Podcasts about Blue Mars

Allen Nejah, CEO and System Solution Architect of SunMan Engineering, is driven by a lifelong passion for aerospace, invention, and solving complex engineering problems. From dreaming of becoming an astronaut as a child to working with major aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, robotics, IoT, and semiconductor organizations, Allen has built a career around turning ambitious technical ideas into real-world systems. We explore The Allen Nejah Engineering Framework — Live with Integrity, Be Intensely Curious, Get Organized, Plan Every Baby Step, and Learn from Mistakes — a practical mindset for building breakthrough technologies with discipline and resilience. Allen explains why integrity must exist not only in business relationships but also in the engineering itself, how complex projects must be broken into testable steps, and why curiosity, visualization, planning, and iteration are essential to solving problems across industries. He also shares the story behind InfiniGear, his AI-powered adaptive transmission system, and the healthcare technology inspired by his mother's experience in assisted care. — Building the Connected Car Before the iPhone with Allen Nejah  Good day, dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Allen Nejah, the CEO and System Solution Architect of SunMan Engineering, dedicated to providing customers with high-quality, on-time engineering and on-budget solutions for their product development and prototyping needs. Allen, welcome to the show.  Yes, that is correct.  Great to have you on the show. And I’d like to ask you my favorite first question: What is your personal ‘Why,’ and how are you manifesting it in your business?  So Steve, first I want to thank you for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate your time and interest. Of course.  As a kid, for whatever reason, I always wanted to have an airplane manufacturing company, an aircraft manufacturing company—something I always wanted to have. And I always wanted to be an astronaut. As a matter of fact, I studied aerospace and mechanical engineering with the dream of being an astronaut, going to fly and all that. So that’s kind of something that’s still in my pocket and that I still want to do. From there, it kind of pushed me in this direction. And yeah, now I work with a number of different companies in the aerospace industry. I work with the Air Force. I’ve worked with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and a number of others. And I work on both space and aviation projects that really kind of bring my dream to life. So I still haven’t gone to outer space yet, but I still have a little more time.  Yeah. Elon Musk is promising a million people, and his bonus is linked to putting a million people on Mars as the first colony. So there may still be room there.  They need a lot of us to go there, trust me. Well, actually, we’re going to do a lot of activities on the Moon first, and then from there, I’m sure they’re going to be looking for older people, older men, to do some tasks over there. And I’d volunteer to go.  You may be familiar with the Mars trilogy—Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. It talks about people moving to Mars and how they terraform it. And then they figure out how to extend life to 150, 200 years. So if that works out, then maybe there’s another lifetime to be lived on Mars.  Yeah. I definitely believe that we will end up living on other planets, for sure. I see that very clearly. It could be 50 years or more before we actually become a space-based civilization. But the Moon has already started, right? We’re going to be there in the next 5 to 10 years, trust me. So anyway, I’m very excited about that. Yes.  Yeah, it is very exciting. What I’m looking for on this podcast—what makes it kind of unique—is that I am a junkie for frameworks and mental models. We are almost 400 episodes in, and every episode has a different mental model that our guest comes up with or shares. So think about something that helped you build your business, or maybe helped you develop your products, or how you work with your engineers, or how you work with clients. So think about something that has three to five steps or three to five aspects that create a result.  That’s very clear to me. Those are the key things for any successful person. First of all, honestly, you have to be interested. You have to be in “go” mode. You cannot push somebody to start building something, like a building or actual construction, if their mind is not into it. The very first thing is, it’s got to be you. That’s number one, right? And you know it. Definitely organization is a very key factor for me. Being organized, being detail-oriented—that’s something that is super, super important. Planning and organization make a huge difference in whatever you do, right? And most importantly, integrity. I mean, that’s number one. That’s number one, number two, number three, number four—all of it.  So integrity is all of it. No matter what you do, if there’s no integrity, people will walk away from you. At the beginning, every business makes mistakes, and they learn and so on. So don’t beat yourself up. It’s okay. You make a mistake, you learn from it, and then you don’t do it again, right? Learn from it. So yeah, I would say those are at least three. If anything else comes to mind, I definitely will share it with you. But the most important things are integrity, organization, and clear planning based on knowledge. Not just planning for the hell of it, but planning based on understanding what you’re doing. That’s important. Integrity comes into your personality. It comes into the quality of the work you do.  It comes into the engineering you do. It comes into all of that, right? Even in engineering, it’s not only on the personal level that integrity has to be there. On the engineering level, integrity has to be there too. Whatever you do, you’ve got to make sure it’s working. One of the things we learned the hard way after 35 or 36 years is that it’s very important to have the knowledge base and to do things in a very organized way. And that’s kind of part of my personality. If I’m not confident about the end result, I don’t even commit to it. I’ve got to see it in my mind. Whatever problem comes up, if I don’t see the solution in my mind, I won’t even commit to it. It comes back to quality, integrity, and all of that. And I guess what I was going to say earlier is that everything that we do—as part of, again, the quality and integrity I mentioned—is that we have a lot of baby steps built into the process.  That’s what I wanted to say earlier. So for every step, the whole plan is split into, I don’t know, tens, hundreds, or thousands of different steps and branches. Because technology is not one thing. It’s usually a combination of different sciences. So mechanical engineering, electronics, material science, firmware, AI—those are all different types of expertise. And you’ve got to bring them all together. And for all of those baby steps, you’ve got to have some sort of test at the end of each step before you move on to the next one. Iteration.  Yeah. So, okay, what I’m hearing is integrity is number one. And then curiosity, perhaps. So curiosity is this driving force. Visualization is important. I’m thinking about Einstein, who said that imagination is more important than knowledge because imagination is infinite, while knowledge encircles the world. I think it was something like that. So visualization is important. Get organized. Do thorough planning. And learn from mistakes.  Yes. Absolutely. Okay.  That’s great. So what do you call this? Is this the Allen Nejah Framework, or what’s it called?  One more thing. One more thing. Again, that’s kind of under the umbrella of integrity. So I have two families. It’s one family. I have a family at home, and I have a family at work. And believe it or not—and you already know this—we all spend more time with our family at work than with our family at home. That’s true. It’s true for me. It’s true for a lot of people. You go to work, I don’t know, from 8:00, 9:00, or 10:00 in the morning until 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 8:00, or 9:00 at night. That’s almost 12 hours. And by the time you go home at 5:00, 6:00, or 7:00, what? You spend two hours with your family, maybe three hours at most, and then it’s back to work. So the team is part of my family, and truly it is part of my family. Those are the first group of people, the first group of associates, that you have to take care of.  You have to be a brother to them, be a friend to them, be a father to them, be a mother to them. Seriously, it’s all about human interaction. It’s all about, “I like you, I don’t like you,” and it goes from there. “I feel good about you. I don’t feel good about you.” And so it’s very important to have those relationships in your business, or whatever it is you do. For me, all our people, all our employees—even from 35 years ago—are still in touch with us. I have kids who came through as junior-high interns, then high-school interns, then university students, even master’s degree students. Now they’re 40 years old. And we’re still in touch. So I’m in touch with hundreds of engineers and people that I’ve worked with over the past 35 years. And that’s a lot of value. That’s the biggest asset.  Yeah. Basically, they call it a school. You create a school, right? Your own professional school. That’s wonderful. So tell me about this special gear called InfiniGear. How is it special? How did you come up with it, and how is it being used? It’s an interesting question. First of all, let me explain to you very quickly what I-Gear is. So I-Gear is an AI robotic adaptive gearbox, or transmission, and that’s a mechanical transmission. It’s not an electronic transmission. It’s an actual mechanical gearbox that goes into any machinery or equipment. I mean, obviously, the one that everybody can relate to immediately is cars. Every car—not EV cars, but every car—has a transmission. A transmission usually is bigger than the engine. It’s heavier than the engine. It’s the guy that goes through all the center of the car, takes all that center, okay?  That’s it—a transmission. It’s big, it’s heavy. By the way, it’s amazing how it works. It’s absolutely amazing how it works if anybody gets into a transmission and sees all of it. There are about 300 to 400 gear sets in there. There are about six or seven clutches. There’s about 3,000 to 4,000 parts in a standard transmission. So that’s why it’s so big and so heavy. The efficiency is so low because all these gears have to be interacting with each other. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, the transmission efficiency is only 50%. So it’s actually as low as you can get. But you have to have a transmission in the car. If you have no transmission in the car—I’m talking about ICE cars with an engine—they’re not even able to drive because the engine has no initial power and no initial RPM.  The AI transmission, the robotic transmission that I have invented, and that we have developed over five to seven years— Since 2017 or ’18 we’ve been working on it. It’s a gearbox that has only two gears versus 200 to 300 gears, and it’s one-fourth or one-fifth of the size. And also, while your standard transmission has five or six or seven or eight gears in your car, this has unlimited gears, okay? And it’s AI, so it can see what’s going on with the road, what the weather is, and all combinations of conditions. If you’re going onto a hillside, it’s already going to shift for you, so it saves energy. So that’s what we have developed. It’s a robotic transmission.  Right now, we’re actually talking to the U.S. Army, and they have some interest. We are at a very initial stage with them. And it’s kind of difficult to bring it into the market because it’s a safety factor, and there are a lot of requirements and tests that have to go into it before we can actually get it into trucks and cars. To summarize the benefit, if you put that transmission into an EV, we can increase the range by 40%, which is huge. A company that can improve a battery by 1% gets millions of dollars thrown at it. Once we can prove that this is working and pass some tests and so on, it’s going to be very huge. Wow. When do you expect this to happen?  I’m hoping within the next two years. Hopefully, by the end of those two years, we make it home and get it into cars and trucks and commercialize it.  Then you will turn into a unicorn—a big unicorn, right?  Yeah. Again, EVs are only one application. There are wind turbines, tanks, boats, some aircraft, and helicopters. A helicopter’s transmission is half the size of the helicopter itself, so the weight and everything else become very significant. So if we can eliminate that weight and size, we can gain a lot. Especially in vehicles, it makes a huge difference and all that.  Wow. That’s probably something that drones would benefit from too. Yeah. It’s mind-boggling. So what drives growth in your business other than your inventions?  So at SunMan Engineering, we have two arms. One arm is that we provide engineering services, product architecture, and product development to other companies—small companies, mid-size companies, and bigger companies like IBM, Sony, Samsung, and Apple. We have about 300 or 400 of those clients. And we also work with government agencies and contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Kaiser Electronics, just to name a few. We have also had contracts directly with the Army and the Navy in the past. And that’s what we’re trying to do now—to gain some of those projects again. And InfiniGear, the I-Gear, could be a project that, fingers crossed, we’d be working on with the U.S. Army. So that’s one arm of what we do. The other arm is that we develop new technologies. We develop them, work on them, and then license them, or let our clients utilize them in some of their projects through partnerships and so on.  So you’re a service company as well as a product company?  Yes. We are a systems and product company. We’re considered a systems and product company, yes.  Now, do you call this systems integration? In the IT world, they used to call it systems integration when you had different systems and—  We are more than systems integrators. Systems integrators buy different technologies and put them together. It’s still engineering, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. You still have to engineer everything and put it together. But what we do is actually customize things from the ground up. Sometimes we do integration because it’s faster, easier, and sometimes cheaper. Some of the components and some of the functionality can be integrated. But generally, we customize every project from the ground up. And generally, for your information, we cater to aerospace, robotics, and IoT. IoT is communication—all sorts of wireless and different types of communication: Wi-Fi, 5G, Bluetooth, all sorts of stuff, right? And also medical. So medical, robotics, aerospace, IoT, and also semiconductors, which also serve these different industries.  So how is it possible? I mean, you have a relatively small team, right? Fifteen people or so?  Twenty-seven, twenty-eight people.  Twenty-seven. Okay, sorry.  Yeah. With a small team.That’s exactly the very first question you asked me. That’s exactly how it affects and how it comes into the picture. Being organized—I mean, we’ve done this so many times. It’s like we make things so efficient because we already have a plan. Every project we do, in concept, is the same thing. The process is the same. The application is different, but the process is the same. So going through that process and having a very reliable process in place that we follow very religiously makes us super, super efficient. And also, being small, we don’t have to go through a number of different layers. Everything comes to one or two people, gets approved, and we get it going. Everything happens the same day. Nothing waits until the next day here.  Are you involved in every project?  Fortunately and unfortunately, I’m involved in every project. And one of my goals is to eventually focus on fewer projects so I’d be more effective and efficient. So that’s one of my goals for the next few years. I-Gear is one of them, and we’re also working on another project. It’s for healthcare, it’s for the elderly and infants. Eventually it’s going to be a robot, but right now we’re making the device that is the brain of the robot. So it gets to know the person, it gets to know their habits, it gets to know everything about the person, about their family, about their health, about how they behave. We can remind them of different things. We can assist them with different things. We can watch them. We can emotionally work with them. There are so many different applications that we’re working on now. We can even do preventive diagnostics.  What “preventive diagnostics” means is that before the patient or the person gets sick or develops some sort of disease, we can actually identify it before that happens. That’s great. And that’s the most important part of this device. It has so many different applications and different ways it can help and assist an elderly person. And within the next two or three years, my goal is to integrate this into a robot. So we’re going to have a robot that physically helps you as well. My mother ended up in one of those care centers, and I saw how much she was declining on a daily basis—not weekly, not monthly, but daily.  And there was nothing, unfortunately, that I or any member of our family could do. I mean, we were there every day, don’t get me wrong, but that’s all we could do for her. We’re all busy. We all have lives. I mean, we were there almost every day, but really, she did not get the care that she needed. And that’s what kind of put me in that frame of mind—how can I help someone like my mom? And that’s how it started about two years ago. And as a matter of fact, now it’s one of the biggest markets. Yeah. It’s one of the biggest. So that’s fascinating. So how can you have so mental bandwidth that you can cover different industries, go deep into different industries, and innovate and invent stuff? How does that even happen?  Honestly, I personally work pretty much 12 hours a day. Even on my vacations, I work. Don’t get me wrong, I have a very good life. I work hard and I play hard. I am a very active person. I played as a semi-professional soccer player until I was 58 years old, believe it or not. Actually, next week I’m going to be 65. I still can play. I still can go and compete with 25- and 30-year-old kids, and I still do good, I think. So I keep myself in very good shape. I do mountain biking. I do about 10 to 15 hours of heavy-duty exercise on a weekly basis, and that kind of balances what I’m doing. To answer your question, yes, it’s too much, but yeah, we have to spend more time. There is no magic to it. Sometimes it gets to be too much, but I like what I’m doing, so I enjoy it.  Yeah, it shows. Elon Musk is also an example of being able to run six big companies in different areas and be a groundbreaker. But you’re doing something very similar. You are breaking ground in different industries.  Yeah. Actually, as I mentioned, I have established different startups and sold them. I have worked on a number of different companies and technologies. As a matter of fact, back in 2005, I brought a whole bunch of different technologies to cars. Any type of car you drive—I don’t care what it is—almost everything in the dash belongs to technologies that we developed from 2005 to 2008. There are some videos and some information on my LinkedIn. I invite people, including yourself, to look into it. The stuff we did back then was in 2005. The iPhone only came out in 2007. We came out with these technologies between 2005 and 2008. Back then, we had Genie. Today they have Alexa and I don’t know what everybody else calls theirs.  Yeah. We had Genie. Genie would talk to you. I mean, I’m not just saying it. Please go watch the videos. We have them. So you would just talk to the car, and the car would do everything for you. We came up with a device that initially you could install as an aftermarket stereo in the car. Basically, it would connect all the sensors in the car to the outside world. This was the very first time. As a matter of fact, internet connectivity in the car is my technology. Every single car in the world since 2014 has been connected to the internet, and that’s my technology, my patent, and my license. Of course, I’m not getting much money from it. Unfortunately, I’ve kind of been robbed on that. But at least I can brag about it—that’s our technology. So yeah, we brought a whole bunch of technologies to market. My vision back then was to make the car robust enough to drive without a driver.  That’s happening now.  It’s happening now. As a matter of fact, we had a car that we put our system into, and we were demonstrating it. And again, there are hundreds of videos about that technology that you can find on the internet. As a matter of fact, we were on PBS for nine months in 27 countries talking about future cars, and that video is also out there. So that was in 2010. They had a half-hour program with my company and with me about future cars. And everything we said, we had the basis for it, and it happened.  So, Allen, if you had a magic wand and you could wish for anything to happen in your business, what would that be? So as I said earlier, I like to be more focused now. I’m very spread out with the business—not only with the technical side of things, but also with the business side of things. I really want to get away from the business side and just focus on the technology. That’s what I enjoy more. I do the business side because I have no choice. That’s part of the work, right? But I would like to get to the point where I can focus only on technology, and other people can worry about the other things. So that’s my goal.  Okay. So if someone is listening to this and they would like to be like you, what would you advise them? Let’s say they are 20 years old and they want to grow up and be an inventor, come up with solutions, work in different industries, and solve big problems. What’s the path? What would you tell them?  So first of all, don’t be like me, that’s for sure. Honestly, you’ve got to enjoy life more than I do. And I do enjoy life. Again, I have different hobbies. I do different sports. I ski, I bike, and those are my hobbies, right? Most importantly, again, we talked about this at the beginning. You’ve got to like what you do. And doing business is not easy. Don’t expect to get into it and have everything work out. Usually, by default, everything goes wrong. So that’s normal. It used to bother me. It used to make me upset, nervous, and all that. But over the last seven to ten years, I learned that things happen, and you just have to resolve them and go through them. Bad things can happen. Good things can happen. It’s all part of the mix. You’ve got to have a very strong personality. Generally, a good percentage of people go paycheck to paycheck, and it’s mental—it’s in their mind. They make a lot of money. They make $100,000 every paycheck. But if you get a paycheck, your mind is like, “Okay, my next paycheck is coming two weeks from now, then another one two weeks after that,” right? And if those two weeks come and you don’t get your paycheck, they go nuts. They go crazy. So if you’re like that, you cannot go into business. In business, it’s all about failure and success. If you’re lucky, that’s a different story. I can go buy a lottery ticket, and only one person out of millions wins. That’s luck. That’s different.  But then they lose it all. Lottery winners tend to lose it. Within a year, they’re broke.  Yeah, that’s a different story, of course. What I’m saying is that, yeah, some people get lucky. That’s the exception. Don’t compare yourself to that. Don’t go after that.  Don’t count on it.  Doing business is usually a challenge, no matter what. So you’ve got to have a very strong personality.  So yeah, resilience is everything. Well, that’s wonderful. So if someone would like to learn more about SunMan Engineering, or they want to connect with you, what should they do and where should they go? Yeah, the best thing is to please visit the website, which is sunmantechnology.com. There is a contact form there, and you can contact us. We’d be happy to get in touch with you and see how we can help.  Okay, fantastic. Well, Allen Nejah, the CEO and chief engineer of SunMan Engineering, and the inventor of many products in different industries, including InfiniGear, which is going to revolutionize transmissions. Thank you for coming on the show and sharing your insights and wisdom. And those of you who are listening, if you enjoyed this, make sure you subscribe and follow us because every week I bring on an amazing entrepreneur to talk with you. Thanks for coming, Allen, and thanks for listening. Important Links: Allen's LinkedIn Allen's website

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock are built around one key piece of technology which may or may not have real world implications.“KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!”Admiral James Tiberius Kirk, 2285There are countless reasons why fans love Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Up until that point, it was the most action-packed installment of Star Trek ever put on screen, so that certainly has something to do with it. William Shatner delivers an all-time great career performance in this one as Admiral James T. Kirk, full of downright Shakespearean drama with his old enemy, the diabolical Khan Noonien Singh. It's got at least one of the most memorable, shocking, and poignant moments in franchise history. Or maybe it's just Ricardo Montalban's magnificent chest. Who's to say?But possibly lost amidst all that magnificence is the fact that The Wrath of Khan is built around a truly great piece of science fiction with the Genesis Device. A project designed to help Starfleet terraform barren worlds is also potentially the ultimate weapon in the galaxy, given that in creating new life it first has to wipe out anything else that's there. Of course the wrong people want to get their grubby mitts on it!In this episode we're diving into just what it would take to truly terraform an alien world, and whether the Genesis Device follows its own rules in the Star Trek universe. Check out the latest episode of Does it Fly? right here…SUGGESTED VIEWING Star Trek II: The Wrath of KhanYou mean to tell us you're watching or listening to a Roddenberry podcast and you somehow haven't seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? We sure hope you watched it before this episode spoiled the absolute hell out of it for you! But in all seriousness, there's a reason this is the most critically acclaimed and beloved Star Trek movie of all time and why we chose it for this week's topic. Star Trek III: The Search for SpockBut also, you can't watch The Wrath of Khan (or get a full picture of the scope of the Genesis Device's implications) without also watching Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Forget that even number/odd number nonsense about the Star Trek movies, this one is just as essential!Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 Episode 22 “Space Seed”And just in case you've never done this, we also highly recommend “Space Seed” which first introduced Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonien Singh. It doesn't have anything to do with terraforming in space, but it's a classic bit of Star Trek lore, nonetheless!The Evolution of Planet EarthWant a real life taste of what the Genesis Device does…except over the course of millions/billions of years instead of minutes/hours? This video is pretty cool.FURTHER READING Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today's episode? Of course you do! TerraformingWhile still primarily a science fiction concept, the idea of using terraforming to make a planet or moon into something that can support life as we know it is gaining considerable steam as we look to our nearest neighbor, Mars. See also: Bionengineering“Is there life on…Venus?”Wait, that's not how the song goes! But the key here is that while Mars gets all the attention as the planet in our solar system with the most potential to support life, there's also a chance that Venus could, as well. Key to that is the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere, which scientists have gone back and forth on, but recently found new evidence that it may be present.“PIXAAAAAAR!”Read more about that funny connection between a beloved animation studio and these beloved Trek movies here.“Colonized by earth bacteria”It doesn't take long, just to give you an idea of how quickly “life finds a way.”The Mars TrilogyTamara brings up Kim Stanley Robinson's acclaimed trilogy about terraforming our nearest planetary neighbor, Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. There's also the follow-up The Martians which is a collection of short stories that expands this universe further.Project Hail MaryAnother Tamara recommendation this week is the Hugo Award-nominated Project Hail Mary from sci-fi author Andy Weir. You might also recognize Weir's name as the author of The Martian, which was adapted into a beloved film from director Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon.The Wrath of Khan: The Novel!Even if you've seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dozens of times, Vonda N. McIntyre's superb novelization of the film is full of surprises that will enrich your understanding of the story and your love of Trek in general. For extra credit, follow it up with her equally great (possibly better than the film it's based on!) novelization of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock!WANT MORE FROM DOES IT FLY?Go back to the very beginning with the first ever episode of Does it Fly? which tackled another iconic Star Trek concept: the transporter. Watch it right here!We're not particularly big on the whole Star Trek vs. Star Wars debate around these parts, so for those folks who love ‘em both, check out our episode on lightsabers right here!FOLLOW US!Stay in the loop! Follow DoesItFly? on YouTube and TikTok and let us know what you think! And don't forget to follow Roddenberry Entertainment:Instagram: @RoddenberryOfficial Facebook: RoddenberryBlueky: @Roddenberry  For Advertising Inquiries: doesitfly@roddenberry.comCheck out the official Does it Fly? playlist, too!

Another solo ep. Wasn't at my best here. Feeling tired and mushy-headed but the masses need their content. Readings from RED MARS and BLUE MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson and "Mirrors" by Jorge Luis Borges.

Kim Stanley Robinson, renowned science fiction author, is our guest on this episode of MCJ. He is the author of the Ministry for the Future, a novel which outlines humanity's attempts to navigate climate change in the coming decades.Former President Barack Obama named the Ministry for the Future as one of his favorite books of 2020. The work has been cited by numerous entrepreneurs and builders in the MCJ member community as having had a significant impact on their interest in working on climate and decarbonization solutions. The subject of climate change shows up in many of Kim Stanley Robinson's works from his Mars trilogy, written in the 1990s about humans terraforming Mars, to his science in the capital Series from the mid 2000s, to his 2017 novel, New York 2140, which is set in a Lower Manhattan that is submerged due to sea level rise.And it shows up in many of his other works as well. Stan, as he goes by, has won numerous awards including the Hugo Award for best novel for both Green Mars and Blue Mars, and the Nebula Award for best novel for Red Mars and his book 2312. The Atlantic has called his work the gold standard of realistic and highly literary science fiction writing. And according to an article in the New Yorker, he is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science fiction writers. Stan and Cody have a wide-ranging conversation about his relationship with nature, his views on capitalism, society, government and technology, and of course his writings and his views on climate change and the path ahead for us all.In this episode, we cover: [03:04]: Stan's early life, finding solace in nature on the California coast[06:40]: Writing "The High Sierra: A Love Story" during the pandemic[08:57]: Noticing climate change impacts in the Sierra Nevada[12:08]: Climate change awareness sparked by a 1995 trip to Antarctica[14:13]: Mixing dread and hope in climate change discussions[17:36]: Viewing technology as both hardware and software[21:19]: Critiquing capitalism's role in power dynamics[26:58]: Majority's desire for a sustainable world despite hurdles[28:00]: Individual actions within broader societal efforts[30:14]: Civil disobedience as a response to failed representation[34:18]: The UN and other international governance's role in global challenges[39:18]: The potential of international treaties in climate action[42:11]: The concept of sudden societal change in climate action[48:06]: Ministry for the Future and "following the money" in climate change narratives[55:59]: Overview of Stan's works and current projects on AntarcticaEpisode recorded on Feb 7, 2024 (Published on Mar 11, 2024) Get connected with MCJ: Jason Jacobs X / LinkedInCody Simms X / LinkedInMCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at content@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

“Traditionally, the Achilles' heel of using membrane technology with wastewater, especially industrial wastewater, is the irreversible loss of performance due to fouling.” - Chris Drover Welcome to Scaling UP! H2O, the go-to resource for professionals in the extraordinary world of industrial water treatment. In today's episode, we're excited to unveil a revolutionary ultrafiltration technology that promises to redefine wastewater treatment. Our guest, Chris Drover, CTO & Co-Founder at ZwitterCo, Inc., introduces us to their groundbreaking Zwitterion-based filtration technology, offering a game-changing alternative to traditional membrane systems. Discover the unique hydrophilic properties of Zwitterions that make these membranes resistant to fouling, a common challenge in industrial wastewater treatment. Unlike traditional membranes, ZwitterCo's technology excels at removing oil, grease, organic biopolymers, algae, viruses, and bacteria, positioning it at the forefront of ultrafiltration solutions. If you're grappling with issues related to uptime, cleaning costs, or seeking a more sustainable water treatment solution, this episode is tailor-made for you. Uncover the answers to pressing questions such as: What sets ZwitterCo's technology apart? How does it compare to traditional water treatment methods? What percentage of oil and emulsifiers can it handle in wastewater? Learn about the frequency of membrane cleaning with bleach, real-world applications, and the strategic balance between economic and environmental considerations. Whether you're dealing with landfill leachate, meat processing, or navigating the complexities of water treatment, join us to gain invaluable insights into a transformative technology designed for industrial water treaters. Scale up your knowledge today to ensure your system scales up efficiently. Tune in and stay ahead of the curve in industrial water treatment innovation!   Timestamps 01:00 - Trace Blackmore thanks you for being part of the global Industrial Water Treatment Community   05:00 - Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals  09:15 - Drop by Drop With James McDonald  12:00 - Interview with Chris Drover, the CTO & Co-Founder at ZwitterCo, Inc. 45:30 - Lightning Round Questions 53:00 - In memory of a water professional we lost not that long ago, Rob Ferguson of WaterCycle, please become a mentor in 2024 and pour your knowledge into the next generation of water professionals   Quotes "What Zwitterions do for membranes is by building these membranes out of zwitterionic materials, we can give them this really hydrophilic property that makes them virtually immune to the type of fouling, that permanent absorption of oil and organics into the pores of a membrane." - Chris Drover "A neat thing about Zwitterions is that oils and other organics have a really hard time sticking to them and absorbing them because they're just soaking up water." - Chris Drover “Traditionally, the Achilles' heel of using membrane technology with wastewater, especially industrial wastewater is the irreversible loss of performance due to fouling and keeping them performing for long enough to recoup the investment, that's what our market focuses on unconventional waters that have a lot of challenges with membrane fouling.” - Chris Drover   Connect with Chris Drover Phone: 508.562.9916 Email: cdrover@zwitterco.com Website: zwitterco.com  LinkedIn: in/cdrover company/zwitterco-inc   Links Mentioned Tangential Flow Model What is a Zwitterion? Tufts University  Aquatech Conference Rob Ferguson of WaterCycle in episode 43 “The One With The Water Cycle Guy” The Rising Tide Mastermind Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses   Books Mentioned MARS TRILOGY: Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves by W. Brian Arthur   Drop By Drop with James  In today's episode, I have a useful little quote from the 2021 edition of the “Consensus on Operating Practices for the Control of Feedwater and Boiler Water Chemistry in Industrial and Institutional Boilers” (catchy title!) by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers or ASME.  It says, “Where a choice is available, the reduction or removal of objectionable constituents by pretreatment external to the boiler is always preferable to, and more reliable than, management of these constituents within the boiler by internal chemical treatment, which involves boiler blowdown and chemical feed to the boiler system.”    Chew on that for a minute. “Where a choice is available, the reduction or removal of objectionable constituents by pretreatment external to the boiler is always preferable to, and more reliable than, management of these constituents within the boiler by internal chemical treatment.”    As vital and important as internal chemical treatment is to a boiler, consider all the ways it could fail. Would you rather manage hardness in your boiler with internal chemical treatment or by using pretreatment such as a water softener? Think about the benefits of other pretreatment as well.  I've always considered this one particular line within these guidelines to be a very powerful sentence. I've used it to help justify my pretreatment recommendations as third-party support for softeners, reverse osmosis, etc. 2024 Events for Water Professionals Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE or using the dropdown menu.  

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is The Ministry for the Future, his "science fiction nonfiction novel" (Jonathan Lethem) that has politicians, Eurocrats and the rest of us pondering how policy might fight climate change. In this Books in Dark Times conversation from the RTB vaults (you can also read a longer version that appeared as an article in our partner Public Books) Stan and John start out with Stan's emerging from the Grand Canyon into the pandemic moment of late March, 2020. Then they discuss Stan's sense that SF is the realism of the day and his take on “cognitive estrangement.” Finally, they happen upon a shared admiration for the great epic SF poet, Frederick Turner. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with a dissertation-turned-book on the novels of Phillip K. Dick. Mentioned in the Episode George Stewart, “Earth Abides“ Mary Shelley, “The Last Man“ M. P. Shiel, “The Purple Cloud“ John Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (on “fantastika”) Frederick Turner, “Genesis” and “Apocalypse“ Ursula Le Guin, “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia” (1974; KSR praises such works as this for “power of poetry alone”) Darko Suvin, “Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre ” (1979; on cognitive estrangement) “The door dilated” a quote from Robert A. Heinlein in “Beyond This Horizon” Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Enjoy this rare interview with our cross-country running, T1 phenomenon, Don Muchow! A lifelong advocate of immersive, dystopian SF, he believes that buried in the shadows of every dark future lies the inextinguishable spirit of hope and the yearning for a better tomorrow. When he's not imagining dystopian futures, you can catch Don running across the US or planning his next epic exploit. For more information, visit t1determined.org. Here are the books he mentions in this fun , interesting and thoughtful episode. 8:19 - Where Don grew up and his family life 10:25 - Don's educational background and his lifelong passion (it isn't what you might think!) 12:41 - What Don wanted to be when he grew up 14:43 - Who are the Scully and Mulder of Fiction? 16:30 - What aspect of writing is most intriguing to Don? 18:51 - Are any of the Untold Tales stories you've written TRUE or inspired by real life events? 24:58 - DNA Memory? An explanation as it relates to storytelling 25:38 - Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.amazon.com/Kim-Stanley-Robinson/e/B000APVJXC/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars trilogy https://amzn.to/3Ntq9Vc 34:55 - Arrival by Ted Chiang https://amzn.to/3T0PCqm 35:30 - Banned Books List https://www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/special-collections/banned-challenged-books/ 35:58 - What Don thinks about the Untold Tales Podcast (this is GOOD) --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/untold-tales/support

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is The Ministry for the Future, his "science fiction nonfiction novel" (Jonathan Lethem) that has politicians, Eurocrats and the rest of us pondering how policy might fight climate change. In this Books in Dark Times conversation from the RTB vaults (you can also read a longer version that appeared as an article in our partner Public Books) Stan and John start out with Stan's emerging from the Grand Canyon into the pandemic moment of late March, 2020. Then they discuss Stan's sense that SF is the realism of the day and his take on “cognitive estrangement.” Finally, they happen upon a shared admiration for the great epic SF poet, Frederick Turner. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with a dissertation-turned-book on the novels of Phillip K. Dick. Mentioned in the Episode George Stewart, “Earth Abides“ Mary Shelley, “The Last Man“ M. P. Shiel, “The Purple Cloud“ John Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (on “fantastika”) Frederick Turner, “Genesis” and “Apocalypse“ Ursula Le Guin, “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia” (1974; KSR praises such works as this for “power of poetry alone”) Darko Suvin, “Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre ” (1979; on cognitive estrangement) “The door dilated” a quote from Robert A. Heinlein in “Beyond This Horizon” Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-fiction

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is The Ministry for the Future, his "science fiction nonfiction novel" (Jonathan Lethem) that has politicians, Eurocrats and the rest of us pondering how policy might fight climate change. In this Books in Dark Times conversation from the RTB vaults (you can also read a longer version that appeared as an article in our partner Public Books) Stan and John start out with Stan's emerging from the Grand Canyon into the pandemic moment of late March, 2020. Then they discuss Stan's sense that SF is the realism of the day and his take on “cognitive estrangement.” Finally, they happen upon a shared admiration for the great epic SF poet, Frederick Turner. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with a dissertation-turned-book on the novels of Phillip K. Dick. Mentioned in the Episode George Stewart, “Earth Abides“ Mary Shelley, “The Last Man“ M. P. Shiel, “The Purple Cloud“ John Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (on “fantastika”) Frederick Turner, “Genesis” and “Apocalypse“ Ursula Le Guin, “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia” (1974; KSR praises such works as this for “power of poetry alone”) Darko Suvin, “Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre ” (1979; on cognitive estrangement) “The door dilated” a quote from Robert A. Heinlein in “Beyond This Horizon” Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is The Ministry for the Future, his "science fiction nonfiction novel" (Jonathan Lethem) that has politicians, Eurocrats and the rest of us pondering how policy might fight climate change. In this Books in Dark Times conversation from the RTB vaults (you can also read a longer version that appeared as an article in our partner Public Books) Stan and John start out with Stan's emerging from the Grand Canyon into the pandemic moment of late March, 2020. Then they discuss Stan's sense that SF is the realism of the day and his take on “cognitive estrangement.” Finally, they happen upon a shared admiration for the great epic SF poet, Frederick Turner. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with a dissertation-turned-book on the novels of Phillip K. Dick. Mentioned in the Episode George Stewart, “Earth Abides“ Mary Shelley, “The Last Man“ M. P. Shiel, “The Purple Cloud“ John Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (on “fantastika”) Frederick Turner, “Genesis” and “Apocalypse“ Ursula Le Guin, “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia” (1974; KSR praises such works as this for “power of poetry alone”) Darko Suvin, “Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre ” (1979; on cognitive estrangement) “The door dilated” a quote from Robert A. Heinlein in “Beyond This Horizon” Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. But lately it is The Ministry for the Future, his "science fiction nonfiction novel" (Jonathan Lethem) that has politicians, Eurocrats and the rest of us pondering how policy might fight climate change. In this Books in Dark Times conversation from the RTB vaults (you can also read a longer version that appeared as an article in our partner Public Books) Stan and John start out with Stan's emerging from the Grand Canyon into the pandemic moment of late March, 2020. Then they discuss Stan's sense that SF is the realism of the day and his take on “cognitive estrangement.” Finally, they happen upon a shared admiration for the great epic SF poet, Frederick Turner. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with a dissertation-turned-book on the novels of Phillip K. Dick. Mentioned in the Episode George Stewart, “Earth Abides“ Mary Shelley, “The Last Man“ M. P. Shiel, “The Purple Cloud“ John Clute, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (on “fantastika”) Frederick Turner, “Genesis” and “Apocalypse“ Ursula Le Guin, “The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia” (1974; KSR praises such works as this for “power of poetry alone”) Darko Suvin, “Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre ” (1979; on cognitive estrangement) “The door dilated” a quote from Robert A. Heinlein in “Beyond This Horizon” Read the transcript here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

