In All Systems Red, the first novella in Martha Wells’ award-winning Murderbot Diaries, we meet a Security Unit who’s hacked its own governor module—and would very much prefer to be left alone to watch its favorite soap operas. It’s a brilliant twist: a rogue AI with a deadly skillset, a sarcastic personality, and absolutely no desire to make eye contact with humans, much less protect them. Unfortunately for Murderbot, that’s exactly what it has to do when a routine planetary survey mission goes sideways. As sabotage, danger, and corporate malfeasance rear their heads, Murderbot must juggle combat, cover-ups, and the sheer agony of human small talk—all while trying to keep its awkward affection for its human clients under wraps.

In this episode, the podcasters gleefully crown Murderbot as the ultimate reluctant hero—equal parts Terminator, tech support, and introvert icon. They discuss how Martha Wells flips the script on AI narratives by giving us an android that doesn’t want to destroy humanity—it just wants boundaries and quiet time. And maybe some downloaded rom-coms.

In The Iron Heel, Jack London ditches the howling wilderness for the howling engines of capitalist doom. Set in a chillingly plausible near-future America, this revolutionary dystopia follows Avis Everhard as she recounts her husband Ernest’s resistance against a ruthless oligarchy—the Iron Heel. Through Avis’s eyes, we witness the rise of a totalitarian regime that crushes socialist uprisings, installs a brutal labor caste system, and silences dissent with steel-toed efficiency. From the explosive Chicago Commune to the smoldering embers of the Peasant Revolt, London’s prophetic tale doesn’t just warn us about the future—it grabs us by the collar and screams, “This is how it starts.”

Enter the Podcasters of the Apocalypse on the wildly unpredictable My Internet Has Stopped Working podcast. Armed with sarcasm, social theory, and questionable coffee, the podcasters plunge into The Iron Heel like time travelers with Marxist decoder rings. They unpack London’s eerie foresight, tracing connections between the fictional Oligarchy and real-world power structures that still stomp through history. They ask the big questions: Is Avis a reliable narrator or just love-drunk on revolution? Is Ernest Everhard a hero or just Jack London’s heavily mustached self-insert? And how did London predict both fascism and late-stage capitalism decades before they became household hashtags?

From meme-worthy moments (“I’m sorry, did he just overthrow a city during lunch?”) to serious analysis of class warfare, propaganda, and resistance, the Podcasters of the Apocalypse turn The Iron Heel into a modern-day warning label—one that might as well say, “Break glass in case of oligarchy.”

By the end, you'll want to rise up… or at least start a book club.

Herland is about three clueless guys—Van, Jeff, and Terry—who discover a hidden society of women living without men for 2,000 years. These women reproduce through parthenogenesis, meaning no men required. The guys think they're about to be heroes, but the women have built a peaceful, efficient society and don't need saving.

Terry, the macho man, tries to assert his dominance and fails miserably. Jeff, the romantic, treats the women like delicate flowers, which they find amusing. Van, the narrator, starts to appreciate Herland's way of life. The women capture the men, teach them their language, and show them how a society can thrive without patriarchy.

The men fall for their captors, but the women want equal partners, not traditional romance. Terry can't handle it and gets kicked out. Van and his love interest, Ellador, leave Herland to explore the outside world, while Jeff stays behind, smitten with the utopian life.

Herland is a snarky critique of early 20th-century gender roles, wrapped in a fun, adventurous package.