Richard II is God’s anointed representative on Earth, but by the end of the play that bears his name, he’s dead and his cousin sits on his throne. This is the story of how Shakespeare used English history to ask still-relevant questions about legitimacy, and about how a performance of Richard II played a role in the last aristocratic rebellion against the English crown.
In this second episode of Lend Me Your Ears, host Isaac Butler talks to University of Richmond professor Kristin Bezio, Vanderbilt professor Peter Lake, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Julie Felise Dubiner about what made Richard II an intriguing figure, what defines legitimacy, and what audiences can learn from the play today.
The actors in this episode were Abe Goldfarb as the Duke of York and Earl of Northumberland, Daryl Lathon as Henry Bollingbroke, David Rosenberg as Richard II, and Sid Solomon as John of Gaunt.
Slate Plus members get a bonus episode of Lend Me Your Ears every month. Learn more at slate.com/shakespeare
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2: Richard II

Each month, Future Tense Fiction will bring you a dramatic telling of a short story exploring how tech that's emerging today could dramatically reshape tomorrow. Science journalist Maddie Stone will then have a conversation with the author about what inspired their writing, and their vision of the future.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

Science

Books

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Janelle Shane about her short story “The Skeleton Crew.”
The House of A.I. is a next-level haunted house: In it, a suite of advanced A.I.s read visitors’ facial expressions to generate perfectly tailored scares. Or at least, that’s what the marketing materials want you to believe. It turns out, the house is actually operated by a group of underpaid gig workers, tasked with posing as spooky A.I.s as they guide visitors through the mansion. When two gunmen sneak into the house in search of a famous rock artist who’s there visiting, things go south quickly—and everyone ends up really grateful for the humans behind the house’s spooky machines.
After the story, Maddie and Janelle discuss why the human workers behind A.I. are so often invisibilized—and why you should be suspicious when a company oversells its tech.
Guests: Janelle Shane is a research scientist. She writes about A.I. on her blog, aiweirdness.com, and she’s also the author of You Look Like a Thing and I Love You.
Story read by Kat Bohn
Podcast production by Tiara Darnell
You can skip all the ads in Future Tense Fiction by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/plus for just $15 for your first three months.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the A.I. Haunted House

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Andrew Silverman about his short story “Furgen.”
Tucker, the story’s canine protagonist, is the center of his owner Caro’s world. When Caro buys an A.I.-enabled dog trainer that promises to help both her and Tucker live their best lives, everything starts to fall into place—the A.I. takes care of Tucker when he’s sick, trains him to walk without a leash, and even helps Caro get a girlfriend. But as Tucker’s bond with the A.I. deepens, optimizing for their best lives starts to mean something much different than what Caro originally had in mind.
After the story, Maddie asks Andrew about how his own experiences as a dog owner—and a pediatric neurologist—influenced the story. Plus, Maddie talks with canine behavioral scientist Clive Wynne, who wrote a response essay to Andrew’s story, about whether a dog could really fall in love with a robot.
Guests: Andrew Silverman is a pediatric neurologist and the author of “Furgen.”
Clive Wynne is a professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University. He is also the author of Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You.
Story read by Peggy O’Neal
Podcast production by Tiara Darnell
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Could a Robot Be Your Dog’s Best Friend?

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Matt Bell about his short story “Empathy Hour.”

In the story’s climate-change-ravaged future, society’s wealthiest are whisked away to luxurious, self-contained cities. Once there, they entertain themselves with a carefully crafted reality show meant to assuage their guilt about the climate refugees they’ve left behind. But then, someone breaks into their airbrushed world, lifting the lid on what hides underneath it. 

After the story, Matt and Maddie discuss the promises and pitfalls of climate fiction–and why we want to feel empathy, but never too much. 

Guest: Matt Bell is the author of several books, including the novel Appleseed, a New York Times Notable Book of 2021. He is a professor of creative writing at Arizona State University. 

Story read by Josh Bloomberg

Podcast production by Tiara Darnell

You can skip all the ads in Future Tense Fiction by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/plus for just $15 for your first three months.

Check out AWS Insiders here: https://link.chtbl.com/awsinsiders?sid=podcast.futuretensefiction
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who Gets to Escape the Climate Crisis?

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Justina Ireland about her short story “Collateral Damage.”
The story follows a group of soldiers deployed alongside TED, the Army’s first self-aware combat drone. TED is relentlessly efficient, quickly outpacing its human counterparts—and leaving them worried for their jobs. But when a wrong call from the clunky robot puts soldiers’ lives at risk, they realize just how hard it is to program for battlefield experience.
After the story, Ireland shares how her own time in the military shapes her writing, and why tech dreamed up in D.C. rarely reflects the needs of soldiers on the ground.
Guest: Justina Ireland, a veteran and author of books including Dread Nation, Deathless Divide, and Ophie’s Ghosts 
Story read by Joanne Lichtenstein
Podcast production by Tiara Darnell

Check out AWS Insiders here: https://link.chtbl.com/awsinsiders?sid=podcast.futuretensefiction
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Robots Go to War

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to David Iserson about “This, but Again.” The story follows Marcus, who is forced to relive his life over and over again in a never-ending computer simulation. Thanks to a glitch, Marcus already knows everything that will happen—but he can change almost nothing. That is until he meets Sara, who helps him break from the simulation’s script. But that, as you might expect, is not without consequences.After the story, Iserson and host Maddie Stone discuss what it would really be like to live in a computer simulation (and why it may actually be more hopeful than dystopian).
Guest: David Iserson, film and television writer-producer and author of Firecracker, a novel
Story read by David Iserson
Podcast production by Tiara Darnell
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2: Richard II

Download our free app to listen on your phone