Episode 36: Useless Spheres and Wasteful Rockets with Mur Lafferty

Posted Sep 1, 2013 by bn

this is a space-elevator sky-hook setup from the manga “Battle Angel Alita”. which is about… what else? ROBOT CLASS WARFARE.

Oh wow everyone!

MIGHTY MUR LAFFERTY AGREED TO COME ON THE SHOW! if you don’t know, Mur is an author (her most recent: THe shambling guide to new york city, is pretty awesome!) and a podcaster of some note! she started the pseudopod podcast, you guys! she is a strong proponent of podcasting novels, and many of her books have been podiobooked (just search the itunes store for “mur” and be amazed).

anyway, I think she’s just the greatest.

So I asked her what she wanted to talk about, and she said “space elevators” so we said “how about space based MEGASTRUCTURES?” and then I invited Jacob Stump (who has a new podcast called “Technically Speaking“, and often appears on Science Sort of) and Jocelyn Read to give us the low-down.

So… WOO! DYSON SPHERES! SKY HOOKS! MASS DRIVERS! RINGWORLDS!
Physicists: Jocelyn Read, Jacob Stump

Intro Music: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 

Exit Music: John Vanderslice 

Transcript: Ep_36_Useless_Spheres_And_wasteful_Rockets

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