Advertise on podcast: If This Goes On (Don't Panic): Science Fiction, Fantasy & Progressive Politics

TW: Violence, Child death In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to writer Nadia Afifi. They discuss Nadia's new duology, writing multiple timelines, improving as a writer, Palestine, history through different points of view, being radicalized, the imperial boomerang, and much more. You can find Naida's books here: https://www.flametreepress.com/ Nadia's website here: https://www.nadiaafifi.com/ "The Lonely Timetraveler of Kentish Town": https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/afifi_11_22/

TW: Death In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to writer Ivy Grimes. They discuss Vasilisa the Beautiful, Baba Yaga, Weird Fiction, Frau Perchta, death, grieving rituals, writing communities, sitcom tropes in horror, forgiving evil characters, and much more. You can find Ivy's website here: https://ivyivyivyivy.com You can find the Cellar Below the Cellar here: https://www.apexbookcompany.com/products/the-cellar-below-the-cellar

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to author Lili Saintcrow. They discuss D&D, Tolkien, World Of Warcraft (WoW), Star Hacker, the popularization of nerd culture, Lili's 5th grade novella, action movies, writing in different genres, the demented orange king, and much more. You can find all Lili's work here: https://www.lilithsaintcrow.com/

In this epeisode of Hope in Horror, Paul Jessup tackles the the most iconic horror writer of our time, Stephen King. Paul discusses a number of King's most iconic works, as well as some of the movies based on his work.  Be sure to check out Paul's new book Cancer Eats the Heart. https://firebirdcreative.myshopify.com/products/cancer-eats-the-heart

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to software developer and award nominated writer, Matthew Kressel. They discuss writing with authenticity, writing unfamiliar cultures, Dungeons and Dragons, what writers can take from RPGs, Matt's new novels Spacetrucker Jess and The Rainseekers, AI, plagiarism, and much more. You can find The Rainseekers here: https://books2read.com/u/4N0Na8. You can find Spacetrucker Jess here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250392435/therainseekers.

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to poet, podcaster, author, and tarot reader, Beatrice Winifred Iker. They discuss religion, horror and religion, queerness, writing neurodiverse characters, Appalachia, organizing complicated plots, Mothman, perfume recommendations, and much more. You can find Beatrice and their books here: https://www.beatriceiker.com/books.

In this episode, Alan talks to writer and educator Brandon Crilly. They discuss the challenges in con running, religion, alien gods, characters with major personality shifts, magic, historical cycles, Hopepunk, messages in fiction, and much more. You can find Brandon Crilly and his books here: https://brandoncrilly.com.

In the Fifth part of this column, we flip the script and discuss how writers can pursue equity in their writing, how to deal with problematic creators, and how Dr. Carroll deals with the toxicity of reading alt-right works, and authors who are examples of anti-fascist writing. You can purhase Speualtive Whiteness here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917081/speculative-whiteness/

In this episode, Alan talks to writer Premee Mohamed. They discuss imposter syndrome, awards, being caegorized as horror, the state of the horror genre, Stephen King, the correlation between social media and sales, quicksand, Premee's favorite ink, audience questions, and much more. You can find Premee Mohamed and her books here: https://premeemohamed.com/author/premee/

In the fourth part of this column, Alan and Jordan pick up trying to understand what is happening in the minds of the alt-right, the ambiance of racism in the US, fascism in Fantasy and Horror, the lack of imagination in fascist thinking, and they begin to discuss how to evaluate the fiction you're reading.  You can purhase Speualtive Whiteness here: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517917081/speculative-whiteness/

In this episode, Alan and Cat talk to writer Thomas Ha. They discuss the effects of covid on genre, Lit RPG, cozey fiction, writing across genres, Clarkesworld Magazine, Matt Diniman, Brian Evenson, preserving the status quo, writing villains, writing children, killing children in prose, inventing monsters, Thomas' recent collection, Uncertain Sons, and much more. You can find Uncertain Sons And Other Stories here: https://undertowpublications.com/shop/uncertain-sons

In the third part of our column about the alt-right and Speculative Fiction fandom, Alan and Jordan break down a number of important concepts needed to understand the alt-right and how they view Speculative Fiction. Concepts include low time preferences, metapolitics, Archeofuturism, Faustianism, and mutant romances. we discuss the right wing and fandom and much more.

In this episode Alan reviews (books linked below): Double Edged Sword & Sorcery 1 published by Brackenbury Books 2024 The Walls of Shira Yulun by Dariel R.A. Quiogue Waste Flowers by Bryn Hammond How to Surf a Hurricane by Todd Medema published by Atmosphere Press 2025 Vigilance by Allen Stroud published by Flame Tree Press 2024 Sub-Liminal by Alastair Miles published by Shadow Dragon Press 2025 Unseen Gods by Justin Holley published by Flame Tree Press 2025

In this episode, Alan and Diane talk to writer and neuroscientist Arula Ratnakar. They discuss Phillip K. Dick, computational neursocience, hard science fiction, science and math communication, preceptions of reality, the neuroscience of neurodiversity, psychedelics, being neurodiverse in a neurotypical world, AI, Clarkesworld, evolving in public, and much more. You can find most of her fiction here: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/?s=arula+ratnakar

In this episode, Alan talks to author and musician Josh Denslow. They discuss writing dialogue and movie scripts, music's influence on his writing, Marlon James, the break down of walls between speculative fiction and Literature, suprheros and comics, the importance of exploring new forms of art, Josh's novel Super Normal, living outside the US, extreme politics and family, humor in fiction, listening to music, their mutual struggle to have "favorite" bands, and Josh's new collection Magic Can't Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure.