Exploring Big Questions and Big Feelings through Speculative Fiction with Grace Chan

In this episode, Krystle chats with Grace Chan about her novel Every Version of You, the story of which Grace tongue-in-cheekly describes as being about ‘staying in love after mind-uploading into virtual reality’. Spoiler: it’s loaded with meaning and big feelings and has us question what it is to be human. Krystle and Grace also geek out, discussing Neuralink (Elon Musk’s brain implant company), FKA Twigs’ AI doppelgänger, and Chinese scientists’ recent success in freezing brain tissue without damage.About Grace Chan:Grace Chan is an award-winning speculative fiction writer. She writes about brains, minds, and space. Her debut novel, Every Version of You, won The University of Sydney’s People’s Choice Award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and The Age’s ‘Book of the Year’. It was longlisted for the Stella Prize and Indie Book Awards. Her writing can be found in Clarkesworld, Escape Pod, Going Down Swinging, and many other places. Grace’s short stories have been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards,  her story As Though I Were A Little Sun winning 'Best Science Fiction Short Story' in 2022.Grace was born in Malaysia and works and lives on the unceded lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people. Every Version of You is available here, by request from your local bookstore, and other online retailers.Find Grace:Grace Chan WritesRDDIWTOF PodcastInstagramTwitterAbout Krystle Marie:Krystle Marie is a mixed, neurodivergent sort-of writer based in Meanjin. She’s thrilled to have interned with SWN as a soon-to-be graduate of UQ’s Master of Writing, Editing and Publishing program. She's currently into Japanese-language immersion. She's always into noise-cancelling headphones.The Science Write Now (SWN) Podcast is for people who love science and the arts. If you’re interested in learning more about great books, plays, and films; writing, research or editing; the lives of scientists; and creative insights into contemporary science; then you’ve come to the right place! The SWN Podcast is hosted by Amanda Niehaus and Jessica White and produced by Taylor Mitchell with funding from the Australia Council for the Arts.Listen on-the-go on Google, Apple and Spotify now! You can also find and follow us online - on Twitter - on Instagram - and on Facebook.Our opening song is 'Balmain' by Pure Milk: https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/pure-milk.html Read the transcript here.Enjoyed this episode? Share the SWN love!If you liked this episode, leave us a review and share it far and wide. Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.