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Index to our previous shows
Shows from April, 2002
Shows from March, 2002
Shows from February, 2002
Shows from January, 2002
Shows from December, 2001
Shows from November, 2001
Shows from October, 2001
Shows from September, 2001
Shows from August, 2001
Shows from July, 2001
June 30, 2001 - Neil Gaiman
June 22, 2001 - Paul Levinson
June 15, 2001 - Kim Stanley Robinson
June 8, 2001 - Space Science from Agamemcon
Shows from May, 2001
Shows from April, 2001
Shows from March, 2001
Shows from February, 2001
Shows from January, 2001
Shows from November - December, 2000
Shows from September - October, 2000
Shows from July - August, 2000
Please note : At the end of June major changes were made to the "Previous Shows" pages. This may have caused a problem if you had previously bookmarked one of those modified pages. If you are looking for a specific interview and can't find it on this page, then please check the Audio Index Page where you will be able to find links to all of the shows sorted by show date and interview guest.
Neil Gaiman
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On Saturday - June 30, 2001 - our guest is Neil Gaiman, author of the Sandman series of graphic novels, as well as Neverwhere, Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors and most recently American Gods.
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Neil resists being categorized as a novelist or short story writer or comic writer or TV writer or... fill in the blank, by describing himself as a storyteller. And what stories he tells!
American Gods is a powerfully good book that describes the travels and travails of a man who gets hooked up with ancient gods who are living, but not doing well, in America. Drawn into a conflict between the old gods and the new gods of the Internet and technology, he has to scramble to avoid becoming road kill on the way to Valhalla.
From its opening where we see Neil's skill at creating believable characters using just a few pages of carefully crafted text, to its exploration of the fates of the gods living in America, this is a book that is hard to put down.
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 cover copyright ©2001 by HarperCollins Books.
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 Neil Gaiman picture copyright ©2001 by Sigrid Estrada.
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Trust me. You'll want to start this book on a Friday night, cause you won't get any sleep until you finish it. Don't start this book on a night when you've got to go to work the next day. You have been warned.
Neil was in Los Angeles a couple of days ago while on his tour for American Gods. He's been living a killer schedule on this tour and we were fortunate that he could squeeze in some time to sit and chat with us on Friday afternoon. Like always it was great fun chatting with Neil and it left me looking forward to our next conversation, when we'll hopefully have more time to talk about his other books and projects.
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Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {57:15}
or
- Click here for the show's introduction.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news.{20:58}
- Click here for the Neil Gaiman interview. {33:25}
- Click here for the show's closing.{2:11}
or
- Click here to listen to our previous interview with Neil talking about free speech and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this show
Neil Gaiman
For more information about Neil Gaiman you might want to visit his official web site. And to keep track of his adventures on his signing tour, you might want to consult his on-line journal.
A good source for information about Neil and his work can be found at The Dreaming, The Neil Gaiman Page. A good starting point for locating more on-line resources about Neil can be found here or here.
And for a different way of looking at Neil's connections to people in the SF community, you can go to the Six Degrees of Neil Gaiman site.
This web site serves as a good introduction and overview of The Sandman. To learn more about Neil's work in comics you might want to visit this Visual Bibliography of his work.
There are many interviews with Neil that can be found out on the 'net. They're a great resource for learning about writing from one of the acknowledged masters of that craft. This Locus on-line interview has Neil discussing Neverwhere and Stardust as well as some of his other projects. This interview from The Internet Writing Journal has Neil discussing various aspects of writing, including how he got started. This SF Site interview with Neil covers a lot of his work with the CBLDF, his touring and other subjects. This interview discusses his work on Princess Mononoke and other writing projects.
And this Gaming Intelligence Agency interview has more information about that project as well as his work on Sandman and some gaming related subjects.
Science and Space News
To learn more about the Microwave Anisotropy Probe you can view the Project's web site.
The Snowstorm from the East : Buran web page is a great source of information about the Soviet Space Shuttles. One of them is currently on exhibit in Australia. Information about that exhibit can be found here.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
About 18 months ago one of my favorite web sites for news about space - SpaceViews - vanished when its parent company was purchased by Space.com. I am happy to say the editor of SpaceViews - Jeff Foust - is back on-line with the Spacetoday.net web site and it's everything that SpaceViews was, plus more. This site has lots of news and links to stories on the 'net concerning space related subjects. Way to go Jeff! {And my thanks to Bob Gounley for telling me that this new site was on-line.}
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Science Fiction Modeling
Click here to learn more about the 2001: The Future That Should Have Been contest that is currently running at the Starship Modeler web site. Please note, that as expected the deadline for this contest has been extended, and so you now have until July 22 to submit your contest entries.
