Fiction Science

Allan Kaster, the editor of "The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories," traces the connections between science fiction and real-world science.

Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who wrote the books of "The Expanse" sci-fi series under the pen name James S.A. Corey, talk about the completely different alien-invasion saga they're in the midst of creating.

Allen Institute neuroscientist Jerome Lecoq explains how the OpenScope program is expanding the frontiers of brain science, from the effects of psychedelic substances to the mechanisms of memory.

Marketing executive Richard Jurek, co-author of "Marketing the Moon," talks about how NASA sold the Apollo space effort — and how that campaign is portrayed in a new movie titled "Fly Me to the Moon," starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius talks about the potential for international conflicts in space, and how that subject gave rise to his latest spy thriller, "Phantom Orbit."

We look at the legacy of the late Seattle science-fiction pioneer Vonda N. McIntyre with Una McCormack, who led the effort to publish "Little Sisters and Other Stories," a new collection of McIntyre's short stories.

Douglas Preston, author of a techno-thriller titled "Extinction," talks about his fictional murder mystery as well as his concerns about the real-world quest to revive the woolly mammoth and other extinct species.

Pete Worden, chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, talks about the real-world search for extraterrestrial civilizations and how it's different from Netflix's "3 Body Problem" series.

Nathaniel Rich, author of "Second Nature," "Losing Earth" and the sci-fi novel "Odds Against Tomorrow," discusses the state of contemporary fiction with Fiction Science co-hosts Dominica Phetteplace and Alan Boyle.

Mars Society President Robert Zubrin, author of "The New World on Mars," talks about the life that future settlers are likely to create on the Red Planet — and why they should go.