Micaiah Johnson on Necropolitics (Part 1) in 'Venomous Lumpsucker'

Micaiah Johnson on Necropolitics (Part 1) in 'Venomous Lumpsucker'

Author: Marty Kurylowicz and Holly Carson January 10, 2026 Duration: 28:58
We welcome Micaiah Johnson back to the show, this time in her role as a PhD specialist on the topic of Necropolitics, which we tackled in our last episode on 'Venomous Lumpsucker' by Ned Beauman. This episode is the first half of our conversation, where Micaiah introduces us to the topic of Necropolitics and its origins from Foucault to Mbembe. She discusses how it pertains to Ned's book in terms of harmful practices of 'preservation' gone awry. We also talk about the tyranny of b...

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
Ned Beauman on Necropolitics in 'Venomous Lumpsucker' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:27
Ned Beauman is the author of 'Venomous Lumpsucker', a biting satire which examines the environmental and social consequences of capitalism run amok, and the dangerous absurdities that can result from using free-market me…
William Bains on Dark Ecology in 'Shroud' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:27
Marty speaks with biochemist and astrobiologist William Bains on the topic of Dark Ecology, as a final chapter to our 4 previous episodes on this topic with Chris Beckett (Ep 56), Julius Csotonyi (Ep 57-58) and Adrian Tc…
Nicholas Keating Casbarro on World-Building in 'Vitalerium' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:47
Marty speaks to Nicholas Keating Casborro about the hard-scrabble, dystopian world portrayed in his book 'Vitalerium: Descent into the Void'. This is a far future space opera where faster than light travel is made possib…
Chris Kulp on Artificial Intelligence in 'Lost Origins' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:11
Chris Kulp is a professional physicist and science fiction author, who has won the Mike Resnick award for his first published story ‘What Would You Pay for a Second Chance’. We talk about his second novel ‘Lost Origins’,…
Adrian Tchaikovsky on Dark Ecology in 'Shroud' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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 Childre…
Julius Csotonyi on Dark Ecology in 'Dark Eden' - Part 2 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:08
This is the second part of Marty's conversation with Julius Csotonyi about dark ecology in relation to the dark rogue world of Chris Beckett’s book 'Dark Eden'. We discuss the extraordinary existence of anoxygenic autotr…
Julius Csotonyi on Dark Ecology in 'Dark Eden' - Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:49
Julius Csotonyi is a thermal vent biologist with expertise on organisms that thrive on geothermal energy in the dark depths of the ocean where there is almost no light from the sun. He is also someone who has spent a lot…
Chris Beckett on Dark Ecology in 'Dark Eden' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:01
Holly and Marty speak with Chris Beckett about his Dark Eden trilogy, comprised of Dark Eden – which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2012, and was followed by Mother of Eden in 2015 and Daughter of Eden in 2016. Dark E…