The first episode of the three time Hugo Award nominated Coode Street Podcast went out to the world on Saturday 8 May 2010. There was no intention to start a regular podcast, or an ongoing conversation with and about science fiction, but that’s what happened.
In the four years since we recorded that first episode little has changed except, we hope, a tendency to ramble a little less. The recording is still rough and ready (alas), and the conversation is still off the cuff and unprepared (happily).
To celebrate the extremely unlikely event that we were recording our 200th episode, we decided to do something special. We invited our good friends Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert Silverberg and Jo Walton to join us in conversation at Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention. A lively and interesting conversation was had, in what we think is one of our best ever episodes.
Our sincere thanks to Stan, Bob and Jo for making their time available and being a part of our celebrations. Our special thanks to Liz Batty, Niall Harrison and the Loncon3 tech team who provided the space for nearly 200 listeners to watch the event, and who recorded it far better than we ever could. And an extra thanks to Sophie (aka Miss 12), who helped me to introduce this episode. Finally, a deep and heartfelt thanks to you, our listeners, who keep us recording this crazy thing ever week.
As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. More next week! On to episode 300!
Congratulations on that 200th episode, and here’s hoping for 200 more!
But really, thank you very much for each and every wonderful podcast. I’m sure there’s a LOT of people like me who don’t usually (actively) engage with the podcast, but we still listen. We really appreciate it. Keep them coming!
This is a great discussion, as are most of your podcasts. Thank you for sharing it.
I would like to make one observation, however: both with Robert Silverberg this podcast and in your conversation with John Clute a few weeks ago, you had guests who were both (a) fairly negative on the state of the genre, and (b) very upfront about how they have not read very many recent works within the genre. I understand why, in the spirit of congeniality, you did not press your guests too hard on this contradiction, but this “breakfast amongst the ruins” perspective on the genre, where Stapledon and Bester and Tolkien are extolled by éminences grises unfamiliar with Leckie and Kiernan and Parker and Hurley rings very hollow. Unchallenged it’s an affront to your intelligent listenership, but more importantly it feeds an insidious narrative that the best days of the genre are behind us, a view I find far to prevalent among people who really ought to know better.
Apart from the above, I very much enjoy the podcast and am always happy when I see a new one show up in my queue.
Congratulations indeed on reaching your 200th podcast and in celebrating the occasion with three very special guests, all of whom were in top form. I think that you have always been at your best when talking at length about specific books and authors, and I greatly enjoyed the extended and heartfelt discussion of Olaf Stapledon, whose work remains challenging and vital even after all these years. But really the entire podcast was splendid, and I believe that this, along with the conversation with John Clute that also came out of Loncon, are indeed among your finest hours. Many thanks to Jonathan and Gary for all 200 episodes of this wonderful ongoing discussion of the sf field
Hi Timothy. Glad you’ve enjoyed 198 and 200 so much. We hope to do more in this vein in the coming months. Our guests were what made 200 so special and we feel very lucky to have had them on the podcast. Best, Jonathan
Hi John – Thank yo for the kind words about the podcast. I am a little surprised that you felt there was a ‘breakfast among the ruins’ note to the two Loncon episodes. I think there can be an element of that when you talk to anyone late in their careers, but I don’t feel that really reflects the views of our guests very well, or of the podcast. I think we’re at an interesting time in the history of SF. It’s not without its challenges and problems, but it’s also not falling to bits. Best, Jonathan
Excellent episode. I would have been happy with a four hour episode where each guest was allowed an hour of rambling time.
Congratulations on your Bicentennial Podcast. I was in the audience for this at Loncon. I’ve been listening almost from the start, when the Torque Control blog mentioned your podcasts, after you’d done six or seven. I caught up and have been listening ever since. It’s now a fixture of my weekends (most weekends).