Bradbury 100 - Celebrating the Life and Work of American Writer Ray Bradbury

This is the audio version of a live talk I did for Ray Bradbury's 105th birthday (22 August 2025). For more info, check out the show notes at: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-laurel-and-hardy.html

Time for another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published.

This time, we continue with the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing a string of crime stories alongside the more familiar fantasy and science fiction tales.

As you will recall from last time, there are too many stories from 1944 for me to cover in a single episode, so this is the second of three episodes for 1944.

For the full show notes - including links to online versions of some of the stories discussed - head to https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html

Time for another podcast episode - and another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published.

This time, we reach the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing "The Lake" - which he always said was the first "good" story that he ever wrote. It's also the year of "I, Rocket", the story which nabbed him a posthumous Retro Hugo Award for best short story of 1944.

For more details - and links to online versions of the stories covered in this episode - check out the shownotes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/time-for-another-podcast-episode-and.html

Here's another new podcast episode, picking up the "Chronological Bradbury" thread once more, with the remaining Ray Bradbury stories which were first published in the latter part of 1943.

I cover five stories in this episode, completing the total of eleven stories Ray published in that year.

All of the stories are available online within archived copies of the original pulp magazines. The stories are:

Doodad (Astounding, September 1943)

And Watch the Fountains (Astounding, September 1943)

Promotion to Satellite (Thrilling Wonder Stories, fall 1943)

The Ducker (Weird Tales, November 1943)

King of the Gray Spaces (aka R is for Rocket) (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943)

If you visit my website for the shownotes, you'll find direct links to the stories as they appeared in the original pulp magazines: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/heres-another-new-podcast-episode.html

This episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast is something of a partner to the last episode where I looked at Ray Bradbury's stories from the year 1943. You may recall I talked about "The Wind".

Well, in this episode, I look at that story in more detail - and give a reading of the entire, original version.

What you will hear is the first-ever published version of the story, taken from Weird Tales magazine. This is before Ray re-wrote it for inclusion in his first book, Dark Carnival (1947).

Incidentally, the revised version of "The Wind" is the version you will find in all of Ray's books. After that Weird Tales appearance, Ray didn't give the original version any further outings.

Comparing the two versions is quite fun, and something of a lesson in how to improve a story by re-writing. After I've read the story, I give a comparison of the two versions.

If you want to read the story for yourself, you can find the Weird Tales issue online, here: https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v36n10_1943-03_ATLPM-Sas/page/n3/mode/2up

Next time: I cover the rest of Ray's stories from 1943!

Don't forget to check out my website at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

Bradbury 100 podcast time! And it's another of my "Chronological Bradbury" series, this time covering the year 1943.

This is the year when Ray broke all his previous records, by having no fewer than eleven stories published in professional magazines - in contrast to the mere two published in 1942.

This is also the year that Ray became 23 years old. It's remarkable to me that a 22-year-old could write a story like "The Wind", "The Crowd" or "The Scythe". All three of these classics were published before his 23rd birthday.

To be fair, not every Bradbury story of 1943 is a timeless classic. Some of them are quite pulpy! But all of them are interesting.

In this episode, I cover roughly half of 1943, and I'll cover the remainder of the year in a future episode. The stories I feature this time are:

The Piper (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1943)

The Wind (Weird Tales, March 1943)

Gabriel's Horn (co-written with Henry Hasse (Captain Future, Spring 1943))

Subterfuge (Astonishing Stories, April 1943)

The Crowd (Weird Tales, May 1943)

The Scythe (Weird Tales, July 1943)

For links and more detail, check out the shownotes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/06/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html

Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One by Bradbury 100 podcast by bradburymedia.co.uk

Sometimes the podstreams just cross, and this episode is a prime example. When Colin Kuskie, co-host of my other podcast suggested reviewing It Came From Outer Space, the classic 1953 science fiction movie created by Ray Bradbury, it was right up my alley - and so this new episode of Bradbury 100 is a crossover with the new episode of Science Fiction 101!

The discussion ranges from Bradbury's contribution to the screenplay to the quality of the 3D, and takes in your humble hosts' views on whether or not screen creatures should be revealed or concealed.

For more information, check out the show notes at: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/05/new-podcast-episode-it-came-from-outer.html

Bradbury 100 is back with a new batch of episodes! This time: an interview with Orty Ortwein, author of THE FIRST GEEKS, which examines the early days of organised science fiction fandom. And guess who was there? Ray Bradbury, of course. At around eighteen years of age, he joined the Los Angeles chapter of the Science Fiction League, and became firm friends with animator Ray Harryhausen and super-fan Forry Ackerman.

For more information on THE FIRST GEEKS and other items mentioned in the episode, check out the show notes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/05/new-podcast-episode-first-geeks.html

Bradbury 100 Returns - 1st May 2025! by Bradbury 100 podcast by bradburymedia.co.uk