Science Fiction – Your Online Coffee Break podcast

99. EMPRESS OF FOREVER, a new Sci-Fi Adventure by HUGO Award Finalist MAX GLADSTONE

Chuck — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 06:00:20 +0000

Max Gladstone is the author of the Hugo Award-nominated Craft Sequence of novels, and he just released his latest novel, EMPRESS OF FOREVER, a smart sci-fi adventure about far future tech.

Max studied Chan poetry and late Ming dynasty fiction at Yale; he lived and taught for two years in rural Anhui province, and has traveled throughout Asia and Europe. He speaks Chinese, can embarrass himself reading Latin, and is a martial artist, fencer, and fiddler. He’s also worked as a researcher for the Berkman Center for Internet and Policy Law, a tour guide for the Swiss Embassy, a go-between for a suspicious Chinese auto magazine, a translator for visiting Chinese schoolteachers, a Chinese philosophy TA, a tech industry analyst, and an editor. He has wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat, sung at Carnegie Hall, and been thrown from a horse in Mongolia.

EMPRESS OF FOREVER

A wildly successful innovator to rival Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, Vivian Liao is prone to radical thinking, quick decision-making, and reckless action. On the eve of her greatest achievement, she tries to outrun people who are trying to steal her success.

In the chilly darkness of a Boston server farm, Viv sets her ultimate plan into motion. A terrifying instant later, Vivian Liao is catapulted through space and time to a far future where she confronts a destiny stranger and more deadly than she could ever imagine.

The end of time is ruled by an ancient, powerful Empress who blesses or blasts entire planets with a single thought. Rebellion is literally impossible to consider—until Vivian Liao arrives. Trapped between the Pride—a ravening horde of sentient machines—and a fanatical sect of warrior monks who call themselves the Mirrorfaith, Viv must rally a strange group of allies to confront the Empress and find a way back to the world and life she left behind.

For more information, visit https://www.maxgladstone.com

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74. Is Faster Than Light Travel Possible? The Science of SciFi with Dr. Erin Macdonald

Chuck — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 06:00:19 +0000

https://youtu.be/0vgWnhgwg1Q

Is faster than light travel possible? Dr. Erin Macdonald joins us to discuss the current theories–and how they relate to science fiction. She is an astrophysicist, science fiction consultant, aerospace engineer, and host of the online series, “Dr. Erin Explains the Universe”. Her specialty is in general relativity, having worked previously searching for gravitational waves in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She has since found her home in science fiction, consulting with writers, teaching STEM through popular culture, and fulfilling her life goal of becoming a warp drive expert.

For more information, visit https://www.erinpmacdonald.com/

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67. KEVIN SORBO – Hercules in Human Form (actor, producer, director)

Chuck — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 06:00:52 +0000

Kevin Sorbo is an actor, producer & director, who received international stardom when he booked the lead role in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Following that success he had the lead role as “Captain Dylan Hunt” in Gene Roddenberry’s “Andromeda”—the first show created by Roddenberry after the original Star Trek series. But more recently Kevin has become known for his family-friendly Christian films such as “God’s Not Dead” , “Let There Be Light” and “Christmas Dreams”.

Kevin has joined us today to discuss his amazing career and his latest family-friendly films. During this interview we discuss how his career began with “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and two life-changing events that occurred during this series. Kevin also talks about his recent projects which include “Bernie the Dolphin”, which was just released December 7, 2018 and is a family adventure about a brother & sister who find a badly sunburned dolphin separated from his family and uncover a secret plan that could destroy the beach and their new friend's home.

Kevin has some incredible Christian-film projects out as well, including “Christmas Dreams”, with reimagined stories of The Nutcracker and the Little Drummer Boy, as well as his 2017 movie “Let There Be Light” (2017) with its devotional book “Share the Light” (including a forward by Franklin Graham). He also mentions his recent Silent Night short movie, which was released Thanksgiving 2018 and he discusses his role as Chair & spokesperson for “A World Fit for Kids!”, a mentoring model that trains inner-city teens to use school, fitness, sports & positive role models.

For more information about Kevin, visit:

https://www.kevinsorbo.net/

For more information on the movies mentioned during this episode:

Main title song from the soundtrack “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” used with permission from Varese Sarabande.

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66. ANGELA CARTWRIGHT: The Original “Penny Robinson” talks Lost in Space, Sound of Music

Chuck — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 06:00:53 +0000

Born in Cheshire, England, Angela moved with her family to Los Angeles, California and started her acting career at the age of 3 playing Paul Newman’s daughter in the movie Somebody Up There Likes Me. At the tender age of four Angela was cast to play Linda Williams for 7 years on the hit television series The Danny Thomas Show as Danny’s daughter.

Angela was then cast as Brigitta von Trapp in the legendary film The Sound of Music. Shortly after she was offered the role of Penny Robinson the iconic television show, Lost in Space. Angela has guest starred in numerous television shows, commercials and movies over her six decade career in show business.
She married in 1976, raised two children and is a Grandmother of three.

As an author Angela’s award-winning coffee table book Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures from the Twentieth Century Fox Archive offers never before seen photographs and a behind the scenes exclusive glimpse inside Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox Studio archives. Now available in paperback.

