Podcasts about Mars trilogy

Huh? Why? Good question: it's because of Rodriguez's approach to economical filmmaking, which would come to whoopsiedoodle dominate everything uh oh! We get into it, as well as one or two other topics. Banderas is actually Spanish, not Mexican (I looked) but I don't think this invalidates my broader point.  Corbin Reccomends the Mars Trilogy. Matt reccomends 'Hail Satan?" a documentary about jerks.  Next week's episode is about a few movies trying new things in digital around the early/mid-aughts, including: Me and You and Everyone we Know, Once, and Timecode. 

Kim Stanley ("Stan") Robinson is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular science fiction novelists, first famous for his Mars Trilogy. For the past two decades, Stan has been telling vivid stories in which climate change is catastrophic yet people invent ways of reversing it. What he imagines is so bold it takes your breath away, then fills you with hope and resolve that you didn't know existed within you.In his Science in the Capital trilogy, a Washington DC thriller, National Zoo animals roam the capital after a massive flood. The Gulf Stream shuts down. Then a tiny U.S. government agency with bold leadership funds massive global climate projects. That plus the election of an inspiring everyman new President saves the day. Two decades later, Ministry for the Future tells a very different heroic tale. Here the protagonist is a new international agency based in Zurich led by an Irishwoman. After a massive heat wave in Indian kills millions, she gets kidnapped by one of its survivors and eventually answers her captor's challenge to do more. She persuades central bankers to back a "carbon coin" that changes the rules of the economic game. Companies now earn money by keeping oil in the ground, slowing Antarctica's melting, and investing in other projects on a scale commensurate with the climate catastrophe. What led Robinson to dramatically rethink his bold ideas for reversing climate change? What can we learn from this about climate economics and the financial rules in capitalism? How might this learning shift us into more constructive moods as we face seemingly insurmountable challenges?Join me in exploring these questions in this new episode of How My View Grew.**Key takeaways**4:00 A DC thriller: the Gulf Stream slows down. Washington floods. Science and government save the day12:00 Stan gets criticized about economics and responds by reading more deeply. The virtues and limits of nationalizing banks.18:00 A new view of money and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis23:00 Paying companies to green the planet, changing the economic game28:45 Stop asking "Is it to late?" Focus instead on better versus worse33:30 Telling good stories that our culture ignores35:00 Stan's message to the Left: get over it40:00 Amiel's reflections**Resources**A reference site for Kim Stanley RobinsonAmiel's essay, "Beyond the false choice between despair and hope"**Subscribe to the podcast**To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.**Share the love**Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Re:Productivity Podcast - Episode 1, 2025 Summary In our first episode of 2025, we dive into our recent activities, from 3D printing train whistles to exploring the complexities of hardware manufacturing and global supply chains. We discuss parenting in the digital age, share thoughts on the limitations of school-provided technology, and debate the future of manufacturing and strategic resources. The conversation ranges from technical deep-dives into Mars colonization literature to practical discussions about New Year's resolutions and the challenges of running hardware startups. We also touch on historical infrastructure projects, vaccine development, and the evolving landscape of global industrial production. Show Notes Books & Media Mentioned: Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger Red Mars (and the Mars Trilogy) by Kim Stanley Robinson Seven Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer Becoming Trader Joe by Joe Coulombe Three Habit Chaining — Productivity concept Acquired Podcast episodes: IKEA Amazon Walmart Kids Educational Resources: Beast Academy (Art of Problem Solving) Ubuntu for kids' computing Historical Documentaries: Building the Hoover Dam Liberty Ships & the Richmond Shipyards Projects & Technology: 3D printed train whistle designs The Salton Sea restoration project Signal Messaging PGP Key Management

The acclaimed US sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson is also a star in the world of climate activism because his work often features climate change - on Earth and beyond. Robinson has been a guest speaker at the COP climate summit, and novels such as The Ministry For The Future and The Mars Trilogy are admired by everyone from Barack Obama to former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres. Robinson's books are not just imaginative but scientifically accurate, and some of their ideas have even inspired new thinking about climate-proofing technology. Kim Stanley Robinson has been talking to the Climate Question team.Presenters: Jordan Dunbar and Graihagh Jackson Producer: Ben Cooper Editor: Simon Watts Sound Mix: Tom BrignellGot a question for The Climate Question? Email us: theclimatequestion@bbc.com

This week The Futurists hosts Brett, Rob and Katie host a guest that NY Times calls "one of the world's most acclaimed living science fiction writers" - Kim Stanley Robinson. We dive into the Mars Trilogy and interplanetary colonization and exploration, we tackle climate shift and the economics of the world of the future. We get some background on his early career in sci-fi, we delve into KSR's world building and how real world places influenced story settings, his interest in fields like terraforming, geology and even genetics. This is part 1 of a two part special episode. You're going to love it, we did! Meeting the Minister for the future, Kim Stanley Robinson More about Kim Stanley Robinson from his Wikipedia entry Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American writer of science fiction. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing."[1] According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."[2] See more podcasts here.

This week The Futurists hosts Brett, Rob and Katie host a guest that NY Times calls "one of the world's most acclaimed living science fiction writers" - Kim Stanley Robinson. We dive into the Mars Trilogy and interplanetary colonization and exploration, we tackle climate shift and the economics of the world of the future. We get some background on his early career in sci-fi, we delve into KSR's world building and how real world places influenced story settings, his interest in fields like terraforming, geology and even genetics. This is part 1 of a two part special episode. You're going to love it, we did!

Kim Stanley Robinson to talk about his Mars trilogy, the theory of revolution that animates it, and where anarchism and anarchists fit in. This conversation is a direct sequel to our conversations on the Three Californias triptych, which you can listen to here:https://www.everydayanarchism.com/093-the-wild-shore-three-californias-kim-stanley-robinson/https://www.everydayanarchism.com/096-the-gold-coast-three-californias-kim-stanley-robinson/https://www.everydayanarchism.com/100-the-pacific-edge-three-californias-kim-stanley-robinson/

This week The Futurists hosts Brett, Rob and Katie host a guest that NY Times calls "one of the world's most acclaimed living science fiction writers" - Kim Stanley Robinson. We dive into the Mars Trilogy and interplanetary colonization and exploration, we tackle climate shift and the economics of the world of the future. We get some background on his early career in sci-fi, we delve into KSR's world building and how real world places influenced story settings, his interest in fields like terraforming, geology and even genetics. This is part 1 of a two part special episode. You're going to love it, we did!

