Hosts In The Shell

In today's episode, Matt and Jon are chatting about Harlan Ellison's massively influential 1967 short story, as well as its 1995 video game adaptation! In a typically rambling chat, they're also debating the most evil AI of all time, as well as the art of the perfect movie trailer...

Today's topic is another gem of a cyberpunk movie, Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, and today's guest is a gem of a cyberpunk writer, the prolific Phil Stitelmann! Tune in for a fascinating chat with a top creator, as well as Jon attempting a South African accent so bad that it may constitute a war crime. Phil's debut novella and other upcoming books and articles can be hunted down at...

If the lads had been able to think of a suitable pun, this podcast probably would have been named after Alien instead of Ghost In The Shell; that's how much they love this enduring, legendary, and admittedly patchy franchise. So it was with some trepidation that they ventured into Noah Hawley's TV show... tune in to find out what they made of it, and which character/eyeball stole the sho...

Our first guest of the new season is the brilliant, talented, likeable, articulate and all-round ace SD Miller; alongside his excellent Nekonikon Punk novels, we'll be discussing a cyberpunk gem of a video game: Watch Dogs: Legion! We're trying to be a bit better about including our guests' contact deets, so here's where to find out more about SD Miller's great books: Webs...

WE'RE BACK BAYBEHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Season 3 of Hosts In The Shell kicks off in style with our customary discussion of something related to Ghost In The Shell, this time the spin-off anime series Standalone Complex. Tune in for an amusing and ever-so-slightly informative chat about the subject matter, a load of random tangents, and some EXCITING updates about forthcoming guests... including the...

The boys are BACK BAYBEHHHHH!!!!! Season 3 is incoming and promises more frequent episodes, the usual scintillating chat, some guests we're frankly staggered we managed to trick into appearing, and this rubbish trailer!!! Looking forward to wagging our cyber-chins with you in the coming weeks  :-)  :-)  :-)

Season two of Hosts In The Shell lurches, careens and, erm, clatters to the end of another rollercoaster run! It's just Matt and Jon to close it out, revisiting their main inspiration and beloved anime franchise to revisit and (sort of) reappraise the 2017 live action version... listen as they figure out what went wrong with the movie, gush about our lovely guests and audience, and fantasise...

As we hurtle like a malfunctioning hovercab towards our season finale, we thought it would be fun to dust off this 2021 recording: the first time Jon and Matt ever met! It was a guest appearance by Matt on Jon's other podcast, Dark Natter (where dark fiction gets dissected), but unsurprisingly Matt picked a cyberpunk topic - it's almost like this show was their inescapable destiny...

Those scoundrelly Hosts are joined by the far more wholesome, lovely, and massively talented cyber-graphic-novel-creator, Gustaffo Vargas, for a brilliant deep dive into the world of Peruvian cyberpunk! Tune in to find out how to modernise an ancient culture, Jon's favourite Studio Ghibli moment, and why Matt is changing his name to Adquot...

For those who haven't yet been introduced to this (ahem) masterpiece, Nemesis is the 1992 brainchild of legendary cyber-B-movie director Albert Pyun, and after you've watched it you'll be as incredulous as Jon that it spawned four sequels!! Tune in to find out what Jon and Matt made of this inexplicably endearing cyberpunk action (ahem) extravaganza...

Despite covering The Matrix Resurrections way back at the start of this podcast's existence (before the cyberpsychosis had really kicked in), the Hosts have unbelievably never covered the original Matrix trilogy! Thankfully, brilliant multi-genre writer Keith Anthony Baird was on hand to join us to remedy that shocking state of affairs, resulting in a belter of an episode that aims to once an...

After years of podcasting, chatting and general cyber-film-buffery, it's unbelievable that the lads have only just realised they both absolutely love Kazuaki Kiriya's underrated (and bonkers) gem of a movie! Get yourselves suited up for a nice relaxing dip in a pool of body parts and Neo Cells...

It's about time we covered this modern classic novel and its TV adaptation, and we're delighted to be joined by multi-award-winning cyberpunk writer T R Napper to do it! Join us for another wide-ranging chat that veers into Aliens and Bishop's knife trick (not the Fall Out Boy song...)

Despite an all-star cast, the viewing public weren't enamoured with Kathryn Bigelow's millennium-paranoia-fuelled, disturbing-tech-exploring 1995 thriller... 30 years later, tune in to find out if the lads enjoyed the original SQUID game!

The Hosts are delighted to be joined by thriller writer extraordinaire, Don Hartshorn, to talk about Luc Besson's beloved and bonkers 1997 science fiction spectacular! Expect crazy costumes and deranged hairstyles, and that's before we even get to the movie...

Sometimes things go under your radar despite being really really really cyberpunky. That was definitely the case for Jon with today's topic, a 2019 movie co-written by James Cameron... Matt had already seen it, obvs.

It's been a LONG wait for decent Terminator output, but Netflix's 2024 anime series about a Skynet rival has been a hit with many fans of the ailing franchise - including brilliant cyberpunk writer James L Graetz, who joins us to talk about the show, his work, and the imminent apocalypse!

That's right, it's a merry cyber-Christmas once again, which can only mean one thing: time for a particularly daft episode that we wouldn't normally get away with! To celebrate Yuletide the Hosts welcome ChatGPT (aka Steve) to the show where they ask it hard-hitting questions like whether it's immoral for writers to use AI... and which reindeer would win in a fight.

Matt and Jon discuss Westworld, both the 1973 sci-fi horror western and the more recent TV series/Ed Harris cool-em-up! Find out why the Hosts loved the movie and the early seasons of the show, and why they think the later seasons ended up shambling around in the desert with memory loss...

Jon and Matt are joined by Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development at the brilliant Nightdive Studios, to discuss how their remakes and remasters play a crucial role in video game preservation. His account of the trials and tribulations of remaking System Shock are fascinating, his sci-fi reading recommendations are eclectic, and his anecdotes are hilarious - a must-listen!

Those cybernetically augmented oddballs are back, and this time they're honoured to be joined by fantastic and award-winning science fiction writer Gareth L Powell! Gareth talks about his work, his new publishing imprint, and influences including William Gibson's Burning Chrome collection and uniquely weird short story The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith.

Jon and Matt gush about one of their all-time favourite writers, including his many novels about the utopian Culture, erm, culture, as well as his other standalone books, into each of which Iain M Banks packed more ideas than most writers manage in an entire career - a legendary literary figure to whom the lads try to do justice in their usual rambling style!

What's our boggle? We'll tell you! Today, the Hosts are joined in this episode by Matthew A Goodwin, award-winning cyberpunk and science fiction writer, to discuss one of the greatest (and most underrated?) action blockbusters of the nineties: Demolition Man!! Tune in and be well... but watch out for the occasional violation of the verbal morality statute.

In their latest game of 'is it really cyberpunk though?', the Hosts are treating themselves to a fun and nostalgic chat about beloved space-slob comedy series, Red Dwarf! Tune in for random recollections of classic episodes, and some questionable impersonations...

One of the show's running gags is how many famed works of fiction co-Host Jon hasn't actually seen... for today's episode, featuring brilliant writer and Killtopia creator Dave Cook, co-Host Matt stapled Jon's eyeballs open and forced him to watch the entire Cowboy Bebop movie! Find out what Jon made of his first ever experience of this beloved anime, and how it influenced Dave...