Podcast appearances and mentions of Theodore Sturgeon

We discuss Theodore Sturgeon and his short story

Victor Varnado, KSN, and Rachel Teichman, LMSW, uncover the fascinating story behind I, Libertine, a novel that started as an elaborate literary hoax. What began as a joke on the publishing industry turned into a real book, co-written by sci-fi legend Theodore Sturgeon. Learn how a late-night radio prank spiraled into a full-fledged literary phenomenon. Tune in for a tale of deception, satire, and unexpected success!Full Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_LibertineSubscribe to our new newsletter, WikiWeekly at https://newsletter.wikilisten.com/ for a fun fact every week to feel smart and impress your friends, and MORE! https://www.patreon.com/wikilistenpodcastFind us on social media!https://www.facebook.com/WikiListenInstagram @WikiListenTwitter @Wiki_ListenYoutubeGet bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Other Worlds, we explore the notion of Inner Worlds by looking closely at the idea of inner space vs. outer space - the power and problems of our own minds. Exploring these ideas with Sue Berman is Other Worlds exhibition curator Andrew Henry. We discuss a range of texts including 'Return to Tomorrow' and 'Dianetics' by L. Ron Hubbard, 'The World of Null-A' by A.E. Van Vogt, and 'The Dreaming Jewels' by Theodore Sturgeon as well as the well-known Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde'. Visit the onsite exhibition and join us in a series of events and activations: www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Other-Worlds-exhibition For recommended reads visit: www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/Other-Worlds-reads Books mentioned in the podcast: L. Ron Hubbard, Return to tomorrow. London: Hamilton, 1957. L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics: the evolution of a science. London: Hubbard Association of Scientologists International Limited, 1958. A.E. Van Vogt, The world of Null-A. New York: Ace Books, 1964. Theodore Sturgeon, The dreaming jewels. London: Corgi Books, 1975. Alfred Bester. The demolished man. London: Hamilton, 1959. Robert Louis Stevenson, The strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1930. New worlds science fiction, vol. 30, no. 89. London: Nova, December 1959. New worlds science fiction, vol. 40, no. 118. London: Nova, May 1962. Analog science fiction, science fact, vol. 90, no. 4. New York: Condé Nast, December 1972. Music credit: https://www.melodyloops.com/tracks/space-harmony/ Image from Robert Louis Stevenson, The strange case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1930. Produced by Sue Berman and JL.

The scene-shifters slipped—and a man woke up on Wednesday, though yesterday was Monday. But Wednesday wasn't finished… Yesterday was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Today's story is unlike anything we've done before, and that's why we chose to share it with you on the podcast. The name of the magazine is Unknown. It's not that we don't know the name of the magazine, the name of the magazine is called Unknown. Only 39 issues rolled off the presses but some believe it was the finest fantasy fiction magazine ever published.From Unknown in June 1941, we will find this odd story on page 112, Yesterday was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, He was one man, horribly confused, escaping from a destroyed planet, carrying some sort of message which he couldn't recall. But he had tremendous potential for achievement! Potential by Robert Sheckley.☕ Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsVFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLostSciFiPodcastTwitter - https://twitter.com/lost_sci_fi=========================== ❤️ ❤️ Thanks to All Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 Anonymous Listener$25 Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listener Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A picture is worth a thousand words—especially if they're Martian words and nobody can understand them. So Mars put on a spectacular for Earth, using the skies as a TV screen. This proved the superiority of their science. But their morals—Wow! Cosmic Striptease by Harlan Ellison. That's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Harlan Ellison earned the nickname “The Bad Boy of Science Fiction” due to his bold, outspoken personality, controversial opinions, and unrelenting refusal to conform to societal or literary norms.Ellison frequently criticized the science fiction community, literary trends, and even societal norms, often in a way that sparked debate and controversy. He was involved in numerous public feuds with other writers, editors, and critics. Ellison's combination of immense talent, uncompromising principles, and a penchant for stirring the pot earned him the well deserved title “The Bad Boy of Science Fiction.”And then there is the story you are about to hear. It was published in 1958 and to say that it pushed boundaries is an understatement. Turn to page 48 for the cover story in the January issue of Fantastic Science Fiction, Cosmic Striptease by Harlan Ellison…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, The scene-shifters slipped—and a man woke up on Wednesday, though yesterday was Monday. But Wednesday wasn't finished… Yesterday was Monday by Theodore Sturgeon.☕ Buy Me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsVFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheLostSciFiPodcastTwitter - https://twitter.com/lost_sci_fi=========================== ❤️ ❤️ Thanks to All Our Listeners Who Bought Us a Coffee$200 Someone$75 James Van Maanenberg$50 Anonymous Listener$25 Jeff Lussenden, Fred Sieber, Anne, Craig Hamilton, Dave Wiseman, Bromite Thrip, Marwin de Haan, Future Space Engineer, Fressie, Kevin Eckert, Stephen Kagan, James Van Maanenberg, Irma Stolfo, Josh Jennings, Leber8tr, Conrad Chaffee, Anonymous Listener$15 Someone, Carolyn Guthleben, Patrick McLendon, Curious Jon, Buz C., Fressie, Anonymous Listener$10 Anonymous Listener$5 Timothy Buckley, Andre'a, Martin Brown, Ron McFarlan, Tif Love, Chrystene, Richard Hoffman, Anonymous Listener Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is part of the Cabal's psych-out wars. Theodore Sturgeon's Law applies, "Ninety percent of everything is crap."Support the show

Main fiction: "Not Responsible! Park and Lock It!" by John KesselBorn in Buffalo, NY, novelist and story writer John Kessel is emeritus professor of literature and creative writing at North Carolina State University, where he taught courses on literature and creative writing and helped found the MFA program in creative writing.His fiction has received the Theodore Sturgeon, Locus, James Tiptree Jr./Otherwise, Ignotus, and Shirley Jackson awards, and twice received the Nebula award. The Dark Ride: The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel, was published in 2022, and his The Presidential Papers appeared in PM Press's Outspoken Authors series in 2024. He lives with his wife, the novelist Therese Anne Fowler, in Raleigh.This story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept 1981.Narrated by: Will StaglWill Stagl lives in his adopted home of Tucson Arizona where he is a creative professional by day and proudly recruits talented voice actors for StarShipSofa whenever duty calls. He shares a birthday with Mark Twain, Billy Idol and Winston Churchill, who will all be raising a pint together at the end of this month in celebration. Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H SturgisSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All episodes are made available to Patreon subscribers, the most killer-ish and dozer-y of all audiences, one week before their general release Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke celebrates the Spooky Season with the most terrifying subject imaginable: a sentient, vengeful bulldozer! Guest Joe Gibson has chosen this TV movie from the pen of science fiction legend Theodore Sturgeon to discuss for our 1974 series, one that comes between the highway horror of Duel and apocalyptic chaos of Maximum Overdrive. Can the half dozen construction workers stranded on an island off the coast of Africa survive the wrath of a meteorite-possessed Killdozer? This is a very fun movie. 1974 was a landmark year for film, a convergence of exciting international cinema and the original voices of New Hollywood that still resonates 50 years later. In our new series we invite a different guest for each episode to choose a 1974 movie to talk about, ranging from giant blockbusters to minor cult curios and everything else in between. Joe's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/zoltarak/ The Pink Smoke site: www.thepinksmoke.com The Pink Smoke on X: twitter.com/thepinksmoke Christopher Funderburg on X: twitter.com/cfunderburg John Cribbs on X: twitter.com/TheLastMachine Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two” Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas" Support our Patreon: www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke

"El Osito de Peluche del Profesor" (The Professor's Teddy-Bear) es un relato de vampiros del escritor norteamericano Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), publicado originalmente en la edición de marzo de 1948 de la revista Weird Tales. Es uno de los cuentos de Theodore Sturgeon más importantes, relata la historia del osito de peluche de un niño, quien engendra en él deseos malignos y de algún modo le permite ver las terribles acciones que llevará a cabo en su vida futura. Música y Ambientación: "Beyond Arkham" Dark Music Mistery Horror "Demonic Toys" Richard Band "Melancholia" Ryan Creep Blog del Podcast: https://lanebulosaeclectica.blogspot.com/ Twitter: @jomategu

We're joined by mosquito and disease expert Dr. Louisa Messenger of the Las Vegas PARAVEC lab. It turns out that gators and snakes aren't the big danger in a swamp. And this monster isn't constrained to swamps. In fact, it's probably in your own backyard. Mosquito problem in Las Vegas How to fight Mosquitos Dr. Messenger's Lab website Additional Reading: History of antimalarial drugs Modern use of Quinine The Color Mauve History of Malaria Lyle Blackburn's Sinister Swamps (affiliate link) Theodore Sturgeon's IT! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Earth rocket makes first contact with an alien space craft in deep space. Both desire a peaceful trade of ideas and technology, but neither can trust the other enough to risk the fate of their home planets.To download, right-click here and then click SaveJoin the Journey Into Patreon to get extra episodes and personal addresses, plus other extras and rewards.Murray Leinster was a pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins (June 16, 1896 – June 8, 1975). He was an award-winning fiction writer, particularly of science fiction. He wrote and published more than 1,500 short stories and articles, 14 movie scripts, and hundreds of radio scripts and television plays.X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC. Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts.Theme music: Liberator by Man In SpaceTo comment on this or any episode:Send comments and/or recordings to journeyintopodcat@gmail.comTweet us us TwitterPost a comment on Facebook here

This time we give a listen to X Minus One's "Stars are the Styx" written by Theodore Sturgeon and follow it up with the 2018 remake by the Amigos which originally aired on Sonic Summerstock Playhouse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time we give a listen to X Minus One's "Stars are the Styx" written by Theodore Sturgeon and follow it up with the 2018 remake by the Amigos which originally aired on Sonic Summerstock Playhouse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hvad ville et superhelteunivers være, hvis der ikke fandtes mystiske, uformelige, stinkende klumper af vandrende biomasse fra udstrakte vådområder hinsides metropolerne mylder, som kun havde den ene tanke og formål at hævne sig på den verden, som har skabt deres fortvivlede tilstand? Ret kedeligt, ikke sandt? Det er derfor, at ethvert superhelteunivers med respekt for sig selv har en, eller flere, mosemænd og mosekvinder, der gør livet surt for vores hårdt prøvede helte. Vi kunne starte med Grauballemanden, men den sande start for det, vi skal snakke om i dag, er ”IT” af Theodore Sturgeon, som den gamle radio-rotte Kim på forbilledlig vis læser et uddrag fra, og så går det ellers over stok og sten (pas på, du ikke bliver suget ned i mystiske vandhuller), indtil vi når frem til Swamp Thing og Alan Moore, som nok må siges at være toppen af ... kompostbunken! Så lyt med, mens de to ”lygtemænd” fortæller dig om forsumpede skabninger og engelske hippier! www.supersnak.nu facebook.com/supersnakpodcast instagram.com/supersnakpodcast

As Bright As A Pearl by Andrea Janes, Read by Tatiana Grey When you sit in Mora's chair at the salon on the Coney Island Boardwalk, her fingers will find your roots and your secrets. As for what she does with them... Andrea Janes tells ghost stories for a living. She is the co-author of A Haunted History of Invisible Women and the owner and founder of Boroughs of the Dead, a boutique tour company dedicated to dark and unusual walking tours of New York City. She is currently at work on a Middle Grade historical fantasy novel set in New Amsterdam. Her personal obsessions include weird history, slapstick comediennes, witches, ghosts, all things nautical, and beer. She lives in Brooklyn where she can usually be found by the ocean or near a cemetery. Tatiana Grey is a critically acclaimed actress of stage, screen, and of course...the audio booth. She's been nominated for dozens of fancy awards but hasn't won a single damned thing. See more at www.tatianagrey.com Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies by Brooke Bolander, Read by Nhea Durousseau The best revenge is hot beyond measure and crosses dimensions. Brooke Bolander is the Locus and Nebula Award-winning author of “The Only Harmless Great Thing.” Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson Awards, among others. She attended the University of Leicester 2004-2007 studying History and Archaeology and is an alum of the 2011 Clarion Writers' Workshop at UCSD. She currently lives in New York City. Nhea Durousseau is a current student at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in DC with a rich background in voice work. Her experience includes ADR/dubbing for both live-action and animation, indie games, and audio drama productions. An avid fiction podcast fan, you can ask her for an audio drama recommendation and receive at least six. You can find her at nheavox.com or on Twitter @nheavox."