Continuing to pursue her passion for art and photography, Angela's art is collected around the world. Her books Mixed Emulsions – Altered Art Techniques for Photographic Imagery, In This House: A Collection of Altered Art Imagery and Collage Techniques, and In This Garden: Explorations in Mixed Media Visual Narrative, explores her original hand-painted photography and her unique altered art techniques. Angela also conceived and collaborated on The Sound of Music Family Scrapbook.

Angela's art is collected around the world and she has pioneered and produced a clothing and jewelry line, Angela Cartwright Studio, which incorporates her hand painted art.ography images on art.wear, jewelry and accessories. She travels the world with teaching her art techniques and leads a unique trip to Salzburg, Austria sharing her Sound of Music behind the scenes experiences.

Angela and her Lost In Space co-star Bill Mumy collaborated on a pictorial memoir, Lost (and Found) In Space, which offers photographs and personal tales while filming the show for 3 years.

Her latest project, On Purpose, a fantasy adventure novel Angela wrote with her co-star Bill Mumy, includes twenty-three of her illustrations to accompany the book that was released in 2018.

She enjoys her children and grandchildren and makes her home in California with her husband Steve. Angela has found her purpose is to love, laugh and always create.

For more information, visit:

https://www.angela-cartwright.com

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58. MARS INVASION: 80th Anniversary of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast – interview with Erika Dowell

Chuck — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 06:00:43 +0000

80 years ago, Orson Welles caused a panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”. This broadcast, on Sunday evening, October 30, 1938, was realistic enough that some listeners actually thought the Earth was under attack by Martians. Erika Dowell, the associate director and curator of modern books and manuscripts at Indiana University’s Lilly Library joins us to discuss the impact of this broadcast. Recently the Lilly Library used cutting-edge technology to digitize the original recording of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast.

For more information, visit https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu

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56. Lady Astronaut Sci-Fi Series Writer – Mary Robinette Kowal

Chuck — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 06:00:27 +0000

Mary Robinette Kowal is a writer, professional puppeteer and an incredible narrator. She is also cast member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a three-time Hugo Award winner. Mary Robinette is with us today to discuss the Lady Astronaut novels, an amazing science fiction series that takes us on an alternate timeline after a meteor strike in the 1950s threatens the future of humanity.

In this interview we also discuss Mary Robinette's experience as she joined me for the launch of the Parker Solar Probe in August 2018 and how this will impact her future writing.

For more information, visit https://www.maryrobinettekowal.com

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44. Andy Weir, Bestselling Author of The Martian, Releases Artemis, a story of science and suspense on the Moon

Chuck — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 06:00:32 +0000

Andy Weir built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the enormous success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time. Andy is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics and the history of manned spaceflight. In this episode Andy discusses his background as well as his latest novel, Artemis, an adventurous and suspense story which takes place on the Moon.

For more information, visit https://andyweirauthor.com/

Artemis: A Novel

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36. Lost in Space Reboot Review with Alpha Control’s Laen August

Chuck — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 06:00:35 +0000

In this episode (Spoiler Alert!) we review the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space with Laen August, co-host of the Alpha Control podcast. Laen grew up watching Irwin Allen’s original sci-fi adventure TV series and became a life-long fan. Each week, he and his co-host Kurt review individual episodes of the classic series. Laen is retired US Air Force combat pilot and commander, and travels the globe as a commercial airline pilot.

For more information on Alpha Control: A Lost in Space podcast, visit alphacontrolpodcast.com.

Check out our interview with Netflix Lost in Space executive producers Kevin Burns & Jon Jashni before the series premiered:

22. Lost in Space (Netflix Reboot) Behind the Scenes with Executive Producers Kevin Burns & Jon Jashni

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32. 2001: A Space Odyssey – The Making of a Masterpiece featuring Michael Benson

Chuck — Thu, 17 May 2018 00:26:05 +0000

Michael Benson works at the intersection of art and science. A writer, artist, and filmmaker, his new book, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece examines the four year long production of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and was published on the 50th anniversary of that film’s release. During the last decade Benson has staged a series of increasingly large-scale shows of planetary landscape photography internationally. He takes raw data from planetary science archives and processes it, creating large-format landscapes. He edits, composites, mosaics, and then finally optimizes these images, producing seamless photographs of landscapes currently beyond direct human experience. His show Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System, featuring an original new hour-long ambient composition by Brian Eno titled Deep Space, opened in the Jerwood Gallery of the Natural History Museum in London on January 22nd, 2016. It has since been exhibited at Vienna’s Natural History Museum, the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia, and in Barcelona, Spain, at the CosmoCaixa museum. Otherworlds contains 77 large format digital C prints. Benson’s previous book, Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time, came out in October 2014 and was a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award.

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

For more information, visit https://michael-benson.com

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22. Lost in Space (Netflix Reboot) Behind the Scenes with Executive Producers Kevin Burns & Jon Jashni

Chuck — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 23:00:04 +0000

Executive producers Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni discuss the reboot of Lost in Space that premiered on April 13, 2018. This Netflix Original series features 10 episodes as it traces the story of the Robinson family as they try to survive in hostile space after their ship is thrown off course. This behind-the-scenes discussion covers the thoughts behind the reboot, including the new robot, the special effects, and the notorious Dr. Smith.

Have you seen the new series yet? Share your comments with us on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/onlinecoffeebreak/.

Here's a link to the original series:

Lost in Space: The Complete Original Series [Blu-ray]

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