Episode 31: Halloween Special - "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973) by Ursula K. Le Guin and "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" (2018) by N. K. Jemison

With a clamor of bells that set the bats soaring, the spooky season is upon us! For our third annual Halloween episode, we read Ursula Le Guin's classic "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," N. K. Jemisin's response, "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," and other stories/media in dialogue with the Omelas parable. Happy Halloween!

Cover art from Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 6, "Lift Us where Suffering Cannot Reach."

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" originally published in Volume 3 of New Dimensions.

"The Ones Who Stay and Fight" originally published in the 2018 collection How Long Til Black Future Month. We read the version as it appeared in the January 2020 issue of Lightspeed Magazine and can be found here: ⁠The Ones Who Stay and Fight - Lightspeed Magazine⁠

Thanks to the YouTube Channel FANAC Fan History for the audio from Le Guin's 1977 speech at Aussicon, you can watch the full video here: Aussiecon (1975) Worldcon - Ursula K. Le Guin Guest of Honor Speech - YouTube You can also learn more about her creative process from this interview here, by The Video Access Project/Creative Outlet, Inc.: Exploring Creativity with Ursula K. Le Guin - YouTube Lastly, listen to Le Guin read one of her own stories, from the good people at From Beyond Press, who have lots of other audiobooks to listen to: Ursula K. Le Guin reads her story "Intracom" - YouTube