Last week, as part of Puck’s second annual Stories of the Season event in Los Angeles, Julia Alexander hosted a panel that brought together four acclaimed showrunners known for crafting richly imagined worlds: Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror), Craig Mazin (The Last of Us), and Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Yellowjackets). Their wide-ranging conversation touched on everything from how fan discourse filters through the writer’s room, why real-life tech is starting to outpace tech in satire, the challenge of innovating while staying true to the worlds they’ve created, and much more. We’ve transcribed highlights from the conversation, which have been slightly edited for length and clarity.