Lionel and Jim discuss the end of summer, Mark Leyner, Kate Bush and the return of the 80s, New shows, old movies, Sherlock Holmes, Wars and our sense of humanity, The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, and how to save the world with either a new religion, compassion for future generations, or AI.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S2~dot~01-The-Will-of-Landru/

Lionel and Jim talk about what makes a great character in a story. What works? What appeals? Why do some fall flat? Why do some capture us? They also speak a little about their upcoming discussion of The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~27-Imperfect-people-being-uncomfortable/

Sarah Elkins has been in science fiction fandom since putting on a Doctor Who convention in the 80s. She joins the podcast this week to continue our coversation about science fiction and feminism. We discuss books by Vonda Macintyre, Ann Leckie, Octavia Butler and more.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~26-Sarah-Elkins/

Amy Robinson is our guest on the pod this week. Amy is a creator of puppets, an engineer, a mom person, a creative thinker and maker of things, and a knower of cool books and refined queries, a frequent guest on The Morning Stream. You can find her brand of puppets at peeperspuppets.com. We talk about creativity, puppets, coding, and narcolepsy.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~25-Amy-Robinson/

Thank you to Patron Sarah Elkins for suggesting the book The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood to us. We spend most of our time trying to suss out the meaning of that tremendous book by James Gleick in this episode. Discussed are entropy, encryption, memory, logic, and language. In short we manage to mangle a lot of deep thinking.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~24-We-fill-in-the-blanks/

Julia Tenney joins us again with a conversation about feminism and science fiction and what makes a science fiction story feminist. We discuss Starhawk, Margaret Atwood, Marge Piercy, Vonda N. McIntyre, Ursula LeGuin, and decide we need more reading material to continue this conversation at a later date. Send us book recommendations from the contact form on our website.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~23-Julia-Tenney-2/

Lionel and Jim talk about Riverside.fm, our podcasting platform, Claude Shannon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon, Lionel’s new home full of stuff, Swat Teams & Active shooter drills in Boston, Jim’s short story in progress about the super volcano under Yellowstone park, Lionel’s new synthesizer, inspirational musicians and what is accessible in music, and burger chains in Texas.And Lionel Was right, Downtown Train was on Rain Dogs.

Dar joins the pod to tell us about her experience writing What I Found In A Thousand Towns, her songwriting and creative process, her experience in Beacon New York with Roger Ailes, the remarkable Jaimie Raskin, our relationship to art, the environment, and each other, Active Citizenship, and so much more.I could not find the live performance of The Mark Rothko song. If someone knows where it is, please send a tweet to @jiminfantino so I can post it here.Dar's Website: https://darwilliams.comWriting A Song That Matters (her retreat): https://darwilliamsretreat.comReferences: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~21-Dar-Williams/All song clips included with permission from Dar Williams.

This interview was mind blowing. Phil is creating 24 hours of music 5 minutes at a time and it's amazingly good. Lionel and I talk with him about his very detailed process and the story behind some of the songs starting at 12am and continuing until 2:59am as of the time of this podcast. That may sound confusing, but all becomes clear as we talk with Phil.Listen to the full project here: https://adayinmusic.bandcamp.com/References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~20-Phil-Broikos/ All song clips included with permission from Phil Broikos.

From man hole covers to equal protection under the law, Lionel and Jim go to town over subjects in which they have little to no expertise. They go down the rabbit holes of International Law, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, legal personhood, the Bill of Rights, natural rights, abortion, guns, and other things they just can't help talking about.References: https://funnynotfunny.bigego.com/links/f/S1~dot~19-The-Huperchild-Problem/