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We love the show Steven Universe now, more than ever. This cartoon about a magical child has gone through a lot of changes in the past couple of years, and now its cosmic mythos has become a lot more…

Let's talk about sex! In this episode we explore sci-fi tropes about where sex is going in the future, where it seems that we're doomed to become aromantic hedonists or asexual drones. We also talk a…

We need hope now, more than ever. So it's a good thing that more and more SF creators are trying to write hopeful stories---but what does it mean to be hopeful? Is hope a genre, or just a theme? And …

We know you just want to curl up by the fire and bask in pop culture of yesteryear this holiday season. But too bad. We're here with special guest Katharine Trendacosta to interrogate the meaning of …

Doctor Who is a brand new show this year. Not only is there a lady Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker, but the show's whole format feels totally different. Three companions! All new monsters! But even…

This holiday season, let's add everyone's biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Or hey--let's not! In this episode, we talk with scholar and editor Jaymee Goh, whose doctoral resea…

It's easy to stick prosthetics on someone's face and call them an alien. But how do we represent a truly alien form of consciousness? In this episode, we talk about science fiction that succeeds (or …

With the U.S. midterm election coming up, it's time to look at representations of democracy in science fiction. The genre is often skeptical or satirical when it comes to democracy--you can see this …

Anti-capitalism is having a moment in the West, and especially in the U.S. political scene. But science fiction has been grappling with the promises and savage realities of capitalism since its very …

Cities lurk in the background of many futuristic stories, but they can also be characters in them. In this episode, we talk about how cities might evolve, and whether it's inevitable that they'll bec…

Transgender people have always been part of science fiction and fantasy, but the past few years have seen a whole new generation of trans creators bursting onto the scene. Why are so many trans peopl…

Binge watching. Peak TV. Water-cooler shows. We have many names for it, but they all mean that we've got way too much television. There were 487 scripted shows on the air in 2017, and 2018 is just as…

In this episode, we look at Sense8, the globe-spanning show about mentally linked psychics from Lana and Lily Wachowski, and we celebrate its uplifting vision of people coming together and letting go…

We've all been feeling like something is wrong with the timeline. In this episode, we ask what alternate history, fake history, and secondary world history can teach us about the present. Does explor…

We've all witnessed the awesome power of fandom: saving beloved TV shows from cancellation, creating beautiful fan art and fan-fiction, and creating brilliant communities. But the dark side of fandom…

Rich people want to eat you. That's the literal plot in a lot of horror movies, and the subtext of many more. Inspired by The Purge saga, we're talking about movies and TV where class warfare becomes…

It's queer pride month, and we're talking about how LGBTQIA+ got into our SFF. We time warp back to the lesbian vampires of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla and the utopian world of Charlotte Perki…

Immigration is a major theme in science fiction, both in subtext and straightforward plot arcs. Creators often tell stories about new arrivals on Earth from other worlds, other dimensions, and other …

Special guest Maggie Tokuda-Hall, author of the children's book Also An Octopus, joins us to talk about what happens when animals become characters in science fiction and fantasy. Animals get to spea…

Fear of robots is on the rise -- in science fiction and the tech industry. What causes this anxiety in real life, and how does science fiction imagine the future of human/robot relationships? Are we …