You can find more information about science fiction modeling - including links to sites with numerous free paper models of SF subjects - by visiting the web sites found on the Hour 25 Science Fiction Modeling Links page.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Previous Shows Index
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Paul Levinson
On Friday - June 22, 2001 - our guest is Paul Levinson, author of The Silk Code - which was selected by Locus as the best "First Novel" for 1999, Digital McLuhan:A Guide to the Information Mellennium, The Soft Edge:A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution as well as many more non-fiction books and science fiction stories. Paul is also the out-going President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, is a Professor at Fordham University in New York and is the founder of Connected Education, Inc. which offers graduate courses over the Internet.
Paul was in town a few weeks ago for the Nebula awards ceremonies and while he was here we sat down and chatted about science fiction and how the new media of the Internet is changing our world.
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 Picture copyright ©2001 by Suzanne Gibson.
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Listen to the show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {55:13}
or
- Click here for the show's introduction.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news.{15:49}
- Click here for the Paul Levinson interview. {37:04}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:39}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this show
Paul Levinson
For more information about Paul Levinson you might want to visit his official web site or view this bibliography of his writing.
You can learn more about Paul and his writing through these interviews with him that are available on-line. Otherview has an interview in which Paul talks about his book The Silk Code, E-media has a transcript of an on-line chat with Paul discussing his book The Soft Edge. This Cybling interview has Paul talking at length about his writing and this Technos interview has him discussing his ideas about Marshall McLuhan and new media.
You can learn more about the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America by going to their web site.
Science and Space News
To learn more about recent discoveries relating to the number of neutrinos coming from the Sun you should consult the web site for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. If you would like to learn more about importance of the number of neutrinos coming from the Sun and why this was previously a big problem for astrophysics, then you should view this Scientific American article. And if you're not clear on what a neutrino is, then check out this Scientific American article.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn you can go to the project's official web page at JPL. For more information about the Huygens Probe that will land on Titan you can go to its ESA web page.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
About 18 months ago one of my favorite web sites for news about space - SpaceViews - vanished when its parent company was purchased by Space.com. I am happy to say the editor of SpaceViews - Jeff Foust - is back on-line with the Spacetoday.net web site and it's everything that SpaceViews was, plus more. This site has lots of news and links to stories on the 'net concerning space related subjects. Way to go Jeff! {And my thanks to Bob Gounley for telling me that this new site was on-line.}
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Science Fiction Modeling
Click here to learn more about the 2001: The Future That Should Have Been contest that is currently running at the Starship Modeler web site. Please note, that as expected the deadline for this contest has been extended, and so you now have until July 22 to submit your contest entries.
You can find more information about science fiction modeling - including links to sites with numerous free paper models of SF subjects - by visiting the web sites found on the Hour 25 Science Fiction Modeling Links page.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Return to the Previous Shows Index
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Kim Stanley Robinson
On Friday - June 15, 2001 - our guest was Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy as well as Antarctica, Icehenge, the "California" Trilogy and many more examples of the best in science fiction.
Stan Robinson is not the only SF writer to have a PhD, but he is one of the few with a Doctorate in English Literature. {His 1984 book, The Novels of Philip K. Dick, is a somewhat revised form of his PhD thesis.} And unlike many persons with PhDs who also write, he produces books that are good reading.
Stan is perhaps best known today for his Red/Green/Blue Mars series of books that trace the development of a Terraformed Mars and its impact on human civilization, but he first achieved notice in the science fiction world for his "California" Trilogy in which he used three separate novels to look at various aspects of our near future. A personal favorite of mine is his book Icehenge in which he explores how different people are affected by an alien artifact found on Pluto and delves into questions of memory - both personal and historical.
Stan became interested in science fiction when he noticed the similarity between the issues being discussed in SF and the constantly changing panorama of life in Southern California where he grew up. Now he is a major force in the SF world and lives in a neighborhood where all the streets have names taken from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
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Stan Robinson picture copyright ©2001 by Suzanne Gibson. Icehenge cover copyright ©1998 by TOR Books, Red/Green/Blue Mars covers copyright ©1993-1996 by Bantam Books
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Listen to this show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {1:14:12}
or
- Click here for the show's introduction.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news.{14:11}
- Click here for the Kim Stanley Robinson interview. {57:29}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:51}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this show
Kim Stanley Robinson
For more information about Kim Stanley Robinson you might want to check out this fan produced web site or this site or this one.
