Good Story 298: The Thanatos Syndrome

Julie grabs the shotgun, Scott downloads the analysis software, and Cy stocks up on bottled water... Episode 298: The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy (with Cy Kellett, host of Catholic Answers Live.)

Books mentioned on the podcast:

Ad Limina: A Novella of Catholics in Space by Cyril Jones-Kellett

A Teacher of Strange Things: Who Jesus Was, What He Taught, and Why People Still Follow Him by Cy Kellett

Thus Sayeth the Lord: A Fresh Take on the Prophets by Julie Davis

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #298|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

Good Story 297: Selections from Christmas on Ganymede

Julie and Scott celebrate Christmas just as Dickens intended: with aliens, spaceships, and cigarettes. Episode 297: Selections from Christmas on Ganymede, edited by Martin H. Greenberg


Download or listen via this link: |Episode #297|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

Good Story 281: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey

Julie jumps right in the nest with all the dragon eggs. Scott knows there is something important to tell her about those eggs, but he can't remember because he's still groggy from going between. Episode 281: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey.​


Download or listen via this link: |Episode #281|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

Good Story 050: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Julie and Scott travel the universe, telling civilizations to stop shooting at them. Scott's robot suit is starting to chafe. The Day the Earth Stood Still - the awesome 1951 version, not the why-did-they-make-this 2008 version.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #050|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

More stuff:

Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on others, on history. ... In this regard, it is useful to reflect that the Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even serious. Therefore Jesus did not call them because they were already holy, complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians.
-- Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at Port of Brindisi, Italy (June 15, 2008)

• Patricia Neal's Catholic story
• And her obit, which highlights her stand against abortion.

Good Story 011: Stories of Your Life and Others

It's Episode 11 time! Julie and Scott discuss Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.

From Rivets and Trees (by Scott):
In 1999, Gardner Dozois published the Sixteenth volume of his Year’s Best Science Fiction. I bought a digital copy for Handspring Visor from Peanut Press (now eReader) and started reading. Included in that volume was “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, a story that affected me so much that it renewed my interest in short fiction. In first-person prose that refers to past and future as if it were all present, a woman tells the story of her daughter’s life while at the same time telling a fascinating story of attempts to unravel an alien language. How it converges is breathtaking.

A good Chiang story (and they are all good, as I found out) mixes the intensely personal with exciting science and philosophy. Stories of Your Life and Others includes all the fiction Ted Chiang wrote through 2002. Standouts other than the story I already mentioned: “Tower of Babylon” (building a tower to find God), “Understand” (a story that reminded me of “Flowers for Algernon” by Keyes), and “Hell is the Absence of God” (in which religious things are easily seen, yet a man struggles with faith).

I’ve heard so many times the refrain “I just don’t get into short fiction”, and that makes me sad because if you don’t read short fiction, you don’t read these incredible stories. I urge you to read Ted Chiang. Anything by Ted Chiang. It’s all gold.

Table of Contents:
“Tower of Babylon” • (1990) • novelette
“Understand” • (1991) • novelette
“Division by Zero” • (1991) • short story
“Story of Your Life” • (1998) • novella
“Seventy-Two Letters” • (2000) • novella
“The Evolution of Human Science” • (2000) • short story
“Hell Is the Absence of God” • (2001) • novelette
“Liking What You See: A Documentary” • (2002) • short story

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #011|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

• Ted Chiang Interview at Fantastic Metropolis


• Ted Chiang Interview at StarShipSofa


• SFFaudio Ted Chiang page


• The quote about Hell that Julie was looking for from John Ciardi's essay about understanding Dante:
  
  “The damned are there because they offended a theological system that enforces certain consequences of suffering. But part of that theological system has also decreed that salvation was available to all men. Christ in his ransom had procured endless mercy. One need only wish to be saved, need only surrender his soul to God in a last gasp of contrition, and he will be saved. He may have to suffer at length in Purgatory, but, once there, his place is reserved in Heaven and he will in time arrive there. Purgatory is like our modern colleges: no one can flunk out of them.
  
  It follows then, that the only way to get into Hell is to insist upon it. One must deliberately exclude himself from grace by hardening his heart against it. Hell is what the damned have actively and insistently wished for.”

Good Story 007: Eifelheim

In Episode #7, Julie and Scott discuss Eifelheim by Michael Flynn.

Centuries ago, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What's so special about Eifelheim?

Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength. To his astonishment, Dietrich makes first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest. Flynn gives us the full richness and strangeness of medieval life, as well as some terrific aliens.

Download or listen via this link: |Episode #007|

Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner

Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE|

• Michael Flynn's Blog: |LINK|
• Michael Flynn's Bibliography: |LINK|
• Special Thanks to Sean McGaughey at the Catholic Roundup Podcast!

Julie's new book!	Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist by Br. Guy Consolmagno	In the Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn