolution is not only transforming how Hollywood does business, but how it tells stories. Brent Friedman left his studio job in California to set up Electric Farm in Langley WA. From his Whidbey Island office, he is pioneering the use of "transmedia storytelling" (a cohesive narrative that is told through multiple platforms: from TV, to web, to games, to mobile). You'll hear from Brent on how he produces content, and how he does so for his Hollywood clients so far away. Brent will also discuss his vision on how content creators and technologists need to spend more time sharing ideas.

Monica Harrington has lived on the bleeding edge of high technology for more than 20 years, in both the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. As a past Chief Marketing Officer for two hugely successful Seattle-area startups, this episode of Media Space gives her the chance to answer important questions for this economy. Host Hanson Hosein asks her opinion on what drives a startup's success, why they are important for communities and what kind of spirit that fosters in tech-savvy Seattle.

Margaret O'Mara is a historian of the modern United States whose work looks at the growth of the knowledge economy and the reasons creativity and innovation thrive in particular places. She is the author of Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley (Princeton, 2005), which explored how Silicon Valley came to be, why other U.S. regions did not become Silicon Valley, and what the Cold War had to do with it. Her current research includes a study of high-tech globalization and urban change in China, India, and the United States. An Assistant Professor of History at the UW, she previously taught at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her PhD in 2002. From 1993 to 1997 she was a staff member to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, handling policy issues including urban economic development, health care, and welfare reform.

One of the inventors of the alternate reality game genre, Elan Lee has spent his career finding and sharing ways to extract adventure from the world around us. In this episode of Media Space, Lee discusses his pioneering breakthroughs in the area of entertainment and immersive gaming. Lee started his career at the Microsoft Games Studio before co-founding 42 Entertainment - the company behind I Love Bees, Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero, and The Dark Knight.

In the premiere episode of Media Space, host Hanson Hosein sits down with Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh to examine the value of user-generated internet content. As creator of hugely popular blogs like I Can Has Cheezburger and FAIL blog, Huh tries to make the internet laugh for five minutes a day. Ben is also a true business model innovator for user generated content websites. As online user interests vary from politics and social justice, to "ordinary" people laughing about cats, Huh affirms the value of creating content versus remaining a passive media consumer.