Better Living Through Algorithms
An Audacious Experiment in Human Happiness was one of the big pull-quotes from Margo’s series. It was how one of the researchers had described it. The professors running the project…
Five Views of the Planet Tartarus
All traitors to the Sibyllines go to Tartarus to receive the only punishment for rebellion: eternal life.
Not Lost (Never Lost)
You are broken, they said more than once. Take into you these numbers and tell us if it helped. But how would I know I was unbroken? Only they would…
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…
Chinese sci-fi has crossed the translation barrier
Netflix's lavish new adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem is the latest 'translation' of one of this century's best, and best-selling, sci-fi novels. In this episode, we track the…
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate…
The People from the Dead Whale
I howled loudly and sat down. Neither my body nor my brain could handle the overwhelming vastness of this hope that now filled my head. Even knowing that most hope…
Class of ‘84: When Cyber Was Punk
In the second episode of our mini-series on groundbreaking works from 1984, we jack into the system and upload our minds into Neuromancer. William Gibson’s novel became a seminal work…
So Much Cooking
Carole’s Roast Chicken This is a food blog, not a disease blog, but of course the rumors all over about bird flu are making me nervous. I don’t know about…