Marooned! on Mars with Matt and Hilary

First, the name of the Buddhist climate activist who self-immolated in front of the Supreme Court was Wynn Bruce. Matt forgets his name when he …

NOTE: This episode was recorded in early April.

In this episode we focus on “Is There a Technical Solution?,” “Autumn in New York,” and “Optimodal.”

…

In this episode we talk about the first three chapters of Fifty Degrees Below, "Primate in Forest," "Abrupt Climate Change," and "Return to Khembalung."

We discuss the way this novel works within the mode of realism and …

In this episode we talk about the second half of the first volume of Green Earth, Forty Signs of Rain from "Athena on the Pacific" to "Broader …

We're back! This season we're tackling Green Earth, KSR's revised, single-volume edition of the Science in the Capital trilogy. The trilogy was …

Our final episode of our 2312 season is here!

First, we talk about the topic on everyone's mind, the New York Times Crossword puzzle and how bad it is. We wrap that up around 6.5 minutes in.

Then, we reveal the topic of …

Back to hot opens, in another episode where we ask important questions like, “what is time? Is it just a number? Is a wristwatch like handcuffing yourself to time? What about neckties? Is it okay when Diane Keaton wears …

Hilary and The Good German are back! We're talking animals, qubes, and consciousness, embodiment and emotion, landscape and economic miracles, long …

Hello again! First a massive apology for taking so long to get this episode out. As Matt explains in the opening, this was relatively unavoidable and …

We start with more news from Maine: There's lithium in them thar hills! Will Elon Musk coup the governor? Stay tuned, and find out more here. We ask whether it's possible to extract these important minerals outside the …

We spend the first ten minutes or so of this episode talking about an issue in Maine politics that presents a conundrum that's characteristic of the …

This week's episode features coughing, an apology (not for the coughing), and cat-talk. Also we discuss science communication, agency and historical …

This week’s episode is the second half of our conversation from last week’s episode, and concerns the “Swan and the Inspector” chapter. Genette takes Swan on his investigation of the strange goings-on throughout the …

We had to split this episode up into two because we talked so long! The following episode (Episode 7, or maybe 6.2?) will deal with "Swan and the …

This long episode is devoted to the "Wahram and Swan" chapter of 2312, when the two characters attend a Beethoven concert and the tracks on which Terminator runs are mysteriously destroyed. Wahram and Swan, along with …

We talk about the form of the "Extracts" chapters, the importance of Earth in the relationships in the story, the sky, living on the side of a planet, acting vs. being, talking to frogs, sleeping with worms, O. Henry, …

We continue our conversation from last week, ending right before the chapter "Extracts (3)."

Matt and Hilary talk about art, chemistry, repetition, intentionality, power, capital, alliances, suffering, allegory, …

In this episode we talk about chapters from Extracts (1) to Wahram and Swan (yes, only two chapters, how decadent of us!).

We talk about the …

In this episode we read from the first chapter after the prologue up to "Swan and Alex."

First, Hilary and Matt start by discussing the work of …

We're back to reveal your desires to you!

We're starting on our new season, which will focus on 2312. In this episode we talk about far-future science fiction, posthumanism, and some of the broad themes and topics this …

Matt and Hilary are joined by their boon companion Bill Hutchison to discuss John Carpenter's (identical) films ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) and ESCAPE FROM L.A. (1996).

The gang talks about the concept of the …

Based on Matt’s joke opening, your friendly hosts talk about JFK and JFK for the first ten minutes, so you can probably skip that to get to the good stuff, our discussion of the last chapter of Shaman, “Shaman”!

Topics …

In this episode we discuss "All the Worlds Meet," in which Loon recuperates after his ordeal, Click haunts Thorn, Thorn dies, Loon builds a new pair …

The sixth chapter of Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson, "Hunted," has Thorn, Click, Loon, and Elga fleeing from the northern jende people. It is an …

In this episode we discuss "Under the Ice," where Elga is kidnapped, Loon goes to rescue her, he gets captured, and Thorn and Click rescue them. A lot to discuss!

Here we're introduced to the northers, or the jende as …

Happy (belated) birthday, Kim Stanley Robinson! Is he the author of this podcast? Hilary says, in some ways, yes. Matt says, most certainly, no! You be the judge! Anyway, it's weird to have a podcast that people listen …

[NB: We had some technical audio issues this week, especially on Matt's end. Something to do with Zoom, we presume. You probably won't notice most of them, but there's one point where Matt had to re-record himself …

Hello! We are coming back, with a new season of discussing Kim Stanley Robinson novels! This season we'll be doing Shaman (2013), so get your copies …

We sit down with the one and only KSR to discuss The Ministry for the Future. Stan indulges Matt and Hilary as they ask about a wide range of …

This is our last, if not best, episode concerning The Ministry for the Future. (What does the phrase “if not” mean, anyway? We’ll never know!)

We talk the failurewin (or successlose) of progress. Trying things is about …

We start this episode with Matt immediately blowing out the microphone with his holiday cheer, which didn't, this year, for him, include the …

Matt and Hilary are approaching the end! As is capitalism, but that's another story. Actually, it's this story, the one they're talking about The Ministry for the Future. But whatever, this one's kind of low energy.

We …

We're back! In this episode we achieve our lowest minutes-to-pages ratio yet, with 25 pages discussed in 90 minutes! Only for true KSR/ Marooned on Mars heads!

We start by taking stock of some of Stan's recent …

Happy Ritualized Ideological Food Consumption Day! Matt and Hilary start with another cheery conversation designed to indoctrinate the masses into …

One of the great things about this book is how it keeps you on your toes. Matt and Hilary do their best to keep up with its digressions and …

In a shrewd bit of counter-programming, we're releasing this episode on the day of what we're told is the most important election of our …

In this (very long) episode we discuss roughly chapters 18-37, with a special focus on Frank. What does Frank want? Does he know? The gap between intention and action under capitalism, trapped in our subjectivity and …

We're back from the movies, ready to do our podcast old school, like a couple of old fools. We're SO EXCITED to start reading Kim Stanley Robinson's …

We're still marooned at the movies, with John Carpenter, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, our friend Bill, a very special guest all the way from Slovenia, and a …

Hello! As we not-so-patiently await the publication of KSR's latest forthcoming masterpiece, The Ministry for the Future, Hilary and Matt embark on a bit of film chat, movie talk, cinema discussion, if you will.

This …

Look, here we are again!

We start our final episode on The Years of Rice and Salt by talking about what's up next for the podcast. Short answer: probably a few standalone episodes on movies and KSR short stories, …

The penultimate episode on The Years of Rice and Salt! (I just like saying "penultimate." You've got to seize the opportunity when it presents …

Shout out to our great listeners, especially when they email us, and when they email us, their emails are always thoughtful and stimulating, and …

In this week's cat-heavy episode, we examine the Kerala's global anticolonial revolutionary empire. We ask lots of questions: are novels the original …

Book 6 of The Years of Rice and Salt is like a novel within the novel, depicting the intertwined lives of two brilliant figures in Robinson's alternate history: Kang Tongbi and Ibrahim ibn Hasam. Living in the late …

"Warp and Weft" is one of the shorter of the books of The Years of Rice and Salt, taking place on Turtle Island/ Yingzhou nee North America, among the Hodenosaunee, a word Matt and Hilary definitely know how to …

We're pack, the science fiction literature podcast equivalent of tubing down a lazy river with a six-pack of beer!

This week we talk about Book 4 of The Years of Rice and Salt, "The Alchemist," where Khalid, Bahram, and …

In this somewhat delayed episode we discuss Book Three of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt, "Ocean Continents," in which a Chinese fleet accidentally discovers Yingzhou, which we know as the Americas. …

Warning: we will not be doing this book justice!

Email us at maroonedonmarspodcast@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter @podcastonmars

Leave us a voicemail …

Hello! We’re back. Sorry we’re late, but we’re back now, to discuss THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT, book-by-book.

We recommend you read this book through once already if you’ve never read it before for its own pleasures. …

It's our season finale, where we bid a fond farewell to Freya, ship, and the cast of KSR's transcendent Aurora! We're experiencing some good ol' …

Pepsi Matt McDonald’s and Home Depot Hilary coming at you at the beginning of the after of the beforetimes, Phase 2 in full effect!

The Hard Problem …

In this episode, for the first 25 minutes or so we commiserate about corona quarantine and talk about how we feel upset. Matt and Hilary talk cooking and share their misadventures in sourdough, a profoundly alien yet …

Lots of big and new thoughts in this one, where we discuss ship's sovereignty, the fantasy bribe of the future, constituting our selves politically …

In this episode, we try to avoid talking about the corona virus as much as possible. After the first ten minutes or so, anyway.

We do talk about a lot of things! Many, many things, in fact, almost all of them concerning …

Special coronavirus edition!

"Land Ho," we can all agree, is a true masterpiece. There's far too much to talk about in this breathtaking chapter, and Matt and Hilary do the best they can but still manage to only scratch …

A very special episode of Marooned on Mars with Matt and a Beer finds Matt by himself talking at you through a microphone. If you like Hilary and you don't like Matt, skip this episode! If you don't like Matt and you …

Aurora kicks off in typically Robinsonian fashion, with a near disaster at sea...on a spaceship!

Matt and Hilary talk about names and narratives, …

Hello! Matt and Hilary are back with a preview episode of the next season of Marooned! On [Fill in the Blank]. This season we’ll be discussing KSR’s brilliant Aurora.

