Workers' Lit

We're back with more of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war sci-fi classic, "Slaughterhouse-Five" ft none other than known Vonnegut-head, TRENT. In this episode, we talk more about the fate of poor old Edgar Derby, discuss what makes Paul Lazarro the perfect American hero, and ask ourselves...is Billy Pilgrim the Muad'Dib? Music by Kevin MacLeod, episode cover from the film adaptation o...

It's what you've been waiting for, folks: the GAMING portion of Liu Cixin's sci-fi headscratcher, "The Three-Body Problem." Okay, okay, there's more than gaming. We've got political intrigue, we've got nano-violence, we've got existentialism, we've got futuristic internationalism...and more. Plus, our Netflix-based plan to prevent World War 3. Episode Art...

We're back...and yes I mean *we.* After a three-week hiatus, Joss has returned to the program. And we're talking Liu Cixin's hard sci-fi puzzle-box, "The Three Body Problem." How did this distinctly Chinese work of fiction manage to capture the hearts of so many in the West? What do the Chinese Cultural Revolution and gravitational currents have in common? Can we use science...

Bad news: Joss is out for this episode. The good news: we've got our first guest! You can (and should) follow him on Twitter @dkpmason. Listen to Jacob and Mason chat about "The Jungle," the 1906 work of political fiction by Upton Sinclair. What would the Biblical story of Job look like in early 1900s Chicago? What's changed, what's stayed the same, and what's sliding bac...

We had a weeklong hiatus but now we're back at it! It's time to talk bioengineering, it's time to talk irresponsible research, it's time to talk chaos theory, it's time to talk about Michael Crichton's 1990 sci-fi novel, Jurassic Park !! Music by Kevin MacLeod. As for the episode art...you already know who it is and where it's from.

Dive with us into Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's 1995 apocalyptic evangelical thriller, Left Behind! This is a weird one, folks. In this episode, we take a long look at the borderline-supervillain of life of Tim LaHaye, assess how the 1990s were primed for apocalypse hysteria, and really tear into the deliciously incompetent prose of Jerry B. Jenkins. Cover from the 1995 release of Left Behind....

We're back! We've got aliens! We've got monsters! We've got...penguins? Yes. Lots of penguins. What good is a mystery you can't solve? How do you survive a shoggoth attack? What comes of a dream of a better world when it's clouded by anti-solidaristic bigotry? We cover a lot in the span of forty-five minutes or so. Music by Kevin MacLeod. Art by Gecko! for the Moscow University Press.

It's time to enter the weeeiiirddd world of H.P. Lovecraft. In this episode, learn about the life of Lovecraft, the good, the bad, the ugly, the badder, and the uglier (seriously, he wasn't a very good guy.) We discuss the influence of Lovecraft on the horror genre, the looming sense of doom instilled in the capitalism of the 1930s, and what makes a story actually scary. Episode art by Howard V. B...

You're really uploading an episode on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol?" In February? Are you crazy? Maybe! Join us on the foggy streets of Dickens' London, a place where all sorts of wondrous folk fight to scratch out a living in the birthplace of industrial capitalism. How does light get introduced into such a bleak setting? Why does this story speak to us more than a century-and-a-half later...