Adrian Tchaikovsky on Dark Ecology in 'Shroud'

Adrian Tchaikovsky on Dark Ecology in 'Shroud'

Author: Marty Kurylowicz and Holly Carson July 17, 2025 Duration: 59:55
Adrian Tchaikovsky is a bestselling British author whose work has taken the science fiction world by storm since his seminal sci-fi novel Children of Time, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016. Its sequel Children of Ruin won the equally prestigious British Science Fiction Association or BSFA award in 2019, and after the publication of the third book in the series Children of Memory, those books won the Hugo Award for Best Series in 2023. He’s also won 4 other BSFA awards ...

Ever wonder how close that far-future technology in your favorite novel really is, or what a biologist thinks about the alien ecosystems a writer dreams up? That’s the space where The Science in The Fiction lives. Hosted by Marty Kurylowicz and Holly Carson, this series bridges two worlds that often talk past each other. Each episode begins with a conversation with a science fiction author, pulling apart the big ideas and speculative concepts woven into their work. Then, they bring a scientist or expert into the studio to examine those same ideas through the lens of current research and theory. The real magic happens when these perspectives collide, creating a genuine dialogue. You’ll hear a physicist geek out over warp drive mechanics with an author who just wrote about them, or an ethicist debate artificial consciousness with the novelist who imagined it. It’s not just about fact-checking fiction; it’s about using narrative to ask better questions and using science to deepen our sense of wonder. This podcast operates on a simple, powerful belief: that science fiction can make science more compelling and accessible, and that solid science can, in turn, inspire more thoughtful and visionary stories. If you’ve ever finished a brilliant sci-fi book and immediately fallen down a research rabbit hole, this show feels built for you. Tune in for conversations that are as insightful about human creativity as they are about quantum mechanics or xenobiology, all designed to fuel your curiosity.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 65

The Science in The Fiction
Podcast Episodes
Paco Calvo on Intelligent Plants in 'Planta Sapiens' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:17
Following up on our discussion of intelligent plants with Sue Burke in our last episode, we have invited Paco Calvo, a cognitive scientist and philosopher of biology, who speaks to us about his book 'Planta Sapiens'. Pac…
Sue Burke on Intelligent Plants in 'Semiosis' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:41
In this episode we embark on a discussion of sci-fi botany, by way of Sue Burke’s novel 'Semiosis' and its sequel 'Interference'. We talk about a lot of interesting and surprising properties of plant behaviour that you m…
Mark Mac Lean on Mathematics in 'Neverness' by David Zindell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:24
Marty has a conversation about David Zindell's 'Neverness' with Mark Mac Lean, professor of Mathematics at the University of British Columbia. We talk about the poetic and philosophical use of mathematics as the engine o…
David Zindell on Mathematics in 'Neverness' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:09
Marty and Holly sit down with David Zindell, author of Neverness, a book full of big ideas in a far future civilization where Master Pilots manipulate mathematical reality to fenester their ships through the spacetime ma…
Robert J. Sawyer in Conversation with Arik Kershenbaum - Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:02
This is the second half of the conversation begun in our last episode, between science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer and zoologist Arik Kershenbaum. We start with a quick re-cap on Boltzmann Brains and then spend quite…
Robert J. Sawyer in Conversation with Arik Kershenbaum - Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:10
In this episode we present our first conversation between a science fiction author and a scientist, both of whom we’ve spoken to before. We have with us Robert J. Sawyer, star of our very first interview in our second ep…
Julie Czerneda on Exo-Biology in 'To Each This World' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:28
Marty sits down with Canadian science fiction writer and biologist Julie Czerneda to discuss her book 'To Each This World'. Our conversation is taken in the context of exo-biology, where considerations of universal biolo…