In this preliminary episode we re-introduce …

Hello listeners and goodbye Mars! With this episode we leave KSR's Mars behind, as we conclude The Martians, the "apocrypha" of the Mars Trilogy. 

[SPOILER ALERT: Our next venture will be KSR's Aurora, and will get …

It’s Hello! Marooned on Mars with Matt and Hilary. We're turning 50!

Hilary is in stereo, I think, and Matt seems to be in mono? This may explain some differences in our levels. Anyway. Recording via the internet …

We're back...again!

We continue our discussion of The Martians, the stories "Sexual Dimorphism," "Enough is as Good as a Feast," and "What Matters."

These are three amazing stories, deeply personal, comic and touching, …

Again we have some technical issues, which we’ve done our best to ameliorate in post-production. For the first hour and twenty minutes or so Matt might sound not-great. Thank you for bearing with us!

We talk about …

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR PODCAST PLAYER. We're using a new recording scheme, so at one point, Hilary sounds like a scary robot. But we're powering through!

This week, we talk about "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to …

We rejoin Roger Clayborne (no relation to Ann) and Eileen Monday as they're reunited for a climb up Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the solar …

Hi! We’re still figuring out how best to handle our new remote recording and figuring out sound levels, etc., so if Matt is too loud and Hilary is too quiet—sorry! This is low-effort, low-tech, labor-of-love stuff. We …

Matt has overcome his rural inertia long enough to finally put out this episode! Hooray! 

This is the first episode that Matt and Hilary have …

Hello! We’re back in Phase Two of “Marooned! on Mars” Matt and Hilary will be discussing the short stories, essays, fragments, poems, and other literary concoctions that comprise The Martians, published in 1999. This is …

Hello! We are so happy and proud to present this episode, our wide-ranging interview with the man himself!
Kim Stanley Robinson, avid listener of our Kim Stanley Robinson podcast, graciously gave us some of his time …

We’re back! Reading, talking, and listening respectfully. And sometimes swearing. Being misheard and misunderstood.

We talk about student papers and …

In the penultimate chapter of the Mars Trilogy, Sax names colors with Maya, works on the memory problem at Acheron, and goes sailing with Ann--and …

Hello yes!

We're (finally) back (again) with a double-stuffed, one-year anniversary episode! Here we discuss the long Maya chapter from Blue Mars, "It Goes So Fast." Ironically titled, as this is our longest episode yet …

Part Two of our discussion of Blue Mars Part 11, "Viriditas"!

Last episode was about Zo. This episode is about how cool living on the other planets …

Matt and Hilary let you into one of our planning sessions, demystifying the amazingly shallow and slapdash way we decide what to talk about. This chapter is so rich that we figured we'd have to divide it up into two …

In this episode we discuss Part Ten of Blue Mars, Werteswandel, a Nirgal chapter.

Nirgal is running around Mars--running in circles, running from something, outside and inside himself at the same time. Running looks …

After another unexpectedly long hiatus, Matt and Hilary are back to talk about our favorite topics--Martian and Chicagoan politics and Martian and …

We're back, after an unexpected and unexpectedly long hiatus!

This chapter finds Nirgal trying to find himself, to locate and perhaps localize himself on the planet Mars, amid the network of force relations constituted …

In this episode, Matt and Hilary discuss the Nadia chapter "Making Things Work," as Nadia figures out what it means to be the first President of Mars, ponders what it will be like to have a new pinkie finger, and wishes …

This episode Matt and Hilary discuss the masterful chapter, "Ann in the Outback." Matt and Hilary love love love this chapter, perhaps to the point …

This week, Marooned on Mars discusses Part 5 of Blue Mars, "Home at Last." In this part, Michel returns home to his beloved Provence to find …

On this episode of Marooned!, we're discussing Part 4 of Blue Mars, "Green Earth," a Nirgal chapter. Nirgal, Sax, Maya, and Michel have traveled to Earth as a Martian delegation to attempt to normalize relations to the …

Happy New Year!

This episode follows Art Randolph as he helps in the drafting of a new constitution! Matt and Hilary share some tips and tales about …

Schoooooool's out for winter! Schoooooool's out for Solstice! Schoooool's out for Marooned! on Mars with Matt and Hilary!

In this Sax chapter, Matt …

The first part of BLUE MARS starts with a chapter from the perspective of Ann Clayborne, who we've only seen through the eyes of others since way back in GREEN MARS, "Long Runout"--something like 500 pages! A lot has …

In this episode, Matt and Hilary wrap up their discussion of GREEN MARS before starting the final book, BLUE MARS, next week.

We share various uncooked thoughts about the second book in the trilogy, including the …

We're back! Finally! After an unanticipatedly long hiatus, Matt and Hilary are back to discuss KSR's new novel, RED MOON. We both really love this novel, and talk about it at length (spoilers!). But first we recap our …

in which i drone on about some good sf books & how recording an episode without matt is much less fun. also happy american thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.

