All of us live embedded in webs of life known as ecosystems, and that can get pretty creepy -- or astonishingly beautiful. Inspired by the mind-blowing new animated series Scavengers Reign, we're talking about some of the best examples of alien ecosystems in science fiction. Then we dive into some real-life ecosystems on Earth, and reveal two important ways that scientists study environmental changes. Along the way, you'll find out why algae is literally sucking the life out of coastal ecosystem...
Dec 28, 2023•50 min•Ep 144•Transcript available on Metacast How does Doctor Who remain cool after sixty years? By constantly updating and reinventing itself. We've been loving David Tennant's triumphant return, and we're so pumped for Ncuti Gatwa. But we're wondering... are there lessons from Doctor Who's longevity that could apply to other venerable series and universes? Heck yeah, there are. Allons-y! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Dec 14, 2023•53 min•Ep 143•Transcript available on Metacast There's no company as soothing as a good read when the days get shorter and the air gets colder. So here's our annual list of recent books that'll help get you through those nasty winter months. (Or if you're listening to this in the Southern hemisphere, here are some summer beach reads!) The good news? We're lucky to have a wealth of amazing reads right now. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Nov 30, 2023•44 min•Ep 142•Transcript available on Metacast Zines are DiY publications that grew to prominence in the early twentieth century scifi fan community, then morphed into a punk subculture in the 70s and 80s ... and now they're back! We talk with two guests who take us deep into the history and future of zines: Lynn Peril, who created the iconic zine Mystery Date in the 1990s, and Lawrence Lindell, author of the new graphic novel Blackward, about queer Oakland teens who organize a Black zine fest. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shown...
Nov 16, 2023•53 min•Ep 141•Transcript available on Metacast Silicon Valley markets itself as the place where futures are born, and yet tech corporations have no real understanding of where our civilizations are headed. We are wrapping up our Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction series with some final thoughts on why this might be. Then we talk to AI developer, ethicist, and poet Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and author of a new book called Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines . Show notes:...
Nov 02, 2023•51 min•Ep 140•Transcript available on Metacast Battles and smackdowns are a key part of many science fiction and fantasy stories — but how do you do them right? Do you have an obligation to show the cost of violence? And what does a good fight scene look like? To find out, we talked to authors Fonda Lee and Lauren Beukes. (Note: This episode was recorded Sept. 23 at Rose City Comic Con in Portland, OR.) Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Oct 19, 2023•39 min•Ep 139•Transcript available on Metacast One of the greatest science fiction shows on TV debuted twenty years ago: the rebooted version of Battlestar Galactica. This show broke new ground in depicting realistic politics — and a nuanced view of a society of artificial people. How does it hold up? To find out, Charlie Jane went back and watched the entire series — here's what she found. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Oct 05, 2023•52 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast What does it mean to be a creator at a time when creativity is completely commodified? We’ll talk about the status of the author, and how audiences have idealized artists while also celebrating the so-called death of the author and rise of the reader. We’ll talk about how AI converts our minds into apps, and also why the intentional fallacy blew up the literary world in the 1940s! Later in the episode we’re joined by Mary Anne Mohanraj, an author and professor of literature at the University of ...
Sep 21, 2023•50 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast We've learned so much about the planets outside our solar system in the past ten years, and we're poised to learn even more. What kind of life could live on eyeball Earths, and other types of tidally locked worlds? To find out, we asked Aomawa Shields, astrophysicist and author of the science memoir Life on Other Planets. Plus Aomawa talked to us about why burnout is such a huge problem for Black women in STEM. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Sep 07, 2023•50 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast Tech companies love to trumpet about how their products are free speech machines. But how can we have free speech when we don't have freedom? That's what we're asking in today's episode, the latest in our Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction series. We take a deep dive into 1984, the science fiction novel that started a lot of today's discourse about speech and authoritarianism. And of course, we talk about the company formerly known as Twitter, and much more! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect...
Aug 24, 2023•42 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast People have been paid for labor for at least 5,000 years, but the modern 'workplace' is a pretty recent invention. We look at how science fiction has dealt with the transformation of labor — plus we talk to Alan Henry, author of the new book Seen, Heard and Paid. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Aug 10, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast We've all been feeling like something is wrong with the timeline. In this episode, we ask what alternate history, fake history, and secondary world history can teach us about the present. Does exploring the past in fiction help us learn from history or are we doomed to repeat it? History-obsessed authors Connie Willis (Blackout, Doomsday Book) and R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War) offer their thoughts too. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Jul 27, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's time for our state of the galaxy address. We’ll be talking about how humans figured out that we are living in a galaxy, and how science fiction represents other galaxies. We're also joined by Molly Peeples, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, who studies where galaxies come from, and what they’re actually made of. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Jul 13, 2023•49 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast One science fiction author has influenced the leaders of the tech industry more than any other: Ayn Rand, who preached radical selfishness in Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. How has Rand's vision shaped the technology we use today? To find out more, we talk to philosopher Matt Zwolinski and author Matt Ruff. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Jun 29, 2023•53 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes, a story is set in a place that isn't just a location. It's a character. How do places come alive? We discuss hauntings, homelands, and what it means to write a landscape that is more than backdrop. Joining us is Jesscia Johns, author of Bad Cree, to talk about how place figures into her novel about a monster who stalks Treaty 8 territory in Alberta, Canada. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Jun 15, 2023•55 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast Star Trek is back in a big way: we've had three live-action TV shows and two animated shows recently, with more stuff on the way. But what does Star Trek mean to us now? And what do we want from Star Trek today? To get deeper into these questions, we did a mind meld with Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
Jun 01, 2023•59 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast Summer is almost here, and there's no shortage of amazing books, movies and TV shows to read by the pool. (Or wherever you consume your entertainment. We don't judge.) How can you make sense of all these options? We have you covered. Here's our totally correct guide to all the best science fiction and fantasy to check out! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes
May 18, 2023•46 min•Ep 130•Transcript available on Metacast Ten years ago, Silicon Valley promised us smart houses that would light rooms as we walked into them, turn on the music, and do our shopping. And it never happened. We talk about how the smart home has its roots in Charlie Chaplin movies, sewing machines, and home economics classes. Guest Jacqui Cheng, former editor-in-chief of gadget guide Wirecutter, joins us to us to discuss the culture of smart home electronics. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
May 04, 2023•51 min•Ep 129•Transcript available on Metacast Games are packed with astounding worldbuilding, and Dungeons & Dragons is perhaps the worldbuildiest of all. We take a deep dive into the game’s transformation from from a Satanic threat in the 1980s, to a wholesome, cozy world that has inspired a swashbuckling new movie and adorable novels like Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes . And then we’re going to talk about worldbuilding in Charlie Jane’s Unstoppable trilogy. The third and final book, Promises Stronger than Darkness , came out this month...
Apr 20, 2023•48 min•Ep 128•Transcript available on Metacast When tech whizkids are caught behaving badly, they're just being "brilliant jerks." And the figure of the charismatic-but-bratty genius inventor is everywhere these days. We look at how the isolated, tormented mad scientist in science fiction evolved into the sexy asshole that everyone wants to be. And we talk to Christopher Cantwell, co-creator of Halt and Catch Fire and recently writer of the Iron Man comic, about how Tony Stark has changed. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Apr 06, 2023•42 min•Ep 127•Transcript available on Metacast If you haven't read any short stories in a while, it's a great time to get back into them. A ton of truly excellent books of short speculative fiction came out recently, and wondrous new tales are appearing in magazines all the time. We talk about some of our favorite new books of short stories — and we offer some tips for writing some short fiction yourself. Works mentioned: All the Hometowns You Can't Stay Away From by Izzy Wasserstein Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, ed. Sheree...
Mar 23, 2023•46 min•Ep 126•Transcript available on Metacast This is the first in a series of monthly episodes we’ll be doing about how Silicon Valley appropriates and misinterprets science fiction. Silicon Valley executives claim to be inspired by SF, but mostly they use it retroactively to justify their products, often missing the more complicated, nuanced ideas embedded in the original stories. Today we’re going to tackle the hype cycle around A.I., which borrows liberally from the post-scarcity, post-human visions of Iain M. Banks in his Culture novel...
Mar 09, 2023•55 min•Ep 125•Transcript available on Metacast Everybody obsesses about A.I., nanotech, space travel and robots. But the technologies nobody pays much attention to could have an equally significant impact on our world. Like artificial wombs, smart toilets, new forms of public transportation, and new cleaning machines. Show notes: https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes/2019/12/5/episode-46-four-technologies-that-nobody-realizes-will-change-the-future
Feb 23, 2023•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gender essentialism is the idea that there is something eternal and innate about people's gender identities, and nothing can change that. Popularized during the 1970s, it affected how science fiction stories represented gender -- and it spawned new academic disciplines devoted to scientific misogyny. We talk about all this, and do a deep dive on the "What Women Want" franchise. Show notes: https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes/2021/7/15/episode-88-how-gender-essentialism-warped-our-vie...
Feb 09, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're going to ask a few very small questions in this episode, like how to build a planet from scratch -- and then, how to build governments on that planet. What makes an imaginary world feel believable? Annalee explains what they did to research their new novel The Terraformers (coming out 1/31). Expect some gritty details about worldbuilding, moose romance, public transit, and making sure that every revolution has a core of joy. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Jan 26, 2023•43 min•Ep 124•Transcript available on Metacast Avatar: The Way of Water has already become one of the most successful movies of all time. This long-awaited sequel gives us a lot to think about — from the ongoing white savior narrative to an unexpectedly disturbing interstellar whaling industry. But when it comes down to how we feel about this movie, we disagree quite a bit. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Jan 12, 2023•46 min•Ep 123•Transcript available on Metacast Anne Rice is best-known for her Vampire Chronicles, which began in the 1970s with her novel Interview with the Vampire. But did you know she also wrote bestselling BDSM erotica and two novels about Jesus? In this episode, we do a deep dive into Rice's strange career, including that time she unleashed her fans against Tom Cruise. We also discuss the fantastic new Interview with the Vampire series. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Dec 29, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep 122•Transcript available on Metacast The winter holidays are coming up, and it's a great time to hide away with a stack of books. Good thing we've got you covered! Here's our roundup of our favorite recent books, including some you probably haven't heard much about yet. Plus we geek out about the themes and common ideas we've been seeing in the books we've read in 2022. Get ready to grow your TBR pile! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Dec 15, 2022•52 min•Ep 121•Transcript available on Metacast Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy supercharged the genre of epic fantasy, giving rise to countless stories of heroic quests in settings that looked like Medieval Europe. How do we expand the map of heroic fantasy so it includes everybody who was marginalized, or left out completely, in those tales? Plus we talk to Tolkien scholar Helen Young about the racist backlash against the new TV show Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power . Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes...
Dec 01, 2022•44 min•Ep 120•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most cherished tropes in science fiction is the idea that technology, science, and civilization are always getting better -- and the future will be wealthier and fancier than the present. Call it the myth of progress. We explore where the myth comes from, and how it influenced scifi authors from HG Wells to NK Jemisin. Plus we’re joined by economist Brad De Long, whose new book Slouching Towards Utopia is all about economic progress in the twentieth century – and why that progress sto...
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep 119•Transcript available on Metacast 
