Playing with Humanity, In Conversation with Daryl Gregory

We are joined by Daryl Gregory (twitter) to discuss his new novella, The Album of Dr. Moreau. We get into animal rights, the nature of consciousness, and the privilege of wealth.

Also by Daryl Gregory and available in late August, Revelator, pre-order now.

Other Works Mentioned

Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgement by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein

Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement by Peter Singer

By Force Alone and The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar

Palestine +100, In Conversation with Basma Ghalayini and Ra Page

We are joined by Basma Ghalayini, editor of the collection Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba, and Ra Page, the cofounder of publisher Comma Press. Palestine +100 is a collection of stories exploring how Palestine might look 100 years after the Nakba when Palestinians were displaced and the occupation by Israel began.

Comma Press is a not-for-profit publisher specialising in the short story and fiction in translation. It is committed to a spirit of risk-taking, and aims to put the short story at the heart of contemporary narrative culture.

If you are able, please donate to relief efforts in Palestine such as through the Islamic Relief Fund.

Recommended Works

Mortal Engines by Stanislaw Lem

Roadside Picnic By Arkady and Boris Strugatsky; Also listen to our episode on Roadside Picnic

Nabil Farouk an Egyption author known for the Cocktail 2000 and the Future File series.

Paranormal on Netflix adapted from Ahmed Khaled Tawfik’s Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa series

Emissaries of Profits — “Meridian” and “Defiant”

To Coup or not to Coup? Things get political as the news on your side Androids and Assets team talks about headlines from 1994. Reviewing Season 3 episodes 8 and 9.

Meridian

The crew of Deep Space Nine is exploring the Gamma Quadrant, which is totally their job, and using a little warship to do it. They discover a planet that falls in and out of our dimension. Dax falls in love with a creep.

Defiant

Riker shows up on the Station. Kira makes nice and shows him around, even giving a tour of the Defiant. Ben works with Gul Dukat to find a Federation ship before it can kill innocent Cardassian civilians.

May Day Ex-Strugatsky-ganza

For May Day we read Soviet era novel, Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. It’s a bleak look at utopia, the utterly alien nature of aliens, and the insignificance of humans.

We disagree about the end of the novel and leave it up to you, dear listener, to decide the true meaning.

Emissaries of Profits — “The Abandoned” and “Civil Defense” ft. Continuum Drag

Continuum Drag joins the boys to review… Pogs, I guess, and Season 3 episodes 6 and 7.

The Abandoned

Odo is a father for a day after Quark buys a Jem’Hadar baby and immediately surrenders it to the state. Jake is dating an older woman and Ben doesn’t approve. Difficult fathering situations abound.

We reference this wonderful episode from Syfy Sistas during our discussion.

Civil Defense

Ben joins Jake on his job placement with O’Brien for a day. As they are working to convert an ore processing unit into a refinery. They trip a security subroutine and cause Cardassian counter rebellion measures to come into effect threatening the entire station.

Continuum Drag

Continuum Drag is an excellent podcast exploring the forgotten and little seen sci-fi television of yesterday. 

Currency and Colonization in The Traitor Baru Cormorant

We talk about currency, empire, and colonialism in Seth Dickinson’s The Traitor Baru Cormorant. This is a novel all about economic conquest and effective resistance to empire with a seeming message that there is no effective resistance to empire.

Emissaries of Profits—”Equilibrium” and “Second Skin” Ft. Adventures in Ideology

Deep Space Nine in all its glory.

We are joined by Candace and Charis of Adventures in Ideology to discuss “Equilibrium” and “Second Skin” from season 3.

Equilibrium

Jadzia Dax is vaguely remembering things that never happened and the Dax symbiont is beginning to die. The crew must take her to the Trill home world for gaslighting and reluctant medical treatment.

Second Skin

Kira Nerys is abducted by the Cardassians in a complex and compelling scheme to convince her she is a crypto-Cardassian and use her to unwittingly expose the leadership of the Cardassian dissident movement.

Adventures in Ideology

Adventures in Ideology is a new podcast that explores the the personal impacts of evangelical childhood indoctrination through the children’s radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. Candace and Charis share personal experience and critically review episodes of the Focus on The Family produced show. It is an excellent podcast and well worth your time. Steve fans will enjoy hearing more of him on the newly launched Adventures in Ideology Patreon.

Lapsis: The Amazon Warehouse but for Walking

Lapsis is a 2020 movie from Noah Hutton that takes on the gig work economy. It is timely and dark. There are many ideas in Lapsis and we picked out labour organizing and monopolies. We cannot recommend you seeing this movie strongly enough.

A Fiscal Crisis in the Republic

Return guest and guy who has seen Star Wars, Justin, joins us to review Star Wars Clone Wars the Clovis Arc. We dissect the Galactic republic’s monetary policy and why we should nationalize the banks.

Emissaries of Profits—The Dominion Introduction Arc

We’ve reached the end of season 2 and that means the Dominion is a thing! We’re covering the final episode of season 2 and the first two of season three. It’s all about the Dominion and remembering where Odo came from.