The Future And You
Ideas and opinion about the future based on verifiable facts of today.
 
February 24, 2010 Episode

Speakers and attendees from the World Future Convention '09 held in Chicago.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 24, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 29 minutes] These interviews were recorded July 18-19, 2009.

Topics:

A dozen college students from Student Pugwash describe the mission of this international organization, as well as what worries them about the future and what gives them the most hope. These students include: Jessica Holsinger, Nick Lilovich, Autumn Rains, and Alex Webster.

Vicki Stein (program director of Future Problem Solving Program International) describes how FPSPI teaches children a step-by-step method of problem solving which can be used for the real-life problems they will face outside the classroom.

Shashi Parulekar (of Natural State Research) describes how his company is working to make fuel out of waste plastic.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_2_24.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

February 17, 2010 Episode

Frederik Pohl (author of Gateway--the classic science fiction novel which won the Nebula, Hugo, Campbell and Locus awards) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 17, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the second half of this interview, which was recorded on January 30, 2010.

Topics: How he and Arthur C. Clarke became friends many decades ago; and how in Arthur's declining years Arthur asked Fred to finish a book that he had started but could not complete. Fred's years working as a literary agent--during which he became Isaac Asimov's first agent, and sold Isaac's first novel: A Pebble in the Sky. His work as the editor of various magazines including Astonishing, Galaxy and If--which is when he bought Larry Niven's first few professional stories, and when he hired Judy-Lynn del Rey as his secretary at Galaxy Magazine even though she knew nothing about Science Fiction at the time. (This was long before she worked at Ballantine Books, married Lester del Rey, and became so influential at Ballantine that they put her in charge of an imprint and named it after her.) Miscellaneous topics include: how he came to write for Playboy Magazine; why he wrote under so many pseudonyms; his method of collaborating with other authors; and how he become Encyclopedia Britannica's first official authority on the Roman Emperor Tiberius.

Frederik Pohl is a science fiction writer, and has been a book and magazine editor, as well as a poet, critic, literary agent and teacher. He edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_2_17.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

February 10, 2010 Episode

Frederik Pohl (author of Gateway--the classic science fiction novel which won the Nebula, Hugo, Campbell and Locus awards) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 10, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the first half of this interview, which was recorded on January 30, 2010.

Topics: predicting the future using the Delphi Method; his co-founding of The Futurians; his nonfiction books: The Way the Future Was, Our Angry Earth, and Science as a Spectator Sport; the Americanization of the world (which he has witnessed by traveling to more than 50 different nations); his modest contribution to democracy in Moscow; how he was excluded from attending the very first WorldCon; and a few insights about his long-term friends: Donald A. Wollheim (the creator of DAW Books), and Isaac Asimov.

Frederik Pohl is a science fiction writer, and has been a book and magazine editor, as well as a poet, critic, literary agent and teacher. He edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine If, winning the Hugo for If three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

I asked Fred for this interview for several reasons: I'd read Gateway in 1977 when it first came out  (I was 22 and still impressionable); a few weeks ago, his buddy Gregory Benford suggested that I interview him; and because, just a few months ago, Frederik Pohl celebrated his 90th birthday.

 

Direct download: TFAY_2010_2_10.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

February 3, 2010 Episode

Gregory Benford (Nebula Award winning author, physicist and professor) is today's featured guest.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the February 3, 2010 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 34 minutes] This is the second half of the interview recorded on January 16, 2010.

Topics: the Neanderthal Genome Project and the two teams working on bringing back the Woolly Mammoth; his impression of the 3D movie Avatar; why he became an atheist and the growing cultural bias he sees toward those who remain religious; how e-books have the big New York book publishing houses terror-stricken; his approach to electronic rights for his own books; the goals of The Mars Society and of The L5 Society; the life extension product he is involved with (Genescient); his going to school with Vernor Vinge, and how they differ in their expectation of The Singularity; the new book he and Larry Niven are working on; and the short story he wrote that horrified his friend Ray Bradbury.

In popular culture Gregory Benford: is a science fiction writer with over twenty novels to his credit; has won the Nebula Award twice; in 1989 was host and scriptwriter for the television documentary series A Galactic Odyssey; and also served as scientific consultant for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In academia Gregory Benford: has a doctorate in physics; is a professor of physics at the University of California; conducts research in plasma turbulence and in astrophysics; has published well over a hundred scientific papers; and has served as an advisor to the Department of Energy, NASA and the White House Council on Space Policy.

Direct download: TFAY_2010_2_3.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:01am EDT