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…
Mother-in-Law of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is deeply ingrained into our culture. While many people can practically recite the 1939 movie, the original source material isn’t as well known. The Wonderful Wizard…
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…
The Good Son
Maggie was an American tourist when I first saw her, hiking across the Irish hills with a group of other college students. It was raining. Maggie had no umbrella, and…
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…