Reader's Room features the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I talk about alternate histories, snappy pitches, and what Sarah Gailey's new novel, River of Teeth has to do with them both. Oh, and that one time when America almost started wide-scale hippo ranching.

Show links:

• Sarah Gailey's River of Teeth
• American Hippopotamus, read or listen. (A much shorter summary at Wired.)
• Links
  • NASA's Personal Rescue Enclosure
  • The MOOSE (Man Out Of Space Easiest) personal reentry device
  • 3D printed ovaries restore reproductive functions. (In mice.) (Scientific paper.)
  • Google's AI/Artist collaboration. (Video)

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