---

Send in a voice message: …

Matt goes rogue with a mini-sode recorded into his phone with a little weird music in the background just for laughs. Updates on the show (we’ll be back soon, we miss you!) and other science fictional adventures, …

In this belated episode, Matt and Hilary discuss Part 10 of GREEN MARS, “Phase Change,” where the revolution happens!

We talk about how the revolution …

Matt and Hilary met Kim Stanley Robinson last week and had dinner with him! We lived to tell the tale, and this is the episode where we tell it.

We'll be back later in the week with our episode about the final part of …

Sorry this is late! We’ve been teaching and Matt has time-management issues!

Matt and Hilary start by talking about what they're teaching, which are both, in their ways, cyborg manifestoes. Then, into the chapter, where …

In this episode, Sax Russell goes rogue! The former Stephen Lindholm makes some unilateral decisions about the future of Mars, i.e., blowing up the …

In the second part of our discussion of Part 7 of Green Mars, "What is To Be Done?," Matt and Hilary talk about pot luck dinners, constitutional …

In this episode, Matt and Hilary cover the first half of Part 7, "What Is to Be Done?" This part is about the pivotal Dorsa Brevia conference, where hundreds of representatives of the various groups of the Martian …

In this episode of Marooned! on Mars with Matt and Hilary, Matt and Hilary respond to your voicemails! We received three voicemails from listeners …

Matt and Hilary continue their discussion of "Tariqat," Part 6 of KSR's Green Mars.

We focus on the emergent political economy of Mars' demimonde, as …

Matt & Hilary discuss Part 6 of Green Mars, "Tariqat." Focalized through Nirgal, we also get a healthy dose of the the way Spencer and Art come to know the underground of Mars, as they, along with Coyote and Sax, …

Matt and Hilary discuss Part Five of Kim Stanley Robinson's Green Mars, "Homeless," from the perspective of Michel. This one's action packed, as Michel and Maya break into the Martian prison at Kasei Vallis to rescue …

Matt and Hilary discuss Part Four of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Green Mars," "The Scientist as Hero," told from the perspective of Sax Russell.

The first …

Matt and Hilary discuss Part Three of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, "Long Runout," an Ann Clayborne chapter.

We find Ann in mourning, stunned after the losses of Simon, Frank, and Mars itself, driving around the …

Matt and Hilary discuss Part Two of Green Mars, The Ambassador. Suddenly we're back to Earth and introduced to Art Randolph and William Fort, who set …

Matt and Hilary start the second volume of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, *Green Mars*! Told from the perspective of Nirgal, a true Martian, …

Matt and Hilary say goodbye to *Red Mars.* We talk about the New York Times' review of the book (Matt was too lazy and busy to find other, more relevant reviews). Hilary tells us how to read science fiction. We take a …

The last part of *Red Mars!* Hilary and Matt discuss Part Eight, "Shikata Ga Nai." Told through Ann's perspective, another major character dies, a …

Matt & Hilary discuss Part Seven, "Senzeni Na." See the revolution through the eyes of Nadia! Materialism and ideology! Space elevators, …

We're back! Matt & Hilary talk about the Frank Chalmers section, "Guns Under the Table." Rules, sex, revolution?!?!?!

In 2057, will Frank …

In Part 2 of our episode about Part Five, "Falling Into History," Matt and Hilary discuss politics, eco-economics, gifts, and debt!

Follow us on …

Matt & Hilary discuss Part Five of KSR's Red Mars, Falling Into History. It's the John Boone chapter! This is the first part of a two-part episode, because so much happens in this chapter. Here we discuss Boone, …

Matt & Hilary talk about Part Four of Red Mars, "Homesick," which focuses on the lone psychiatrist among the First Hundred, Michel--The Only Frenchman on Mars. Look for a surprise ending (to the chapter, not the …

We discuss KSR's Red Mars, Part Three, "The Crucible." It's a Nadia section! Lots of things get built, things start to heat up (literally AND figuratively), and I still don't know how to edit audio, nor do I have the …

Episode 3 of our discussion of KSR's Mars Trilogy. In "The Voyage Out," we're introduced to the First Hundred as they embark on their year-long voyage to Mars. We say "like" a lot and there is no editing...yet! Oh, and …

Matt and Hilary dive into the first Part of Kim Stanley Robinson's *Red Mars*, "Festival Night." Meet Frank Chalmers, John Boone, Maya Toitovna, and the citizens of the new Martian town of Nicosia! Sex, intrigue, a …

Introducing you to the world(s) of Kim Stanley Robinson, Matt, and Hilary, and what this podcast is all about.

---

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marooned-on-mars/message