Seldon Crisis: Beyond Foundation

Brief comments in the interval between episodes, thoughts on the intended audience, and an explanation for shift to a more relaxed episode cadence.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

While you wait for the conclusion to The General, please have a listen to my cosmic rock opera!

• Planet and Sky, a cosmic love story - the rock opera by The Max Wyvern Band (full album on Bandcamp)
• Planet and Sky, the deeper story - (musical audio-drama scifi exploration beyond the lyrics)
• Planet and Sky website

Seldon Crisis returns with the second in the seven novel saga, Foundation and Empire, and the opening of The General, which tells the story of the young and brilliant General Bel Riose's attempt to destroy the growing, but still minute Foundation. He is opposed by an old veteran of a tragic civil conflict and a fearless Foundation trader, but most of all by the dead hand of Hari Seldon and powers of psychohistory.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Credits:

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Sound Design by Jeremy MacKinnon
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com
Music, "Hiraeth"  by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

In this short episode we summarize the major characters and events of Season 1 covering the first novel, Foundation, in Isaac Asimov's seven novel epic, and tease a few of the major events to be covered in Season 2 corresponding to the novel Foundation and Empire. Also, a brief mention of the Apple TV+ upcoming TV series and a few callouts to the Foundation online community.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

If you'd like to support the show, please become a patron!

Show notes:

Stars End Podcast (@StarsEndPodcast on Twitter)

• FoundationEra on Youtube
• r/asimov on Reddit
• r/TheFoundation on Reddit

Transcript:

[Theme music]

Welcome back dear friends, and I regret to inform you that this is not the first episode of season 2, but a mere postscript to season 1 and a quick preview of upcoming attractions. In looking back I want to say how much this has been a blast to do and I am just thrilled that there are people out there who find it worthwhile to listen. You encourage me to do my best to continue the story. Our next season will feature some amazing characters and some truly mind-blowing plot twists, but I’ll get to that in a bit. First a quick recap of the story thus far.

In our first episode, The Psychohistorians, young PhD student Gaal Dornick left his home planet of Synnax and traveled to the capital of the empire, Trantor. He discovered his boss, Hari Seldon, waiting for him in his hotel room and was told the empire was due to collapse imminently, then got arrested along with him and stood trial for disturbing the peace. Seldon tricked the High Commissioner Linge Chen into sending him, Dornick, and 100,000 of his followers to the edge of the galaxy to a lonely and primitive planet named Terminus, where they were to catalog all of the knowledge of the human race into a grand Encyclopedia Galactica (or so they thought).

In The Encyclopedists, we saw the fledgling colony of Terminus face its first “Seldon crisis” when the belligerent nearby system of Anacreon broke away from the Empire and threatened the Foundation with imminent annexation. The clever young Mayor of Terminus City used the Foundation’s technological advantage – chiefly the understanding of nuclear power – to convince Anacreon’s powerful neighbors to join in an alliance against them. This was the first occasion in which Hari Seldon’s recorded image appeared in The Vault, the specially designed chamber in which he would periodically provide updates on the Seldon Plan. To the horror of Lewis Pirenne and his Board of Trustees Seldon informed them that the ostensible reason for their project, the creation of the Encyclopedia, was a fraud. Their real purpose was simply to take over the galaxy.

A generation later, in The Mayors we found Hardin firmly in power and facing an even more serious threat from Anacreon in the person of the wicked regent Wienis who intended to use his nephew Lepold’s coronation to launch a powerful attack upon Terminus, but again Hardin had the political skills to rise to the occasion. He had turned the knowledge of sophisticated technology and especially of nuclear science to form a false religion, and with the help of Foundation High Priest Poly Verisof, turned the tables on Wienis and brought him to a humiliating and rather messy end.

Later, we took a quick side trip with smooth-talking salesman Limmar Ponyets in The Traders on a high-stakes rescue mission to the Kingdom of Askone, where the ethically-challenged protagonist used sophisticated high tech extortion to free his comrade and get the superstitious Askonians hooked on Foundation gadgetry.

Still later, in The Merchant Princes, Hober Mallow dueled on the home front with the powerful politician Jorrain Sutt and on the distant planet of Korell with the tired but still greedy Commdor Asper and his well-connected but difficult wife, the Commdora Licia. He used a similar technical trick to catch the spy Jaim Twer and his faux priest Jord Parma in an act designed to undermine Mallow’s authority through character assassination. A side trip to visit an old man named Onum Barr on the unfortunate planet of Siwenna may have appeared almost incidental, but will have significant implications in our next chapter. Don’t worry – I’ll bring you up to speed when we get there.

After all that whirlwind activity and so many strange names you might wonder what you really need to remember going forward. To be honest, it’s not much, and I’ll try to help with that too. For now, just keep a space for Hari Seldon, Salvor Hardin, and Hober Mallow in your memory banks. They will be referred to frequently as the legendary founding fathers of Foundation and as we march through the ages to come.

While we get ready to start into the next great chapter of this epic in Season 2, the novel Foundation and Empire, I want to bring up something else that I haven’t discussed much yet, and that is the new and ambitious TV series based on Foundation to begin streaming on AppleTV+ starting on September 24th of this year. Interviews with the showrunner indicate they intend an ambitious 80 episodes! A lot of commentary in the online community has sprung up around some significant departures from the original storyline evident in the pre-release trailers, including three generations of rulers on Trantor named Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk (no Cleons), and a much larger role for Gaal Dornick. The latter has been cast as a female person of color, as is Salvor Hardin, who also seems to be lugging around a large weapon quite out of character for the Hardin we’ve come to know and love. In my opinion, the gender swaps and greater diversity is welcome, while some of the changes in basic plot may be a bit harder to swallow. Then again, this is the year 2021, and if it wants to succeed in capturing the imagination of today’s audience it probably needs to make some significant changes to grab the attention span of a far different audience than the one that was introduced to the original stories. I’m rooting for it to succeed and I hope it draws even more people to read the source material, and maybe even listen to this podcast!

There’s getting to be a lot of buzz about the show, and this is bringing a lot of Asimov fans out of the woodwork online. I’ve already mentioned the r/asimov subthread on Reddit and a couple of others are dedicated more directly to Foundation and the upcoming TV series and I’ll link to these in the show notes. Another great place to stay caught up is my friend Luigi at his Youtube channel Foundation Era. He’s put together a string of videos analyzing the tea leaves from the limited material Apple has produced, as well as one on the Asimov Future Timeline I mentioned in episode 6. Luigi was kind enough to give Seldon Crisis a plug on his most recent video, which resulted in an enormous spike in downloads for this podcast, so t...

To finish off Season 1 of Seldon Crisis and the completion of the first book in the original trilogy, Foundation, this special episode consists of an interview with Professor of Philosophy Nathaniel Goldberg. He will discuss his long running course, Philosophy and Science Fiction, in which he asks students to compare Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy with Plato's The Republic. Professor Goldberg talks about his passion and enthusiasm for Asimov's works, including the short stories Nightfall and The Last Question, how his students react to the challenge or analyzing these great works, and the lessons he has learned from them in their essays.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Acknowledgements:
Jeremy MacKinnon, Video Editing and Podcast Support (Linkedin | Twitter)
Tom Barnes, Theme Orchestration
Mike Topping, Graphics (Despotica)

Inspiration:
Trojan War the Podcast
Odyssey the Podcast
Literature and History Podcast
Planet and Sky, the Deeper Story (my first audio-drama podcast)
Tobias Cabrol - New Eyes review (Goodreads)

Listener Resources:
Foundation Era - Asimov Future Timeline (Youtube)
William Woolard - Asimov Chronology Project

Interview callouts:
Isaac Asimov - Nightfall (Wikipedia)
Isaac Asimov - The Last Question (Youtube)
Eric Cline - 1177 B.C., Revised Edition (Amazon)
David Deutsch - After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up (Youtube)
Mike Flynn - In the Country of the Blind review (Goodreads)

Transcript:

[music intro with voiceover by Nathaniel Goldberg:

“Philosophy and Science-fiction have this particular thing in common and that is that they’re both really good at thought experiments”

“The Galactic Empire is falling… so here’s a thought experiment... civilization is falling, what do we do?”

]

Welcome to a very special episode of Seldon Crisis – The Podcast! We won’t be diving in to the first chapter of Foundation and Empire, The General quite yet, so I am sorry to disappoint you on that front. Instead, we have something of an entirely different order – an actual guest appearance by someone very familiar with Foundation and Asimov who has studied the core trilogy in depth and has some special insights to offer (without breaking our no spoiler rule). Before introducing our guest, however, I want to briefly thank some of the people who have made this podcast a success beyond my wildest dreams in only a few months.

First, I want to thank someone in my own family who’s contributed more than anyone else, my own son Jeremy MacKinnon. When I started re-reading the Foundation series last summer I felt I had to share it with someone and was thrilled to find an accomplice in the joy of reading it in someone under my own roof. He started reading it before I’d even finished and read all seven volumes to my complete delight. He became a big fan of the idea of creating a podcast and lent his talents as a video editor in producing the video trailer for season 1 and designed and produced each of the mini-preview videos I’ve been posting on the Seldon Crisis video channel. He’s also been a great sounding board for podcast ideas and offers much needed constructive criticism of each episode. I hope to be able to leverage his creative talents throughout the series.

