General Audiences - TV-G/ TV-PG

This episode, originally shown in July, 2009, features an interview with award winning (and highly entertaining) author Michael Swanwick. He discusses his new non-fiction work, a biography of the fascinating but under-appreciated author Hope Mirrlees. He also talks about recently receiving the Alex Award for his novel, The Dragons of Babel, and his Hugo nominated short story, "From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled".
Also in this episode:
Colleen Cahill reviews the novel Ending an Ending, by Danny Birt.
Marianne Petrino reviews the anime series Kurau: Phantom Memory.

This is episode #224 of Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction. The episode was originally shown in June, 2009. It features an interview with author Maria V. Snyder, who talks about her latest book, Storm Glass. This novel is the first in a new series set in the same universe as her very popular Study Book series. Also in this episode:
Colleen Cahill reviews the L. E. Modesitt, Jr. novel, Imager
Marianne Petrino reviews the anime series Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

This is episode #223 of Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction. The episode was originally shown in May 2009. It differs slightly from our regular format, because we have three separate interviews - one with award winning author (and musician) Catherine Asaro, one with members of the rock band she is collaborating with, and one with a keyboardist who is helping Catherine take her book-related music on tour to science fiction conventions and book events. There is also a live performance of one of the musical numbers. All of this ties into Catherine's latest book, Diamond Star.

This is episode #222 of Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction. The episode was originally shown in April 2009. It features an interview with best selling author David Weber, talking about his latest novel, Storm from the Shadows. The book is the latest installment in Weber's "Honorverse" military science fiction series.
Episode 222 also includes Colleen Cahill's review of the Scholastic book series The 39 Clues, and Marianne Petrino's review of the anime series Mushi-Shi.

Episode #221 features an interview with author Jennifer Allison, who writes the popular Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator series of books. This episode was originally shown in March 2009.

A look at America's space program, featuring two leading scientists from NASA's Ames Research Center. William Borucki is chief scientist for the Kepler Mission, which is now orbiting the Sun looking for Earth-like planets in other solar systems, and Anthony Colaprete is chief scientist for the LCROSS Project, which recently located water on the Moon. We have terrific NASA-produced videos for both of these projects, as well as for the Mars Rover, one of America's most successful and still ongoing space missions.

Our society is highly dependent on technology, and maintaining this technology requires a very well educated workforce, especially in math and science. But math education has barely changed in the past several centuries. In this episode, host Martin Wasserman examines some of the new approaches to math education with his three guests.

Peter Friess is President and CEO of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA in the heart of Silicon Valley, and he's also an experienced clockmaker.

A look at the journalism program at Silicon Valley's Palo Alto High School, which is one of the largest and most innovative high school journalism programs in the country, where students publish their own high quality magazines, newspapers, tv shows, and internet sites.

A look at Singularity University, a Google-sponsored school located at NASA's Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, CA. Singularity U is based on the idea that technology is advancing at an exponential rate, and it's necessary to train a cadre of leaders who can steer this technology in the right direction, so it can be used to solve humanity's problems without creating more and bigger problems in the process.

Health 2.0, an emerging approach to health care that uses Internet technology and social networking software to make patients better informed about their health conditions and more active participants in their own health care, is discussed. The guests are Thomas Goetz, executive editor of WIRED Magazine and author of the new book "The Decision Tree", and Jennifer McCabe, co-founder and CEO of Contagion Health. Martin Wasserman hosts.