This week, we’re taking a look at the legacy of one of Japan’s most influential poets: Ki no Tsurayuki. His…
Cora and Demetria take a trip to a future that’s obsessed with the past. Is Westworld a typical 70s western, or is it a twisted nostalgia trip through 50s western tropes? Is it saying something about American masculinity, or is it just a story about scary amusement parks? And are these robots even sentient, or just glitchy?
This week, we’re unpacking a rather odd classic of Japanese literature: the Ise Monogatari, a collection of short tales that…
We’re tackling one of our most confusing legal systems yet in a case so complicated no one could even figure out which jurisdiction covered it. Because there was no law covering criminal negligence, the accidental sinking of the warship Chishima was tried in a civil court–but Japan’s bizarre treaty system forced the emperor of Japan to personally take his suit to a British court on Chinese soil.
This week: we tend to think of tea in terms of the tea ceremony and fancy culture, but what about…
We’re jumping into AI art creation with Magali. When we generate artistic images with a bot, who’s the real artist? And can we make an art bot draw itself?
This week: how did a spate of right wing violence in the early years of the 1960s help to fundamentally…
We’re closing out Pride month with a look at a country where Pride demonstrations are banned. How did Russia go from relative tolerance to extreme repression? Why did so much Soviet propaganda feature men kissing? And how did a law about kids’ media turn into a human rights violation?
This week: why did the Japanese Socialist Party and the left more generally utterly fail to capitalize on the momentum…
Author S.A. Chant joins us again to discuss what it’s like to write a story about robots. How does the perspective of the point-of-view character change the way we experience science fiction? What does representation mean in a genre full of non-human characters? And where can trans science fiction go from here?