The Young Vic is an exciting sort of place with a wealthy, sensual bustle to it. The lighting in the bar is of the kind that a friend once told me was “dark, so that everyone looks beautiful.” I was there, alone, to see Pete Postlethwaite[…]

Iceland (the country) makes an appearance in this recession special hosted by Elisha Sessions.

Having read the late Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (a ponderous Swedish whodunit filled with frozen countrysides, casual sex and endless cups of coffee) I found that as usual I had my finger on the caffeinated, S[…]

Henri Bergson, in his 1901 essay Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, says that all comedy can be boiled down to noticing mechanical behavior in something living. Laughter is an acknowledgement and reminder to ourselves (and others) to be […]

In the last episode of Series 2, Astrophysicist Michael Williams joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “The Forgotten Enemy”, written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1949. It’s about comfy isolation, radio static, and forces la[…]

just a quick post to remind our loyal Sluggos that there’s lots more info and links – and pictures! ooh – about each episode of Slug of Time on the Slugs and Stars homepage (accessible via that link at the top)
the last episode of t[…]

It’s Katie Grocott in the studio this week with Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about “Things”, written by Ursula Le Guin in 1970. This is a short story about a society sharply divided between nihilist marauders and maudlin […]

The BBC has come up with another thinly-disguised attempt at tracking its listeners online while providing nothing in return – this one’s called “Radio Pop”.

“Got to get home and type up what I was listening to befo[…]

Richard Tunnicliffe joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Thomas M. Disch’s “The Squirrel Cage”. It’s a story about a writer writing for no one, or for everyone – he’s not sure which (lol Livejournal)[…]

Rebecca Levene sits in with Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to talk about Brian Aldiss’ 1957 short story, “All the World’s Tears”. It’s about a vitiated ecology, a mechanized society, and a desolate, wind-swept mansion w[…]