In this episode, hosts Kevin and Jack talk about their reading habits and the kinds of books they enjoy reading. To join the conversation, follow the WhatsApp link on our website:https://forms.gle/zKCS8y1t9jwv2KTn7On the website, you can find a study guide for the Quick Tips and Quick Chat episodes. Share your answers to the discussion questions in our WhatsApp group chat!https://atozenglishpodcast.com/what-are-you-reading/If you could take a minute and complete a short survey about the podcast, we would be very appreciative. You can find the survey here:https://forms.gle/HHNnnqU6U8W3DodK8We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions for future episodes.Intro/Outro Music by Eaters: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/eaters/the-astronomers-office/agents-in-coffee-shops/Transcript written by Layla  Welcome to A to Z English Podcast quick chat. We are going to surprise each other with the topic for the day and see where the discussion goes. Check our website for a study guide with vocabulary notes and discussion as well as links to our Whatsapp or Facebook page where you can join in the conversation. Kevin: So Jack, I've been reading a little bit recently, I was curious how many books do you read a year these days? Jack: Oh boy, um, that's a good question. Well, my new New Year's resolution for January, the was to read 50 books in a year. Kevin: It's a very ambitious. Jack: Yes, that was one a week. That's I wanted to read one book a week and I'm not talking about, you know, children's books. Of course, I'm talking about real books. It was a total failure, just like an absolute failure. I've aimed way too high with ambitious and so. Kevin: It's not a realistic goal really to start with. Jack: So in the last, so this year I properly have only read and it's July right now I think I've read maybe two or three books so far this year. Kevin: Ok, I'm actually at a pretty similar amount. I'm trying to read more this year. Last year, I was bad at reading. I was just surfing the web and spending way too much time on the internet and not probably reading anything. This year, I've probably read, yeah I'm about the same I'm at two or three. I'm curious when you read books, how do you read them these days? Jack: Ah, that's a good question, so yeah. Kevin: For me, I'm always I'm in the middle of two books at a time. I never just read one and finish and read one and read one and finish and read one and finish. I always have two or three going both on my bookshelf or on my nightstand and it's like, okay, what do I want to read now? Right, like what's my mood at this point in the day or before bed. So how do you read? Do you take notes? Do you read like details? Jack: No, so bad, yeah, so you asked me how many books that I've read so far. This year, and I've only read, you know, when I think of having read a book, it only counts if you go from cover to cover. You got to read the whole thing. Kevin: You got to finish it. Jack: If you asked me how many books have I started this then I probably I'm 20 or 30 books. Where I read 20 or 30 pages, and then I just bailout and start a different book. And how I read, I never take notes, I just read. I just read it and try to retain as much as I can. I only read non-fiction. I don't read fiction only. Yeah, I don't really like fiction. Yeah, I haven't read fiction for more than ten years, I had since I've read novel probably. Kevin: Not at all. Jack: That's nothing,yeah. Kevin: I'm in the middle of two books right now. I'm in the middle of one non-fiction and one fiction book. I do quite like novels. I like fantasy and sci-fi stories quite a bit. And my reading these days is the non-fiction book on breathing and exercise because I'm into Yoga a lot these days. Yeah, and how to breathe properly, so I'm reading that more during the day when I can really focus because it's informative books. And then before bed, I'm reading my non-fiction book because that's kind of a story. I just kind get into it and relax, you know, read a few pages before going to sleep, yeah. For me, reading at night is difficult because I fall asleep very easily. And so like you said reading in the day time is important. I think if you're going to finish a book you've got to carve out some when you're kind of alert and so for me, like, the reason I don't read novels used to love novels in my early 20s. I read all of the books by Ernest Hemingway. I loved the Sun also Rises and For Whom the Bell Toll and things like those kinds of books from that era like the early 1900s. Kevin: Classic literature. Jack: Yeah, yeah. Scott Fitzgerald. You know, those kind of era is my favorite for novels, um, however something kind of switched to me when I, don't know, turned 30 or in my mid-30s. I just found non-fiction much more interesting because it just gives you a lot of understanding of difficult concepts, so, for example, like politics. If you just watch the news to understand politics, it's not enough information. You have to read about it to really understand it. And I think that's true for just about any topic you have to read about it to really, it gives you depth and understanding instead of just, you know, watching Netflix or something. Kevin: I never really read about it. Politics is really tough one, um, I recently finished the book, though I do agree in some ways I recently finished a book about physics, actually because I quite like physics, but I'm not, I don't understand math, I'm terrible at all of that, but I love space travel. And how physics works. I think it's cool, yeah, and so I found basically what was the name of the book. I think it's physics for busy people and it's just a book physics and dark matter and, you know, yeah, gravity and things, but for people who don't understand physics. Jack: There are some authors that are very good like Neil DeGrasse Tyson is an example of the person who wrote the book that I just read. Yes, that I know that's why I mentioned that because I know that you wrote that book, but he can write it. He can describe physics in a way that, uh, we could say like a normal individual, just you know, right a non-expert could understand. And, uh, those are the kinds of non-fiction books that I love where the authors are good at explaning difficult concepts in ways that I can understand. Because I'm not, you know, I don't have a deep understanding of too many things. I mean maybe, uh, my deepest, uh, level of understanding is probably in education, you know, is to specifically English education, but, uh, aside ffrom that, yeah I need authors that are able to explain things in ways that I can understand. So I agree yeah. That's why I love non-fiction. I just find it so much more interesting than reading a novel. Kevin: What non-fiction topics are you reading a lot about these days? Jack: Okay, um, so when I read non-fiction I really am interested in American politics. Um, I'm also interested in theology, so I read some theology books and, um, I would say I'm also I within the realm of politics I'm really interested in, like activism or topics like racism um. Kevin: Okay, things like a lot of social issues then. Jack: Yes, exactly social issues, I find very, you know, fascinating and so. I like to be on top of those issues and understand what's happening and so, um, and I supplement a lot of the reading with, like podcasts. And uh, yeah YouTube channels and things like that, so I'm always kind of listening to podcasts and I'm reading books at the same time. I'm kind of getting information from different types of media. Amazing question. Kevin: What about… yeah, so I guess the types of books mine for non-fiction they're very random because I just was reading physics books not too long ago that I finish, you know, like a few weeks back and now I said I'm reading about breathing which is, you know, physiology and how human body can adapt and change with breath. So those are not very connected at all. I do read other, like I recently read uh, sapiens which is kind of about, like human culture and things, like that I like culture books, I guess, um. And then for non-fiction because I still like fiction quite a bit. And I probably try to read more fiction than non-fiction, but it's a 50 50 almost. But I read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, so it's my favorite book of all time. And I'm going to ask you this as well either fiction or non-fiction, but my favorite fiction book is the Dune series. Jack: Oh yes, okay. Kevin: They recently made a film about Herbert. Actually I think is, yeah exactly, yeah. And I love those books because he talks, like what I love about science fiction books is that they very often bring social issues into the story, you know, even science fiction TV shows and movies, if you're seen the Star Trek. You know, any Star Trek film or TV show from a long time ago. They deal with a lot of social issues and how those issues have evolved in, you know, 500 years in the future or something like that. Jack: Yes, Kevin, And so, I quite like sci-fi science fiction books because of that. It's like the same social issues that you like to deal with, but from a different lens. Jack: I'm with you too. I like realistic science fiction, um, where it is not necessarily realistic. Kevin:It's like 10,000 years in the future. Jack: That's true, I mean it's more of, like uh, world creating, you know, like he Frank Herbert's imagination is just um, amazing, like how do you come up with the world that seems so, uh, plausible yet, so fantastical that's right. Kevin: It's very not realistic in terms of what science they have. Jack: Um, but a book that I actually, I lied on the podcast today. I just remembered that I read a fiction book, uh. Well, I haven't finished it. Again, I started, you said sapiens, I started that book., didn't finish it. Kevin: Um, actually, yeah, I'm most of the way done, but noy all the way. It's fascinating. It's, I mean it's a good book. Un, another book is called the Mark series and the name of the authors escapes me. I apologize, I can't remember, but there's Red Mars, Blue Mars, and Green Mars, so it's a Trilogy and basically it talks about terraforming Mars, like the people go to Mars and how we begin to colonize that planet and then eventually change the atmosphere, so that it's a livable planet for human being. So it's all based in, like real science, but it's Way Beyond what we're capable of doing right now. Kevin: Did you read or see movie the Martian a few years ago? Jack: Yes. Kevin: Which one book or movie? Jack: Um, I saw the movie, um I know, that it's based on a book that was written on Reddit, I think. Kevin: I'm not sure 100 on that. Anyway, I haven't seen the film, but actually I did read the book and that book was amazing because it was partially written online and he did an amazing amount of research for it. So while it is a fiction story someone who gets stuck on Mars. It's based on completely real physics and what actual astronanuts would be able to do or not able to do or the things that they actually have with them and things like that. So it's as close to realistic science fiction as you can get I think and it was also just a great book. It was just a really fun read. Jack: I mean again, a guy that can explain really difficult concepts in ways that normal people can understand. And you mentioned Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He likes to watch science fiction movies and then kind analyze the physics whether, you know, how possible accurate the physics are in certain science movie. And I've be curious to read what he said about, uh, the Martian because, like you said he did so research before writing, while writing that. And I think I'm going online and asking professors and things like that. Please tell me what the science is behind this and then he put it into his fictional story, yeah that's really cool. Kevin: yeah yeah it's quite interesting. It's a fun book. Definitely, I do recommend it. So how many books now, what's your goal for this year? What's your realistic goal now? Jack: I've got to pick a realistic goal, um, I would say I think, like 10 books a year is actually really good. That's, like a little bit less than once one a month, but I think, you know, if you read ten books a year, you're pretty well informed. You're exercising your brain. Kevin: I would agree, I mean if I could read more than 10 a year, that's fantastic, but even 10 a year, I think, is a pretty good number. If I can get through, like almost a book a month for normal busy people. That's a decent amount of reading. That's what you're sitting down to do. And that's great, but as always any reading is better than no reading. Jack: Well, and also I do a lot of reading online, so it's, you know, I also think sometimes we are hard on ourselves because we don't read books, but you know, I'm reading articles and things like that. So yeah, I also listen to a lot of podcasts and, so I try. That's another way to get information, but there is something special about reading. I think reading a book and really doing a deep dive into a topic. Kevin: Something I think, although we'd have to save it for another time, but I'm curious to hear what you'd have to say about audiobooks as well. Maybe our, actually audiences can tell us about what they think about audiobooks because I've never gone to audiobooks. My brother loves them. Yeah, he loves listening to books as opposed to sitting down and reading. And I think that there's, yeah it can have some similar benefits as well. For anyone listening, come and tell us what you think?We've got a Whatsapp group and our Facebook where you can come and link. Also, go to our webpage where you can check out PDF files and see some vocabulary and additional discussion questions there. So Jack, I'll see you next time. Jack: Alright, see you next time. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-a-to-z-english-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Marshall and Steve from Androids & Assets join Seth for a discussion of the second and third books in Kim Stanley Robinson's MarsTrilogy Green Mars and Blue Mars, which won the 1994 and 1997 Hugo Awards for Best Novel. Start - 7:56Intro through "Why this book?"7:57 - 19:55Non-Spoiler discussion19:56 - endSpoiler discussion Notes & Mentions: The Foundation Series, by Isaac AsimovAtlas Shrugged, a heretic comparison by SethSeveneves, by Neal Stephenson Links: Androids & Assets: https://twitter.com/assetdroid Steve: https://twitter.com/Stevedroids Marshall: https://twitter.com/EconoBoyd

Our guest today is Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the greatest living science fiction writers and one of the few people to have developed a credible solution to the climate crisis. In this interview, he discusses with Scott Snibbe about transcendental experiences, Buddhism in his life and fiction, the outdoors as meditation, and the potentials for space exploration; but the main focus of this episode is the pressing issue of climate change. How can we survive the climate crisis, and what can every one of us do to help?This episode is the fruit of a collaboration between Science & Wisdom LIVE and A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment draws on modern science and psychology to bring the ancient inner science of Buddhist meditation to twenty-first century people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Find out more: www.skepticspath.org ______ “Daily life can be devotional, if you treat the world as sacred”“We're on the brink of starting a massive extinction event”“Humanity is an expression of Earth's biosphere”“You should know your carbon burn the same way you know your weight on a scale”“Spend more time outdoors than you usually do. It's great for you, and it's fun!” ______Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than 20 books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy: Red Mars,Green Mars, Blue Mars, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and 2312, which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards—a first for any book. 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers' Workshop, and UC San Diego's Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. Stanley Robinson has won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 he was given the Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” In 2017 he was given the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society.Find out more: https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/______ Science & Wisdom LIVE is a project of Jamyang London Buddhist Centre. Our events and podcasts explore the middle ground between science and contemplative wisdom, focusing on themes such as the ethics of artificial intelligence, gender equality, climate change, and the benefits of mindfulness and meditation for mental health. Find out more: www.sciwizlive.com

In this episode we review KSR's magnum opus, talk about the technology he includes that makes the terraforming project possible, discuss the decline in the quality of each successive book, and debate what makes a character feel real. As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar stories if you're looking for more great books to read. This week we recommend Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, the Expanse Series by James S. A. Corey, and The Martian by Andy Weir.YouTube link if you prefer to watch the episode.NO SPOILERS BOOK SUMMARY: It is the year 2027, and humanity is colonizing Mars! 100 scientists, engineers, and astronauts take the first colony ship to cross the interplanetary gap. Red Mars follows ten of the first hundred colonists and tells the story of the first forty years of life on Mars through their eyes. They build towns and cities, establish industries, become self-sustaining, begin to terraform the red planet, and are joined by tens of thousands of additional immigrants from Earth. Green Mars similarly takes place over the next several decades, and resolves the conflict over the future of Mars and its relationship with Earth. Blue Mars follows those same characters after the events of Green Mars, and is largely a description of how they choose to spend the end of their lives.

