Fiction Predictions
11 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 18 ratingsIn a world so uncertain, it's eerie how prophetic some writers can be when it comes to forecasting the future. Fiction Predictions explores the books, TV shows, and movies from the past that predicted the world we live in today. Fiction Predictions is a Mashable podcast created and hosted by Nikolay Nikolov and Sam Haysom.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
Catch 22 in 2019 (ft. Andy Hamilton)
June 20, 2019 23:01 - 40 minutes - 36.8 MBLike '1984', 'Catch 22' is one of those books that's become a part of our everyday language. But when it comes to contemporary society, what exactly did Joseph Heller's famous satire predict? This is the question we attempt to unravel in the final episode of our first season. Helping us are three guests: Business Insider reporter Isobel Hamilton; her father, the legendary writer/comedian Andy Hamilton; and Guardian journalist Amelia Gentleman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...
Neil Gaiman on 'Good Omens'
June 13, 2019 23:01 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MB'Good Omens' is a book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 30 years ago. This year it also became a TV show. There's a reason for that. Now, with international tensions and the shadow of climate change constantly hanging over us, the story's apocalyptic themes feel more relevant than ever. In this episode we spoke to Neil Gaiman and the cast about all the ways the story anticipated the world we live in today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1984 in 2019, Part II
June 07, 2019 00:01 - 40 minutes - 37 MB'1984' turned 70 years old today, but it doesn't feel outdated. In fact, it's constantly coming back to dominate the news. Just a few days ago, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted a quote from the book that went viral. In this second part of our exploration into how much of the Orwellian dystopia has come true, we look at the three giants in our world today: China, the US, and Russia. June 4 marked the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in China, which saw the Communist Party there a...
Podcast Special: "We are all handmaids now"
May 30, 2019 23:01 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBA few weeks ago, a New Yorker cartoon of a bookstore employee moving a stack of dystopian novels from the 'fiction' section to the 'nonfiction' section went viral. It naturally set off a polarised conversation online about which of the novels – '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Handmaid's Tale' – offered the best prognosis for our world today. With the onslaught of abortion bans, which seek to limit and control women's reproductive rights and their freedom of choice, being passed by several ...
1984 in 2019, Part I
May 23, 2019 23:02 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBGeorge Orwell's '1984', a book about a dystopian future in which a totalitarian regime assumes full control over an individual's body and mind, suddenly shot to the top of the Amazon best-seller list in the United States back in 2017. You can probably guess why... On the eve of the 70th anniversary of its publication this June, we're dedicating two episodes to what is perhaps the most overused novel when it comes to fiction predictions. In this first part, we talk to Prof. Jean Seaton, the...
How 'The Simpsons' predicted the cacophony of American politics
May 16, 2019 21:05 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBThe Simpsons is constantly going viral for the ways it seems to predict aspects, both small and big, of our contemporary life. Politics is no exception. With the help of Mashable's Marcus Gilmer, we break down the ways America's favourite animated family anticipated the populist appeal of the Trump administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The novel that predicted the sinking of the Titanic
May 10, 2019 01:00 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThe sinking of the Titanic is one of the most infamous disasters of the 20th century. Almost everyone has heard of it. What far fewer people have heard of is a novel published 14 years earlier. A novel that tells the story of a giant passenger ship named 'the Titan', which sinks after hitting an iceberg... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How Stephen Merchant’s comedies predicted two existential crises we face today
May 03, 2019 06:00 - 33 minutes - 30.6 MBThis week's episode features an interview with writer/director Stephen Merchant, and two predictions for the price of one. For the first, Nik explores how The Office predicted a grim trend in work culture. And for the second, we chat with Stephen about how his comedy Extras predicted the way people act on social media today. Finally, as a special bonus, he also throws in a fiction prediction of his own... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The 18th century prison that predicted the rise of our global surveillance society
April 26, 2019 07:00 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBWe think about surveillance as a contemporary phenomenon. It's not. It all goes back to an 18th century prison design called the panopticon. If you've ever watched Guardians of the Galaxy or Lord of the Rings, or binged the TV series Oz, you'll have seen it. But you might not have realised that you were looking different versions of the same thing. In this episode, we trace the routes of this prison through popular culture – and explore just how eerily accurate it was at foreshadowing the ...
The 1979 Stephen King novel that predicted Donald Trump's rise
April 19, 2019 08:00 - 29 minutes - 26.8 MBA controversial, anti-establishment politician with a frenzied fan-based. Plenty of people would read that description and think of Donald Trump. But it also describes a character that features in Stephen King's "The Dead Zone". In this episode we explore how the horror writer's novel, first published in 1979, was a long way ahead of its time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Introducing Fiction Predictions
March 27, 2019 17:21 - 1 minute - 1.16 MBHow much do you know about works of fiction that end up predicting the future? Fiction Predictions is a podcast created by Nikolay Nikolov and Sam Haysom that dives into the books, TV shows, and movies from the past that predicted the world we live in today. In our first season, with a little help from friends and guests, we explores some of the classics, like a 1979 book by Stephen King and the groundbreaking sitcom 'The Office', but we also go down the rabbit hole with other eerily accura...