0:00 -- Intro.1:26-- About this podcast's sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel.2:13 -- Start of interview.2:45 -- John's "origin story." His time at WLRK and at the SEC.4:15 -- His focus at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.4:39 -- About his book THE PROBLEM OF TWELVE: When a Few Financial Institutions Control Everything (2023). Publisher: Columbia Global Reports. "Around the year 2000 [Index Funds and Private Equity Funds] began a sustained takeoff and the book is motivated to tell the story of how that happened and then more importantly what's happened since 2000 with 10-15% compound annual growth every single year for both kinds of funds which is much bigger and much faster than the economy or the capital markets or corporations.""The problem of twelve is just trying to get a catchy way to get people to understand that it's not just growth, that'd be one thing, but it's concentration."11:22 -- On "What came before: the Twentieth Century's Public Company" and the rise of private markets."Actually, the public markets have gotten bigger, even though the number of companies has fallen. It's not like they're shrinking, which sometimes is the way people talk about it. But what's different is their autonomy is declining. So in 1990, the board of a public company and its CEO were the centers of power.  If anything, the CEO was probably the most dominant player and the board was kind of a check. The shareholders were kind of out there, but they really only mattered in a hostile takeover. That was it." "[By year] 2000, 2010, and definitely today what I just described is not true. Boards are now more powerful than CEOs in general. They have a greater influence over setting strategy today.""[The] power started and ended with the CEO in the boardroom. And that really has, I think, dramatically declined and continues to decline as a way of describing how the US economic system works."15:39 -- Evolution of US boardrooms since the 1970s."I think of boards as becoming more important during that period because businesses were stumbling. As long as CEOs were successful in running their empires, I don't think the pressure to provide a different governance system would have been nearly as powerful.""Jay Lorsch at HBS wrote an early study suggesting that boards really were not doing much. Jay was very much part of the movement to get boards to be more active, because he thought that was better than the alternatives of either continued stagnation in economic activity or worse solutions, which other people were proposing."20:19 -- On the impact and evolution of Index Funds."[T]he key thing is scale. It's not as if there's like 55 different index funds all competing with each other. No, there's really just a small number of families [ie. the Big Four, BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity] that are achieving these scale levels. So that's the basic problem of the book.""[W]hen Jack Bogle set up Vanguard, he wasn't setting out to take over half of all the stocks in the country.  It took him 30 years just to get to 2%. It's just a side effect and so the system was not designed with that kind of concentration in mind. "[W]e're now having to go through a period where we've already started and it will continue for people as these things continue to grow and get even bigger to really rethink where should the governance power sit. Should it sit, at the board? Should it sit at the fund portfolio manager who doesn't really exist in an index fund, it's just a guy who has a list? Should it sit with a corporate governance professional that the fund advisor hires, that the fund then gives the power to? Or should it be something more complicated, some set of interactions between different people over time? And I tend to think that last thing I said is the right answer, but getting exactly the solution is hard, which is why I didn't call the book The Solution to the Problem at all, because I don't really have a perfect solution."27:12 -- On the polarization of corporate governance and the ESG backlash."If it had not been climate, which is Larry Fink's, of course, major focus that generated most of the pushback, it would have been something else." "State Street a few years ago made a point of saying publicly that if the boards that they voted for were not sufficiently diverse and they had some specific criteria, they would withhold votes from the nominating committee chair. And you can see in the data, if you look at the way boards are formed, the impact of State Street's intervention."30:35 -- On the pass-through voting initiatives."If you look at the websites that BlackRock and Vanguard and State Street all have up about what they're doing, they're not really passing the votes through or even getting close to it. They're going to let their own investors once a year pick a policy from a limited menu of policies, and then they're going to look how many people pick which policy, and then that will inform how they vote. So they're keeping the votes, but they are going to let people kind of give them an indication of more or less how to vote overall. And so that's some degree of trying to address the problem of twelve.""I think in 10 or 15 years most people will do one of three things: 1) They'll let BlackRock keep voting the way they want to, with their money, and who cares? They're just not paying attention to governance, and that's their right. They can just ignore it; 2) a group of people will be pushing BlackRock to do even more of what they're doing now, to be even more green or left or however you want to think about it; and 3) there will be another group of people who'll be pulling the other way, and then BlackRock will probably be in there, be splitting their vote to some extent on some of the more high-profile issues."On Exxon's proxy fight with Engine No.1.37:28 -- On antitrust and concentration of power in index funds. "Antitrust traditionally would just look at the activity of investment as the right thing to think about concentration and not the governance impact. That's really not part of antitrust law. That's again part of why I wrote the book to get a different focus on this. [But] there are people who want to change antitrust law, they want to take concentration in governance and somehow relate it to portfolio company concentration." "There are claims for example that the index funds caused the airlines to be more collusive than they would be anyway. Or the banks or take your pick and maybe there's some truth to that but it's kind of indirect and I think it's going to take a lot of work to make that feel like you're being directly responsive to the problem and I'm not sure it'll get there in the end.""There are also people who just want to change the basic understanding what antitrust is about, introduce politics into it again, and say this is a political problem and therefore we should use antitrust. There is a lot of resistance to that."39:39 -- On the private equity industry."The biggest PE complexes not only have equity capital that they manage, they also have debt capital. And so in a difficult interest rate environment, that's a nice place to be. You have resources that you can tap on the credit side as well as on the investment side. And so I think, again, as with index funds, we're seeing greater concentration of greater growth driven by slightly different economies of scale, but I think still real, that allow the biggest players to sort of sit at the intersection of lots of different capital market activity. And that lets them leverage the information they gather across a much bigger base [and] grow faster than their competitors. I expect the big PE players are going to continue to do better than PE overall and better than the overall economy, even if they may run into some challenges in the next few years."43:05 -- On PE driving ~25% of all M&A activity. "PE complexes in a lot of ways are sort of replacing a role that banks used to play, but without any of the regulation."46:25 -- On the governance distinctions between PE-backed companies and public companies."[PE-backed boards are often] more focused and effective.""[T]he PE world by design is with almost no public disclosure. There is disclosure sometimes of some things from the PE fund or advisor to LPs [but] the information flows [generally] are quite weak. And they're weakest in some respects around conflicts, which it should be the other way around. The conflict should be the place where the people with the equity at stake ought to be told the most and yet often that's the place where the system does not, in my opinion, live up to its billing. Part of the reason for that, it's not often appreciated that most of the money in PE funds comes from other funds, meaning, and in particular comes from pension funds who are overseen by well-meaning people, who often are honest and straightforward, but frankly are not up to, in my opinion, the task of overseeing a PE complex and their advisors. There's an industry association, the ILPA, that sort of tries to help coordinate across PE fund investors, the positions they take on disclosure and conflicts."54:58 -- On SPACs."[T]here's a lot of companies right now that are going through some difficult governance challenges in the current economic environment in which the SPAC structure and the board that it brought in might be at odds with the sponsor or other people that were associated with the SPAC.""If you're on a board or advising a board of a company that's associated with a SPAC, this is the time to really lean in about your conflicts, because the conflicts are absolutely really acute right now because of the interest rate environment."*On SPAC Law and Myths (Feb 2022).56:19 -- Books that have greatly influenced his life: City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution by Bruce Carruthers (1996)Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel (2009)Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (1990s)58:38 -- His mentors: Tom Noble (College advisor and History Professor)Craig Wasserman (WLRK)1:00:14 -- Quotes that he thinks of often or lives her life by: "Without contraries is no progression." [Poet William Blake]1:00:43 -- An unusual habit or absurd thing that he loves: U.S. Soccer.1:02:25 -- The living person he most admires: Tina Fey.John Coates is the John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, where he also serves as Deputy Dean and Research Director of the Center on the Legal Profession. __This podcast is sponsored by the American College of Governance Counsel.__ You can follow Evan on social media at:Twitter: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__You can join as a Patron of the Boardroom Governance Podcast at:Patreon: patreon.com/BoardroomGovernancePod__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

US writer Kim Stanley Robinson spends a lot of time imagining the future. The author of more than 20 novels, including his best-selling The Mars Trilogy, he's considered one of the greatest writers of contemporary science fiction of our time. More recently the committed environmentalist has turned his attention back on Earth, putting his mind and imagination to climate change in his acclaimed book The Ministry for the Future. It lays out what's been described as a chilling yet hopeful vision of how the next few decades on Earth might unfold.

The Impact of WFH on Brick-and-Mortar Retail (Lindsay Relihan) Lindsay Relihan is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business at Purdue University. She is the author of The Impact of Work-from-Home on Brick-and-Mortar Retail Establishments: Evidence from Card Transactions, with James Duguid, Bryan Kim, and Chris Wheat. Appendices: Lindsay Relihan: Cities and Covid, Thus Far by Gilles Duranton and Jessie Handbury, Silo Series, and The Mars Trilogy. Greg Shill: Remote Work Sticks for All Kinds of Jobs, Wall Street Journal. Jeff Lin: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar. Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @RelihanLindsay Producer: Courtney Campbell The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine, to talk through the week's big natsec news, including: “Pledge Week.” In a sign of strength, NATO held its annual summit in the capital of Vilnius this week, just kilometers from Lithuania's border with Belarus. But those hoping to join the club have gotten mixed receptions, with NATO members securing a clear path for Sweden to join the alliance without presenting a clear way forward for embattled Ukraine. What did we learn about the state of the alliance from this week's historic meeting?“Cluster Ruck(us).” Late last week, the Biden administration made the controversial decision to provide U.S. cluster munitions—a type of weapon that many U.S. allies have banned by treaty, due to concerns about civilian casualties—to its ally Ukraine. Is it the right move? And what might it mean on the battlefield—and after the war is over?“Needling and Threads.” Mark Zuckerberg appears to have finally gotten under the skin of tech billionaire Elon Musk, as his recently launched competitor to Musk's beleaguered Twitter, Threads, launched last week and soon secured over 100 million users. Has Twitter finally met its match? And what will Threads and other competitors mean for the future of the information (and disinformation) economy? For object lessons, Alan went back to his college roots and endorsed the music of banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck. Quinta celebrated the weirdness of the Barbie nine-dash-line controversy. Scott urged listeners to check out Kim Stanley Robinson's sci-fi masterpiece, the Mars Trilogy. And Ravi plugged the Foreign Policy Live video and podcast series he hosts for a weekly fix of smart thinking about the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of the 2023 Humans To Mars Summit in Washington, DC we blast off with this week's hilariously out-of-this-world episode of "What The IF?" where we're boldly asking the question: What if you had to organize a conference... on Mars? Join us as we speculate on the interplanetary logistics of this extreme event planning. We know that running a conference on Earth can be challenging enough, but imagine the head-spinning complications when you're dealing with Martian gravity, a lack of breathable atmosphere, and a conference center at the base of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system! Our guest Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, returns to this spacey subject after a year - a year that has seen Earth inching ever closer to our red neighbor, and the concept of a Martian conference becoming a smidge less science fiction and a bit more science future. Get ready to gaze at the solar system's largest mountain from your conference hotel window, and hear the potential keynote speaker, none other than Kim Stanley Robinson, the author of the Mars Trilogy. We ponder the nuts and bolts of Martian architecture, considering how long it might take to get a top-notch hotel constructed at the foot of Olympus Mons. Can we pull it off by the end of the century? And who will be the lucky first humans setting foot on Mars? NASA and SpaceX, we're looking at you! Join us as we laugh, speculate, and dream about the cosmic possibilities. It's an episode that's truly out of this world! --- Check out our membership rewards! Visit us at Patreon.com/Whattheif Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! Don't miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

We're back! This season we're tackling Green Earth, KSR's revised, single-volume edition of the Science in the Capital trilogy. The trilogy was originally published from 2004 to 2007. Green Earth was put out in 2015. In this first episode we discuss the (un)likability of the novel's main characters, and the way the book seems to set the table for KSR's agenda for his following novels, particularly Shaman, 2312, New York 2140, and The Ministry for the Future. We talk about how Green Earth feels very much a Bush-era book, when it was still possible to believe that the main impediment to addressing climate change was anti-science attitudes that had infested an entire party in American politics, before the Obama era revealed that the real problem was far deeper, including obviously capitalism itself, but also something far more intractable, an approach to reality that was impervious to "just the facts" or "trust science" platitudes. One thing Green Earth does that feels very of its moment as we read it from 2022 is its attempt to make palpable the presence of climate change in everyday life. In the early 2000s, it was still possible, on an exceptionally hot day, to joke casually about "global warming," without actually feeling what that meant. From today's perspective, when fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, bomb cyclones, heat waves, polar vortexes, et al. hit with unprecedented regularity, that attitude feels like it comes from a place of (for lack of a better word) privilege. Green Earth attempts to make those events felt by a very specific kind of historical (fictional) subject: the hyper-productive, uber-educated, scientist-bureaucrat, engaged in the banalities of the everyday in the fields of both domesticity and national politics. What is it like for a person who is raising a child and running a household, and might, at a moment's notice, be face-to-face with the President, to experience climate change firsthand? In part what we see here is KSR's attempt to bring what he had developed throughout the Mars Trilogy home--to Earth, to everyday life, to the mundane, to the United States. In taking the energies of the Mars Trilogy and localizing them, Green Earth feels like a hinge moment in his writing, while still pursuing familiar questions and concerns: what will shock someone out of inaction to action, what is it like to live in a body on a planet, how does politics happen, where are we in history, and how do we move forward? We hope to be a bit more, shall we say, efficient with this book than we were with 2312, and we're excited to share our thoughts with you! If you're curious, Matt and Hilary are also now published KSR scholars, having written a review for New Labor Forum, which can be found here. Thank you for the gift of your time, and we hope you enjoy this season! 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marooned-on-mars/message

Hard sci-fi stories about the exploration of our solar system became more popular beginning in the 1990s. In this episode, we explore how these ideas rose to prominence and have developed over the years. Book recommendation: The Martian by Andy Weir. The Mundane Manifesto by Geoff Ryman et al. Kim Stanley Robinson on the Mars Trilogy. Other works mentioned: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson The Grand Tour Series by Ben Bova The Expanse by James S. A. Corey Artemis by Andy Weir Gravity Interstellar Ad Astra

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.

In this episode we review this timeless classic, talk about the real-life risk of meteors and comets hitting Earth, discuss how much it feels like nonfiction covering an event that just hasn't happened yet, and debate what makes a book ending great. As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar stories if you're looking for more great books to read. This week we recommend Titan by John Varley, Ringworld by Larry Niven, The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, and The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.YouTube link if you prefer to watch the episode.NO SPOILERS BOOK SUMMARY: Earth's asteroid collision warning system detects a new object in the deep solar system, on an orbit that will take past Earth and close to the sun. As it gets closer, it becomes clear it is a massive cylinder, and it's far too perfect to be natural object. An alien spaceship is heading deep into the solar system. There is only one human ship that can intercept the object before it whips around the sun, and we follow that crew as they arrive at the object and open its airlock door. Note that in this episode we talk about the ending of the book, starting at 19:30.

GFI02: TRANSCENDING THE CLIMATE CRISIS with Kim Stanley Robinson Show Summary Tune into the Bold.ly Now Show featuring Kim Stanley Robinson, the Hugo and Nebula winning author of the Mars Trilogy. He is known as a realistic, science-based highly-literary science fiction author with over 20 books published. Stan's work often focuses on themes like sustainability, economic & social justice, climate change, and speculative futures. Today, we discuss these themes covered in Stan's atypical sci-fi novel, The Ministry for the Future. Stan uses the book to demonstrate a vision of a new future for humanity and investigate what it might take to survive and transcend the climate crisis. Learn More: ● Website: https://bold.ly/ ● Website: https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/ ● Website: https://proofzine.com/ ● Bold.ly YOU App: https://bold.ly/you ● Link Tree: http://linktr.ee/bold.lynow ● Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boldlynow ● Twitter: https://twitter.com/boldlynow ● Instagram: bold.lynow ● Podcast:https://boldly-now.captivate.fm/listen ● Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBoldlyNOWShow Full Show Notes The world is on track to miss the target of keeping the global average temperature within 2 degrees celsius of the warming limit. That means humans will have to adapt to a higher temperature. But, how much can we adapt? It's a well documented fact that humanity cannot survive a high heat index – a combination of high heat and high humidity. So, no matter the eco-modernist's view, humanity faces more of an emergency than we think. Kim Stanley Robinson's novel “The Ministry for the Future” runs wild with this idea. The book aims not just to transform people's thinking but also the culture itself. While his atypical approach to “novel writing” may seem borderline blasphemous, it's not something new. Stan believes he was inspired by the USA trilogy (by John Dos Passos) and Moby Dick (Herman Melville). Here, he talks in detail about his novel writing approach, entertainment VS education aspect, and how he manages to “tell” just as much as “show” to keep the novel fun and engaging for the readers. We live in a nation-state global capitalist world. To write a realistic plausible novel, discussing capitalism and how it exacerbates the climate problem is inevitable. This system favors a few, but the climate is a zero-sum game. Paris agreement was, therefore, a great step in the right direction. We need better pricing of our relationship to the biosphere. Only then can we attempt to morph the system into better treatment of people and the biosphere. Stan's novel extracts a lot from the current economic conditions and gives us a viable picture of the future. The Carbon coin, introduced in the book, strikes a chord with the crypto-revolution currently taking place. Similarly, the targeted asymmetrical violence reminds of the occupy movement. Along the way, the book asks some very pertinent questions making a case for neoliberal capitalism. Unlike the often held view, neoliberal capitalism is not a hands-off approach to governance. It's still a very strong governance model that is indispensable for a socially just political economy. It's a mixed picture in the world right now. On the bright side, we have the EU commission announcing plans for forced labor import ban, the successes of the 30 x 30 movement, the Paris accord and similar steps taken by governments in the USA, China and India. On the negative side, we have the reactionary capitalist businesses which exploit the natural resources to death and would not go without a fight. This discursive battle is but just one aspect of the larger political and physical battle. Biological diversity is just important as human cultural diversity. We are part of nature. Our body cells are part of the biosphere – from the cradle to the grave. Whenever there has been a mass extinction event, about 70 per cent of the species don't make

Ben Balcom (b. 1986, Massachusetts) is a filmmaker currently living and working in Milwaukee, WI. He is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee and is the co-founder and co-programmer of Microlights Cinema. Since 2013, Microlights has hosted over 50 film and video artists from around the world. Combining elements of documentary, fictional narrative, and abstraction, Balcom's films investigate the relationship between cinematic artifice and ordinary affects. He has explored melodrama, essay film, and, most recently, regional histories. His films have been exhibited at venues and festivals such as the European Media Festival, Media City Film Festival, Anti-Matter Media Arts, Alchemy Film, Ann Arbor Film Festival and Slamdance. Balcom received his MFA in Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and his bachelor's degree in Film-Video Production from Hampshire College. The books I mentioned in the interview are Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and Douglas Kearney's Sho. Garden City Beautiful from Ben Balcom on Vimeo. News From Nowhere from Ben Balcom on Vimeo.

We spend the first ten minutes or so of this episode talking about an issue in Maine politics that presents a conundrum that's characteristic of the false choices capitalism and American democracy give us politically: which part of the ecosystem do you want to sacrifice to mitigate the disasters of another part? What's the least bad option? To read more about Question 1 on the Maine ballot, click here or here. Then we're off and running, talking about narrative and genre, sexliners and surfing, and the heaviness of Earth. Swan encounters a kind of dark postmodernity in her confrontation with the reality of Earth in this chunk of chapters, where it seems impossible to theorize the totality and the world is fundamentally unintepretable. In fact, while thinking the totality may promise to be our salvation, it may be that trying to think the totality--or even thinking that we could think the totality--is kind of what got us here in the first place. Perennial question: What are the barriers to change? What's stopping us from acting? Why are we dithering? Who's this "we"? We talk about revolution, excuses, reasons, ideology, fantasies of settler colonialism, psychology, Bill Gates (give us money!), and Kyrsten Sinema (go away!). We also find some differences between Matt and Hilary's editions of the novel. SPOILER ALERT: Arkady dies in the Mars Trilogy. Thanks for listening to us talk about this thick and chewy novel! Swan and the Inspector – 11:00 Earth, the Planet of Sadness – 19:45 Swan on Earth – 41:55 Lists (10) – 1:25:25 Pluto, Charon, Nix, Hydra – 1:27:45 Pauline on Revolution – 1:32:15 Extracts (11) – 1:44:15 Swan at Home – 1:46:55 Extracts (12) – 1:59:10 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marooned-on-mars/message

Will and Matt talk to Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy, 2312 and last year's Ministry for the Future. They discuss reckoning with climate change, science fiction literature as an attempt to conceive of our own future's history, and what kinds of beliefs humans might need to survive that future.

关于阅读（科幻文学为主）、电影（入门影迷秀片单要诀）、吃饭（食用天津饭和饺子算不算嗑CP）和一些杂七杂八、不能详细描述的东西。自2015年5月27日起，「声波飞行员」六岁了。还好，我不用操心TA的择校问题。如果你喜欢「声波飞行员」，请在「爱发电」平台为我们打赏，增加它继续飞行下去的动力，谢谢。[00:00:03] BGM#1. New Formosa Band - 歡聚歌 pt.1[00:02:35] 618能买什么书；《机器人大师》波兰语新译本；《克拉拉与太阳》我们都不太喜欢；[00:06:29] Miaopasii 老师居然买了RudiStor MD1；若饭和Soylent；猫和扫地机器人；[00:12:33] 加拿大回国的难度；恍若隔世的Beyerdynamic DT880 pro black；Sennheiser HD25 最近质量不行了；为什么说不出北京话；[00:24:24] 被遗忘的六周年生日；关于Ray Bradbury 的忌日；TestV 引起的关于巴旦木的讨论；北京没有红薯；[00:32:16] 左宗棠鸡好不好吃；吃天津饭和饺子算不算嗑CP；煎饼的变体；京津打卤面的区别；天津的稳定性；[00:40:34] 电磁炉与烟敏报警器；北京杭州两地丰巢罢工；[00:46:22] 莫名其妙开始聊电影；《寂静之地2》与越来越喜欢的Emily Blunt；95后会喜欢阿汤哥；[00:50:11] 上海电影节；在飞机上看什么片；冷门科幻片推荐；John Carpenter 的科幻世界；[01:02:14] BGM#2. John Carpenter - In The Mouth of Madness[01:04:37] 港片、杜琪峰与「枪P柔黑放神文」；不忘初心麻枝准；[01:10:45] BGM#3. New Formosa Band - 歡聚歌 pt.2[01:11:26] 结束语小说《机器人大师》Cyberiada [波兰]斯塔尼斯瓦夫·莱姆 小说《火星编年史》The Martian Chronicles [美]雷·布拉德伯里小说《莉莉丝的孩子》系列（三卷） The Xenogenesis Series [美]奥克塔维娅·E.巴特勒小说《克拉拉与太阳》Klara and the Sun [英]石黑一雄电影《消失的情人节》(2020)电影《寂静之地2》 A Quiet Place: Part II (2021)电影《环形使者》 Looper (2012)小说《环形世界》 Ringworld [美]拉里·尼文电影 《明日边缘》 Edge of Tomorrow (2014) 电影《熄灯号》 Taps (1981) 电影《末日后的宇宙碎片》 Crumbs (2015)电影《橡皮轮胎杀手》 Rubber (2010)电影《真实》 Réalité (2014) 电影《悄然之星》 ひそひそ星 (2015)电影《最后与最初的人类》 Last and First Men (2020) 电影《借刀杀人》 Collateral (2004)小说《沙丘》系列 [美] 弗兰克·赫伯特小说《火星三部曲》系列 Mars Trilogy [美]金•斯坦利•罗宾逊电影《沙丘》 Dune (2021) 电影《佐杜洛夫斯基的沙丘》 Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)电影《战栗黑洞》 In the Mouth of Madness (1994)电影《怪形》 The Thing (1982)电影《放·逐》(2006) 电影《殭屍》(2013) #飞行员：vineland / 包雪龙 / 孟获#HFOTA：Miaopasii

In the second part of our conversation and collaboration with the Coffee with Comrades podcast, we begin seeking out works of literature, cinema, and scholarship that might illuminate Anti-Anti-Utopian blueprints for building new worlds. As Matt remarks, it's virtually impossible to come up with a list of films that would be called utopian, but Pearson argues that you could – in fact – come up with a robust list of fiction and non-fiction texts that spell out the shape of this new genre of hope-making. A developmental syllabus of Anti-Anti-Utopian study may start with Ursula K. Le Guin's iconic and epic “ambiguous utopia,” The Dispossessed (1974), and include Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy of novels (1992-96), as well as  nonfiction books like Erik Olin Wright's Envisioning Real Utopias (2010), Alex Williams & Nick Srnicek's Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (2015), and A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, and Thea Riofrancos (2019). These visions of still imperfect, but radically more just & egalitarian worlds teach us that striving toward the utopian horizon is neither naive nor impractical, but instead all too necessary and prudent, especially now. As such, The Golden Square affirms that the decommodification of life and democratization of society are not just revolutionary goals, but in fact, the revolutionary project itself. Beyond the ceaseless academic obsessions with diagramming the corpse of our dystopian hellscape, we must chart a path outside our pyramid-shaped cages by realizing the unconditional rights to food, shelter, healthcare, and education for every person on earth – a readymade threshold separating us from the Utopian Sphere. Moving outward, Pearson, Jesse and Matt talk about the key planks that might make up the political philosophy of Anti-Anti-Utopia and how charting an emancipatory path forward requires an intersectional anti-capitalist compass magnetized to the many symbiotic, multilectical transformations necessary to abolish empire. As Matt has been fond of saying of late: “Be like an anarchist,” first and foremost. Comprehensive Show Notes Can Be Found at thefutureisamixtape.com Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places: thefutureisamixtape@gmail.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Support Coffee with Comrades on Patreon, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and visit their website.

This week we talk with Robert C. Jacobson, entrepreneur and space industry enabler, advocate, and investor. Jacobson is the founder of Space Advisors, a strategic and financial consulting firm for space startups and organizations looking to establish a space strategy. He also works at the Arch Mission Foundation, which is dedicated to creating civilizational backup libraries, and Space Angels, the world’s first space-focused angel investment group. His new book is Space Is Open for Business: The Industry That Can Transform Humanity (sample it | buy the hardcover).In this episode, we discuss the bright and dark sides of the emerging space industry — from the inspirational and unifying 1970s visions of Gerard O’Neill to the 2020s’ clash of barons, SpaceX vs. Blue Origin, and the challenges of regulation in a space of blindingly fast innovation and massive inequality. If you believe in the value of this show and want to see it thrive, support Future Fossils on Patreon and/or please rate and review Future Fossils on Apple Podcasts! Patrons gain access to over twenty secret episodes, unreleased music, our monthly book club, and many other wondrous things.Robert Jacobson’s Website | Space Advisors | Twitter | FacebookSupport this show financially:• Venmo: @futurefossils• PayPal.me/michaelgarfield• Patreon: patreon.com//michaelgarfield• BTC: 1At2LQbkQmgDugkchkP6QkDJCvJ5rv3Jm• ETH: 0xfD2BC66586FA4FBA189992E9B0037CD5cb9673EF• NFTs: Rarible | FoundationPeople & Topics in this episode (links go to Future Fossils episodes or my Bookshop storefront):Gerard O’Neill’s The High Frontier, John David Ebert, Mark Nelson, Armin Ellis, Tanya Harrison, Elon Musk, Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Geoffrey West, Annalee Newitz, Divya Persaud, Bob May, Jeff Bezos, W. Brian Arthur, Space Force, Arch Mission Foundation, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy (Red, Green, Blue), Robert Zubrin’s The Case For Mars, Robert David Steele, Greg Egan’s DistressFermi’s Paradox, Space Anarchy, Frontierism, Civilizational Backups, The Not Insignificant Ethical Issue of Unchecked Mega-Billionaires, Space Isn’t Hospitable, Space Debris & The Tragedy of The Commons, Scaling Laws & Path Dependencies, Can We Make It To Space Before We Eat Ourselves?, Interdisciplinary Innovation vs. Institutional Incumbents & Inhibitory Structure, Space Is For ArtistsOther related FF episodes: Kate Greene, Barry Vacker, Jessa GambleProgram Info:Music by Future Fossils co-host Evan “Skytree” Snyder.I transcribe this show with help from Podscribe.ai — which I highly recommend to other podcasters. If you’d like to help me edit transcripts for my upcoming Future Fossils book project, please let me know! I’m @michaelgarfield on Twitter & Instagram.If you’re looking for new ways to help regulate stress, get better sleep, recover from exercise, and/or stay alert and focused without stimulants, let me recommend the Apollo Neuro wearable. I have one and appreciate it so much I decided to join their affiliate program. The science is solid.And for my fellow guitarists in the audience, let me recommend you get yourself a Jamstik Studio, the coolest MIDI guitar I’ve ever played. I just grabbed one this year and LOVE it.When you’re ready to switch it up, here are my music and listening recommendations on Spotify. Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/futurefossils. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is probably no bigger name in science fiction in the last 50 years than Kim Stanley Robinson. Robert Markley (who I’m speaking with today) wrote a book with that very title, 'Kim Stanley Robinson' that looks at his work. The book looks at the works including the alternate histories of The Days of Rice and Salt, the future through the Mars Trilogy, as well as books like Shaman that take place 30,000 year in the past before written language. Ultimately, the work looks at how we as a species and civilization might move forward as we come to grasp the pressures facing us today.  Robert Markley is Trowbridge Professor and Head of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His recent books include The Far East and the English Imagination, 1600-1730 and Dying Planet: Mars in Science and the Imagination. 

Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson joins Money on the Left to discuss his Modern Monetary Theory-inspired “cli-fi” novel, The Ministry for the Future (2020).Throughout his distinguished Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award-decorated career, Robinson has repeatedly offered visions of the future that are grounded in, and speak directly to, urgent present problems. These stories, including and especially his widest-known work in the Mars Trilogy, simultaneously condemn dominant logics and chart paths for the possible redemption of humanity as a terraforming (and terra-destroying) species. In Ministry for the Future, Robinson explores a more proximate future on Earth, one characterized by massive climate catastrophes, widespread political violence, and economic super depressions. Most critically, the novel tests out a messy, but nevertheless workable way toward collective climate restoration, fashioned by an improbable assemblage of intergovernmental agencies shadowed by clandestine black wings; ecological activists armed with untraceable drone technologies; heroic scientists; environmental preservation groups; and Central Bankers. Money, too, plays a central role in advancing Ministry’s fraught utopian story of climate restoration and is crucially anchored in an MMT-driven framework for equitable and sustainable political economy. In our conversation, we hear from Robinson about the influence of MMT on his thinking in and beyond his work in Ministry, as well as about how this thinking aligns with and deviates from previous political and literary engagements with utopian literary form.Theme music by Hillbilly Motobike.Link to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/MoLsuperstructureLink to our GoFundMe: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/money-on-the-left-superstructure  

12 years ago, Nori cofounder and CEO Paul Gambill was a College Republican. And while he wasn’t a climate denier, he didn’t think that humanity’s 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions was a big deal. And then he read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy and began to understand the outsized impact of our actions. Not only did the science fiction novels change Paul’s perspective on climate change, they inspired him to dedicate his life’s work to making it better. American novelist Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the foremost living writers of science fiction. Many of his books explore how climate change will impact us in the coming decades, including the new release (and self-described mic drop moment) The Ministry for the Future. On this episode of Reversing Climate Change, Stan joins Ross and Paul to discuss how science fiction can help us make better decisions and share his perspective on the politics of the genre. Stan explains why central banks play such a prominent role in his most recent work, introducing us to the financial system he imagines in his future history novels and sharing his ‘creeping reformist’ approach to building an economy around carbon removal. Listen in for Stan’s insight on why cryptocurrency is featured in his new book and learn how carbon sequestration might work within the framework of modern monetary theory. Connect with Nori Purchase Nori Carbon Removals Join the Nori book club on Patreon Nori Nori on Facebook Nori on Twitter Resources There are so many things referenced in this show. When Anchor ups its character limit for show descriptions we will go back and add them all. Here's a curated list: Stan’s Website The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson J.G. Ballard Frederic Jameson Georgy Plekhanov Raymond Williams Ernst Bloch Louis Althusser Ursula K. Le Guin Iain Banks’ Culture Series Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls Delton Chen’s Carbon Coin Plan Socialist Calculation Debate --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/reversingclimatechange/support

This week, Breaking Banks Europe celebrates its first year delivering weekly episodes (sometimes biweekly) and decides to round up all Breaking Banks Europe hosts, plus the brand's creator Brett King, to tell you how the inception of this spin-off, including (to its majority) the anecdotes that were part of every host involvement in the project. Furthermore, they tell you what were they're favourite guests and episodes so far, and their 2021 wishlist of the topics they want you to know more about and also setting a mission for the coming year: "Helping the audience by offering tools or inspiring stories for recovery". Join them in this year long journey and be part of the coming year! Useful Resources (mentioned throughout the episode):1. VOTE for Brett King in the "FinTech Hall of Fame" by CB Insights:https://events.cbinsights.com/future-of-fintech/page/1637885/fintech-hall-of-fame2. Join Breaking Banks Europe: Drop a line to Luis Serna Pratí (luis@fintechstage.com)3. "The Ministry of the Future" book: https://www.amazon.com/Ministry-Future-Kim-Stanley-Robinson-ebook/dp/B084FY1NXB4. "Mars Trilogy": https://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilogy-Stanley-Robinson/dp/0553560735 Hosts' favourite episodes:- Mambu, The Lego of Banking Technology - https://bit.ly/BBE46Sp- Let's talk about Impact, Equal Opportunity and Empowerment - https://bit.ly/BBE48Sp- On Balance, Self-confidence, Inclusive Finance and Gender Equality - https://bit.ly/BBE36PFM- The European Commission talks Digital Innovation - http://bit.ly/BBEEUCom- News From The FinTech Front - http://bit.ly/NFFPvk- News From The FinTech Front – Part 2 - http://bit.ly/NFF2Pvk- UX and Customer Experience - http://bit.ly/BBE16Pvk- When Theology meets Technology - https://bit.ly/BBE30P- Breaking Banks and Crypto Capsule Collaboration - http://bit.ly/BBECapsule- Outside In - Singapore - https://bit.ly/BBE27A

Join Me and my friends as we have an open conversation! Topics go off the Rails here at A.N.A.L. but that don't stop us! Featuring Mike, Katie, Jared, Decker, and myself! Special thanks to Chris Haugen for our background theme today Campfire Song! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/analpod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/analpod/support

Shout out to our great listeners, especially when they email us, and when they email us, their emails are always thoughtful and stimulating, and Hilary almost always responds to them and Matt almost always reads them but doesn’t respond to them because he is, in fact, shy, but also, more importantly, lazy, other than the whole “producing and editing the show” thing. We kick this episode off with a convo about despair and hope, but the upshot is the gift of reading these novels in community with each other and our amazing listeners (you, the reader of this). “War of the Asuras” is a phantasmagoric chapter about The Long War—basically, what if World War I—trench warfare, mustard gas, etc.—was fought in Asia instead of Europe, and what if it (almost) never ended? The depiction of the war collapses the distinction between the bardo and reality, between metaphor and realism, and exposes the insanity at the heart of modern warfare. Matt and Hilary ponder over the nature of the space the characters find themselves in, and the nature of the spectacular suffering they live through, with no one left in the world to spectate, let alone judge. We talk about the structures of repetition and revisiting between the books of the novel, and come at the question of the difference between the Mars Trilogy’s longevity treatments and this novel’s reincarnation from a slightly different angle. Necropolitics, guns, superiority, the self, optimism vs. hope. We got a lot going on in this episode—the longest episode yet, for the shortest chapter of the novel! It do be like that sometimes, though. Shout outs to Gravity's Rainbow, Going After Cacciato, and ZARDOZ. 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marooned-on-mars/message

Has this pandemic presented a unique moment for science in our history? Or is it just a strange and temporary moment of science fiction? Or both? Sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson (The Mars Trilogy, New York 2140 and Red Moon) recently penned an essay in the New Yorker about how the virus has “changed our imaginations” and created a new “structure of feeling.”

This week’s guest is Tanya Harrison, a Mars geologist, author, and infectious banner-waving space enthusiast. We talk about For All Humankind, her new book with Danny Bednar on the legacy of the Apollo missionsm, as both a planetwide accomplishment and also a high bar against which we have since not seemed to measure up...as well as:What it’s like to drive a mars rover and extend yourself technologically through space.What will have to change for us to attune to the plural temporalities of life on multiple worlds.How the tone of science fiction and space fantasy has changed over the course of our lives, for better or worse.The cultural differences between national space programs and commercial “jobs in space” exploration.The tragedy of how light pollution cuts us off from crucial perspective and our tangible belongingness in the starry cosmos.Using space-based imagining to understand our own planet as the unique and wonderful place it is.Tanya's Website & Twitter.Tanya Works for Planet Labs.Here’s another great (short) conversation with her about Martian geology.Grab the books we mention in this episode and I get a tiny kickback.Support this show on Patreon for secret episodes, the Future Fossils book club, and more awesome stuff than you probably have time for.People Mentioned:Jessa Gamble, Barry Vacker, Divya Persaud, Stewart Brand, Carl Sagan, Sara Imari Walker, Rusty Schweickert, Biosphere IIMedia Mentioned: For All Humankind, Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy, Ad Astra, The ExpanseTheme Music: “God Detector” by Evan “Skytree” Snyder (feat. Michael Garfield) Additional Intro Music: “Lambent” by Michael Garfield See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello listeners and goodbye Mars! With this episode we leave KSR's Mars behind, as we conclude The Martians, the "apocrypha" of the Mars Trilogy. [SPOILER ALERT: Our next venture will be KSR's Aurora, and will get started mid-January to early-February. We suggest you get your copy now and read it through once before we start (if you, like Matt, haven't already read it), then read it again with us!] We leave Mars in a mood similar to that created by the ending of this collection, with a mixture of melancholy and relief. It's hard to leave these works behind, but we're looking forward to new adventures and a new book! Here we talk about the two final sections of The Martians, the collection of poems "If Wang Wei Lived on Mars" and the autobiographical "Purple Mars." Matt and Hilary find a lot to talk about regarding the form of poetry and what it demands and makes possible for us readers. We dive deep into poems including "Visiting," "After a Move" & "Canyon Color" & "Vastitas Borealis," "Six Thoughts on the Uses of Art," "Report on the First Recorded Case of Areophagy," and "The Red's Lament." These poems are thoughtful, sad, profound, hilarious, and, in a word, brilliant, resonating with the history of poetry from Dante to Wordsworth (and likely beyond). If you thought Stan was good at writing novels, dig his sci-fi poetry! Here the line between fiction and reality completely blurs, and the political themes of the Mars Trilogy give way to a much more personal constellation of concerns and expressions. There is a brief bout of unavoidable audio distortion at about 22 minutes (mitigated by a musical interlude) and a brief digression into film criticism somewhere around 1 hour 20 minutes. Then we share our favorite moments from "Purple Mars." Hilary appreciates the thoughtfully hilarious description of the absurdity of the writing process, and Matt wonders aloud why we never saw any of the Mars characters go poop. Try harder, Stan! We have had such a great time reading through this world with you and we hope you join us in 2020 as we bask in Aurora and beyond! Thank you for listening and supporting us! 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

