
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Containing Matters of the Gentleman
Timestamps:
introductions, non-podcast reads (0:00)
background on space opera and planetary romance (16:40)
"Princess of Mars" non-spoiler discussion (39:16)
spoiler summary and discussion (1:03:06)
spoiler general discussion, film discussion (2:14:01)
Music:
Hill, Ferd. K. - "General Grant's Polka" (1865) https://www.loc.gov/resource/music.muscivilwar-200000454/
Bibliography:
Hartwell, David G. and Cramer, Kathryn - introduction to "The Space Opera Renaissance" (2006)
Porges, Irwin - "Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan" (1975)
Containing Matters of Monkey
Timestamps:
introductions, non-podcast reads (0:00)
Strugatsky brothers biography, non-spoiler discussion (24:56)
spoiler summary and discussion (1:01:13)
"Stalker" film discussion (1:51:27)
Bibliography:
Cordasco, Rachel - "Fantastic Fiction: The Strugatsky Brothers in 1962" https://seattlein2025.org/2025/07/11/fantastic-fiction-the-strugatsky-brothers-in-1962/
The Guardian - "Boris Strugatsky: Russia mourns death of sci-fi writer – even Vladimir Putin" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/20/boris-strugatsky-russia-sci-fi-writer
Howell, Yvonne - "Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky (August 28, 1925-October 13, 1991)" Science Fiction Studies, volume 19, issue 1 (1992)
Laboratory of Fantastika - "Roadside Picnic" entry https://fantlab.ru/work569
Lem, Stanislaw, Elsa Schieder and R.M.P.- “About the Strugatskys’ ‘Roadside Picnic,’” Science Fiction Studies, volume 10, issue 3 (1983)
Riley, John - "Boris Strugatsky: Acclaimed writer of science fiction" obituary (2012) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/boris-strugatsky-acclaimed-writer-of-science-fiction-8424590.html
Science Fiction Encyclopedia - "Strugatski, Arkady and Boris" https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/strugatski_arkady
Simon, Erik - “The Strugatskys in Political Context,” Science Fiction Studies, volume 31, issue 3 (2004)
Strugatsky, Arkadii, Vladimir Gopman, Mark Knighton, and Darko Suvin- “Science Fiction Teaches the Civic Virtues: An Interview with Arkadii Strugatsky,” Science Fiction Studies, volume 18, issue 1 (1991)
Strugatsky, Boris Natanovich, Erik Simon- “Working for Tarkovsky,” Science Fiction Studies, volume 31, issue 3 (2004)
Containing Matters of Mapping Memory
Timestamps:
Ted Chiang background, non-spoiler discussion (0:00)
spoiler summary, spoiler discussion, "Arrival" discussion (17:21)
Bibliography:
Brady, Amy - "Barack Obama’s 2019 Summer Reading List", Chicago Review of Books, https://chireviewofbooks.com/2019/08/20/barack-obamas-2019-summer-reading-list/
Grant, Gavin J. - interview with Ted Chiang, indiebound https://web.archive.org/web/20170407032812/http://www.indiebound.org/author-interviews/chiangted
McCarron, Meghan - "The Legendary Ted Chiang on Seeing His Stories Adapted and the Ever-Expanding Popularity of SF"https://electricliterature.com/the-legendary-ted-chiang-on-seeing-his-stories-adapted-and-the-ever-expanding-popularity-of-sf/
Containing Matters of Masque and Basque
Timestamps:
Delany bio, non-spoiler discussion (0:00)
spoiler plot summary (26:37)
spoiler discussion (52:29)
Bibliography:
Delany, Samuel R. - "Silent Interviews" (1994)
Delany, Samuel R. - "Why I Write: Getting ready not to be", The Yale Review https://yalereview.org/article/samuel-r-delany-science-fiction-why-i-write
Delany, Samuel R., Takayuki Tatsumi- “Interview: Samuel R. Delany,” Diacritics, volume 16, issue 3 (1986)
Hardesty, William H.- “Semiotics, Space Travel, and ‘Babel-17,’” Mosaic, Volume 13, Issue 3 (1980)
Lukin, Josh - “About Samuel Delany,” The Minnesota Review, issue 65 (2006)
Samuel Delany website biography https://www.samueldelany.com/biography
Steiner, K. Leslie - "Samuel R. Delany" https://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/KLeslieSteiner-SamuelRDelany.html
Containing Matters of Merchants
Timestamps:
Jack Vance bio (0:00)
non-spoiler discussion (38:14)
spoiler plot summary (53:21)
spoiler discussion (1:39:33)
Bibliography:
Vance, Jack - "This is Me, Jack Vance" (2009)
Containing Matters of Milkweeds.
Timestamps:
introductions, recent non-podcast reads (0:00)
general overview and discussion of linguistics and science fiction (28:28)
Ursula K. Leguin - "Author of the Acacia Seeds" (1974) (1:06:09)
Bibliography:
Akmajian, Adrian et al. - "Linguistics: An Introduction to language and Communication" (2001)
Ahearn, Laura M.- "Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology" (2021)
Alim, H. Samy - "The Oxford Handbook of Language and Race" (2020)
Artichoke - "Le Guin the Reconstructionist" https://onionandartichoke.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/le-guin-the-reconstructionist/
Bakker, Peter, Yaron Matras - "Contact Languages: A Comprehensive Guide" (2013)
Burton, Strange et al. - "Linguistics for Dummies" (2012)
Dyke, Heather - "Weak Neo-Whorfianism and the Philosophy of Time," Mind and Language, volume 37 (2022)
Everett, Caleb - "A Myriad of Tongues: How Languages Reveal Differences in How We Think" (2023)
Freedman, Carl (ed). - "Conversations with Ursula K. Le Guin" (2008)
Le Guin, Ursula K. - "The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination" (2004)
Le Guin, Ursula K. - "Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places" (1989)
Sapir, Edward, Pierre Swiggers - "General Linguistics" (2008)
Sebeok, Thomas - "Perspectives in zoosemiotics" (1972)
Spivack, Charlotte - "Ursula K. Le Guin" (1984)
Stableford, Brian - "Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia" (2006)
wonders"
Westfahl, Gary (ed.) - "The Greenwood encyclopedia of science fiction and fantasy: themes, works, and
White, Donna - "Dancing with Dragons: Ursula K. LeGuin and the Critics" (1999)
Whorf, Benjamin Lee et al.- "Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf" (2012)
Containing More Matters of Metaphysical Musical Mastery.
Timestamps:
"Levitation" (1980), "Sonic Attack" (1981), "Church of Hawkwind" (1982), "Choose Your Masques" (1982) (0:00)
"Chronicle of the Black Sword" (1985), "The Xenon Codex" (1988) (58:30)
"Space Bandits" (1990), "Electric Tepee" (1992), "It Is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous" (1993), "White Zone" (1995), "Alien 4" (1995) (1:18:44)
Bibliography:
Banks, Joe - "Hawkwind: Days of the Underground: Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia" (2020)
Clerk, Carol - "The Saga of Hawkwind" (2004)
Tait, Kris - "This Is Hawkwind - Do Not Panic!" (1984)
Containing Matters of Metaphysical Musical Mastery.
Timestamps:
personal experiences with Hawkwind, band background, "Hawkwind" (1970) (0:00)
interlude 1: "The Dream" (54:07)
"X In Search of Space" (1971), "Doremi Fasol Latido" (1972) (59:26)
interlude 2: "The Entropic Passing of An Electric Oracle" (1:37:30)
Michael Moorcock - "Black Corridor" (1969), Bob Calvert solo records, "Space Ritual" (1973), "Hall of the Mountain Grill" (1974) (1:42:33)
interlude 3: "The Demon" (2:30:01)
"Warrior on the Edge of Time" (1975), "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music" (1976), "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" (1977), "25 Years On" (1978), "PXR5" (1979) (2:33:15)
Bibliography:
Banks, Joe - "Hawkwind: Days of the Underground: Radical Escapism in the Age of Paranoia" (2020)
Clerk, Carol - "The Saga of Hawkwind" (2004)
Hard n Heavy "Trick or Treat" interview with Lemmy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52sjYBglBsI
Tait, Kris - "This Is Hawkwind - Do Not Panic!" (1984)
Containing Matters of Maintenance
Timestamps:
Philip K. Dick biography, general discussion, "Last of the Masters" non-spoiler discussion (0:00)
spoiler summary and discussion 38:55
Bibliography:
Capanna, Pablo - "Idios Kosmos - Claves para una biograpfia de Philip K. Dick" (1992)
Luminist Archives: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Periodicals https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/
Sutin, Lawrence - "Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick" (2005)
Music:
Johnston, J. S. - "Electric polka" (1878) https://www.loc.gov/item/2023830168
Containing Matters Maladapted and Malconstructed.
Timestamps:
non-spoiler discussion (0:00)
spoiler summary (38:15)
spoiler discussion and film adaptations (1:00:13)
From the publisher's feed

493 Listeners

409 Listeners

89 Listeners

151 Listeners

201 Listeners

4 Listeners