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Holly and Marty speak with Chris Beckett about his Dark Eden trilogy, comprised of Dark Eden – which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2012, and was followed by Mother of Eden in 2015 and Daughter of Eden in 2016. Dark Eden has been described as “a superior piece of the theologically nuanced science fiction”, and is also a story about the development of human culture, religion and civilization. It stands out for its unique setting on a dark planet whose ecology is powered by geothermal forces rather than by a sun, and where a pair of marooned humans have given rise to a growing family of refugees who scrabble for survival in a dark forest filled with bioluminescent plants and animals. It’s a book you’ll never forget, and its characters will stay with you all your life. We also spend some time talking about his more recent book 'America City', a book written in 2017 about an unhinged American president who decides to invade Canada - disturbingly prophetic of recent events threatening the Canadian sovereignty.

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Holly and Marty get together with their friend Susan MacKinnon to discuss the science fiction of Ursula K. LeGuin, literary icon of speculative fiction. We talk about her Hugo and Nebula winning books "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed", which are among the most celebrated classics in science fiction. The first was a pioneering book about the impact of gender on civilization, describing an ambisexual society. The second is about anarchism as an ambiguous utopia in the context of capitalism, and describes some very deep and beautiful ideas about time and the foundations of physics. We also talk about LeGuin's short story "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas", a lasting parable about those whose suffering supports our society and how we confront or submit to that reality. We also chat about higher education, feminism, dresses with huge pockets and a some of the other books we're reading.

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This is part 2 of Marty's conversation with Douglas Phillips about his 'Quantum' Series of hard science fiction novels. In our last episode we talked about 'Quantum Space', and this time we discuss the next two books in the series, 'Quantum Void' and 'Quantum Time'. As before, today’s exchange focusses on the unifying theme of extra dimensions, in both space and time, and Douglas’ exploration of speculative ideas that push the envelope of modern physics. We discuss visiting aliens using extradimensional spatial distortion, imagining paranormal phenomena as a 3D consequence of 4D activity, and using 4D space a dumping ground for our pollution. We then go on to use a generalization of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to suggest a second, perpendicular dimension of time and how this leads to a coherent theory of time travel! Along the way we discuss anti-matter and whether it falls up or down, and how to probe for hints of new temporal physics in the physics of anti-hydrogen.

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This is one of those episodes that exemplifies what we try to do here on this show, going deep on some very big science ideas, and then going off the deep end to expand those ideas into the realm of fiction and making them even bigger! Marty has the great pleasure of speaking with Douglas Phillips, who has turned his wide range of scientific experience into the kinds of stories he’s always wanted to read​. Douglas has made a name for himself with his Quantum series of 5 books: Quantum Space, Quantum Void, Quantum Time, Quantum Entangled and Quantum Chaos – along with the prequel Quantum Incident. This is a conversation in two parts - in this episode we talk about Quantum Space, and in the next episode we'll talk about Quantum Void and mostly about Quantum Time. The unifying theme here is extra dimensions, in both space and time (!) and our conversation is an intellectual romp through speculative ideas that push the envelope of modern physics. To lay the groundwork we talk about the standard model of particle physics, superstring theory and neutrino oscillations, then we make the leap into the 4th dimension, and from there into the far reaches of outer space.

Douglas Phillips:

https://douglasphillipsbooks.com/

Quantum Space on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZY9T5Y5

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This is a rather special episode, and something of a delightful experiment. Barron Wenham is on of the smartest and most well-informed 10-year-olds you are ever likely to encounter - especially on the subjects of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. As an exercise in exploring big ideas, mind-blowing science and science fictional creative invention, Marty sat down with him to discuss the birth of the universe, the balance of matter and anti-matter, as well as some of the things we discussed with Dr. David Curtin in episodes 30 and 31 on Dark Matter. We also cover the black holes, white holes, the standard model of particle physics - right down to neutrinos and strange quarks - and Barron explains the theory of strange matter, which is a real thing! Barron also presents his own cosmological model that accounts for the accelerating expansion of the universe as well as the balance of matter and antimatter, and also his theory of super-matter in a brain-structured universe.

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Marty speaks with Dr. Henry Erlich, whose research career gave him a front seat to the development of DNA sequencing technology from its infancy in the 80’s, to the development of forensic applications in the criminal justice system in the 90’s and through to it’s maturity in Next Generation Sequencing methods now used to study evolutionary biology and the deep history of human and hominid evolution. His book is called 'Genetic Reconstruction of the Past - DNA analysis in Forensics and Human Evolution ', and its unifying theme is how we can now use DNA sequencing technology to study historical events, from the recent past in the case of forensic investigation of crimes, to the ancient past in studies of fossil remains to understand the evolution of the human species and the relationships among contemporary and extinct populations. We talk about the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), detecting sequence and length polymorphism, how DNA tests are used to identify individuals in forensic investigations, how they can be used to track relationships among human populations both ancient and contemporary, and how what we've learned using this technology may help us grow bigger, better, faster brains in our science fictional future.

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Marty talks to Alan Smale, a professional astronomer and author of hard science fiction, alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, and horror. We talk to him about his most recent book 'Hot Moon' - an alternate history set in 1979 where the USSR won the space race to land the first man on the moon, changing the balance of power during the cold war and accelerating the space race to push both the Americans and the Soviets to have permanent moon bases, orbiting space stations, and manned spy satellites. We talk about the kind of warfare that would have been possible with the technology available following the first moon landings, what happens when you shoot a bullet in space, the geopolitics of the cold war as well as relations with Russia today. We also discuss spy-craft in space, whether there may be a hidden base on the far side of the moon, and Alan also tells us a little about his research career at NASA studying X-rays from black hole binaries and other extreme space events, and how that research translates to applications on earth.

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Holly and Marty speak with science fiction author Micaiah Johnson about her absolutely incredible 'Ashtown' duology. This isn't really an episode about the Multiverse so much as it is about the deeply human and social themes in Micaiah's books, whose writing is laden with literary pearls and deeply human insights about complex characters, social and economic structures, and the interplay between science and spirituality. She uses science fiction as a lightning rod for discourse of social dynamics, power and justice, privilege and grace and ambition. We talk about choosing your monsters, the vacuous rich and the authenticity of the poor, community care, and crying from beauty, with stories about allowing people the chance to to love you in the way that you love them, and how giving and receiving are two sides of the same miracle.

https://www.micaiahjohnson.com/

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