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…
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…
Prologue to Ursula K. le Guin
In the 1960s, Ursula K. le Guin represented a changing of the guard in science fiction literature. She was part of a generation of novelists who questioned the colonist mindset…
Our Opinions Are Correct: Why Silicon Valley is doomed to misunderstand the future, with Dr. Joy Buolamwini
Silicon Valley markets itself as the place where futures are born, and yet tech corporations have no real understanding of where our civilizations are headed. We are wrapping up our…