Category: Psychohistory

Stars End S5E02

In S5E02 we talk about chapters 5 through 8 of Foundation’s Edge.

An Image of the book cover of the Ballentine Paperback Edition.

“Do Nothing Unless You Must and When You Must Act – Podcast”

We’re about 40% of the way into the book now and we’re still introducing characters!

This section introduces us to the Second Foundation including Stor Gendibal, Delora Delarmi, and First Speaker Quindor Shandass, and shows us that the Speakers’ Table is a raucous affair. We also meet Sura Novi, a Trantorian farmwoman who becomes important to Gendibal.

We’re also treated to an Asenion chain of reasoning describing how Janov figured out the characteristics of Earth.

And we answer some hard-hitting questions like “Are any of the characters actually likable?”

You wouldn’t want to miss that, would you? Join us while we discuss “Speaker,” “Earth,” “Farmer,” and “Farmwoman!” When you must — listen! Let’s go!

Stars End S5E01

Welcome to our season 5 premiere in which we talk about the first four chapters of Foundation’s Edge!

“At Odd and Unpredictable Times We Cling in Fright to the Podcast”

Hello, True Believer! We’re back! Again. And we’re ready to dive into season five!

You might recall the beginning of Season 3 when we made a pronouncement like this one. “On the Stars End Podcast, Foundation canon is represented by two separate, yet equally important kinds of seasons” the odd-numbered seasons, which discuss Asimov’s writings, and the even-numbered seasons that talk about the Apple TV+ series.”

That’s been working for us so far, and we have no plans to stop now! And here we are in an odd-numbered season so, we’re starting with the first sequel, Foundation’s Edge, specifically the first four chapters, “Councilman,” “Mayor,” “Historian,” and “Space.” That’s the starting point. We’ll continue in four-chapter chunks through the entire novel. You can probably guess where we’ll go from there, but we promise there will be some treats and surprises along the way.

So join us as we enter the second interregnum between seasons 2 and 3 of the Apple TV+ series. We’ll make sure that this one won’t seem like 30,000 years either!

Stars End S4E12

Join us! It’s our overview of Apple TV’s Foundation Season 2 in the penultimate episode of Stars End’s Fourth Season!

There’s still so much we don’t know! Will Demerzel hunt down and kill Dawn, Sereth, and the baby? Who gave Hari a living body and why? Will Tellum emerge from the Aether to become the Mule? Did anybody remember to scrub all the incest in C-17’s brain before they woke up his pickle? Is the Prime Radiant becoming sentient? Just how many Hari’s are there in a conspiracy, anyway? And where the hell is Dors, damnit!?!

There’s more! And we talk about it all! Well, most of it. Uh… some! Some! No! A bit. A bit. We did do the nose! And the hat!

We also open the Stars End Mail Bag and answer some of your questions!

You’ll want to stick around for the end of this one so you can learn how to help us choose the winners of the Second Semi-Semi Septennial Hari Awards!

Let’s go!

Stars End S4E11

What a wild ride that was! This time we’re talking about the season finale of AppleTV+’s Foundation, “Creation Myths!” Haven’t seen it? Go! Watch it! Now! We’ll be here when you’re done!

Then you can join us for the excitement! Not everybody gets out of this one alive! There are beginnings and endings, twists and turns, conclusions and preludes! Everything a great finale needs!

And don’t go away after this episode! Foundation season two might have concluded but we still have two more episodes to go in our season 4!

In one week we’ll have an overview of what might be called the best season of Foundation so far! And we’ll open up the Stars End Mail Bag as Dave Letterman might have said.

Then, two weeks after that it’s the Second Not Actually Annual Hari Awards for Foundational Excellence! Be on the lookout for the polls, these are your awards as well as ours.

Hmmm… “not actually annual” needs a bit of work. “Sesquiennial” is once every year and a half. Too frequent. “Biennial” means once every two years. Not frequent enough. What’s once every twenty-one months? 21 months x 4 = 84 months which is Seven Years, So, how about Semi-Semi-Septennial? That will have to do.

But never mind that right now! You want to hear about the Season Finale! I know you do! Let’s go!

Stars End S4E10

“Podcasts End Gracefully – Everything Else Ends in Shock and Horror Falsely Certain of Tomorrow.” Hoo, boy do we go on about Foundation, S2E09, “Long Ago, Not Far Away” in this one! We’re joined by Special Guest, Morgan, aka @AsimovPosting on the Dead Bird App.

The Stars End Podcast! This time, 42% longer and with 10% real fruit juice!

Jon had the right idea, the only way to summarize this one is to watch the entire thing! So go watch it! Now! Otherwise, you know, spoiler alert and all that!

But, let’s at least whet your appetite!

We get a big chunk of back story for Danee… er… Demerzel that’s only a small percentage of the whole picture!

You’ll never guess who gets the upper hand in the epic battle between Gaal and Tellem!

And Brother Day (no this one over here) tries to become “The Cleon Who Chose Peace.” How do you suppose that went?

Plus the sickest burn in over eight decades of Foundation stories!

You DO NOT want to miss this one… or the next! This is just the prelude to the season finale!

Let’s GO!

Stars End S4E09

“If the Podcast Can’t Put its Thumb on the Scale, What’s the Point of Having a Thumb?” I don’t know, but l do know that we talk about Foundation, S2E08, “The Last Empress” in this episode!

Just who is “The Last Empress?” In the real world, Roxanne Dawson deserves the gig! She directed the best two episodes of season one and with this outing, she’s outdone herself!

Could it be Enjoinder Rue? That would require a complicated plan involving Brother Dusk, a time machine, and a bottle of Focus Factor… but maybe.

