Podcasts about ambiguity machines

This week, host Anjali Alappat chats with SF author, physicist, and transdisciplinary scholar of climate change, Vandana Singh. A professor of physics, Vandana's writing combines science and social issues in thought-provoking ways. In recent years, her work has been climate focused, a stark acknowledgment of the crisis we are currently enduring.  Her work includes Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (2018), the first work by a South Asian author to be a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award; The Woman Who Thought She was a Planet and Other Stories (2008), part of Zubaan's Classic series, and most recently Utopias of the Third Kind (2022). Vandana was a Climate Imagination Fellow at Arizona State University in 2021. In addition to her contributions to science fiction, she has also written for children, most notably her Younguncle books. She has also been recognised with Parallax and Otherwise Honor awards for her work.  In this episode, we discuss the micro and macro of the ever-evolving climate crisis, the commercialised space race, techno billionaires, writing character led stories, acknowledging privilege and learning from marginalised peoples, the capitalist desire to maintain the status quo, and socio-economic death cults. You can follow Vandana Singh on X @singhvan.  Arcx is a mini series from the Subverse, the podcast of , a digital space that chronicles the times we live in and reimagines futures with a focus on science, nature, social justice and culture. Follow us on social media , or visit for episode details and show notes.

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times. Only recently back from several months in India, Vandana Singh joins Gary to talk about what experiencing lockdown was like near Delhi and the hardships of day workers suddenly laid off and walking long distances back to their villages, the challenges to a speculative fiction writer of unexpectedly living in a 'bad science fiction novel' and some of the comforts of reading poetry, a novel set in remote Nagaland, 'magical realism' in the stories of Gogu Shyamala, and even Harry Potter. Books mentioned include: Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories by Vandana Singh When the River Sleeps by Easterine Kire Father May Be an Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket, But... by Gogu Shyamala

