Episodes

  • You don’t understand science fiction

    You don’t understand science fiction
    Apr 26 2026
    There is a single narrative technique that connects almost every multi-billion dollar science fiction franchise ever made. It is the invisible engine powering the most successful stories of the last century. And yet, if you ask ten working Hollywood screenwriters what it is, nine of them will give you a blank stare—and the tenth willContinue reading "You don’t understand science fiction"
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    35 mins
  • The First Dystopia

    The First Dystopia
    Apr 14 2026
    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a novel written at the beginning of the future. It’s hard to remember today, after Logan’s Run, The Handmaid’s Tale and Hunger Games made “dystopia” an entertainment genre, but when Yevgeny Zamyatin was writing in the early 1920s, it was only beginning to dawn on humanity just how bad the future might be. OrContinue reading "The First Dystopia"
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    14 mins
  • Terminator 2 isn’t only the greatest action movie

    Terminator 2 isn’t only the greatest action movie
    Apr 13 2026
    Terminator is an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Arnold’s physique is the star of the film The progressive decay of the Body into the Machine is his co-star With the special effects that animated the Terminator as best supporting actor Or watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfbNARASn9Y Imagine if Ron Perlman had passed his audition for Terminator? You can’t.Continue reading "Terminator 2 isn’t only the greatest action movie"
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    35 mins
  • HG Wells vs Vladimir Lenin

    HG Wells vs Vladimir Lenin
    Apr 7 2026
    The year is 1920. The Empires of Europe have spent the last half decade blowing each other up with bombs, guns and heavy artillery. As World War 1 burns itself out, men who survived the fighting begin to wonder if a better world, a world without empires and wars, is possible. These working class menContinue reading "HG Wells vs Vladimir Lenin"
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    26 mins
  • A note for listeners of the Science Fiction podcast

    A note for listeners of the Science Fiction podcast
    Apr 6 2026
    We are in a war on podcasting. Podcasts are one of the last survivors of Web1.0, the era that gave us cool things like Wikipedia and the Blogosphere, back when “information wanted to be free”. Today information wants to generate clickthrough ad revenue. The Science Fiction podcast is hosted on damiengwalter.com on an RSS feed.Continue reading "A note for listeners of the Science Fiction podcast"
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    21 mins
  • Project Hail Mary is a Male Pattern Fantasy

    Project Hail Mary is a Male Pattern Fantasy
    Apr 1 2026
    It's Scifi. It's Romance. It's Fantasy. It's SciMANtasy 😱 Let's see if we can make Gary an Amazon bestseller so he doesn't ask for his money back. 🔗👇 The Last Sysadmin in Sector 7 : a SCIMANTASY novel https://amzn.to/4lXiqjF # The Ultimate Male Pattern Fantasy ​What if the greatest science fiction dream isn't discovering alien life or saving the human race, but simply being left completely alone in a room to do math? ​Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is a masterpiece of hard sci-fi engineering, but beneath the astrophage and the orbital mechanics lies a deeply comforting psychological trope. We are looking at the "Male Pattern Fantasy"—the idea that the ultimate hero is just an ordinary, highly competent guy who solves the universe's problems in absolute, blissful isolation (and somehow looks exactly like Ryan Gosling while doing it). ​Whether you find this trope to be a lovely, optimistic vision of human competence or a pathetic retreat from social reality, it is currently dominating modern science fiction.
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    27 mins
  • How the Matrix reclaimed the Red Pill

    How the Matrix reclaimed the Red Pill
    Feb 22 2026
    The best way to understand the broken, crazed, indulgent filmography of the Wachowski’s is as a quest to make the Matrix movie the Matrix would never make. Time. Is money. And in the cold unfeeling eyes of Hollywood a “movie” is just a business strategy to convert two hours of your time into shareholder value.Continue reading "How the Matrix reclaimed the Red Pill"
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    42 mins
  • Star Trek ain’t woke. It’s corporate.

    Star Trek ain’t woke. It’s corporate.
    Jan 26 2026
    Get your COMMIE TREK tee here - https://damosays-shop.fourthwall.com Become a member of the Science Fiction community to continue the discussion Website - https://damiengwalter.com Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/DamienWalter Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/324897304599197/ Subscribe to the Science Fiction podcast feed for long-form commentaries on these video essays https://damiengwalter.com/podcast/ Follow Damien on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/damiengwalter.com
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    22 mins