Category: The Apple+Series

Episode 11

As the Manimal threshold fades into the rear-view mirror, we reach our next milestone, with number 11, we now have as many episodes as Cop Rock!  You know, it takes most shows years to get around to a musical episode, but those guys? Musical episode right out of the gate!  Never fear, though; Stars End: The Musical is toward the end of our Thousand Year Plan.

Right now, please join us for Episode 11 – A Podcast Has No End.

And podcasts don’t, but books and trilogies do.  We’re at the end of Second Foundation, and we talk about the very last story, “Search by the Foundation,” known as “…And Now You Don’t” when it was published in Astounding.  We’ll meet Bayta Darell’s granddaughter, Arkady, and see a reveal of where the Second Foundation might be, followed by the reveal that there is no Second Foundation, followed by another reveal that the Second Foundation might be somewhere else, and then… well, you get the idea.  Plus, we discuss the latest trailer and squeeze in one more round of Asimov Trivia before we start Season 2, coming soon to one of them WWWs near you!

Please join us!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tQHOkowngydUG5gSfK92O?si=1I-NPGC-SiyFwkS501yIiQ&dl_branch=1

New Trailer

Not much to say yet, we’re still digesting, we just got this a few minutes ago. Looks spectacular!

Episode 8

Hello, again folks! It’s 8/8 (or if you write dates the European way 8/8) and here we are with Episode 8, “It’s a Dead Hand Against a Living Podcast.” We’re quite proud, we now officially have just as many episodes as Manimal! Imagine! For those of you tracking our milestones, eight is a very round number: It’s “10” in base eight, “20” in base four, and “1000” in base two. Soon, once we’re past the Manimal barrier, we’ll quickly approach an actual, genuine round number. In base ten even. Tom Lehrer tells us that “Base eight is just like base ten really, if you’re missing two fingers” but maybe it will be even better!

As for what’s in store we start off with our “Apple TV+” minute where we see what we can learn from an interview with David Goyer, Foundation‘s show-runner. We have another round of “Asimov Trivia” and discuss the first half of the second half of Foundation and Empire, “The Mule.” One of the highlights of the series.

Coincidently, this part of “The Mule” ran in the November 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction which was the first issue to go to press after the Atomic Bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. We’ll take a moment to reflect on John W. Campbell’s editorial from that issue.

Please join us!

Episode 7

All the children danced in the street! “It’s here! It’s here!” they cried! “The seventh episode of Stars End is here!!”

It’s true! Our seventh episode, “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing a podcast” is now available! Even though we had some technical difficulties (the sound quality isn’t up to our usual standards; our apologies) it’s a great episode!

Cora Buhlert

It’s great in part because it’s different! We’re honored to welcome Cora Buhlert as our first guest on the podcast! Instead of talking about Foundation, we’ll talk to someone else about Foundation. Also, science fiction in general, becoming an SF fan as a kid, Hugo Awards and, a bunch of other stuff.

Cora is an amazingly prolific and eclectic writer. So prolific that Jon joked about her owning “Asimov’s Typewriter” and we suddenly had a new imaginary episode of Warehouse 13 in our heads. So eclectic that no matter your tastes there’s a good chance that she’s written something that you’d enjoy. If you like stories about galactic empires like Foundation, she’s written two full series you might like, In Love and War and Shattered Empire.  She’s also a two-time Hugo Finalist for Best Fan Writer.

I could go on and we do in the Episode. She was an excellent first guest and you can learn more about her at corabuhlert.com.

The episode is also great because it’s the same! We have new installments of our two regular features, the “Apple TV+ Minute” and “Asimov Trivia.: In the Trivia segment, we explore Asimov and Comic Books while in the Apple TV minute we react to the new trailer which you can watch “with” us right here!

Join us and Enjoy! Please rate and review.

Episode 6

Episode 6: “A Podcast is a Good Weapon but It Can Point Both Ways” is now available! This week, Dan starts his tenure as quiz master, Joseph learns what wasn’t covered in his Shakespeare class (way back in 1988) and as always Jon tries to keep us all on track.

We also have breaking news! So breaking that we had to add an addendum in post-production! That means Monday.

And of course, we start discussing “The General,” the first section of Foundation and Empire. This one is almost like Asimov himself was replying to our discussions of the “Great Man” theory of history vs. the “Bottom Up Theory.” Join us!

Breaking News

Dateline: Trantor.

Two bits of Breaking Foundation news this morning.

First, we have a definitive start date for the program, 24 September 2021. That’s almost like a birthday present; I’ll be 682 months on that day.

Second, here’s Foundation’s second trailer. Not to be confused with a trailer for Second Foundation. Don’t be impatient; 80 episodes for this one first.

Episode 3

As foretold! Mayors! Bridles! Saddles! Oddly, no actual horses! And the ultimate answer to the ultimate cliffhanger! It’s “A Podcast must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Episode!”

Also show news, we react to the trailer (this one, here)…

…and more Asimov trivia! Join us! Please rate and review.

Our Foundation

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is considered one of the greatest works in the History of Science Fiction. The original Trilogy was awarded the Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series at the 1966 World Science Fiction Convention.

Later this year, Apple TV+ will debut a television program based on this series. Here’s a trailer.

We’re a group of middle-aged guys who loved this series as teenagers. Now we’re looking forward to revisiting the books in anticipation of the TeeVee show and then enjoying the show itself. We’ll talk about this and hopefully, through this podcast, bring you along for the ride. We want to do our part to bring this series to a new group of fans who are hopefully far more diverse than the three of us.

And who are we exactly?

Dan is a Canadian-American dual citizen currently living in Edmonton with his wife, daughter, and naughty cat. He has been a quiet but enthusiastic Asimov fan since his father introduced him to the Foundation series in the early ’80s. He can frequently be found tweeting sci-fi dad jokes as @MrEarlG.

Jon has been consuming science fiction and fantasy for an embarrassingly long time and may have seen some of the episodes of Star Trek (The Original Series) when they were originally broadcast, though he was pretty young then. He has a lot of opinions on things.

And Joseph is a lifelong science fiction fan who has also managed to amass a ridiculously large collection of comic books. He is a mathematics professor at Elmira College who has been lucky enough to also teach classes like “Science Fiction and Fantasy,” “Comic Books and Graphic Novels” and “Mysterious Worlds: The Science Fiction of Arthur C. Clarke.” He also writes a blog called Comics, The Universe and Everything. You can read a bit more about him here.

Please join us for Stars End: A Foundation Podcast. Our first episode will be available soon!

Image Credits:

Our featured image is a picture of the Galactic Center in the Public Domain and found on Wikimedia Commons. Author: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/CXC/STScIg