Podcasts about Iain Banks

Hello Interactors,I was in Santa Barbara recently having dinner on a friend's deck when a rocket's contrail streaked the sky. “Another one from Vandenberg,” he said. “Wait a couple minutes — you'll hear it.” And we did. “They've gotten really annoying,” he added. He's not wrong. In early 2024, SpaceX launched seven times more tonnage into space than the rest of the world combined, much of it from Vandenberg Space Force Base (renamed from Air Force Base in 2021). They've already been approved to fly 12,000 Starlink satellites, with filings for 30,000 more.This isn't just future space junk — it's infrastructure. And it's not just in orbit. What Musk is doing in the sky is tied to what he's building on the ground. Not in Vandenberg, where regulation still exists, but in Starbase, Texas, where the law doesn't resist — it assists. There, Musk is testing how much sovereignty one man can claim under the banner of “innovation” — and how little we'll do to stop him.TOWNS TO THRUST AND THRONEMusk isn't just defying gravity — he's defying law. In South Texas, a place called Starbase has taken shape along the Gulf Coast, hugging the edge of SpaceX's rocket launch site. What looks like a town is really something else: a launchpad not just for spacecraft, but for a new form of privatized sovereignty.VIDEO: Time compresses at the edge of Starbase: a slow-built frontier where launch infrastructure rises faster than oversight. Source: Google EarthThis isn't unprecedented. The United States has a long lineage of company towns — places where corporations controlled land, housing, labor, and local government. Pullman, Illinois is the most famous. But while labor historians and economic geographers have documented their economic and social impact, few have examined them as legal structures of power.That's the gap legal scholar Brian Highsmith identifies in Governing the Company Town. That omission matters — because these places aren't just undemocratic. They often function as quasi-sovereign legal shells, designed to serve capital, not people.Incorporation is the trick. In Texas, any area with at least 201 residents can petition to become a general-law municipality. That's exactly what Musk has done. In a recent vote (212 to 6) residents approved the creation of an official town — Starbase. Most of those residents are SpaceX employees living on company-owned land…with a Tesla in the driveway. The result is a legally recognized town, politically constructed. SpaceX controls the housing, the workforce, and now, the electorate. Even the mayor is a SpaceX affiliate. With zoning powers and taxing authority, Musk now holds tools usually reserved for public governments — and he's using them to build for rockets, not residents…unless they're employees.VIDEO: Starbase expands frame by frame, not just as a company town, but as a legal experiment — where land, labor, and law are reassembled to serve orbit over ordinance. Source: Google EarthQuinn Slobodian, a historian of neoliberalism and global capitalism, shows how powerful companies and individuals increasingly use legal tools to redesign borders and jurisdictions to their advantage. In his book, Cracked Up Capitalism, he shows how jurisdiction becomes the secret weapon of the capitalist state around the world. I wrote about a techno-optimist fantasy state on the island of Roatán, part of the Bay Islands in Honduras a couple years ago. It isn't new. Disney used the same playbook in 1967 with Florida's Reedy Creek District — deeding slivers of land to employees to meet incorporation rules, then governing without real opposition. Highsmith draws a straight line to Musk: both use municipal law not to serve the public, but to avoid it. In Texas, beach access is often blocked near Starbase — even when rockets aren't launching. A proposed bill would make ignoring an evacuation order a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by jail.Even if Starbase never fully resembles a traditional town, that's beside the point. What Musk is really revealing isn't some urban design oasis but how municipal frameworks can still be weaponized for private control. Through zoning laws, incorporation statutes, and infrastructure deals, corporations can shape legal entities that resemble cities but function more like logistical regimes.And yet, this tactic draws little sustained scrutiny. As Highsmith reminds us, legal scholarship has largely ignored how municipal tools are deployed to consolidate corporate power. That silence matters — because what looks like a sleepy launch site in Texas may be something much larger: a new form of rule disguised as infrastructure.ABOVE THE LAW, BELOW THE LANDElon Musk isn't just shaping towns — he's engineering systems. His tunnels, satellites, and rockets stretch across and beyond traditional borders. These aren't just feats of engineering. They're tools of control designed to bypass civic oversight and relocate governance into private hands. He doesn't need to overthrow the state to escape regulation. He simply builds around it…and in the case of Texas, with it.Architect and theorist Keller Easterling, whose work examines how infrastructure quietly shapes political life, argues that these systems are not just supports for power — they are power. Infrastructure itself is a kind of operating system for shaping the city, states, countries…and now space.Starlink, SpaceX's satellite constellation, provides internet access to users around the world. In Ukraine, it became a vital communications network after Russian attacks on local infrastructure. Musk enabled access — then later restricted it. He made decisions with real geopolitical consequences. No president. No Congress. Just a private executive shaping war from orbit.And it's not just Ukraine. Starlink is now active in dozens of countries, often without formal agreements from national regulators. It bypasses local telecom laws, surveillance rules, and data protections. For authoritarian regimes, that makes it dangerous. But for democracies, it raises a deeper question: who governs the sky?Right now, the answer is: no one. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 assumes that nation-states, not corporations, are the primary actors in orbit. But Starlink functions in a legal grey zone, using low Earth orbit as a loophole in international law…aided and abetted by the U.S. defense department.VIDEO: Thousands of Starlink satellites, visualized in low Earth orbit, encircle the planet like a privatized exosphere—reshaping global communication while raising questions of governance, visibility, and control. Source: StarlinkThe result is a telecom empire without borders. Musk commands a growing share of orbital infrastructure but answers to no global regulator. The International Telecommunication Union can coordinate satellite spectrum, but it can't enforce ethical or geopolitical standards. Musk alone decides whether Starlink aids governments, rebels, or armies. As Quinn Slobodian might put it, this is exception-making on a planetary scale.Now let's go underground. The Boring Company digs high-speed tunnels beneath cities like Las Vegas, sidestepping standard planning processes. These projects often exclude transit agencies and ignore public engagement. They're built for select users, not the public at large. Local governments, eager for tech-driven investment, offer permits and partnerships — even if it means circumventing democratic procedures.Taken together — Starlink above, Boring Company below, Tesla charging networks on the ground — Musk's empire moves through multiple layers of infrastructure, each reshaping civic life without formal accountability. His systems carry people, data, and energy — but not through the public channels meant to regulate them. They're not overseen by voters. They're not authorized by democratic mandate. Yet they profoundly shape how people move, communicate, and live.Geographer Deborah Cowen, whose research focuses on the global logistics industry, argues that infrastructure like ports, fiber-optic cables, and pipelines have become tools of geopolitical strategy. Logistics as a form of war by other means. Brian Highsmith argues this is a form of “functional fragmentation” — breaking governance into layers and loopholes that allow corporations to sidestep collective control. These aren't mere workarounds. They signal a deeper shift in how power is organized — not just across space, but through it.This kind of sovereignty is easy to miss because it doesn't always resemble government. But when a private actor controls transit systems, communication networks, and even military connectivity — across borders, beneath cities, and in orbit — we're not just dealing with infrastructure. We're dealing with rule.And, just like with company towns, the legal scholarship is struggling to catch up. These layered, mobile, and non-territorial regimes challenge our categories of law and space alike. What these fantastical projects inspire is often awe. But what they should require is law.AMNESIA AIDS THE AMBITIOUSElon Musk may dazzle with dreams full-blown, but the roots of his power are not his own. The United States has a long tradition of private actors ruling like governments — with public blessing. These aren't outliers. They're part of a national pattern, deeply embedded in our legal geography: public authority outsourced to private ambition.The details vary, but the logic repeats. Whether it's early colonial charters, speculative land empires, company towns, or special districts carved for tech campuses, American history is full of projects where law becomes a scaffold for private sovereignty. Rather than recount every episode, let's just say from John Winthrop to George Washington to Walt Disney to Elon Musk, America has always made room for men who rule through charters, not elections.Yet despite the frequency of these arrangements, the scholarship has been oddly selective.According to Highsmith, legal academia has largely ignored the institutional architecture that makes company towns possible in the first place: incorporation laws, zoning frameworks, municipal codes, and districting rules. These aren't neutral bureaucratic instruments. They're jurisdictional design tools, capable of reshaping sovereignty at the micro-scale. And when used strategically, they can be wielded by corporations to create functional states-within-a-state — governing without elections, taxing without consent, and shaping public life through private vision.From a critical geography perspective, the problem is just as stark. Scholars have long studied the uneven production of space — how capital reshapes landscapes to serve accumulation. But here, space isn't just produced — it's governed. And it's governed through techniques of legal enclosure, where a patch of land becomes a jurisdictional exception, and a logistics hub or tech campus becomes a mini-regime.Starbase, Snailbrook, Reedy Creek, and even Google's Sidewalk Labs are not just spatial projects — they're sovereign experiments in spatial governance, where control is layered through contracts, tax breaks, and municipal proxies.But these arrangements don't arise in a vacuum. Cities often aren't choosing between public and private control — they're choosing between austerity and access to cash. In the United States, local governments are revenue-starved by design. Most lack control over income taxes or resource royalties, and depend heavily on sales taxes, property taxes, and development fees. This creates a perverse incentive: to treat corporations not as entities to regulate, but as lifelines to recruit and appease.Desperate for jobs and investment, cities offer zoning concessions, infrastructure deals, and tax abatements, even when they come with little democratic oversight or long-term guarantees. Corporate actors understand this imbalance — and exploit it. The result is a form of urban hostage-taking, where governance is bartered piecemeal in exchange for the promise of economic survival.A more democratized fiscal structure — one that empowers cities through equitable revenue-sharing, progressive taxation, or greater control over land value capture — might reduce this dependency. It would make it possible for municipalities to plan with their citizens instead of negotiating against them. It would weaken the grip of corporate actors who leverage scarcity into sovereignty. But until then, as long as cities are backed into a fiscal corner, we shouldn't be surprised when they sell off their power — one plot or parking lot at a time.Highsmith argues that these structures demand scrutiny — not just for their economic impact, but for their democratic consequences. These aren't just quirks of local law. They are the fault lines of American federalism — where localism becomes a loophole, and fragmentation becomes a formula for private rule.And yet, these systems persist with minimal legal friction and even less public awareness. Because they don't always look like sovereignty. Sometimes they look like a housing deal. A fast-tracked zoning change. A development district with deferred taxes. A campus with private shuttles and subsidized utilities. They don't announce themselves as secessions — but they function that way.We've been trained to see these projects as innovation, not governance. As entrepreneurship, not policy. But when a company owns the homes, builds the roads, controls the data, and sets the rules, it's not just offering services — it's exercising control. As political theorist Wendy Brown has argued, neoliberalism reshapes civic life around the image of the entrepreneur, replacing democratic participation with market performance.That shift plays out everywhere: universities run like corporations, cities managed like startups. Musk isn't the exception — he's the clearest expression of a culture that mistakes private ambition for public good. Musk once tweeted, “If you must know, I am a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks.” In a New York Times article, Jill Lepore quoted Banks as saying his science fiction books were about “'hippy commies with hyper-weapons and a deep distrust of both Marketolatry and Greedism.' He also expressed astonishment that anyone could read his books as promoting free-market libertarianism, asking, ‘Which bit of not having private property and the absence of money in the Culture novels have these people missed?'”The issue isn't just that we've allowed these takeovers — it's that we've ignored the tools enabling them: incorporation, annexation, zoning, and special districts. As Brian Highsmith notes, this quiet shift in power might not have surprised one of our constitution authors, James Madison, but it would have troubled him. In Federalist No. 10, Madison warned not of monarchs, but of factions — small, organized interests capturing government for their own ends. His solution was restraint through scaling oppositional voices. “The inference to which we are brought is, that the causes of faction cannot be removed...and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.”— James Madison, Federalist No. 10 (1787)Today, the structure meant to restrain factions has become their playbook. These actors don't run for office — they arrive with charters, contracts, and capital. They govern not in the name of the people, but of “efficiency” and “innovation.” And they don't need to control a nation when a zoning board will do.Unchecked, we risk mistaking corporate control for civic order — and repeating a pattern we've barely begun to name.We were told, sold, and promised a universe of shared governance — political, spatial, even orbital. But Madison didn't trust promises. He trusted structure. He feared what happens when small governments fall to powerful interests — when law becomes a lever for private gain. That fear now lives in legal districts, rocket towns, and infrastructure built to rule. Thousands of satellites orbit the Earth, not launched by publics, but by one man with tools once reserved for states. What was once called infrastructure now governs. What was once geography now obeys.Our maps may still show roads and rails and pipes and ports — but not the fictions beneath them, or the factions they support.References:Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. Zone Books.Cowen, D. (2014). The deadly life of logistics: Mapping violence in global trade. University of Minnesota Press.Easterling, K. (2014). Extrastatecraft: The power of infrastructure space. Verso Books.Highsmith, B. (2022). Governing the company town: How employers use local government to seize political power. Yale Law Journal.Madison, J. (1787). Federalist No. 10. In A. Hamilton, J. Madison, & J. Jay, The Federalist Papers. Bantam Books (2003 edition).Slobodian, Q. (2023). Crack-Up Capitalism: Market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy. Metropolitan Books. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit interplace.io

In episode 1868, Jack and guest co-host Pallavi Gunalan are joined by comedian and co-host of The Worst Idea Of All Time, Tim Batt, to discuss… Climate Change OG, Have the Experience of Stealing From a Porch Without All the Risk, Kevin Spacey Compares Himself To Victims Of The Blacklist During Unhinged Cannes Speech, Is The World The Way It Is Because Billionaires Are Too Dumb To Understand A Sci-Fi Book Series? And more! Dallas Comedy Club Presents: PALLAVI GUNALAN Climate Change OG Have the Experience of Stealing From a Porch Without All the Risk Kevin Spacey faces another civil sexual assault lawsuit in UK Fact check: Is Kevin Spacey really being honoured at Cannes? 'Nice to be back,' Kevin Spacey says, accepting achievement award in Cannes Writers Guild Censures ‘Schooled’ Showrunner Tim Doyle for Posting Lynching Image in Facebook Joke Kevin Spacey Compares His Plight to Hollywood Blacklist in Fiery Defense in Cannes: History ‘Often Repeats Itself’ Writers Guild Scribe Apologizes for “Epically Horrible” Joke Gone Wrong Using Lynching Image The Culture War: Iain M. Banks’s Billionaire Fans - Why Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos love Iain M. Banks’ anarcho-communist space opera. Why does Elon Musk love this socialist sci-fi series? Jeff Bezos: ‘We will have to leave this planet … and it’s going to make this planet better’ Elon Musk Names SpaceX Drone Ships in Honor of Iain M. Banks 30 years of Culture: what are the top five Iain M Banks novels? Amazon TV adaptation of Iain Banks' Culture series is cancelled A man of culture Ethical future? Science fiction and the tech billionaires Jack's Piece of Media: Future Adam Curtis B-Roll LISTEN: Little Things by Still WoozySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join us for the Lair of Secrets' annual summer reading list! We run down a few of the books on our respective lists, but we're always looking for more! Featured in this episode are: Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente Infinite Archive (The Midsolar Murders #3) by Mur Lafferty Vicious by V.E. Schwab As well as side quests to talk about Iain Banks' The Culture series, Terry Prachett's Discworld, and Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Suggest your own book ideas in the comments! Chapters 0:00 Intro & Rocket Misfires0:40 Red Sonja: Sword & Sorcery Revival1:45 Moon Cheese Madness: Scalzi's Absurd Apocalypse3:10 Seveneves vs. Moon Made of Cheese4:20 Ghosts in Cryo: Cold Eternity Breakdown5:35 Space Opera and the Glam-paign Idea6:50 Infinite Archive: Murder, She Wrote in Space8:00 Vicious by V.E. Schwab: Superpowered Rivalry9:10 The Overflowing To-Read Pile10:20 Pratchett's Final Discworld Reflections11:20 Saying Goodbye to The Culture Series12:00 More Books, More Time: Summer Reading Goals13:10 Share Your Book Picks!14:00 Outro & Call to Action Listen to the Episode Watch to the Episode Watch Summer Reading List 2025 (S4E24) on YouTube. Show Notes Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone (Ken) - I got this as a Christmas present, and I'm looking forward to Gail's take on Red Sonja in novel form (I already read the comic book series she wrote; it was great). From the book blurb: The gutsy, wild, tortured free spirit, forged in pain yet unafraid of life or death, Red Sonja, the famous, fiery She-Devil and barbarian of Hyrkania has never concerned herself with the consequences of her actions. She's taken what she wanted, from treasure to drink to the companionship of bedfellows. She's fought who deserved it (and sometimes those who didn't). And she's never looked back. But when rumors start bubbling up from her homeland—rumors of unknown horrors emerging from the ground and pulling their unsuspecting victims to their deaths—and a strange voice begins whispering to her in her sleep, she realizes she may have to return to the country that abandoned her. And finally do the only thing that has ever scared her: confront her past. When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (David) - I've been a fan of most of Scalzi's books. This is one of his more humorous books like Starter Villain and Kaiju Preservation Society. I'm looking forward to it. It's also going to hold me over until the next Old Man's War book comes out. The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it. For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible. Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you'd expect, and then to so many places you wouldn't. It's a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket. Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Ken) – Barnes' third sci-fi/horror/ghost story novel is out. I loved the creepy atmosphere of the first two, which makes this one an easy pick. Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth's most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago… The cryo program,

Join us for the Lair of Secrets' annual summer reading list! We run down a few of the books on our respective lists, but we're always looking for more! Featured in this episode are: Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente Infinite Archive (The Midsolar Murders #3) by Mur Lafferty Vicious by V.E. Schwab As well as side quests to talk about Iain Banks' The Culture series, Terry Prachett's Discworld, and Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Suggest your own book ideas in the comments! Chapters 0:00 Intro & Rocket Misfires0:40 Red Sonja: Sword & Sorcery Revival1:45 Moon Cheese Madness: Scalzi's Absurd Apocalypse3:10 Seveneves vs. Moon Made of Cheese4:20 Ghosts in Cryo: Cold Eternity Breakdown5:35 Space Opera and the Glam-paign Idea6:50 Infinite Archive: Murder, She Wrote in Space8:00 Vicious by V.E. Schwab: Superpowered Rivalry9:10 The Overflowing To-Read Pile10:20 Pratchett's Final Discworld Reflections11:20 Saying Goodbye to The Culture Series12:00 More Books, More Time: Summer Reading Goals13:10 Share Your Book Picks!14:00 Outro & Call to Action Listen to the Episode Watch to the Episode Watch Summer Reading List 2025 (S4E24) on YouTube. Show Notes Red Sonja Consumed by Gail Simone (Ken) - I got this as a Christmas present, and I'm looking forward to Gail's take on Red Sonja in novel form (I already read the comic book series she wrote; it was great). From the book blurb: The gutsy, wild, tortured free spirit, forged in pain yet unafraid of life or death, Red Sonja, the famous, fiery She-Devil and barbarian of Hyrkania has never concerned herself with the consequences of her actions. She's taken what she wanted, from treasure to drink to the companionship of bedfellows. She's fought who deserved it (and sometimes those who didn't). And she's never looked back. But when rumors start bubbling up from her homeland—rumors of unknown horrors emerging from the ground and pulling their unsuspecting victims to their deaths—and a strange voice begins whispering to her in her sleep, she realizes she may have to return to the country that abandoned her. And finally do the only thing that has ever scared her: confront her past. When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi (David) - I've been a fan of most of Scalzi's books. This is one of his more humorous books like Starter Villain and Kaiju Preservation Society. I'm looking forward to it. It's also going to hold me over until the next Old Man's War book comes out. The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it. For some it's an opportunity. For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now... something absolutely impossible. Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives -- over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you'd expect, and then to so many places you wouldn't. It's a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket. Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (Ken) – Barnes' third sci-fi/horror/ghost story novel is out. I loved the creepy atmosphere of the first two, which makes this one an easy pick. Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth's most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago… The cryo program,

We find out who Zakalwe really is...

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Avec Guillaume Chamanadjian, Claire Duvivier, Gwennael Gaffric et Eva Martin.Animation : Julien Guerry Les exemples ne manquent pas en SF et en fantasy de ces jeux qui font appel à l'intellect, de The Chessmen of Mars d'Edgard Rice Burroughs au Problème à trois corps de Liu Cixin en passant par L'Homme des jeux de Iain Banks. Il faut dire que le jeu a pour intérêt d'offrir une grande variété en matière de pratique et d'espace : il peut se révéler physique ou virtuel, se pratiquer en des zones fermées ou ouvertes, se jouer à longue distance, ou bien face à face autour d'un plateau, comme la Tour de garde dans les romans de Guillaume Chamanadjian et Claire Duvivier… Tous offrent un terrain fertile pour explorer des idées complexes et des dynamiques sociales, à travers des cadres ludiques et métaphoriques. Ils nous invitent à réfléchir aux stratégies et aux tactiques qui façonnent nos propres vies, tout en nous divertissant. Table ronde dans le cadre de la 12e édition du festival Les Intergalactiques "Du Pain et des Jeux" le samedi 20 avril 2024.

Finally we get to see Zakalwe doing what he does best; soldiering.

AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente.  Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC 

Zakalwe goes to the snow!

SF author Ken MacLeod on his lifelong friend Iain Banks. Become a member of the Science Fiction community to continue the discussion Website - https://damiengwalter.com YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/DamienWalter/membership Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/DamienWalter Subscribe to the Science Fiction podcast feed for long-form commentaries on these video essays https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Join the Science Fiction community on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197/

Zakalwe throws away his weapon, has a philosphical discussion, and fixes for a fight

Zakalwe gets in a lot of fights, but his love of the old plasma rifle finally pays off!

Zakalwe tries his hand at writing poetry in an idyllic rural setting, but it's not as nice as he'd hoped.

As a flashback from the worst day of Zakalwe's life we get the origin story!

Today's guest is Dr. Emmanuel Bengio. Enjoy this conversation about his research, including the topic of graph flow networks (GFlowNets). Books Referenced: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny by William Strauss and Neil Howe The Culture series by Iain Banks

Zakalwe gets stuck in a storm, takes a long hard look at himself, argues with an idiot, and sees some very strange things.

INTRODUCTIONImagine if competitive brands collectively adopted multi-use and standardized packaging.Imagine products exclusively housed in reusable packaging displayed on every retailer's shelf.Now, envision a seamless system where customers can return these refillable containers, ensuring their circulation for many years to come!Well, this is already happening with pioneers like Jo-Anne Chidley, the co-founder of Beauty Kitchen, a sustainable, natural personal care brand, and Reposit, a packaging-as-a-service platform. She shares a wealth of advice drawn from her experience in this episode! Get ready to learn about:How certifications like Cradle-to-Cradle and B-Corp serve as excellent guidelines for improvement (as her company broke records in the European cosmetic industry).The significance of values such as partnerships, collaborations, and community in fortifying a reuse business model.The paramount importance of modularity in constructing long-term, viable solutions (illustrated using the example of washing infrastructure).Measurements to better disrupt single-use and plastic packaging, with some key environmental and sales impacts!I admire how Jo is defeating preconceived ideas, and how she is opening revolutionary horizons for reuse!Here's my two cents if you get the chance to meet her: Don't say no to Jo! Instead, inquire "How?" and be ready to roll up your sleeves!RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEJo answers the question formulated in Episode 34: “Designing plastic free: Why and what does it take?” with Sian Sutherland of A Plastic Planet: https://www.look4loops.com/packaging-podcast/ep34-plastic-free-material-design-campaigns-platform  If you want to know more about the Bulk Collective concept, listen to episode 36: “The bulk: How to free products and consumers from the packaging?” with Célia Rennesson of Réseau Vrac & Elsa Bortuzzo of Yokoumi: https://www.look4loops.com/packaging-podcast/ep36-bulk-network-packaging-free-products-consumersJo recommends reading Iain Banks, a Scottish sci-fi author.the Cradle to Cradle booksthe B Corp HandbookWHERE TO FIND JO-ANNE CHIDLEY AND HER COMPANIES?The Reposit website: https://reposit.world/   The Beauty Kitchen website: https://beautykitchen.co.uk/   Jo-Anne Chidley LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochidley/ABOUT JO-ANNE CHIDLEY FROM BEAUTY KITCHEN AND REPOSITJo Chidley is a circular economy expert, chemist, herbal botanist, and co-founder of Beauty Kitchen and Reposit, the highest scoring B Corp in the UK beauty industry and the pioneering Packaging as a service for consumer products. Founded in 2014, Jo has set out to change the face of the beauty industry by creating the most effective, natural, and sustainable beauty products in the world, alongside changing the way we see our packaging for beauty and beyond.PODCAST MUSICSpecial thanks to Joachim Regout who made the jingle. Have a look at his work here. I am happy to bring a sample of our strong bonds on these sound waves. Since I was a child, he made me discover a wide range of music of all kinds. I am also delighted he is a nature lover and shares the Look4Loops 'out of the box philosophy'. He is an inspiring source of creativity for me. 

¡Bienvenidos a un nuevo episodio de El Club Midian! El crossover literario urdido entre El Sótano de Radio Belgrado y El Calabozo del Reverendo Wilson resurge de sus cenizas para reactivar el apasionante club de lectura que el Sr. Darth y el Reverendo quieren compartir con sus oyentes. La vuelta del espacio tiene como protagonista a una de las obra más sui genéris y polémicas de su tiempo: La fábrica de avispas, del escocés Iain Banks, quien propone toda una sumersión emocional en su protagonista adolescente, capaz de crearse toda una idiosincrasia psicológica que da andamiaje y forma al peculiar universo de esta obra. Enjoy! Si te ha gustado el programa, recuerda que tienes la posibilidad de ayudar a El Club Midian dándole a "Me gusta". ¡Gracias y feed the cvlt!

Zakalwe falls in love, and dreams about the ghost of the real Zakalwe.

Imagine leading a thriving business where employee satisfaction links directly to customer happiness. Our guest, Iain Banks, CEO of Ventrica, shares his unique vision and leadership journey, showing us how to create a positive work environment that benefits all. He divulges Ventrica's approach to the digital customer experience and the importance of investing in a robust team. Ever pondered about the critical elements of offshoring? It's all about the triad of people, process, and technology in the BPO industry, and we uncover these with Iain. We delve into the sectors ripe for BPO providers and the rising importance of data security and corporate social responsibility. Iain further enlightens us on Ventrica's stance on those fronts and the potential risks of outsourcing.We end our chat with a look at Ventrica's ESG and CSR goals and how they strive to engage employees and local charities. We also explore the importance of maintaining a consistent culture across global destinations, the evolving role of humans in the age of automation and AI, and the impact of Ventrica's accomplishments on the industry. This episode is a treasure trove of insights into the world of offshoring, automation, and AI in the customer experience industry.

DOUG JOHNSTONE chats to Paul about his new novel THE OPPOSITE OF LONELY, the Skelfs, Sci-Fi, mathematical modelling and being the writer in residence at a funeral parlour.THE OPPOSITE OF LONELY: Even death needs company…The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and private-investigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever. Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at an illegal campsite and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk. With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything… Tense, unnerving and warmly funny, The Opposite of Lonely is the hugely anticipated fifth instalment in the unforgettable Skelfs series, and this time, danger comes from everywhere…DOUG JOHNSTONE is the author of sixteen novels, most recently THE OPPOSITE OF LONELY, the fifth in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for TV. In 2021, The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), will be published in 2022. Several of his books have been best sellers and award winners, and his work has been praised by the likes of Val McDermid, Irvine Welsh and Ian Rankin. He's taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He's also player-manager of the Scotland Writers Football Club. He lives in Edinburgh.Recommendations Adrian Tomine,  Iain Banks, Willy Vlautin, James Sallis. Megan Abbott, Jeff VanderMeer, Jordan Harper Everybody Knows.Paul Burke writes for Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network. He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2023.Music courtesy of  Guy Hale author of The Comeback Trail trilogy, featuring Jimmy Wayne - KILLING ME SOFTLY - MIKE ZITO featuring Kid Anderson.GUY HALE Produced by Junkyard DogCrime TimeCrime Time FM is the official podcast ofGwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023CrimeFest 2023CWA Daggers 2023& ?? (December)

'It was always my intention to bounce between eras and genres, like Iain Banks with and without his ‘M'. Looking at Hilary Mantel's early career, she did the same. 'It was always my intention to bounce between eras and genres, like Iain Banks with and without his ‘M'. Looking at Hilary Mantel's early career, she did the same. It is possible, with sheer bloody-mindedness, to carve your own niche.