The planet Mars boasts the most dramatic landscapes in our solar system. Kevin Fong embarks on a grand tour around the planet with scientists, artists and writers who know its special places intimately- through their probes, roving robots and imaginations. As we roam Mars' beauty spots, Kevin explores why the Red planet grips so many. Beyond its alien topographic grandeur, Mars inspires the bigger questions: are we alone in the cosmos, and what is the longer term destiny of humanity? Was there more than one life genesis? Will humans ever live on more than one planet? The itinerary includes the solar system's greatest volcano - Olympus Mons. It is an ancient pile of lavas more than twice the height of Everest, with a summit crater that could contain Luxembourg. The weight of Mars' gargantuan volcanic outpourings helped to create the planet's extreme version of our Grand Canyon. Vallis Marineris is an almighty gash in the crust 4,000 kilometres long and seven kilometres deep. That is more than three times the depth of Earth's Grand Canyon. In some place the cliffs are sheer from top to bottom. A little to the east lies an extraordinary region called Iani Chaos, a vast realm of closely spaced and towering rock stacks and mesas, hundreds to thousands of metres high. One researcher describes it as Tolkienesque. This unearthly shattered terrain was created billions of years ago when immense volumes of water burst out from beneath the surface and carved another giant canyon, known as Ares Valles, in a matter of months. Imagine a hundred Amazon rivers cutting loose at once, suggests Professor Steve Squyres. The catastrophically sculpted landscapes are part of the plentiful evidence that in its early days, Mars was, at time,s awash with water and, in theory, provided environments in which life could evolve and survive. That is what the latest robot rover on Mars - Curiosity - is exploring at the dramatic Gale Crater with its central peak, Mount Sharp. Expert Mars guides in the programme include scientists on the current Curiosity mission, and on the preceeding rover explorations by Spirit and Opportunity. Kevin talks to hard sci-fi novelist Kim Stanley Robinson whose rich invocations of Martian landscapes form th narrative bedrock of his Mars Trilogy. He also meets Bill Hartmann, a planetary scientist since earliest generation of Mars probes in the 1960s and 1970. Bill has a parallel career as an artist who paints landscapes of the Red Planet. Planetary scientist Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute begins Kevin's tour with a painting he created - an imagined view of Mars from the surface of its tiny moon, Phobos. Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker, BBC Radio Science Unit

A long time ago, we used to be friends ... and we got our friends to put some money into a Kickstarter and buy the Marshmallows a movie! This episode is about the Veronica Mars movie that became legend after its creative approach to engaging fans. We remember the best parts of the movie and what led up to it. We are on hiatus from Good Place because of Jachelle going away, but will be back on that soon!

Chelsea and Jachelle discuss one of their favorites shows Veronica Mars! This is part 1 of 3, focused (mostly) solely on the original television show and what we loved most about it. Those were the golden days. You should be warned: We are huge Logan/Veronica fans and talk about them a lot. No regrets. We will be doing the Veronica Mars movie next and then finally season 4 discussion. Did you know Teddy Dunn and Jason Dohring had to wear different color codes because people kept getting them mixed up? Did you know that Jachelle kept swapping their names too but Chelsea kindly edited it out? Shhhh, it'll be between us. See you next time, Marshmallows.

Show Notes Press pause on the dystopias. Set aside interventions. Dream a little of a non-technocratic world. We’ve mostly been in the weeds of thinking about specific interventions around technologism this season. Today, we press pause and just spend some time imagining—dare we say, dreaming—of what a non-technocratic world might look and feel like. Links psychohistory The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin Confessions, Augustine The Expanse Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 and Mars Trilogy, beginning with Red Mars our collective forgetting of the 1970s Alan Jacobs Slate Star Codex (see Section II.) Life Finds a Way Kickstarter What Technology Wants, Kevin Kelly (Chris cited it as being from Wired; in fact it is a book by one of the cofounders of Wired) Software Against Humanity? An Illichian perspective on the industrial era of sofware, Stephen Kell Ivan Illich, Tools for Convivality The Bible Project – Series on Generosity (Abundance and Scarcity) Music Hayato’s Theme, by Home Brewed Universe. Used by permission. “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho. Sponsors Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors: Daniel Ellcey Jake Grant Jeremy W. Sherman Marnix Klooster Nathaniel Blaney Spencer Smith If you’d like to support the show, you can make a pledge at Patreon or give directly via Square Cash. Respond We love to hear your thoughts. Hit us up via Twitter, Facebook, or email!

Hi! We’re still figuring out how best to handle our new remote recording and figuring out sound levels, etc., so if Matt is too loud and Hilary is too quiet—sorry! This is low-effort, low-tech, labor-of-love stuff. We appreciate you bearing with us! This week we talk about two short stories, “Coyote Makes Trouble” and “Michel in Provence.” Even though they’re short, there’s tons to talk about! First, some inane chatter about stupid techno-alternatives to walking, like Segways and electric scooters. And cars. That comes out of some delight in the fact that KSR writes SF stories about hiking, which reflects his commitment to the quotidian and everyday and something that really matters. In “Coyote Makes Trouble,” we talk about Coyote’s place within the revolution, as an agent who also has to mediate between conflicting tensions within the movement. He wants to go faster than Maya, but also is not happy with the aggressive stance of the Reds, and he’s also constantly at risk of having his spy network infiltrated. Here he’s on a mission to do a banner drop. We talk about the relationship between action and strategy, violence and tactics, small demonstrations vs. large-scale revelations of power. We talk about the science-fictional quality of luxury liners and cruise ships and Coyote’s unique place in the books as someone from an entirely different place and background than the other members of the First Hundred, and we wrap up by discussing the place of laughter and joy within revolutionary movements like the ones going on today. Our discussion of “Michel in Provence” starts at about 33 minutes with a call for 800 more listeners to the show per episode so we can make enough money for Matt to buy lunch two days a week, if we run ads for mattresses. This is a lovely chapter, melancholy, but sweet and hopeful (as hopeful as Michel can be at any rate). It picks up after the events of “Michel in Antarctica,” charting a different history of human settlement of Mars. A different mission to Mars creates a different kind of Martian subject, one who’s only a tourist and can’t wait to get home. Nevertheless, Michel is beset by regret and self-recrimination, wondering what might have been. He thinks Mars might’ve been able to stand as a symbol…but we know that’s not what happened in the actually existing world of Martian settlement. It wasn’t a symbol, they didn’t exist as an emblem of togetherness. They created an actually existing system that had its own conflicts and contradictions that were certainly not harmonious. There’s also a different kind of life extension here, one that reinforces the status quo hierarchies of rich and poor. We touch on the elemental imagery that we’ve come to expect from KSR, especially in a Michel chapter, and discuss Michel’s various “projects.” Here he seems able to overcome the nostalgia that cripples him in the Mars Trilogy with regard to his beloved Provence and come to different terms with his attachment to place, or form a different attachment to Provence that we can see as hopeful (if still sad), informed by his brief time on Mars that he didn’t like. Maya, as always, helps him organize his feelings and actions around his project. Next week, “Green Mars!” It's going to be a big one, so get your Heidegger, Sartre, and Melville ready! New show motto: Expect things to get better! 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

Matt has overcome his rural inertia long enough to finally put out this episode! Hooray! This is the first episode that Matt and Hilary have recorded remotely. As such, there are some technical difficulties that we're still working out, so please be patient. (They're very minor and you probably wouldn't even notice if I didn't mention it.) This time we discuss "Maya and Desmond," "Four Teleological Trails," and "Discovering Life." In "Maya and Desmond," Matt and Hilary talk about the way the books depict major events while at the same time giving a sense of everydayness, uneventfulness, and mundanity. We talk about the entirely different perspective this story gives us of the events of the entirety of the Mars Trilogy, as it appears to span most of the 200-or-so-year span of the original books. It makes a difference to know that Hiroko's farm crew abandons the First Hundred in Red Mars not because of Hiroko but because Maya tipped Desmond off that (essentially) the cops were coming. We talk about the way this story condenses and elides time, and the ways people find to make their own lives even in moments of revolution. In "Four Teleological Trails," Matt makes a weird connection with Edgar Allan Poe's "Man of the Crowd," probably just because anytime he reads anything with someone walking he thinks of "Man of the Crowd," but also because of the uncanny landscape that’s described, the ambiguity between nature and culture, the past and the future, the narrator's attempt to kill his parents by bringing them up Precipice Trail, and trail phantoming. We talk about haunting and discovering being flip sides of the same kind. Thanks to Listener Stever for pointing out (on the KSR Facebook fan page) that the "Dorr" who is mentioned refers to George Dorr, the driving force behind the creation of Acadia National Park, making this story a clear reference to hiking there. This chapter explores the limits to the functionality of metaphor and seems repeatedly to undo the distinction between nature and culture. Finally, in "Discovering Life," Matt gets a dose of nostalgia for Los Angeles traffic. Another story that highlights the everydayness and mundanity of space travel, "Discovering Life" is mostly melancholy with a hopeful ending. The mundane everydayness of this chapter is just a continuation of our own crappy reality, not the utopian hopefulness of the Mars Trilogy. The future depicted here feels much more like our present, or even our past, with the 1950s remaining a touchstone of something. The NASA press conference depicted all-too-eerily resembles those of the original space missions, especially in their clear domination by men. But it also depicts a nice sense of conviviality among co-workers (rocket scientists are laborers after all), and ends with the idea to "terraform Earth instead"--a good idea! Thanks for listening, as always! 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

