This week, Tim speaks with Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars trilogy and 2312. In Slate last year, Choire Sicha of the Awl wrote that 2312 “is his boldest trip into all of the marvelous SF genres—ethnography, future shock, screed against capitalism, road to earth—and all of the ways to thrill and be thrilled. It’s a future history that’s so secure and comprehensive that it reads as an account of the past—a trick of craft that belongs almost exclusively to the supreme SF task force of Le Guin and Margaret Atwood.”
In the episode, Robinson talks to Tim about the politics of science fiction, how robots have historically represented wage workers, and why we need to right Earth before we head to Mars.