If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

In this epeisode of Hope in Horror, Paul Jessup tackles the the most iconic horror writer of our time, Stephen King . Paul discusses a number of King's most iconic works, as well as some of the movies based on his work.  Be sure to check out Paul's new book Cancer Eats the Heart . https://firebirdcreative.myshopify.com/products/cancer-eats-the-heart 

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to software developer and award nominated writer, Matthew Kressel. They discuss writing with authenticity, writing unfamiliar cultures, Dungeons and Dragons, what writers can take from RPGs, Matt's new novels Spacetrucker Jess and The Rainseekers, AI, plagiarism, and much more. You can find The Rainseekers here: https://books2read.com/u/4N0Na8. You can find Space...

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to poet, podcaster, author, and tarot reader, Beatrice Winifred Iker. They discuss religion, horror and religion, queerness, writing neurodiverse characters, Appalachia, organizing complicated plots, Mothman, perfume recommendations, and much more. You can find Beatrice and their  books here: https://www.beatriceiker.com/books.

In this episode, Alan talks to writer and educator Brandon Crilly. They discuss the challenges in con running, religion, alien gods, characters with major personality shifts, magic, historical cycles, Hopepunk, messages in fiction, and much more. You can find Brandon Crilly and his books here: https://brandoncrilly.com .

In the Fifth part of this column, we flip the script and discuss how writers can pursue equity in their writing, how to deal with problematic creators, and how Dr. Carroll deals with the toxicity of reading alt-right works, and authors who are examples of anti-fascist writing. You can purhase Speualtive Whiteness here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917081/speculative-whiteness/

In this episode, Alan talks to writer Premee Mohamed. They discuss imposter syndrome, awards, being caegorized as horror, the state of the horror genre, Stephen King, the correlation between social media and sales, quicksand, Premee's favorite ink, audience questions, and much more. You can find Premee Mohamed and her books here: https://premeemohamed.com/author/premee/

In the fourth part of this column, Alan and Jordan pick up trying to understand what is happening in the minds of the alt-right, the ambiance of racism in the US, fascism in Fantasy and Horror, the lack of imagination in fascist thinking, and they begin to discuss how to evaluate the fiction you're reading.  You can purhase Speualtive Whiteness here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917081/specul...

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to writer Thomas Ha. They discuss the effects of covid on genre, Lit RPG, cozey fiction, writing across genres, Clarkesworld Magazine, Matt Diniman, Brian Evenson, preserving the status quo, writing villains, writing children, killing children in prose, inventing monsters, Thomas' recent collection, Uncertain Sons , and much more. You can find Uncertain Sons And...

In the third part of our column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, Alan and Jordan break down a number of important concepts needed to understand the alt-right and how they view Speculative Fiction. Concepts include low time preferences, metapolitics, Archeofuturism, Faustianism, and mutant romances. we discuss the right wing and fandom and much more.

In this episode Alan reviews (books linked below): Double Edged Sword & Sorcery 1 published by Brackenbury Books 2024 The Walls of Shira Yulun by Dariel R.A. Quiogue Waste Flowers by Bryn Hammond How to Surf a Hurricane by Todd Medema published by Atmosphere Press 2025 Vigilance by Allen Stroud published by Flame Tree Press 2024 Sub-Liminal by Alastair Miles published by Shadow Dragon Press 2025 U...

In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to writer and neuroscientist Arula Ratnakar. They discuss Phillip K. Dick, computational neursocience, hard science fiction, science and math communication, preceptions of reality, the neuroscience of neurodiversity, psychedelics, being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world, AI, Clarkesworld, evolving in public, and much more. You can find most of her fiction he...

In this episode, Alan talks to author and musician Josh Denslow. They discuss writing dialogue and movie scripts, music's influence on his writing, Marlon James, the break down of walls between speculative fiction and Literature, suprheros and comics, the importance of exploring new forms of art, Josh's novel Super Normal, living outside the US, extreme politics and family, humor in fiction, liste...

