I think a strong part of the magnus institute's formula is that most or all of the recurring elements between stories are the extremely bad elements

so the emotion of 'aha, i recognize that' is always paired with dread

anyway I got to the second episode about Prentiss

"oh no, I recognize that"

just mentioning the name at the beginning got a sharp intake of breath

She's a nice young lady

doubting every word of that description

THIS IS TRUE

It's great partly because there are a few recurring elements that aren't actually part of the Bad Shit but they're still Bad Shit Adjacent in a way that makes that hard to pick out on a first listen

i never really thought about it but yeah, you nailed it

recognizing a recurring element always comes with an "oh no, don't like the sound of that"

which also kind of leads to them sticking out more in your memory, so you're more likely to recognize them showing up again later too

i've found i don't experience quite as much "who is that? should i recognize that name?" after going long stretches without listening to any episodes with TMA as I do with other narrative stuff trying to do a similar thing