Glad it's working. We have the same experience with instant recall, but even if the creative element ended up being neutral in terms of its impact on memory, keeping everyone sane is probably worth it.

Incidentally, I suspect there's a less obvious advantage to creativity as well: materials end up being more natural. When I look at the other podcasts available on iTunes, it's amazing that they all embrace an approach we call concept or vocab-stuffing (i.e. trying to stuff 10 different dinosaur names into a dialogue). Leaving aside the question of whether it's useful to teach arbitrary nouns, it's rare to find a teacher who can be self-aware enough when writing dialogues to use natural speech, let alone someone aware enough of dramatic tension to really nail the proper emotional nuance. And that -- the tone of voice and everything it implies -- is probably as important for recall as what is actually said.