Episode 574: Cozy Apocalyptic

Real Life

This week's episode is stacked—like a plate at Boar & Barley (Ben barely survived, oh God). Speaking of Milwaukee, Devon had some things to say, and Steven dove into Rick and Morty season 8 on HBO—has the quality shifted? Plus, Marvel's Thunderbolts snuck its way into the convo.

Future or Now 

Devon brought us back to the Bob-verse world with Dennis E. Taylor's Flybot. He called it "enjoyable" (which is Devon for a glowing review). Near-future tech, asteroid mining, eco-terrorists, and a scrappy AI robot pieced together from spare parts—this one's a cozy puzzle-box of sci-fi. We also asked: is this "Casual Sci-Fi"? "Cozy Sci-Fi"? Someone trademark that.

Ben, meanwhile, shouted "Star Trek? Hell yeah, brother" and broke down Noah Hawley's almost-made Star Trek film that would've tied directly into The Next Generation. Read more here.

Steven brought his A-game with Alien: Earth episode 5—he swears it's the best Alien movie in a long time. High praise.

Book Club 

Patron Renee joined us! She told us about her latest comic-con adventures and stuck with us for the whole episode (you love to see it).

This week we read "Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson—a story that scooped up basically all the awards back in the early '90s (Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, Asimov's Readers, you name it). It feels like something straight out of Haruki Murakami—quiet, strange, and deeply human. Oh, and yes, we did wonder aloud: what if it was Banthas Discover Fire?

📖 Read it here: Lightspeed Magazine
🎬 DUST adaptation: Watch on YouTube
🎧 Audiobook: Listen here

Next week: "When the Yogurt Took Over" by John Scalzi (which also got the Love, Death + Robots treatment). Check it out here.