Latest Culturalanalysis Podcast Episodes
Fascism and Book Bans (with Maggie Tokuda-Hall)
Our Opinions Are Correct - April 18, 2024 07:33 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsScience fiction has been warning us about fascism for decades — so why haven't we listened? How did Nazis become just another monster in our stories, like werewolves or cyborgs? Plus we talk about the new wave of book censorship with Maggie Tokuda-Hall, co-founder of the new organization Authors...
The Turing Test is bullsh*t (w/Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender)
Our Opinions Are Correct - April 04, 2024 07:00 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsWe're talking about the Turing Test, the grandmother of all tests for AI sentience. Joining us are AI researchers Alex Hanna and Emily M. Bender, hosts of the Mystery AI Hype 3000 podcast. We discuss why the Turing Test is so influential in both fiction and reality – and why it is completely wro...
Queer Horror! (with Dr. Chuck Tingle)
Our Opinions Are Correct - March 21, 2024 15:47 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsIt's a scary time for LGBTQIA+ folks — and many of us are turning to horror stories that take our real-life terrors and make them even more monstrous. To find out why, we talk to Dr. Chuck Tingle, the author of Camp Damascus and Bury Your Gays, and we geek out about why queers love to be scared....
Videogame movies are officially better than comic book movies
Our Opinions Are Correct - March 07, 2024 08:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsAt last, videogame movies have defeated comic book movies. We learn about why from Evan Narcisse, who writes for comic books and videogames, as well as being a journalist and critic. Then we rant about why so many people are obsessed with psychoanalyzing villains, and are flocking to stories tha...
Encore Episode: Let's Obsess Over the Politics of Dune!
Our Opinions Are Correct - March 04, 2024 20:12 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsThe long-awaited Dune sequel is in theaters now — and it's a huge hit. To celebrate, we're resurfacing one of our favorite episodes from the past. Is Dune a white savior fantasy? A subversive eco-parable? To find out, we talk to Haris Durrani, author of an influential essay about Dune.
We Don't Give a F*ck About Canon
Our Opinions Are Correct - February 22, 2024 09:30 - 45 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsScience fiction and fantasy fans love to argue about canon — both meanings of the word. Which stories in a fictional universe really "happened"? Which stories deserve to be enshrined as the best of the genre? We don't think either of those things is worth yelling about! Also, did you know that t...
The world's humblest heroes, from plumbers to tardigrades
Our Opinions Are Correct - February 08, 2024 08:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsInspired by The Super Mario Bros Movie, we're talking about a humble class of heroes whose lives are devoted to infrastructure maintenance and repair. There are heating engineer rogues and space janitors and, of course, plumbers. Later in the episode we’ll head down to Antarctica, where our gues...
Encore Episode: The Incredibly Strange Career of Anne Rice
Our Opinions Are Correct - January 25, 2024 08:46 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsAnne Rice is best-known for her Vampire Chronicles, which began in the 1970s with her novel Interview with the Vampire. But did you know she also wrote bestselling BDSM erotica and two novels about Jesus? In this episode, we do a deep dive into Rice's strange career, including that time she unle...
Encore Episode: Science Fiction Keeps Trying To "Fix" Disabled People with Elsa Sjunneson
Our Opinions Are Correct - January 11, 2024 08:44 - 45 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsScience fiction and fantasy are full of portrayals of disabled bodies, some of which are nuanced and positive, and many of which... aren't. Join us as we talk about disability tropes and the realities of disabled life with Elsa Sjunneson, author of the brand new book Being Seen. Plus we answer r...
Alien ecosystems and the algae menace
Our Opinions Are Correct - December 28, 2023 08:34 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsAll of us live embedded in webs of life known as ecosystems, and that can get pretty creepy -- or astonishingly beautiful. Inspired by the mind-blowing new animated series Scavengers Reign, we're talking about some of the best examples of alien ecosystems in science fiction. Then we dive into s...
How Doctor Who Stood the Test of Time
Our Opinions Are Correct - December 14, 2023 08:33 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsHow does Doctor Who remain cool after sixty years? By constantly updating and reinventing itself. We've been loving David Tennant's triumphant return, and we're so pumped for Ncuti Gatwa. But we're wondering... are there lessons from Doctor Who's longevity that could apply to other venerable ser...
Episode 142: Books That'll Get You Through The Winter Months
Our Opinions Are Correct - November 30, 2023 08:14 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsThere'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 go...
Episode 141: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Zines
Our Opinions Are Correct - November 16, 2023 08:08 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsZines 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 iconi...
