Archive for 10 and Up

Escape Pod 53: Seventy-Five Years

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:25 — 17.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated G. Contains politics and reference to moral issues. (Your kids may not get it, but it shouldn’t offend.)

Referenced sites:
2006 Hugo Nominees
Wikipedia on the Hugo Award
Hugo History at a Glance
Novel Nominees – Electronic Editions
Rock ‘N’ Roll Monster Bash 2006

Seventy-Five Years

by Michael A. Burstein

Isabel turned the handheld on and read to herself briefly. “According to this, your bill would push the date of release of the individual Census forms from seventy-two to seventy- five years.”

“It makes sense, Isabel.”

“It does?”

He pointed to her handheld. “You say you have my argument in there.”

“I do. And I find it specious.”

Escape Pod 50: The Malcontent

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:18 — 22.9MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains killer robots, incidental violence, and love looked for in all the wrong places.

The Malcontent

by Stephen Eley

Finally Nicholas summoned his overseers and all other servants who were mobile to his chamber. “You are merely robots,” Nicholas said, “but I know you are not stupid. Doubtless during my withdrawal you laid plans to snare me again, to draw me against my will into a plot for my own happiness.”

“Harshly said, sir,” said the Overseer of Planning, “but essentially correct. We have found a young lady with whom we feel you will establish a more-than-satisfactory rapport, and taken measures to ensure that you shall not avoid her.”

Escape Pod 48: Soul Food

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:00 — 20.6MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains deep moral and gastronomical issues. And yelling.

Soul Food

By Paul E. Martens

They are a quick lot, these humans. They dart about, rushing here, there, everywhere, as if something were chasing them. They speak quickly, as well. I have to remember the sounds they
make, then replay them in my memory at a slower speed to decipher their words. And my mission is not made any easier by the way they perceive it, and therefore me. To them, the fact that I have come to eat one of them automatically makes me a monster.

Escape Pod 45: Are You Ready For the End of the World?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:30 — 18.9MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains a planet in peril, almost-helpful aliens, and a sociopathic football player. One or more of the three fail to come out on top.

Referenced sites:
Infection by Scott Sigler

(Technical Note: Stupidity on my part this morning resulted in the file being unavailable for a few hours. That’s fixed. To make sure everyone’s RSS feeds refresh, I’m replacing the original post. If you get the file twice, my apologies. Please e-mail me if you have any problems.)

Are You Ready For the End of the World?

by Danny Adams

Would you like to know how to escape the imminent destruction of the Earth?

Sure, we all would.

And this site can help. Our specially-trained instructors can assist you in putting together your very own personal starship to get off this planet before its obliteration.

Escape Pod 44: Show and Tell

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:52 — 16.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains mild scenes of violence enacted by somewhat strange children.

Referenced sites:
The Numbers – Movie Budgets
Lies and Little Deaths: A Virtual Anthology
The Speech Accent Archive

Show and Tell

By Greg van Eekhout

Dex asks if he can keep the bullet, and Brindi says to give it back, and Teacher reminds her to say please. Brindi agrees to throw bullets at the rest of us, so she does the thing with her finger and it’s BOOM, BOOM, BOOM and whip-whip-whip for the next few minutes.

When she’s done there’s smoke in the air and it stinks and we applaud and give back her bullets. Brindi has had a great show, and I don’t know how anyone can beat it.

Show and Tell is important because it prepares us to be impressive.

Genres:

Escape Pod 42: Practical Villainy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:05 — 18.6MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Fictional animals were harmed in the making of this podcast. Also knights, damsels, dragons, and medieval economies.

Referenced sites:
Dragon Page Wingin’ It

Musical guest: Jonathan Coulton.

Practical Villainy

By Janni Lee Simner

The first thing I want you to know is that I drowned those kittens for a reason. Villains rarely do anything without purpose, and I’m no exception, to that or any other rule. Irrational, passionate acts are for heroes, with their bright armor and their grand ideas, their conviction that with enough heart they can right any wrong, unravel any curse. My dragons were once well-fed on their kind, and their skulls still decorate the spikes above my gates.

Escape Pod 40: Even Vadsø Thaws

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:05 — 13.8MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains themes of ecoterrorism and global disaster. If you can explain that to your kids, it’s family-safe.

Referenced sites:
Short-Short Stories by Bruce Holland Rogers
SciFi Dimensions

Musical guest: Red Hunter.

Even Vadsø Thaws

By Bruce Holland Rogers

The only person who might understand is Sponheim, the Corrections Sociologist. He just arrived. It’s his job to understand me thoroughly and to write a report that his successors will use to decide if it’s safe to revive me. His report will help them decide if I am no longer a threat to society because society has changed enough to deal with me, or has learned to treat behaviors like mine.

“I am already remorseful!” I tell him at our first interview. “I won’t do it again!” We are sitting at a table by the water. A light mist falls. “I shouldn’t have done it, shouldn’t even have thought about it. Once, I was one of the people fighting to preserve the last wild polar bears! I wanted to protect the earth!” I get myself worked up. I am close to tears.

Escape Pod 37: Craphound

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:00 — 31.6MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains some profanity. That’s it, really.

Referenced sites:
Mostly News
Escape Pod Submission Guidelines

Craphound

By Cory Doctorow

Craphound beat me out the door, as usual. His exoskeleton is programmable, so he can record little scripts for it like: move left arm to door handle, pop it, swing legs out to running-board, jump to ground, close door, move forward. Meanwhile, I’m still making sure I’ve switched off the headlights and that I’ve got my wallet.

Escape Pod 34: Free Will, Baby

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:00 — 25.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains supernatural violence, sexual harassment, and telemarketers from Hell. (Not a redundancy.)

Referenced sites:
PodcasterCon
Escape Pod CD Offer

Free Will, Baby

By Janni Lee Simner

“Hello, this is Kara Donnelly, with Lucifer Enterprises. Whom am I–”

“Yeah,” the man said, as if he’d been expecting her. “My wife just left me. When she takes me to court next month, I want everything she’s got.”

“Well, I’m certain we can arrange that.” Kara smiled. She’d heard somewhere that if you smiled, your voice sounded more pleasant over the phone. “If I could just get some information, I’ll have one of our representatives call back to arrange a meeting.”

Genres:

Escape Pod 31: Robots and Falling Hearts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:06 — 35.1MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG. Contains slight profanity, long flirtations, and excessive Zen. Watch for falling metaphors.

Referenced sites:
Child’s Play
Hooting Yard

Robots and Falling Hearts

By Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout

I paused to tie a loose shoelace and a squat robot, like a dirty white trashcan on tank-treads, trundled out of an alley toward me. A red light on top of its domelike top blinked erratically. It said, in a high-pitched voice, “Klaatu barada nikto.” A small panel slid open in its front, and a pole with a cup on the end telescoped out. There were a few coins in the cup, mostly pennies and nickels, and the robot jingled the cup significantly.

“Take me to your leader,” I said, wishing it could be that simple, knowing that these things are never that simple. The robot beeped at me and jingled its cup harder, the coins rattling.

“It won’t go away unless you give it some change,” said a woman standing on the corner. “It followed me all the way to work one day, and hung around outside the door like a dog for hours.”

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