Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

Science fiction author David Barr Kirtley talks geek culture with guests such as Neil Gaiman (#253), George R. R. Martin (#22), Richard Dawkins (#46), Wil Wheaton (#398), Bill Nye (#273), Margaret Atwood (#94), Neil deGrasse Tyson (#32), and Ursula K. Le Guin (#65). Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy has appeared on recommended podcast lists from NPR, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, BBC America, CBC Radio, WVXU, io9, Omni, The Strand, Library Journal, and Popular Mechanics. CBC Radio writes, “You may not think a podcast about science fiction and fantasy would be the place to go for political insight, but — it is. Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy manages to be more insightful about politics than many pundits.” Help crowdfund us at patreon.com/geeks

Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age

Escaping Gravity is former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver’s firsthand account of how a handful of revolutionaries overcame the political patronage and bureaucracy that threatened the space agency. The success of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, and countless other commercial space efforts were preceded by decades of work by a group of people Garver calls “space pirates.” Their quest to transform NASA put Garver in the crosshairs of Congress, the aerospace industry, and hero-astronauts trying to protect their own profits and mythology within a system that had held power since the 1950s. […Learn More]

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future: What Yesterday’s Science and Science Fiction Tell Us About the World of Tomorrow

From the bestselling authors and hosts of “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe,” a high-tech roadmap of the future in their beloved voice, cracking open the follies of futurists past and how technology will profoundly change our world, redefining what it means to be human. […Learn More]

Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics, and Risks of De-Extinction

What happens when you try to recreate a woolly mammoth—fascinating science, or conservation catastrophe?

In Rise of the Necrofauna, Wray takes us deep into the minds and labs of some of the world’s most progressive thinkers to find out. She introduces us to renowned futurists like Stewart Brand and scientists like George Church, who are harnessing the powers of CRISPR gene editing in the hopes of “reviving” extinct passenger pigeons, woolly mammoths, and heath hens. […Learn More]

Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons

Role-playing game historian Ben Riggs unveils the secret history of TSR― the company that unleashed imaginations with Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, and then saved by their bitterest rival. […Learn More]

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed The Innovators is a “riveting, propulsive, and at times deeply moving” (The Atlantic) story of the people who created the computer and the internet.

What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? […Learn More]