Tag: Foundation on AppleTV+

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.

Next Time on Stars End

We just recorded our fifth episode last night. Five isn’t a big, round number, it isn’t even a round number. But it is half of a round number. Also it is prime. Prime numbers are cool. Let’s call it a minor milestone.

Five episodes is almost as many as Manimal, which was quality programming. It was a philosophical examination of the human state and its relationship to the environment in the postindustrial age. Probably. I never watched it but I’m sure that’s what it was about. That or a werewolf detective or something but probably the first thing. Anyway, almost as many as Manimal and we did it without being notoriously terrible or infamously offensive! Mostly.

https://i0.wp.com/www.philsp.com/visco/Magazines/ASF/ASF_0165.jpg

Unlike “the Wedge” (aka The Traders), which was published with little to no fanfare, John W. Campbell was a lot more enthusiastic about “The Big and the Little” (aka The Merchant Princes). It takes up the lion’s share of July’s coming attractions (above) and, like “Bridle and Saddle” it was Astounding’s cover when it ran in August of 1944.

So, next time we discuss “The Merchant Princes” and foreshadow a bit of Foundation and Empire. We’ll also have another Apple TV+ minute for you, which will inspire a tangent into the DC Comics Extended Universe of all things.

A quick bit of Trivia: I just learned that “The Traders” and “The Merchant Princes” were both nominated for Retro Hugo’s in 2020, 75 years after they first would have been eligible had there been a World Science Fiction Convention in 1945. Neither won its category.

And speaking of trivia we’ll also have another installment of Asimov Trivia for you! Is there drama in the game this time? You’ll have to listen to see!

Coming soon to a platform near you. Join us!

Image Credits:

Episode 4

Our fourth episode, “A Podcast is the Last Refuge of the Incompetent” is now available for your edification. We’ve run out of Laws of Robotics and have moved on to famous Salvor Hardin aphorisms. That’s a bit more on-brand for a Foundation podcast.

We talk about “The Traders,” part four of Foundation. This story first appeared, with surprisingly little fanfare in the October 1944 issue of Astounding under the title “The Wedge.”

In addition we have our second Apple Plus Minute and another edition of Asimov Trivia with a new contestant and a new quiz master!

Please join us! We’re looking forward to it and Hari Seldon already knows how it’s going to end!

Image Credits:

  • Featured Image: Screen Cap from the trailer for Apple TV+’s Foundation. Fair Use. Accessed 7 June 2021
  • The Wedge: Astounding Science Fiction, October 1944, Archive.org. Accessed 7 June 2021

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.

Episode 2

Our second episode, entitled “Podcast must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Episode” is posted, and available wherever fine podcasts blossom or will be when Anchor gets around to uploading it for us. Of course, we are now begging the question… what will the fourth episode be called?

We start discussing the first novel, Foundation, in earnest and get all the way through the first two stories, “The Psychohistorians,” and “The Encyclopedists.”  We also try our hand at a new segment, “Asimov Trivia.” You can join us at the link below.

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