Podcast – Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

CNet has started a new book-club podcast, and they honored me by picking my novel Walkaway as their second-ever title.

We had a long and far-ranging discussion last week about the book and the themes it raises: disasters, economics, technological immortality, community, trolling, bohemianism, and much more (MP3).

Since a big part of “Walkaway” concerns ideas of artificial intelligence and the line between humans and machines (which becomes more blurred as the book progresses), Scott and I circle back later to talk about Blade Runner, its new sequel, and its source novel, Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” which was the subject of a recent article by our colleague Nicholas Tufnell.

The Book Club is hosted by a pair of self-proclaimed book experts: Dan Ackerman (author of the 2016 nonfiction book “The Tetris Effect”), and Scott Stein, who is both a playwright and screenwriter. We’ll be announcing our next Book Club selection soon, so send us your suggestions and keep an eye out for updates on Twitter at @danackerman and @jetscott.

CNET Book Club, Episode 2: ‘Walkaway’ by Cory Doctorow

[Dan Ackerman and Scott Stein/CNet]

Science-fiction is a genre that imagines the future. It doesn’t necessarily predict the future (after all, where are flying cars?), but it grapples with the technological and societal changes happening today to better understand our world and where it’s heading.

So, what does it mean when so much of our most popular science-fiction – The Handmaid’s Tale, The Walking Dead, and The Hunger Games – present bleak, depressing futures? Cory Doctorow might just have an answer. He’s a blogger, writer, activist, and author of the new book Walkaway, an optimistic disaster novel.

Three Takeaways

* Doctorow thinks that science-fiction can give people “ideas for what to do if the future turns out in different ways.” Like how William Gibson’s Neuromancer didn’t just predict the internet, it predicted the intermingling of corporations and the state.

* When you have story after story about how people turn on each other after disaster, Doctorow believes it gives us the largely false impression that people act like jerks in crises. When in fact, people usually rise to the occasion.

* With Walkaway, his “optimistic” disaster novel, Doctorow wanted to present a new narrative about resolving differences between people who are mostly on the same side.

Back in May, I stopped by Wired UK while on my British tour for my novel Walkaway to talk about the novel, surveillance, elections, and, of course, DRM. (MP3)

Last month, I appeared onstage with Edward Snowden at the NYPL, hosted by Paul Holdengraber, discussing my novel Walkaway. The library has just posted the audio! It was quite an evening

Last month, I appeared onstage with Edward Snowden at the NYPL, hosted by Paul Holdengraber, discussing my novel Walkaway. The library has just posted the audio! It was quite an evening

We were promised flying cars and we got Twitter instead. That’s the common complaint against sci-fi authors. But some writers did imagine the telecommunications that changed our world for better or worse. Cory Doctorow, Ada Palmer, Jo Walton and Arizona State University professor Ed Finn look at the cyberpunks and their predecessors. And artist Paul St George talks about why he’s fascinated by a Skype-like machine from the Victorian era.

I’m a huge fan of the fantastically rude improv/current affairs/high fantasy podcast Hello From the Magic Tavern, I’ve enjoyed it ever since I binge-listened to the first season halfway through.

Last month, I dropped into the Cards Against Humanity studios where the podcast is recorded while in Chicago on my book tour, where I sat in on a session (MP3) where I played Sigint, the Five-Eyed Spider, a whistleblowing ex-spy for the Dark Lord.

I had an amazing time: I’m no improver, but the Magic Tavern-dwellers were so much fun, it was really a dream come true!

Season 2, Ep 11 – Surveillance Spider (w/ Cory Doctorow)

[Hello From the Magic Tavern]

Last week I sat down with Mike Masnick, the crusading technology journalist who coined the “Streisand Effect” and runs the fantastic site Techdirt, and we had a good, chewy discussion (MP3) about my new novel Walkaway; he’s just posted it to the Techdirt podcast. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The National Endowment for the Arts podcast recorded a great, wide-ranging interview with me (MP3) about my novel Walkaway and a variety of subjects, from copyright reform to arts funding to the future of the arts and technology.

Here’s Wil Wheaton reading “Communist Party,” the opening chapter of “Walkaway,” my first novel for adults since 2009’s “Makers.” Wil is joined on the independently produced audiobook by Amber Benson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Amanda Palmer (The Dresden Dolls), Mirron Willis, Gabrielle de Cuir, Lisa Renee Pitts and Justine Eyre. It was directed by Gabrielle de Cuir for Skyboat Media and mastered by John Taylor Williams for Wryneck Studios. You can buy the 15-hour DRM-free audiobook for $24.95 at my shop, or wherever DRM-free audiobooks are sold.