This time Paul Jessup tackles the politics of zombies in the classic Night of the Living Dead, as well as modern Train to Busan. He also discusses why hope is not naive and, as always, how horror can provide us with hope. Be sure to check out his new book Cancer Eats the Heart . https://firebirdcreative.myshopify.com/products/cancer-eats-the-heart 

Alan and a couple of engineers from the the Solapunk community, Navarre Bartz and Todd Medema, discuss everything you want to know about electric vehichles, battery technology, EVs that are not Tesla, and charging stations. Todd also discusses his new book, How to Surf a Hurricane, and how he got involved with Solapunk, and much more! You can find How to Surf a Hurricane here: https://howtosurfahu...

In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to scholar, laywer, and author Gautam Bhatia. They discuss Bhatia's book The Sentence, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Anarchism, the Paris Commune of 1871, the Mondragon Cooperative, publishing in India, the views on genre in India, the sequal to The Sentence, and much more. As discussed in the episode you can find the article Forest and Factory her...

In the second part of our column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, we discuss the right wing and fandom. Alan and Jordan discuss why nerds/geeks are easy pickings for the alt-right, neurodiversity, eugenics, how the right wing uses fandom, Sad Puppies, Robert Heinlien, and much more.

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to writer, aid worker, and sociologist Malka Older. They discuss new installments of The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, developing characters over the course of multiple books, exploring different forms of governance, writing mysteries, neurodiversity, Sherlock Holmes, Global Voices, justice in fiction, and much more.  

In this episode Alan reviews (books linked below): Cholorophilia by Christina Jurado, Translated by Sue Burke, published by Apex Books 2025 Queen Bess: A Tudor Come to Save America by Maria Vetrano, published by Regalo Press 2024 Where the Dead Brides Gather by Nuzo Onoh, published by Titan Books 2024 Luna by Allen Stroud published by Flame Tree Press 2024 Jezero by Allen Stroud published by Flame...

In this mash-up column, Paul Jessup, of Fear is the Fire That Lights the Heart, and our own Alan Bailey along with guests Maurice Broaddus, and Susan Kaye Quinn explore the differences and simularities between the genre of horror and the subgenre of Solarpunk and come to some very surprising conclusions. We discuss community, resiliance, Weird fiction, anger and anxiety as inspiration, libraries,...

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to prolific writer and historian Harry Turtledove. They discuss Cat and Harry's collaboration on The Trumps Will Sound, Turtledove's new book: Powerless, Vaclav Havel, Totalitarianism, the power of the individual, Elon Musk, the alt-right in Science Fiction, reader interpretation of work, how the US would break up, staying inspired, Imposter Syndrome, Peter Beagl...

In the first part of this new column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, we get to know the author of the groundbreaking discussion, Speculative Witeness. Alan and Jordan discuss gateway genre authors, JRR Tolkien, transgressive science fiction, how SF fans experience time differently, how Jordan started studying the alt-right in conjunction with Speculative Fiction, Jordan's relat...

In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to writer and editor Douglas Gwilym. We discuss the Horror Writers Association, the importance of character, blending genres, the Triangulation Anthologies, editing anthologies, joy in writing, monsters, journies in fiction, the importance of writing fiction in uncertain times, and much more. You can find Novus Monstrum here . https://thedragonsroost.biz/produc...

As Alan convalesces from a covid infection, we've been going back through our archives looking for something interesting for our feed. This selection is an interview betwen Alan and Fantasy Grandmaster Peter Beagle the day after Beagle received his Grandmaster award. Their discussion includes: advice to younger writers, Patrick Rothfuss, Peter's relationship to Pittburgh Baseball, politics, Peter'...

TW: Suicide and Cults In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to author, TJ Klune. We discuss Howl's Moving Castle, belief in aliens, X-Files, Coast to Coast with Art Bell, the 1990s, the Heaven's Gate cult, JKR, TJ's future projects, pets, more X-Files (so much X-Files), and much more. TJ Klune's Website: https://www.tjklunebooks.com/ If you'd like to support us you can give us a one time donation at ...

In this episode Alan reviews (books linked below): Jubilee by Stephen K Stanford published by Flame Tree Press 2023 Cryptid Bits by Jesse Simms published by Last-Picked Books 2024 Skull Slime Tentacle Witch War by Rick Claypool published by Anxiety Press 2024 Coyote Run by Lilith Saintcrow published by Horned Lark Press February, 25th 2025 Tempest Blades: The Root of Hope by Ricardo Victoria publi...