Stars End: A Foundation Podcast

We start Asimov's third (or second) Galactic Empire Novel, The Currents of Space, by discussing chapters 1 through 6. This nearly corresponds to the first installment published in the October 1952 issue of Astounding Science Fiction which covered 1 through 7.A friend tells me that our episodes are better when we're enjoying the stuff that we're reading.We certainly enjoy reading The Stars End Mail Bag! This time when we opened it up, it inspired a short conversation about My Living Doll starring Julie Newmar and Bob Something-Or-Other.And we're liking The Currents of Space so far! It hits the ground running with a threat of planetary destruction and a hero in the mists of amnesia! This is the Good Doctor's take on race relations in the American South making it a nice companion to The Caves of Steel which tackled the issue in our northern cities. This gave us a lot to think about!Like, what year was this written? It looks like the answer is actually 1952 and not 1951 like I, Joseph, thought.We see parallels to three (count ‘em! 3!) Star Trek episodes! But which ones? Not "The Omega Glory," I'll tell you that much.Is Ol' Isaac reading comic books on the side?And how does this compare to the other Galactic Empire Novels?Plus, another round of “Where's Daneel?“ Have we figured that out yet?And more! You'll have to listen to find out!

We conclude our coverage of The Stars Like Dust ―, with chapters 15 through 22. That corresponds to part 3 of Tyrann as published in The March 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. "We the People… Do Ordain and Establish this Podcast." As we rejoin our heroes The USS Enterprise, trailer firmly attached by tractor beam, is approaching planet Omega 4. There they find the derelict USS Exeter in orbit. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Galloway beam over to the Exeter where the entire crew has mysteriously been turned into common rock salt, just like you can buy from any neighborhood hardware store. No, wait. I'm confused. That's the "Omega Glory," S2E23 of Star Trek. I swear, sometimes these Star Trek references just write themselves. Anyway, the beginning of the episode is actually pretty good, but the ending is very, very dumb. So dumb that it lands it in the "So bad you have to see it to believe it" category. Unfortunately for the episode, people only seem to remember that ending. To Asimov's credit, we know that he did not like that ending, Strangely he didn't like it even some 15 years or so before the episode aired. How does that work? I guess you'll have to listen to our episode. Meanwhile, being of a certain age myself, I can't seem to get this little earworm out of my head. Let's all sing along! "Ee Plannista, enor durtofo amo orper fectyoo nion..." Everybody!!

And now we settle in for the second part of the Good Doctor's second novel! Join us as we dust The Stars, Like Dust— with commentary like powdered sugar on a doughnut! Let's chat about chapters nine through fourteen! "The Podcast Was Located in a Little Niche Just Outside the Cabin" If this novel had been feeling a little non-Asenion for your tastes, this installment might be for you! If you love Golan Treveze or the version of Hari Seldon who inhabits the Foundation Prequels, you'll like Biron Ferrill better as this installment goes forward! If you think that there is a bit too much buckling and swashing in the first section, there is a bit of action where Biron overpowers a guard, tying him up with a pair of pantyhose. But once Gil and Artemisia help steal a space ship things settle down to storytelling and discussing galactic goings on as opposed to any actual going or actually doing anything story-inspiring. Plus, it's something that passes for a plot twist! So, let's go! Help us bust the stars like dust with the vacuum of space!

d novel! Join us for The Stars, Like Dust—! In this episode, we sift through chapters one through eight. The Stars, Like Dust is book #003 in the Asimov canon. That's a little misleading. Book #002 I, Robot is a fix-up; most of it had been written years before. This was the second time the Good Doctor sat down to write a book and he intended to write a Novel with a capital "N." He wasn't having a good time of it. Walter Bradbury, Asimov's editor, had liked Pebble in the Sky and wanted a follow-up but he also wanted an outline and a couple of sample chapters. Bradbury rejected the first two proposals. John Jenkins of AsimovReviews.net put it this way. "...now that he was a Novelist, Asimov was thinking he needed to write like one and was getting carried away. Rather than his sticking to his usual sparse prose, he was getting distinctly florid, and he needed to tone things down." That's what comes from trying to write a Novel with a capital "N" I suppose. To make matters worse, when Galaxy Science Fiction bought the right to serialize the novel Horace Gold insisted on a subplot that Asimov really didn't care for. But now it was time to sit down and write, which is what our good friend Isaac does best. Join us to see how the book turned out! This reading coincides with the installment published in the January 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title Tyrann.

We encounter the back cover of the Good Doctor's first actual book as we wrap up The Pebble in the Sky with chapters 14 through 22. If you've been around for a while you probably remember our discussions of the "Great Man Theory of History" vs the "Bottom-Up" paradigm. In other words, do remarkable individuals with unique characteristics write history or is it driven by powerful historical forces that generate great leaders when needed? It's a false dichotomy, but a useful one. In the Foundation Universe, the bottom-up theory must dominate otherwise psychohistory could not work the way it does. But Joseph Schwartz is just the right Jewish tailor with a special kind of trick memory who is accidentally thrust to an exact moment in Earth's future. Once there he is brought to the only scientist on Earth doing a particular type of brain research. He then survives a dangerous experiment that gives him an unlikely set of psychic powers which he uses to save the lives of nearly every human in the galaxy. Put those numbers into your Prime Radiant and crunch them! This probably delayed the creation of psychohistory by hundreds of years. "I just don't understand it, Hari, the math says everyone in the galaxy should be dead right now." For additional content check out Of Pebbles and Pulps, exclusively at StarsEndPodcast.com.

Here's your chance to join the discussion about Pebble in the Sky, Chapters 7 through 13! Also, we'll open up the Stars End Mailbag and talk about Star Trek: Discovery! A lot of us who are past the point where we would be culled by the 60 take supplements to, theoretically, help improve our memory. Just the other day I couldn't remember the title of the Star Trek episode "Return to Tomorrow." That was no fun. I think most of us would like to be at least a little smarter and maybe some of what would come from a device like the synapsifier could be helpful. I'll pass on the parts about being lost in the department store, wandering about the automat, or being driven mad by the thoughts of strangers. Those don't sound fun either. "Lost in the Supermarket" by the Clash might sum up all of these potential side effects. It would though, improve a podcast, to a point. Remembering what we want to say would help quite a bit. And having perfect recall would save a lot of note-taking. But telepathic communications would ruin things even with state-of-the-art recording equipment unless an hour of silence would be an improvement. In the meantime, we'll muddle through and bring you the best podcast possible with regular brains and imperfect memory!

We begin our conversation about Pebble in the Sky with Chapters 1 through 6. Isaac Asimov is famously prolific; if you know one thing about the Great and Glorious Az it might be that he wrote more than 500 books. Asimov-Reviews.net puts the number at 514 counting the Good Doctor's dissertation. Asimov.Fandom.com puts the number at a much more modest 506. Why is this relevant? Well, Pebble in the Sky is Asimov Book #001; it's the first thing he wrote that got stuck between its own two covers (unless you count his dissertation, which he did not). It's also only his first novel even though he had already been writing professionally for eleven years. Most of I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy were in the rearview mirror; those quickly became books 002, 004, 006, and 009. Pebble in the Sky is also a lot of fun! Don't miss it as we delve into this significant moment in Asenion history! Let's GO!

In which we talk about "Cal" and "The Fun They Had" with special guest Rachel from the Menuscript Podcast. "Cal" has been called "the last great Asimov short story" and it looks like it's his very last robot story. Cal is a robot who learns how to write ficton and over the course of the story becomes an odd sort of Asimov avatar. "The Fun They Had," is one of the Great and Glorious Az's most reprinted works featuring a student thinking back to how great school must have been back in the long, long ago of the 20th century. We're joined by special guest Rachel Schwartzbard who has just started her own podcast, the Menuscript, which is excellent. She'll talk about it in this episode. You don't want to miss that and afterward, you'll want to checkout her podcast! The stories and Rachel's pocast can be found right here. The Menuscript Podcast by Rachel Schwartzbard The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov and Cal by Isaac Asimov Let's GO!

We finish our discussion of Foundation and Earth with Part VII: Earth. That includes chapters 19 — "Radioactive?" 20 — "The Nearby World," and 21 — "The Search Ends." I haven't bothered with spoiler alerts for a while. This time, though, if you haven't finished the novel and don't want to be spoilered, seriously, don't look even at the link below. And speaking of things we don't quite understand, this is a musical intro to a non-musical episode. Because, c'mon, if we're wrapping up Foundation and Earth, how can we fail to reference Man on the Moon by REM? Here are some Foundation-specific alternative lyrics. Golan started searching for the psychohistoric. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... Fallom playing music making Alpha euphoric. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... Bliss is along and that means Gaia is here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... Janov got to Earth because he centered the sphere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah... Now, Daneel, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you upgrading soon? Danny, are you goofing on Seldon? Hey, baby, can you carry the boon? If you believed they put a man in the moon, man in the moon, If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve, Then nothing is cool! If you like that, we have a bonus verse on our website. And a quick show note; in our next episode we'll be talking about two short stories, "Cal" and "The Fun They Had." Plus a special guest! But right now, the Man in the Moon! Let's Go!

Here we go again! Let's talk about Foundation and Earth, Part VI: Alpha! If you like... complex calculations in a cross between archeology and astronavigation, agrarian societies that nonetheless have advanced weather control and bioengineering, and telekinetic performances on woodwind instruments then chapters 16, 17, and 18 are bananas! Also, Trevize gets lucky and is it just me or is he getting too much stuff wrong for the man with the magic intuition? Plus, some Foundation show news from the long, long ago back before the interregnum! And we open up the Stars End Mail Bag! Don't miss this one! Let's GO!

We're back and we're diving back into Foundation and Earth! This time we're discussing chapters 13, 14, and 15 or, if you prefer, Part V: Melpomenia. This is all of Part V and nothing but Part V. In this section, we bid a not-so-fond farewell to Solaria as our little trio becomes a quartet with the addition of Fallom. We travel to the third and final Spacer world for which we have coordinates. What do we learn on Melpomenia? Does that help us in our quest to find Earth? And what's bothering Trevize this time? Listen and find out! Also Star Trek, non-Euclidean geometry and marsupials. You can't miss that, right? Let's go!!

Join the conversation as we discuss Foundation and Earth chapters 10, 11, and 12 which is to say, the entirety of Part IV: Solaria. I began our description of S3E18, with "You know what? Solaria is weird." And here we are again on Solaria. It's been twelve millennia and in the meantime, they've really leaned into the weirdness. The Solarians have been busy genetically engineering themselves into the quintessential Spacers. They've gone so far as to grow their own Tesla coils inside their own brains so that they can wirelessly power their robots. And that isn't all! But don't take my word for it! Read "Robots," "Underground," and "To the Surface" and see for yourself! Then join us here for the episode! On another note, our first episode dropped on 26 April 2021. Thus, this episode marks the third anniversary of our podcast! Thanks to everybody who has joined us for the ride!

In this episode, we talk about Chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Foundation and Earth, "Leaving Comporellon," "Forbidden World," and "Facing the Pack." I've largely stopped bothering with the spoiler warnings, but I'm going to spoiler enough in this episode description to warrant one. If you want to discover things as you read and you haven't read these chapters yet, you know what to do. Tau Ceti is the nearest "sun-like star" to Earth that isn't in a multiple-star system and so it's been a frequent locale in Science Fiction over the years. It was a natural choice for Asimov to place Aurora, the first of the Spacer Worlds, in the Tau Ceti system. Since Asimov made that decision, we've discovered and cataloged thousands of exoplanets, that is, planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Several of them are in the Tau Ceti system and two, Tau Ceti d and e, are super-Earths that appear to be at the outer edges of Tau Ceti's habitable zone. That seems to fit what we learn about Aurora in this book; it was a terraformed world that, without humans to maintain it, was slipping back into uninhabitability. There is another, proposed, exoplanet orbiting Tau Ceti, called PxP-4. That one could be smack in the middle of the habitable zone. In any event, it's time to return to the Tau Ceti system and take a good look around. Also, there are dogs! So Let's go!

We talk about chapters 4 to 6 of Foundation and Earth. There's almost a framing sequence for this part of Foundation and Earth, "On Comporellon," "Struggle for the Ship," and "The Nature of Earth." At the outset, Trevize had bulldozed his way onto Comporellon by implying that Bliss and Pelorat are involved in illicit activities that can't be allowed to get back to the wife Pelorat does not have. By the end, it's Trevize who's plied a woman for information and favors with his masculine wiles. In the interim, we see what has become of Baleyworld, the first drop of the second wave of galactic colonization. Frigid, puritanical, authoritarian, and gray it's an uninviting place until we're allowed entry into the private world of Mitza Lizalor and we learn what we need to continue the search for Earth. Join us as we take it all apart and then put it back together again! Let's go!

We're diving into Foundation and Earth with Chapters 1 through 3. The story so far: When last we checked in, Golan Trevize had deduced that the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of Life, The Interregnum, and Everything was "Galaxia" and not "The Seldon Plan" or "42" as we had previously been led to believe. But still, he has his doubts. Like a proper mathematics student, he's uncomfortable unless he can show his work. And so, he and his two ape-descended companions, Pelorat and Bliss, have begun a quest to find out what the actual question was. Thus, they search for Earth, the biggest, most powerful computer ever built, even bigger than the Milliard Gargantubrain at Maximegalon. They will find it, learn the actual question, and all will be right with the galaxy. Unless the telephone sanitizers have anything to say about it. Or something like that. Join us for Chapters 1 through 3 of Foundation and Earth, "The Search Begins," Toward Comporellon" and "At The Entry Station." We'll be sure to get it sorted.

It's our final podcast on Foundation's Edge as we discuss chapters 17 to 20! My Mom, an unabashed fan of Joseph Campbell, frequently counseled me to "find my bliss." I think I've done pretty well. Collectively, though, we may have found our Bliss as we reach the closing chapters of our novel, "Gaia," "Collision," "Decision," and "Conclusion." Our heroes have arrived at Gaia, and all our principal characters are on the scene. Stuff is finally happening! This is as action-packed as an Asimov story can be! And we finally, through Golan Trevize, learn the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of Life, The Interregnum, and Everything! Spoiler alert: it isn't "42." Let's GO!

We talk about chapters 13 through 16 of Foundation's Edge. We're finally up to the episode where we reveal that Apple TV's Foundation has been renewed for season 3! Not exactly ripped from the headlines. Also, the Great and Glorious Az wants us to know that, like spaceships, other planets have their own distinctive odors. ⁠It's true!⁠ Captain Kirk could have faced the Gorn on the Moon as astronauts tell us that moondust smells like gunpowder. The atmospheres of Venus and Mars contain hydrogen sulfide, which smells of rotten eggs. Ew. Lucky for you if you took off your helmet on either planet you'd be too busy suffocating or bursting into flames to notice the stench. You get the idea. Still, I'm just happy that this olfactory dissertation doesn't overlap with the exhaustive explorations of restrooms. So we talk about "University," "Forward," "Gaia-S," and "Convergence" from Foundations Edge. There's a nice bit about The Five Sisters, a pentagonal constellation as seen from Sayshell, that plays an important part in the plot. It reminded Joseph of "Constant as the Northern Star" one of Asimov's science essays from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction which was collected in Of Matters Great and Small. And we go on a bit of a lengthy, but fun. digression. Join us!

Dateline – Terminus: It's sweet that you guys noticed that we hadn't commented on the news about Apple TV's Foundation being renewed for Season 3! But that isn't exactly what happened; we did, in fact, talk about it on S5E04. Unfortunately, we've all been super busy and the post-production train has a metaphorical Bishop's Claw on the tracks. Believe me, you don't want to mess with one of those. That episode will be out in a couple of days. But when the news about David Goyer and his status as showrunner dropped, we decided to do something different. Here's our first special bulletin! Me, I'm hoping for huge budget cuts! Let's strip it down until it looks like a production of Our Town and put The Great and Glorious Az‘s vision on full conversational display. And let's lean into it! How about a long monologue by Jared Harris, shot on location in a Shoney's men's room about how little plumbing has changed in 12000 years? I'd watch that! Thanks for your dedication to Stars End and never fear! We'll be getting caught up as quickly as we can.

In which we discuss chapters 9 through 12 of Foundation's Edge. Thanks to Avengers: Endgame lots of people know what the end of a chess game is called. This section of Foundation's Edge which includes the chapters "Hyperspace," "Table," "Sayshell," and "Agent" is much more like the beginning of a chess game, which is called the "opening." That's not nearly as evocative a title. It's mainly about shifting the pieces around in hopes that something will happen. And that's what's going on here the players are still being shuffled about the board. Even the most eventful chapter, "Table" results in Gendibal and Novi moving toward the center of the board. But just because exciting things aren't happening doesn't mean these chapters are boring! There's stuff to be figured out, decisions to be made, and things to discuss! This is where the Great and Glorious Az is at his best! Don't miss this one! Plus we think about what the Milky Way Galaxy would look like from Terminus. Let's go!!

In S5E02 we talk about chapters 5 through 8 of Foundation's Edge. We're about 40% of the way into the book now and we're still introducing characters! This section introduces us to the Second Foundation including Stor Gendibal, Delora Delarmi, and First Speaker Quindor Shandass, and shows us that the Speakers' Table is a raucous affair. We also meet Sura Novi, a Trantorian farm woman who becomes important to Gendibal. We're also treated to an Asenion chain of reasoning describing how Janov figured out the characteristics of Earth. And we answer some hard-hitting questions like "Are any of the characters actually likable?" You wouldn't want to miss that, would you? Join us while we discuss "Speaker," "Earth," "Farmer," and "Farmwoman!"  When you must — listen!  Let's go!

Welcome to our season 5 premiere in which we talk about the first four chapters of Foundation's Edge! Hello, True Believer! We're back! Again. And we're ready to dive into season five! You might recall the beginning of Season 3 when we made a pronouncement like this one. "On the Stars End Podcast, Foundation canon is represented by two separate, yet equally important kinds of seasons" the odd-numbered seasons, which discuss Asimov's writings, and the even-numbered seasons that talk about the Apple TV+ series." That's been working for us so far, and we have no plans to stop now! And here we are in an odd-numbered season so, we're starting with the first sequel, Foundation's Edge, specifically the first four chapters, "Councilman," "Mayor," "Historian," and "Space." That's the starting point. We'll continue in four-chapter chunks through the entire novel. You can probably guess where we'll go from there, but we promise there will be some treats and surprises along the way. So join us as we enter the second interregnum between seasons 2 and 3 of the Apple TV+ series. We'll make sure that this one won't seem like 30,000 years either!

After recording weekly throughout Foundation on Apple TV+'s second season, we needed our own interregnum as we rebuilt the galaxy. We can't wait to show you our spiffy new water clock! But we're back! In our next episode, we launch season 5 of Stars End discussing the first four chapters of Foundation's Edge! But that's not the main event right now! You voted! We listened! Join us as we bring you the Second Semi Semi Septennial Hari Awards to cap off an excellent season, not just for Foundation, but for us as well! You helped us decide the winners, You'll want to join us in the accolades! Let's GO! But just between you and me, I hope that the next gap is again exactly 21 months. Otherwise, we'll need a new temporal adjective. Oh. And there isn't really a water clock.

Join us! It's our overview of Apple TV's Foundation Season 2 in the penultimate episode of Stars End's Fourth Season! There's still so much we don't know! Will Demerzel hunt down and kill Dawn, Sereth, and the baby? Who gave Hari a living body and why? Will Tellum emerge from the Aether to become the Mule? Did anybody remember to erase all the incest in C-17's brain when they woke up his pickle? Is the Prime Radiant becoming sentient? Just how many Hari's are there in a conspiracy, anyway? And where the hell is Dors, damnit!?! There's more and we talk about it all! Well, most of it. Uh... some! Some! No! A bit. A bit. We did do the nose! We also open the Stars End Mail Bag and answer some of your questions! You'll want to stick around for the end of this one so you can learn how to help us choose the winners of the Second Semi-Semi Septennial Hari Awards! Let's go!

What a wild ride that was! This time we're talking about the season finale of AppleTV+'s Foundation, "Creation Myths!" Haven't seen it? Go! Watch it! Now! We'll be here when you're done! Then you can join us for the excitement! Not everybody gets out of this one alive! There are beginnings and endings, twists and turns, conclusions and preludes! Everything a great finale needs! And don't go away after this episode! Foundation season 2 might have concluded but we still have two more episodes to go in our season 4! In one week we'll have an overview of what might be called the best season of Foundation so far! And we'll open up the Stars End Mail Bag as Dave Letterman might have said. Then, two weeks after that it's the Second Not Actually Annual Hari Awards for Foundational Excellence! Be on the lookout for the polls, these are your awards as well as ours. Hmmm... "not actually annual" needs a bit of work. "Sesquiennial" is once every year and a half. Too frequent. "Biennial" means once every two years. Not frequent enough. What's once every twenty-one months? 21 months x 4 = 84 months which is Seven Years, So, how about Semi-Semi-Septennial? That will have to do. But never mind that right now! You want to hear about the Season Finale! I know you do! Let's go!

Hoo, boy do we go on about Foundation, S2E09, "Long Ago, Not Far Away" In this one! We're joined by Special Guest, Morgan, aka @AsimovPosting on the Dead Bird App. The Stars End Podcast! This time, 42% longer and with 10% real fruit juice! Jon had the right idea, the only way to summarize this one is to watch the entire thing! So go watch it! Now! Otherwise, you know, spoiler alert and all that! But, let's at least whet your appetite! We get a big chunk of back story for Danee... er... Demerzel that's only a small percentage of the whole picture! You'll never guess who gets the upper hand in the epic battle between Gaal and Tellem! And Brother Day (no this one over here) tries to become "The Cleon Who Chose Peace." How do you suppose that went? Plus the sickest burn in over eight decades of Foundation stories! You DO NOT want to miss this one... or the next! This is just the prelude to the season finale! Let's GO!

“If the Podcast Can't Put its Thumb on the Scale, What's the Point of Having a Thumb?” I don't know, but l do know that we talk about Foundation, S2E08, "The Last Empress" in this episode! Just who is "The Last Empress?" In the real world, Roxanne Dawson deserves the gig! She directed the best two episodes of season one and with this outing, she's outdone herself! Could it be Enjoinder Rue? That would require a complicated plan involving Brother Dusk, a time machine, and a bottle of Focus Factor… but maybe. How about Sereth? She seems to be on a path to becoming the next Empress, and she has more irons in the fire than anybody else, if you'll excuse the expression. And we know the Empire may not last much longer. Next and last could overlap! Maybe it's Gaal. She seems to be High-Muckety-Muck–Elect of the Mentalics! Nothing could go wrong there… right? And don't write off Salvor! She's learning how to explode rocks! Don't mess with the warden! Did I miss someone? We're pretty sure it isn't the lady with the comically large statue from episode 206. Do you want to know? Listen to the episode! We'll make an educated guess! Let's GO!

We're joined by friend of the show, Travis Johnson, as we talk about Foundation, S2E07, "A Necessary Death." That title sure sounds dreary so it's hard to believe that it's attached to an episode that's just so compulsively watchable! This episode is so compulsively watchable that no fewer than three characters IN the show are themselves watching the show. And that's last week's episode! It's so compulsively watchable that next week's episode is rumored to consist of nothing but characters watching this week's episode! It's so compulsively watchable that one of our hosts has watched the episode so many times that he's lost count of just how many! Want to know who watched so many times? You'll have to listen to our episode (and then make an educated guess) to find out! And meanwhile the pile of bodies at Tellum Bonds's feet just... keeps... getting... larger... You want to hear about this episode! Travis and we want to tell you about this episode! You don't want to miss that and neither do we! Let's GO!

We discuss Foundation, S2E06 "Why The Gods Made Wine.” We hope that we haven't spoiled you with all the great guests lately, but this week it's back to just the three of us muddling along. And speaking of spoiling, as always, we're working on the assumption that if you're listening you've watched the episode. It's up to you, but if you don't want the latest episode of Foundation to be as spoiled as a swig of sour milk you know what to do! If you were hoping for a Hari-centric episode you should be careful what you wish for. It isn't all Hari all the time though. Two moments with Hober flash by. Queen Sereth expediently and efficiently drops an audacious power play in front of a stunned and scowling Brother Day. Constant and Poly have barely started trying to see Trantor on 30 Altarian dollars a day when the Secret Police all crowd into their room. The big chunks of the episode are dealing with the Mentalics on Ignus and a flashback to Hari and Dor… uh… Yanna's brief time together. But there's not much humor in this one. It's dark. Want a theme for the episode? Let's get the full quote from the title drop. “The gods, made wine to compensate those who can't afford revenge.” And I'm pretty sure we're all out of wine. Join us!

"The Whole Point of the Podcast is that the Future Isn't Set in Stone" in which we discuss Foundation, S2E05 "The Sighted and the Seen" This week media analyst, Fordham professor, and Renaissance human Paul Levinson joins the conversation! That Beatles reference below, Paul? That's for you. Here's the usual spoiler warning. If you haven't, go watch the episode. We'll be here. Foundation, Season 2 seems to be leaning even harder on comic relief and sexy time than it had been. Still, the plot wanders forward. After a fairly dark opening, we get the comic relief from Gaal, Salvor, and Hari. The beggar crashes into a forest on Ignus reminiscent of Star Trek: Generations. Where's Jordi LaForge when you need him? Salvor yells "I'm flying dead stick!" Hari replies, "Is that bad?" That's pretty funny but it's not the best line. They encounter an old friend and then a crowd of mysterious mentalics. Could they be the nucleus of the Second Foundation? Meanwhile, Sereth and Rue drive their arc forward with the sexy time while the theme of memory is writ large. We learn who was behind the murder of Sareth's Family while Day is becoming more unstable and Demerzel just keeps getting creepier. Rue manages to send Dawn and Dusk on a journey to see the Wizard, which is to say the vending machine version of Cleon the First. Imagine two Junior High School Elvis impersonators meeting the One True Elvis and you have the general idea. Later they're impressed by the size of C-1's... uh... data. It's a lot to digest and we talk about it. You should join us! We can't promise it will help, but a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

In which we talk about Foundation, S2E04 "Where the Stars are Scattered Thinly." We're joined this week by Joel McKinnon, host of Seldon Crisis, another excellent Foundation Podcast! As the season slows down a bit to focus on some of the significant plotlines we get the closest thing to a special Valentine's Day episode that this show could possibly do. Meanwhile, Gaal, as the narrator, tells us repeatedly that "Psychohistory does not give a damn about how you monkeys hook up." I'm paraphrasing. The narration notwithstanding the situation on Terminus is framed by Hober and Constant's sexual tension. Will they or won't they? Watch the episode! We learn a lot about the situation with Queen Sereth. Sereth flirts with Brother Dawn! Rue flirts with Brother Dusk! It's all about what Brother Day may or may not have done. Will anybody flirt with Markley? Only time will tell! And we see Bel Riose's story unfolding through the lens of his relationship with Glawin. "By the time you recognize an atrocity," says Glawin "you may have already been complicit in one!" What does that mean? I don't know, but it seems ominous! At least we don't see Day and Demerzel in this context; I don't need to hear my skin crawl this week. It all seems important! I'm pretty sure Gaal is an unreliable narrator here. Also, enough is going on about wine to make for a reasonable freshman comp essay or at least a session or two with a good therapist. We've got a lot to talk about! Join us!

In which we discuss Foundation, S2E03 "King and Commoner." It's an episode for old friends! Remember Bel Riose from Foundation and Empire? We finally get to meet him in the AppleTV+ universe and he's refreshingly like his counterpart from the source material, steadfast and impressive. We also meet Hober Mallow who maybe has a sprinkling of his namesake from the book but appears to be a mashup of several other characters including a big dollop of the Outrageous Okona from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The good news is that he's hilarious! Also, Gaal is mystified by what's going on with Hari's "old friend" Kalle. As our special guest, we welcome back Rick Tetrault of ⁠That Star Trek Podcast⁠ and the ⁠Infinite Potato Network! Rick has been a friend of Stars End since before our very first episode! And speaking of old friends, what the hell just happened to Hari? You don't want to miss this one! Let's go!

A general, a priest, and a warlord walk into a bar. The priest says, "If you thought the season premiere of Foundation had a lot going on, buckle up!" The second episode, "A Glimpse of Darkness," zips by at a breakneck pace! Join us for the conversation! As always, there are lots and lots of spoilers. You have been warned! If you haven't seen the episode yet, go watch it now or dive right in! It's up to you! This one has it all! Lightning! Fire! Spaceships! And importantly, several old friends! From the trilogy no less! You don't want to miss this one or our discussion! But this started like a joke, so we need a punchline. Uh... "Because their horns don't work!"

“In the Shadow of Seldon” One of the things you can say about Foundation the TeeVee series is that they throw down one hell of a season premiere! And this one is fresh! It's like a brand new TV show that isn't a brand new TV show.  Let's talk about it! It's up to you, of course, but there are spoilers-a-plenty for Foundation, S2E01, “In the Shadow of Seldon” here.  If you don't want anything spoiled, run right over to the nearest screen and watch the episode! We'll be here when you're done! We've proverbially hit the ground running! There's already stuff we're dying to learn in episode two!  Can Gaal and Salvor work as mother and daughter?  Why is the Vault opening? And could this be the beginning of the end for the genetic dynasty? But there's a question that we have to ask ourselves in the next week.  You've noticed that there are already two Hari Seldons wandering around.  It's a murder of crows and a parliament of owls.  What do we call a group of Hari's?  Because I think there's very little chance that particular guy is going to be content with two.   Hari Seldon is called Raven Seldon, so let's not mix the metaphor.  A group of ravens is called a a “rave,” an “unpleasantness,” a “conspiracy,” or a “treachery.”  Which of these do you like best? Or do you have something even better in mind? Let us know and we'll talk about it next week!

Well, The First Interregnum has ended. Season 2 of Apple TV+s Foundation is just three days away. The goal for our season 3 was to make the gap between the TeeVee seasons seem to fly by quickly! We hope it seemed like less than 30,000 years! Thanks to everyone who's stuck with us! That's the raison d'être for season 4 of Stars End, we'll be recording weekly for the duration, bringing you the best analysis of each episode of the Apple TV+ program as it airs as quickly as humanly possible. So, join us for this, our season premiere, as we play at being psychohistorians and ponder what we might see in the coming weeks, and chat about what we expect in Season 2. We'll even be aspirational as we voice what we hope to see. We've been on a slow ship since season one ended, now it's time to hop onto a jump ship and soar through these new episodes together! Let's go!

I podcast, therefore I am. Or is it, "I podcast, therefore I philosophize?" If you've listened to some of our recent episodes, you might think it's the latter as recently we're delved into topics like free will and pondered whether there's an objective morality beyond things that we might be programmed with, like societal norms or the Three Laws of Robotics. Well, if you like that stuff, you'll love this episode! There's a new book out called Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy (AF&P), a collection of essays about... well, you've figured that out, right? Remember books, by the way? They're weird. You can read them, but they don't have batteries and they're made of wood of all things! We discuss this book with three of the authors who are simultaneously two-and-a-half special guests! Josef Simpson is one of the editors of AF&P and helped bring the book to life. He also wrote "A Foundation-al Lesson on Free Will and Determinism" for the project. Our second guest is long-time friend of the show, Cora Buhlert! Cora was our first guest way back in Season 1 Episode 7. She now becomes our first returning guest and the first Hugo Winner to appear on our show as she was chosen the Best Fan Writer for 2022! Congratulations, Cora! Cora contributed "Between Cynicism and Faith" fo AF&P. The book also contains a chapter by our very own Dan Fried, "The Dao of Psychohistory!" Thus, Dan is our one-half of a special guest as he splits his duties between interviewer and interviewee! So if our excursions into philosopy have wheted your appitite for such things, pick up a copy of Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy⁠. You're sure to enjoy it! And if you want to read the book without harming a trees, or through inaction allowing a tree to come to harm, here's one one option.

Sometimes we bury the lede in the title so let's rectify that straightaway: featuring special guest Melinda Snodgrass! We've never been shy about our obligatory Star Trek references and as we've undertaken our long, strange trip through Asimov's Robot Novels and some related short stories, those references skewed sharply in the direction of The Measure of a Man, which is in my opinion "the moment when The Next Generation earned the right to call itself Star Trek." It's great TV and great SF and a monument to themes and ideas that Asimov championed throughout his career. So for this episode, we going to treat you to an episode-long Star Trek reference as we're joined by the author of The Measure of a Man, the aforementioned Melinda Snodgrass! Please excuse us, we're all a bit starstruck. In addition to writing the quintessential Data episode for TNG, Melinda Is a lifelong Science Fiction fan who has written many novels including the Circuit series, co-created the Wild Cards series of books, and has extensive screenwriting credits including L. A. Law, Sliders, and The Outer Limits. Within the realm of Star Trek, Melinda has written Tears of the Singers, a TOS novel, and five episodes of TNG, which also include a second Data-Centric episode, The Ensigns of Command. She was the Story Editor on Next Generation while the show transformed from a program struggling to find its voice into the science fiction juggernaut we all know and love. As Jon puts it, this episode “slaps!” You do not want to miss this one! Let's go!

We finally know that season 2 of Apple TV+'s Foundation will begin on 14 July. Rather than tackling another novel, we're wrapping up season 3 of Stars End with short stories and guests. In our next episode, we're both pleased and proud to announce that we'll be interviewing Melinda Snodgrass, author of the first truly great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the source of many of our Star-Trek-related digressions, "The Measure of a Man." But in the meantime, for this episode, we're reading The Great and Glorious Az's "The Bicentennial Man," (TBM) which is based in part on a suggestion from famed science fiction editor Judy-Lynn del Rey. To quote the good doctor, "Of all the robot stories I ever wrote, 'The Bicentennial Man' is my favorite and, I think, the best." In The Complete Robot, he pairs it with our last episode's subject, "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him" (TTAMoH) in a section entitled "Two Climaxes" where he envisions the ultimate fate of the three laws and the science of robotics. Of the two, TBM has the less auspicious genesis. You'll recall that TTAMoH was commissioned for an anthology entitled Final Stage which charged the authors with taking their themes to their ultimate conclusion. TBM was commissioned for an anthology entitled "The Bicentennial Man" where the stories could be anything at all so long as it was suggested by the phrase, "The Bicentennial Man." That, to a large degree, was the way things worked in the US in 1976. But there was an earlier suggestion from del Rey about "...a robot who has to choose between buying its own liberty and improving its own body." After reading TBM, Judy-Lynn wanted the story, and when the original anthology fell through, Judy-Lynn got the story. It appeared in a different anthology, one that she edited, Stellar Science Fiction #2 published in February 1976. So, don't miss our discussion of "The Bicentennial Man, " the Good Doctor's favorite Robot Story, and his third favorite story overall, surpassed only by "The Last Question" and "The Ugly Little Boy." Let's go!

Asimov's story "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him" has an interesting pedigree. It was initially commissioned for an original collection entitled, Final Stage: The Ultimate Science Fiction Anthology edited by Edward L. Ferman and Barry N. Malzberg. The intent of the anthology is compelling. Here's how the editors described the premise. "The assumption was that science fiction — that branch of literature, half beast, half-civilized —sits upon perhaps, a dozen classic themes, which, in various combinations, permutations, and convolutions, underline most of the work in the field. Like the ten to twenty basic chess attacks and defenses, these themes can lead to winning combinations of great beauty or, in less talented hands, to disastrous and obvious clichés." Some of science fiction's most astounding writers were each given one of these classic themes and charged with crafting that theme's ultimate story. The assignment of "Robots and Androids" could only have gone to the good doctor. Each contributor was also tasked with writing an afterword on the theme and their story. Thus, "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him" was born. Ed Malzberg was also editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction at the time. According to Peter King writing on Amazon.com, Malzberg, upon receiving the manuscript, was compelled to include it in his magazine first. It appeared in the April 1974 issue. In his afterword to the story, The Great and Glorious Az proclaimed "...having followed matters through to the logical conclusion, I have possibly destroyed the Three Laws, and it made it impossible for me to ever write another positronic robot story." But then, of course, he qualified it, maybe not. And he said something similar after writing the Bicentennial Man two years later (that's for next week). He qualified that as well, "But then again," he wrote, "I might. I'm not always predictable." Two novels and a bunch more short stories later, the good doctor might have been more predictable than he thought. Anyway, we talk about it. Please tune in and join the fun! Let's go! You can read that entire afterword on our website!

We interrupt our regular program! Dateline: Capitol District, Trantor This just in: AppleTV+ has announced the premiere date for Foundation, Season 2: 14 July 2023. That means that we, at Stars End will be wrapping up Season 3 of the podcast and strapping in for Season 4! Release Date! Trailer (which you can find here)! New Episodes! We'll talk about it! You'll listen! It's a psychohistorical necessity! Meanwhile still in season 3, we reach the climax of not merely Robots and Empire but The Great and Glorius Az's Robot novels collectively! Do we finally get a satisfying ending? You'll have to listen to find out! And just how philosophical do we get this time? We're not saying! So tune in and join us already! We promise that no co-host melted down in the recording of this podcast! Probably. And speaking of meltdowns, the ultimate confrontation between Daneel and Giskard on the one hand Amadiro and Mandamus on the other play out against the backdrop of Three Mile Island. In Asimov's future, this sounds like a vast deserted wilderness and maybe it is 3000 years hence. Not so today. Three Mile Island itself is pretty small, barely big enough for a nuclear power plant or two. Fun fact: TMA-2, the reactor that suffered a partial meltdown and was shut down in 1979 is currently in a state called "Post defueling monitored storage." It will be officially decommissioned in 2052. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. If this has been an actual emergency you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for Foundation and official Asimovalia.

We hit some big, philosophical issues in this episode. As a mathematician, it seems odd that I'm frequently the one to point out that some things can't be quantified. We're reaching the limits of quantifiability with the Three Laws of Robotics, just as we did with Psychohistory. How do you quantify harm? Take the First Law, for example. Even within a single human, there's psychological harm or physical harm, at least if you're Giskard. How do you compare the two? It's not even possible to measure the two things with the same unit. What's bigger: 17 furlongs or 200 degrees on the Rankine scale? And there's also social harm, financial harm, legal harm... the list goes on. It's even trickier if the question is about the amount of harm between two humans. And what about the Zeroth Law? Quantifying harm between groups of humans? Species of humans? Collections of sapient beings that might be humans? That way, it seems, lies madness. What's bigger: royal blue or next Tuesday? The only possible path to an answer is the ability to predict the consequences of any action. That brings us back to Psychohistory. It's a vicious circle. We get into it as Daneel continues to evolve into a Zeroth Law robot in chapters 15, 16 and 17 of Robots and Empire. Meanwhile we revisit the caves of steel, experience the pomp and circumstance surrounding Gladia's visit to Earth, meet a government functionary, and witness an assassination attempt! Plus: a space maneuver worthy of Captain Kirk himself! You'll enjoy this one! We also ask: do college professors think? We never quite get to the bottom of that one, either. Let's go!

