Our Opinions Are Correct: Murderbot and the Stories That Heal Us
It's scary out there — so thank goodness we're taking comfort in some wondrous books, TV shows, comics and movies. What makes a story comforting? And why is a dark…
our opinions are correct: Robots! Witches! Annalee and Charlie Jane talk about their new books
It's a double book birthday! Annalee has just released Automatic Noodle, a wonderfully cozy book about robots who've survived a devastating war and now just want to run a noodle…
Too Bad About the Internet (with Anil Dash)
Where did the Internet go wrong, and how do we fix it? To find out more, we talk to entrepreneur and activist Anil Dash about the alternate history of technology.…
No, We Don’t Live in a F—ing Simulation!
It's a fun thought experiment: what if the universe is a simulation, and nothing around us is real? But lately, some of the most powerful people in tech (and politics)…
Episode 163: Ten Years After “Over the Garden Wall”
We're taking a cozy, autumnal trip back in time to "peak television," when animation was truly feral and we had shows like "Over the Garden Wall." We'll talk about this…
Secrets of the Planet of the Apes, with Josh Friedman
The Planet of the Apes franchise spans decades and formats: it started as a French novel in 1963, and then jumped the Atlantic to become a long-running series of movies,…
The world’s humblest heroes, from plumbers to tardigrades
Inspired by The Super Mario Bros Movie, we're talking about a humble class of heroes whose lives are devoted to infrastructure maintenance and repair. There are heating engineer rogues and…
The Creativity Fallacy
What does it mean to be a creator at a time when creativity is completely commodified? In this episode, we talk about the status of the author, and how audiences…
How To Write About Violence (with Fonda Lee and Lauren Beukes)
Battles and smackdowns are a key part of many science fiction and fantasy stories — but how do you do them right? Do you have an obligation to show the…
Alien ecosystems and the algae menace
All of us live embedded in webs of life known as ecosystems, and that can get pretty creepy -- or astonishingly beautiful. Inspired by the mind-blowing new animated series Scavengers…