We speak with science fiction reviewer and critic, Paul Kincaid about his biography of Iain Banks, The Culture and why Banks' books have such longevity (among other things). Be sure to also check out Paul's site, Through the Dark Labyrinth Music by Terminal Khaos Builders

Iain Banks died of cancer 10 years ago. He was a delight to interview... funny, quick, challenging and always entertaining. Iain Banks was a rock star author!    

01:10 - Why a book challenge? 06:30 - Things we've learned during the first month of the challenge The January Prompt: Read a book you've been meaning to read for a long time. 10:30 - January picks from Melissa (Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer), Elyse (Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn), Jack (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon), and Lozy (Raw Spirit by Iain Banks). 17:38 - Ryan talks about The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell 34:15 - Tessa talks about The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 55:01 - Sam talks about Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover (as well as Heir to the Empire and the Star Wars Essential Legends Collection The February Prompt: Read a book about filmmaking of film history. 1:15:33 - The Romance Reading Sub-Challenge: Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, A Duke, The Lady, and the Baby by Vanessa Riley Authentic Books: https://www.authenticbooks.com/ Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

Author Robbie Sheerin's website: http://www.RobbieSheerinWriter.com/ Robbie Sheerin's Amazon author's page: https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Sheerin/e/B09MDV7785 Robbie's Good Reads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22019968.Robbie_Sheerin You can contact Robbie on LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-sheerin-b834b5245

Author Robbie Sheerin's website: http://www.RobbieSheerinWriter.com/ Robbie Sheerin's Amazon author's page: https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Sheerin/e/B09MDV7785 Robbie's Good Reads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22019968.Robbie_Sheerin You can contact Robbie on LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-sheerin-b834b5245

Author Robbie Sheerin's website: http://www.RobbieSheerinWriter.com/ Robbie Sheerin's Amazon author's page: https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Sheerin/e/B09MDV7785 Robbie's Good Reads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22019968.Robbie_Sheerin You can contact Robbie on LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-sheerin-b834b5245

Author Robbie Sheerin's website: http://www.RobbieSheerinWriter.com/ Robbie Sheerin's Amazon author's page: https://www.amazon.com/Robbie-Sheerin/e/B09MDV7785 Robbie's Good Reads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22019968.Robbie_Sheerin You can contact Robbie on LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/robbie-sheerin-b834b5245 Mentioned in this episode: Author Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory: https://www.amazon.com/WASP-FACTORY-NOVEL-Iain-Banks/dp/0684853159

Long before Ready Player One, there was a book about an intergalactic game of chance and luck called The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks, published in 1988. It was the second Culture novel, which is a vast AI interface that plug people into a better reality, or does it?We'll break down the book, see if it holds up, and talk about its relevance in today's world which has VR gaming as the new frontier. Check it!

Sunday Times Bestselling Author Janice Hallett. Author of THE APPEAL, THE TWYFORD CODE and THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS.Janice chats about:her background in magazines and writing speeches for politiciansamateur dramaticshow changing a books cover can be a gamechangerreverse engineering plotthe dangers of writing on a laptopGuest: Janice Hallet Twitter: @JaniceHallett Instagram: @janice.hallett Books: The Appeal by Janice Hallett , The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett, The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett (pre-order for Jan 2023) Host: Kate Sawyer Twitter: @katesawyer IG: @mskatesawyer Books:The Stranding by Kate Sawyer & This Family by Kate Sawyer Janice's recommendations: A book for fans of Janice's books: Life After Life by Tony Parker (seems to be out if print but available secondhand on various resale sites) Books that Janice has always loved: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks & Behind The Scenes At The Museum by Kate Atkinson Books coming soon or recently released that Janice recommends: Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard & The Maiden by Kate Foster Novel Experience with Kate Sawyer is recorded and produced by Kate Sawyer - GET IN TOUCHTo receive transcripts and news from Kate to your inbox please SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER or visit https://www.mskatesawyer.com/novelexperiencepodcast for more information.

We are back after an unplanned Covey Dove hiatus! We ramble about Stephen King, Ron's Covid-induced Star Wars Binge, Iain Banks, a vampire corpse found, a pumpkin boat record, monkey sex toys, TwitchCon injuries, python sumggling and Chris gives us a round of Eliminaysh on the best TV shows of all time!

We come to an end of the journey for the first of The Culture books. Fear not we shall return soon for The Player of Games.

It's a big episode with a big body count! But finally we finish up in these goddamn tunnels! 