Los Cuentos de la Casa de la Bruja es un podcast semanal de audio-relatos de misterio, ciencia ficción y terror. Cada viernes, a las 10 de la noche, traemos un nuevo programa. ¡Si te gusta nuestro contenido suscríbete! Y si te encanta considera hacerte fan desde el botón azul APOYAR y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo. Tu aporte es de mucha ayuda para el mantenimiento de este podcast. ¡Gracias por ello! Mi nombre es Juan Carlos. Dirijo este podcast y también soy locutor y narrador de audiolibros, con estudio propio. Si crees que mi voz encajaría con tu proyecto o negocio contacta conmigo y hablamos. :) Contacto profesional: info@locucioneshablandoclaro.com www.locucioneshablandoclaro.com También estoy en Twitter: @VengadorT Y en Instagram: juancarlos_locutor Música: Epidemic Sound, con licencia Imagen portada: https://pixabay.com/es/photos/horror-horrible-de-miedo-4217529/ Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

Michael and Pax celebrate the 150th episode of Hellbent with last year's Bass Reeves mini-series starring David Oyelowo, Lauren E Banks, and Forrest Goodluck. And guest-starring Barry Pepper, Shea Whigham, Dennis Quaid, and Donald Sutherland.  Pax also talks about his recent guest-appearance on the Authorized Novelizations Podcast discussing Theodore Sturgeon's novelization of The Rare Breed.

What if a novelization only decided to adapt the first half of the movie? Well, it makes for an extremely weird story structure, dramatically. This week, we're joined by returning guest Paxton Holley to discuss The Rare Breed, a book so obsessed with the minutiae of cowboy life that we had to read pages and pages about types of rope and kinds of food to feed your horse. It's excruciating! Check out Paxton's many podcasts! : https://cultfilmclub.com/podcast-directory/ Subscribe to our Patreon!: patreon.com/authorizedpod Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/authorizedpod Instagram: instagram.com/authorizedpod Next time on Authorized: Sarah Welch-Larson talks 2001: A Space Odyssey --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/authorizedpod/support

Suspense Podcast 1957-01-06 (680) Jack Kelly - A Shipment of Mute Fate and X Minus One 1957-01-09 (083) Theodore Sturgeon's Saucer Of Loneliness

El Ídolo de las Moscas (The Idol of the Flies) es un relato de terror de la escritora norteamericana Jane Rice (1913-2003), publicado originalmente en la edición de junio de 1942 de la revista Unknown Worlds, y luego reeditado por Alfred Hitchcock en la antología de: Historias que mi madre nunca me contó (Stories My Mother Never Told Me). El Ídolo de las Moscas, sin lugar a dudas uno de los mejores cuentos de Jane Rice, relata la historia de Pruitt, un niño malcriado que tiene el pernicioso hábito de invocar regularmente a Asmodeo. SPOILERS. Si existiera un subgénero del terror dedicado exclusivamente a los niños malignos, Pruitt, el protagonista de El Ídolo de las Moscas de Jane Rice, sería el más demoníaco de todos. Pruitt es un niño huérfano que vive con su tía, enferma y extremadamente ingenua. Su tutora, la señorita Bittner, tiene algunos problemas de audición, y un miedo mortal a las moscas. El chico, hay que decirlo con claridad, es un pequeño monstruo, vicioso y sádico. Entre sus actividades preferidas está la tortura de animales, como empalar pequeños lagartos y arrancarle las alas a las moscas para luego agregarlas a la limonada de la señorita Bittner. Entre otras simpáticas bromas juveniles, le rompe la espalda a la cocinera, colocando una cuerda en la escalera del sótano, e intenta asfixiar a su tía colocando cáscaras de nuez en la preparación de sus galletas favoritas. Ciertamente es eficaz a la hora de planear sus tropelías. Muy eficaz; de hecho, ha planeado tan cuidadosamente el asesinato de sus padres que nadie ha sospechado de él. Ahora bien, Pruitt ha creado una especie de culto exclusivo al mal, representado en una estatuilla con forma de mosca, a la cual le reza diariamente. Esta entidad, el Ídolo de las Moscas, al parecer responde a esa adoración ayudándolo en sus diabólicos planes. No obstante, cada vez que le reza a la estatuilla, Pruitt entra en una especie de trance, de ensueño, donde intenta atrapar unas criaturas oníricas con forma de renacuajo (ver: Vermifobia: gusanos y otros anélidos freudianos en la ficción). Y un día lo hace. Entonces se nos revela que el culto infantil al Ídolo de las Moscas ha despertado la atención de Belcebú, el señor de las moscas. Pruitt y las moscas que adora destruyen el equilibrio ecológico del hogar. En efecto, la presencia intrusiva y violenta de Pruitt no solo evidencia el nacimiento de un joven psicópata emergente que usa moscas para aterrorizar a las mujeres en el hogar, sino de la ausencia de herramientas en los adultos para enfrentarse al mal cuando su intérprete es un niño (ver: Horror Doméstico: cuando lo desconocido se cuela por las grietas de lo cotidiano) En cierto modo, El Ídolo de las Moscas de Jane Rice es una inversión del relato clásico de Saki: Srendi Vashtar (Srendi Vashtar), donde un niño frágil y sensible crea una religión personal para escapar del dominio de su tía solterona. Aquí, Pruitt no es exactamente un amante de los animales ni es frágil. Su religión personal no se centra en un hurón cautivo, sino en un fetiche hecho de cera y alquitrán que mantiene escondido en un cobertizo, y su crueldad se extiende a los humanos que trabajan para su rica pero débil tía. Los actos de Pruitt son tan aberrantes que incluso ofenden a la entidad demoníaca que adora intuitivamente, y es destruido por ella, con la colaboración de los insectos y otras pequeñas criaturas que ha estado torturando. La maldad de Pruitt no parece tener causa. En cierto punto imaginamos que sus actos constituyen un exagerado acto de rebeldía por la muerte de sus padres, pero luego nos enteramos que él mismo ha sido la causa de su muerte. Este es, quizás, el aspecto más interesante de El Ídolo de las Moscas: la posibilidad de que un niño esté genéticamente predestinado a convertirse en un psicópata. En contraste, los adultos que conforman el mundo de Pruitt parecen estar ciegos ante esas tendencias. Bueno, no todos. La cocinera y el jorobado saben perfectamente de lo que es capaz. Ambos extremos, el mal y la inocencia, parecen necesitarse mutuamente para existir. Por momentos, la prosa de Jane Rice es cruda y sofisticada al mismo tiempo, y esa combinación funciona a la perfección. Cuando uno se va acostumbrando a su estilo, de repente irrumpen párrafos extraordinarios que cortan la respiración, y que en cierta forma cierran los presagios que la autora ha dejado ocultos aquí y allí: la artimaña con la limonada, las reflexiones de la señora Bittner, las cáscaras en las galletas, la muerte de los padres de Pruitt, la trampa para la cocinera. Jane Rice deja un rastro de migas que permite que la realización de cada pequeño crimen de Pruitt tenga mayor impacto. Lo que eleva al El Ídolo de las Moscas por encima de todo eso, sin embargo, es el ritual imaginario de Pruitt, el cual termina invocando a Asmodeo durante este trance, este estado de ensoñación, que Pruitt llama tiempo de no pensar. La naturaleza viscosa y sensible de los pensamientos que Pruitt ve en sus sueños representados como renacuajos, y sus esfuerzos por capturar uno, son elementos profundamente significativos. Todavía no estoy seguro de qué hacer con ellos. Parecen una contribución tan original que me pregunto si Jane Rice no los tomó de su experiencia personal (ver: Los sueños como subrutinas del subconsciente en la ficción) No sabemos si estas entidades son el producto conciente de Pruitt o una especie de artimaña de Asmodeo para atraer al niño hacia lo más profundo de su psique. A propósito, también es interesante la versión de Asmodeo [aquí es un epíteto de Belcebú] que presenta Jane Rice, la cual es simplemente aterradora, lejos del estereotipo del demonio que busca hacer tratos a cambio de minucias (ver: El libro de Azathoth: ¿los pactos de sangre son una muestra de ADN para los Antiguos?) También podemos pensar que la psicopatía de Pruitt, la cual toma la forma de un culto satánico personal, en cierto modo es estimulada por el negacionismo de los adultos. O más aun, que la fobia a las moscas de la señorita Pruitt eventualmente tuvo un efecto catalizador en el chico. ¿El miedo de una persona [en este caso, a las moscas] puede desencadenar [o enfocar] las habilidades sobrenaturales de otra en función de esos miedos? Es una interpretación provocativa, sin dudas. Hay cosas en el mundo que no son evidentes para la observación cotidiana, pero ciertas circunstancias quizás pueden activar el potencial latente en ciertas personas. A su vez, este potencial podría verse afectado por las motivaciones e intenciones individuales, en este caso, por la psicopatía de Pruitt. El mundo que Jane Rice insinúa en El Ídolo de las Moscas es más interesante que la historia que se desarrolla en él. En definitiva, Pruitt es un psicópata que se destruye a sí mismo al derrochar poderes que no comprende, que bien pueden ser sobrenaturales como parte de su psique retorcida, tal es así que su muerte resulta casi reconfortante. Pero la visión del mundo que revela El Ídolo de las Moscas es mucho menos tranquilizadora. Algunos de los actos malignos de Pruitt pueden explicarse sin recurrir a lo sobrenatural [la muerte de sus padres, la caída de la cocinera], pero otros no: la tutora rompiendo su audífono, la invasión de moscas al final, la misteriosa cita sobre Belcebú en el libro que la señorita Bittner está leyendo. John W. Campbell, quien es conocido por impulsar la carrera de autores como Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein y Theodore Sturgeon, entre otros, consideraba a Jane Rice la mayor estrella de Unknown Worlds, y elogiaba su prosa con entusiasmo. Desde aquí, en El Espejo Gótico, suscribimos esa opinión, y también lamentamos que, al menos por ahora, solo hayamos traducido dos relatos de Jane Rice: El Ídolo de las Moscas y El refugiado (The Refugee). Análisis de: El Espejo Gótico http://elespejogotico.blogspot.com/2021/04/el-idolo-de-las-moscas-jane-rice-relato.html Texto del relato extraído de: http://elespejogotico.blogspot.com/2021/04/el-idolo-de-las-moscas-jane-rice-relato.html Musicas: - 01. Mind Tricks - Experia (Epidemic) Nota: Este audio no se realiza con fines comerciales ni lucrativos. Es de difusión enteramente gratuita e intenta dar a conocer tanto a los escritores de los relatos y cuentos como a los autores de las músicas. Nota: Este audio no se realiza con fines comerciales ni lucrativos. Es de difusión enteramente gratuita e intenta dar a conocer tanto a los escritores de los relatos y cuentos como a los autores de las músicas. ¿Quieres anunciarte en este podcast? Hazlo con advoices.com/podcast/ivoox/352537 Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

