The world's humblest heroes, from plumbers to tardigrades
Release Date: 02/08/2024
Never Forget Where We Came From (with Tananarive Due and Nicola Griffith)
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History is on our minds lately. In this episode, we talk to two incredible authors who recreate history in their work. Tananarive Due draws on her own family's experience in her award-winning novel The Reformatory, while Nicola Griffith uncovers the secret history of medieval England in Hild and Menewood. We discuss researching history, and why understanding history is important to building the future. We had an incredible conversation with these two legends.
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The Truth About Gigantic Objects in Space (with Sarah Parcak)
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From Ringworld to Rama, space is full of mysterious giant objects created by ancient civilizations. Do these gorgeous macrostructures bring poetry to the prosaic genre of space opera? Or do we love them for some other reason? Also, we talk to archeologist Sarah Parcak about space archeology and what it teaches us about ancient civilizations.
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Encore Episode: Fascism and Book Bans (with Maggie Tokuda-Hall)
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Here's one of our favorite episodes from 2024 — it's about the mass psychology of fascism, plus how to fight book bans. We talk to friend of the pod Maggie Tokuda-Hall from the wondrous organization Authors Against Book Bans. We'll be back in two weeks with another brand new episode! Meanwhile, happy holidays! <3
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Manufacturing loneliness
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Are we getting toxic messages from speculative fiction about what it means to be alone? We're tackling troubling tropes and eviscerating myths about where loneliness comes from. Later in the episode, we're joined by Peter Pomerantsev, a researcher who studies authoritarianism and propaganda. He’s the author of How to Win an Information War, and he offers us some tantalizing ideas about how to defeat fascist propaganda.
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These Books Will Help You Get Through the Cold, Cold Winter
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The holidays are here once again, and that means one thing: time to stock up on books to help you get cozy and distract yourself from the cold weather (and the state of the world.) Here's our annual roundup of some of our favorite reads — both fiction and non-fiction. Happy reading!
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Why Fantasy Is Going To Extremes (With Nghi Vo)
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Lately, it feels as though a lot of fantasy books come in two kinds: cozy, or extremely dark. During a scary time in the world, we seek either comforting sweetness, or violent catharsis. To find out more, we talked to Nghi Vo, whose recent books include The City in Glass and The Brides of High Hill. Plus we talk about how to include white characters in a story without centering whiteness.
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10 Years After "Over the Garden Wall"
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We're taking a cozy, autumnal trip back in time to "peak television," when animation was truly feral and we had shows like "Over the Garden Wall." We'll talk about this otherworldly tale of singing frogs, sibling rivalry, and nice witches, as well as the ways that animation has changed since the mid-teens. Plus we talk to Michele Tracy Berger, author of the new horror story collection Doll Seed, about why being experimented on is so damn scary. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
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Every Town Deserves a Library (with Ken Liu)
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Science fiction and fantasy are full of wondrous libraries containing everything from powerful artifacts to some dang good reads. How does the idealized view of libraries in speculative fiction compare with the real-life libraries, which are under attack by would-be censors and culture warriors? Also, we talk to award-winning author Ken Liu about his brand new translation of the classic Daoist text, the Dao De Jing. Shownotes and more info at https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
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How to Raise the Stakes without Ruining Your Story
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It's time for some writing advice! We talk about how to raise the stakes in a story without wrecking it. What exactly do we mean by "stakes," anyway, and does raising them always involve some kind of plot twist? Later in the episode we talk to the creators and musicians behind the blog Women of Noise to learn more about the women who rule electronic music, and why there is an overlap between noise music and science fiction. Shownotes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com
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Science Fiction is a normalization machine (with Rob Cameron)
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Science fiction is great at helping people get used to strange concepts — or people — and making us see them as more "normal." But what does "normal" mean, and is it always a good thing? Later in the episode, we talk to Rob Cameron, author of the new novel Daydreamer, about writing neurodivergent characters.
info_outlineInspired by The Super Mario Bros Movie, we're talking about a humble class of heroes whose lives are devoted to infrastructure maintenance and repair. There are heating engineer rogues and space janitors and, of course, plumbers. Later in the episode we’ll head down to Antarctica, where our guest Ariel Waldman spent her summer vacation studying the environment and the tiny creatures who live there – including tardigrades, the world’s greatest microscopic animals!