Advertise on podcast: Bradbury 100 - Celebrating the Life and Work of American Writer Ray Bradbury

Francois Truffaut's film of Fahrenheit 451 is 60 years old - just like Star Trek! In this episode, I turn the spotlight on the film one more time, providing a scene-by-scene commentary. The episode should make perfect sense on its own, but for the full effect you can cue up your DVD/Blu Ray/streaming version, turn down the TV volume, and listen to me giving you insights into the film, what it all means, and how it was made. As always, check out the show notes at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

It's August 22, 2026 - Ray Bradbury's birthday! So to celebrate, here's a new episode where I talk about "There Will Come Soft Rains", a story which has gained a lot of media attention these last few weeks. As is my tradition on Ray's birthday, I have created this episode as a visual one. If you go to my website www.bradburymedia.co.uk you'll find the full visual version. But this audio podcast contains the audio from that presentation, which will still make sense most of the time...

In this episode of Bradbury 100, I review an old magazine published as a tribute to Ray Bradbury. Back in May 1963, the award-winning Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (which is still running today) published its second-ever author special, and it focused on Ray Bradbury. Join me in skimming through this landmark publication. You can find the full issue of the magazine for free on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v024n05_1963-05_PDF/mode/1up For more information, check out the show notes on my website: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2026/05/new-podcast-episode-reviewing-magazine.html

Another celebration of the 60th anniversary of the release of the feature film version of FAHRENHEIT 451... In a previous episode (https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2026/03/new-podcast-episode-fahrenheit-451-film.html), I detailed how Francois Truffaut's film had an impact on Ray Bradbury. In THIS episode I go back a few steps, and look at how Truffaut became connected to Ray in the first place. It's not an obvious story. Truffaut was no fan of science fiction, and had no knowledge of Bradbury's writings until 1960, when a friend urged him to read Fahrenheit 451. Truffaut was an extraordinary bibliophile, and delighted in Ray's book about books, and its meditation on the significance of literature in an increasingly illiterate culture. Join me as I re-trace Truffaut's steps on the way to completing his 1966 film. Check out the show notes at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

Bradbury 100 returns with another "Chronological" episode, this time continuing with the year 1945. In this year, Ray published no fewer than thirteen stories. In this episode, I cover the next five stories: Skeleton (first version), The Watchers, Dead Men Rise Up Never, Corpse Carnival, and The Dead Man. This batch of stories is once again a mix of crime stories and weird fantasy, clearly Ray's preferred genres at this time. For more information, including links to online versions of the stories (where available), please check the full show notes on my website, here: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2026/04/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html

Francois Truffaut's film of FAHRENHEIT 451 is sixty years old! In this episode I revisit the film and talk about how it came to be made, and then move on to discussing Ray Bradbury's reactions to the film. Not only did Ray review the film for the LA Times, but he also borrowed elements from the film when he later developed his own stage play of F451. Check out the full show notes at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

In this episode, a reading of Ray Bradbury's story "Skeleton" - but perhaps not the story you are familiar with... In 1945, Ray published TWO short stories with the same title, "Skeleton". The more famous of the two went on to be collected in his books Dark Carnival, The October Country, and The Stories Of Ray Bradbury. The less well known "Skeleton" just appeared in an obscure magazine and has only rarely been reprinted. The lesser known "Skeleton" is, by an accident of history, out of copyright - unlike the more familiar "Skeleton", whose copyright was diligently renewed when needed, and remains copyrighted. Check out the show notes at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

Bradbury 100 returns for 2026 with another "Chronological" episode, this time starting us off with the year 1945. In this year, Ray published no fewer than thirteen stories. In this episode, I cover the first four stories: The Poems, I’m Not So Dumb, Hell’s Half Hour, and The Tombstone. There's a mixture here of two genres still favoured as a professional short story writer, namely the detective story and the weird tale. For more information, including links to online versions of the stories (where available), please check the full show notes on my website, here: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2026/02/bradbury-100-returns-new-episode.html

Coming Soon: a new season of Bradbury 100. This short trailer gives you an idea of what to expect when the new season begins on 26 February 2026. As always, find more information on my website at www.bradburymedia.co.uk

My Chronological Bradbury series continues with the third and final look at the year 1944 - which sees Ray continue to dabble with crime fiction, but still turning his hand to SF and fantasy, completing the NINETEEN short stories he had published in that single year. The most notable story of the batch is the timeless "The Jar", a creepy yet amusing fantasy set in the Lousiana swamps. Written when Ray was just 24 years old, it was a story which maintained a fascination for readers/listeners/viewers well into the 1990s and beyond. In the full shownotes (at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/09/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html), I provide links to most of the stories mentioned in this episode, in their original pulp appearances; these versions sometimes differ slightly from the versions in Ray's books. With this episode, Bradbury 100 takes a short vacation. But it will return later in 2025!

This is the audio version of a live talk I did for Ray Bradbury's 105th birthday (22 August 2025). For more info, check out the show notes at: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-laurel-and-hardy.html

Time for another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published. This time, we continue with the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing a string of crime stories alongside the more familiar fantasy and science fiction tales. As you will recall from last time, there are too many stories from 1944 for me to cover in a single episode, so this is the second of three episodes for 1944. For the full show notes - including links to online versions of some of the stories discussed - head to https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html

Time for another podcast episode - and another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published. This time, we reach the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing "The Lake" - which he always said was the first "good" story that he ever wrote. It's also the year of "I, Rocket", the story which nabbed him a posthumous Retro Hugo Award for best short story of 1944. For more details - and links to online versions of the stories covered in this episode - check out the shownotes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/time-for-another-podcast-episode-and.html

Here's another new podcast episode, picking up the "Chronological Bradbury" thread once more, with the remaining Ray Bradbury stories which were first published in the latter part of 1943. I cover five stories in this episode, completing the total of eleven stories Ray published in that year. All of the stories are available online within archived copies of the original pulp magazines. The stories are: Doodad (Astounding, September 1943) And Watch the Fountains (Astounding, September 1943) Promotion to Satellite (Thrilling Wonder Stories, fall 1943) The Ducker (Weird Tales, November 1943) King of the Gray Spaces (aka R is for Rocket) (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943) If you visit my website for the shownotes, you'll find direct links to the stories as they appeared in the original pulp magazines: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/heres-another-new-podcast-episode.html

This episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast is something of a partner to the last episode where I looked at Ray Bradbury's stories from the year 1943. You may recall I talked about "The Wind". Well, in this episode, I look at that story in more detail - and give a reading of the entire, original version. What you will hear is the first-ever published version of the story, taken from Weird Tales magazine. This is before Ray re-wrote it for inclusion in his first book, Dark Carnival (1947). Incidentally, the revised version of "The Wind" is the version you will find in all of Ray's books. After that Weird Tales appearance, Ray didn't give the original version any further outings. Comparing the two versions is quite fun, and something of a lesson in how to improve a story by re-writing. After I've read the story, I give a comparison of the two versions. If you want to read the story for yourself, you can find the Weird Tales issue online, here: https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v36n10_1943-03_ATLPM-Sas/page/n3/mode/2up Next time: I cover the rest of Ray's stories from 1943! Don't forget to check out my website at www.bradburymedia.co.uk