Comments on: Episode 19: Hostess

By: Jessica

Jessica — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 21:24:29 +0000

More X-Minus One, please!

(And/or Dimension X!)

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 25 May 2018 03:19:21 +0000

D&D and Asimov FTW! I kept envisioning the alien as a cross between an ankheg and an ettercap.

Two things that have me wondering, when the alien was studying the missing persons is it because he experimented on possibly some of them listed? I mean, he wouldn’t need an actual list to hypothesize humans spread a disease. Second, did Drake marry her because she would be in contact with possible aliens rather than just “they go off into space”? The alien hinted that they have some sort of telepathy but that humans were unique and didn’t. Perhaps the parasites did though, and could put humans in specific jobs to be guards.

Very interesting episode, I’m surprised I’ve never heard it.

By: Tim Uren

Tim Uren — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 14:55:25 +0000

In reply to Mark Forrester. Why even create art if one does not take the opportunity to mock one's peers? Thanks for pointing this out!

By: Mark Forrester

Mark Forrester — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 22:30:59 +0000

My favorite line in this was when Rose says her colleagues expected her to marry a biologist or “even an anthropologist.” I felt like Asimov was having a little joke at the expense of his own academic colleagues.

By: Tim Uren

Tim Uren — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 06:28:18 +0000

In reply to Jamie B.. Your vision of the creature is delightful! The image I was trying to remember in the podcast is an illustration of a carp dragon from the First Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It was in the Fiend Folio. Perhaps Asimov was thinking of ophiocordyceps unilateral? It's that zombie fungus that grows inside ant heads. Nature is creepy.

By: Jamie B.

Jamie B. — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 05:56:05 +0000

I *really* enjoyed this one. Partially, having a woman as a narrator is a nice change of pace, but mostly it was just, well…

Asimov was basically writing about an interstellar version of Toxoplasma gondii, wasn’t he? That’s an actual organism that reproduces in cats, but alters the behavior of infected rodents, making them easier for the cats to catch. (The rodents become less fearful of the cats.) It may also alter behavior in infected humans.

At the time Asimov wrote this, T. gondii had been discovered, but I’m *pretty* sure the behavioral research is relatively recent. (Thanks, Google!) So he was very much ahead of his time with this.

(Also? Pictured the alien as a sort of cow taur mixed with the BBC version of Douglas Adams’s talking beef.)

By: Tim Uren

Tim Uren — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 16:04:32 +0000

In reply to Bob. A perfect resource for us! Thanks!

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 04:58:13 +0000

Don’t know if you have seen it, but there’s a site with transcripts of vintage radio programs that includes a few of the ones you’ve discussed (“Casting the Runes,” “Poltergeist”):

https://sites.google.com/site/microphoneplays/home

Might find it handy if you’re performing these shows.