It's a(nother) stressful week, so you can have little an early episode, as a treat. Hang in there. 

This month we read and discussed Naomi Kritzer's Hugo-winning short story, Better Living Through Algorithms. You can read it for free or listen to it thanks to Clarkesworld!

This is a wide-ranging discussion where we used the story as more of a jumping-off point to talk about a lot of other things, from sailing to crossfit to facial recognition software. 

Support Clarkesworld

Picture Me Coding, ft. Amy

It's showtime! Happy Halloween, listeners!

This month we read The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. We were joined by special guest and delightful person and ambitopia expert, author Redfern Jon Barrett! We had so much fun chatting with Redfern that this is a bit of a maxisode. Digressions abound. 

DM: Haley

CW/TW: brief discussion of SA

Redfern’s website

Purchase Proud Pink Sky

Ambitopia: Futures Beyond the Binary

Amy's guest appearance on Picture Me Coding

Music by Pets of Belonging

It was fun! It was windy! Lori and Kevin tell all.

Boring warning: at about 17:45, you're gonna hear like 5 minutes of voice notes about dogs. Feel free to turn off the podcast. 

Eating noise warning: if you make it this far, at 22:05-22:25, Lori will loudly eat a tea cake, so skip that if you can't stand mouth noises. 

Want a mug? A sticker? How about a shirt? Check out our Redbubble shop.

Well, what else were we supposed to call it?

This month we read Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep, suggested by listener Raj. Thanks, Raj!

Amy is DM.

Music by Pets of Belonging

Links:

Jo Walton's review

Being gay and doing crime, all across space and time!

Our long-awaited, most cursed episode is finally here. Requested by Haley and Raj.

Lori is DM.

Music by Pets of Belonging

Links:

Strange Horizons Review - Adri Joy

Interview with the authors

The Joy of Reading Books You Don't Entirely Understand

The 12 Days of Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood

Over five years ago, we test drove this thing. It's rough, but we hope you'll enjoy it!

For various reasons, we had to push back our planned schedule. This is How You Lose the Time War will drop in August, followed by A Fire Upon the Deep in September.

Another attack of the clones. We liked it!

DM: Haley

CW/TW: rape, sexual abuse, transphobia, intersexphobia, fatphobia

Music by Pets of Belonging

Links:

The Extractivism of Setting and the Traitor's Text - Vajra Chandrasekera

Jo Walton's Review

This month we read Arthur C. Clarke's perfectly fine novel, The Fountains of Paradise. It is fine! And it has an admittedly banger ending, if you can stand the first 200 pages. Recommended, maybe?

Amy is DM.

Music by Pets of Belonging

Links:

Wikipedia - Sigiriya

Sculpture and Poetry of Sigiriya

We discuss the hottest film romance in genre fiction: Twilight! We love it. 

DM: Lori

CW/TW: It's Twilight.

Music by Pets of Belonging

This month we read Philip José Farmer's extended fart joke The Wind Whales of Ishmael. This episode is kinda ridiculous, which is fitting for a book which is also kinda ridiculous. We chatted for 15 minutes before we got into the book, as follows:

0:00-7:00ish - general chat and update on Haley's fava beans, as requested by listener Amber 7:00ish-14:30 - tasting and discussion of Coca-Cola Spiced, which is not very good 14:30-15:30 - an anecdote from Haley's college radio days 15:30-end - an actual episode of Hugo, Girl! the podcast

Support Locus Magazine

Music by Pets of Belonging