Another wonderful collaborator has been a friend I’ve known since high school and a long time musical companion named Tom Barnes. I came up with a simple melody idea for the theme music and shared it with him last fall and he enthusiastically transformed it into the evocative and magical theme music that begins and ends each show along with variations to use to link the sections together. It wouldn’t have the same feel without his excellent work and I look forward to more from him in future seasons if I can maintain his interest in contributing his efforts. I am extremely grateful for all he’s done.

A creative effort like this needs visual representation, and I knew I needed something special to honor the power of Isaac Asimov’s vision. Who better to create such a look than someone who had demonstrated success in the past? I reached out to the artist who had created book covers for all but one of the seven Foundation novels and all four novels in the Robots series, a guy named Mike Topping and asked him if he could create an original logo for the series. I asked him if he could incorporate a raven into the graphic to represent Hari Seldon and somehow imply the magic and mystery of the galactic empire and the Foundation all in one graphic and  boy did he deliver! I’ve been thrilled to post his graphics dozens of times and never get tired of seeing it. Mike can be found online at despotica.com if you would like to engage his services.

Lastly, I want to thank all of the listeners and dear supporters who have made it possible to continue this series. I love doing it and get a lot of joy from it, but especially love hearing from all of you out there who appreciate the effort. There’s one guy in particular I want to call out by name. I had the pleasure of virtually meeting this writer of vibrant and super futuristic science fiction named Tobias Cabral in the past year and read a couple of his works, including a gripping tale called New Eyes filled with nail-biting action sequences and featuring romance crossing the boundaries of cybernetic and biological lifeforms. You can find my review on Goodreads and I’ll add a link in the show notes. Tobias is a wonderful guy and - though I’ve never met him in person - he’s one I can call a true friend. He lent his enthusiastic backing of my intentions to make this podcast and I am very grateful for his support. 

Without further ado, let me introduce another friend and supporter of the show who I had the privilege of meeting online even before the first episode dropped. Let’s meet our distinguished guest for this episode.

[musical break]

Joel McKinnon: My guest today is Nathaniel Goldberg. Nathaniel is a p...

One of the enduring and mythic figures in Foundation history, Hober Mallow, follows in the footsteps of Hari Seldon and Salvor Hardin in facing a truly existential crisis in the growing power of the Korellian Republic, a breakaway star system that may have a very powerful ally deep in the galactic core. Can he find a way to resolve the latest and most troubling Seldon crisis to date? Join us for the concluding chapter of the first of Isaac Asimov's seven novels comprising the Foundation epic.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

Limmar Ponyets is a dashing profiteer on the galactic fringe who gets drawn into a life or death struggle to free a fellow Foundation comrade who also happens to be a secret agent. The Grand Master of Askone is not one to let a prime hostage escape without payment of a high price – preferably in the form of a large amount of shiny gold. His ambitious counselor, however, may have a price of his own.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

Mayor Salvor Hardin now leads the government of Terminus and the Foundation, but is threatened politically by the emergent Actionist Party headed by the young firebrand Sef Sermak. The Anacreonian military threat is greater than ever, but is momentarily controlled by the Foundation's use of a false religion based on nuclear technology. A new king will soon take the throne in Anacreon, controlled by a regent intent on attacking and eliminating the Foundation as a political rival. Sermak and the Actionists want to preemptively attack while they hold the upper hand. Hardin must navigate these dual threats to resolve the latest Seldon Crisis and maintain the Foundation's fragile independence.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

Apple Podcast (please rate/review/subscribe)

The action shifts to the tiny planet of Terminus near the galactic fringe where Hari Seldon's team of scientists work on compiling the Encyclopedia Galactica central to their plans. The young Foundation is confronted with a powerful menace in the breakaway Kingdom of Anacreon, and it appears the Emperor is now powerless to defend them. A new figure emerges in the Mayor of Terminus City, Salvor Hardin, who has to use his wits and the limited resources of his tiny world to find a way to maintain the independence and vitality of Seldon's audacious project.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

Young scientist Gaal Dornick travels to the imperial capital Trantor to work with the great psychohistorian Hari Seldon. Shortly after his arrival both are arrested and stand trial for disturbing the peace, due to Seldon's predictions of imminent catastrophe for the Empire. Seldon duels with Chief Commissioner of Public Safety Linge Chen, to secure their release and lay the seeds of renaissance in a Foundation upon the distant world of Terminus.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word

Script and voices by Joel McKinnon
Theme Orchestration by Tom Barnes
Art by Mike Topping – despotica.com

Based on the novels of Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Want to help me make these shows? Please consider becoming a patron!

Trailer introducing Seldon Crisis – The Podcast. Summary description of the intent of the podcast and a brief description of the first few episodes.

Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word