Sean Illing talks with historian Jill Lepore about her new podcast: The Evening Rocket explores Elon Musk and the new form of extravagant, extreme capitalism — which Lepore dubs "Muskism" — that he has ushered in. They discuss the formative role played by science fiction stories, why the super-wealthy are drawn to space travel, and why, according to Lepore, Elon Musk is not much of a futurist after all. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox Guest: Jill Lepore, podcast host; professor, Harvard University References:  • Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket by Jill Lepore (Pushkin/BBC; Nov. 2021) • Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, dir. Werner Herzog (2016) • The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson (Del Ray; 1992, 1993, 1996; re-issue 2021) • Technocracy Digest issues on the Internet Archive • "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1976) • Elon Musk on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Sept. 10, 2015) • Elon Musk's Neuralink demonstration (Aug. 28, 2020) • "Newt Gingrich trying to sell Trump on a cheap moon plan" by Bryan Bender (Politico; Aug. 19, 2019) Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Conversations  and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Vox Conversations by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by:  • Producer: Erikk Geannikis • Editor: Amy Drozdowska • Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey • Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall • Vox Audio Fellow: Victoria Dominguez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sean Illing talks with historian Jill Lepore about her new podcast: The Evening Rocket explores Elon Musk and the new form of extravagant, extreme capitalism — which Lepore dubs "Muskism" — that he has ushered in. They discuss the formative role played by science fiction stories, why the super-wealthy are drawn to space travel, and why, according to Lepore, Elon Musk is not much of a futurist after all. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox Guest: Jill Lepore, podcast host; professor, Harvard University References:  Elon Musk: The Evening Rocket by Jill Lepore (Pushkin/BBC; Nov. 2021) Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, dir. Werner Herzog (2016) The Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) by Kim Stanley Robinson (Del Ray; 1992, 1993, 1996; re-issue 2021) Technocracy Digest issues on the Internet Archive "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1976) Elon Musk on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Sept. 10, 2015) Elon Musk's Neuralink demonstration (Aug. 28, 2020) "Newt Gingrich trying to sell Trump on a cheap moon plan" by Bryan Bender (Politico; Aug. 19, 2019) Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Conversations ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Vox Conversations by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Conversations by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts This episode was made by:  Producer: Erikk Geannikis Editor: Amy Drozdowska Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall Vox Audio Fellow: Victoria Dominguez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this July 2021 episode of Middle Tennessee State University‘s TV magazine show, "Out of the Blue,” we take a look at some of the stories that are found in the upcoming summer edition of MTSU Magazine, including the opening of the Chris Young Cafe, the University's partnership with the Music City Grand Prix, and the "Blue Mars" project that is providing a unique research opportunity for undergraduate students. You can watch “Out of the Blue,” with host Andrew Oppmann, anytime online and on True Blue TV (Murfreesboro cable Channel 9) daily at 11 AM and 1:30 PM, and on NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. every Sunday.

You can find out more about Scott’s work here: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/ Scott’s book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualisation: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/552566/transcend-by-scott-barry-kaufman-phd/9780143131205 Scott’s interview on Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast: https://samharris.org/podcasts/209-a-good-life/ Scott’s interview with Sean Carroll: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/04/06/91-scott-barry-kaufman-on-the-psychology-of-transcendence/ Follow Scott on Twitter: @sbkaufman Further References The OCEAN personality test: https://www.psychometrictest.org.uk/big-five-personality/ Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars (1993) Derren Brown, Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine (2016) Sci fi series Salvation: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/ P. D. James, The Children of Men (1992) Peter D. Ward, Robert Brownlee Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe (2000) George Eliot, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1871–72) Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (1943) John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy” (1819): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44478/ode-on-melancholy Timestamps 2:35 The pyramid image versus Scott’s sailboat metaphor 13:37 Ascetic orders, basic needs & transcendence. Can monks be self-actualizing? 21:19 My general assessment of Scott’s book 23:44 The D-realm (“deficiency” realm) 26:52 Scott’s interview with Sam Harris 29:15 Disagreeableness 30:44 Axes of human personality 31:51 Stability and plasticity 34:08 Introversion and extraversion 38:54 The B-realm (“being” realm) 42:59 How easy is to access the B-realm and to find transcendence? 53:34 Peak experiences, flow states, transcendence 1:01:05 Maslow’s discoveries at the end of his life 1:02:58 Demotivation and how to fight it 1:07:04 Attachment styles and other ways in which the D- and B-realms are inextricably intertwined

In this episode, XPRIZE founder Peter H. Diamandis discusses AI and how it is often portrayed in science fiction with world renowned sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson, at XPRIZE Visioneering recorded at Paramount Studios. Robinson questions our relationship with AI and the important future of synthetic medicine. Although he is inspired by space exploration, he argues that the race to Mars is not an urgent problem, but rather a reward for fixing the problems on planet Earth. Recently named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders,” Peter H. Diamandis is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, which leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive competitions. He is also the executive founder of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels the world's leaders on exponentially growing technologies. As an entrepreneur, Diamandis has started over 20 companies in the areas of longevity, space, venture capital and education. He is cofounder of BOLD Capital Partners, a venture fund with $250M investing in exponential technologies, and co-founder and Vice Chairman of Celularity, Inc., a cellular therapeutics company. Diamandis is a New York Times Bestselling author of two books: Abundance – The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD – How to go Big, Create Wealth & Impact the World. His newest book in this series of exponential technologies—The Future is Faster Than You Think—was released on January 28, 2020. He earned degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from the MIT and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Diamandis’ favorite saying is “the best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”Kim Stanley Robinson is an American novelist, widely recognized as one of the foremost living writers of science fiction. Robinson began publishing novels in 1984. His work has been described as "humanist science fiction" and "literary science fiction". Robinson himself has been a proud defender and advocate of science fiction as a genre, which he regards as one of the most powerful of all literary forms.Robinson was born in Waukegan, Illinois, but moved to Orange County, California, when he was two. As a child he loved to play in the orange groves stretching out for miles around his home, so when suburban sprawl began to encroach and the groves were torn out and paved over, the rapid change of modern life hit close to home. It was not until college in 1971 that he would stumble upon new wave science fiction and find in it an expression of that very sense of rapid change that had made such an impression upon him growing up, at which point he knew almost immediately that he would be committed to science fiction from then on. He enrolled at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) in 1970 and received his B.A. in Literature in 1974. During that time he developed the idea to write a trio of books exploring three different alternative future histories in which southern California had gone down different paths, what became the Orange County trilogy. After briefly leaving California to receive an M.A. in English at Boston University in 1975, Robinson returned to UCSD to complete his Ph.D. Though science fiction was something of a "literary ghetto culture" in the academic world, Robinson could not have had a more sympathetic advisor in Fredric Jameson, who suggested that Robinson do his thesis on the works of Philip K. Dick, whom Robinson was not particularly familiar with at the time but whom Jameson regarded as the greatest living American novelist. Robinson agreed to the idea and finished his Ph.D. in 1982, a revised version of which was published in 1984 as The Novels Of Philip K. Dick. In 1978 Robinson took a break from his Ph.D. work and moved north to Davis, California, where he worked in a bookstore and spent a lot of time outdoors, especially backpacking in the mountains, where he continued to develop his love for landscape and the outdoors. While in Davis he met Lisa Howland Nowell, an environmental chemist, and in 1982 upon completing his Ph.D. he returned to Davis and the two were married. He taught freshman composition among other courses at UC Davis, another autobiographical tidbit that would be bestowed upon his fictional alter-ego Jim in 1988's The Gold Coast. Then a few years later, after publishing his first few novels, his wife's post-doctoral work in environmental toxicology took the couple to Switzerland, where they lived for two years, and at which point he began to write full time. Her work also took them to Washington, D.C., and during their four years there Robinson was a stay-at-home parent to their first son while his wife worked. Finally, in 1991 they moved back to Davis to buy a house in Village Homes -- a planned community that shares many things in common with the community depicted in his 1990 novel Pacific Edge -- where their second son was born. Robinson is still the stay-at-home parent, giving him plenty of time to write, while his wife continues to work full time as a chemist. As a result, much of the couple's social circle is made up of her friends and colleagues, giving Robinson ample material with which to write about scientists. As can be gathered from above, Robinson enjoys inserting personal life experiences or autobiographical elements in his works. For example:Robinson enjoys mountaineering greatly, which can be seen in landscape descriptions and trekking trips in nearly all his works.His stay in Switzerland is a likely inspiration for frequent references to Swiss government and people (Green Mars, Fifty Degrees Below).He has visited Greece and enjoys the architecture of the Greek islands (The Gold Coast, Blue Mars).He likes softball, referenced in Icehenge and Pacific Edge, and plays the frisbee golf described in Fifty Degrees Below.At times he is a stay-at-home dad, like Charlie Quibler in the Science In The Capital trilogy.He is a Californian teacher, like characters in The Gold Coast and The Years Of Rice And Salt.Links: https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kim Stanley Robinson, SF novelist of renown, has three marvelous trilogies: The Three Californias, Science in the Capital and, most celebrated of all, Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars. His honors include many Locus, Hugo and Nebulae awards. Small fact connecting him to RTB-land: he completed a literature PhD directed by Frederic Jameson with … Continue reading "29 RTB Books in Dark Times 6: Kim Stanley Robinson (JP)"

Hello! We are so happy and proud to present this episode, our wide-ranging interview with the man himself! Kim Stanley Robinson, avid listener of our Kim Stanley Robinson podcast, graciously gave us some of his time during a layover at O'Hare in Chicago--hence the no doubt at times bad sound, so please forgive us. Hilary and Matt met Stan at the O'Hare Hilton bar, where we chatted over numerous topics, related and unrelated to the Mars novels. We talked about the origin of the novels, the historical moment of their creation (the so-called "end of history"), and the process of writing them. Is Hiroko dead? The answer is in the last two pages of Blue Mars! We touched on Stan's method of pattern-making beyond the conscious level of the reader, including his use of color and elemental imagery (I think there's a dissertation there for aspiring English PhDs...[don't go to grad school]), and share a chuckle over the dimwittedness of the New York Times. We talk also about the pathetic fallacy and the pre-modernist sensibility and realist tradition that informs the Mars Trilogy, and mention the structuralist influence of Gerard Genette (The Narrative Discourse: An Essay on Method). In addition we talk with Stan about his science fiction influences, inspirations, and resonances. Books mentioned are Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker and Last and First Men, Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Joanna Russ's The Female Man, Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Long Sun,  Julia Voznesenskaya's The Women’s Decameron, and Damon Knight, among others. We chat about Ann, and regionalism, and (self-indulgently for Matt) Orange County, the Dodgers, and the incomparable Vin Scully. All in service of the Battle of the Nutsedge! We were so thrilled to get the chance to talk with him, and we hope you enjoy this interview. (Sorry for the at times bad sound--Matt put some work into trying to get the levels right and clean it up, particularly taking out the parts where he just says "yeah" over and over. If you have complaints or can't hear it, email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com and direct them to Matt. But also don't do that.) We will be starting on The Martians very soon, and are looking forward to moving forward with you, our faithful listeners, on this exciting and fun journey through these amazing books and into the wider world of utopian science-fiction! Thanks for listening! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars  Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor.fm app  Rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts!  Music by Spirit of Space