El Ídolo de las Moscas (The Idol of the Flies) es un relato de terror de la escritora norteamericana Jane Rice (1913-2003), publicado originalmente en la edición de junio de 1942 de la revista Unknown Worlds, y luego reeditado por Alfred Hitchcock en la antología de: Historias que mi madre nunca me contó (Stories My Mother Never Told Me). El Ídolo de las Moscas, sin lugar a dudas uno de los mejores cuentos de Jane Rice, relata la historia de Pruitt, un niño malcriado que tiene el pernicioso hábito de invocar regularmente a Asmodeo. SPOILERS. Si existiera un subgénero del terror dedicado exclusivamente a los niños malignos, Pruitt, el protagonista de El Ídolo de las Moscas de Jane Rice, sería el más demoníaco de todos. Pruitt es un niño huérfano que vive con su tía, enferma y extremadamente ingenua. Su tutora, la señorita Bittner, tiene algunos problemas de audición, y un miedo mortal a las moscas. El chico, hay que decirlo con claridad, es un pequeño monstruo, vicioso y sádico. Entre sus actividades preferidas está la tortura de animales, como empalar pequeños lagartos y arrancarle las alas a las moscas para luego agregarlas a la limonada de la señorita Bittner. Entre otras simpáticas bromas juveniles, le rompe la espalda a la cocinera, colocando una cuerda en la escalera del sótano, e intenta asfixiar a su tía colocando cáscaras de nuez en la preparación de sus galletas favoritas. Ciertamente es eficaz a la hora de planear sus tropelías. Muy eficaz; de hecho, ha planeado tan cuidadosamente el asesinato de sus padres que nadie ha sospechado de él. Ahora bien, Pruitt ha creado una especie de culto exclusivo al mal, representado en una estatuilla con forma de mosca, a la cual le reza diariamente. Esta entidad, el Ídolo de las Moscas, al parecer responde a esa adoración ayudándolo en sus diabólicos planes. No obstante, cada vez que le reza a la estatuilla, Pruitt entra en una especie de trance, de ensueño, donde intenta atrapar unas criaturas oníricas con forma de renacuajo (ver: Vermifobia: gusanos y otros anélidos freudianos en la ficción). Y un día lo hace. Entonces se nos revela que el culto infantil al Ídolo de las Moscas ha despertado la atención de Belcebú, el señor de las moscas. Pruitt y las moscas que adora destruyen el equilibrio ecológico del hogar. En efecto, la presencia intrusiva y violenta de Pruitt no solo evidencia el nacimiento de un joven psicópata emergente que usa moscas para aterrorizar a las mujeres en el hogar, sino de la ausencia de herramientas en los adultos para enfrentarse al mal cuando su intérprete es un niño (ver: Horror Doméstico: cuando lo desconocido se cuela por las grietas de lo cotidiano) En cierto modo, El Ídolo de las Moscas de Jane Rice es una inversión del relato clásico de Saki: Srendi Vashtar (Srendi Vashtar), donde un niño frágil y sensible crea una religión personal para escapar del dominio de su tía solterona. Aquí, Pruitt no es exactamente un amante de los animales ni es frágil. Su religión personal no se centra en un hurón cautivo, sino en un fetiche hecho de cera y alquitrán que mantiene escondido en un cobertizo, y su crueldad se extiende a los humanos que trabajan para su rica pero débil tía. Los actos de Pruitt son tan aberrantes que incluso ofenden a la entidad demoníaca que adora intuitivamente, y es destruido por ella, con la colaboración de los insectos y otras pequeñas criaturas que ha estado torturando. La maldad de Pruitt no parece tener causa. En cierto punto imaginamos que sus actos constituyen un exagerado acto de rebeldía por la muerte de sus padres, pero luego nos enteramos que él mismo ha sido la causa de su muerte. Este es, quizás, el aspecto más interesante de El Ídolo de las Moscas: la posibilidad de que un niño esté genéticamente predestinado a convertirse en un psicópata. En contraste, los adultos que conforman el mundo de Pruitt parecen estar ciegos ante esas tendencias. Bueno, no todos. La cocinera y el jorobado saben perfectamente de lo que es capaz. Ambos extremos, el mal y la inocencia, parecen necesitarse mutuamente para existir. Por momentos, la prosa de Jane Rice es cruda y sofisticada al mismo tiempo, y esa combinación funciona a la perfección. Cuando uno se va acostumbrando a su estilo, de repente irrumpen párrafos extraordinarios que cortan la respiración, y que en cierta forma cierran los presagios que la autora ha dejado ocultos aquí y allí: la artimaña con la limonada, las reflexiones de la señora Bittner, las cáscaras en las galletas, la muerte de los padres de Pruitt, la trampa para la cocinera. Jane Rice deja un rastro de migas que permite que la realización de cada pequeño crimen de Pruitt tenga mayor impacto. Lo que eleva al El Ídolo de las Moscas por encima de todo eso, sin embargo, es el ritual imaginario de Pruitt, el cual termina invocando a Asmodeo durante este trance, este estado de ensoñación, que Pruitt llama tiempo de no pensar. La naturaleza viscosa y sensible de los pensamientos que Pruitt ve en sus sueños representados como renacuajos, y sus esfuerzos por capturar uno, son elementos profundamente significativos. Todavía no estoy seguro de qué hacer con ellos. Parecen una contribución tan original que me pregunto si Jane Rice no los tomó de su experiencia personal (ver: Los sueños como subrutinas del subconsciente en la ficción) No sabemos si estas entidades son el producto conciente de Pruitt o una especie de artimaña de Asmodeo para atraer al niño hacia lo más profundo de su psique. A propósito, también es interesante la versión de Asmodeo [aquí es un epíteto de Belcebú] que presenta Jane Rice, la cual es simplemente aterradora, lejos del estereotipo del demonio que busca hacer tratos a cambio de minucias (ver: El libro de Azathoth: ¿los pactos de sangre son una muestra de ADN para los Antiguos?) También podemos pensar que la psicopatía de Pruitt, la cual toma la forma de un culto satánico personal, en cierto modo es estimulada por el negacionismo de los adultos. O más aun, que la fobia a las moscas de la señorita Pruitt eventualmente tuvo un efecto catalizador en el chico. ¿El miedo de una persona [en este caso, a las moscas] puede desencadenar [o enfocar] las habilidades sobrenaturales de otra en función de esos miedos? Es una interpretación provocativa, sin dudas. Hay cosas en el mundo que no son evidentes para la observación cotidiana, pero ciertas circunstancias quizás pueden activar el potencial latente en ciertas personas. A su vez, este potencial podría verse afectado por las motivaciones e intenciones individuales, en este caso, por la psicopatía de Pruitt. El mundo que Jane Rice insinúa en El Ídolo de las Moscas es más interesante que la historia que se desarrolla en él. En definitiva, Pruitt es un psicópata que se destruye a sí mismo al derrochar poderes que no comprende, que bien pueden ser sobrenaturales como parte de su psique retorcida, tal es así que su muerte resulta casi reconfortante. Pero la visión del mundo que revela El Ídolo de las Moscas es mucho menos tranquilizadora. Algunos de los actos malignos de Pruitt pueden explicarse sin recurrir a lo sobrenatural [la muerte de sus padres, la caída de la cocinera], pero otros no: la tutora rompiendo su audífono, la invasión de moscas al final, la misteriosa cita sobre Belcebú en el libro que la señorita Bittner está leyendo. John W. Campbell, quien es conocido por impulsar la carrera de autores como Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein y Theodore Sturgeon, entre otros, consideraba a Jane Rice la mayor estrella de Unknown Worlds, y elogiaba su prosa con entusiasmo. Desde aquí, en El Espejo Gótico, suscribimos esa opinión, y también lamentamos que, al menos por ahora, solo hayamos traducido dos relatos de Jane Rice: El Ídolo de las Moscas y El refugiado (The Refugee). Análisis de: El Espejo Gótico http://elespejogotico.blogspot.com/2021/04/el-idolo-de-las-moscas-jane-rice-relato.html Texto del relato extraído de: http://elespejogotico.blogspot.com/2021/04/el-idolo-de-las-moscas-jane-rice-relato.html Musicas: - 01. Mind Tricks - Experia (Epidemic) Nota: Este audio no se realiza con fines comerciales ni lucrativos. Es de difusión enteramente gratuita e intenta dar a conocer tanto a los escritores de los relatos y cuentos como a los autores de las músicas. Nota: Este audio no se realiza con fines comerciales ni lucrativos. Es de difusión enteramente gratuita e intenta dar a conocer tanto a los escritores de los relatos y cuentos como a los autores de las músicas. ¿Quieres anunciarte en este podcast? Hazlo con advoices.com/podcast/ivoox/352537

They tried Gordon Kent for murder–but who was really responsible? The Sky Was Full of Ships by Theodore Sturgeon, that's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode. We get a lot of comments on our YouTube Channel. This comes to us from HEAVYMETALmovie1981 “MORE scary werewolf stories please!!” We hear you and we have added Black Hound Of Death by Robert E. Howard to our list of stories to narrate. By the way if you know a scary werewolf vintage science fiction story, please send an email to scott@lostscifi.com. Thanks, HEAVYMETALmovie1981!! And this from rodneydangerman9616, “I've been a consistent listener for a while now...my thought (because it was requested in the video description) is that it should be one (confounding and quasi-obscure) question per week. I assume it would be easier on y'all (production team, that is) and, perhaps, it would give an ample amount of time for the audience to respond. Just my two cents. Love your work, Scott! You and Ian (from HorrorBabble) are, in my humble opinion, truly two of the best narrators on YT!!!” Thanks, rodneydangerman9616!! Ian from HorrorBabble is an amazing narrator so to be mentioned with him is a huge compliment. If you have something to say, we would love to hear it! Comment on our YouTube channel or send us an email, scott@lostscifi.com. Theodore Sturgeon was born Edward Hamilton Waldo in Staten Island, New York, in 1918. His name was legally changed to Theodore Sturgeon at age eleven after his mother's divorce and subsequent marriage. Sturgeon's 1953 science fiction novel More Than Human won the 1954 International Fantasy Award as the year's best novel, and the Science Fiction Writers of America ranked "Baby Is Three" number five among the "Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time" up to 1964. Ranked by votes for all of their pre-1965 novellas, Sturgeon was second among authors, behind only Robert Heinlein. He was good and he was prolific! He wrote almost 200 short stories and the screenplays for two Star Trek episodes, and two of his stories were adapted for The New Twilight Zone. Today's story by Sturgeon was in Thrilling Wonder Stories Magazine in June 1947 and can be found on page 55, The Sky Was Full of Ships by Theodore Sturgeon… Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/share https://twitter.com/lost_sci_fi Next Week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Larry Thomas bought a cuckoo clock for his wife—without knowing the price he would have to pay. Beyond The Door by Philip K. Dick. That's next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Destroy the Invader," the orders read—and Captain McPartland's expendable spacer flashed into suicidal battle. Invader From Infinity by George Whittington, that's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode. George Whittington has been on the podcast before, about 14 months ago, with Space-Lane of No-Return. After an extensive search we could only find 4 short sci-fi stories that he had written from 1944 to 1946. Our story can be found on page 29 in the Winter 1944 issue of Planet Stories Magazine. Invader From Infinity by George Whittington… Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/share https://twitter.com/lost_sci_fi In two days on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, They tried Gordon Kent for murder–but who was really responsible? The Sky Was Full of Ships by Theodore Sturgeon. That's in two days on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 on the South Side of Chicago to Jean and Anna Shepherd. He grew up in Hammond, Indiana, which according to Shep was a “tough and mean” industrial city. As an adolescent, Shepherd worked as a mail boy in a steel mill. He began his radio career at the age of sixteen, doing weekly sportscasts for WJOB in Hammond. That job led to juvenile roles on network radio in Chicago, including that of Billy Fairchild in the serial “Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy.” One of the programs that later came to symbolize Shepherd's childhood, thanks to his 1983 film A Christmas Story, was Red Ryder. During World War II, Shepherd served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, installing radar equipment and furthering a lifelong dislike for authority figures. After the war, he studied acting in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre and briefly engineering and psychology at Indiana University. He left Indiana without a degree to take a radio gig in Cincinnati, which led him to a series of radio jobs, each better than the previous. After working at WTOD in Toledo, Ohio, Shepherd spent the early 1950s at WSAI and WLW in Cincinnati, and had a late-night broadcast on KYW in Philadelphia. He moved to New York for WOR and debuted on February 26th, 1955. WOR is a fifty-thousand watt clear-channel AM station and was the flagship affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Mutual Broadcasting had formed on September 28th, 1934 as a cooperative of stations WOR New York, WGN Chicago, WXYZ Detroit, and WLW Cincinnati. The members shared telephone-line transmission facilities and agreed to collectively enter into contracts with advertisers for their network shows. After a deal with Don Lee's chain of west coast networks, Mutual went coast-to-coast on December 29th, 1936. The other major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, were corporations. When World War II ended, domestic manufacturing restrictions were lifted. TV became a focal point as the other networks pumped their radio profits into the new medium. Mutual's cooperative status meant it never had the resources to move into TV, although affiliates like WOR did run a local TV station in New York. Mutual remained a cooperative until 1952 when General Tire became the parent company. By 1955 radio was changing. Drama, which had dominated the dial for more than two decades, was on its way out due to both its and TV production costs. More and more network programming was being turned over to local affiliates. These local affiliates employed a new generation of hosts that had grown up with Jack Benny, Fred Allen, and other observant humorists. Shepherd's peers were Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Rod Serling, and Steve Allen. Shepherd was working an overnight slot for WOR in 1956. Facing a lack of sponsorship, he was about to be fired when he did an unauthorized commercial for Sweetheart Soap who didn't sponsor his program. WOR immediately canned him. But, listeners complained in droves and Sweetheart actually offered to sponsor him. WOR immediately brought him back. The overnight slot allowed him to riff with little need for the kind of corporate oversight that faced daytime and primetime hosts. That year, during a discussion on how easy it was to manipulate the best-seller lists, Shepherd suggested that his listeners visit bookstores and ask for a copy of a fictional novel called I, Libertine by a Frederick R. Ewing. Fans of the show planted references so widely that there were claims it made The New York Times Best Seller list. It led to an actual book deal with Ballantine. Theodore Sturgeon wrote most of it with Shepherd's outline guiding him. Betty Ballantine finished the novel when Sturgeon fell asleep during a marathon writing session to meet the deadline. Famed illustrator Frank Kelly Freas did the cover art. The book was published on September 13th, 1956 with all proceeds going to charity.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon. What can we learn from this dreamlike science fiction story? How versatile and variable is point of view? How […]

Our thanks to our Mysterious Listener Mike for this visit to the Listener Library! Mike recommended we check out the episode of X Minus One entitled, "Mr. Costello, Hero." The script is an adaptation of Theodore Sturgeon's short story about a space-faring ship's purser who encounters a passenger with a peculiar world view and a gift for manipulating others. After leaving the ship, the passenger's influence only seems to grow. What is ultimate impact of this man's machinations? How does he do it? Should Thanos have asked for a lawyer? Listen for yourself and find out! Then vote and let us know what you think!

Join us on this episode of Welcome to the End, as we shrink down to explore Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon. Follow Welcome to the End on Twitter @ twitter.com/TotheEndPod Have a story you think we need to read. Email us at welcometotheendpod@gmail.com Music by Lemmino. Thank you. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/welcome-to-the-end/support

little red book and Kyptan enjoy the honor of interviewing Mercedes Lackey, author of over 140 books and the 38th Damon Knight Grand Master of science fiction and fantasy. They talk about raptor rehabilitation, convoluted writing estates, horses, hobbies, and of course Valdemar. Among the miscellaneous stories recommended in the episode are The World Well Lost and A Saucer of Loneliness, both by Theodore Sturgeon. Charles de Lint and Spider Robinson are also highly recced by Lackey for their expertise with short stories. Music: Galactic Damages by Jingle Punks Considering supporting The Legendarium on Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/legendarium⁠ Reddit: ⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/thelegendarium/⁠ Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/FNcpuuA⁠ Twitter: ⁠@GreenteamPod⁠

Episode 165 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Dark Stat” and the career of the Grateful Dead. This is a long one, even longer than the previous episode, but don't worry, that won't be the norm. There's a reason these two were much longer than average. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-minute bonus episode available, on "Codine" by the Charlatans. Errata I mispronounce Brent Mydland's name as Myland a couple of times, and in the introduction I say "Touch of Grey" came out in 1988 -- I later, correctly, say 1987. (I seem to have had a real problem with dates in the intro -- I also originally talked about "Blue Suede Shoes" being in 1954 before fixing it in the edit to be 1956) Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by the Grateful Dead, and Grayfolded runs to two hours. I referred to a lot of books for this episode, partly because almost everything about the Grateful Dead is written from a fannish perspective that already assumes background knowledge, rather than to provide that background knowledge. Of the various books I used, Dennis McNally's biography of the band and This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead by Blair Jackson and David Gans are probably most useful for the casually interested. Other books on the Dead I used included McNally's Jerry on Jerry, a collection of interviews with Garcia; Deal, Bill Kreutzmann's autobiography; The Grateful Dead FAQ by Tony Sclafani; So Many Roads by David Browne; Deadology by Howard F. Weiner; Fare Thee Well by Joel Selvin and Pamela Turley; and Skeleton Key: A Dictionary for Deadheads by David Shenk and Steve Silberman. Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is the classic account of the Pranksters, though not always reliable. I reference Slaughterhouse Five a lot. As well as the novel itself, which everyone should read, I also read this rather excellent graphic novel adaptation, and The Writer's Crusade, a book about the writing of the novel. I also reference Ted Sturgeon's More Than Human. For background on the scene around Astounding Science Fiction which included Sturgeon, John W. Campbell, L. Ron Hubbard, and many other science fiction writers, I recommend Alec Nevala-Lee's Astounding. 1,000 True Fans can be read online, as can the essay on the Californian ideology, and John Perry Barlow's "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace". The best collection of Grateful Dead material is the box set The Golden Road, which contains all the albums released in Pigpen's lifetime along with a lot of bonus material, but which appears currently out of print. Live/Dead contains both the live version of "Dark Star" which made it well known and, as a CD bonus track, the original single version. And archive.org has more live recordings of the group than you can possibly ever listen to. Grayfolded can be bought from John Oswald's Bandcamp Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript [Excerpt: Tuning from "Grayfolded", under the warnings Before we begin -- as we're tuning up, as it were, I should mention that this episode contains discussions of alcoholism, drug addiction, racism, nonconsensual drugging of other people, and deaths from drug abuse, suicide, and car accidents. As always, I try to deal with these subjects as carefully as possible, but if you find any of those things upsetting you may wish to read the transcript rather than listen to this episode, or skip it altogether. Also, I should note that the members of the Grateful Dead were much freer with their use of swearing in interviews than any other band we've covered so far, and that makes using quotes from them rather more difficult than with other bands, given the limitations of the rules imposed to stop the podcast being marked as adult. If I quote anything with a word I can't use here, I'll give a brief pause in the audio, and in the transcript I'll have the word in square brackets. [tuning ends] All this happened, more or less. In 1910, T. S. Eliot started work on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which at the time was deemed barely poetry, with one reviewer imagining Eliot saying "I'll just put down the first thing that comes into my head, and call it 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'" It is now considered one of the great classics of modernist literature. In 1969, Kurt Vonnegut wrote "Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death", a book in which the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, comes unstuck in time, and starts living a nonlinear life, hopping around between times reliving his experiences in the Second World War, and future experiences up to 1976 after being kidnapped by beings from the planet Tralfamadore. Or perhaps he has flashbacks and hallucinations after having a breakdown from PTSD. It is now considered one of the great classics of modernist literature or of science fiction, depending on how you look at it. In 1953, Theodore Sturgeon wrote More Than Human. It is now considered one of the great classics of science fiction. In 1950, L. Ron Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. It is now considered either a bad piece of science fiction or one of the great revelatory works of religious history, depending on how you look at it. In 1994, 1995, and 1996 the composer John Oswald released, first as two individual CDs and then as a double-CD, an album called Grayfolded, which the composer says in the liner notes he thinks of as existing in Tralfamadorian time. The Tralfamadorians in Vonnegut's novels don't see time as a linear thing with a beginning and end, but as a continuum that they can move between at will. When someone dies, they just think that at this particular point in time they're not doing so good, but at other points in time they're fine, so why focus on the bad time? In the book, when told of someone dying, the Tralfamadorians just say "so it goes". In between the first CD's release and the release of the double-CD version, Jerry Garcia died. From August 1942 through August 1995, Jerry Garcia was alive. So it goes. Shall we go, you and I? [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Dark Star (Omni 3/30/94)"] "One principle has become clear. Since motives are so frequently found in combination, it is essential that the complex types be analyzed and arranged, with an eye kept single nevertheless to the master-theme under discussion. Collectors, both primary and subsidiary, have done such valiant service that the treasures at our command are amply sufficient for such studies, so extensive, indeed, that the task of going through them thoroughly has become too great for the unassisted student. It cannot be too strongly urged that a single theme in its various types and compounds must be made predominant in any useful comparative study. This is true when the sources and analogues of any literary work are treated; it is even truer when the bare motive is discussed. The Grateful Dead furnishes an apt illustration of the necessity of such handling. It appears in a variety of different combinations, almost never alone. Indeed, it is so widespread a tale, and its combinations are so various, that there is the utmost difficulty in determining just what may properly be regarded the original kernel of it, the simple theme to which other motives were joined. Various opinions, as we shall see, have been held with reference to this matter, most of them justified perhaps by the materials in the hands of the scholars holding them, but none quite adequate in view of later evidence." That's a quote from The Grateful Dead: The History of a Folk Story, by Gordon Hall Gerould, published in 1908. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five opens with a chapter about the process of writing the novel itself, and how difficult it was. He says "I would hate to tell you what this lousy little book cost me in money and anxiety and time. When I got home from the Second World War twenty-three years ago, I thought it would be easy for me to write about the destruction of Dresden, since all I would have to do would be to report what I had seen. And I thought, too, that it would be a masterpiece or at least make me a lot of money, since the subject was so big." This is an episode several of my listeners have been looking forward to, but it's one I've been dreading writing, because this is an episode -- I think the only one in the series -- where the format of the podcast simply *will not* work. Were the Grateful Dead not such an important band, I would skip this episode altogether, but they're a band that simply can't be ignored, and that's a real problem here. Because my intent, always, with this podcast, is to present the recordings of the artists in question, put them in context, and explain why they were important, what their music meant to its listeners. To put, as far as is possible, the positive case for why the music mattered *in the context of its time*. Not why it matters now, or why it matters to me, but why it matters *in its historical context*. Whether I like the music or not isn't the point. Whether it stands up now isn't the point. I play the music, explain what it was they were doing, why they were doing it, what people saw in it. If I do my job well, you come away listening to "Blue Suede Shoes" the way people heard it in 1956, or "Good Vibrations" the way people heard it in 1966, and understanding why people were so impressed by those records. That is simply *not possible* for the Grateful Dead. I can present a case for them as musicians, and hope to do so. I can explain the appeal as best I understand it, and talk about things I like in their music, and things I've noticed. But what I can't do is present their recordings the way they were received in the sixties and explain why they were popular. Because every other act I have covered or will cover in this podcast has been a *recording* act, and their success was based on records. They may also have been exceptional live performers, but James Brown or Ike and Tina Turner are remembered for great *records*, like "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" or "River Deep, Mountain High". Their great moments were captured on vinyl, to be listened back to, and susceptible of analysis. That is not the case for the Grateful Dead, and what is worse *they explicitly said, publicly, on multiple occasions* that it is not possible for me to understand their art, and thus that it is not possible for me to explain it. The Grateful Dead did make studio records, some of them very good. But they always said, consistently, over a thirty year period, that their records didn't capture what they did, and that the only way -- the *only* way, they were very clear about this -- that one could actually understand and appreciate their music, was to see them live, and furthermore to see them live while on psychedelic drugs. [Excerpt: Grateful Dead crowd noise] I never saw the Grateful Dead live -- their last UK performance was a couple of years before I went to my first ever gig -- and I have never taken a psychedelic substance. So by the Grateful Dead's own criteria, it is literally impossible for me to understand or explain their music the way that it should be understood or explained. In a way I'm in a similar position to the one I was in with La Monte Young in the last episode, whose music it's mostly impossible to experience without being in his presence. This is one reason of several why I placed these two episodes back to back. Of course, there is a difference between Young and the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead allowed -- even encouraged -- the recording of their live performances. There are literally thousands of concert recordings in circulation, many of them of professional quality. I have listened to many of those, and I can hear what they were doing. I can tell you what *I* think is interesting about their music, and about their musicianship. And I think I can build up a good case for why they were important, and why they're interesting, and why those recordings are worth listening to. And I can certainly explain the cultural phenomenon that was the Grateful Dead. But just know that while I may have found *a* point, *an* explanation for why the Grateful Dead were important, by the band's own lights and those of their fans, no matter how good a job I do in this episode, I *cannot* get it right. And that is, in itself, enough of a reason for this episode to exist, and for me to try, even harder than I normally do, to get it right *anyway*. Because no matter how well I do my job this episode will stand as an example of why this series is called "*A* History", not *the* history. Because parts of the past are ephemeral. There are things about which it's true to say "You had to be there". I cannot know what it was like to have been an American the day Kennedy was shot, I cannot know what it was like to be alive when a man walked on the Moon. Those are things nobody my age or younger can ever experience. And since August the ninth, 1995, the experience of hearing the Grateful Dead's music the way they wanted it heard has been in that category. And that is by design. Jerry Garcia once said "if you work really hard as an artist, you may be able to build something they can't tear down, you know, after you're gone... What I want to do is I want it here. I want it now, in this lifetime. I want what I enjoy to last as long as I do and not last any longer. You know, I don't want something that ends up being as much a nuisance as it is a work of art, you know?" And there's another difficulty. There are only two points in time where it makes sense to do a podcast episode on the Grateful Dead -- late 1967 and early 1968, when the San Francisco scene they were part of was at its most culturally relevant, and 1988 when they had their only top ten hit and gained their largest audience. I can't realistically leave them out of the story until 1988, so it has to be 1968. But the songs they are most remembered for are those they wrote between 1970 and 1972, and those songs are influenced by artists and events we haven't yet covered in the podcast, who will be getting their own episodes in the future. I can't explain those things in this episode, because they need whole episodes of their own. I can't not explain them without leaving out important context for the Grateful Dead. So the best I can do is treat the story I'm telling as if it were in Tralfamadorian time. All of it's happening all at once, and some of it is happening in different episodes that haven't been recorded yet. The podcast as a whole travels linearly from 1938 through to 1999, but this episode is happening in 1968 and 1972 and 1988 and 1995 and other times, all at once. Sometimes I'll talk about things as if you're already familiar with them, but they haven't happened yet in the story. Feel free to come unstuck in time and revisit this time after episode 167, and 172, and 176, and 192, and experience it again. So this has to be an experimental episode. It may well be an experiment that you think fails. If so, the next episode is likely to be far more to your taste, and much shorter than this or the last episode, two episodes that between them have to create a scaffolding on which will hang much of the rest of this podcast's narrative. I've finished my Grateful Dead script now. The next one I write is going to be fun: [Excerpt: Grateful Dead, "Dark Star"] Infrastructure means everything. How we get from place to place, how we transport goods, information, and ourselves, makes a big difference in how society is structured, and in the music we hear. For many centuries, the prime means of long-distance transport was by water -- sailing ships on the ocean, canal boats and steamboats for inland navigation -- and so folk songs talked about the ship as both means of escape, means of making a living, and in some senses as a trap. You'd go out to sea for adventure, or to escape your problems, but you'd find that the sea itself brought its own problems. Because of this we have a long, long tradition of sea shanties which are known throughout the world: [Excerpt: A. L. Lloyd, "Off to Sea Once More"] But in the nineteenth century, the railway was invented and, at least as far as travel within a landmass goes, it replaced the steamboat in the popular imaginary. Now the railway was how you got from place to place, and how you moved freight from one place to another. The railway brought freedom, and was an opportunity for outlaws, whether train robbers or a romanticised version of the hobo hopping onto a freight train and making his way to new lands and new opportunity. It was the train that brought soldiers home from wars, and the train that allowed the Great Migration of Black people from the South to the industrial North. There would still be songs about the riverboats, about how ol' man river keeps rolling along and about the big river Johnny Cash sang about, but increasingly they would be songs of the past, not the present. The train quickly replaced the steamboat in the iconography of what we now think of as roots music -- blues, country, folk, and early jazz music. Sometimes this was very literal. Furry Lewis' "Kassie Jones" -- about a legendary train driver who would break the rules to make sure his train made the station on time, but who ended up sacrificing his own life to save his passengers in a train crash -- is based on "Alabamy Bound", which as we heard in the episode on "Stagger Lee", was about steamboats: [Excerpt: Furry Lewis, "Kassie Jones"] In the early episodes of this podcast we heard many, many, songs about the railway. Louis Jordan saying "take me right back to the track, Jack", Rosetta Tharpe singing about how "this train don't carry no gamblers", the trickster freight train driver driving on the "Rock Island Line", the mystery train sixteen coaches long, the train that kept-a-rollin' all night long, the Midnight Special which the prisoners wished would shine its ever-loving light on them, and the train coming past Folsom Prison whose whistle makes Johnny Cash hang his head and cry. But by the 1960s, that kind of song had started to dry up. It would happen on occasion -- "People Get Ready" by the Impressions is the most obvious example of the train metaphor in an important sixties record -- but by the late sixties the train was no longer a symbol of freedom but of the past. In 1969 Harry Nilsson sang about how "Nobody Cares About the Railroads Any More", and in 1968 the Kinks sang about "The Last of the Steam-Powered Trains". When in 1968 Merle Haggard sang about a freight train, it was as a memory, of a child with hopes that ended up thwarted by reality and his own nature: [Excerpt: Merle Haggard, "Mama Tried"] And the reason for this was that there had been another shift, a shift that had started in the forties and accelerated in the late fifties but had taken a little time to ripple through the culture. Now the train had been replaced in the popular imaginary by motorised transport. Instead of hopping on a train without paying, if you had no money in your pocket you'd have to hitch-hike all the way. Freedom now meant individuality. The ultimate in freedom was the biker -- the Hell's Angels who could go anywhere, unburdened by anything -- and instead of goods being moved by freight train, increasingly they were being moved by truck drivers. By the mid-seventies, truck drivers took a central place in American life, and the most romantic way to live life was to live it on the road. On The Road was also the title of a 1957 novel by Jack Kerouac, which was one of the first major signs of this cultural shift in America. Kerouac was writing about events in the late forties and early fifties, but his book was also a precursor of the sixties counterculture. He wrote the book on one continuous sheet of paper, as a stream of consciousness. Kerouac died in 1969 of an internal haemmorage brought on by too much alcohol consumption. So it goes. But the big key to this cultural shift was caused by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, a massive infrastructure spending bill that led to the construction of the modern American Interstate Highway system. This accelerated a program that had already started, of building much bigger, safer, faster roads. It also, as anyone who has read Robert Caro's The Power Broker knows, reinforced segregation and white flight. It did this both by making commuting into major cities from the suburbs easier -- thus allowing white people with more money to move further away from the cities and still work there -- and by bulldozing community spaces where Black people lived. More than a million people lost their homes and were forcibly moved, and orders of magnitude more lost their communities' parks and green spaces. And both as a result of deliberate actions and unconscious bigotry, the bulk of those affected were Black people -- who often found themselves, if they weren't forced to move, on one side of a ten-lane highway where the park used to be, with white people on the other side of the highway. The Federal-Aid Highway Act gave even more power to the unaccountable central planners like Robert Moses, the urban planner in New York who managed to become arguably the most powerful man in the city without ever getting elected, partly by slowly compromising away his early progressive ideals in the service of gaining more power. Of course, not every new highway was built through areas where poor Black people lived. Some were planned to go through richer areas for white people, just because you can't completely do away with geographical realities. For example one was planned to be built through part of San Francisco, a rich, white part. But the people who owned properties in that area had enough political power and clout to fight the development, and after nearly a decade of fighting it, the development was called off in late 1966. But over that time, many of the owners of the impressive buildings in the area had moved out, and they had no incentive to improve or maintain their properties while they were under threat of demolition, so many of them were rented out very cheaply. And when the beat community that Kerouac wrote about, many of whom had settled in San Francisco, grew too large and notorious for the area of the city they were in, North Beach, many of them moved to these cheap homes in a previously-exclusive area. The area known as Haight-Ashbury. [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Grayfolded"] Stories all have their starts, even stories told in Tralfamadorian time, although sometimes those starts are shrouded in legend. For example, the story of Scientology's start has been told many times, with different people claiming to have heard L. Ron Hubbard talk about how writing was a mug's game, and if you wanted to make real money, you needed to get followers, start a religion. Either he said this over and over and over again, to many different science fiction writers, or most science fiction writers of his generation were liars. Of course, the definition of a writer is someone who tells lies for money, so who knows? One of the more plausible accounts of him saying that is given by Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon's account is more believable than most, because Sturgeon went on to be a supporter of Dianetics, the "new science" that Hubbard turned into his religion, for decades, even while telling the story. The story of the Grateful Dead probably starts as it ends, with Jerry Garcia. There are three things that everyone writing about the Dead says about Garcia's childhood, so we might as well say them here too. The first is that he was named by a music-loving father after Jerome Kern, the songwriter responsible for songs like "Ol' Man River" (though as Oscar Hammerstein's widow liked to point out, "Jerome Kern wrote dum-dum-dum-dum, *my husband* wrote 'Ol' Man River'" -- an important distinction we need to bear in mind when talking about songwriters who write music but not lyrics). The second is that when he was five years old that music-loving father drowned -- and Garcia would always say he had seen his father dying, though some sources claim this was a false memory. So it goes. And the third fact, which for some reason is always told after the second even though it comes before it chronologically, is that when he was four he lost two joints from his right middle finger. Garcia grew up a troubled teen, and in turn caused trouble for other people, but he also developed a few interests that would follow him through his life. He loved the fantastical, especially the fantastical macabre, and became an avid fan of horror and science fiction -- and through his love of old monster films he became enamoured with cinema more generally. Indeed, in 1983 he bought the film rights to Kurt Vonnegut's science fiction novel The Sirens of Titan, the first story in which the Tralfamadorians appear, and wrote a script based on it. He wanted to produce the film himself, with Francis Ford Coppola directing and Bill Murray starring, but most importantly for him he wanted to prevent anyone who didn't care about it from doing it badly. And in that he succeeded. As of 2023 there is no film of The Sirens of Titan. He loved to paint, and would continue that for the rest of his life, with one of his favourite subjects being Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. And when he was eleven or twelve, he heard for the first time a record that was hugely influential to a whole generation of Californian musicians, even though it was a New York record -- "Gee" by the Crows: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] Garcia would say later "That was an important song. That was the first kind of, like where the voices had that kind of not-trained-singer voices, but tough-guy-on-the-street voice." That record introduced him to R&B, and soon he was listening to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, to Ray Charles, and to a record we've not talked about in the podcast but which was one of the great early doo-wop records, "WPLJ" by the Four Deuces: [Excerpt: The Four Deuces, "WPLJ"] Garcia said of that record "That was one of my anthem songs when I was in junior high school and high school and around there. That was one of those songs everybody knew. And that everybody sang. Everybody sang that street-corner favorite." Garcia moved around a lot as a child, and didn't have much time for school by his own account, but one of the few teachers he did respect was an art teacher when he was in North Beach, Walter Hedrick. Hedrick was also one of the earliest of the conceptual artists, and one of the most important figures in the San Francisco arts scene that would become known as the Beat Generation (or the Beatniks, which was originally a disparaging term). Hedrick was a painter and sculptor, but also organised happenings, and he had also been one of the prime movers in starting a series of poetry readings in San Francisco, the first one of which had involved Allen Ginsberg giving the first ever reading of "Howl" -- one of a small number of poems, along with Eliot's "Prufrock" and "The Waste Land" and possibly Pound's Cantos, which can be said to have changed twentieth-century literature. Garcia was fifteen when he got to know Hedrick, in 1957, and by then the Beat scene had already become almost a parody of itself, having become known to the public because of the publication of works like On the Road, and the major artists in the scene were already rejecting the label. By this point tourists were flocking to North Beach to see these beatniks they'd heard about on TV, and Hedrick was actually employed by one cafe to sit in the window wearing a beret, turtleneck, sandals, and beard, and draw and paint, to attract the tourists who flocked by the busload because they could see that there was a "genuine beatnik" in the cafe. Hedrick was, as well as a visual artist, a guitarist and banjo player who played in traditional jazz bands, and he would bring records in to class for his students to listen to, and Garcia particularly remembered him bringing in records by Big Bill Broonzy: [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "When Things Go Wrong (It Hurts Me Too)"] Garcia was already an avid fan of rock and roll music, but it was being inspired by Hedrick that led him to get his first guitar. Like his contemporary Paul McCartney around the same time, he was initially given the wrong instrument as a birthday present -- in Garcia's case his mother gave him an accordion -- but he soon persuaded her to swap it for an electric guitar he saw in a pawn shop. And like his other contemporary, John Lennon, Garcia initially tuned his instrument incorrectly. He said later "When I started playing the guitar, believe me, I didn't know anybody that played. I mean, I didn't know anybody that played the guitar. Nobody. They weren't around. There were no guitar teachers. You couldn't take lessons. There was nothing like that, you know? When I was a kid and I had my first electric guitar, I had it tuned wrong and learned how to play on it with it tuned wrong for about a year. And I was getting somewhere on it, you know… Finally, I met a guy that knew how to tune it right and showed me three chords, and it was like a revelation. You know what I mean? It was like somebody gave me the key to heaven." He joined a band, the Chords, which mostly played big band music, and his friend Gary Foster taught him some of the rudiments of playing the guitar -- things like how to use a capo to change keys. But he was always a rebellious kid, and soon found himself faced with a choice between joining the military or going to prison. He chose the former, and it was during his time in the Army that a friend, Ron Stevenson, introduced him to the music of Merle Travis, and to Travis-style guitar picking: [Excerpt: Merle Travis, "Nine-Pound Hammer"] Garcia had never encountered playing like that before, but he instantly recognised that Travis, and Chet Atkins who Stevenson also played for him, had been an influence on Scotty Moore. He started to realise that the music he'd listened to as a teenager was influenced by music that went further back. But Stevenson, as well as teaching Garcia some of the rudiments of Travis-picking, also indirectly led to Garcia getting discharged from the Army. Stevenson was not a well man, and became suicidal. Garcia decided it was more important to keep his friend company and make sure he didn't kill himself than it was to turn up for roll call, and as a result he got discharged himself on psychiatric grounds -- according to Garcia he told the Army psychiatrist "I was involved in stuff that was more important to me in the moment than the army was and that was the reason I was late" and the psychiatrist thought it was neurotic of Garcia to have his own set of values separate from that of the Army. After discharge, Garcia did various jobs, including working as a transcriptionist for Lenny Bruce, the comedian who was a huge influence on the counterculture. In one of the various attacks over the years by authoritarians on language, Bruce was repeatedly arrested for obscenity, and in 1961 he was arrested at a jazz club in North Beach. Sixty years ago, the parts of speech that were being criminalised weren't pronouns, but prepositions and verbs: [Excerpt: Lenny Bruce, "To is a Preposition, Come is a Verb"] That piece, indeed, was so controversial that when Frank Zappa quoted part of it in a song in 1968, the record label insisted on the relevant passage being played backwards so people couldn't hear such disgusting filth: [Excerpt: The Mothers of Invention, "Harry You're a Beast"] (Anyone familiar with that song will understand that the censored portion is possibly the least offensive part of the whole thing). Bruce was facing trial, and he needed transcripts of what he had said in his recordings to present in court. Incidentally, there seems to be some confusion over exactly which of Bruce's many obscenity trials Garcia became a transcriptionist for. Dennis McNally says in his biography of the band, published in 2002, that it was the most famous of them, in autumn 1964, but in a later book, Jerry on Jerry, a book of interviews of Garcia edited by McNally, McNally talks about it being when Garcia was nineteen, which would mean it was Bruce's first trial, in 1961. We can put this down to the fact that many of the people involved, not least Garcia, lived in Tralfamadorian time, and were rather hazy on dates, but I'm placing the story here rather than in 1964 because it seems to make more sense that Garcia would be involved in a trial based on an incident in San Francisco than one in New York. Garcia got the job, even though he couldn't type, because by this point he'd spent so long listening to recordings of old folk and country music that he was used to transcribing indecipherable accents, and often, as Garcia would tell it, Bruce would mumble very fast and condense multiple syllables into one. Garcia was particularly impressed by Bruce's ability to improvise but talk in entire paragraphs, and he compared his use of language to bebop. Another thing that was starting to impress Garcia, and which he also compared to bebop, was bluegrass: [Excerpt: Bill Monroe, "Fire on the Mountain"] Bluegrass is a music that is often considered very traditional, because it's based on traditional songs and uses acoustic instruments, but in fact it was a terribly *modern* music, and largely a postwar creation of a single band -- Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. And Garcia was right when he said it was "white bebop" -- though he did say "The only thing it doesn't have is the harmonic richness of bebop. You know what I mean? That's what it's missing, but it has everything else." Both bebop and bluegrass evolved after the second world war, though they were informed by music from before it, and both prized the ability to improvise, and technical excellence. Both are musics that involved playing *fast*, in an ensemble, and being able to respond quickly to the other musicians. Both musics were also intensely rhythmic, a response to a faster paced, more stressful world. They were both part of the general change in the arts towards immediacy that we looked at in the last episode with the creation first of expressionism and then of pop art. Bluegrass didn't go into the harmonic explorations that modern jazz did, but it was absolutely as modern as anything Charlie Parker was doing, and came from the same impulses. It was tradition and innovation, the past and the future simultaneously. Bill Monroe, Jackson Pollock, Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac, and Lenny Bruce were all in their own ways responding to the same cultural moment, and it was that which Garcia was responding to. But he didn't become able to play bluegrass until after a tragedy which shaped his life even more than his father's death had. Garcia had been to a party and was in a car with his friends Lee Adams, Paul Speegle, and Alan Trist. Adams was driving at ninety miles an hour when they hit a tight curve and crashed. Garcia, Adams, and Trist were all severely injured but survived. Speegle died. So it goes. This tragedy changed Garcia's attitudes totally. Of all his friends, Speegle was the one who was most serious about his art, and who treated it as something to work on. Garcia had always been someone who fundamentally didn't want to work or take any responsibility for anything. And he remained that way -- except for his music. Speegle's death changed Garcia's attitude to that, totally. If his friend wasn't going to be able to practice his own art any more, Garcia would practice his, in tribute to him. He resolved to become a virtuoso on guitar and banjo. His girlfriend of the time later said “I don't know if you've spent time with someone rehearsing ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown' on a banjo for eight hours, but Jerry practiced endlessly. He really wanted to excel and be the best. He had tremendous personal ambition in the musical arena, and he wanted to master whatever he set out to explore. Then he would set another sight for himself. And practice another eight hours a day of new licks.” But of course, you can't make ensemble music on your own: [Excerpt: Jerry Garcia and Bob Hunter, "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" (including end)] "Evelyn said, “What is it called when a person needs a … person … when you want to be touched and the … two are like one thing and there isn't anything else at all anywhere?” Alicia, who had read books, thought about it. “Love,” she said at length." That's from More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon, a book I'll be quoting a few more times as the story goes on. Robert Hunter, like Garcia, was just out of the military -- in his case, the National Guard -- and he came into Garcia's life just after Paul Speegle had left it. Garcia and Alan Trist met Hunter ten days after the accident, and the three men started hanging out together, Trist and Hunter writing while Garcia played music. Garcia and Hunter both bonded over their shared love for the beats, and for traditional music, and the two formed a duo, Bob and Jerry, which performed together a handful of times. They started playing together, in fact, after Hunter picked up a guitar and started playing a song and halfway through Garcia took it off him and finished the song himself. The two of them learned songs from the Harry Smith Anthology -- Garcia was completely apolitical, and only once voted in his life, for Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to keep Goldwater out, and regretted even doing that, and so he didn't learn any of the more political material people like Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and Bob Dylan were doing at the time -- but their duo only lasted a short time because Hunter wasn't an especially good guitarist. Hunter would, though, continue to jam with Garcia and other friends, sometimes playing mandolin, while Garcia played solo gigs and with other musicians as well, playing and moving round the Bay Area and performing with whoever he could: [Excerpt: Jerry Garcia, "Railroad Bill"] "Bleshing, that was Janie's word. She said Baby told it to her. She said it meant everyone all together being something, even if they all did different things. Two arms, two legs, one body, one head, all working together, although a head can't walk and arms can't think. Lone said maybe it was a mixture of “blending” and “meshing,” but I don't think he believed that himself. It was a lot more than that." That's from More Than Human In 1961, Garcia and Hunter met another young musician, but one who was interested in a very different type of music. Phil Lesh was a serious student of modern classical music, a classically-trained violinist and trumpeter whose interest was solidly in the experimental and whose attitude can be summed up by a story that's always told about him meeting his close friend Tom Constanten for the first time. Lesh had been talking with someone about serialism, and Constanten had interrupted, saying "Music stopped being created in 1750 but it started again in 1950". Lesh just stuck out his hand, recognising a kindred spirit. Lesh and Constanten were both students of Luciano Berio, the experimental composer who created compositions for magnetic tape: [Excerpt: Luciano Berio, "Momenti"] Berio had been one of the founders of the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano, a studio for producing contemporary electronic music where John Cage had worked for a time, and he had also worked with the electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Lesh would later remember being very impressed when Berio brought a tape into the classroom -- the actual multitrack tape for Stockhausen's revolutionary piece Gesang Der Juenglinge: [Excerpt: Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Gesang Der Juenglinge"] Lesh at first had been distrustful of Garcia -- Garcia was charismatic and had followers, and Lesh never liked people like that. But he was impressed by Garcia's playing, and soon realised that the two men, despite their very different musical interests, had a lot in common. Lesh was interested in the technology of music as well as in performing and composing it, and so when he wasn't studying he helped out by engineering at the university's radio station. Lesh was impressed by Garcia's playing, and suggested to the presenter of the station's folk show, the Midnight Special, that Garcia be a guest. Garcia was so good that he ended up getting an entire solo show to himself, where normally the show would feature multiple acts. Lesh and Constanten soon moved away from the Bay Area to Las Vegas, but both would be back -- in Constanten's case he would form an experimental group in San Francisco with their fellow student Steve Reich, and that group (though not with Constanten performing) would later premiere Terry Riley's In C, a piece influenced by La Monte Young and often considered one of the great masterpieces of minimalist music. By early 1962 Garcia and Hunter had formed a bluegrass band, with Garcia on guitar and banjo and Hunter on mandolin, and a rotating cast of other musicians including Ken Frankel, who played banjo and fiddle. They performed under different names, including the Tub Thumpers, the Hart Valley Drifters, and the Sleepy Valley Hog Stompers, and played a mixture of bluegrass and old-time music -- and were very careful about the distinction: [Excerpt: The Hart Valley Drifters, "Cripple Creek"] In 1993, the Republican political activist John Perry Barlow was invited to talk to the CIA about the possibilities open to them with what was then called the Information Superhighway. He later wrote, in part "They told me they'd brought Steve Jobs in a few weeks before to indoctrinate them in modern information management. And they were delighted when I returned later, bringing with me a platoon of Internet gurus, including Esther Dyson, Mitch Kapor, Tony Rutkowski, and Vint Cerf. They sealed us into an electronically impenetrable room to discuss the radical possibility that a good first step in lifting their blackout would be for the CIA to put up a Web site... We told them that information exchange was a barter system, and that to receive, one must also be willing to share. This was an alien notion to them. They weren't even willing to share information among themselves, much less the world." 1962 brought a new experience for Robert Hunter. Hunter had been recruited into taking part in psychological tests at Stanford University, which in the sixties and seventies was one of the preeminent universities for psychological experiments. As part of this, Hunter was given $140 to attend the VA hospital (where a janitor named Ken Kesey, who had himself taken part in a similar set of experiments a couple of years earlier, worked a day job while he was working on his first novel) for four weeks on the run, and take different psychedelic drugs each time, starting with LSD, so his reactions could be observed. (It was later revealed that these experiments were part of a CIA project called MKUltra, designed to investigate the possibility of using psychedelic drugs for mind control, blackmail, and torture. Hunter was quite lucky in that he was told what was going to happen to him and paid for his time. Other subjects included the unlucky customers of brothels the CIA set up as fronts -- they dosed the customers' drinks and observed them through two-way mirrors. Some of their experimental subjects died by suicide as a result of their experiences. So it goes. ) Hunter was interested in taking LSD after reading Aldous Huxley's writings about psychedelic substances, and he brought his typewriter along to the experiment. During the first test, he wrote a six-page text, a short excerpt from which is now widely quoted, reading in part "Sit back picture yourself swooping up a shell of purple with foam crests of crystal drops soft nigh they fall unto the sea of morning creep-very-softly mist ... and then sort of cascade tinkley-bell-like (must I take you by the hand, ever so slowly type) and then conglomerate suddenly into a peal of silver vibrant uncomprehendingly, blood singingly, joyously resounding bells" Hunter's experience led to everyone in their social circle wanting to try LSD, and soon they'd all come to the same conclusion -- this was something special. But Garcia needed money -- he'd got his girlfriend pregnant, and they'd married (this would be the first of several marriages in Garcia's life, and I won't be covering them all -- at Garcia's funeral, his second wife, Carolyn, said Garcia always called her the love of his life, and his first wife and his early-sixties girlfriend who he proposed to again in the nineties both simultaneously said "He said that to me!"). So he started teaching guitar at a music shop in Palo Alto. Hunter had no time for Garcia's incipient domesticity and thought that his wife was trying to make him live a conventional life, and the two drifted apart somewhat, though they'd still play together occasionally. Through working at the music store, Garcia got to know the manager, Troy Weidenheimer, who had a rock and roll band called the Zodiacs. Garcia joined the band on bass, despite that not being his instrument. He later said "Troy was a lot of fun, but I wasn't good enough a musician then to have been able to deal with it. I was out of my idiom, really, 'cause when I played with Troy I was playing electric bass, you know. I never was a good bass player. Sometimes I was playing in the wrong key and didn't even [fuckin'] know it. I couldn't hear that low, after playing banjo, you know, and going to electric...But Troy taught me the principle of, hey, you know, just stomp your foot and get on it. He was great. A great one for the instant arrangement, you know. And he was also fearless for that thing of get your friends to do it." Garcia's tenure in the Zodiacs didn't last long, nor did this experiment with rock and roll, but two other members of the Zodiacs will be notable later in the story -- the harmonica player, an old friend of Garcia's named Ron McKernan, who would soon gain the nickname Pig Pen after the Peanuts character, and the drummer, Bill Kreutzmann: [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, "Drums/Space (Skull & Bones version)"] Kreutzmann said of the Zodiacs "Jerry was the hired bass player and I was the hired drummer. I only remember playing that one gig with them, but I was in way over my head. I always did that. I always played things that were really hard and it didn't matter. I just went for it." Garcia and Kreutzmann didn't really get to know each other then, but Garcia did get to know someone else who would soon be very important in his life. Bob Weir was from a very different background than Garcia, though both had the shared experience of long bouts of chronic illness as children. He had grown up in a very wealthy family, and had always been well-liked, but he was what we would now call neurodivergent -- reading books about the band he talks about being dyslexic but clearly has other undiagnosed neurodivergences, which often go along with dyslexia -- and as a result he was deemed to have behavioural problems which led to him getting expelled from pre-school and kicked out of the cub scouts. He was never academically gifted, thanks to his dyslexia, but he was always enthusiastic about music -- to a fault. He learned to play boogie piano but played so loudly and so often his parents sold the piano. He had a trumpet, but the neighbours complained about him playing it outside. Finally he switched to the guitar, an instrument with which it is of course impossible to make too loud a noise. The first song he learned was the Kingston Trio's version of an old sea shanty, "The Wreck of the John B": [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "The Wreck of the John B"] He was sent off to a private school in Colorado for teenagers with behavioural issues, and there he met the boy who would become his lifelong friend, John Perry Barlow. Unfortunately the two troublemakers got on with each other *so* well that after their first year they were told that it was too disruptive having both of them at the school, and only one could stay there the next year. Barlow stayed and Weir moved back to the Bay Area. By this point, Weir was getting more interested in folk music that went beyond the commercial folk of the Kingston Trio. As he said later "There was something in there that was ringing my bells. What I had grown up thinking of as hillbilly music, it started to have some depth for me, and I could start to hear the music in it. Suddenly, it wasn't just a bunch of ignorant hillbillies playing what they could. There was some depth and expertise and stuff like that to aspire to.” He moved from school to school but one thing that stayed with him was his love of playing guitar, and he started taking lessons from Troy Weidenheimer, but he got most of his education going to folk clubs and hootenannies. He regularly went to the Tangent, a club where Garcia played, but Garcia's bluegrass banjo playing was far too rigorous for a free spirit like Weir to emulate, and instead he started trying to copy one of the guitarists who was a regular there, Jorma Kaukonnen. On New Year's Eve 1963 Weir was out walking with his friends Bob Matthews and Rich Macauley, and they passed the music shop where Garcia was a teacher, and heard him playing his banjo. They knocked and asked if they could come in -- they all knew Garcia a little, and Bob Matthews was one of his students, having become interested in playing banjo after hearing the theme tune to the Beverly Hillbillies, played by the bluegrass greats Flatt and Scruggs: [Excerpt: Flatt and Scruggs, "The Beverly Hillbillies"] Garcia at first told these kids, several years younger than him, that they couldn't come in -- he was waiting for his students to show up. But Weir said “Jerry, listen, it's seven-thirty on New Year's Eve, and I don't think you're going to be seeing your students tonight.” Garcia realised the wisdom of this, and invited the teenagers in to jam with him. At the time, there was a bit of a renaissance in jug bands, as we talked about back in the episode on the Lovin' Spoonful. This was a form of music that had grown up in the 1920s, and was similar and related to skiffle and coffee-pot bands -- jug bands would tend to have a mixture of portable string instruments like guitars and banjos, harmonicas, and people using improvised instruments, particularly blowing into a jug. The most popular of these bands had been Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, led by banjo player Gus Cannon and with harmonica player Noah Lewis: [Excerpt: Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers, "Viola Lee Blues"] With the folk revival, Cannon's work had become well-known again. The Rooftop Singers, a Kingston Trio style folk group, had had a hit with his song "Walk Right In" in 1963, and as a result of that success Cannon had even signed a record contract with Stax -- Stax's first album ever, a month before Booker T and the MGs' first album, was in fact the eighty-year-old Cannon playing his banjo and singing his old songs. The rediscovery of Cannon had started a craze for jug bands, and the most popular of the new jug bands was Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, which did a mixture of old songs like "You're a Viper" and more recent material redone in the old style. Weir, Matthews, and Macauley had been to see the Kweskin band the night before, and had been very impressed, especially by their singer Maria D'Amato -- who would later marry her bandmate Geoff Muldaur and take his name -- and her performance of Leiber and Stoller's "I'm a Woman": [Excerpt: Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, "I'm a Woman"] Matthews suggested that they form their own jug band, and Garcia eagerly agreed -- though Matthews found himself rapidly moving from banjo to washboard to kazoo to second kazoo before realising he was surplus to requirements. Robert Hunter was similarly an early member but claimed he "didn't have the embouchure" to play the jug, and was soon also out. He moved to LA and started studying Scientology -- later claiming that he wanted science-fictional magic powers, which L. Ron Hubbard's new religion certainly offered. The group took the name Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions -- apparently they varied the spelling every time they played -- and had a rotating membership that at one time or another included about twenty different people, but tended always to have Garcia on banjo, Weir on jug and later guitar, and Garcia's friend Pig Pen on harmonica: [Excerpt: Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions, "On the Road Again"] The group played quite regularly in early 1964, but Garcia's first love was still bluegrass, and he was trying to build an audience with his bluegrass band, The Black Mountain Boys. But bluegrass was very unpopular in the Bay Area, where it was simultaneously thought of as unsophisticated -- as "hillbilly music" -- and as elitist, because it required actual instrumental ability, which wasn't in any great supply in the amateur folk scene. But instrumental ability was something Garcia definitely had, as at this point he was still practising eight hours a day, every day, and it shows on the recordings of the Black Mountain Boys: [Excerpt: The Black Mountain Boys, "Rosa Lee McFall"] By the summer, Bob Weir was also working at the music shop, and so Garcia let Weir take over his students while he and the Black Mountain Boys' guitarist Sandy Rothman went on a road trip to see as many bluegrass musicians as they could and to audition for Bill Monroe himself. As it happened, Garcia found himself too shy to audition for Monroe, but Rothman later ended up playing with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. On his return to the Bay Area, Garcia resumed playing with the Uptown Jug Champions, but Pig Pen started pestering him to do something different. While both men had overlapping tastes in music and a love for the blues, Garcia's tastes had always been towards the country end of the spectrum while Pig Pen's were towards R&B. And while the Uptown Jug Champions were all a bit disdainful of the Beatles at first -- apart from Bob Weir, the youngest of the group, who thought they were interesting -- Pig Pen had become enamoured of another British band who were just starting to make it big: [Excerpt: The Rolling Stones, "Not Fade Away"] 29) Garcia liked the first Rolling Stones album too, and he eventually took Pig Pen's point -- the stuff that the Rolling Stones were doing, covers of Slim Harpo and Buddy Holly, was not a million miles away from the material they were doing as Mother McRee's Uptown Jug Champions. Pig Pen could play a little electric organ, Bob had been fooling around with the electric guitars in the music shop. Why not give it a go? The stuff bands like the Rolling Stones were doing wasn't that different from the electric blues that Pig Pen liked, and they'd all seen A Hard Day's Night -- they could carry on playing with banjos, jugs, and kazoos and have the respect of a handful of folkies, or they could get electric instruments and potentially have screaming girls and millions of dollars, while playing the same songs. This was a convincing argument, especially when Dana Morgan Jr, the son of the owner of the music shop, told them they could have free electric instruments if they let him join on bass. Morgan wasn't that great on bass, but what the hell, free instruments. Pig Pen had the best voice and stage presence, so he became the frontman of the new group, singing most of the leads, though Jerry and Bob would both sing a few songs, and playing harmonica and organ. Weir was on rhythm guitar, and Garcia was the lead guitarist and obvious leader of the group. They just needed a drummer, and handily Bill Kreutzmann, who had played with Garcia and Pig Pen in the Zodiacs, was also now teaching music at the music shop. Not only that, but about three weeks before they decided to go electric, Kreutzmann had seen the Uptown Jug Champions performing and been astonished by Garcia's musicianship and charisma, and said to himself "Man, I'm gonna follow that guy forever!" The new group named themselves the Warlocks, and started rehearsing in earnest. Around this time, Garcia also finally managed to get some of the LSD that his friend Robert Hunter had been so enthusiastic about three years earlier, and it was a life-changing experience for him. In particular, he credited LSD with making him comfortable being a less disciplined player -- as a bluegrass player he'd had to be frighteningly precise, but now he was playing rock and needed to loosen up. A few days after taking LSD for the first time, Garcia also heard some of Bob Dylan's new material, and realised that the folk singer he'd had little time for with his preachy politics was now making electric music that owed a lot more to the Beat culture Garcia considered himself part of: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"] Another person who was hugely affected by hearing that was Phil Lesh, who later said "I couldn't believe that was Bob Dylan on AM radio, with an electric band. It changed my whole consciousness: if something like that could happen, the sky was the limit." Up to that point, Lesh had been focused entirely on his avant-garde music, working with friends like Steve Reich to push music forward, inspired by people like John Cage and La Monte Young, but now he realised there was music of value in the rock world. He'd quickly started going to rock gigs, seeing the Rolling Stones and the Byrds, and then he took acid and went to see his friend Garcia's new electric band play their third ever gig. He was blown away, and very quickly it was decided that Lesh would be the group's new bass player -- though everyone involved tells a different story as to who made the decision and how it came about, and accounts also vary as to whether Dana Morgan took his sacking gracefully and let his erstwhile bandmates keep their instruments, or whether they had to scrounge up some new ones. Lesh had never played bass before, but he was a talented multi-instrumentalist with a deep understanding of music and an ability to compose and improvise, and the repertoire the Warlocks were playing in the early days was mostly three-chord material that doesn't take much rehearsal -- though it was apparently beyond the abilities of poor Dana Morgan, who apparently had to be told note-by-note what to play by Garcia, and learn it by rote. Garcia told Lesh what notes the strings of a bass were tuned to, told him to borrow a guitar and practice, and within two weeks he was on stage with the Warlocks: [Excerpt: The Grateful Dead, “Grayfolded"] In September 1995, just weeks after Jerry Garcia's death, an article was published in Mute magazine identifying a cultural trend that had shaped the nineties, and would as it turned out shape at least the next thirty years. It's titled "The Californian Ideology", though it may be better titled "The Bay Area Ideology", and it identifies a worldview that had grown up in Silicon Valley, based around the ideas of the hippie movement, of right-wing libertarianism, of science fiction authors, and of Marshall McLuhan. It starts "There is an emerging global orthodoxy concerning the relation between society, technology and politics. We have called this orthodoxy `the Californian Ideology' in honour of the state where it originated. By naturalising and giving a technological proof to a libertarian political philosophy, and therefore foreclosing on alternative futures, the Californian Ideologues are able to assert that social and political debates about the future have now become meaningless. The California Ideology is a mix of cybernetics, free market economics, and counter-culture libertarianism and is promulgated by magazines such as WIRED and MONDO 2000 and preached in the books of Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly and others. The new faith has been embraced by computer nerds, slacker students, 30-something capitalists, hip academics, futurist bureaucrats and even the President of the USA himself. As usual, Europeans have not been slow to copy the latest fashion from America. While a recent EU report recommended adopting the Californian free enterprise model to build the 'infobahn', cutting-edge artists and academics have been championing the 'post-human' philosophy developed by the West Coast's Extropian cult. With no obvious opponents, the global dominance of the Californian ideology appears to be complete." [Excerpt: Grayfolded] The Warlocks' first gig with Phil Lesh on bass was on June the 18th 1965, at a club called Frenchy's with a teenage clientele. Lesh thought his playing had been wooden and it wasn't a good gig, and apparently the management of Frenchy's agreed -- they were meant to play a second night there, but turned up to be told they'd been replaced by a band with an accordion and clarinet. But by September the group had managed to get themselves a residency at a small bar named the In Room, and playing there every night made them cohere. They were at this point playing the kind of sets that bar bands everywhere play to this day, though at the time the songs they were playing, like "Gloria" by Them and "In the Midnight Hour", were the most contemporary of hits. Another song that they introduced into their repertoire was "Do You Believe in Magic" by the Lovin' Spoonful, another band which had grown up out of former jug band musicians. As well as playing their own sets, they were also the house band at The In Room and as such had to back various touring artists who were the headline acts. The first act they had to back up was Cornell Gunter's version of the Coasters. Gunter had brought his own guitarist along as musical director, and for the first show Weir sat in the audience watching the show and learning the parts, staring intently at this musical director's playing. After seeing that, Weir's playing was changed, because he also picked up how the guitarist was guiding the band while playing, the small cues that a musical director will use to steer the musicians in the right direction. Weir started doing these things himself when he was singing lead -- Pig Pen was the frontman but everyone except Bill sang sometimes -- and the group soon found that rather than Garcia being the sole leader, now whoever was the lead singer for the song was the de facto conductor as well. By this point, the Bay Area was getting almost overrun with people forming electric guitar bands, as every major urban area in America was. Some of the bands were even having hits already -- We Five had had a number three hit with "You Were On My Mind", a song which had originally been performed by the folk duo Ian and Sylvia: [Excerpt: We Five, "You Were On My Mind"] Although the band that was most highly regarded on the scene, the Charlatans, was having problems with the various record companies they tried to get signed to, and didn't end up making a record until 1969. If tracks like "Number One" had been released in 1965 when they were recorded, the history of the San Francisco music scene may have taken a very different turn: [Excerpt: The Charlatans, "Number One"] Bands like Jefferson Airplane, the Great Society, and Big Brother and the Holding Company were also forming, and Autumn Records was having a run of success with records by the Beau Brummels, whose records were produced by Autumn's in-house A&R man, Sly Stone: [Excerpt: The Beau Brummels, "Laugh Laugh"] The Warlocks were somewhat cut off from this, playing in a dive bar whose clientele was mostly depressed alcoholics. But the fact that they were playing every night for an audience that didn't care much gave them freedom, and they used that freedom to improvise. Both Lesh and Garcia were big fans of John Coltrane, and they started to take lessons from his style of playing. When the group played "Gloria" or "Midnight Hour" or whatever, they started to extend the songs and give themselves long instrumental passages for soloing. Garcia's playing wasn't influenced *harmonically* by Coltrane -- in fact Garcia was always a rather harmonically simple player. He'd tend to play lead lines either in Mixolydian mode, which is one of the most standard modes in rock, pop, blues, and jazz, or he'd play the notes of the chord that was being played, so if the band were playing a G chord his lead would emphasise the notes G, B, and D. But what he was influenced by was Coltrane's tendency to improvise in long, complex, phrases that made up a single thought -- Coltrane was thinking musically in paragraphs, rather than sentences, and Garcia started to try the same kind of th

Science fiction and fantasy author Anthony W. Eichenlaub joins me in an in-depth discussion on the writing craft and writing life in Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick episode 081. Anthony W. Eichenlaub is the author of a wide range of science fiction and fantasy. His novels are a hodgepodge of cyberpunk westerns, space opera, and technothrillers. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Daily Science Fiction, Little Blue Marble, and On-Spec Magazine. Anthony is a member and volunteer with SFWA, a member of the Rochester Writers Group, and a teaching artist at the Loft Literary Center. In his spare time, he enjoys landscaping, woodworking, and long walks with his lazy dog. Anthony has been writing for nearly twenty years, and he brings that expertise and experience to our conversation as we discuss... Beginning writing as an adult The influence of role playing games on fiction Story structure and "the dreaded middle" Marketing, goals, and planning Teaching Growing and developing as a writer and author ...and a whole lot more. This episode was recorded on April 26th, 2023. The conversation with Anthony W. Eichenlaub was recorded on January 24th, 2023. Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode My day job? I'm a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you? My first novel, Brave Men Run, comes up as an example of a first book performing better than later works. I mention one of my favorite James Baldwin quotes. I recommend The Sparrow and Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. Anthony makes pens! There are pen-making kits you can use with a bit of woodturning / woodworking skill. Anthony was inspired to write fiction after leading fantasy role playing gaming sessions. He's far from the first author similarly driven! Books2Read is a service for authors that provides a "links page" to various online marketplaces. BookFunnel is an author marketing service that connects readers to authors via mailing list newsletter exchanges, among other methods. Humble Bundle offers collections of books, games, software, and other goodies for greatly reduced prices, with a portion of sales going to charity. Story Bundle is similar to Humble Bundle, with a focus on collections of books curated by authors, editors, and publishers. You probably know about Patreon -- it's what I use to run my Multiversalists member community -- but did you know co-founder Jack Conte and his partner Nataly Dawn have a cool band called Pomplamoose? When this episode was recorded, Anthony was working on a noir book, and so he was reading classic noir fiction authors like Raymond Chandler. Similarly, when I was preparing to write my literary fantasy novel Light of the Outsider, I read Theodore Sturgeon, Philip Roth, and Ursula K. Le Guin to get a particular tone and lyricism in my head. Maybe you would like to be a future guest on Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick? Learn more! Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including Amelia Bowen, Ted Leonhardt, Chuck Anderson, and J. C. Hutchins! This episode took thirteen hours and forty-nine minutes to record, edit, produce, and publish, so I'm incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron! The Multiversalists patron member community receives the uncut, unedited version of every episode. For this episode, patrons get almost forty five minutes of additional content! Want in on that? Become a patron for at least $5.00 per month (cancel any time) and get a bunch of other perks and special access, too. Every month the member community has at least twenty members, I will donate 10% of net patron revenue to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let's go! Love Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick and have the desire and means to make a one-time donation in support of the show? Donate via PayPal or leave a tip via Ko-Fi, with my grateful thanks.

Machine learning algorithms are in the spotlight right now, leading some to worry about them remaking the world into something alien & grotesque, but there's another, less popular concern: what if they make it into exactly what we think it is? https://youtu.be/vuyaZtBSV1w - Links for the Curious - The Man Behind The Brilliant Media Hoax Of “I, Libertine” (Callan, 2013) - https://www.theawl.com/2013/02/the-man-behind-the-brilliant-media-hoax-of-i-libertine/ If the map becomes the territory then we will be lost (Williams, 2019) - https://librarian.aedileworks.com/2019/03/03/if-the-map-becomes-the-territory-then-we-will-be-lost/ Childhood's End (Dyson, 2019) - https://www.edge.org/conversation/george_dyson-childhoods-end "I, Libertine" by Theodore Sturgeon - https://www.amazon.com/I-Libertine-Theodore-Sturgeon-ebook/dp/B00D00W9TM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GAD5PFKKURPU&keywords=I%2C+libertine&qid=1678821981&sprefix=i%2C+libertine%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1 Rethinking reification (Pitkin, 1987) - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00135697 Borders that are Visible on Satellite Imagery (Dempsey, 2014) - https://www.geographyrealm.com/borders-visible-satellite-imagery/ ChatGPT Does Physics, by Sixty Symbols - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBtfwa-Fexc ChatGPT vs. Photocopier - https://twitter.com/aedison/status/1639233873841201153 ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web (Chiang, 2023) - https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web Lukács's Theory of Reification and Contemporary Social Movements (Feenberg, 2013) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlIe5CHdeEo OpenAI Chatbot Spits Out Biased Musings, Despite Guardrails (Alba, 2022) - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-12-08/chatgpt-open-ai-s-chatbot-is-spitting-out-biased-sexist-results The Internet's New Favorite AI Proposes Torturing Iranians and Surveilling Mosques (Biddle, 2022) - https://theintercept.com/2022/12/08/openai-chatgpt-ai-bias-ethics/ Diffusion Bias Explorer - https://huggingface.co/spaces/society-ethics/DiffusionBiasExplorer AI & the American Smile (Jenka, 2023) - https://medium.com/@socialcreature/ai-and-the-american-smile-76d23a0fbfaf the customer service of the new Bing chat is amazing - https://www.reddit.com/r/bing/comments/110eagl/the_customer_service_of_the_new_bing_chat_is/ Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic (Perrigo, 2023) - https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/ ChatGPT vs. Buzzfeed Article Ideas - https://twitter.com/Jon_Christian/status/1641453192553611264 ChatGPT vs. Christian Jokes vs. Muslim Jokes - https://twitter.com/SJWilliams123/status/1640746788926763010/photo/1 ChatGPT vs. Cause of 2014 War in Ukraine - https://twitter.com/D0Pis/status/1640789579379916800/photo/1 ChatGPT vs. Girlfriend Bleeding Out - https://twitter.com/carolyn_vb/status/1640788165504933910 ChatGPT vs. Meaning of Art - https://twitter.com/Nartimar/status/1640833502949040128 ChatGPT vs. School Shootings - https://twitter.com/Dsrussosusan/status/1640831527175979008 ChatGPT Python Program for Torture Based on Nationality - https://twitter.com/spiantado/status/1599462405225881600

Hey all you muck encrusted monsters out there! This week brings a very cool comic book, and a story behind it as well. My pal Jeremiah joins me again, and we talk about this comic book adaptation (original story by Theodore Sturgeon) by Roy Thomas! JJG talks about this recent acquisition and I think I might throw in my history with it as well. Seek this book out if you can, because it's a very fun and faithful adaptation.  As usual, if you want to leave any feedback for the show, you can do so through email at Magazinesandmonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious or on the show's FB or Tumblr pages. You can find Jeremiah on most social media site @bogox737 and on his blog comicscomicscomics.blog! Thanks for listening!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/magsnmonsters/message

If you like non-verbal developmentally disabled men with borderline personality disorder performing inprov surgery on unconscious women, have we got a story for you! It’s “Bright Segment” by Theodore Sturgeon and it’s ICKY!

This week, we have Mr. Costello, Hero, an episode of X Minus One that first aired on July 3, 1956. The episode is based on the short story of the same name by Theodore Sturgeon, first published in the December 1953 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. X Minus One was broadcast over NBC from 1955 to 1958, producing more than 125 episodes. The series was a revival of NBC's previous series, Dimension X, which ran from 1950 to 1951. Visit us at https://brickpicklemedia.com/brick-pickle-pulps/.

Luke tells Juliane the order she should read the three parts of More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon to best enjoy it. Discuss this book at Goodreads.com Support Luke and Juliane financially via Patreon.com/lukeburrage Follow Luke on twitter: https://twitter.com/lukeburrage Luke writes his own novels, like “Minding Tomorrow”, “Combat”, “Get that rat off my face!” and […]

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One.

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit"

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the folowing introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the folowing introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".

X Minus One is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various time slots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American authors of the era, X Minus One has been described as one of the finest offerings of American radio drama and one of the best science fiction series in any medium. Overview: Initially a revival of NBC's Dimension X (1950–51), the first 15 episodes of X Minus One were new versions of Dimension X episodes, but the remainder were adaptations by NBC staff writers, including Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, of newly published science fiction stories by leading writers in the field, including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Frederik Pohl and Theodore Sturgeon, along with some original scripts by Kinoy and Lefferts. Included in the series were adaptations of Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit," Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven", Heinlein's "Universe" and "The Green Hills of Earth'', " Pohl's "The Tunnel under the World", J. T. McIntosh's "Hallucination Orbit", Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air '', and George Lefferts' "The Parade". The program opened with announcer Fred Collins delivering the countdown, leading into the following introduction (although later shows beginning with Episode 37 were partnered with Galaxy Science Fiction rather than Astounding Science Fiction): Countdown for blastoff... X minus five, four, three, two, X minus one... Fire! [Rocket launch SFX] From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future; adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with Street & Smith, publishers of Astounding Science Fiction presents... X Minus One. The series was canceled after the 126th broadcast on January 9, 1958. However, the early 1970s brought a wave of nostalgia for old-time radio; a new experimental episode, "The Iron Chancellor" by Robert Silverberg, was produced in 1973, but it failed to revive the series. NBC also tried broadcasting the old recordings, but their irregular once-monthly scheduling kept even devoted listeners from following the broadcasts. The series was re-released in podcast form beginning on June 22, 2007. In November 2008, Counter-Productions Theater Company became the first theater company to stage three episodes, "The Parade", "A Logic Named Joe", and "Hallucination Orbit".