The Science in The Fiction

Marty speaks with Kaitlyn Kuehn (KK), creator and host of the Flora Funga Podcast, discussing recent developments in real world applications of fungi, and speculating about the possible roles fungi may play in our science fictional future.  We discuss their use as recreational drugs, and the current regulatory and legalization landscape.  We talk about creating new materials from fungi, from makin...

We speak with M. R. Carey about his book 'The Girl With All The Gifts', where the zombie fungus Cordyceps plays a central role in bringing about the end of civilization. We talk about the appeal of a post-apocalyptic story and discuss some of the science in Merlin Sheldrake’s book 'Entangled Life': scientific revolutions and evolutions, gestalt shifts, the ancient evolutionary...

Beginning our highly anticipated new topic of Sci-Fi Fungi, we talk to science fiction author Benjamin Percy about the second book of his Comet Cycle, 'The Unfamiliar Garden'.  We discuss Ben's writing career in comic books and novels and soon TV and film, the literary treatment that space fungus gets in this book, as well as the human and emotional stakes that make it a really good...

Marty and Holly discuss our upcoming theme of Sci-Fi Fungi with interviews of science fiction authors Benjamin Percy and Mike Carey, along with mycologists Dr. Alex Moskaluk from the University of Guelph and Kaitlyn Kuehn (KK) from the Flora Funga Podcast.  We'll be discussing space fungi from cometary debris in Ben Percy's book 'The Unfamiliar Garden', the zombie fungus Codyce...

We talk to a returning guest and friend of the show, science fiction author Edward M. Lerner, about his latest book 'On The Shoals of Space-Time', on the topic of First Contact.  Ed is a fount of scientific insight and information on space science and the possibilities for extraterrestrial encounters, having written 25 books – 5 of them with the legendary author Larry Niven, of Ringworld...

In this episode we talk to Mark Milne as a follow-up on our interviews with science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson and glaciologist Heidi Sevestre in episodes 21 and 22, on the topic of Geoengineering as portrayed in Kim Stanley Robinson’s book 'The Ministry for the Future'.  Mark speaks about a number of strategies for mitigating climate change by cooling the planet through increas...

We continue the conversation between science fiction author Peter Watts and scientist Justin Gregg, and now they get down to the tricky business of discussing the nature of consciousness.  We discuss Peter's premise of 'Blindsight – that consciousness is an illusory, unnecessary and possibly parasitic phenomenon that will get us all killed when we encounter more efficient, unconscious ex...

In this episode we present a conversation between science fiction author Peter Watts and scientist Justin Gregg, following up on our individual interviews with each of them on the general theme of intelligence and consciousness.  Justin Gregg is the author of ‘If Nietzsche were a Narwhal - What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity’, the book we spoke to him about in episode 23.  Peter...

Marty and Holly talk to George Paxinos - neuroscientist, environmental activist and author of 'A River Divided', a book that explores neurological determinism - the claim that we have no free will and that our actions are entirely determined by our genetics and the neurological consequences imposed on us by the environment which shapes our brain.  His book comes with a very interesting t...

We speak with David Brin, science fiction icon, scientist, futurist and civilizational optimist.  We discuss his particular view of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, as portrayed in his 2012 novel 'Existence', along with his predictions about how artificial intelligence and virtual reality will change our world in the near future.  We discuss the UFO phenomenon (a sophist...

Marty and Holly speak with Professor Avi Loeb from the Harvard Astronomy department, and he is one of the most generous, gregarious, kind and thoughtful people we’ve ever spoken with. Not only that, he embodies the spirit of true scientific inquiry and discovery that can be sadly lacking in the scientific culture of our time.  Our conversation revolves around the possibility of First Contact with...

To celebrate the first anniversary of our podcast, Marty and Holly do a little retrospective to discuss their favorite books, people and interviews from the last year.  We discuss some of the best science fiction books we read: 'Red Team Blues' by Cory Doctorow, 'Semiosis' by Sue Burke, 'Neverness' by David Zindell, 'Night Owls' by Stephen Gay and 'The...

This is the second part of our interview with Dr. David Curtin, Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto.  In response to the kind of dark matter model found in Jim Al-Khalili's science fiction book 'Sunfall', David expounds upon the "significantly weirder' models of dark matter being contemplated today.  Since the failure to find...

Dr. David Curtin is the Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Toronto, and specializes in exotic theories of dark matter that describe a "dark sector" which may include complex dark matter.  These  "banana-town weirdo" dark matter models include dark electrons, dark protons and dark photons that form dark atoms and possibly an entire mirror...

Our theme in the next two episodes is dark matter, the kind of far-out science that is stranger than fiction and presents realms of possibility that are both more plausible and more interesting than parallel worlds or extra dimensions or even wormholes. In this episode we talk to Jim Al-Khalili, who is many things: physicist, author of both fiction and non-fiction, educator, broadcaster and all ar...

In this episode we return to the theme of Planetary Protection, continuing the conversation we started in episodes 19 and 20 where we discussed the return of samples from Asteroid Bennu to Earth in NASA’s recent OSIRIS Rex mission.  There we talked about what measures were taken to protect the biosphere of Earth from any unforeseen biological agents that such a sample may harbor, hearkening back t...

Marty sits down with his university pals Drs. Peter Gorniak and Cyndey Nielsen, to discuss Karl Schroeder's book 'Stealing Worlds'.   As it happens, they both have PhD's and lifelong careers working in their fields of expertise - Peter in artificial intelligence and Cydney in data analytics and virtual/mixed reality, so they were the perfect people to bring their professional a...

Karl Schroeder is a science fiction author and foresight analyst.  His fiction is known for both its scientific rigour and its visionary quality of bearing witness to what we can expect just around the corner – especially with his latest book 'Stealing Worlds'.  This book is jam packed with big ideas about artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR).  We talk about the creation...

In the second part of our interview with Peter Watts, we delve into his ideas about intelligence and consciousness.  Does consciousness serve any function, or can all cognitive processes get along just fine without it?  In his novel Blindsight, Peter postulates a hostile entity whose intelligence outcompetes our own, because it is not weighed down by the slow, clunky machinery of sapience.  But hi...

We talk to acclaimed science fiction author Peter Watts about Justin Gregg's book 'If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal'.  We ask if the human flavour of intelligence is maladaptive, and other creatures are smarter because they are so well adapted to their evolutionary niche - or are we comparing apples with moon rocks?  Ultimately, the question is whether the animal wisdom of bedbugs and cr...

Marty and Holly sit down with zoologist Justin Gregg to discuss his book 'If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity'.  We discuss which aspects of human intelligence (and stupidity) are unique in the animal world, and what sets our mental faculties apart from those of other animals.  We talk about our capacity for causal reasoning, the creation o...

Marty and Holly sit down with Dr. Heidi Sevestre for a conversation about climate change and geoengineering, as portrayed in The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.  Dr. Sevestre is a glaciologist who is leading the call to action on climate change through her research and education initiatives. We talk about her recent expedition to Svalbard with Climate Sentinels, a zero-emission re...

In this episode we are super excited to present our conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, whose legacy will surely last deep into our sci-fi future.  We discuss his latest book The Ministry for the Future, and some of the many extraordinary ideas in that book for getting humanity through to the other side of the climate crisis.  We focus o...

This conversation was a great example of what we’re trying to do with this podcast, the perfect balance between Science and Science Fiction.  Marty sits down with Dr. Tim Swindle to discuss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton and The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson, in relation to NASA's OSIRIS REx mission which has returned a sample of Asteroid Bennu to Earth, as well as the upc...

NASA's recent OSIRIS-REx mission has returned a sample of asteroid Bennu all the way to Earth for detailed analysis.  It is difficult to ignore the tempting similarities of this mission to the plot of Michael Crichton's 'The Andromeda Strain' and its sequel, Daniel H. Wilson's 'The Andromeda Evolution' - so in this episode Marty discusses Planetary Protection wit...