Author: Marshall

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Emissaries of Profits — Cardassians and Melora

Cardassians

Sisko settles a custody dispute of an orphaned Cardassian between his adoptive Bajoran parents and his biological father. Garak and Bashir work to uncover the machinations of Gul Dukat.

Melora

Bashir and O’Brien make adjustments to the station as a new crew member joins DS9. Melora battles discrimination, misplaced well meaning gestures, and inappropriate advances from her doctor.

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Space Farce

Netflix’s Space Force is ostensibly a political satire created by Greg Daniels and Steve Carell. It attempts to poke fun at the American President and the wider political system that created Space Force.

We talk about why the show isn’t funny and, worse, is morally dangerous.

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Emissaries of Profits – A Study of Trill

The cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Today we’re experimenting with moving away from a strict episode by episode review and instead are looking at two second season episodes that focus on the fascinating lives of Trill. Invasive Procedure and Playing God provide insight into Trill society and the massive inequality that exists there.

We talk about the Trill quest to gain a symbiont and a huge leg up on all of your Trill compatriots. Gaining a symbiont is enough to consume an entire life and even enough to kill for.

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Truly Universal Income, In Conversation with Corey J. White

We had the absolute pleasure of talking to Corey J. White about his recent novel, Repo Virtual. This is a near future, cyberpunk that tackles heavy issues of our day like wealth inequality, corporate overreach, and douchey tech-bro companies all set in a very believable world wracked by climate change and fracturing nation states.

We talked about the warnings in his book and the need for a truly universal basic income to begin to address the global system of oppression called capitalism.

You can get updates on Corey’s work and other interesting news by subscribing to a newsletter he runs with some friends, nothing here.

Image credit goes to Solvent Image.

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China Mountain Zhang

We have another incredible podcast crossover event. Adrian of Spectology joins us to talk about China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh. This is a beautiful and touching novel and, despite being written nearly thirty years ago, it still feels very relevant. We’re very glad we read it.

This post is much later than it should be. Apologies to Adrian and to our listeners. Some references to then current events might feel dated.

Other Works Mentioned

Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro

The Waste Tide — Stanley Qiufan Chen

The Paper Menagerie — Ken Liu

Mission Child — Maureen McHugh

Links!

Follow Spectology on Twitter and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’d love to hear from you! Reach us on Twitter and Instagram or email us at info@androidsandassets.ca

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Op-Eds From the Future

Op-Eds From the Future is a fantastic initiative from the New York Times. Edited by Susan Fowler, these Op-Eds are science fictional writing imagining an op-ed we might see in the near or far future. Some great writers have already contributed and we hope more do.

We picked four op-eds and talk about them in this episode. Some are good and some are less good.

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Roleplaying for everyone: In Conversation with James D’Amato

We’re lucky to be joined by James D’Amato of the One Shot Podcast Network. We talk about his show Skyjacks and about role-playing more widely.

James D'Amato, our guest

Games Mentioned

Flying Circus by Erika Chappell – Available on DriveThruRPG or itch

Honey Heist by Grant Howitt – Available free on itch

Star Crossed by Alex Roberts – Available on DriveThruRPG or itch

For the Queen by Alex Roberts – Available on Roll20

Related Content

I Need Diverse Games was referenced as a great group making games better and more inclusive for everyone.

James also has some books. They’ll help you play a better RPG. You probably like them, you just may not know it yet. You can find them here.

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Emissaries of Profits – If Wishes Were Horses

It’s harder to decide what’s more incredible: little Molly O’Brien’s storybook Rumpelstiltskin coming to life or Jadzia Dax as a sex kitten. When the crew’s fantasy come to life, anything could happen.

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Emissaries of Profits – The Storyteller

The cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Commander Sisko “negotiates” a disupte between rival Bajoran nations and Chief O’Brien is reluctantly adopted as spiritual leader by a Bajoran village that annually follows the “Storyteller” to fight a demon of the town’s collective fears.

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Not Lovers but Comrades, In Conversation with Nino Cipri

A conversation with author Nino Cipri about their new novella, FINNA. We talk about labour, unions, and love. FINNA is on sale Feb 25 and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Nino on Twitter

Nino’s newsletter, Cool Story, Bro

Nino’s author photo, the image at the top of this post, is by Korbin Jones.

Works and Authors Mentioned

Sarah Pinsker, Twitter – A Song for a New Day

Annalee Newitz, Twitter

Charlie Jane Anders, Twitter

Our Opinions Are Correct, the podcast hosted by Annalee and Charlie Jane.

Meow Wolf House of Eternal Return – If we’re ever in Santa Fe, this is on the to-do list.

The Expanse, Twitter

Hannah Abigail Clarke, Twitter – Scapegracers

Tana French – The Witch Elm

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