Vandana Singh has made a career of studying both hard science and the far corners of creativity. It’s no surprise then that Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press, 2018), which was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, reflects a fluency in multiple languages—not just English and Hindi, but the idioms of both particle physics and fantastical narratives that reach far beyond what science can (as of yet, at least) describe. “One of the things that really bothers me about how we think about the world is that we split it up into all these different disciplines and fields that have impenetrable walls between them, and one of the reasons I love … writing science fiction is that it allows us to make those walls porous,” Singh says. A reader might think that an expert in both particle physics and climate science might hesitate to write stories that explore impossibilities like time travel or machines “that cannot exist because they violate the known laws of reality” (the subject of the collection’s eponymous tale). But Singh embraces paradox and the simple truth that there’s still much about the universe that we don’t understand. Scientists are supposed to be objective and “check their emotions at the door,” she says. But it “isn't that simple because, after all, the paradox is that we are a part of the universe, studying the universe. And so how can we claim full objectivity?” Singh feels the only way to be authentic is “to acknowledge who I am as a human, as this little splinter of the universe conversing with another little splinter of the universe.” Several of the stories’ characters are, like Singh, female scientists, and their struggles to be taken seriously reflect real-world conditions. “In the physical sciences, it's still pretty tough for women,” says Singh, an assistant professor of physics at Framingham State University. “We have plenty of gender issues in India but the assumption that women can't do as well or don’t have the ability … is not that strong or strident in India.” In the U.S., however, “the negative micro-messaging and sometimes macro-messaging I've come across has been ‘Well a woman, so what do you know?’ You’re automatically assumed to be more touchy-feely and … you must not be as good at science, which is utterly absurd.” For Singh, physics and storytelling are intrinsically linked. “The way that I think about physics is really influenced by the way I think about story, and they're different but they talk to each other,” she says. For instance, she’s used fiction “to explore concepts that help me also conceptualize climate science for the classroom and beyond, and think of or reframe different ways of thinking about climate change and what's happening to our world. … I guess one analogy I could make is binocular vision. I have two ways of seeing the world, and they talk to each other so you get more depth.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Khronos Chronicles. He worked for a decade as a journalist and now serves as director of communications at a non-profit dedicated to justice reform. Follow him on Twitter: @RobWolfBooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vandana Singh has made a career of studying both hard science and the far corners of creativity. It’s no surprise then that Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press, 2018), which was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, reflects a fluency in multiple languages—not just English and Hindi, but the idioms of both particle physics and fantastical narratives that reach far beyond what science can (as of yet, at least) describe. “One of the things that really bothers me about how we think about the world is that we split it up into all these different disciplines and fields that have impenetrable walls between them, and one of the reasons I love … writing science fiction is that it allows us to make those walls porous,” Singh says. A reader might think that an expert in both particle physics and climate science might hesitate to write stories that explore impossibilities like time travel or machines “that cannot exist because they violate the known laws of reality” (the subject of the collection’s eponymous tale). But Singh embraces paradox and the simple truth that there’s still much about the universe that we don’t understand. Scientists are supposed to be objective and “check their emotions at the door,” she says. But it “isn't that simple because, after all, the paradox is that we are a part of the universe, studying the universe. And so how can we claim full objectivity?” Singh feels the only way to be authentic is “to acknowledge who I am as a human, as this little splinter of the universe conversing with another little splinter of the universe.” Several of the stories’ characters are, like Singh, female scientists, and their struggles to be taken seriously reflect real-world conditions. “In the physical sciences, it's still pretty tough for women,” says Singh, an assistant professor of physics at Framingham State University. “We have plenty of gender issues in India but the assumption that women can't do as well or don’t have the ability … is not that strong or strident in India.” In the U.S., however, “the negative micro-messaging and sometimes macro-messaging I've come across has been ‘Well a woman, so what do you know?’ You’re automatically assumed to be more touchy-feely and … you must not be as good at science, which is utterly absurd.” For Singh, physics and storytelling are intrinsically linked. “The way that I think about physics is really influenced by the way I think about story, and they're different but they talk to each other,” she says. For instance, she’s used fiction “to explore concepts that help me also conceptualize climate science for the classroom and beyond, and think of or reframe different ways of thinking about climate change and what's happening to our world. … I guess one analogy I could make is binocular vision. I have two ways of seeing the world, and they talk to each other so you get more depth.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Khronos Chronicles. He worked for a decade as a journalist and now serves as director of communications at a non-profit dedicated to justice reform. Follow him on Twitter: @RobWolfBooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vandana Singh has made a career of studying both hard science and the far corners of creativity. It’s no surprise then that Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press, 2018), which was nominated for a Philip K. Dick Award, reflects a fluency in multiple languages—not just English and Hindi, but the idioms of both particle physics and fantastical narratives that reach far beyond what science can (as of yet, at least) describe. “One of the things that really bothers me about how we think about the world is that we split it up into all these different disciplines and fields that have impenetrable walls between them, and one of the reasons I love … writing science fiction is that it allows us to make those walls porous,” Singh says. A reader might think that an expert in both particle physics and climate science might hesitate to write stories that explore impossibilities like time travel or machines “that cannot exist because they violate the known laws of reality” (the subject of the collection’s eponymous tale). But Singh embraces paradox and the simple truth that there’s still much about the universe that we don’t understand. Scientists are supposed to be objective and “check their emotions at the door,” she says. But it “isn't that simple because, after all, the paradox is that we are a part of the universe, studying the universe. And so how can we claim full objectivity?” Singh feels the only way to be authentic is “to acknowledge who I am as a human, as this little splinter of the universe conversing with another little splinter of the universe.” Several of the stories’ characters are, like Singh, female scientists, and their struggles to be taken seriously reflect real-world conditions. “In the physical sciences, it's still pretty tough for women,” says Singh, an assistant professor of physics at Framingham State University. “We have plenty of gender issues in India but the assumption that women can't do as well or don’t have the ability … is not that strong or strident in India.” In the U.S., however, “the negative micro-messaging and sometimes macro-messaging I've come across has been ‘Well a woman, so what do you know?’ You’re automatically assumed to be more touchy-feely and … you must not be as good at science, which is utterly absurd.” For Singh, physics and storytelling are intrinsically linked. “The way that I think about physics is really influenced by the way I think about story, and they're different but they talk to each other,” she says. For instance, she’s used fiction “to explore concepts that help me also conceptualize climate science for the classroom and beyond, and think of or reframe different ways of thinking about climate change and what's happening to our world. … I guess one analogy I could make is binocular vision. I have two ways of seeing the world, and they talk to each other so you get more depth.” Rob Wolf is the author of The Khronos Chronicles. He worked for a decade as a journalist and now serves as director of communications at a non-profit dedicated to justice reform. Follow him on Twitter: @RobWolfBooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CONNECT Welcome to SciFi thoughts where for a few short minutes I’ll  tease and tantalize your mind with this genre from the future. Register your email address at LancerKind.com and you’ll get cool extras about science fiction such as convention schedules and other nifty stuff. ==>Lancer— Kind 048 PK Dick Award reading of AMBIGUITY MACHINES AND […]

Where are all the south Asians in science fiction or dystopian narratives? Join the Jilted Indians as they discuss the speculative fiction writing of Vandana Singh, in her short stories collection, "Ambiguity Machines". This is our Black Panther. Tune in to see (hear)why. Show Notes can be found here: https://jiltedindianpod.com/2018/08/06/s2-be9-vandana-singhs-ambiguity-machines/ Connect with us @JiltedIndianPod on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/JiltedIndianPod/ Don't forget to like and subscribe to us on your pod-catcher of choice (we are now on Google Music). Follow Us on Twitter: @JiltedIndianPod Anju: @FountofSarcasm Miranda: @MirandaGeorge Puja: @Meanrice