Crack open a MKE Brewing Louie's Demise to celebrate life and death this week.  We'll be talking about the intense and graphic novel by Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory Trigger Warnings: Child Murder, Violence Against Animals, and Animal Mutilation Milwaukee Brewing Companyhttps://mkebrewing.com/Iain Bankshttps://www.iain-banks.net/Iain Banks Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_BanksGet 2 months of Scribd Freehttps://www.scribd.com/g/9s1nq7Scribdhttps://www.scribd.com/Media RecommendationsSave Your Asks by Chris TuffFind my sponsors: 1uptilsunup on @1uptilsunup on; TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTubeAvenue Coffee is on Facebook and at: avenue-coffeehouse.com Find me on Instagram @dontreaddrunk dontreaddrunk.buzzsprout.com dontreaddrunk@gmail.com

The KFC on the CAT finally makes it to Schar's World and Horza's misspent youth catches up with him.

Author/historian Stuart Kells has been chasing rare books and other bookish treasures since childhood. In the 1980s he went for classic sci-fi paperbacks from Ace and Dell, and authors such as Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein.   When he moved to Melbourne in the summer of 1989 he was amazed by the city's bookshops, especially secondhand shops - notably Alice's and Sainsbury's in Carlton. When ​he wasn't looking for books​ here he was fossicking in the Co-op bookshop at Melbourne University, or hunting for ​them at markets and fetes. For the past 26 years​ he's been a regular at Camberwell Market where great books can be found, along with almost everything else. Vividly remembered finds include Iain Banks and Vikram Seth firsts; classic Australian crime pulps; rare maps; and advertising and ephemera of every kind.   I connected with Stuart recently via Zoom to talk about Penguin and the Lane Brothers, ​his revealing, myth-busting book about the intimate partnership of Allen, Richard and John Lane – and how it explains the success of Penguin Books, the twentieth century's "greatest publishing house." We talk about the spirit of daring and creative opposition that drove the brothers to publish so many quality books on such a massive scale at such affordable prices – and how together they achieved a revolution in modern book publishing. 

In this episode, Lyn is joined by PLS Treasurer Thomas Gordon, writer and musician Robin Allender and writer, comedian and BBC radio presenter John Robins. The conversation focuses on some of Robin and John's favourite Larkin poems, such as Deceptions and I Remember, I Remember and their huge knowledge and love for Larkin's work. Poems discussed: Sad Steps, High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings, Absences, Here, Livings, The Building, How, Dockery and Son, An Arundel Tomb, Deceptions, Afternoons, Mythological Introduction, I Remember, I Remember, Vers de Societie, The Life With a Hole in It, Toads, Toads Revisited, Home is So Sad, For Sidney Bechet, Going Going, The Mower Larkin prose: All What Jazz, Required Writing Other texts and references: Faber Book of Modern Verse- ed. Peter Porter, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein (1937), On The Road, Hamlet, Yeats, John Betjeman, DH Lawrence, Iain Banks, Somewhere Becoming Rain by Clive James (2019), The Waste Land by TS Eliot (1922), Jackson Pollock, Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce (1939), Lennon Ono- The Wedding Album (1969), Queen, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart Safe As Milk (1967), Spin Magazine, Melody Maker, Bjork Venus as a Boy, Howl by Allen Ginsburg (1965), In Love With Hell by William Palmer (2021), The Thirsty Muse by Tom Dardis (1991), Kingsley Amis, Peter Cook, The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943), Tom Paulin, The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951), Joe Rogan (podcaster) The Moon Under Water BBC Radio 5 live - Elis James and John Robins The Moon Under Water All Episodes — Your Own Personal Beatles This episode contains discussion of rape and alcohol misuse which some listeners may find upsetting, so please take care. Presented by Lyn Lockwood. Theme music: 'The Horns Of The Morning' by The Mechanicals Band. Buy 'The Righteous Jazz' at their Bandcamp page: https://themechanicalsband.bandcamp.com/album/the-righteous-jazz Audio editing by Simon Galloway. Follow us and get it touch on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tiny_air Find out more about the Philip Larkin Society here - http://philiplarkin.com/

Travis interviews Lauren Panepinto, Creative Director of Orbit Books, about book design and more. Lauren and Travis discuss how a book cover gets made, how fonts and color theory attract a reader's eye, and the origin of the cloaked figure on so many fantasy covers. Want your message featured on the podcast? Find out more here. About Lauren Panepinto: After 15 years designing and art directing book covers, Lauren Panepinto has worked in every publishing genre and collaborated with artists of all disciplines. As the Creative Director of the Orbit Books division of the Hachette Book Group, she has been developing covers for commercial fiction, genre fiction, and graphic novels, as well as overseeing the advertising and promotion visuals of the imprint brands overall. She has designed bestselling covers for Iain Banks, Mira Grant, James S. A. Corey, Brent Weeks, and Gail Carriger, among many others.   Not content to just design covers, Lauren has written about science fiction and fantasy art for ImagineFX magazine, io9.com, Orbitbooks.net, and as a columnist at Muddy Colors. Lauren has been very active in the role of art business education, not only at a panelist, presenter, and portfolio reviewer at San Diego ComicCon, New York ComicCon, Spectrum, and Illuxcon, but also as an adjunct professor in the graduate level Center for Publishing at NYU, as well as a frequent guest lecturer at numerous art schools. Lauren has curated gallery shows for the Society of Illustrators in New York City and Krab Jab in Seattle. She is a frequent art competition judge, most recently for the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles, Infected by Art, and ImagineFX's Rising Stars issue.   Lauren graduated from The School of Visual Arts with a degree in Graphic Design and Advertising. She has worked in fashion (Perry Ellis), television (MTV), and for boutique design firms, but found her true calling in book publishing. She has worked at three of the "Big Five" publishing companies: St. Martin's Press/Picador Books, then Doubleday/Random House, and now Hachette Book Group. Things Mentioned: Brian McClellan's Page Break podcast Find Us Online: Blog Discord Twitter Instagram Support Us: Become a Patron Buy Us a Coffee Music: Intro: "The Legend of Iya" courtesy of https://philter.no Outro: "A Quest Unfolds" courtesy of https://philter.no This episode of The Fantasy Inn podcast was recorded in the unceded territory of the S'atsoyaha (Yuchi) and ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ Tsalaguwetiyi (Eastern Cherokee Band) peoples. Some of the links included in these show notes are affiliate links and support the podcast at no additional cost to you. If it's an option for you, we encourage you to support your local bookstores! The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

In this chapter we get to know the Idirans, big conversations are had, and Horza steps outside for a long walk!

