Strange Future

What began as a utopian environment, where mice had sumptuous accommodations, had all the food and water they could want, and were free from disease and predators, turned into a mouse hell. Science writer and animal behaviorist Lee Alan Dugatkin introduces listeners to the work of rodent researcher John Bumpass Calhoun. Dugatkin shows how an ecologist-turned-psychologist-turned-futurist became a science rock star embedded in the culture of the 1960s and 1970s.

Taiwan achieved inclusive, technology-fueled growth, overcame the pandemic without lockdowns and the infodemic without takedowns, entrusted its people to tackle shared challenges like environmental protection while capitalizing on a culture of innovation to hack the government. Here, the architects of Taiwan's internationally acclaimed digital democracy share the secret of their success. Plurality harnesses digital tools not to replace humans or trust, but to channel the potential energy in social diversity that can erupt in conflict instead for progress, growth and beauty.

Los Angeles, 2039. The Disincorporated Zone teeters on the brink of civil war, but for phenomenological inquisitor Erasmus Keane and his reluctant partner Blake Fowler, that’s just the beginning of their problems. A cryptic trickster has been leading them through a maze of riddles, each clue drawing them deeper into a conspiracy that reaches far beyond the DZ. As gang factions prepare for bloodshed and the city’s power brokers pull unseen strings, Keane and Fowler race against time to prevent an even greater catastrophe—one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance of power in LA ...

In Song of Empire, Book 2, Siian and his companions on the Merryweather, Seth, Y'leta and Fodar, set out to transform Xenon, which has regressed to a medieval way of life. They also have to devise a way of defeating the Federation, which has a space-going navy capable of suppressing colony planets whose technology is vastly superior to Xeon's. In their planning they can draw on the resources of their ship's artificial mind, the AM Kodin, but ultimately success will depend up on Siian's capabilities as a human/Guardian cross. One of their first tasks is to end the threat posed to the ...

After the last Antarctic icecaps melt, calamity follows. Landscapes are radically transformed, diseases mutate and spread with unprecedented speed, and, in response, forms the ghastly “virofinance” exchange—a market for corporations to profit from pandemics and global suffering. It’s in this grim near-future of 2272, where words such as “winter” and “cold” have no meaning, the Dengue Child grows. The monstrous humanoid mosquito emerges in newly tropical Argentina, carrying its namesake virus and despairing of its own existence.

Misha Burnett is a master of the macabre and champion of the New Wave. His talent for tales runs the gamut of weird fiction from contemporary urban fantasy to sword and sorcery to science fiction, all with his unique (and slightly twisted) take! Misha Burnett's Endless Summer is a collection of strange and chilling tales of Mankind's future, near and distant, from tomorrow until beyond the mark of history, through civilization's zenith, decline, destruction, and ultimately, mankind's rebirth!

Quincy is the most popular celebrity in the world. It’s the near future and times have changed. She decides to disappear from the limelight and ends up residing in a community for the cast offs of society, haphazardly run by a rogue priest and his psychiatrist lover. Almost immediately Quincy takes charge, and the residents aren’t happy, neither are their benefactors. But the priest is relieved and soon he and his lover depart, leaving Quincy to take over. It’s a strange time and even stranger place, and new people arrive, people Quincy has never thought about much less encountered in...

Laundrygate: Strange Stories About the Future is an unusual collection of short stories about the unimagined consequences of technology and the creation of new realities. Tery Spataro dreams up these wild, surreal tales and envisions the outcomes brought about by technological change and human curiosity, and imagines post-humanist worlds. The four heroines of Laundrygate experience many themes and challenges caused by these otherworldly environments.