Podcast – Cory Doctorow's craphound.com

I chatted with Innovation Hub, distributed by PRI, about the role of science fiction and dystopia in helping to shape the future (MP3). Three Takeaways 1. Doctorow thinks that science-fiction can give people “ideas for what to do if the future turns out in different ways.” Like how William Gibson’s Neuromancer didn’t just predict the internet, it predicted the intermingling of corporations and the state. 2. When you have story after story about how people turn on each other after disaster, Doctorow believes it gives us the largely false impression that people act like jerks in crises. When in fact, people usually rise to the occasion. 3. With Walkaway, his “optimistic” disaster novel, Doctorow wanted to present a new narrative about resolving differences between people who are mostly on the same side.

Here’s part one of my reading (MP3) of The Man Who Sold the Moon, my award-winning novella first published in 2015’s Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer. It’s my Burning Man/maker/first days of a better nation story and was a kind of practice run for my 2017 novel Walkaway. MP3

For nearly every year since my daughter Poesy was old enough to sing, we’ve recorded a Christmas podcast; but we missed it in 2016, due to the same factors that made the podcast itself dormant for a couple years — my crazy busy schedule. But this year, we’re back, with my off-key accompaniment to her excellent “Deck the Halls,” as well as some of her favorite slime recipes, and a promise that I’ll be taking up podcasting again in the new year, starting with a serialized reading of my Sturgeon-winning story The Man Who Sold the Moon. Here’s hoping for a better 2018 than 2017 or 2016 proved to be: I take comfort in the idea that the bumpers are well and truly off, which is why so many improbably terrible things were able to happen and worsen in the past couple years — but with the bumpers off, it also means that improbably wonderful things are also possible. All the impossible dreams of 2014 or so are looking no more or less likely than any of the other weird stuff we’re living through now. See you in the new year! MP3, Podcast feed

I recorded this interview last summer at San Diego Comic-Con; glad to hear it finally live! Authors are, without exception, readers, and behind every book there is…another book, and another. In this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by two writers for conversations about the vital books and ideas that influence inform their own work. First, Cory Doctorow talks with B&N’s Josh Perilo about his recent novel of an imagined near future, Walkaway, and the difference between a dystopia and a disaster. Then we hear from Will Schwalbe, talking with Miwa Messer about the lifetime of reading behind his book Books for Living: Some Thoughts on Reading, Reflecting, and Embracing Life. Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc—was too old to be at that Communist party. But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away. After all, now that anyone can design and print the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter—from a computer, there seems to be little reason to toil within the system. It’s still a dangerous world out there, the empty lands wrecked by climate change, dead cities hollowed out by industrial flight, shadows hiding predators animal and human alike. Still, when the initial pioneer walkaways flourish, more people join them. Then the walkaways discover the one thing the ultra-rich have never been able to buy: how to beat death. Now it’s war – a war that will turn the world upside down. Fascinating, moving, and darkly humorous, Walkaway is a multi-generation SF thriller about the wrenching changes of the next hundred years…and the very human people who will live their consequences.

CNet has started a new book-club podcast, and they honored me by picking my novel Walkaway as their second-ever title. We had a long and far-ranging discussion last week about the book and the themes it raises: disasters, economics, technological immortality, community, trolling, bohemianism, and much more (MP3). Since a big part of “Walkaway” concerns ideas of artificial intelligence and the line between humans and machines (which becomes more blurred as the book progresses), Scott and I circle back later to talk about Blade Runner, its new sequel, and its source novel, Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” which was the subject of a recent article by our colleague Nicholas Tufnell. The Book Club is hosted by a pair of self-proclaimed book experts: Dan Ackerman (author of the 2016 nonfiction book “The Tetris Effect”), and Scott Stein, who is both a playwright and screenwriter. We’ll be announcing our next Book Club selection soon, so send us your suggestions and keep an eye out for updates on Twitter at @danackerman and @jetscott. CNET Book Club, Episode 2: ‘Walkaway’ by Cory Doctorow [Dan Ackerman and Scott Stein/CNet]

I’m on the latest episode of Innovation Hub (MP3): Science-fiction is a genre that imagines the future. It doesn’t necessarily predict the future (after all, where are flying cars?), but it grapples with the technological and societal changes happening today to better understand our world and where it’s heading. So, what does it mean when so much of our most popular science-fiction – The Handmaid’s Tale, The Walking Dead, and The Hunger Games – present bleak, depressing futures? Cory Doctorow might just have an answer. He’s a blogger, writer, activist, and author of the new book Walkaway, an optimistic disaster novel. Three Takeaways * Doctorow thinks that science-fiction can give people “ideas for what to do if the future turns out in different ways.” Like how William Gibson’s Neuromancer didn’t just predict the internet, it predicted the intermingling of corporations and the state. * When you have story after story about how people turn on each other after disaster, Doctorow believes it gives us the largely false impression that people act like jerks in crises. When in fact, people usually rise to the occasion. * With Walkaway, his “optimistic” disaster novel, Doctorow wanted to present a new narrative about resolving differences between people who are mostly on the same side.

Back in May, I stopped by Wired UK while on my British tour for my novel Walkaway to talk about the novel, surveillance, elections, and, of course, DRM. (MP3)

Last month, I appeared onstage with Edward Snowden at the NYPL, hosted by Paul Holdengraber, discussing my novel Walkaway. The library has just posted the audio! It was quite an evening

I’m in the latest episode of Imaginary Worlds, “Imagining the Internet” (MP3), talking about the future as a contestable place that we can’t predict, but that we can influence. We were promised flying cars and we got Twitter instead. That’s the common complaint against sci-fi authors. But some writers did imagine the telecommunications that changed our world for better or worse. Cory Doctorow, Ada Palmer, Jo Walton and Arizona State University professor Ed Finn look at the cyberpunks and their predecessors. And artist Paul St George talks about why he’s fascinated by a Skype-like machine from the Victorian era.

I’m a huge fan of the fantastically rude improv/current affairs/high fantasy podcast Hello From the Magic Tavern, I’ve enjoyed it ever since I binge-listened to the first season halfway through. Last month, I dropped into the Cards Against Humanity studios where the podcast is recorded while in Chicago on my book tour, where I sat in on a session (MP3) where I played Sigint, the Five-Eyed Spider, a whistleblowing ex-spy for the Dark Lord. I had an amazing time: I’m no improver, but the Magic Tavern-dwellers were so much fun, it was really a dream come true! Season 2, Ep 11 – Surveillance Spider (w/ Cory Doctorow) [Hello From the Magic Tavern]