The Science in The Fiction

We welcome Micaiah Johnson back to the show, this time in her role as a PhD specialist on the topic of Necropolitics, which we tackled in our last episode on 'Venomous Lumpsucker' by Ned Beauman.  This episode is the first half of our conversation, where Micaiah introduces us to the topic of Necropolitics and its origins from Foucault to Mbembe.  She discusses how it pertains to Ned's book in terms of harmful practices of 'preservation' gone awry. We also talk about the tyranny of billionaires, Zohran Mamdani's win in New York, joyful hopelessness and the difference between doing good an...

We welcome Micaiah Johnson back to the show, this time in her role as a PhD specialist on the topic of Necropolitics, which we tackled in our last episode on 'Venomous Lumpsucker' by Ned Beauman.  This episode is the first half of our conversation, where Micaiah introduces us to the topic of Necropolitics and discusses how it pertains to Ned's book. We also talk about the tyranny of billionaires, Zohran Mamdani's win in New York, joyful hopelessness and the difference between doing good and being seen to do good. The second half of our conversation will continue in our n...

Ned Beauman is the author of 'Venomous Lumpsucker', a biting satire which examines the environmental and social consequences of capitalism run amok, and the dangerous absurdities that can result from using free-market mechanisms to solve the environmental problems we face today.  We talk about the political and economic choices and mechanisms that determine which species are preserved and which species go extinct - hence 'necropolitics'. We talk about calibrating our economic and environmental values, about the importance of pragmatism and efficacy, about taking responsibility or fooling our selves and passing the buck to future generations. We also talk about w...

Marty speaks with biochemist and astrobiologist William Bains on the topic of Dark Ecology, as a final chapter to our 4 previous episodes on this topic with Chris Beckett (Ep 56), Julius Csotonyi (Ep 57-58) and Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ep 59).  Dr. Bains is the author of “The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds”, and has earned degrees from the universities of Oxford, Warwick and Stanford, and has held positions at the University of Bath, MIT, Imperial College London, and in addition to founding a number of biotech start-up companies is now a senior research fellow in the Department of Physics and Astro...

Marty speaks to Nicholas Keating Casborro about the hard-scrabble, dystopian world portrayed in his book 'Vitalerium: Descent into the Void'.  This is a far future space opera where faster than light travel is made possible by the exotic substance that serves as the title of the book, where humans have spread across multiple planets, where the politics are cynical, street life is vicious, human life disposable, and corruption endemic.  This episode is lighter on the science and heavier on the fiction; we discuss some of the technology essential to this world, but our focus is on the world-building, politics, re...

Chris Kulp is a professional physicist and science fiction author, who has won the Mike Resnick award for his first published story ‘What Would You Pay for a Second Chance’.  We talk about his second novel ‘Lost Origins’, a space opera where Earth is regarded as a myth by a galactic civilization peopled by humans and androids. Our conversation goes from a sci-fi story about artificial intelligence to one that explains how current AI models work, what they can and can't do, what they might do in the future.  We also chat about Chris’ research in nonlinear dynamics and the use of A...

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a bestselling British author whose work has taken the science fiction world by storm since his seminal sci-fi novel Children of Time, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016.  Its sequel Children of Ruin won the equally prestigious British Science Fiction Association or BSFA award in 2019, and after the publication of the third book in the series Children of Memory, those books won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2023.  He’s also won 4 other BSFA awards for his novels and short fiction, and this year 2 of his books Alien Clay and Service Model are up f...

This is the second part of Marty's conversation with Julius Csotonyi about dark ecology in relation to the dark rogue world of Chris Beckett’s book 'Dark Eden'.  We discuss the extraordinary existence of anoxygenic autotrophic bacteria that are capable of photosynthesis in the dark of the ocean floor!  Julius describes the ecology of thermal vents and geothermal energy as it stems from a hot planetary core, and we speculate about the kinds of planets that could host a dark ecology. We learn about protective and accessory photosynthetic pigments and ancient archaea microbes and not only the Tree of Life...

Julius Csotonyi is a thermal vent biologist with expertise on organisms that thrive on geothermal energy in the dark depths of the ocean where there is almost no light from the sun.  He is also someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about  ‘speculative biology’, imagining various exotic possibilities for the existence of life in extreme conditions that are very different from those we are used to on the surface of our planet.  Our conversation is a follow-up to our previous episode with Chris Beckett, author of the 'Dark Eden' trilogy, so this is where we put some me...

Holly and Marty speak with Chris Beckett about his Dark Eden trilogy, comprised of Dark Eden – which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2012, and was followed by Mother of Eden in 2015 and Daughter of Eden in 2016. Dark Eden has been described as “a superior piece of the theologically nuanced science fiction”, and is also a story about the development of human culture, religion and civilization.  It stands out for its unique setting on a dark planet whose ecology is powered by geothermal forces rather than by a sun, and where a pair of marooned humans have given rise to a gr...

Holly and Marty get together with their friend Susan MacKinnon to discuss the science fiction of Ursula K. LeGuin, literary icon of speculative fiction.  We talk about her Hugo and Nebula winning books "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed", which are among the most celebrated classics in science fiction. The first was a pioneering book about the impact of gender on civilization, describing an ambisexual society.  The second is about anarchism as an ambiguous utopia in the context of capitalism, and describes some very deep and beautiful ideas about time and the foundations of physics.  We also tal...

This is part 2 of Marty's conversation with Douglas Phillips about his 'Quantum' Series of hard science fiction novels.  In our last episode we talked about 'Quantum Space', and this time we discuss the next two books in the series, 'Quantum Void' and 'Quantum Time'. As before, today’s exchange focusses on the unifying theme of extra dimensions, in both space and time, and Douglas’ exploration of speculative ideas that push the envelope of modern physics.  We discuss visiting aliens using extradimensional spatial distortion, imagining paranormal phenomena as a 3D consequence of 4D activity, and using 4D space a dumping ground...

This is one of those episodes that exemplifies what we try to do here on this show, going deep on some very big science ideas, and then going off the deep end to expand those ideas into the realm of fiction and making them even bigger! Marty has the great pleasure of speaking with Douglas Phillips, who has turned his wide range of scientific experience into the kinds of stories he’s always wanted to read​.  Douglas has made a name for himself with his Quantum series of 5 books: Quantum Space, Quantum Void, Quantum Time, Quantum Entangled and Quantum Chaos...

This is a rather special episode, and something of a delightful experiment.  Barron Wenham is on of the smartest and most well-informed 10-year-olds you are ever likely to encounter - especially on the subjects of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.  As an exercise in exploring big ideas, mind-blowing science and science fictional creative invention, Marty sat down with him to discuss the birth of the universe, the balance of matter and anti-matter, as well as some of the things we discussed with Dr. David Curtin in episodes 30 and 31 on Dark Matter.  We also cover the black holes, white holes, the...

Marty speaks with Dr. Henry Erlich, whose research career gave him a front seat to the development of DNA sequencing technology from its infancy in the 80’s, to the development of forensic applications in the criminal justice system in the 90’s and through to it’s maturity in Next Generation Sequencing methods now used to study evolutionary biology and the deep history of human and hominid evolution. His book is called 'Genetic Reconstruction of the Past - DNA analysis in Forensics and Human Evolution ', and its unifying theme is how we can now use DNA sequencing technology to study...

Marty talks to Alan Smale, a professional astronomer and author of hard science fiction, alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, and horror. We talk to him about his most recent book 'Hot Moon' - an alternate history set in 1979 where the USSR won the space race to land the first man on the moon, changing the balance of power during the cold war and accelerating the space race to push both the Americans and the Soviets to have permanent moon bases, orbiting space stations, and manned spy satellites.  We talk about the kind of warfare that would have been possible w...

Holly and Marty speak with science fiction author Micaiah Johnson about her absolutely incredible 'Ashtown' duology.  This isn't really an episode about the Multiverse so much as it is about the deeply human and social themes in Micaiah's books, whose writing is laden with literary pearls and deeply human insights about complex characters, social and economic structures, and the interplay between science and spirituality. She uses science fiction as a lightning rod for discourse of social dynamics, power and justice, privilege and grace and ambition. We talk about choosing your monsters, the vacuous rich and the authenticity of the p...

Marty and Holly speak for a second time with Mike Carey in the first installment on our new topic: The Multiverse.  Mike has written comics for many big titles in both the DC and Marvel universes, and has also written 19 books including his most recent 'The Pandominion' duology which is comprised of 'Infinity Gate' and 'Echo of Worlds'.  The idea of parallel universes arises from an interpretations of quantum mechanics which posits that the wavefunction never actually collapses, just branches into new, independent universes for every possible outcome. It’s a mind-boggling idea offering rich and unique narrative possibilities for...

Marty speaks with Hollywood writer and director James Kerwin about Quantum Consciousness in his sci-fi film noir ‘Yesterday Was a Lie’, as well as in Robert J. Sawyer's books 'Quantum Night' and 'The Downloaded.  We do a bit of a deep dive into the role of consciousness in the foundations of quantum mechanics, discussing the Copenhagen interpretation, the Many Worlds theory, and the Penrose/Hameroff Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory.  We go all the way from the quantum superposition of subatomic particles to the possible emergence of collective consciousness, and the possibility of consciousness playing a central role in creating object...

Robert J. Sawyer is one of the world’s science fiction luminaries, and a great source of Canadian pride as one of our most prolific, successful and decorated science fiction authors.  In the following conversation Rob discusses his book 'Quantum Night', which explores the social and philosophical consequences of an empirical test for consciousness, self-awareness and conscience.  He tells us about the science of evil i.e. the science of psychopathy, and we discuss philosophical zombies as well as the very timely political consequences of blind followers and psychopathic demagogues. We also talk about the disappointing and negative effects of a...

Daniel H. Wilson has a PhD in robotics and is the author of the non-fiction books ‘How to Survive a Robot Uprising’, ‘How to Build a Robot Army’ and ‘Where’s my Jetpack’, as well as the bestselling science fiction novels ‘Robopocalypse’ and its sequel ‘Robogenesis’, ‘The Clockwork Dynasty’, and most recently ‘The Andromeda Evolution’ - the authorized sequel to Michael Crichton’s 'The Andromeda Strain'.  We talk about how he came to inherit Michael Crichton's mantle and be chosen to write 'The Andromeda Evolution', discussing Planetary Protection as well as the biotech/nanotech crossover in material science in this book.  We also consider Arti...

This is our fourth and final episode on the theme of Sci-Fi Fungi, where we dig a little deeper into the current science and future science of mycology with Dr. Alex Moskaluk, a mycologist and professor of biology at the University of Guelph.  She specializes in zoonotic fungi, fungal pathogens that can jump from animals to humans and vice versa.  We discuss how fungi are evolving resistance to antifungal treatments in much the same way as bacteria are developing antibiotic resistance, developing mechanisms for evading the human immune system, and learning to specialize in human infection. So basically continuing al...

Marty speaks with Kaitlyn Kuehn (KK), creator and host of the Flora Funga Podcast, discussing recent developments in real world applications of fungi, and speculating about the possible roles fungi may play in our science fictional future.  We discuss their use as recreational drugs, and the current regulatory and legalization landscape.  We talk about creating new materials from fungi, from making bricks in space to creating new green materials for packaging, hats and shoes on earth.  We consider fungi in water efficient vertical farming, using yeasts and molds as pesticides, and if they might be helpful in farming insects for...

We speak with M. R. Carey about his book 'The Girl With All The Gifts', where the zombie fungus Cordyceps plays a central role in bringing about the end of civilization. We talk about the appeal of a post-apocalyptic story and discuss some of the science in Merlin Sheldrake’s book 'Entangled Life': scientific revolutions and evolutions, gestalt shifts, the ancient evolutionary history of fungi, how they can be both parasitic and symbiotic, and how all of life is like a lichen.  Mike tells us  how he came to be a writer, and about his experience of benevolent presences on p...

Beginning our highly anticipated new topic of Sci-Fi Fungi, we talk to science fiction author Benjamin Percy about the second book of his Comet Cycle, 'The Unfamiliar Garden'.  We discuss Ben's writing career in comic books and novels and soon TV and film, the literary treatment that space fungus gets in this book, as well as the human and emotional stakes that make it a really good story.  We discuss the goodies and the baddies of the fungal world, lichenification, symbiosis, collective intelligence, creating wonder and seeing the world with fresh eyes. 

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Marty and Holly discuss our upcoming theme of Sci-Fi Fungi with interviews of science fiction authors Benjamin Percy and Mike Carey, along with mycologists Dr. Alex Moskaluk from the University of Guelph and Kaitlyn Kuehn (KK) from the Flora Funga Podcast.  We'll be discussing space fungi from cometary debris in Ben Percy's book 'The Unfamiliar Garden', the zombie fungus Codyceps in Mike Percy's book 'The Girl With All The Gifts'.  And we'll be structuring our conversations around Merlin Sheldrake's popular science book 'Entangled Life', which delves into the apparent motor-controlling abilities of the zombie fungus Cordyceps, the mind-altering effects of...

We talk to a returning guest and friend of the show, science fiction author Edward M. Lerner, about his latest book 'On The Shoals of Space-Time', on the topic of First Contact.  Ed is a fount of scientific insight and information on space science and the possibilities for extraterrestrial encounters, having written 25 books – 5 of them with the legendary author Larry Niven, of Ringworld fame – many of which explore themes First Contact with extraterrestrials, as well as future scientific advancement that would be necessary for interstellar travel.  In this interview we discuss a number of his books, we talk about fusion...

In this episode we talk to Mark Milne as a follow-up on our interviews with science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson and glaciologist Heidi Sevestre in episodes 21 and 22, on the topic of Geoengineering as portrayed in Kim Stanley Robinson’s book 'The Ministry for the Future'.  Mark speaks about a number of strategies for mitigating climate change by cooling the planet through increasing its albedo, or reflectivity.  The overarching strategy that we discuss is Solar Radiation Management (SRM), and we tackle a number of different possibilities under this umbrella: stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), marine cloud brightening, high albedo crops, refo...

We continue the conversation between science fiction author Peter Watts and scientist Justin Gregg, and now they get down to the tricky business of discussing the nature of consciousness.  We discuss Peter's premise of 'Blindsight – that consciousness is an illusory, unnecessary and possibly parasitic phenomenon that will get us all killed when we encounter more efficient, unconscious extra-terrestrial intelligence.  Then very quickly agree that nobody knows what the hell they’re talking about when they try to understand consciousness: the pan-psychics may even be right that it’s a fundamental property of matter like mass, spin and charge.  We discuss e...

In this episode we present a conversation between science fiction author Peter Watts and scientist Justin Gregg, following up on our individual interviews with each of them on the general theme of intelligence and consciousness.  Justin Gregg is the author of ‘If Nietzsche were a Narwhal - What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity’, the book we spoke to him about in episode 23.  Peter Watts is the science fiction author of 'Blindsight', 'Echopraxia', 'Starfish', 'Maelstrom', 'Behemoth' and many amazing short stories.  We spoke to Peter in episodes 24 and 25 about his book ‘Blindsight’ and also about Justin Gregg’s book, and now we’ve...

Marty and Holly talk to George Paxinos - neuroscientist, environmental activist and author of 'A River Divided', a book that explores neurological determinism - the claim that we have no free will and that our actions are entirely determined by our genetics and the neurological consequences imposed on us by the environment which shapes our brain.  His book comes with a very interesting twist: the modern day cloning of Jesus of Nazareth! And not only that, but the cloning of two identical copies, twins who are raised in different places and cultures. This is a bold and fascinating vehicle t...

We speak with David Brin, science fiction icon, scientist, futurist and civilizational optimist.  We discuss his particular view of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, as portrayed in his 2012 novel 'Existence', along with his predictions about how artificial intelligence and virtual reality will change our world in the near future.  We discuss the UFO phenomenon (a sophisticated form of cat lasers for us to chase) and the unspeakably rude behaviour of these hypothetical silvery teaser punks.  David speaks directly to the artificial intelligences and possibly alien intelligences who may be inveigled in our internet.  We talk about Cixin Liu's 'The Thre...

Marty and Holly speak with Professor Avi Loeb from the Harvard Astronomy department, and he is one of the most generous, gregarious, kind and thoughtful people we’ve ever spoken with. Not only that, he embodies the spirit of true scientific inquiry and discovery that can be sadly lacking in the scientific culture of our time.  Our conversation revolves around the possibility of First Contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life, based on our encounter with the first extra-solar object ever detected - named Oumuamua - which came flying in and out of our solar system over the course of about 11 day...

To celebrate the first anniversary of our podcast, Marty and Holly do a little retrospective to discuss their favorite books, people and interviews from the last year.  We discuss some of the best science fiction books we read: 'Red Team Blues' by Cory Doctorow, 'Semiosis' by Sue Burke, 'Neverness' by David Zindell, 'Night Owls' by Stephen Gay and 'The Ministry for the Future' by Kim Stanley Robinson.  We also talk about some of our favorite science books from this year:  'Planta Sapiens' by Paco Calvo, 'A Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy' by Arik Kershenbaum and 'If Nietzsche Were A Nar...

This is the second part of our interview with Dr. David Curtin, Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto.  In response to the kind of dark matter model found in Jim Al-Khalili's science fiction book 'Sunfall', David expounds upon the "significantly weirder' models of dark matter being contemplated today.  Since the failure to find any dark matter candidates at the Large Hadron Collider, and the continued exclusion of WIMPs by the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, there has been room to develop more complex ideas about atomic dark matter forming from simpler dark particles, and th...

Dr. David Curtin is the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto, and specializes in exotic theories of dark matter that describe a "dark sector" which may include complex dark matter.  These  "banana-town weirdo" dark matter models include dark electrons, dark protons and dark photons that form dark atoms and possibly an entire mirror universe that exists transparently all around us.  We discuss Jim Al-Khalili's book 'Sunfall' and the relatively tame dark matter scenario presented there, in what David calls a "nostalgic book, reminiscent of the days when theoretical physicists moved nations"!  We also talk...

Our theme in the next two episodes is dark matter, the kind of far-out science that is stranger than fiction and presents realms of possibility that are both more plausible and more interesting than parallel worlds or extra dimensions or even wormholes. In this episode we talk to Jim Al-Khalili, who is many things: physicist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, educator, broadcaster and all around extraordinary public intellectual who reaches millions of people around the world with his popular science books and as the host of the BBC’s flagship scientific program, The Life Scientific.  In this conversation we...

In this episode we return to the theme of Planetary Protection, continuing the conversation we started in episodes 19 and 20 where we discussed the return of samples from Asteroid Bennu to Earth in NASA’s recent OSIRIS Rex mission.  There we talked about what measures were taken to protect the biosphere of Earth from any unforeseen biological agents that such a sample may harbor, hearkening back to the plot of Michael Crichton’s famous novel 'The Andromeda Strain'.  In this episode we continue down this road with science fiction author Edward M. Lerner, this time contemplating the difficulties and dangers inhere...

Marty sits down with his university pals Drs. Peter Gorniak and Cyndey Nielsen, to discuss Karl Schroeder's book 'Stealing Worlds'.   As it happens, they both have PhD's and lifelong careers working in their fields of expertise - Peter in artificial intelligence and Cydney in data analytics and virtual/mixed reality, so they were the perfect people to bring their professional and personal perspectives to a discussion of Karl's book.  We talk about where artificial intelligence and virtual reality were 20 years ago, where they are today, and what they might become in the future.

My Science Fiction — KarlSchroeder.com...

Karl Schroeder is a science fiction author and foresight analyst.  His fiction is known for both its scientific rigour and its visionary quality of bearing witness to what we can expect just around the corner – especially with his latest book 'Stealing Worlds'.  This book is jam packed with big ideas about artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR).  We talk about the creation of LARPing worlds, i.e. Live Action Role Playing games within a virtual reality which can exist on top of and in parallel with the regular world.  We also discuss more sophisticated versions of this called frame...

In the second part of our interview with Peter Watts, we delve into his ideas about intelligence and consciousness.  Does consciousness serve any function, or can all cognitive processes get along just fine without it?  In his novel Blindsight, Peter postulates a hostile entity whose intelligence outcompetes our own, because it is not weighed down by the slow, clunky machinery of sapience.  But his thinking has evolved in recent years, to concede the possible primacy of consciousness, and heck, even the existence of a soul!  Along the way we talk about a blob of cells called dish-brain that taught itse...

We talk to acclaimed science fiction author Peter Watts about Justin Gregg's book 'If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal'.  We ask if the human flavour of intelligence is maladaptive, and other creatures are smarter because they are so well adapted to their evolutionary niche - or are we comparing apples with moon rocks?  Ultimately, the question is whether the animal wisdom of bedbugs and crocodilians is going to get them off this planet when the sun goes supernova.  Peter expresses his opinion that human intelligence is actually special in this regard.  The problems we create with our technological intelligence are due...

Marty and Holly sit down with zoologist Justin Gregg to discuss his book 'If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity'.  We discuss which aspects of human intelligence (and stupidity) are unique in the animal world, and what sets our mental faculties apart from those of other animals.  We talk about our capacity for causal reasoning, the creation of language and our ability to lie, to imagine our own death, and to create moral frameworks to guide our behaviour.  We also contemplate the phenomenon of consciousness and self awareness, and discuss how the subjective experience mig...

Marty and Holly sit down with Dr. Heidi Sevestre for a conversation about climate change and geoengineering, as portrayed in The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.  Dr. Sevestre is a glaciologist who is leading the call to action on climate change through her research and education initiatives. We talk about her recent expedition to Svalbard with Climate Sentinels, a zero-emission research expedition on skis to understand the impact of black soot on the melting of glaciers.  We also discuss her recent expedition to film a National Geographic documentary (Arctic Ascent) about the surging glaciers in Greenland, ga...

In this episode we are super excited to present our conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, whose legacy will surely last deep into our sci-fi future.  We discuss his latest book The Ministry for the Future, and some of the many extraordinary ideas in that book for getting humanity through to the other side of the climate crisis.  We focus our conversation on various geoengineering projects as well as innovations in economics and monetary policy that will help us get there.  We discuss green investment, the merits of non-ideological rhetoric, str...

This conversation was a great example of what we’re trying to do with this podcast, the perfect balance between Science and Science Fiction.  Marty sits down with Dr. Tim Swindle to discuss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton and The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson, in relation to NASA's OSIRIS REx mission which has returned a sample of Asteroid Bennu to Earth, as well as the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission.  Dr. Swindle is a professor emeritus from the University of Arizona who  specializes is radiometric chronology, which makes it possible measure the ages of very old thing...

NASA's recent OSIRIS-REx mission has returned a sample of asteroid Bennu all the way to Earth for detailed analysis.  It is difficult to ignore the tempting similarities of this mission to the plot of Michael Crichton's 'The Andromeda Strain' and its sequel, Daniel H. Wilson's 'The Andromeda Evolution' - so in this episode Marty discusses Planetary Protection with Thomas Zega, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona :  what considerations and safeguards are in place to not only protect the sample from contamination by Earth, but Earth from contamination by the sample?  We discuss the threat classification system employed by...

This is our favorite kind of episode, hosting a conversation between e a science fiction author and a scientist, where each shares their work and expertise with the other to the benefit of both.  Stephen Gay is a science fiction author whose debut novel 'Night Owls - A Moon Colony Adventure' follows a quirky band of party kids in a near-future society on the moon.  Ben Feist is a computer scientist who works at NASA and consulted with Stephen on the scientific details that went into 'Night Owls'. This is exactly the kind of thing this podcast was created to...

This is part two of our conversation with Damien Walter, the science fiction guru.  He is the host of the Science Fiction Podcast and Science Fiction Facebook group.  He is also a critical thinker about culture, and a prophet of the emerging mythos of science fiction.  In our last episode we presented the part of our conversation about individual psychology as it relates to the structure and function of story-telling, and in this episode we take the conversation to the larger sociological and cultural issues at play in the creation of a new, unifying mythos based on science and sci...

Damien Walter is one of the world’s foremost voices in critical thinking about science fiction as the emerging cultural mythos of our modern global civilization.  In this episode we discuss some of Damien’s ideas about the psychological function of story-telling, and what he calls the operating system of human consciousness.  We talk about how archetypal, meaningful stories have elements that resonate with the shape of the human psyche, and when they do so they can serve as transformative psychological experiences.  If you enjoy this episode then you should check out The Science Fiction Podcast with Damien Walter, as well...

Cory Doctorow has given us permission to play the first chapter of Red Team Blues directly on our podcast!  And as an added treat, the audio-book is read by none other than Will Wheaton, the actor who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek The Next Generation - a voice that you will instantly recognize.  It's pretty rare to hear excerpts from an author’s work directly on a podcast that discusses their work.  Authors usually do not have the power to give such permission because they generally have to sign away control over the rights to their own creative outpu...

Marty and Holly sit down with Cory Doctorow, an author known not only for his near-future social and political science fiction, but also for his real-world journalism and activism.  We talk about society, politics and economics, discussing 3 of Doctorow’s most recent books.  'Red Team Blues' is his most recently published book, an anti-finance cryptocurrency and cybersecurity thriller; we discuss the difference between defense and attack dynamics in cybersecurity, and their parallels in modern politics.  'The Lost Cause' is due to be published in two weeks, on Nov 14th, a solarpunk novel about a world threatened by anarcho-capitalist billionaire wreck...

Following up on our discussion of intelligent plants with Sue Burke in our last episode, we have invited Paco Calvo, a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, who speaks to us about his book 'Planta Sapiens'.  Paco is a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, who is known for his research in the field of plant cognition and intelligence. His interdisciplinary work combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore the world of plant behavior, decision-making, and problem-solving.  Paco's book outlines both the philosophical and scientific case for expanding our view of intelligent behaviour and consciousness to in...

In this episode we embark on a discussion of sci-fi botany, by way of Sue Burke’s novel 'Semiosis' and its sequel 'Interference'.  We talk about a lot of interesting and surprising properties of plant behaviour that you may not be aware of, and how Sue worked these ideas into her main character Steveland and his interaction with human colonists on a planet named Pax.  We talk about the symbiosis of domestication between people and plants - and between buffalo and grass, Charles Darwin and his seminal work on plant movement, plants murdering each other and insects, plant sensory capa...

Marty and Holly finish up their discussion of 'Neverness' by David Zindell from the last two episodes, and then have a conversation about the books we'll be talking about over the course of the next few episodes.  Our next topic will be 'intelligent plants', so we discuss Sue Burke's 'Semiosis' and 'Interference' duology, ahead of our upcoming interviews with her and Paco Calvo.  Then we move on to consider a range of Cory Doctorow's fiction, discussing his latest book 'Red Team Blues' (2023) and his upcoming novel 'The Lost Cause', (November 2023), in addition to a favorite of ours, called 'Walkaway' (2017).  Cou...

Marty has a conversation about David Zindell's 'Neverness' with Mark Mac Lean, professor of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia.  We talk about the poetic and philosophical use of mathematics as the engine of faster-than-light travel in the Neverness universe, and contemplate the relationship of mathematics to truth, beauty, perfection, and physical reality.  Along the way we discuss the foundations of mathematics, Godel's incompleteness theorems, the Reimann hypothesis and the continuity theorem, both the real one and its fictional twin in the novel.  We also reflect on what a gift it is that David Zindell is able to con...

Marty and Holly sit down with David Zindell, author of Neverness, a book full of big ideas in a far future civilization where Master Pilots manipulate mathematical reality to fenester their ships through the spacetime manifold. We talk to David about his literary influences and his vision of a deep sci-fi future with philosophical and spiritual depth.  We discuss philosophy, non-duality, consciousness and environmentalism in both Neverness and Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book The Ministry for the Future.  Then we ruminate about mathematics, meaning, death and the afterlife, as well as our past and future selves.