An extra special episode of The Wandering Bard on Stories from the Hearth, in which Cal holds a conversation on storytelling with Joe Fisher, creator of the popular sci-fi audio drama Midnight Burger. Cal and Joe chat about Prince, Shakespeare, and the Devil; the terrors of the Metaverse, the safety of the multiverse, and the future of storytelling. This episode marks the first creator-to-creator interview hosted on Stories from the Hearth.The Wandering Bard is a bonus mini-series on the fiction anthology podcast Stories from the Hearth, and is a space for host Cal Bannerman to explore the history of storytelling, as well as the people behind it. In this episode Cal meets a writer, podcaster, director and producer at the forefront of the independent fiction podcast scene: Joe Fisher of Midnight Burger.Watch the full interview with Joe on YouTube, here.Listen to Joe's podcast Midnight Burger, here.Support Stories from the Hearth on Patreon, here.Support Midnight Burger on Patreon, here.Instagram: @storiesfromthehearthTwitter: @Hearth_PodcastYouTube: Stories from the HearthEmail: storiesfromthehearthpodcast@gmail.comFire Daemon Character Artwork by Anna FerraraAnna's Instagram: @giallosardinaAnna's Portfolio: https://annaferrara.carbonmade.com/Thank you for listening. Please consider following, subscribing to, and sharing this bonus episode, and please do tell your friends all about Stories from the Hearth.

It's time to stand up and be counted! The gang tackles what censuses are all about, different types of censuses, what censuses can signal, and what censuses mean for national security. Ian Banks his Cultural knowledge, Clara reveals her love language, Tom bows to the superiority of Babylon 5, and Eric turns against The State…The book Clara mentioned is: Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (New York: Penguin, 2020). Check out our Discord at discord.gg/6xg2sApfGJThe Joint Geeks on this episode are: Eric Muirhead (@StarfleetHIST), Ian Boley (@IBBoley), Tom Harper (@thomasLharper), and Clara Engle Boley. 

Lisa Rogers has been copy editor to some amazing authors including Joe Abercrombie, Terry Pratchett, Iain Banks, Tad Williams and some bloke called Mark Stay. She answers listener questions on the role of a copy editor, common mistakes made by authors, style guides, timelines, differences in style between UK and US publishers, Oxford commas, point-of-view, head-hopping, and why hyphens keep her up at night.

Edi Stark talks to novelist and science fiction writer at his home in Fife.

In this episode, Hans and Chris discuss the extremely disturbing first novel of Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory. I listen in the background for a while before chiming in with thoughts that break the whole thing open.

This is a really fun conversation with one of the most influential living scientist. Dr. Christof Koch is neuroscientist pioneering th the neural bases of consciousness. He is the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. In this conversation we discuss... Christof's journey into the brain sciences and work with Francis Crick what is the 'integrated information theory' of consciousness russellian monism and the panpsychist revival contrasting consciousness and intelligence can a machine become conscious the possibility of artificial intelligence the love of dogs and becoming a vegetarian how practices open up different worlds defending the depths for human existence Iain Banks' novels adversarial experimentation and the problem of conscious beginning with phenomenology in the explanation of consciousness Check out his two most recent books: The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread but Can't Be Computed Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Denise and Louise talk with guest Sea Chapman about constructed languages, or conlangs. Listen to find out more about:What is a constructed language, or conlang? The different types of conlang Tips for writers who want to include conlangs in fiction The rules of play Base languages sometimes and conlang creation Resources mentioned in the showEmail Sea Chapman (sea@seachapman.com) for handouts from her ACES 2018 presentation, ‘Conlangs: Languages with Stories to Tell' or to request additional resources https://conlang.org/ (Language Creation Society) https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/ (Conlangs on Reddit) https://www.facebook.com/groups/constructedlanguages/ (Constructed Languages on Facebook) https://conworkshop.com/ (ConWorkShop forum) http://conlangery.com/ (Conlangery podcast) https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/iain-banks-talks-writing-world-events-and-mastermind?in_menu=173332 (Iain Banks talks writing, world events and Mastermind) (video) ‘http://trevor-hopkins.com/banks/a-few-notes-on-marain.html (A few notes on Marain by Iain M. Banks)' Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language ‘What's Polari?' Ask us a questionThe easiest way to ping us a question is via Facebook Messenger: Visit the podcast's Facebook page and click on the http://bit.ly/EditPodFB (SEND MESSAGE) button. Denise and Louisehttps://my.captivate.fm/bit.ly/CowleEditing (Denise Cowle Editorial Services) https://my.captivate.fm/bit.ly/HarnbyEditing (Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor) Music credit‘Vivacity' Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (By Attribution 3.0 License).

David Shelley is the CEO of Orion Publishing and the Little, Brown Publishing Group, he started as an editor, working with some major talents including Iain Banks, Val McDermid and JK Rowling, and he talked to us about the future of the publishing industry. In this episode you will discover: - The personality traits and habits of successful authors - What major publishers look for in an author and how you can stand out from the crowd - How major publishers are looking to mentor and attract a more diverse workforce and author list. -Why authors should maybe get someone else to write their blurbs and titles Get your free ebook with advice and tips from million-selling authors at: http://www.bestsellerexperiment.com