Dan Ariely on ABC:RN’s All In The Mind – That’s the Irrational MIND

elainewillis

SFFaudio Online Audio

ABC Radio National - All In The MindScience Fiction is great but my iPod is mostly tuned to Science Fact. I only have 4gb and real estate is slim.  Jesse’s chuckles have turned to belly laughs when he “catches” me in the act of listening to “MY” podcasts. “Put it on your BLOG” has been his standard retort when I comment enthusiastically about whatever has caught my fancy. He changed his tune recently and now it’s “POST IT ON SFFAUDIO” so beware… here they come.

My favorite weekly PODCAST is ABC Radio National‘s All In The Mind with host Natasha Mitchell. Natasha is brilliant. She came to journalism by default… with a first class honours degree in engineering and midway to completion of a PhD in materials engineering. She has been the producer of All In The Mind since 2002, and all shows are available on the ABC website for download.

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University as well as the head of eRationality research group at MIT. He has conducted research into the human decision making processes. In this podcast Dan describes experiments which include masturbation, freebies, expectations, placebos and price.

My favorite of Natasha’s comments for this interview was when Dan described some of his experiments, Natasha expressed her amazement at how he managed to get these approved by ethics committees. He responds: “You know I have a lot of experience with them and slowly they trust me more and more. I think that’s one of the benefits.” (Are the ethics committees irrational?)

There is no doubt, after listening to Dan Ariely, that humans are irrational. Can one become more rational when one is aware of one’s irrationality?

Have a listen |MP3|.

Posted by Elaine Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #020

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #020 – Today Jesse and Scott talk with James Powell, a terrific Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Crime writer. He was first published in April 1966 and has approximately 140 published short stories in such magazines as Playboy and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. But most of his tales, including his most famous have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine! His tales are relentlessly logical, often hilarious, and swift. He is an absolute master of the short story. Powell is what’s known in the business as a “Pussycat writer” which means he doesn’t put sex and violence on the page, it all happens off-stage. Look for his latest tale, Clowntown Pajamas in the February 2009 issue of EQMM.

Talked about on today’s show:
A Cozy For The Jack-O-Lanterns, A Dirge For Clowntown, Clowntown Pajamas, Monaco, France, Crippen & Landru, The Friends Of Hector Jouvet |READ IT|, Peter Sellers, A Murder Coming, the review in which I first mention A Dirge For Clowntown rules for what Powell calls “Elf Economics”, The Theft Of The Valuable Bird, Midnight Pumpkins (Cinderella as Hard Fantasy), Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock style stories, Clowntown Pajamas, the hidden but clear rules of clown and mine behavior, Toronto, 1940s, QUESTION: Who does James Powell read? ANSWER: Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, J.R.R. Tolkien, and lately Michael Swanwick‘s The Edge Of The World, as wells as A Passage To India, E.M. Forster, Bouchercon, Frederic Dannay, Santa’s Way, The Tamerlane Crutch (a takeoff on the Maltese Falcon and A Christmas Carol), Lawrence Block, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, The Quest For Creeping Charlie, 1950s, George Orwell, Winter Hiatus, Iced: The New Noir Anthology of Cold, Hard Fiction edited by Peter Sellers, The Dawn Of Captain Sunset (a superhero champion of the elderly), round robin style short stories, The Best Fantasy Stories Of The Year: 1989 edited by Orson Scott Card and Martin H. Greenberg (ISBN: 1556561431), the difficulty of writing a Science Fiction Mystery story, John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, of A Dirge For Clowntown Scott says: “[it is] one of the finest mysteries I’ve ever read set in a different world,” Dercum Audio, Durkin Hayes, The Book Of Lies, Brad Meltzer, A Murder Coming edited by Peter Sellers (ISBN: 0886466377), calling all publishers: COLLECT JAMES POWELL!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Mister Ron presents: An 1880 Poe spoof – The Murder in the Rue Rivoli

misterron

SFFaudio Online Audio

Podcast - Mister Ron's Basement Mister Ron’s Basement podcast will be celebrating Edgar Allan Poe’s Bicentennial this month with a collection of Poe’s funniest stories. However, we will beginning with an 1880 spoof of Poe’s Detective Fiction by the remarkable Stanley Huntley in Episode number 1255. It’s called The Murder in the Rue Rivoli. Poe fans should get a kick out of this highly polished satire…

Posted by Mister Ron

new PC game inspired by radio drama Lights Out

Jesse Willis

SFFaudio News

BrainpipeRich Carlson, an SFFaudio contributor and the webmaster of Radio Tales Of The Strange And Fantastic (his own excellent radio drama website) has (along with a few other folks at Digital Eel Games) created new PC game called Brainpipe.

So, I’ve been playing Brainpipe all weekend!

This is one of those “casual games” – so the story is basically nonexistent – it’s an action oriented game that’s fun and highly addictive. So why am I telling you about it? Other than a vaguely science fictional premise, and terrific audio (by Rich) it isn’t exactly all that SFFaudio related.

Brainpipe looks kind of like a screensaver crossed with the old 1983 vector graphics Star Wars arcade game and it controls like a Nintendo Wii’s (it would make a great WiiWare game come to think of it). The whole production is super-slick.

The last time I played, a few hours ago, after getting to level five and achieving “dissonance” I died (I think), and the game ended. It was then that I noticed something in the credits…. a nod to “Lights Out” the old radio drama show! I asked Rich if there was any particular episode that inspired the it and Rich said: The Meteor Man (aka The Hungry One)

So, got a few spare minutes? Go have a listen to The Meteor Man |MP3| and then go try the Brainpipe demo – it’ll blow yer brainpipe!

Posted by Jesse Willis

UPDATE: In level 7 more Doctor Who-ish audio turns up too!

TTS #29 – Robert Silverberg 1970 WorldCon Speech

Time Traveler

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Time Traveler ShowThe Time Traveler goes back to the 1970 WorldCon for the Guest of Honor speech given by Science Fiction Grand Master, Robert Silverberg.  Mr. Silverberg gives a talk on Science Fiction in the Age of Revolution.

| MP3 | Podcast Feed | Shownotes

Posted by The Time Traveler of the Time Traveler Show

The Amber Spyglass

Rich

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 7 - BBC7 The Amber Spyglass
His Dark Materials – 3 of 3
By Phillip Pullman
Dramatized by Lavinia Murray
Saturday January 10
9am, 8pm and 3am GMT

Full cast audioplay: Philip Pullman‘s award winning epic trilogy concludes. Will must find Lyra, so that together they can protect the future! Stars Ray Fearon.

BBC7 | The Amber Spyglass | Schedules (stays online for 6 days)

Posted by RC of Radio Tales of the Strange & Fantastic