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This is the second half of the conversation begun in our last episode, between science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and zoologist Arik Kershenbaum.  We start with a quick re-cap on Boltzmann Brains and then spend quite a bit of time considering the problem of having a sample size of one, when it comes to the existence of life in the universe, as well as the existence of intelligent, technological alien life we hope to find on another planet some day.  We also contemplate fungible atoms (!), confirmation bias, appropriate skepticism and learn what might constitute both an intelligent and an...

In this episode we present our first conversation between a science fiction author and a scientist, both of whom we’ve spoken to before.  We have with us Robert J. Sawyer, star of our very first interview in our second episode where we discussed his book The Oppenheimer Alternative, and Arik Kershenbaum who we spoke to in our last episode about his book A Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy.   We discuss the possibility of evolving intelligent dinosaurs in Robert's 'Quintaglio Cycle', and consider the unexpected, non-mammalian forms of intelligence we've discovered in parrots and ravens.  We consider the impossi...

Following up on our interview with Julie Czerneda and continuing with the theme of exo-biology, in this episode Marty sits down with zoologist Arik Kershenbaum from Cambridge University, author of The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens – and Ourselves.  We talk about the science of evolution, and what it may have to tell us about exo-biology, by first establishing that the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is actually Evolution (not 42!).  We discuss why animals make so much noise, the difference between communication and language, the universal laws of biology and the ma...

Marty sits down with Canadian science fiction writer and biologist Julie Czerneda to discuss her book 'To Each This World'.  Our conversation is taken in the context of exo-biology, where considerations of universal biological laws may inform our understanding of alien life, if ever we are lucky enough to find it.  We talk about whether we are likely to be surprised or bored by how strange or familiar alien life might be.  We discuss different kinds of intelligence, the survival costs and benefits that it might bring, the exquisite adaptation of the mantis shrimp and the surprising self-awareness of fis...

Marty and Holly discuss Robert J. Sawyer's Nebula Award-winning book The Terminal Experiment.  We talk about the possibility of uploading our minds into computers and/or replicating our physical brains, and think our way through philosophical issues about subjectivity and objectivity, materialism, identity and the teleporter dilemma.  We discuss whether self-awareness is different and special, or just another subjective illusion built into us by evolutionary mechanisms of survival.  We decide that there’s something special about the human experience, and also that we - personally - are land animals who would not get in a tin can to cross the v...

In this episode Marty sits down with Prof. Jaymie Matthews, astrophysicist from the University of British Columbia, to discuss the some of the solar physics in Robert J. Sawyer’s ‘The Oppenheimer Alternative’, as a follow up to our interview with Robert in Episode 2.  We cover a fair bit of ground with Dr. Matthews, who explains how his research career helped establish a new field of astronomy called helio-seismology, which probes the inner structure, size and age of our sun and other stars by measuring their vibrational modes of oscillation.  Along the way we discuss how this research has led to n...

Marty and Holly sit down with Canadian science fiction superstar Robert J. Sawyer to talk about his book The Oppenheimer Alternative.  Robert tells us how he spun the mistaken prediction of the sun’s temperature by Hans Bethe (in 1939) into a science fiction tale where the great physicists of the 20th century save humanity from being vaporized by a solar instability.  We discuss Bethe and Einstein’s Nobel Prizes, Oppenheimer’s prediction of black holes, and the history of the Manhattan Project.  We talk about the ethics and politics of dropping the first two nuclear bombs on Japan, the creation...

Marty and Holly describe what we'd like to do in this podcast.  We will talk to science fiction authors and scientists about topics in both hard and soft science fiction, from both the hard and soft sciences.  Our conversations will range from physics to psychology, from space to sociology.  We also like to talk science: Marty explains special relativity, and Holly explains thin film deposition.  We reflect on our interview with Robert J. Sawyer about The Oppenheimer Alternative, and the following interview with astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews about the solar physics and nuclear politics in Sawyer's book.  We discuss upcoming inter...