Our Opinions Are Correct

There's no company as soothing as a good read when the days get shorter and the air gets colder. So here's our annual list of recent books that'll help get you through those nasty winter months. (Or if you're listening to this in the Southern hemisphere, here are some summer beach reads!) The good news? We're lucky to have a wealth of amazing reads right now. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Zines are DiY publications that grew to prominence in the early twentieth century scifi fan community, then morphed into a punk subculture in the 70s and 80s ... and now they're back! We talk with two guests who take us deep into the history and future of zines: Lynn Peril, who created the iconic zine Mystery Date in the 1990s, and Lawrence Lindell, author of the new graphic novel Blackward, about queer Oakland teens who organize a Black zine fest. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Silicon Valley markets itself as the place where futures are born, and yet tech corporations have no real understanding of where our civilizations are headed. We are wrapping up our Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction series with some final thoughts on why this might be. Then we talk to AI developer, ethicist, and poet Dr. Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and author of a new book called Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Battles and smackdowns are a key part of many science fiction and fantasy stories — but how do you do them right? Do you have an obligation to show the cost of violence? And what does a good fight scene look like? To find out, we talked to authors Fonda Lee and Lauren Beukes. (Note: This episode was recorded Sept. 23 at Rose City Comic Con in Portland, OR.) Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

One of the greatest science fiction shows on TV debuted twenty years ago: the rebooted version of Battlestar Galactica. This show broke new ground in depicting realistic politics — and a nuanced view of a society of artificial people. How does it hold up? To find out, Charlie Jane went back and watched the entire series — here's what she found. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

What does it mean to be a creator at a time when creativity is completely commodified? We’ll talk about the status of the author, and how audiences have idealized artists while also celebrating the so-called death of the author and rise of the reader. We’ll talk about how AI converts our minds into apps, and also why the intentional fallacy blew up the literary world in the 1940s! Later in the episode we’re joined by Mary Anne Mohanraj, an author and professor of literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who tells us about using AI in the college classroom. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

We've learned so much about the planets outside our solar system in the past ten years, and we're poised to learn even more. What kind of life could live on eyeball Earths, and other types of tidally locked worlds? To find out, we asked Aomawa Shields, astrophysicist and author of the science memoir Life on Other Planets. Plus Aomawa talked to us about why burnout is such a huge problem for Black women in STEM. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

Tech companies love to trumpet about how their products are free speech machines. But how can we have free speech when we don't have freedom? That's what we're asking in today's episode, the latest in our Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction series. We take a deep dive into 1984, the science fiction novel that started a lot of today's discourse about speech and authoritarianism. And of course, we talk about the company formerly known as Twitter, and much more! Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

People have been paid for labor for at least 5,000 years, but the modern 'workplace' is a pretty recent invention. We look at how science fiction  has dealt with the transformation of labor — plus we talk to Alan Henry, author of the new book Seen, Heard and Paid. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes

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 exploring the past in fiction help us learn from history or are we doomed to repeat it? History-obsessed authors Connie Willis (Blackout, Doomsday Book) and R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War) offer their thoughts too. Show notes: www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes