Note: This episode is Part 1 of a double episode on steampunk. There are cultures, and subcultures, and sub, sub, sub cultures. There’s science fiction, there’s alternative history, there’s steampunk. There’s hip hop and there’s chaphop There’s an anachronistic Victorian gentleman wearing a pith helmet with an orangutan butler, dissing read more…
Ep29: Travels in Four-Dimensional Space
We have no problem thinking mathematically about four-dimensional space. Where a 3-d cube has 8 vertices, a 4-d hypercube has 16 vertices. Where a cube has 6 faces, like a dice, a 4-d hypercube has 24 faces. The problem is imagining what that actually looks like. We live in a read more…
Ep28: Pulp Fiction (Amazing Stories of the Sisters of Tomorrow)
If you want to understand how we ended up with anything from Star Wars to Star Trek, Superman to Batman, intergalactic travel to microscopic worlds, profound meditations on the nature of being human to thrilling tales about Martian princesses, you have to look at pulp fiction magazines. Argosy, Blue Book, read more…
Ep 27: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
What Happens after the End of the World? What would happen if humanity ceased to exist? Well, assuming, of course, that earth itself has not been destroyed in this hypothetical apocalypse, the world would continue quite happily without us. People have long speculated about what would happen in the weeks, read more…
Ep 26: Unwrapping the Egyptian Mummy
In the 19th century, a very popular form of entertainment was the mummy unwrapping party. You could go to a private or public event at which an ancient Egyptian mummy would be unrolled and examined. Bandages would be passed around, touched and smelled, ancient jewellery would be admired, and a read more…
Ep25 – Dinosaurs: Palaeontology To Pyjamas
In 1842 a Victorian anatomist looked at some unusual fossils and, noticing they had something in common, he decided we needed a word to describe these strange creatures. He called them dinosaurs. Cut to the present day and there are dinosaur films, TV shows, books, songs, toys, and anything else read more…
Words To That Effect Season 3 Preview
Words To That Effect Season 3 is on its way next Monday (14th January). In the meantime, have a listen to the preview here. See you on Monday. The music heard in this episode was “Polydrug” by Forrests. Check out their music here All previous episodes can be found here read more…
Ep 24: Words To That Effect Live at Liberty Hall
Words To That Effect is back! Episode 24 is a recording of September’s live show for the Dublin Podcast Festival. This episode is a story about a long-forgotten nervous disease. But it’s also a story of science and culture, psychology and mental health, feminism and creativity, war and masculinity. It’s read more…
It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming…
Words To That Effect Season 3 Words To That Effect Season 3 is coming soon! It’s been a bit longer in the making than expected but there’s a whole new season of episodes under construction and coming soon. There’s a recording of September’s live show and plenty of brand new read more…
Words To That Effect Live Show
28th September Liberty Hall Dublin As part of the Dublin Podcast Festival (full line-up here), I’m performing live in Liberty Hall in Dublin. There will be Words To That Effect stories accompanied by live music from Ken McCabe (producer, composer, and member of acclaimed Irish band Come On Live Long) read more…
Ep 23: Adaptation (How does a book become a film?)
Literary Adaptation The book is always better than the film. Or so they say. But there are obviously quite a few problems with this, as there tends to be with any sweeping generalisation. For some, the book is always better than the film, because books are just better than films, read more…
Two Announcements and an Update
No new episode this week I’m afraid. But, I do have two very exciting WTTE-related announcements: 1. I’ve just published a book! And it has lots of the stories from this show in much more detail. Find out more here 2. There’s going to be a Words To That Effect read more…
The Science and Fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs
My Book Has Been Published! I am extremely excited to say that my book has just been published with Gylphi Press! The Science and Fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs looks at the American pulp fiction writer Edgar Rice Burroughs – most famous for creating Tarzan and, if you’re into classic read more…
Episode 22 – Book Clubs: Revolution & Politics (and Wine & Cheese)
Book Clubs: Literary Salons to Online Communities The Rick O’Shea Bookclub is Ireland’s largest bookclub. It has 17,000 members and is growing fast. Book clubs have never been more popular. But where did they begin, and what role have they played in literary history? Well, quite a large one, it read more…
Episode 21: The Invention of Time
Time in the Victorian Era Time, as we understand it today, was only really invented in the Victorian era. We take it for granted today that our phones and watches and other devices are accurate to the second. That time zones are clear and fixed – when it’s 3pm in read more…