Joanne and I stayed in a hotel one night last week and I was delighted to discover a pancake robot while exploring the continental breakfast. I know that sounds pretty damn cool, but it was disappointing. Do you have a mental picture of a pancake robot? Whatever it is, I'd wager it isn't a box. This one looks like a box. Today the feeling is more akin to bewilderment. I searched for a picture of the pancake robot and got a truly absurd number of hits. There are lots of pictures and cartoons that look like that mental picture from before. Another that looks like a 3-D printer making love to a hot plate. Also, an annoyingly catchy song that even has its own video. I did not see any of that coming. Well, mostly. But let's get back to Daneel and Giskard, the more traditional science fictional robots who never seem to make pancakes even though they could. In this episode, we continue our odyssey through the excellent Robots and Empire and talk about Part 4: Aurora, or, if you prefer Chapters 11 through 14, The Old Leader, The Plan and the Daughter, The Telepathic Robot, and The Duel. Together we'll see how Amadiro and Mandamus' plan to destroy Earth starts to come together, Vasilia's machinations to regain possession of Giskard, and watch in real-time as Daneel evolves into the first-ever 4-laws robot, saving Giskard from Vasilia and in turn, Giskard saving Daneel from destruction! It's great and you'll want to join us! Also, there is some Latin. There may even be pancakes.

Join us as we continue our journey through Isaac Asimov's masterpiece Robots and Empire, as we delve into chapters 7 through 10. In this episode, we take a closer look at "The Overseer," "The Settler World," "The Speech," and "After the Speech," as Asimov continues to link his major works into a future-historical tapestry. We see how The First Law of Robotics can be undermined as foreshadowed in The Naked Sun. We witness Gladia becoming the true successor to Elijah Baley's legacy as she learns public speaking, articulates a political vision filled with peace and harmony, and changes the course of the rest of her life all in the space of a lazy afternoon. And we watch as Elijah Baley lays the groundwork (dare I say "Foundation?") for the Zeroth Law of Robotics from his deathbed. And of course, Daneel and Giskard go on about the whole thing. Please join us for our discussion about Robots and Empire, and where it's taking the universe Asimov built. Let's go!

Join us as we continue to wind our way through Robots and Empire, the final book in Asimov's Robot series, even if you count collections of short stories. In this episode, we discuss chapters 3 through 6. "The Crisis," "Another Descendent," "The Abandoned World," and "The Crew." In these chapters, the Great and Glorious Az establishes Robots and Empire as an important bridge between the Robot Stories, the Galactic Empire Novels, and the Foundation Saga; it's both a prelude and a coda. Elijah Baley isn't in this novel except in flashbacks, but his presence looms large. Daneel and Giskard try to deduce what Elijah's nemesis, Amadiro might try in the aftermath of Fastolfe's death. As they do, they're forced to ponder the Three Laws of Robotics, which seem to be impeding their efforts. Together, these discussions wrap up the Robot Stories. Meanwhile, these two robots are pondering Elijah's ability to predict, in broad brushstrokes, the future that has unfolded over the past two centuries, including an oncoming crisis. Giskard, in particular, is trying to deduce the "Laws of Humanics" that Elijah must have understood to see so clearly. In this, of course, we see the seeds of the Foundation. How do the Galactic Empire Novels figure into all of this? For that, you'll have to stay tuned.

If you're a fan of Issac Asimov, you probably like robots, the Three Laws of Robotics, and characters having long, expository conversations about interesting ideas. If that's true, then Robots and Empire is the book for you! It features, except for when the plot forces its way in, our two favorite robots, Daneel and Giskard, having long, expository conversations about the Three Laws of Robotics. Jon is quite outspoken about how those are his favorite bits. Dan and I are more apt to keep that revelation to ourselves. Robots and Empire lives in between the three Elijah Baley novels and the Foundation books. As a consequence, it never seems to get the attention of Asimov's other major novels; it's never, for example, been made into an official mass-market audiobook. But if you love the three Elijah Baley novels and the Foundation books and if you've bought into Asimov's project to link most of his work into a tremendous future history, Robots and Empire isn't just essential, it might even be the most important piece. And we're finally talking about it, starting, in this episode, with the first two chapters, "The Descendent" and "The Ancestor." You don't want to miss this one!

It's human nature, it seems, to celebrate round numbers, 40th birthdays, 20th wedding anniversaries, 10th high school reunions, and so forth. New Year's Day 2000 was a huge deal even though, as Arthur C. Clarke was quick to point out, the third millennium CE didn't start until 2001. Early on, we poked a bit of fun at this tendency, culminating in episode eight, because eight is a very round number: It's "10" in base eight, "20" in base four, and "1000" in base two. That was also when we tied Manimal for their number of episodes. But now we're celebrating our 50th episode and that is a milestone. Fifty isn't just 6.25 on the Manimal scale, it's when a lot of comics and magazines (remember those?) have their first special issue! It's a half-century, a semi-centennial, and a golden jubilee! You might even say that we're almost playing with a full deck! So we celebrate, reminisce a bit, and wax some nostalgia. And we take care of some business since there's a trailer out for season 2 of Foundation. But the main event here is the most shocking of plot twists! The most special of special guests! It's the one guest that no one, I say, no one, could have expected! And not just because he's 103 years old and refuses to leave his apartment! It's our interview with the professor of biochemistry, the great explainer, and the father of robotics. He's the founder of foundations, he's one-third of the big three, he's the best science writer according to the Clarke-Asimov Treaty, and he's The Sensuous Dirty Old Man. It is, of course, the Great and Glorious Az, Issac Asimov himself! And he joins us for a conversation! Believe it or don't believe it, but DO NOT miss it!

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it is said, "always get their man." I haven't checked, but I'm confident that's been updated. "Always get their human" might not work perfectly in the context of Asimov's Robot Novels, so let's settle on "always get the perpetrator." A perpetrator could be an animal, vegetable, or mineral. In Elijah Baley's time, millennia in the future, it isn't clear whether New York City has grown to include parts of Canada but it isn't likely. If it had, Lije would have been part of this same tradition. And yet, as we've noticed, Lije hardly ever "gets" the guilty party. Usually, he has figured out who it is, but the actual "getting" part never actually happens. It's like watching an episode of Law & Order where the latter half kinda goes off the rails. As we approach the denouement of The Robots of Dawn we have to ask... will Lije finally have an unqualified win? You want to know! You need to know! We know! And we talk about it! Let's go! And in one week... Episode 50!

Happy New Year! Today, 2 January, is National Science Fiction Day here in the States, and not coincidentally, the birthday of Dr. Asimov, aka the great explainer, aka the Great and Glorious Az. Happy Birthday, Issac! It's also National Buffet Day and World Introvert Day. Make of that what you will. Thus, today we're dropping a special episode of the Stars End Podcast, our first musical episode! Well, kinda. There's a bit at the end where we talk about music and songs that would be apropos to the real action, where we discuss Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 of The Robots of Dawn. Don't worry, None of us sing. So, head on out to Golden Corral, find yourself a nice quiet corner away from the humans and read about R. Daneel and R. Giskard. Then join us back here for our musical episode. Or, just listen to the episode. That's cool too. For our part, we're recording another episode this evening, each safely in our own space, securely separated by state and/or national boundaries. This one's a very special episode; it's our 50th and we've got something different planned for the milestone! Stay Tuned! But first, episode #48. And as a bonus, you can find our soundtrack to The Robots of Dawn on our website, StarsEndPodcast.com. That, of course, can never be complete unless we can find someone to record (The Robots Want to Wear My) Red Shoes for us. Let's go!

In a departure from our recent episodes, we have breaking news! Well... probably! The Midgard Times tells us that Apple TV+'s Foundation has been renewed for a third season. No word yet on when season two will premiere, but there's more information that you'll need to listen to learn! Who is The Midgard Times and how did they manage to scoop the competition for this vital information? We don't really know! We can tell you though that if you're looking between hard-hitting journalism like "Muspelheim in Danger of Freezing Over" and "Troll Literacy Rate Rises to 3%" it isn't there. You need to go to... hang on, it was here a minute ago... give me a second... here! This The Midgard Times, appears to be a subsidiary of moviesr.net which reminds us of nothing so much as a vanity license plate that... isn't quite what the car's owned really wanted. And what of the news from Svartalfheim? Gesundheit! Aside from this, we revisit "Mirror Image" and, of course, we continue our discussion of The Robots of Dawn. This time, it's chapters 10, 11, and 12 in which we wrap up the interview of Vasilia and get the entirety of Baley's conversation with Gremionois. Also, Baley goes to the bathroom and has lunch! Without this, no Asimov novel would be complete. Meanwhile, we'll always be at StarsEndPodcast.com and StarsEndPodcast.WordPress.com but not at StarsEnd.anything because we don't know what those are either, but we think there are squatters.

Cross-examinations are a staple of teevee. On Law and Order, there is a plethora of great scenes where Jack McCoy presses the defendant until they break and inadvertently provide irrefutable evidence against themselves. Lije Baley wants us to believe there is no benefit to cross-examining a robot, but teevee and Captain James T. Kirk argue against this. Consider this scene from "The Ultimate Computer," restored to the intended version that was prevented by copyright issues. Ironic because Star Trek walks right up to the border of the ground Asimov covered in The Naked Sun in this one. M5: This unit is the ultimate achievement in computer evolution. It will replace man so that man may achieve. Man must not risk death in space or other dangerous occupations. This unit must survive so man may be protected. SPOCK: Captain, attack force almost within phaser range. KIRK: There were many men aboard those ships. They were murdered. Must you survive by murder? M5: This unit cannot murder. KIRK: Why? M5: Murder is contrary to the First Law of Robotics. KIRK: But you have murdered. Scan the starship Excalibur, which you destroyed. Is there life aboard? M5: No life. KIRK: Because you murdered it. What is the penalty for murder? M5: Death. KIRK: And how will you pay for your acts of murder? M5: This unit must die. (It disconnects itself from the power feed in Engineering and goes dark.) KIRK: M-5? CHEKOV: Sir, deflector shields have dropped. SULU: All phaser power is gone, sir. SPOCK: M-5 is leaving itself open to attack. The machine is ignoring the Third Law to atone for its violation of the First Law. So, despite Baley's repeated assertions to the contrary, Kirk shows us it can be productive to cross-examine a robot, perhaps even forcing a mental freeze-out. "Mental freeze-out!" you might exclaim! "Dr. Han Fastolfe says that's practically impossible!" I suggest we ask Captain Kirk about that too. But let's think about this together as we discuss chapters 7, 8, and 9 of The Robots of Dawn. It's a monument to cross-examination and interrogation. And not just of robots. We talk about it, you can join us! Let's go! The scene from "The Ultimate Computer" was taken from Chrissie's Transcripts Site. (and then shamelessly edited).

This is the city, Eos, Aurora. It's the city of the dawn on the planet of the dawn. It's the largest and most important city on the oldest and most important Spacer World. Mostly, good things happen in Eos, the Robotics Institute is in Eos as is the planetary government. Sometimes bad things happen; things that require a lot of discussion. Was the victim even alive? Was this even a crime? Questions that need answers. When that happens, I go to work. I carry a badge. Friday, October 30. It was windy in Eos. We were working the day watch out of the roboticide division. Our host is Han Fastolfe. My partner's Daneel Olivaw. My name is Baley. Join us as we get into the meat of The Robots of Dawn. Baley starts to learn the details of the case, and Fastolfe performs some experiments on Baley. Plus the return of an old friend, the wackiest trip to the lavatory in all of the Asimov canon, and the Great and Glorious Az tries his hand at writing romance. As always, you've read it, we talk about it, and fun will be had.

Obligatory Star Trek reference loading… Do you know what a “teaser” is? You probably do, but just in case I'll tell you anyway. A teaser is the bit of a teevee episode that precedes the opening. Nothing much happens in a teaser except to set up the action and hopefully grab your attention. A wedding on the Enterprise is interrupted by a red alert. A landing party beams down to Cestus III to find the outpost destroyed. Chekov screams in terror because he's been startled by an inexplicably elderly couple. You get the idea. And boy, does the Great and Glorious Az have a teaser for you! A quick 126 pages of astral viewing, etymology, rhetoric, and a description of a government official that made Joseph‘s wife, Joanne, groan in faux outrage. That's the first three chapters of The Robots of Dawn and not a whole hell of a lot happens. We talk about it, you listen to us. A splendid time will be had by all. Hopefully. Also, a spoiler warning. If you're new to the podcast and haven't finished the novel yet, you might want to read ahead before listening to the episode. Or not. It's up to you.