Hello! We’re back in Phase Two of “Marooned! on Mars” Matt and Hilary will be discussing the short stories, essays, fragments, poems, and other literary concoctions that comprise The Martians, published in 1999. This is kind of like the apocrypha of the Mars Trilogy, things that didn’t necessarily “happen” or aren’t “canonical” to the original trilogy, but that involve the same characters and are set in the same basic world with the same basic presuppositions. M & H start by talking about the way we’ve been approaching the books in general, which must represent some synthesis of the different ways the two of us read texts. M admits to a predilection to close reading, which probably accounts at least in part for our focus on them as books populated by characters. H's approach to science fiction (M suggests) revolves more around Darko Suvin’s concept of the novum (which H has discussed a few times), so is more focused on the world created and the political-economic and social ramifications of the new thing posited by the text. This seems to have resulted in a balance of readings strategies for which no one has rescinded our PhDs, so we’re happy about that. It also sheds light on the way the Mars books engage with 19th century realism. They have characters that are worth paying attention to as characters while simultaneously giving a sense of scope, presenting an entire world that does more than never just tell a story about individual people but rather is always about a world and its possibilities. Then M goes on one of his patented pointless rambles, this time about Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Seriously, even Matt doesn’t know what he was saying, just skip ahead. Something about rich interior life. This is all part of our collective plan to give ourselves license to be even stupider than we already are about these books, because neither of us has read The Martians before. Anyway, these stories demonstrate a kind of formal experimentation and complexity that’s really exhilarating as a reader, with wild perspective shifts (compared to what we’re used to from the Trilogy) and whole revisions of major events. Perhaps no segment of The Martians better illustrates this than MICHEL IN ANTARCTICA, the first one, which ends, hilariously, with the entire trilogy being negated! They don’t go to Mars! M & H talk about Michel's intelligence and unprofessionalism. Michel ends up arguing that the necessary characteristics for a successful member of the First Hundred are full of double binds that are just too complex to be overcome. We talk about those contradictions and the structure of feeling vis a vis the past inhabitants of Antarctica. EXPLORING FOSSIL CANYON follows a tourist expedition led by one Roger Clayborne (who?) told through the eyes of Eileen Monday. We discuss the sublime as an aesthetic tourist experience, and marvel at the idea that Mars has changed so enormously that, unlike the First Hundred, you don’t have to know anything about the planet to live on it. Eileen was born there, lived her life in a city, and has never the outback. So in a weird way she’s both Martian and alienated from Mars…wonder what that’s like? THE ARCHAEA PLOT is a delightful piece of folklore that warns us of the anaerobic revolt to come. It’s a great example of the shift in perspective this collection makes possible. THE WAY THE LAND SPOKE TO US also does extremely cool things with the sublime, voice, and perspective. We read the entirety of the flatness section and are basically rendered speechless because it’s depiction of the constant state of misperception where we find our being is so beautiful and profound. H shares a story about Big Sky Country. Listen to our friends! (But only after you listen to us!)

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

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

Starship and Mars, 2024 here we come. Check our the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Also the BIG podcast show Talking Tesla.

Luke and Juliane talk about Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and, of course, politics. Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp. Buy this book at , or discuss this book at Goodreads.com Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog Follow Luke on […]

In this ep of That Book Club Hannah and Michael take your sci-fi recs, infiltrate Hudson News, and investigate an alarming new trend: presidential fanfic. Books mentioned Dan Simmons, Hyperion; Kim Stanley Robinson, Mars Trilogy; James S. A. Corey, The Expanse; Anne McCaffery, Dragonflight; Pierce Brown, Red Rising Trilogy; Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain; Philip K. Dick, Minority Report; Ira Levin, This Perfect Day; Madeline L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time; Andrew Shaffer, Hope Never Dies; Bill Clinton and James Patterson, The President is Missing; Elif Batuman, The Idiot Articles mentioned Anthony Lane’s review of The President is Missing, and New Republic review here. Obama/Biden fanfic Hope Never Dies Time Up on Bill More on James Patterson’s Bookshots [shudder]

Dara and Chelsea talk about Dara's trip to Japan, their recent Regional tournament, and in the Science with Dara segment, get a little more philosophical than usual! As discussed: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy Mark Rober Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/onemeeeliondollars

The last part of *Red Mars!* Hilary and Matt discuss Part Eight, "Shikata Ga Nai." Told through Ann's perspective, another major character dies, a small group of refugees drives around Mars in a couple of boulder cars, and they arrive at their new home! Hilary teaches Matt about why the Mars Trilogy is not a feminist text. Matt does a brief Arnold Schwarzenegger impression. Matt says "yeah" a lot. Hilary says "like" a lot. We're people, give us a break. Spoiler alerts about both *Red Mars* and late eighteenth century Gothic novels and Victorian literature. And, spoiler alert, I don't have a PhD in Thomas Paine Studies. Follow us on Twitter: @maroonedonmarspodcast Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com Rate and review us on iTunes! Original title music by The Spirit of Space.

This episode: A look at Aurora (2015) by Kim Stanley Robinson. Best known for the Mars Trilogy, Robinson is well known for his detailed, immersive, literary science fiction where scientists often are the heroes. Aurora tells the tale of multi-generational colony ship en route from the Earth system to Tau Ceti. This stand-alone novel examines themes of interpersonal psychology, migration, and the ethics of star travel. So before you pack off to the Labrador biome on your wanderjahr, download this discussion for your travels! MUSIC: www.bensound.com (NOTE: the audio is a bit uneven in this episode, will try to fix in the future. I thought it sounded better in earphones than on my speakers.)

We discuss KSR's Red Mars, Part Three, "The Crucible." It's a Nadia section! Lots of things get built, things start to heat up (literally AND figuratively), and I still don't know how to edit audio, nor do I have the time. But that's okay because we're here to talk about the Mars Trilogy, and that is something that we certainly do in this episode, the description of which you are reading right now. You're welcome, and thank you. We have a Twitter! Follow us @podcastonmars We have a Gmail! Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast at gmail dot com We are on iTunes! Rate and review us at https://apple.co/2IeQPK9 Tell your friends about how great and interesting and fun to listen to we are!

What motivates a great novelist to write a children's book? Author Junot Diaz joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf to discuss the inspiration behind Islandborn, the story of five year-old Lola learning about her family's history and culture, beautifully illustrated by Leo Espinoza. What follows is a penetrating conversation about the severe under-representation of people of color in children's books, the long-overdue reckoning that needs to happen across society, the genius of diasporic literature, and the healing potential of stories for all ages, about all peoples, that convey universal human experience. Also, Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket inspired LARB Radio's Dan Lopez to re-read, and highly recommend, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy

During desperate times some people are forced to do desperate things. The trick is to not get caught. Let's just say that Maybelle Trow Knox was not very good at that last part. Also learn the real name of Scooby Doo's best friend Shaggy, how Scooby Doo got his name, a teacher who used an electric chair to punish students, a girl too afraid to show her report card, and a boy who placed his loose tooth in his ear. Retrosponsor: Arrid deodorant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During desperate times some people are forced to do desperate things. The trick is to not get caught. Let's just say that Maybelle Trow Knox was not very good at that last part. Also learn the real name of Scooby Doo's best friend Shaggy, how Scooby Doo got his name, a teacher who used an electric chair to punish students, a girl too afraid to show her report card, and a boy who placed his loose tooth in his ear. Retrosponsor: Arrid deodorant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal evolution. The award-winning science fiction author of 2312, the Mars Trilogy, and Aurora shares his vision for how the world must change in advance of his 02017 novel New York 2140. Hosted by Stewart Brand. From May 02016. Kim Stanley Robinson is an American novelist, widely recognized as one of the foremost living writers of science fiction. His work has been described as "humanist science fiction" and "literary science fiction." He has published more than 20 novels including his much honored "Mars trilogy", New York 2140 (02017), and Red Moon due out in October 02018. Robinson has a B.A. in Literature from UC San Diego and an M.A. in English from Boston University. He earned a Ph.D. in literature from UCSD with a dissertation on the works of Philip K. Dick.

The Great Depression was an awful time for farmers in Iowa.  It culminated with the near hanging of a judge in Le Mars. It just happens that the farm involved was owned by the T.M. Zink estate, the same man who left his savings for the establishment of a womanless library.  Also learn about the only planet in our solar system where its day is longer that its year and three unusual stories involving marriage annulment.  Retrosponsor: Spry Vegetable Shortening Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great Depression was an awful time for farmers in Iowa.  It culminated with the near hanging of a judge in Le Mars. It just happens that the farm involved was owned by the T.M. Zink estate, the same man who left his savings for the establishment of a womanless library.  Also learn about the only planet in our solar system where its day is longer that its year and three unusual stories involving marriage annulment.  Retrosponsor: Spry Vegetable Shortening Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first of a 3-part series on Le Mars, Iowa from the 1930's. Le Mars was thrust into the national spotlight by the actions of just one man: a successful lawyer named T.M. Zink, who left nearly his entire estate for the establishment of a very unusual library. Listen to this podcast to determine whether Zink was truly mad or simply playing a good practical joke on the world.  Also learn about a man who pushed a heavy cart many mile off course, an artist's model fired for his Van Dyke beard, a waiter who poisoned his customers, and the original title of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Retrosponsor: Vicks VapoRub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first of a 3-part series on Le Mars, Iowa from the 1930's. Le Mars was thrust into the national spotlight by the actions of just one man: a successful lawyer named T.M. Zink, who left nearly his entire estate for the establishment of a very unusual library. Listen to this podcast to determine whether Zink was truly mad or simply playing a good practical joke on the world.  Also learn about a man who pushed a heavy cart many mile off course, an artist's model fired for his Van Dyke beard, a waiter who poisoned his customers, and the original title of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Retrosponsor: Vicks VapoRub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The planet Mars boasts the most dramatic landscapes in our solar system. In a programme first broadcast in March, 2013, Kevin Fong embarks on a grand tour around the planet with scientists, artists and writers who know its special places intimately - through their probes, roving robots and imaginations. As we roam Mars' beauty spots, Kevin considers why the Red Planet grips so many. Beyond its alien topographic grandeur, Mars inspires the bigger questions: are we alone in the cosmos, and what is the longer term destiny of humanity? Was there more than one life genesis? Will humans ever live on more than one planet? The itinerary includes the solar system's greatest volcano - Olympus Mons. It is an ancient pile of lavas more than twice the height of Everest, with a summit crater that could contain Luxembourg. The weight of Mars' gargantuan volcanic outpourings helped to create the planet's extreme version of our Grand Canyon. Vallis Marineris is an almighty gash in the crust 4,000 kilometres long and seven kilometres deep. That is more than three times the depth of Earth's Grand Canyon. In some place the cliffs are sheer from top to bottom. A little to the east lies an extraordinary region called Iani Chaos, a vast realm of closely spaced and towering rock stacks and mesas, hundreds to thousands of metres high. One researcher describes it as Tolkienesque. This unearthly shattered terrain was created billions of years ago when immense volumes of water burst out from beneath the surface and carved another giant canyon, known as Ares Valles, in a matter of months. Imagine a hundred Amazon rivers cutting loose at once, suggests Professor Steve Squyres. The catastrophically sculpted landscapes are part of the plentiful evidence that in its early days, Mars was, at times, awash with water and, in theory, provided environments in which life could evolve and survive. That is what the latest robot rover on Mars - Curiosity - is exploring at the dramatic Gale Crater with its central peak, Mount Sharp. Expert Mars guides in the programme include scientists on the current Curiosity mission, and on the preceding rover explorations by Spirit and Opportunity. Kevin talks to hard sci-fi novelist Kim Stanley Robinson whose rich invocations of Martian landscapes form the narrative bedrock of his Mars Trilogy. He also meets Bill Hartmann, a planetary scientist since earliest generation of Mars probes in the 1960s and 1970s. Bill has a parallel career as an artist who paints landscapes of the Red Planet. Planetary scientist Pascal Lee of the Mars Institute begins Kevin's tour with a painting he created - an imagined view of Mars from the surface of its tiny moon, Phobos. Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

