Wizards & Spaceships

Wizards & Spaceships

By Rachel A. Rosen & David L. ClinkTV & FilmArtsFictionScience Fiction
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Wizards & Spaceships episodes

  • Toxic Schlock Syndrome ft. Shawn Whitney
    Pulp fiction is a cornerstone of the genres we love. In this episode, we talk to screenwriter, ghostwriter, and author of the new zombie novel Deads Rise, Shawn Whitney, about manly men doing manly things, the perils of writing romance, and close encounters with sexy lizard aliens.
    Show notes:
      • Shawn's website


          • Shawn's Twitter


              • The Pulp Magazines Project


                  • Pulps In Special Collections


                    • 41 min
                  • Can*Con Can-Can ft. Ira Nayman and Shirley Meier
                    Rachel and David take the show on the road to Can*Con 2024 in Ottawa. We recorded the launch of The Dance, a multiverse anthology, as well as some general table silliness.
                    Show notes:
                      • Buy The Dance online


                          • Can*Con


                              • Ira's website


                                  • Shirley at Fantastic Fiction


                                    • 36 min
                                  • The Great Hugo Awards Controversy ft. Diane Lacey
                                    Welcome to the first episode of Wizards & Spaceships to pass the Bechdel Test!
                                    In 2023, the Hugo Awards, administered by the World Science Fiction Society, were rocked by scandal. That year, the convention was hosted in Chengdu, China, and a number of popular and acclaimed works, from R. F. Kuang's Babel to Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow, were deemed ineligible...even though they had enough nominations to appear on the ballot. The controversy engulfed the world of speculative fiction, but what really happened?
                                    In this episode, we talk to WorldCon whistleblower Diane Lacey to get her take on what went wrong, who's to blame, and what we can learn from this moving forward.
                                    46 min
                                  • The King of Horror ft. Troy Harkin
                                    Happy Halloween! To celebrate all that is spooky and monstrous, we're joined by poet, novelist, and David's other podcast co-host, Troy Harkin, to talk about the master of horror himself, Stephen King. Also cocaine.
                                    Show Notes:
                                      • Troy's website


                                          • ChiZine Publications


                                              • SK Tours of Maine


                                                  • Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi


                                                    • 1 hr 6 min
                                                  • Speculative Whiteness
                                                    In this episode, we talk to Jordan S. Carroll about his new book, the Sad and Rabid Puppies, and how to avoid getting your sci-fi co-opted by fascists.
                                                    Show Notes:
                                                      • Jordan’s Twitter: https://x.com/JordanSCarroll/


                                                          • Jordan’s Bluesky: jordanscarroll.bsky.social


                                                              • Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt Right by Jordan S. Carroll


                                                                  • Kaleidotrope


                                                                      • Elizabeth Sandifer: Eruditorum Press and Neoreaction a Basilisk but why not just go ahead and read everything she’s written?


                                                                          • Camestros Felapton’s The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War


                                                                            • 36 min
                                                                          • In the Beginning ft. Shiraz Janjua
                                                                            How do you begin your epic sci-fi, fantasy, or horror story? How do you grab a viewer or reader’s attention, introduce your characters and world, and avoid the dreaded infodump? To discuss these questions and much more, we talk to Shiraz Janjua, host of the YouTube channel How the Novel Starts.
                                                                            Show Notes:
                                                                              • How the Novel Starts


                                                                                  • Shiraz's website


                                                                                      • Shiraz's Instagram


                                                                                          • Bulwer-Lytton Awards


                                                                                            • Reading and Watching List:
                                                                                              • George Orwell, 1984


                                                                                                  • Karen Russell, Swamplandia


                                                                                                      • Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell


                                                                                                          • William Gibson, Neuromancer


                                                                                                              • Michael Chabon, Yiddish Policemen's Union


                                                                                                                  • Vajra Chandasekera, The Saint Of Bright Doors


                                                                                                                      • Frank Herbert, Dune


                                                                                                                          • JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings 


                                                                                                                              • Christopher Nolan, Inception


                                                                                                                                  • George Lucas, Star Wars


                                                                                                                                    • 55 min
                                                                                                                                  • A New World In Our Hearts
                                                                                                                                    In this episode, we interview absolute legend Ken MacLeod about utopias in science fiction. And yes, we're talking about the Culture. Of course we're talking about the Culture.
                                                                                                                                    Show Notes:
                                                                                                                                    The Early Days of a Better Nation
                                                                                                                                    Russian Cosmism
                                                                                                                                    Utopia and the Return of History
                                                                                                                                    Postwar as the war generation's utopia
                                                                                                                                    China 2019, just before the pandemic
                                                                                                                                    Reading/Watching List
                                                                                                                                    The Culture, Iain M. Banks
                                                                                                                                    News From Nowhere, William Morris
                                                                                                                                    Half-Earth Socialism: https://www.half.earth/
                                                                                                                                    Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi
                                                                                                                                    The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
                                                                                                                                    The Green-Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
                                                                                                                                    This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
                                                                                                                                    Red Star by Alexander Bogdanov
                                                                                                                                    Another Now by Yanis Varoufakis
                                                                                                                                    Desert by Anonymous
                                                                                                                                    The English Utopia by A.L. Morton
                                                                                                                                    Utopia by Thomas More
                                                                                                                                    Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach
                                                                                                                                    Elysium (2013)
                                                                                                                                    The Creator (2023)
                                                                                                                                    Noon Universe by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
                                                                                                                                    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
                                                                                                                                    Lenin Lives by Philip Cunliffe
                                                                                                                                    Merrie England by Robert Blatchford
                                                                                                                                    Ministry For the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
                                                                                                                                    1 hr 4 min
                                                                                                                                  • You Never Get a Second Chance to Make First Contact
                                                                                                                                    In this episode, we talk about meeting sentient extraterrestrials: The challenges of communication, what first contact stories say about our own Earthbound society, and why the aliens won't return our texts.
                                                                                                                                    David's recommendations:
                                                                                                                                      • "Darmok" (Star Trek TNG)


                                                                                                                                          • "The Inner Light" (Star Trek TNG)


                                                                                                                                              • The Day the Earth Stood Still


                                                                                                                                                  • Arrival


                                                                                                                                                      • The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell


                                                                                                                                                        • Rachel's recommendations
                                                                                                                                                          • "Species 10-C" (Star Trek Discovery)


                                                                                                                                                              • Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky


                                                                                                                                                                  • Attack the Block


                                                                                                                                                                      • Xenogenesis Trilogy (Lilith’s Brood), Octavia E. Butler


                                                                                                                                                                          • Blindsight, Peter Watts


                                                                                                                                                                            • 44 min
                                                                                                                                                                          • Some People Call Me the Space Cowboy

                                                                                                                                                                            In this episode, we're talking about the Space Western! Was Firefly cancelled too soon or is it massively overrated? Why does it continue to grip the Nerd Imagination? Is it even okay to use Western elements in SFFH?

                                                                                                                                                                            Credits: Shamelessly stolen from Star Trek's "Spectre of the Gun," the Expanse Season 1 trailer, UFO Cowboy's official trailer, and Firefly's "Jayne's Town." The background music clips are "Somewhere In the Dark" and "Western Showdown" by Holizna and licensed under Creative Commons.

                                                                                                                                                                            36 min

                                                                                                                                                                          About Wizards & Spaceships

                                                                                                                                                                          From the publisher's feed

                                                                                                                                                                          Welcome to Wizards and Spaceships, the only podcast that’s about wizards and also about spaceships. Well, probably not, but it does involve wizards, spaceships, and the things we love (and complain…