The SFFaudio Podcast #053

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #053 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Anne Frid de Vries of the Anne Is A Man blog for a talk about his wonderful podcast review blog.

Talked about on today’s show:
Anne Is A Man blog, reviewing podcasts, Five Free Favourites #4, Five Free Favourites (on Anne Is A Man), a Dutch person living in Israel, podcasting as “a new universe”, or “a secret world”, BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, OPML files, iTunes, trading podcast subscription feeds, Dan Carlin, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, “History and Science Fiction go together like ham and cheese”, radio shows vs. podcasts, Dan Carlin’s Common Sense, interviews in different media, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CBC, Tapestry, Spark, APM’s Speaking Of Faith, Canada wins!, Mary Hynes, Ideas, TVO’s Big Ideas, Hunting For Robin Hood |READ OUR REVIEW|, Writers And Company (on a re-imagining of Robin Hood), WNYC’s RadioLab, Robert Krowlich, Krulwich On Science, The Do It Yourself Scholar blog, UCSD podcasts, Victor Maganga‘s courses on East Asian Political Thought and Politics And Warfare, Yale podcasts, Stanford podcasts, the rationales of rating and reviewing audio, Harriet Klausner, Google’s PageRank, reading good books twice, Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, Professor Hubert Dreyfus @ U.C. Berkley, the Greek and Judaic traditions, Nate DiMeo’s The Memory Palace, what’s wrong with radio!?!, radio in Canada, radio in the USA, radio in the Netherlands, radio in Israel, iTunes in Uzbekistan, The Teaching Company, where do you do your listening?, Scott’s Pick Of The Week: Robots Podcast, Talking Robots Podcast, “The Future Of Artificial Intelligence“, “Robots: Chaos Control“, Jesse’s Pick Of The Week: Carve Her Name With Pride: The Story Of Violette Szabo, S.O.E. operations, the film version of Carve Her Name With Pride, Dan Carlin’s series on The Ostfront, ‘WWII is the Iliad of our times’, the western front of WWI, Anne’s Pick Of The Week: New Books In History podcast, Marshall Poe, Jared Diamond, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern.

Posted by Jesse Willis

All I Really Need to Know About Life, I Learned From Dungeons and Dragons

SFFaudio Online Audio

IgniteOKCPodcaster Chad Henderson (of the ElmoCast) gave this talk entitled “All I Really Need to Know About Life, I Learned From Dungeons and Dragons” at a recent IgniteOKC event. IgniteOKC is a “community-driven networking event that connects people of diverse backgrounds and knowledge through a series of entertaining, rapidfire presentations.” Presenters are given a microphone, 5 minutes, and 20 slides to showcase their presentation. And for those not from OKC, it stands for “Oklahoma City.”

The Presentation:

The Slideshow:

[via BoingBoing.net]

Posted by Jesse Willis

StarShipSofa: iCity by Paul Di Filippo

SFFaudio Online Audio

StarShipSofa’s Aural Delights No. 115 has plenty of goodness to attract all your ferrous materials. Amongst the compellers are a fact article on SF history by the awesome Amy H. Sturgis (she lectures about Anthony Trollope), the Sofanaut Awards results for 2009, and a short story by Paul Di Fillipo.

With regard to that story John DeNardo of SFsignal.com points out his review of the print version of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 2, (which contains ICity) |HERE|, sez John:

“Like all good science fiction should, Paul Di Filippo’s iCity pushes the limits of imagination. To get a feel of the story, picture the next-next generation of SimCity, where ‘competitive urban planning’ takes place. The city is made up of a malleable ‘senstrate’ that obeys the commands planners send it through their phones. The story focus is on one of the top ten planners, Frederick Law Moses, and his up-and-coming rival, Holly Grale (Great name!), who are both vying to take control of a neighborhood recently elected for redesign by its residents.”

Sounds good to me!

StarShipSofa Aural DelightsiCity
By Paul Di Fillipo; Read by Jeff Lane
1 |MP3| – Approx. 77 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: StarShipSofa’s Aural Delights
Podcast: January 6, 2010

Posted by Jesse Willis

Changersurfer Radio: Lecture – Those Who Cannot Remember Doc Savage Are Condemned To Repeat Him by Jess Nevins

SFFaudio Online Audio

Jess Nevins, librarian and author of the forthcoming The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes (2010), gave a scholarly lecture on the earliest origins and strange evolution of the superhuman/superhero meme. Starting in the the early 19th century with a perceived need for better military training, and progressing into the middle of the 20th century, Nevins explains, among other things: Why Doc Savage lost his superpowers (but kept his physique), why The Shadow needed the ability to “cloud men’s minds”, the development of Muscular Christianity and the Physical Culture movements, and even the minor role Sir Arthur Conan Doyle played in all this! There’s lots more in the there too – it’s fascinating!

Changesurfer RadioThose Who Cannot Remember Doc Savage Are Condemned To Repeat Him: The 20th Century Backlash Against Posthuman Bodybuilders
By Jess Nevins
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [LECTURE]
Podcaster: Changesurfer Radio / Institute For Ethics & Emerging Technologies
Podcast: Dec 13, 2009
Recorded: December 4, 2009
Provider: Archive.orgOne bit of local colour that I can add to this fun lecture is a kind of a capper to the story of the Physical Culture and Muscular Christianity movements. Their was a curious practice at the Vancouver YMCA, patrons were encouraged to exercise in the nude. This eventually led a young man named Victor Willis (no relation) to immortalize the results in this song:

[via SFsignal.com]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Science Fiction and Politics University Course (has new lectures)

SFFaudio Online Audio

Science Fiction and PoliticsCourtney Brown has added some new classes to his Science Fiction and Politics podcast. Brown is a professor of Political Science at Emory University who posts many of his lectures to his website (he’s actually been podcasting since 2006).

For the first two lectures of the Spring 2009 semester Brown, and class, are talking about Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics. That’s a non-fiction book that bashes the various untestable string theories that physicists have been spinning over the last couple of decades. The second set of two lectures is about a 1991 “feminist science fiction/cyberpunk novel” called He, She And It by Marge Piercy. Next is just one MP3 discussing Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age. And the final two have Courtney and class talking about Philip K. Dick’s Ubik. These are the first new lectures from Courtney Brown talking Science Fiction since 2007.

Here are the new lectures that have been added to course’s podcast:

Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 1 |MP3|
Lee Smolin’s The Trouble with Physics – Part 2 |MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 1|MP3|
Marge Piercy’s He, She And It – Part 2 |MP3|
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 1 |MP3|
Philip K. Dick’s Ubik – Part 2 |MP3|
Podcast feed:

http://www.courtneybrown.com/classes/scifi/mp3/cb_SciFiPoliticsClass1.xml

For previous lectures either check out one of our older posts about Brown and his classes, |HERE|, |HERE| and |HERE|, or visit Professor Brown’s website directly |HERE|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Lecture – Necronomicons: The Scariest Book in the World

SFFaudio Online Audio

Yog RadioNecronomicons: The Scariest Book in the World
By Dan Harms
1 |MP3| – Approx. 79 Minutes [LECTURE]
Provider: Yog-Sothoth.com
Recorded: May 28th, 2009
The Necronomicon was once the most famous book that never existed – until a few decades ago, when the first copies appeared on the market. From Lovecraft to Grant to… well, you name it! This is the story of their non-existence, their existence, and their secret stories. Dan Harms reveals the history of these books, their relevance in the broader current of the grimoire tradition, and their impact upon magical practice. Recorded at Treadwell’s bookshop, London.

Posted by Jesse Willis