Wizards & Spaceships

So you've trashed the world. An EMP or a nuclear bomb or a plague of zombies have taken out civic infrastructure—now it's your chance to show off your survival skills. Fortunately, there's an incredible resurgence of Indigenous post-apocalyptic fiction that offers alternative visions to surviving collapse. In this episode, we talk to author, educator in Plant Medicine & Midwifery, and hippy pr...

Welcome to our new season! To celebrate, we’re kicking it up a notch by holding an all-star roundtable of some truly incredible writers. Vajra Chandrasekera, Samantha Mills, and Gregory A. Wilson join us to discuss didactic genre fiction. Is it a skill problem? Is it a media literacy problem? Can you hammer home a message without alienating (sorry/not sorry) your audience? We're nominated for an A...

Genre fiction is full of strong, independent women, badass heroines, brave Final Girls, and virginal princesses. Frankly, we’re getting a little sick of it? For our season finale, with us to discuss difficult women is the queen of messy, complicated, and antiheroic female protagonists herself, the legendary Silvia Moreno-Garcia! Show Notes Silvia's website Silvia's Instagram and Threads Signal To...

We are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Amazing Stories Magazine . It started way back in March or April, of 1926, depending on who you ask. With us to talk about the magazine's past, present, and maybe even the next hundred years, are its publishers and editors: Steve Davidson, Kermit Woodall and Lloyd Penney. Show notes: Amazing Stories Magazine online Wikipedia's entry Galactic Central SF E...

Charles R. Saunders was a Halifax journalist and, with his Imaro novels, the founder of the "sword and soul" genre and a Black Canadian literary icon. When he died in obscurity in 2020, journalist Jon Tattrie joined fans worldwide to uncover where he was buried, commemorate his life, and bring him the prominence he deserved. For Black History Month, we're joined by Jon to tell us about Charles' re...

Magazines and journals have been a foundational part of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror since the very beginning and provide us with the stories, art, and critical analysis that keep the genre vibrant. These collaborations are a labour of love and the lifeblood of the literary scene. With us to talk about the work of editing and producing them are two rising stars in the field, Josh Wilson, editor of...

The famous introduction to Star Trek lays out the mission of the Starship Enterprise:  to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before! Later on, they changed it to be more inclusive—where no one has gone before. But the fundamental problem remains—if no one has gone there, what exactly are all those new civilizations? Could...

Anyone who’s ever written fantasy has faced this problem: You have hit the point of conflict in a story where problems can no longer be worked out with witty retorts or a magic spell. The orcs are at the gates, the peace talks have broken down…that’s right—you’re going to have to write a battle scene. In this episode, we talk to Suzannah Rowntree, author of How to Write a Fantasy Battle: Basic Med...

Happy Halloween! We're talking about WITCHES! A staple of fantasy, horror, and Broadway musicals, witches can be anything from a murderous presence in the woods to the friendly neighbourhood Wiccan who revives your dying African violet. So let's get our witch on! Show Notes: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) Spirited Away (2001) VenCo by Cherie Dimaline Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Helpless" Barbie-Yag...

You guys had so many science questions that our resident scientists couldn't answer them all in just one episode! In this episode, Rob & Jon Mound tackle important questions such as time travel, the mutability or lack thereof of the laws of physics, and dragon taxonomy. Also, why we are not going to Mars. Show Notes: The Forever War, Joe Haldeman The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis The Time M...

Suspension of disbelief is a cornerstone of speculative fiction, but as writers and fans, we often find ourselves wondering just how grounded in reality our favourite stories really are. We asked you, our listeners, for questions like: What would happen if I went through a wormhole? Does a Star Trek transporter just kill you and create a new copy of you? What kind of technology can or can’t you us...

Sci-fi and fantasy has always had an optimistic current, whether it’s utopian space-age cities or noble chosen ones vanquishing a dark lord. In recent years, with the popularity of romantasy and cozy fantasy, it’s easier than ever to immerse yourself in a more hopeful world. But what if instead we made you feel bad? In this wide-ranging conversation with multitalented author and editor Nick Mamata...

For 4000 years, The Epic of Gilgamesh has influenced mythology, theology, and literature, and its rediscovery in the 1850s is itself an epic tale of war, theft, and Hobby Lobby. A meditation on love and death, rage and grief, civilization and nature, starring two problematic queer frat boys, it is the foundation of so many of our stories. In this episode, we talk to poet, artist, and essayist Juli...

Break out the cake, balloons, and gigantic bone tentacles, it's season 2 of Wizards & Spaceships ! Rachel has a new book out, Blight , the sequel to her first novel, Cascade. In this episode, you get a behind-the-scenes look at the newest instalment in the Sleep of Reason series. And did you know that tomorrow is Rachel's birthday? Why not celebrate by buying one or more of her books? Pre-orde...

It's been an entire year of Wizards & Spaceships ! Thank you for coming along with us on this wild and magical space ride. You can't turn on the news or doomscroll social media without hearing about how AI will revolutionize everything. Unfortunately, the worst people in the world seem to be in charge of it. In this episode, we talk to sci-fi legend Robert J. Sawyer about what AI and transhuma...

There’s a huge crossover between tabletop role-playing game players, genre fans, and genre writers, and many of us fell in love with genre fiction by playing D&D in the basement. In this episode, we're joined by author and game designer Jesse Pohlman to talk about the considerations that go into building your own TTPRG. Show notes: Jesse’s website Jesse’s Bluesky Blight cover reveal

Pulp fiction is a cornerstone of the genres we love. In this episode, we talk to screenwriter, ghostwriter, and author of the new zombie novel Deads Rise , Shawn Whitney, about manly men doing manly things, the perils of writing romance, and close encounters with sexy lizard aliens. Show notes: Shawn's website Shawn's Twitter The Pulp Magazines Project Pulps In Special Collections

Rachel and David take the show on the road to Can*Con 2024 in Ottawa. We recorded the launch of The Dance, a multiverse anthology, as well as some general table silliness. Show notes: Buy The Dance online Can*Con Ira's website Shirley at Fantastic Fiction

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Welcome to the first episode of Wizards & Spaceships to pass the Bechdel Test! In 2023, the Hugo Awards, administered by the World Science Fiction Society, were rocked by scandal. That year, the convention was hosted in Chengdu, China, and a number of popular and acclaimed works, from R. F. Kuang's Babel to Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow, were deemed ineligible...even though they had enough nomin...

Happy Halloween! To celebrate all that is spooky and monstrous, we're joined by poet, novelist, and David's other podcast co-host, Troy Harkin, to talk about the master of horror himself, Stephen King. Also cocaine. Show Notes: Troy's website ChiZine Publications SK Tours of Maine Two Old Farts Talk Sci-Fi

In this episode, we talk to Jordan S. Carroll about his new book, the Sad and Rabid Puppies, and how to avoid getting your sci-fi co-opted by fascists. Show Notes: Jordan’s Twitter: https://x.com/JordanSCarroll/ Jordan’s Bluesky: jordanscarroll.bsky.social Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt Right by Jordan S. Carroll Kaleidotrope Elizabeth Sandifer: Eruditorum Press and Neoreaction...

How do you begin your epic sci-fi, fantasy, or horror story? How do you grab a viewer or reader’s attention, introduce your characters and world, and avoid the dreaded infodump? To discuss these questions and much more, we talk to Shiraz Janjua, host of the YouTube channel How the Novel Starts . Show Notes: How the Novel Starts Shiraz's website Shiraz's Instagram Bulwer-Lytton Awards Reading and W...

In this episode, we interview absolute legend Ken MacLeod about utopias in science fiction. And yes, we're talking about the Culture. Of course we're talking about the Culture. Show Notes: The Early Days of a Better Nation Russian Cosmism Utopia and the Return of History Postwar as the war generation's utopia China 2019, just before the pandemic Reading/Watching List The Culture, Iain M. Banks New...

In this episode, we talk about meeting sentient extraterrestrials: The challenges of communication, what first contact stories say about our own Earthbound society, and why the aliens won't return our texts. David's recommendations: "Darmok" (Star Trek TNG) "The Inner Light" (Star Trek TNG) The Day the Earth Stood Still Arrival The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell Rachel's recommendations "Species 10-C...