We’re back! Reading, talking, and listening respectfully. And sometimes swearing. Being misheard and misunderstood. We talk about student papers and Matt yammers about some of the reception studies he received, including papers about Thelma & Louise, A League of Their Own and Akira (that one’s interesting), but not for too long, just be patient or hit 15-second forward about 8 times. We chat a little bit about other science fiction things that we’ve watched and read in the meantime. THEN we talk about the future of the podcast. Some changes are in store! But for the immediate and foreseeable future it will still be KSR-centric. We’re going to have an interview with Stan, and then do The Martians, divided in larger episodes we talk about together, and solo episodes about the shorter chapters. Then probably the Three Californias. But Matt is moving to New England, not writing a science fiction trilogy, probably getting a lame job under lame capitalism. The podcast will continue, remotely, you lucky listeners! And FINALLY (after 15 minutes, for the impatient among you) we get into the FINAL chapter of Blue Mars. Hilary promised she was going to cry on the podcast—will she??? Surprises are in store… The prologue of this Ann chapter tells the story of the Third Martian Revolution, then goes into a stream of collective consciousness of different conversations bleeding into each other. The settlers’ aggression is diffused in the replay of first contact by people who have rejected the power relations of settler colonialism. History knocks on the door and the First Hundred demands a negotiated settlement between the Martian and Terran governments. Finally, this one moment in history, things don’t dissolve into violence, a mass sense of conscious recognition. These books recognize that argument, anger, and dissatisfaction are all parts of democracy, not things that can be wished away. Then the chapter proper starts with an initially ambiguous focal character, but, of course, it’s Ann. We talk a bit about why the novel ends with Ann, especially Ann in a non-Ann setting, and a non-Ann set of things for Ann to be doing. Ann and Sax getting together—is this a cliché novelistic ending, where the personal and political resolve themselves? Were the visions of John, Frank, and Arkady actually more conjunctural or contingent than the long view of the scientists Sax and Ann? Hilary doesn’t think so! Do you know what “saxifrage” means? Find out here! Ann avoids a near-death experience, thankfully. Then we read the end of the book, and it’s very emotional! Mars is now, for Ann, a scene of living together. We talk further about the children, and the horizon on Mars, its closeness, something you could reach and be present with. This podcast is HISTORY! We end on a note of mutual appreciation for each other and for YOU, the listener! We did it, and we’re gonna continue to do it, and it will be continuously cool. Go buy The Martians from a used bookstore or get it out of your library. THANK YOU! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor.fm app Rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts! Music by Spirit of Space

In the penultimate chapter of the Mars Trilogy, Sax names colors with Maya, works on the memory problem at Acheron, and goes sailing with Ann--and Matt and Hilary talk about it! We talk a bit about the moments of adventure in the books, and speculate about what they're for and why they happen when they do. But mostly we have a freewheeling conversation about memory, knowledge, and longevity. We discover that, hey, isn't life the ultimate "experimental procedure?" Sax encounters Zeyk, strapped to a thingamajig that's scanning his Marilu Henner-style brain. We explore the parallels between the remaining First Hundred taking the memory treatment and a far-out drug experience. We argue over the origin of the phrase "Wherever you go, there you are" (it's Buckaroo Bonzai, not Hitchhiker's Guide, btw). There's stuff about political commitment and memory here, about not living in the past so that you can be present to the present so you can live toward the future (which is the route Maya opts for). And, of course, a great rendition of the specific variety of social maladjustment that's endemic to grad school and that makes it almost impossible for pure academics like Sax and Ann to have a relationship. Everyone's favorite characters return in this chapter! George, Roger, Mary, "Andrea"--the gang's all here! One more chapter of the Mars Trilogy! Tune in next week to hear Hilary cry and how awkwardly Matt responds to that. Thanks for listening! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com (While you're at it, make us some label art to replace this dumb ol' image I got off the internet) Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor.fm app Rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts! Music by Spirit of Space

Hello yes! We're (finally) back (again) with a double-stuffed, one-year anniversary episode! Here we discuss the long Maya chapter from Blue Mars, "It Goes So Fast." Ironically titled, as this is our longest episode yet and it is full of pointless diversions and digressions that will no doubt frustrate and alienate everyone! What can we say--Matt has a hard time maintaining a train of thought, and we were drinking bourbon. Our discussion of this beautiful, sad chapter starts with a consideration of other angry, bristly women in KSR novels and other utopian science fiction, particularly that of Joanna Russ, a big favorite of Hilary's. We touch on the new conceptual schemas that Sax offers Michel to understand Maya--why not throw quantum mechanics into the mix of medieval humors and see what comes out? We talk about life and history, and the appeal of theater to Maya as an adjunct to politics. We FINALLY get to talk about why no one goes to the movies on Mars, and longtime listeners will be happy to know that Matt gets it, and agrees: The Avengers sucks. Cultural assimilation, materiality and the limits of the imagination, the increasing complexity of a life lived, third-person limited perspective, analogies on analogies on analogies....it's all here! Good luck sorting it out. (Hey, if anyone wants to create cool image art for us, y'know... feel free. All's I've got the time and skill for is a picture of Mars I took from a 3-second web search that I've long ago quit updating. Starting to get kinda stale!) Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app (You can donate to the show if you insist, we won't mind) Music by The Spirit of Space

Part Two of our discussion of Blue Mars Part 11, "Viriditas"! Last episode was about Zo. This episode is about how cool living on the other planets is, and how the politics of the solar system are congealing. We drank beers on this one, so it might be a little more scattered. Matt uses the word "grok." Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app (You can donate to the show if you insist, we won't mind) Music by The Spirit of Space

Matt and Hilary let you into one of our planning sessions, demystifying the amazingly shallow and slapdash way we decide what to talk about. This chapter is so rich that we figured we'd have to divide it up into two episodes. This episode focuses mainly on Zo and the kind of problems we have with her and the kind of problems that she presents to us. We ask really fundamental questions that the book puts to us at this point in the narrative, including about the nature of pleasure and freedom in a world that spans the solar system and in which humans can expect to basically live forever. The big question we seek to answer across this and the next episode (which we probably don't ever answer) is, as articulated by Hilary: What do we make of the relationship between the things we’re learning about the transformations in the solar system (accelerando/ explosive diaspora) and what we learn about Zo? We talk about our problems with Zo. Both of us didn't like Zo at all the first time we read this book, and the second time through we're discovering that we understand her a little bit better now. But we still don't like her! At the forefront of our displeasure with her is her experience of pleasure, which often seems to come at the expense of others. The way Zo treats Ann and Sax are real triggers for us here. Zo's youthful dismissal of Ann's communion with rocks, or of Sax's contemplativeness, open onto a discussion of relationships between generations. The contrast between Nirgal and Zo, set up at the end of the previous chapter, is borne out here through their genetic and spiritual lineages back to John Boone and Frank Chalmers. Zo's hedonism and adrenaline junky-ness, her interest in Nietzsche, her weird references to Keats, all of these indicate a youthful arrogance and solipsism that we find distasteful. And yet... Why shouldn't she be able to tell these old farts to fuck off? Ultimately we're presented here with a new version of the problem of what freedom is and where pleasure is found. Hilary raises the issue of the recent left's taking up of the language of morality and moralism. Matt compares Zo to the stock broker character from New York 2140, whose name he still can't remember and he's not going to go look it up because there's a cat in his lap. References: Paul Lafargue, "The Right to be Lazy." Stan was recently interviewed on The Antifada podcast (really excellent interview if you haven't heard it). Freedom (according to Matt): not feeling the need to be doing anything other than the thing that you’re doing right now. Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app (You can donate to the show if you insist, we won't mind) Music by The Spirit of Space

In this episode we discuss Part Ten of Blue Mars, Werteswandel, a Nirgal chapter. Nirgal is running around Mars--running in circles, running from something, outside and inside himself at the same time. Running looks like a new technology on Mars, just like the new technology discussed in the prologue, of super-fast interplanetary travel. The only thing comparable is...nineteenth century train travel (thanks, Wolfgang Schivelbusch!). Nirgal (literally) runs into a society of feral hunter-gatherers, who seem like they'd fit right in at the FYRE Festival. There he meets Zo, and, well...it's complicated. This is one of those really short chapters where Matt and Hilary get to really dig in and be very expansive. If you're not interested in hearing our end-of-quarter conversation about teaching and corrupting the youth by opening their minds to utopian thinking (or just thinking), skip the last twenty minutes or so. But if you'd like to hear Matt's groundbreaking bumming-students-out-as-pedagogy technique, feast your ears! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app (You can donate to the show if you insist, we won't mind) Music by The Spirit of Space

After another unexpectedly long hiatus, Matt and Hilary are back to talk about our favorite topics--Martian and Chicagoan politics and Martian and Chicagoan weather! "Natural History" is a Sax chapter, and finds our favorite jumble of rats in a lab coat juicing himself up with crocodile DNA. Sax is radically hybrid in both body and mind, but he's also still mystified by the women in his life. To Hiroko and Ann is added the math genius Bao Shuyo, and it's hard for him to wrap his mind around the hybrid she presents to him--a woman math genius! Who knew? "What's this Bao episode doing here?" Hilary asks Matt. Matt babbles for a while and stumbles into an answer about feared loss of patriarchal dominance. Of course this chapter is also about nostalgia and the passing of time. Sax stumbles onto a project to give Mars a new moon, Pseudophobos, a talisman in the sky that will concretize a past moment and prove he has control over things once again, as Hilary puts it. This appears to be a nostalgic project that reaffirms his place in the present--does Sax want to Make Mars Great Again? We are given the amazing gift of carbon offsets, and we cross our fingers about India and Pakistan. Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app (You can donate to the show if you insist, we won't mind) Music by The Spirit of Space

We're back, after an unexpected and unexpectedly long hiatus! This chapter finds Nirgal trying to find himself, to locate and perhaps localize himself on the planet Mars, amid the network of force relations constituted by his family, the Martian political system, the changed and changing environment, and the mythology of his own existence. Matt starts by making a joke about blackface, which is so last week. Hilary is teaching Aurora for the first time, and it's a very emotional book! It doesn't help that it's Winter Quarter at the University of Chicago, the longest and most stressful quarter there is. They also talk about the Green New Deal and how important and good and awesome it is. Then they get into it. Mars is, as predicted, working as a kind of psychological safety-valve for the people of Earth, or that's how it seems to William Fort and his crew. This chapter is about scale and scalability in many ways--how the problems of a single person, or two people, or a bunch of weird micro-micro-microorganisms no one knew existed might just amount to a hill of beans, or at least marmots, in this crazy mixed-up world(s). Nirgal is unrooted. He has a problem with Jackie raising a child alone, for some reason, but he has no problem with fleeing from any role in the official politics of Mars. He's still on the hunt for some sort of parental anchor, listening to John Boone's A.I. He runs into Coyote on a park bench. Matt and Hilary try to figure out what "the green and the white" means, or rather what it's for, what its use is. Does it make sense? To whom? What sense does it make? It seems like a conceptual framework that at least makes sense to Nirgal, kind of like a screen he can project onto. Of course it's ideological. But that just presents him with another problem: how to make that concept manifest in the world. How can he use it to organize his material reality? He becomes an ecopoet. That doesn't work out so good. But Hilary's hellebore and euphorbia seems to be making it through our harsh Chicago winter! This chapter has breathtaking landscapes seen from really cool jetgliders. Nirgal floats around the world like a dandelion spore, living in fairytale time, "looking for an image of himself." We are all just tubes of sentient worms. Then Matt and Hilary try to figure out our finances, and conclude that you should all get 5000 of your friends to give us one dollar every month. (Just kidding!!!!) (But seriously, thank you for your donations!) This, in my view, was a good episode, even though we’re both audibly yawning at various moments. Hello Australia! Stay cool! We are charismatic megafauna, and you can: Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us at iTunes (or wherever) Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app Music by Spirit of Space. Download their album “Extra Extra” on iTunes and Bandcamp

In this episode, Matt and Hilary discuss the Nadia chapter "Making Things Work," as Nadia figures out what it means to be the first President of Mars, ponders what it will be like to have a new pinkie finger, and wishes she could get her hands dirty with some real work. Matt and Hilary share tales of the polar vortex, which include chickens coming indoors to roost and watching a bad-ish Mars movie from the late 1990s. Then it's on to the KSR talk. Nadia is frustrated for much of this chapter, as the groundwork is laid for the future political processes of Mars. Is process more important than outcome? This is a lesson hard-learned by Nadia. A different kind of groundwork is happening with the construction of soil, a task which Nadia is surprisingly able to lend a hand in. (Get it?) Nadia's regrowing finger gives us a picture of life as recursive rather than linear, but Art's desire for a child seems to point to a residual element of human living-together--the persistence of the couple and the family form! It seems it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of gender. Matt leaves us all with a special wish for Howard Schultz, our new President. Rate and review us on iTunes! Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Purchase the album "Extra Extra" by The Spirit of Space, composer of our theme music! Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app!

