Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 2 days 3 hours 53 minutes
There's nothing quite so dystopian as censorship: the suppression of knowledge, or works of art, that challenge the ruling order. We look at how science fiction, fantasy and horror have been censored. But also, what does science fiction teach us about...
Everybody knows that endings are hard, and we all love to complain about the way our favorite TV show or movie ended. But with both Game of Thrones and the Avengers movies coming to an end, this is a perfect time to think about what makes for a good...
We talk to economist Noah Smith about how different theories of economics show up in science fiction -- and how economics is also an exercise in speculative worldbuilding. How do ideas about "rational actors" make their way into space operas, and why...
Lately the camp-themed Met Gala got us talking about camp again. What is camp? And how is it different in 2019 than in 1969? And most importantly, why is science fiction so deathly terrified of seeming campy? We're going to have a Kiki about this....
We're living in an age of dystopian stories, while real-life social issues are getting pretty dystopian too. What's the point of telling dark stories in a dark time? Also, we discuss how Utopian stories and dystopian stories are actually quite similar...
Social media has become one of the biggest problems of our time. How does science fiction deal with the rise of social networks---and how is this different from the way the real-life news media talks about it? And what does the future look like after...
For our first-ever live podcast, recorded in March on the JoCo Cruise, we talked to cosmologist Katie Mack about how the universe will end. Will it be heat death or vacuum decay? We also talk about how rarely science fiction deals with the end of the...
Game of Thrones comes back in a couple of weeks, so we're thinking about the politics of George R.R. Martin's fantasy world. What would a satisfying ending to this show look like? Can our heroes defeat the ice zombies AND solve Westeros' crisis of...
Is there a way to predict the future accurately, using data and science? In this episode, we talk to Rose Eveleth, host of the Flash Forward podcast, about the idea of futurism. We explore its history and dark roots in fascism, as well as its...
Back during the Cold War era, we were awash in stories about nuclear armageddon: either living through it, or trying to prevent it. And now, experts say the threat of nuclear holocaust is the worst it's been in over two decades. So how will pop...