Cosmic Horror ft. Devinder Thiara and Jesse Scoble

It’s the 20th anniversary of Blindsight! David and Rachel sit down in Rachel’s living room with marine biologist, critically acclaimed author, and enemy-of-the-state Peter Watts to drink two bottles of wine and talk about theories of consciousness, cigar-shaped harbour seals, the climate collapse, and why dystopian sci-fi authors are in fact childishly optimistic. Additional audio engineering by Rick Innis. Show Notes: Rifters The Collapse Is Coming. Will Humanity Adapt? The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner The Limits To Growth Philosophical Zombie Consciousness and its function, David M. Rosenthal Michael Timothy Bennett Erik Hoel Mirror Test The Hidden Spring Arthur Jafa

The podcast is part of the oral tradition, and joining us to talk about ancient epics, living texts in dead languages, Babylonian Pride parades, and how all of this relates to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror is writer, translator, and cultural historian Sophus Helle. Show notes: Sophus’ website Electronic Babylonian Library Babylonian Myths, Sophus Helle Critical Antiquities, including Human: Babylonian Reflections on Labour, Sophus Helle Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, J.R.R. Tolkien Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley The Complete Mahabharata (online) The Mahabharata (Penguin Classics) Ovid's Metamorphoses: A New Translation, C. Luke Soucy Query, Zilla Novikov The Ur-Pisode: The Queer Heart of the Epic of Gilgamesh, ft. Julian Gunn

A contract with one of the five big publishing companies means placement in bookstores and libraries, reviews in major publications, award nominations, and a huge advance—even a chance to get on the bestsellers list. But is this actually the case? Joining us to talk about how the sausage gets made is Jeremy Szal, author of the Common Trilogy. Show Notes:Jeremy’s website Follow him on:Bluesky Instagram TikTok “Everything is random in publishing. Success is random. Bestsellers are random. So that is why we are the Random House!” Are there more libraries or McDonald’s? Author (and professional chef) Rohan O’Duill trying out one of the recipes from the Sad Bastard Cookbook

So you've trashed the world. An EMP or a nuclear bomb or a plague of zombies have taken out civic infrastructure—now it's your chance to show off your survival skills. Fortunately, there's an incredible resurgence of Indigenous post-apocalyptic fiction that offers alternative visions to surviving collapse. In this episode, we talk to author, educator in Plant Medicine & Midwifery, and hippy prepper Daphne Singingtree about how to survive and thrive after the end. We're nominated for an Aurora Award for Best Fan-Related Work! Check out the ballot (and consider casting a vote for us) at the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.

Welcome to our new season! To celebrate, we’re kicking it up a notch by holding an all-star roundtable of some truly incredible writers. Vajra Chandrasekera, Samantha Mills, and Gregory A. Wilson join us to discuss didactic genre fiction. Is it a skill problem? Is it a media literacy problem? Can you hammer home a message without alienating (sorry/not sorry) your audience? We're nominated for an Aurora Award for Best Fan-Related Work! Check out the ballot (and consider casting a vote for us) at the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. Show Notes: Vajra's website Samantha's website Gregory's website Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) Dante’s Inferno Katabasis, R.F. Kuang Rabbit Test, Samantha Mills A Sound of Thunder, Ray Bradbury Dune, Frank Herbert The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski Le Roman de Silence From the Notebooks of Doctor Brain, Minister Faust The Time Machine, H.G. Wells Island of Doctor Moreau, H.G. Wells Star Trek TOS: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield One star review of Pride and Prejudice World Bank literacy stats Grendel, John Gardner