I'll be the first to admit that my homemade rover didn't do the original justice and my color treatment was a better reflection of my Hollywood thinking than of the Martian landscape. What appealed to JPL was how I captured the tension of driving the rover across Gale, where every pebble can put years of training to the test. They were also impressed that I left my Curiosity outside Hanksville, Utah, not far from the Mars Desert Research Station, then controlled it and its cameras from a van several miles away. And they were amazed that my route for approaching the Mars Light almost perfectly mirrored their own. | Copyright 2016 by Stephen S. Power. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki; Jim Freund; Claire Benedek.

McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation between work from two very different Soviet and American contexts. After guiding readers through the work and theories of Alexander Bogdanov, whose focus on the importance of labor in organizing knowledge forms a central thread through the book as a whole, Wark traces some of those notions in the writing of novelist and utopian Andrey Platonov. The second half of the book extends the conversation into science studies, beginning in a chapter that considers the work of Feyerabend, Haraway, Barad, and Edwards in light of Bogdanov and Platonov’s approaches to labor and knowledge, and continuing into a chapter devoted to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. The result is a fascinating treatment of the centrality of labor and the importance of the not-necessarily-human to understanding and theorizing the Anthropocene. (As Wark reminds us, Labor is the mingling of many things, most of them not human.) The entire book is highly recommended, and for the STS-minded among us the third chapter of the book would make an especially useful assignment in a discussion group or seminar devoted to contemporary theory and/in STS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation between work from two very different Soviet and American contexts. After guiding readers through the work and theories of Alexander Bogdanov, whose focus on the importance of labor in organizing knowledge forms a central thread through the book as a whole, Wark traces some of those notions in the writing of novelist and utopian Andrey Platonov. The second half of the book extends the conversation into science studies, beginning in a chapter that considers the work of Feyerabend, Haraway, Barad, and Edwards in light of Bogdanov and Platonov’s approaches to labor and knowledge, and continuing into a chapter devoted to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. The result is a fascinating treatment of the centrality of labor and the importance of the not-necessarily-human to understanding and theorizing the Anthropocene. (As Wark reminds us, Labor is the mingling of many things, most of them not human.) The entire book is highly recommended, and for the STS-minded among us the third chapter of the book would make an especially useful assignment in a discussion group or seminar devoted to contemporary theory and/in STS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation between work from two very different Soviet and American contexts. After guiding readers through the work and theories of Alexander Bogdanov, whose focus on the importance of labor in organizing knowledge forms a central thread through the book as a whole, Wark traces some of those notions in the writing of novelist and utopian Andrey Platonov. The second half of the book extends the conversation into science studies, beginning in a chapter that considers the work of Feyerabend, Haraway, Barad, and Edwards in light of Bogdanov and Platonov’s approaches to labor and knowledge, and continuing into a chapter devoted to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. The result is a fascinating treatment of the centrality of labor and the importance of the not-necessarily-human to understanding and theorizing the Anthropocene. (As Wark reminds us, Labor is the mingling of many things, most of them not human.) The entire book is highly recommended, and for the STS-minded among us the third chapter of the book would make an especially useful assignment in a discussion group or seminar devoted to contemporary theory and/in STS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation between work from two very different Soviet and American contexts. After guiding readers through the work and theories of Alexander Bogdanov, whose focus on the importance of labor in organizing knowledge forms a central thread through the book as a whole, Wark traces some of those notions in the writing of novelist and utopian Andrey Platonov. The second half of the book extends the conversation into science studies, beginning in a chapter that considers the work of Feyerabend, Haraway, Barad, and Edwards in light of Bogdanov and Platonov’s approaches to labor and knowledge, and continuing into a chapter devoted to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. The result is a fascinating treatment of the centrality of labor and the importance of the not-necessarily-human to understanding and theorizing the Anthropocene. (As Wark reminds us, Labor is the mingling of many things, most of them not human.) The entire book is highly recommended, and for the STS-minded among us the third chapter of the book would make an especially useful assignment in a discussion group or seminar devoted to contemporary theory and/in STS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

McKenzie Wark’s new book begins and ends with a playful call: “Workings of the world untie! You have a win to world!” Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (Verso, 2015) creates a conversation between work from two very different Soviet and American contexts. After guiding readers through the work and theories of Alexander Bogdanov, whose focus on the importance of labor in organizing knowledge forms a central thread through the book as a whole, Wark traces some of those notions in the writing of novelist and utopian Andrey Platonov. The second half of the book extends the conversation into science studies, beginning in a chapter that considers the work of Feyerabend, Haraway, Barad, and Edwards in light of Bogdanov and Platonov’s approaches to labor and knowledge, and continuing into a chapter devoted to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. The result is a fascinating treatment of the centrality of labor and the importance of the not-necessarily-human to understanding and theorizing the Anthropocene. (As Wark reminds us, Labor is the mingling of many things, most of them not human.) The entire book is highly recommended, and for the STS-minded among us the third chapter of the book would make an especially useful assignment in a discussion group or seminar devoted to contemporary theory and/in STS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the biggest names in current science fiction. His most famous work is, arguably, the Mars Trilogy, but he is the author of seventeen novels and several collections of short stories. I could easily overburden you with biographical details and lists of his accolades, but I'll leave that to this very comprehensive fan page. I learned about Stan through my interview with Tim Morton in 2012—they are friends and, at the time, both lived in Davis. It took a year but, when I next passed through Davis, I was fortunate enough to get three hours to sit down with Stan and talk about the future. I was especially interested in Stan's work because he is a thorough researcher and regularly uses his fiction to explore a variety of plausible economic, scientific, ecological, and social futures. In other words, he uses fiction to ask many of the same questions that we have been asking our interviewees throughout the project. The result, I think, is one of the strongest and most wide-ranging interviews in The Conversation.

In this episode, Perry Kaufman explains the difference between "hard" and "soft" science fiction and makes a couple recommendations (13:21), and Kristi Cates talks about books that readers of The Martian might also like (13:39). Plus, there's a new prize challenge. Perry's recommendations: Blindsight by Peter WattsRevelation Space by Alastair Reynolds Kristi's recommendations: The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)Packing For Mars by Mary RoachAlone In Antarctica by Felicity AstonAdrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea by Steven Callahan   Please let us know what you think! You can email us at normalpl.org, or tweet us @NPLTweets.

It’s a new episode in a new Act! 2 down, 4 to go. (This one’s Act 3.) Look alive!This week: It’s Jade! A bubbly oracle with a bent for remarkably dangerous hobbies. Meanwhile, Rose discovers a big pulsating underground server grid, Jade receives our first in-story trolling, and Dave gets wrecked by a literal puppet. Pages 2660 to 2769.Here’s a bunch of other stuff that comes up:Listen to Jade’s homemade music on page 2730.A YouTube upload of “[S] Jade: Play a hauntingly relaxing bassline.”Read the line “Jade is beginning to regret breaking the fourth wall for this ill advised escapade” and all subsequent narration in the voice from this video. [note: i have no idea what this is meant to link to because our shownotes broke]We got asked for webcomic recs! Check out Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran and Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G.We also got asked for book recs! Go read the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, or Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.Next week is Episode 10! Bad news: Lydia screwed up the teaser text again and we won’t properly see Bec until Ep 11. Good news: John confronts his father’s room, Jade confronts her grandfather, and a familiar-looking carapace agent confronts an enormous pointing finger and a very silly hat. 2770 – 2879.Ask us questions on Tumblr, Twitter or hamsteakpodcast@gmail.com!This fresh, organic, streaming audio content has been delivered to your door by Alex and Lydia.Intro music: “Showtime (Original Mix)” – Malcolm BrownOutro music: “Showtime (Piano Refrain)” – Malcolm Brown, arranged and performed by Kevin RegameyBoth from Homestuck Vol 1-4, listen and purchase on Bandcamp!Homestuck, as always, is created by Andrew Hussie.

At the end of the year our goal is to bring the audience some unusual programming, some new outside perspectives on the topics we cover. As with last year, we talk today with science fiction writer, Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy, 2312, and Shaman.