How about Sereth? She seems to be on a path to becoming the next Empress, and she has more irons in the fire than anybody else, if you’ll excuse the expression. And we know the Empire may not last much longer. Next and last could overlap!

Maybe it’s Gaal. She seems to be High-Muckety-Muck–Elect of the Mentalics! Nothing could go wrong there… right?

And don’t write off Salvor! She’s learning how to explode rocks! Don’t mess with the warden!

Did I miss someone?

We’re pretty sure it isn’t the lady with the comically large statue from episode 206.

Do you want to know? Listen to the episode! We’ll make an educated guess! Let’s GO!

Stars End S4E08

“It’s a Bloodless Podcasting Coup” in which we’re joined by friend of the show, Travis Johnson, as we talk about Foundation, S2E07, “A Necessary Death.”

That title sure sounds dreary so it’s hard to believe that it’s attached to an episode that’s just so compulsively watchable! This episode is so compulsively watchable that no fewer than three characters IN the show are themselves watching the show. And that’s last week’s episode! It’s so compulsively watchable that next week’s episode is rumored to consist of nothing but characters watching this week’s episode! It’s so compulsively watchable that one of our hosts has watched the episode so many times that he’s lost count of just how many! Want to know who watched so many times? You’ll have to listen to our episode (and then make an educated guess) to find out!

And meanwhile the pile of bodies at Tellum Bonds’s feet just… keeps… getting… larger…

You want to hear about this episode! Travis and we want to tell you about this episode! You don’t want to miss that and neither do we!

Let’s GO!

Stars End S4E07

“It Takes a While Yet for the Decay to Reach the Podcast” in which we discuss Foundation, S2E06 “Why The Gods Made Wine.”

We hope that we haven’t spoiled you with all the great guests lately, but this week it’s back to just the three of us muddling along.

And speaking of spoiling, as always, we’re working on the assumption that if you’re listening you’ve watched the episode. It’s up to you, but if you don’t want the latest episode of Foundation to be as spoiled as a swig of sour milk you know what to do!

If you were hoping for a Hari-centric episode you should be careful what you wish for. It isn’t all Hari all the time though. Two moments with Hober flash by. Queen Sereth expediently and efficiently drops an audacious power play in front of a stunned and scowling Brother Day. Constant and Poly have barely started trying to see Trantor on 30 Altarian dollars a day when the Secret Police all crowd into their room.

The big chunks of the episode are dealing with the Mentalics on Ignus and a flashback to Hari and Dor… uh… Yanna’s brief time together.

But there’s not much humor in this one. It’s dark. Want a theme for the episode? Let’s get the full quote from the title drop. “The gods, made wine to compensate those who can’t afford revenge.” And I’m pretty sure we’re all out of wine.

Join us!

Stars End S4E06

“The Whole Point of the Podcast is that the Future Isn’t Set in Stone” in which we discuss Foundation, S2E05 “The Sighted and the Seen” This week media analyst, Fordham professor, and Renaissance human Paul Levinson joins the conversation! That Beatles reference below, Paul? That’s for you.

Here’s the usual spoiler warning. If you haven’t, go watch the episode. We’ll be here.

Foundation, Season 2 seems to be leaning even harder on comic relief and sexy time than it had been. Still, the plot wanders forward.

After a fairly dark opening, we get the comic relief from Gaal, Salvor, and Hari. The beggar crashes into a forest on Ignus reminiscent of Star Trek: Generations. Where’s Jordi LaForge when you need him? Salvor yells “I’m flying dead stick!” Hari replies, “Is that bad?” That’s pretty funny but it’s not the best line. They encounter an old friend and then a crowd of mysterious mentalics. Could they be the nucleus of the Second Foundation?

Meanwhile, Sereth and Rue drive their arc forward with the sexy time while the theme of memory is writ large. We learn who was behind the murder of Sareth’s Family while Day is becoming more unstable and Demerzel just keeps getting creepier. Rue manages to send Dawn and Dusk on a journey to see the Wizard, which is to say the vending machine version of Cleon the First. Imagine two Junior High School Elvis impersonators meeting the One True Elvis and you have the idea. Later they’re impressed by the size of C-1’s… uh… data.

It’s a lot to digest and we talk about it. You should join us! We can’t promise it will help, but a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Stars End S4E05

“The Podcast Itself is Inconsequential When Measured Against the Scale of the Galaxy” in which we discuss Foundation, S2E04 “Where the Stars are Scattered Thinly” We’re joined this week by Joel McKinnon, host of ⁠Seldon Crisis,⁠ another excellent Foundation Podcast!

As the season slows down a bit to focus on some of the significant plotlines we get the closest thing to a special Valentine’s Day episode that this show could possibly do.

from cryptogram.com/

Meanwhile, Gaal, as the narrator, tells us repeatedly that “Psychohistory does not give a damn about how you monkeys hook up.” I’m paraphrasing.

The narration notwithstanding the situation on Terminus is framed by Hober and Constant’s sexual tension. Will they or won’t they? Watch the episode!

We learn a lot about the situation with Queen Sereth. Sereth flirts with Brother Dawn! Rue flirts with Brother Dusk! It’s all about what Brother Day may or may not have done. Will anybody flirt with Markley? Only time will tell!

And we see Bel Riose’s story unfolding through the lens of his relationship with Glawin. “By the time you recognize an atrocity,” says Glawin “you may have already been complicit in one!” What does that mean? I don’t know, but it seems ominous!

At least we don’t see Day and Demerzel in this context; I don’t need to hear my skin crawl this week.

It all seems important! I’m pretty sure Gaal is an unreliable narrator here.

Also, enough is going on about wine to make for a reasonable freshman comp essay or at least a session or two with a good therapist.

We’ve got a lot to talk about! Don’t miss this one!