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BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary NOW an MP3

SFFaudio Online Audio

The now 80 year old Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career and the Ursula K. Le Guin’s website is hosting the MP3 file made from the March 17th 2009 BBC broadcast interview. Have a listen |MP3|.

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

This documentary aired Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[via SFsignal.com and our ORIGINAL POST]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC4: ElvenQuest

SFFaudio Online Audio

There’s an upcoming six part comedic Fantasy radio drama starting on BBC Radio 4 next week. So get ready to tune your radios, queue up your BBC iPlayer or turn on your Radio Downloader subscription to catch it starting on Wednesday 29th April.

ElvenQuest
By Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto; Performed by a full cast
Six (1/2 hour) Parts – Approx. 3 Hours [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4
Broadcast: Begins Wednesday 29th April @ 18:30-19:00
“Fantasy writer Sam has been coerced into joining a band of intrepid heroes as they battle the dread forces of evil in search of the legendary Sword Of Asnagar. Comedy set in Lower Earth by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto”.

The creative team, writers Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto, previously co-created the 2005 UK/Canada cartoon called Bromwell High and more recently co-wrote the “Cinderella” episode of Fairy Tales.

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

In Our Time: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time radio show is always thoughtful and informative – a recent show on the topic of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is no exception…

“Melvyn Bragg is joined by David Bradshaw, Michele Barrett and Daniel Pick to discuss the anxieties and ambitions in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World“

Bragg, the host, and his guests approach Brave New World from a very biographical/historical perspective – finding the roots for Huxley’s dystopia/utopia in his engagement with the legacy of H.G. Wells, eugenics, Social Darwinism, and his impressions of the United States (particularly New Mexico and California). All Alphas should have a listen |REALAUDIO|.

[via Anne Is A Man]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7: Understand by Ted Chiang

SFFaudio Online Audio

Tuesday will see another broadcast of Understand by Ted Chiang. If you haven’t heard it before, don’t miss it! Understand was originally published in “Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine” in 1991. This outstanding novelette is one of the very best stories I’ve ever heard on radio. It was produced by Gemma Jenkins for the BBC and first broadcast in 2004 on BBC 7. Re-broadcasts of this popular tale have been heard in 2006 and 2007.

Understand
By Ted Chiang; Read by Rashan Stone
4 half-hour segments – Approx. 2 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 7
Broadcast: Tuesday April 7th to Friday April 10th 2009 (6.30pm and 12.30am)
Leon is a former coma victim, who has gone experimental medical treatment to repair the massive trauma his brain received after he was trapped under ice for more than an hour. He’s regained consciousness, found he has all of his faculties back and a whole lot more. In the tradition of Daniel Keyes’ Flowers For Algernon.

If you don’t live in the U.K., or even if you do, I highly recommend you try out Radio Downloader, it takes the streamed broadcasts and converts them to MP3s with nary a trouble once its set up.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Weird Tales: The Strange Life Of H.P. Lovecraft (originally on BBC Radio 3)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s the terrific 2006 BBC Radio 3 documentary Weird Tales: The Strange Life Of H.P. Lovecraft, broken up into 5 parts and with unnecessary images (which I’ve minimized) for YouTube.

“Geoff Ward examines the strange life and terrifying world of the man hailed as America’s greatest horror writer since Poe. During his life Lovecraft’s work was confined to lurid pulp magazines and he died in penury in 1937. Today, however, his writings are considered modern classics and published in prestigious editions. Among the writers considering his legacy are Neil Gaiman, S.T. Joshi, Kelly Link, Peter Straub and China Mieville.”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

[via Monster Rally]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4: Ursula K. Le Guin biographical documentary

SFFaudio Online Audio

Coming up on BBC R4
Ursula K. Le Guin looks back on her life and career…

Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer – writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain M. Banks and Margaret Atwood.

Airs Tuesday March 17th 2009 @ 11:30-12:00 BBC R4: Ursula Le Guin At 80

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis