019 - VisionQuest, Dune, and The Republic of Memory with Mahmud El Sayed

Welcome back to The STARLOG Podcast!

This episode was recorded before we received the sad news that actor Walter Koenig died at age 90. Next week’s episode will include more Koenig memorial, but this week we’re going to catch you up on Disney Plus’ VisionQuest, the new Marvel streaming series. For science fact, Jordan attended a concert of mushrooms (for real), and in the STARLOG Archive we devote the segment to some very special letters from readers past.

This week, we have our first guest who is also a contributor to the new issue of STARLOG Magazine! Author Mahmud El Sayed joins the podcast to talk about his new sci-fi novel about a generation ship divided by language: The Republic of Memory. The trio also discuss Mahmud’s upcoming piece in STARLOG pertaining to how Arab cultures are portrayed in adaptations of Frank Herbert’s Dune, and his interest in the arabfuturism genre of science fiction writing.

Follow Mahmud El Sayed on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/mahmud0elsayed

Follow Mahmud El Sayed on Blueskyhttps://bsky.app/profile/mahmudelsayed.bsky.social

Get The Republic of Memory!

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Republic-of-Memory/Mahmud-El-Sayed/The-Song-of-the-Safina/9781668207192

NEXT WEEK:

We’re headed to The Twilight Zone with television critic extraordinaire Alan Sepinwall! Sepinwall’s new book is called Serling: A Journey Into the Twilight Zone with TV's First Visionary and serves as the author’s first media biography in the form of television criticism. We’ll talk Serling and The Twilight Zone highs and lows next week!

FORMAT:

00:00 - Welcome to Episode 19! R.I.P Walter Koenig

02:26 - What’s New in Science Fiction?

11:20 - What’s Happening in Science Fact?

16:36 - The STARLOG Archive - Letters to the Magazine

28:05 - Mahmud El Sayed!

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