Episode 140: Silicon Valley is doomed to misunderstand the future, with Dr. Joy Buolamwini
Our Opinions Are Correct - November 02, 2023 07:25 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsSilicon 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 develo...
Episode 139: How To Write About Violence (with Fonda Lee and Lauren Beukes)
Our Opinions Are Correct - October 19, 2023 07:28 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsBattles 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...
Episode 138: Battlestar Galactica, 20 Years Later
Our Opinions Are Correct - October 05, 2023 07:18 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsOne 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 ...
Episode 137: The Creativity Fallacy
Our Opinions Are Correct - September 21, 2023 07:50 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsWhat 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 i...
Episode 136: Who Wants to Live on an Eyeball Earth? With Aomawa Shields
Our Opinions Are Correct - September 07, 2023 11:15 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsWe'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 me...
Episode 135: The Myth of Free Speech
Our Opinions Are Correct - August 24, 2023 07:49 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsTech 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 ficti...
Encore Episode: Work Is Not Your Friend, with Alan Henry
Our Opinions Are Correct - August 10, 2023 07:33 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsPeople 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.ouropinionsar...
Encore Episode: We're in the wrong timeline, with Connie Willis and R.F. Kuang
Our Opinions Are Correct - July 27, 2023 07:45 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsWe'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-obsesse...
Episode 134: The State of the Galaxy
Our Opinions Are Correct - July 13, 2023 07:44 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsIt's time for our state of the galaxy address. We’ll be talking about how humans figured out that we are living in a galaxy, and how science fiction represents other galaxies. We're also joined by Molly Peeples, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins Universit...
Episode 133: Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction: Ayn Rand
Our Opinions Are Correct - June 29, 2023 13:55 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsOne science fiction author has influenced the leaders of the tech industry more than any other: Ayn Rand, who preached radical selfishness in Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead. How has Rand's vision shaped the technology we use today? To find out more, we talk to philosopher Matt Zwolinski and...
Episode 132: A Sense of Place with Jessica Johns
Our Opinions Are Correct - June 15, 2023 07:08 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsSometimes, a story is set in a place that isn't just a location. It's a character. How do places come alive? We discuss hauntings, homelands, and what it means to write a landscape that is more than backdrop. Joining us is Jesscia Johns, author of Bad Cree, to talk about how place figures into h...
Episode 131: The State of Star Trek, with Mike McMahan
Our Opinions Are Correct - June 01, 2023 07:11 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsStar Trek is back in a big way: we've had three live-action TV shows and two animated shows recently, with more stuff on the way. But what does Star Trek mean to us now? And what do we want from Star Trek today? To get deeper into these questions, we did a mind meld with Lower Decks creator Mike...
Episode 130: What to Watch and Read This Summer!
Our Opinions Are Correct - May 18, 2023 07:59 - 45 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsSummer is almost here, and there's no shortage of amazing books, movies and TV shows to read by the pool. (Or wherever you consume your entertainment. We don't judge.) How can you make sense of all these options? We have you covered. Here's our totally correct guide to all the best science ficti...
Episode 129: Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction: Smart Home Nightmares
Our Opinions Are Correct - May 04, 2023 07:31 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsTen years ago, Silicon Valley promised us smart houses that would light rooms as we walked into them, turn on the music, and do our shopping. And it never happened. We talk about how the smart home has its roots in Charlie Chaplin movies, sewing machines, and home economics classes. Guest Jacqui...
Episode 128: Dungeons & Dragons Gets Cozy
Our Opinions Are Correct - April 20, 2023 07:14 - 48 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsGames are packed with astounding worldbuilding, and Dungeons & Dragons is perhaps the worldbuildiest of all. We take a deep dive into the game’s transformation from from a Satanic threat in the 1980s, to a wholesome, cozy world that has inspired a swashbuckling new movie and adorable novels like...
Episode 127: Silicon Valley vs. Science Fiction: "Difficult Geniuses"
Our Opinions Are Correct - April 06, 2023 07:30 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsWhen tech whizkids are caught behaving badly, they're just being "brilliant jerks." And the figure of the charismatic-but-bratty genius inventor is everywhere these days. We look at how the isolated, tormented mad scientist in science fiction evolved into the sexy asshole that everyone wants to ...
Episode 126: It's a Great Time to Read (and Write) Short Stories!
Our Opinions Are Correct - March 23, 2023 07:09 - 45 minutes ★★★★★ - 363 ratingsIf you haven't read any short stories in a while, it's a great time to get back into them. A ton of truly excellent books of short speculative fiction came out recently, and wondrous new tales are appearing in magazines all the time. We talk about some of our favorite new books of short stories ...
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