Alienating the Audience

John Varley's novel "Steel Beach" portrays a future brimming with attractive immortals living in amusement parks on the Moon--yet the main character contemplates suicide. Absent strife, can humans find purpose? Tim Sandefur joins Heaton to discuss John Varley, utopianism, and man's search for meaning. 

Robert Zubrin is the head of the Mars Society and author of "The Case for Mars." He joins Heaton along with special guest co-host Andrew Mayne to discuss how to get to the Red Planet using existing technology, and the implications of finding life once we're there.

Today we speak with physicist Stephen Granade about robots! How to build giant arm-swingin' robots, how we can automate them, and where we stand on Mind Machine Interface technology in case we want to pilot said robots ourselves. 

"The Girl With All the Gifts" is a brilliant spin on otherwise stale zombie tropes. Nick Sperdute and Ashland Viscosi join the program for a spoiler-free discussion about the novel. Plus a refresher on Greek mythology, how John Locke and Thomas Hobbes pertain to Armageddon, and the time Heaton met Meatloaf. 

Deep Space Nine masterfully tackled complex plot lines, moral ambiguity, and deep themes over its arc. Tom Merritt, host of the Sword & Laser podcast and scifi novelist, joins Heaton to suss out the deeper meaning of Star Trek's finest series.

"Black Mirror," a dark television series about the grim potential of technology, explores issues from social media to immortality. Comedian Myq Kaplan joins the show to look at the otherwise bleak satire through the dual lenses of optimism and Buddhism.

Nick Sperdute and Josh Jennings join Heaton for a rousing game of "First Officer, Holodeck Buddy, Red Shirt" using Star Trek characters from across the franchise. 

We'll probably get to Mars a lot sooner if people think they can make a buck off of it. Andrew Mayne, author of the book "How to Make Money on Mars" joins the show to discuss what feasible, if not lucrative, private Mars missions might look like. 

AJ West and science consultant Mika McKinnon ("Stargate Atlantis" and "Stargate Universe") join the program to pitch Stargate as bingable show, and suss out its themes and triumphs.

In a special just-for-kicks live episode, Star Trek consultants Dr. Erin Macdonald and Dr. Mohamed Noor return to the show to play Starfleet Draft Picks: If you could staff a new vessel with characters from any Star Trek series, who would you select?