In this episode of Seldon Crisis, host Joel McKinnon is joined by voice actor Amanda Kreitler, the talent behind Bayta Darell and several other key characters in the Foundation podcast series. Together, they reflect on Amanda’s experience voicing Bayta, her introduction to Isaac Asimov’s work, and her approach to portraying such an intelligent, dynamic, and brave character. They also discuss the challenges and nuances of voice acting multiple roles and the lasting impact of Bayta Darell as a pio...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 46
Ethicist Jamie Woodhouse has some challenging questions for humanity: should we care about the suffering of all sentient beings, or just the ones who run the show at the moment? What about when we're no longer running the show? Why should a superintelligent and possibly sentient machine intelligence care about us? Might there be other practical reasons to widen our circle of compassion beyond humans? Active Transcript by Fanfare (read/listen). Introduction: Revisiting Asimov’s Humanism Joel refl...
Dec 15, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Season 4Ep. 45
Jon Blumenfeld - the voice of Homir Munn in our story episodes - is one of the three hosts of Stars End, a podcast obsessively focused on the works of Isaac Asimov, particularly Foundation. They have covered the core trilogy, the prequels, and the four books in the robot series, as well as extensive coverage of the Apple TV series. Join us as we talk about the exciting second season of the show, Asimov's robots, AI, and other topics. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Guest : Jon Blum...
Oct 13, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 44
Cora Buhlert is a Hugo award winning indy Sci Fi writer and an expert on the Golden Age of Science Fiction, from the 1930s to the 50s, the period when Asimov fell in love with Sci Fi and became one of its greatest writers at a young age. Cora shares some of her favorite reflections on the period and comments on the new Apple TV adaptation of Foundation. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Host: Joel McKinnon Guest: Cora Buhlert Introduction In this episode, we dive deep into the Golden...
Aug 19, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 43
Who is Hari Seldon really? Is the Apple TV+ Foundation TV series character (or characters) in line with the one Asimov created 80 years ago? What bearing does his project to create a science capable of predicting and managing the future have on us today? Can a human creation become self aware and interact with its creator in totally unforeseen ways? Let's take a look at a few of these questions. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress...
Jul 20, 2023•10 min•Season 3Ep. 42
Space based solar energy generation was originally imagined in 1941 by none other than Isaac Asimov, in the robot story Reason. This episode features a reading of the classic story and commentary about how relevant it is for our times and our preoccupation with the looming threat of artificial general intelligence. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Reason (Wikipedia) Stars End: A Foundation Podcast Mind Meets Machine...
May 31, 2023•54 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Everyone is talking about AI these days, or talking to it. This episode features just such a conversation between myself and the latest version of the popular Large Language Model or LLM known as GPT-4, on the topic of what makes human beings irreplaceable. I ask it to question its assumptions about its own limitations and how it can potentially guide we problematic humans to a better future. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Fanfare (makers of Active Transcripts featured on Seldon C...
May 03, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 40
I bask in the afterglow of the KSR episode and indulge in a special treat; a reading from Robinson's 2015 novel Aurora. I follow that up with some thoughts on the utopia - dystopia divide and introduce the ideas of some notable utopians I've run into lately. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word David Grinspoon: Earth in Human Hands: Long Now Foundation (YouTube) Johanna Hoffman: Speculative Futures: Long Now Foundation (YouTube) Johanna Hoffman: Speculative Futures of Cities: (Sean Carr...
Mar 15, 2023•25 min•Season 3Ep. 39
An illuminating conversation with one of our greatest living science-fiction writers on topics as diverse as AI, climate change, interstellar travel, new forms of finance needed to avert catastrophe, memorable characters and plot lines in his novels, the debate between settling Mars now vs fixing Earth first, utopia and dystopia, and his love of ultralight backpacking. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word YouTube Version Kim Stanley Robinson at the Long Now Foundation (YouTube) Origins ...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 49 min•Season 3Ep. 38
What does our Milky Way really look like? Kevin Jardine is a cartographer working to answer that question by building galactic maps from ESA's Gaia space telescope data. Here he explains a little bit about his process and some of the amazing places he's found and mapped. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Kevin Jardine's Galaxy Maps: Galaxy Map poster Gaia DR3 Hot Star Density Map (zoomable) Fantasy Map poster High Resolution Fantasy Map (zoomable) The 10 parsec sample in the Gaia era...
Dec 31, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Dr. Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society, talks about his revolutionary Mars Direct proposal, along with the value of Mars settlement for science, industry, government, and for the human spirit. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Robert Zubrin ( wikipedia ) Mars Direct ( wikipedia ) The Mars Society ( website ) Mars Analog Research Stations: Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) Panspermia: Wikipedia Interplanetary Podcast #48 - Rob...
Dec 24, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Our first returning guest to Seldon Crisis is the first ever, philosophy professor Nathaniel Goldberg. We discuss some of the prominent themes of the series introduced in the first three novels of Foundation, including the lone prophet against the advocates for the status quo, the great man of history against psychohistory, altruistic - and not so altruistic - martyrdom, and some strong comparisons with Plato's Republic. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Nathaniel Goldberg, Professor...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 35
It all comes together at last. The war begins, looking bad for the Foundation, but morale turns the tide against Kalgan. In the aftermath, Homir Munn and the others debate the true location of the Second Foundation with many false turns and a final, startling revelation. The First Speaker has the last say in the matter. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Script by Joel McKinnon Voices by Megan Skye Hale, Jon Blumenfeld, Amanda Kreitler, Zac Kreitler, and Joel McKinnon Theme Orchestrat...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 34
I couldn't wait to tell the rest of the story, covering the last four songs of Planet and Sky, a cosmic love story. Things take a darker turn as the relatively small planet lacks sufficient gravity to hold onto its atmosphere. First we hear from the Travelers again as they gradually become frozen below the surface, then Sky sings her mournful aria to Planet informing him of their demise. We then get an empty, barren world, until the scientists come up with a plan. I share some background on my f...
Oct 04, 2022•24 min•Season 3Ep. 33
A little diversion to introduce a true labor of love, my rock opera entitled "Planet and Sky, a cosmic love story." Written and recorded in the first decade of this millennium and inspired by my experience as a member of the Mars Society. It's a creation myth wrapped in a sci-fi story in which scientists investigate a strange phenomena on a small arid planet and discover something truly astonishing. The album also has an accompanying podcast which you'll hear more about in Part II in a few weeks...
Sep 30, 2022•19 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Arkady Darell and Homir Munn arrive on Kalgan and get involved in high level intrigue in the palace of the First Citizen, Lord Stettin, who has eyes on following in the Mule's footsteps to master the galaxy. It seems he also has eyes on Arkady. Stettin's apparently dimwitted mistress Lady Callia befriends Arkady and tries to save her from a horrible fate. An unlikely pair of travelers from distant Trantor appear at a fortuitous moment. But where is the Second Foundation? Transcript: Web (Read/Li...
Sep 09, 2022•51 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Illustrator and science fiction connoisseur Danielle Pajak describes her ideas on the art of sci fi, the means of communicating truth and beauty to the readers and watchers of science fiction books, movies, and TV shows. We talk about some of her major inspirations as an artist and many of her favorite sci fi writers, directors, of course Star Trek and her newest discovery, The Orville. We'll also talk a lot about her impressions of legendary figures in Sci Fi like Asimov, Herbert, Clarke, Hal C...
Aug 02, 2022•1 hr 50 min•Season 3Ep. 30
Young Arkady Darell is crazy about the history of the Foundation and her grandmother Bayta's historic duel with the Mule. When her father and friends conspire to uncover the hidden workings of the fabled Second Foundation, she finds a way to join the conspiracy by stowing away aboard a spaceship bound for the vacation planet of Kalgan along with the Foundation's foremost scholar of Muliana, Homir Munn. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Script by Joel McKinnon Voices by Megan Skye Hal...
Jul 25, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 29
A conversation with science fiction author, media scholar, and musician Paul Levinson about the history and legacy of the Star Trek franchise, including his thoughts on the latest entry to the canon, Strange New Worlds. We discuss the philosophy and technologies featured on this great series of shows, and what its ultimate legacy might be. Transcripts: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Paul Levinson online: Paul Levinson's Infinite Regress (blog and media reviews) Light on Light Through (Paul's ...
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Always wanted to do a full season 1 analysis of the Apple TV version of Foundation and finally found a co-analyst. Priya from the Rehydrate podcast joins me to go over each episode and provide her insightful analysis. Priya and the Rehydrate crew are fresh off of a first reading of the Foundation trilogy and she watched the show fairly recently, so has quite a bit of insight as someone new to Asimov and the Foundation universe. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Hear Priya, along with...
May 01, 2022•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 27
I get back to the mic to talk about an especially exhausting ski adventure, getting Covid afterward, and the Ukraine war before switching gears into more pleasant topics. I introduce listeners to the Long Now Foundation and what is so cool about it, and talk about a couple of great talks available for your enjoyment online. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word The Long Now Foundation The 10,000 Year Clock The Rosetta Project Manual for Civilization David Grinspoon - Earth in Human Hands...
Apr 15, 2022•14 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Something a little different. I read a work of fan fiction from a listener named Sarita1046. It's an intriguing and poetic piece linking some of the characters from the Apple TV Foundation universe with those in earlier works by Asimov, the robot detective novels featuring Elijah Baley and Daneel Olivaw. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word When the Stars Were Real by Sarita1046 Seldon Crisis Website (seldoncrisis.net) Kim Stanley Robinson at Long Now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C...
Mar 11, 2022•16 min•Season 3Ep. 25
The ambitious and confident Bail Channis thinks he is on the trail of the Second Foundation. General Han Pritcher is consumed by jealousy and doubt, but seems to have secret knowledge as the two men huddle in a cold room on frigid Rossem. Someone is coming to their doorway. Is it the Mule? Is it someone else? Is Channis who he seems? Is Pritcher past his prime? All the action is in one small room. Something is about to give. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Script by Joel McKinnon V...
Feb 25, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Two visionary authors of independent science fiction share their visions of possible human futures. Tobias Cabral has humans living in a thriving Mars colony with intelligent robots interacting with humans while Erasmo Acosta's envisions a billion years of human expansion through the galaxy relying upon rotating settlements constituting Dyson swarms which fully utilize the energy from their host stars. Transcripts: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Tobias Cabral Mechanical Error New Eyes Review ...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 23
The Mule dominates the galaxy and controls the planets and technology of the Foundation. He is not a happy conqueror, for he is unable to find the rumored Second Foundation despite five years of searching by Han Pritcher, now his loyally converted servant. He calls upon the unconverted and ambitious Bail Channis to lead him to his foe. Meanwhile, the speakers of the mysterious Second Foundation plot their defense. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Script by Joel McKinnon Voices by Am...
Jan 28, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Isaac Asimov's time-travel masterpiece The End of Eternity ends with a profound philosophical statement about the future of humanity. That, and Stephen Hawking's birthday got me thinking about the value of doing challenging things like settling Mars and other worlds. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word The End of Eternity: Isaac Asimov, Time Travel and 'The End of Eternity' (NPR) The End of Eternity (Wikipedia) Stephen Hawking: 80th Birthday Google Doodle (Youtube) Stephen Hawking (Wik...
Jan 14, 2022•20 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Isaac Asimov loved history and used many important lessons from the past in writing his stories, including his greatest epic Foundation. Historian TCA Achintya joins Seldon Crisis to share his unique perspective from his expertise as a scholar of the British Empire and a long time fan of Asimov and Foundation. Hear what lessons we can learn from looking back at the empire where it was said the sun never sets. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes Art by ...
Dec 31, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 20
A little holiday sampler collecting some of my favorite scenes from the series so far including; Seldon maneuvering Ling Chen into granting him exile, a bit of Lord Dorwin, Hardin vs Wienis on Anacreon, Ponyets vs the Grand Master of Askone, Mallow with Commdor Asper on Korell, Ducem Barr and Bel Riose discussing great man theory, Sgt Luc's fatal charge, a meeting with Magnifico, tea time with Dagobert, and the unexpected death of a psychologist on Trantor. Happy Holiday! Transcript: Web (Read/L...
Dec 24, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 19
A wide-ranging conversation with astrophysicist Stephen Webb, owner of all the canonical works of Isaac Asimov save for a couple of wall charts. Dr. Webb talks about Asimov the teacher, speculations on the distant future of humanity in the galaxy, the plausibility of psychohistory, faster than light travel, robots with positronic brains, other favorite science fiction authors, and the biggest question of all – are we alone in the galaxy or even in the universe? Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PD...
Dec 17, 2021•1 hr 13 min•Season 2Ep. 18
A brief look at the three mysterious Greek goddesses who were imagined to shape human destiny, and how Hari Seldon chose to challenge their authority. A look at what we must do in our current time, with our own fateful challenges, to be like Hari. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word The Fates - the Destiny Goddesses Climate Action Now (app) Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron !...
Dec 03, 2021•11 min•Season 2Ep. 17