This site discusses the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy and has a number of comments from Stan about those books.
The Mars Trilogy
Concordance is a repository of information about Stan's Red/Green/Blue Mars Trilogy and this site discusses the science behind those books as well as providing lots of other information about space exploration and astrobiology.
You can learn more about Stan and his work by readings any of a number of interviews with him that appear on the 'net. This Locus interview gives some of his thoughts about the significance of the year 2000 and the background for his novel Antarctica, this interview has him answering questions from his readers, this short interview has some interesting thoughts from Stan on the relationship between science fiction and the 'real world', and this transcript of a 1998 on-line chat with Stan has much interesting background about his book Antarctica and many other subjects.
ISS News
The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
Space Exploration News
For more information about the Mars Scout missions that NASA is now studying you can go to this JPL web page.
You can learn more about the Solar Sail Project being sponsored by the Planetary Society and Cosmos Studios by going to the project's web site. You can learn more about the work of the Planetary Society at their web site.
MP3Pro Links
To learn more about the new MP3Pro format you can check out this press release from Thomson multimedia and can download an MP3Pro encoder/decoder from their main web site.
You can download an encoder/decoder for MP3Pro audio files at the RCA web site.
You can learn more about the technology behind MP3 files by going to the web site for the Fraunhofer Institute where much of the work behind the MP3 file format originated.
Note: I have not had the chance to try the new MP3Pro encoder/decoder and so I can offer no opinions about how well the software works. But I will be paying close attention to it. Anything that will let us cut the storage requirements for the Hour 25 audio files in half sounds like a good thing to me. I'll let you know more as things get sorted out with this new audio format.
Science Fiction Modeling - with more links for SF modeling
Click here to learn more about the 2001: The Future That Should Have Been contest that is currently running at the Starship Modeler web site.
You can find more information about science fiction modeling - including links to sites with numerous free paper models of SF subjects - by visiting the web sites found on the Hour 25 Science Fiction Modeling Links page.
Skyhook Models is a small, but very good, maker of resin kits of science fiction subjects. Their kits are all moderately priced - at least as far as these kinds of things go - but more importantly, their kits are well made and don't require a lot of extra work to turn into really nice display items.
New Ware is a company in the Czech Republic that produces resin models of real spacecraft and launch vehicles as well as decal sets and photoetch accessory sets for improving the accuracy of models of the Mir space station. They have just released a model of the Lockheed Starclipper that is totally wonderful.
Special purpose decals are available to dress up your models. Tango Papa Decals makes decals - with a name like that you were expecting maybe plumbing supplies? - for a variety of real rockets and spacecraft. Tangents Decals have been taken over by Griffon Games. They have decals for a variety of SF subjects, including ones for various spaceships from 2001: A Space Odyssey. These can be ordered through their on-line store.
For On-Going Updates on Space News
About 18 months ago one of my favorite web sites for news about space - SpaceViews - vanished when its parent company was purchased by Space.com. I am happy to say the editor of SpaceViews - Jeff Foust - is back on-line with the Spacetoday.net web site and it's everything that SpaceViews was, plus more. This site has lots of news and links to stories on the 'net concerning space related subjects. Way to go Jeff! {And my thanks to Bob Gounley for telling me that this new site was on-line.}
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Space Science from Agamemcon 5
On Friday - June 8, 2001 - we did the show from Agamemcon, a convention in Los Angeles that is as well known for its space science programing as it is for its coverage of Babylon 5. Our guests will include Jeff Horvat - who is in charge of operations at the con, Steve Bartlett - who put together the con's science programming and who is also an engineer working at Microcosm where he is working on a new low cost launch vehicle, Bob Gounley from JPL - who is working on the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover and Dr. Steve Pravdo - who is an astronomer managing the Near Earth Asteroid Detection Program at JPL. We'll be spending some time with each of these fellows talking about subjects ranging from the convention itself to launch vehicle developments, the status of Mars exploration and recent results from the search to discover how many asteroids have orbits that take them dangerously close to Earth.
For more information about the convention be sure to check out their web site.
Listen to the show
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- Click here to listen to the entire show. {59:58}
or
- Click here for the show's introduction.{0:41}
- Click here for the show's opening and news.{12:54}
- Click here for the Jeff Horvat interview. {05:05}
- Click here for the Steve Bartlett interview. {14:16}
- Click here for the Bob Gounley interview. {14:38}
- Click here for the Steve Pravdo interview. {11:03}
- Click here for the show's closing.{1:21}
or
- Click here for an index of all Shows on our site.
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Links for more information relating to this show
X-43A, HyShot and Scorpius
You can view pictures of the X-43A at this web site or view movies of it at this web site.
More information about the X-43A can be found in this article provided by the Federation of American Scientists or in this article.
This web site from the University of Queensland has information about the HyShot project.
You can learn more about the work being done at Microcosm by going to their web site. This link will take you directly to information about their Scorpius launch vehicle.
For a discussion of the Minimum Cost Design Philosophy you should check out this fascinating series of articles by Arthur Schnitt. They discuss how launch vehicle cost can be reduced by trading increased vehicle weight and performance for tremendous reductions in development and operations cost. These should be required reading for anyone interested in reducing the cost of space launch.
ISS News
Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.
Planetary Exploration News
The official web site for the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission contains background information and news about that project.
You can learn more about the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Project by going to the project's web sites at Cornell University and JPL.
Two great web sites about Mars and Mars Missions are the Mars Exploration web site at JPL and the Center for Mars Exploration at NASA Ames Research Center.
You can find collections of Mars images at the Malin Space Systems Gallery of Images from Mars Global Surveyor and go here to see the most recent and highest resolution images of the "Face on Mars". Does anyone still see a face???
For the latest in news from Mars be sure to visit MarsNews.com.
To learn more about the MESSENGER { MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging} mission to orbit Mercury you should visit the project's web site.
MESSENGER is a part of the NASA Discovery series of spacecraft. You can learn more about the various missions in this program by going to its web site.
Science Fiction Modeling - with new information about SF paper models
Click here to learn more about the 2001: The Future That Should Have Been contest that is currently running at the Starship Modeler web site.
You can find more information about science fiction modeling by visiting the web sites found on the Hour 25 Science Fiction Modeling Links page.
A number of people enjoy making paper models of various subjects. These can be wonderfully detailed and often are for vehicles that most model companies won't even consider turning into kits. In many cases, these paper kits are free. Hour 25 listener David Okamura has recently sent me an extensive list of links for paper models of SF subjects which I have included below. {Thanks David!} Check them out, you might find something you'd like to build.
The late Ulrich Prahn designed four models (uncolored) based on the Star
Trek series. They can be downloaded from this site.
While not technically a spaceship, The Tardis Database has a tab-and-slot
model of Doctor Who's police call box. {Just scroll down and click on the "Tardis" entry and scroll down some more, you'll find it.}
Takahiro Kojima's Paper Model World has Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 3 on "Page No. 1" of this web page. (No
instructions, but any Gerry Anderson fan could probably build them without
too much trouble.)
Speaking about Gerry Anderson, Pierre Fontaine's Paper Forge has a beautiful
model of the Fireball XL5. This model is also available at the Space City web site - which is filled with information about the TV shows created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
A Star Wars T-16 Skyhopper model is available here. (German only).
Erwin de Jong's Cut & Paste Sci-Fi has a model of the Martian Tripod from The War of The Worlds, R2-D2, and the saucer from the movie The Day the
Earth Stood Still.
Ralph Currell of Currell Graphics has the downloadable paper models of the rocket from the German silent film Frau im Mond, the Soviet N-1 moon rocket, the V-1 and V-2 on this page.
This web page has loads of information about the film Dark Star and even has a downloadable paper model of the spaceship from that movie. {Just scroll down to the bottom of that page and you'll find the appropriate link.}
Paper models of various launch vehicles can be freely downloaded from the Space Launch Report web site.
You can download many paper models of real spacecraft, including; 2001 Mars Odyssey, Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Pioneer 10, and even the ISS - to name just a few. You can find many more links to SF and space paper models on the links page of Iceberg Paper Models.
More information about building paper models can be found at the Card Modeling FAQ .
For On-Going Updates on Space News
The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.
Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.
Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.
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Unless otherwise noted the entire content of this web site is Copyright © Warren W. James, 2000-2002.
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