This episode Matt and Hilary discuss the masterful chapter, "Ann in the Outback." Matt and Hilary love love love this chapter, perhaps to the point where words fail them. Well, words fail Matt. Hilary, as always, is killing it. It's very cold in Chicago--perfect, Marslike weather for discussing Ann and the many (two) bears she meets, her awkward conversation with Sax, and the shittiness of eco-tourism. Tune in until the end when one of the luminaries of New German Cinema makes a surprise appearance! Extra Extra! Head on over to iTunes where The Spirit of Space, composer of our theme song, is selling his wares. It's an album called--you guessed it--"Extra Extra"! Thank you for listening, and thank you to our donors! Rate and review us on iTunes Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Tweet us @podcastonmars Leave us a voicemail using the Anchor.fm app! Music by the aforementioned Spirit of Space

This week, Marooned on Mars discusses Part 5 of Blue Mars, "Home at Last." In this part, Michel returns home to his beloved Provence to find everything changed and unrecognizable. Matt and Hilary ponder psychologist Michel's weird psychology, where his whole identity is wrapped up in the woman he's in a relationship with. In Matt's words, he sees himself as "a worm who eats uncured olives." We think about personal history versus world history, the curiosity of memory, looking at old photos of yourself, Roman aqueducts, and, of course, how to get Tom Hanks to give us a million dollars. Or maybe Sigourney Weaver. Email: maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @podcastonmars Rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you download your podcasts Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app! Music by The Spirit of Space

On this episode of Marooned!, we're discussing Part 4 of Blue Mars, "Green Earth," a Nirgal chapter. Nirgal, Sax, Maya, and Michel have traveled to Earth as a Martian delegation to attempt to normalize relations to the home planet and help out where they can. Nirgal goes off on a series of disorienting and hallucinatory adventures and comes back sick! Matt and Hilary spend some time chatting about what they've been up to since the last episode. Hilary "moderated" a "panel" at an event co-sponsored by the Chicago Humanities Festival and Humanities Without Walls as part of the MLA conference (or something). N. Katherine Hayles and Evan Selinger had a lot to say! Delightful weirdos who strangely think the humanities are important were in attendance--including the president of the MLA! In our "Mars in Popular Culture Roundup of the Week" segment, which will doubtless be expanded to a weekly extra episode once Tom Hanks gives us a million dollars, Matt watched two Mars-related movies that were bad: Capricorn One and something on Netflix (2036: Origin Unknown). Then we get to the good stuff. This chapter is hallucinatory and impressionistic, anchored in Nirgal's bodily experiences, but also full of subtle references to the history of colonialism, literature, and post-colonial thought, as we discover. Connections we make include C.L.R. James, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, Freud, Agatha Christie, Mr. Belvedere, Jamaica Kincaid, Great Expectations, Moby-Dick, K-19: The Widowmaker, New York 2140. Home at last, Nirgal encounters a planet that wants to kill him, where he feels most at home in zones that are out of reach of earthly life--high in the Alps on a glacier and beneath the sea, polluted and more dangerous than before. We reflect on Nirgal's perennial homelessness as a constitutive lack, which takes his experience of the overwhelming colors, heat, and moisture of Earth from the hallucinatory to the uncanny, or unheimlich in Freudian thinking. This is appropriate because he also keeps running into doppelgängers of his parents, Coyote and Hiroko. All the while, the relation between Earth and Mars is up for debate. Hilary gives a critique of the concept of population and Malthusian logic, and makes a case for faith in people's willingness to figure out the common good in the here-and-now rather than defer decision-making to an investment in an unknowable future. People should get to live good lives while they're alive! Back to our common Arendtian refrain: why put all your faith in the future when you could work to make the present better? Elsewhere, Matt becomes as smart as Jamaica Kincaid when he discovers that you can take the colonies away from the empire, but you can't take colonialism away from the colonizers, and he does a really bad British accent. A very fond farewell to all our listeners across the pond! Things Hilary doesn't like: Tom Hanks, The Family Guy, Avengers: Infinity War (discussed off-mic). Ways Matt can't identify with Nirgal: Scared of scuba diving, does not routinely wake up to find multiple strange women having sex with him. Email us: maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Tweet us (we don't like twitter) @podcastonmars Rate & Review us: iTunes, Google Play, wherever. Voicemail us: Anchor.fm app Music by The Spirit of Space

Happy New Year! This episode follows Art Randolph as he helps in the drafting of a new constitution! Matt and Hilary share some tips and tales about articles, definite and indefinite. Before we get to the chapter itself, we chat again about RED MOON (great book), which leads us to share some of our experiences over the holiday. Matt also would like someone to write an MA thesis about how SF is imagining China right now, specifically in RED MOON and MR. ROBOT. "A New Constitution" centers on Art as the decentralized coffee- and kavajava-brewer for the constitutional congress, which Nadia, wielding "the charisma of the sensible," is de facto chairing. We talk about the folkloric prologue that finds Mars's little red men becoming one with the Dalai Lama, and producing a structure of feeling conducive for the collective project of constituting the present in this opening of potentiality in history. We talk about Vlad's epic takedown of Antar at the table of tables, and the concept of generationality, of which Hilary gives a brilliant critique. We try to get to the bottom of why Jackie favors capitalism, and we discover that PARKS & RECREATION and THE WALKING DEAD are the same show, especially if you're Hannah Arendt. Attention HBO! Hilary Strang would watch a show about drafting a constitution! Also she has written this, about Aurora, for The Blackstone Review! Rate and review us on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to this podcast. Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Leave us a voicemail on the Anchor app! Music by The Spirit of Space

Schoooooool's out for winter! Schoooooool's out for Solstice! Schoooool's out for Marooned! on Mars with Matt and Hilary! In this Sax chapter, Matt and Hilary discuss Sax's inability to leave Ann alone and let her die already. General Sax is up to his old tricks of acting unilaterally, this time at the end of the chapter to save Ann's life. But before that, he partakes in the dream of every red-blooded American male: driving across the surface of the planet, free! Matt and Hilary talk about Sax's difficulty with symbolism and psychoanalysis, and Michel's pathologization of Ann's interest in science and her whole ethical project. We question the autonomy of nature and find some gaps in Sax's etymological studies, and we ponder the role of language in forming constitutional nation-states. And....Hiroko, the oceanic mother of freedom, is back! Or...is she??? At your holiday meals, divide into Green and Red teams (the Christmas colors!) and have an argument about eco-Marxism! Happy Solstice! Rate and review us on iTunes or Google Play Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Leave us voicemails (less than a minute) on the Anchor.fm app Tell your friends, and thanks for listening! Music by The Spirit of Space

The first part of BLUE MARS starts with a chapter from the perspective of Ann Clayborne, who we've only seen through the eyes of others since way back in GREEN MARS, "Long Runout"--something like 500 pages! A lot has changed since then, but BLUE MARS picks up right after the end of GREEN MARS, with no delay. Ann finds herself alienated from the Reds, the revolutionary faction she leads, and especially from the radical sect the Kamakaze, led by Kasei and Dao. In Hiroko's absense, Ann's son, Peter, is the head of the Greens. The Reds and Greens are arguing about taking the space elevator down again, and Ann is caught in the middle! Tension all around! Matt and Hilary discuss Ann's struggle to sort out what she believes and whom she aligns herself with. Is she a politician or a scientist? A revolutionary or a stateswoman? Regardless, she's in surprisingly good shape considering she's 150 years old and stopped taking the gerontological treatments 25 years ago. This chapter has it all: themes of loss and uncertainty, acts of horrific death and destruction, ideological critique, and peer-reviewed journals! Ann appears at turns an avenging angel and the angel of history. On the one hand, she sees people as fungus; on the other, she's struck by the senselessness of the deaths of people who might've lived a thousand years. There's a lot to talk about! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Rate and review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to this Leave us voicemails at the Anchor.fm app! Thanks for listening! Music by The Spirit of Space

In this episode, Matt and Hilary wrap up their discussion of GREEN MARS before starting the final book, BLUE MARS, next week. We share various uncooked thoughts about the second book in the trilogy, including the relationship between ageing (or not ageing, or life-prolongation) to history, the relationship of ritual to ideology ("practice, practice, practice"), Coyote's revolutionary economy, the Iran-Contra scandal, following the rules, repetition and exhaustion, and probability and contingency. We share our favorite memories and moments from GREEN MARS and talk about what we're looking forward to in BLUE MARS. Matt tells a story about meeting a fan, and we give away Matt's renegade mandoline slicer. It's all happening! You have a few days to find BLUE MARS at a used bookstore or put in your order at an independent bookseller! Rate and review us on iTunes Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Send us voicemails on the Anchor app. Tell your friends! Music by The Spirit of Space

We're back! Finally! After an unanticipatedly long hiatus, Matt and Hilary are back to discuss KSR's new novel, RED MOON. We both really love this novel, and talk about it at length (spoilers!). But first we recap our Thanksgivings, sharing harrowing stories of lacerated fingers and the death of the humanities and pondering the mysteries of regional beer regulations. New Glarus, we're looking at you! Then we get to the spoilers. Seriously, if spoilers are a thing for you, it's probably a good idea to skip this episode until you've read RED MOON. But we don't believe in spoilers as a concept. If all you're reading a book for is to find out the plot, you're doing it wrong! We talk about the adventures of Fred Fredericks, Ta Shu, and Qi as they navigate the murky waters of internal Chinese politics, international intrigue, artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, feng shui, poetry, and the historical struggle to make change happen. All this in a political thriller that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat (in our humble opinions)! RED MOON is a great sci-fi political thriller that builds on KSR's concept of SF as "the realism of our time." We'll be back next week to finish up our discussion of GREEN MARS, and after that we'll start getting into BLUE MARS! Hopefully we'll be able to get back to a more consistent schedule in the New Year. You can still: Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars Rate and review us on iTunes! Subscribe on tons of podcast apps Leave us VOICEMAILS on the Anchor.fm app And you can donate to the show via Anchor.fm, if you want us to, in Hilary's utopian vision for the show, "buy a recording studio," or, in Matt's utopian vision for himself, "become a podcast mogul." (Hilary also seems dissatisfied with the microphones for some reason, but Matt thinks they're fine.)

Ken Hollings continues the series that revels in the Mars of imagination, history and science. Feminists, Christians, peace loving druids, vegetarian fruitarian dwarves, Bolsheviks and big science terraformers have all offered up their versions of Martian utopia. Both the astronomer Flammarion and the Russian mystic and Cosmist Nikolai Fyodorov dreamed of the dead resurrected on Mars. At the height of the Cold War, mysterious messages from Mars turn out to come from God, as mankind is shocked into a new beginning in the loopy film Red Planet Mars. But the Bolsheviks had got to Mars long before that, before the revolution even in 1908 with Alexander Bogdanov's Red Star. A prophet of the Bolshevik Revolution, Bogdanov gives us a historically advanced socialist state visited by a veteran revolutionary. In fact this socialist utopia will drive him mad! Russia and then the Soviet Union ached for a future among the stars where apple blossom time would come to Mars. In Unveiling a Parallel, 1893, two Iowan women send a visitor by plane to see how women's lives could be just as equal as men's. Why they could propose marriage and have children out of wedlock! That great mapper of Mars canals, Percival Lowell, impressed on people the desperate tale of Martian co-operation as they raced to save their species. In America the story of terraforming emerged from science fiction to cast a powerful spell on scientists and writers. Jim lovelock, creator of the Gaia theory impishly suggesting we nuke Mars and cover it in hair spray to begin its rebirth. Then came Kim Stanley Robinson, whose vast Martian trilogy (Red, Green, Blue Mars) gives us a near utopia, won only after decades of political strife, terraforming and a final, irrevocable break with Earth. Producer: Mark Burman.

Say Hello! Find OverDrive on Facebook at facebook.com/OverDriveforLibraries and Twitter @OverDriveLibs and email the podcast directly at feedback@overdrive.com    Episode Overview In today's episode we are talking all things Mystery! From cozy mysteries to suspense thrillers to everything in between, the Mystery genre features a multitude of sub-genres and the OverDrive staff librarians all have their favorite titles. Like our Romance episode, we also discuss clever punny titles that come out of this genre. Our intro includes some emails in response to our recent Science Fiction and Fantasy episode with additional recommendations for our listeners. Email us at feedback@overdrive.com with your own comments and recommendations.    Featured OverDrive Staff Jill, Emma, Meghan, and Kristin    Intro (0:00-6:14) Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke Red Mars, Blue Mars, and Green Mars  by Kim Stanley Robinson The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross, Book 1 of the The Steampunk Chronicles The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason, Book 1 of the The Stoker and Holmes series   Recent Reads (6:15-15:49) The Siren by Kiera Cass Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco by Laura DiSilverio Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott  The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin What Remains of Me by Ann Marie Lee Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed by Bruce Coville   Cozy Mysteries and Favorite Punny Titles (15:50-25:50) Murder She Wrote by Jessica Fletcher Purl Up and Die by Maggie Sefton Silence of the Lamps by Karen Rose Smith Caught Bread Handed by Ellie Alexander Gourdfellas by Maggie Bruce A Killer in the Rye by Delia Rosen Fry Me a Liver by Delia Rosen From Herring to Eternity by Delia Rosen As Gouda as Dead by Avery Aames For Chedder or Worse by Avery Aames To Brie or Not to Brie by Avery Aames Clobbered by Camembert by Avery Aames The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames The Diva Runs out of Thyme by Krista Davis One Bad Apple by Sheila Connolly The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun Wish You Were Here by Rita May Brown   Suspense and Thrillers (25:51-32:34) The Likeness by Tana French In the Woods by Tana French The Secret Place by Tana French Blood on the Snow by Jo Nesbo Midnight Sun by Jo Nesbo The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, Book 1 in the Millennium series  The Bat by Jo Nesbo, Book 1 in the Harry Hole series   Unreliable Narrators (32:35-40:55) The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll The Good Girl by Mary Kubica  The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, Book 1 of Cormoran Strike series Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith, Book 3 of Cormoran Strike series   Books Coming Soon (40:56-End) The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight The Girls by Emma Cline The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund End of Watch by Stephen King   Music "Buddy" provided royalty free from www.bensound.com    Podcast Overview We're not just book nerds: we're professional book nerds and the staff librarians who work at OverDrive, the leading app for eBooks and audiobooks available through public libraries and schools. Hear about the best books we've read, get personalized recommendations, and learn about the hottest books coming out that we can't wait to dive into. For more great reads, find OverDrive on Facebook and Twitter. 

Gänget diskuterar hur och när människan tar det stora steget och börjar kolonisera vårt solsystem, och vad som skrivits och filmats kring detta. Från Aniara till The Martian. Mängder av läs- och titt-tips! Med Joakim Bennet, Ida Lindkvist, Jakob Nilsson och Jacob Hugosson   Länklista The Expanse (James S. A. Corey, serie 2011-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(novel_series) The Expanse (SyFy, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, 2015-)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(TV_series) Aniara (Harry Martinsson, 1956)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniara Home Fires (Gene Wolfe, 2011)http://www.wolfewiki.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=WolfeWiki.HomeFires SpaceXhttp://www.spacex.com/about Mars colonial transporterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Colonial_Transporter Mars Onehttp://www.mars-one.com NASA Journey to Marshttps://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars Earth 2, avsnitt 1 ( Michael Duggan m.fl.,1994–1995)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52gCUsb4S9c Battlestar Galactica (Ronald D. Moore, 2004-2009https://se.hbonordic.com/series/all-series Liftarens Guide till Galaxen, (Douglas Adams, 1979)https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liftarens_guide_till_galaxen_(roman) Teknikens Under Aktuellt från rymd, land och hav i text och teckningar. Illustrationer av Sune Envall.http://www.seriesam.com/cgi-bin/guide?s=Teknikens+under+(1976) Universums Öde - George Johansson- Uppbrott från jorden (1979)- Planetjakten (1980)- På okänd planet (1982)- Datorernas död (1983)- Barn av Andromeda (1986)http://www.georgejohansson.se/universums-ode/ Mars trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson- Red Mars (1993)- Green Mars (1994)- Blue Mars (1996)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy Heechee Saga - (Frederik Pohl)- Gateway (1977)- Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1980)- Heechee Rendezvouz (1984)- The Annals of the Heechee (1987)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee The Martian (Andy Weir, 2011)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel) Babylon 5 (J. Michael Straczynski, 1994-1998)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105946/ Star Trek Enterprise (Rick Berman, Brannon Braga,2001-2005)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244365 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Leonard Nimoy,1984)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088170 Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes, 1997)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731 Chasm City (Alastair Reynolds, 2001) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasm_City

The future of Congress has been on our minds. Recently, we considered how advances in technology and data analysis can and will change the way legislators do their work. There are places that are pushing the envelope in this arena. In Brazil official state hackers are building apps, games and data visualizations to help Brazilians – and the members of Parliament – understand the legislative process. In Finland, they are trying legal reform through crowdsourcing – literally turning the legislative process over to the people. There’s one other place we wanted to explore for ideas about the future and politics – Mars. Author Kim Stanley Robinson is probably best known for a trilogy of novels called “Red Mars,” “Green Mars” and “Blue Mars.” Their story follows the first human colony on the Red Planet, from scientific outpost through growing villages and cities, to political revolutions, independence from Earth, and a new constitution. Science fiction is like a big sandbox of ideas in science and technology, but also in culture, politics, and governance. “Lincoln’s great sentence, ‘government of the people, for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the Earth,’ is a utopian science fiction story because it’s in future tense,” Robison says. “We do science fiction all the time in stating our political goals and then acting on them.” A broad theme in Robinson’s work is tinkering with Mars to make it more hospitable to human life. He’s concocted a Martian constitution where the environment itself is an acknowledged stakeholder that has rights. As his characters embark on this massive experiment, two factions emerge: those who believe that it is right and good for humans to manipulate and change the planet as much as they like, and those who believe the wild Martian environment should be protected. Sound familiar? In this case, Robinson’s work is more about NOW than the future. He uses his science fiction to express a clear point of view on issues such as climate change. As far as he is concerned, we are actually in a better position to protect earth than his characters are on Mars. This week on the DecodeDC podcast, it’s the future of Congress from about as far outside the Beltway as you can get. Special thanks to Jeremy Stursberg for his original music in this week's podcast.

Episode 020 of the AboutSF podcast is a recording of an interview John C. Tibbetts conducted with science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. If you have not been following the podcasts, John Tibbetts, associate professor in the department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas, provided donations of audio interviews with luminaries in the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Ray Bradbury, Frederick Pohl and Stephen King, among others, to the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in Lawrence, KS. The interviews, gathered during the course of a lifetime of reading, collecting, and writing about Science Fiction, include conversations with Frederick Pohl, Poul Anderson, Jack Williamson, L. Sprague De Camp, and many more. Kim Stanley Robinson is best-known as the author of the Mars trilogy, featuring the landing, exploration, and terraforming of Mars. Many of Robinson's works feature ecological issues, as well as scientific research and how to find balance between technology and human pursuits. He won the Nebula Award for Red Mars, the beginning of the trilogy. Robinson went on to win the Hugo Awards for Green Mars and Blue Mars. He also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for Pacific Edge. In this episode, Robinson discusses his research about the planet Mars for his trilogy, his inspiration for writing the novels, and his ambitions for writing science fiction.

Robert Hooker (an Information Technology professional living in London) is today's featured guest.Topics: why Twitter is better than Facebook; examples of how Twitter has helped Robert promote his work; differences between the virtual world of Second Life and its new competitor Blue Mars; big and costly mistakes being made by those who own and operate both virtual worlds; and other assorted topics and trends.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the June 2, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes]Robert Hooker has a Bachelors degree in Cognitive Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Masters degree in Sociology from the Open University in Britain. For most of the 1990s Robert worked first as a researcher in Artificial Intelligence at Northwestern University Institute for Learning Sciences (ILS) and then as Web Developer and Entrepreneur. While at the Institute for Learning Sciences he worked with Virtual Reality, web based video delivery, Internet learning and content indexing. Currently he works for Fujitsu Services in the United Kingdom. He has lived in London for the last 10 years.

Doug Thompson sits in today as host and welcomes Catherine Linden to On The Spot with news about the upcoming Second Life 6th Birthday events. The main guest is Jim Sink of Avatar Reality who fills us in on the new virtual world of Blue Mars.Metanomics

Kim Stanley Robinson, the best selling and award-winning science fiction author is today's featured guest. Topics include: Kim Stanley Robinson describes his reaction to being chosen as Guest of Honor for the 2010 World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne Australia. He also describes the benefits and challenges of the January 17, 2009 personal appearance he did in Second Life. He also explains his conviction that we will never develop artificial intelligence, or the singularity, or mind-uploading. But he enthusiastically agrees with the desirability of increasing human longevity as much as possible, even if that means centuries, and even if it throws a monkey wrench into population control. He equates increasing longevity with decreasing human suffering. However, he doubts that an indefinate lifespan will come soon enough for anyone alive today. Earth's current population, he says, may be the result of an Oil Bubble, and may be unsustainable after we run out of oil. He also explains why some people may be disappointed concerning the relationship they have with their robots in the future, since they will watch their machine for some glimmer of personality but will not find it. He also talks about his involvement with the Clarion Writer's Workshop. About his teaching there this summer; about his teaching there once before in 1988; about being a student there in 1975; about the teaching methods used at Clarion; and about how, when it was forced to relocate, he helped Clarion find a new home at his alma mater (UCSD). Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 18, 2009 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes] Kim Stanley Robinson's writings have won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Asimov, the John W. Campbell, the Locus, and the World Fantasy Awards. He has a Bachelors degree in literature, a Masters in English, and a PhD. also in English. He considers science fiction to be one of the most powerful of all literary forms, which explains why his doctoral thesis was titled The Novels of Philip K. Dick. Probably best known for his Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars); his other novels include: Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and most recently, Sixty Days and Counting (which describes the first year of a new and innovative environmentalist president, and may be becoming historical fiction). His newest novel is called Galileo's Dream but will not be released in the US until January of 2010. News in this episode: As many as 50 planets like the Earth are expected to be discovered during the next three years. They will be discovered by the Kepler orbiting telescope, which will begin it's search a few days after NASA launches it on March 5, 2009. As a side result it will also locate many thousands, or even tens of thousands, of planets not like the earth.  

Kim Stanley Robinson, the best selling and award-winning science fiction author is our featured guest. Probably best known for his Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars); his other novels include: Fifty Degrees Below, Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and most recently, Sixty Days and Counting.Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the March 26, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 83 minutes]In today's interview Kim Stanley Robinson covers many topics: his conversations with Sir Arthur C Clarke; how the TV show 24 encourages and justifies the use of torture; his observation that terrorists have become an exaggerated enemy; why English has become the world language; the vision he has tried to put forth in his latest novel Sixty Days and Counting; how frustrating it is that there are lots of exoplanets but we can't go look at them; and his worry that people are losing interest in space exploration because our ability to travel has not extended to the stars and is limited to our own solar system.He also speaks to the difficult issues of the deeper future including: his opinion of the Singularity; his expectations of Artificial Intelligence; why he has moderated some of his views about Nanotechnology (he used to be more dismissive); and just how long he thinks human longevity might become stretched.He also responds to the host's questions:  What would people do differently if we all knew we were going to live for 300 years? How would this change civilization?Kim Stanley Robinson's writings have won the Hugo, the Nebula, the Asimov, the John W. Campbell, the Locus, and the World Fantasy Awards. He has a Bachelors degree in literature, a Masters in English, and a Ph.D. also in English. He considers science fiction to be one of the most powerful of all literary forms, which explains why his doctoral thesis was titled The Novels of Philip K. Dick.Other items in this episode include: the recent death of Sir Arthur C. Clarke (one of the hosts personal heroes); how the upcoming Yuri's Night celebrations will take place in two worlds instead of one (the anniversary of the first human in space); LED light bulbs; and an essay concerning the host's new theory about the origin of NGC-6543, also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula.