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All This And More with Peng Shepherd

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

Release Date: 07/31/2024

Magic Can't Save Us with Josh Denslow show art Magic Can't Save Us with Josh Denslow

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this episode, Alan talks to author and musician Josh Denslow. They discuss writing dialogue and movie scripts, music's influence on his writing, Marlon James, the break down of walls between speculative fiction and Literature, suprheros and comics, the importance of exploring new forms of art, Josh's novel Super Normal, living outside the US, extreme politics and family, humor in fiction, listening to music, their mutual struggle to have "favorite" bands, and Josh's new collection Magic Can't Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure.

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Hope in Horror: Like An Infection show art Hope in Horror: Like An Infection

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

This time Paul Jessup tackles the politics of zombies in the classic Night of the Living Dead, as well as modern Train to Busan. He also discusses why hope is not naive and, as always, how horror can provide us with hope. Be sure to check out his new book .

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Solarpunk: Electric Vehicles and Batteries with Todd Medema and Navarre Bartz show art Solarpunk: Electric Vehicles and Batteries with Todd Medema and Navarre Bartz

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

Alan and a couple of engineers from the the Solapunk community, Navarre Bartz and Todd Medema, discuss everything you want to know about electric vehichles, battery technology, EVs that are not Tesla, and charging stations. Todd also discusses his new book, How to Surf a Hurricane, and how he got involved with Solapunk, and much more! You can find How to here:

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The Sentence with Gautam Bhatia show art The Sentence with Gautam Bhatia

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to scholar, laywer, and author Gautam Bhatia. They discuss Bhatia's book The Sentence, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Anarchism, the Paris Commune of 1871, the Mondragon Cooperative, publishing in India, the views on genre in India, the sequal to The Sentence, and much more. As discussed in the episode you can find the article Forest and Factory here: https://endnotes.org.uk/posts/forest-and-factory

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Speculative Whiteness Part 2: Alt-Right Nerd with Dr. Jordan S. Carroll show art Speculative Whiteness Part 2: Alt-Right Nerd with Dr. Jordan S. Carroll

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In the second part of our column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, we discuss the right wing and fandom. Alan and Jordan discuss why nerds/geeks are easy pickings for the alt-right, neurodiversity, eugenics, how the right wing uses fandom, Sad Puppies, Robert Heinlien, and much more.

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Justice in Fiction with Malka Older show art Justice in Fiction with Malka Older

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to writer, aid worker, and sociologist Malka Older. They discuss new installments of The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, developing characters over the course of multiple books, exploring different forms of governance, writing mysteries, neurodiversity, Sherlock Holmes, Global Voices, justice in fiction, and much more.  

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Bailey's Books: Left Field Books show art Bailey's Books: Left Field Books

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this episode Alan reviews (books linked below): by Christina Jurado, Translated by Sue Burke, published by Apex Books 2025 by Maria Vetrano, published by Regalo Press 2024 by Nuzo Onoh, published by Titan Books 2024 by Allen Stroud published by Flame Tree Press 2024 by Allen Stroud published by Flame Tree Press 2024

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Horror and Solarpunk: How different are they? with Susan Kaye Quinn, Maurice Broaddus, and Paul Jessup show art Horror and Solarpunk: How different are they? with Susan Kaye Quinn, Maurice Broaddus, and Paul Jessup

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this mash-up column, Paul Jessup, of Fear is the Fire That Lights the Heart, and our own Alan Bailey along with guests Maurice Broaddus, and Susan Kaye Quinn explore the differences and simularities between the genre of horror and the subgenre of Solarpunk and come to some very surprising conclusions. We discuss community, resiliance, Weird fiction, anger and anxiety as inspiration, libraries, and the creation of possibilities. Throughout the episode they reference the following article: Reading Weird Fiction in an Age of Facism:

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Powerless with Harry Turtledove show art Powerless with Harry Turtledove

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to prolific writer and historian Harry Turtledove. They discuss Cat and Harry's collaboration on The Trumps Will Sound, Turtledove's new book: Powerless, Vaclav Havel, Totalitarianism, the power of the individual, Elon Musk, the alt-right in Science Fiction, reader interpretation of work, how the US would break up, staying inspired, Imposter Syndrome, Peter Beagle, Ted Sturgeon, staying relevent, Harry's start in Sword and Sorcery, pen names, Lester Del Rey, strange things in history, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the worth of good editors, and much more.

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Speculative Whiteness Part 1: Acadmic Altruist with Dr. Jordan S. Carroll show art Speculative Whiteness Part 1: Acadmic Altruist with Dr. Jordan S. Carroll

If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In the first part of this new column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, we get to know the author of the groundbreaking discussion, Speculative Witeness. Alan and Jordan discuss gateway genre authors, JRR Tolkien, transgressive science fiction, how SF fans experience time differently, how Jordan started studying the alt-right in conjunction with Speculative Fiction, Jordan's relationship to fandom, becoming a Hugo finalist, the treatment of genre in acadamia, the history of fascism in Speculative Fiction, neo-nazis relationship to fandom, Alan also continues his feud with...

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In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to bestselling author Peng Shepherd about multi-verses, meta-fiction, cats, travel, reality TV, morality, and much more.

Just a heads up, Alan had some minor audio issues in this recording, but it shouldn't be distracting.

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