The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 

Catherine Smith (insect genetics lab-tech), Bruce Gehweiler (publisher at Marietta Publishing), Mike McPhail and his wife Danielle Ackley-McPhail (authors), Warren Buff (chairman of the SF&F convention Stellarcon), Shannon Souvinette and her daughter Elaina (art show organizers at LibertyCon), Shannon Presley (Radio DJ at WBVR), Klon Newell (book dealer), and David Benedict (of the Atlanta Radio Theater Company) are our guests today.

This is the second of our two episodes containing interviews recorded at the SF&F convention LibertyCon on July 12, 2008. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 30, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 80 minutes]

Topics covered by our various guests include trends in: digital art, genetic methods of insect control, electronic publishing (especially as relates to Amazon's new Kindle ebook reader), gaming, the dark truth about fairy legends, space exploration, scientific peer review journals going online, government regulations, and how writers may soon have little need of publishers.

Direct download: TFAY_2008_7_30.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Authors David B. Coe and Travis Taylor; artist David Mattingly; and convention organizers Uncle Timmy, Brandy Spraker and Derek Spraker are our guests today. 

Topics: David Mattingly discusses trends in the digital production of commercial art.  Travis Taylor talks of the launch vehicle that will replace the soon to be retired Space Shuttle.  David B. Coe describes his take on our escalating energy crisis and the bold proposals of T. Boone Pickens.

Recorded at the SF&F convention LibertyCon on July 12, 2008, and hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 23, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 68 minutes]

David Mattingly is an award winning illustrator and painter who has done over five hundred science fiction and fantasy book covers.  The former head of the matte department at Walt Disney Studios, he has worked on the movies The Black Hole, Tron, Dick Tracy, Stephen King's The Stand and most recently I, Robot.

David B. Coe is an award winning author of epic fantasy novels, including those of his series Winds of the Forelands, who holds a doctorate in environmental history.

Travis Taylor is a research scientist and the author of scientifically accurate science fiction.  His novels include Warp Speed, The Quantum Connection, Von Neumann's War, and his latest novel: One Day on Mars.

Our other guests include several of LibertyCon's organizers: Uncle Timmy: the con chairman.  As well as Brandy Spraker and Derek Spraker both of whom wear many organizational hats. 

Direct download: TFAY_2008_7_23.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Harry Turtledove, David B. Coe, and Toni Weisskopf are our featured guests today. Interviewed as a group and recorded before a live audience, they discuss the future of books and the trends they see in publishing.

In the process of sharing their vision of the future they also share many personal anecdotes about themselves and about famous authors they have met, including: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, Mike Resnick, Sarah A. Hoyt, Lois McMaster Bujold, Charles Sheffield and Catherine Asaro.

Harry Turtledove is an award winning science fiction & fantasy author best known for his novels of alternate history. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA in Byzantine history. (Web, Wiki

David B. Coe is an award winning author of epic fantasy novels who holds a Ph.D. in environmental history. (Web, Wiki)

Toni Weisskopf is an award winning editor and the head of Baen Books: the world renowned publishing house of SF&F hardbacks, paperbacks and electronic books. Baen Books was founded by Jim Baen, and is the owner of Jim Baen’s Universe Magazine, where your humble host is a columnist and contributing editor. (Web, Wiki)

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 16, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 69 minutes] This interview was recorded on July 12, 2008 at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Chattanooga TN called LibertyCon.

Direct download: TFAY_2008_7_16.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Mark Forman, who has lived and worked in Taiwan for over twenty years and is host of the podcast Big in Asia, is our featured guest. (His websites: business, personal, podcast.)

An eye-witness to the trends which are shaping Asia's rapidly changing future, Mark Forman is an American businessman from Brooklyn New York who studied Chinese language and culture at the University of Arizona and, during the last two decades, has traveled a great deal in China as well as within many of its neighboring countries.

In today's interview he describes his personal observations of the changes sweeping the Asian world and especially Greater China. Greater China is a term commonly used in business and economics to indicate not just mainland China, but also the regions that it governs, such as Hong Kong, as well as the regions it does not govern, such as Taiwan. 

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 9, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 59 minutes]

While the topics covered in this interview range all over Asia, much of the focus is on mainland China and its relationship to other countries. This is because of all the countries in Asia, China has the biggest influence on the rest of the world and yet (since the Bamboo Curtain is only now beginning to fall) for most Westerners it is the least understood. 

Topics discussed include: the transformation of China from an anti-business communist economy to a pro-business free-market economy; the rise of Chinese consumerism; how internet access (including Google and Wikipedia) are eroding Chinese government censorship and forcing a new openness; the possibility of democracy taking root in China, and how a non-western democracy might be defined; the 2008 Olympics in Beijing; and of course much, much more.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2008_7_9.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT


Kevin J. Anderson, the best selling science fiction and fantasy author, is our guest today.  (His website.)

Co-author of the Dune prequels, his original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. A prolific science fiction author, he has had at least 32 of his novels on the various best seller lists including the famous New York Times Bestseller's list. His books have been translated into at least twenty-four languages, and have sold over 16 million copies worldwide. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files. In addition to all this, he has served as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 2, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 56 minutes]

In today's interview Kevin J. Anderson describes his ideas and observations on a variety of topics such as the current global energy crisis, peak oil theory, solar and nuclear power, and his new purchase of a fuel efficient car.

Having returned from a month long promotional tour of Australia and New Zealand, he describes his surprise at how different public opinion about Global Warming is down there compared to in the US. There is an overwhelming acceptance of the concept, and crowds greet Al Gore with the admiration and enthusiasm usually reserved for rock stars.

He is not comfortable that we will soon retire the space shuttle with nothing to replace it. Even now, he points out, we have to ask the Russians to take our astronauts up to the international space station for us. 

He also ponders some serious questions: If the Middle Eastern dictators thumb their noses at China, the Chinese government--which unlike the USA does not set limits on how it treats its own people much less outsiders--may very well invade the oil rich countries and take their oil by force. And if future nanotechnology allows everyone to have everything they want what kind of civilization will we have? Will people still work? Will most crime go away? What in our lives will remain the same? 

Direct download: TFAY_2008_7_2.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT