For shows from other years :
Saturday Shows
- 2026–01–03 Senator Floyd Haskell provides an example of how not to do representative government ; controversy erupts in Cowley County, Kansas, and I suggest a rule which would substantially change the way “renewable energy development” is approached ; and some good news from Japan and South Korea, bad news from Belgium, and downright stupid news from the European Commission.
- 2026–01–10 Crimes against Peace — Lord Voldemort? — Nietzsche’s Superman as fast–food mascot — a brief discussion of the complicated situation in Venezuela — Putin working hard to get the spotlight back — escalating stupidity in Cowley County, Kansas — “carbon pollution”, literally — colossal stupidity in Japan — further progress, of a sort, with blast.
- 2026–01–17 Nobody is going to Mars this year, for better or worse. I tell you how I know that. The launch vehicle for the NASA Artemis II mission is on its way to the launchpad, in preparation for a manned circumlunar flight which may launch sometime in the next three months, and a possible landing sometime in the coming years. Colour me unimpressed. Chancellor Merz of Germany admits that the nuclear exit was a mistake, again, colour me unimpressed. And I let you know of my upcoming travels, and my continuing anxiety over the US domestic and international political situations.
- 2026–01–24 Weather has disrupted my travel plans, and I spend most of the show talking about how that came about. Unfortunately the result of having to re–plan at short notice is a great deal of distraction and losing my train of thought, so I don’t manage to say much else of value.
- 2026–01–31 More evidence for my position that NASA should just pause operations during the last week of January and first week of February : a serious mishap to one of their three WB–57 Canberra high–altitude research aircraft. Also, my updated (and hopefully final!) travel plans, and a tiny bit of progress toward the token issue for the 75th anniversary of electric power generation by EBR–I.
- 2026–02–07 The ethics of decarbonization, with aspects that perhaps don’t get enough discussion — the problem of funding scientific and technical research and development, in an international context — the South African peace dividend, the moral problem of the African National Congress, and the stupidity of attempts to sabotage the Koeberg nuclear power plant. And I don’t even get to talking about my new film transfers!
- 2026–02–14 Canada’s federalized inter–city passenger service, VIA Rail, differs from Amtrak in a couple of interesting ways. One of these is in providing trolley–style food service, rather than a dedicated snack car, at least in the Windsor—Quebec corridor, which is my only experience with it. Another is in having (again, at least in the Windsor—Quebec corridor) usable Internet service. This, however, does not really excuse my annoying my fellow passengers by recording my show at my seat shortly before airtime, even in business class, where other passengers do not hesitate to get on conference calls and that kind of nonsense. Either way, this abbreviated show focuses mostly on my recent travels, and on a very cheering announcement this week of new nuclear power for Ontario.
- 2026–02–21 Margaret “Tina” Thatcher, FenCon XXI and their Science Guest of Honor, the difficulties of fitting display materials into a very small borrowed car, and my continuing printer woes take up most of the time this week.
- 2026–02–28 Congratulations to Électricité de France on reaching 1600 MW of output at Flamanville 3, their first new power reactor in over 20 years, which had an unsurprisingly troubled gestation — condolences to NASA on having to move its Artemis 2 stack back from the pad to the VAB, due to problems with the “interim” cryogenic upper stage (with a brief meditation on just what interim may mean in this context), and having to rush an ISS crew change — more anti–nuclear terrorism, of a sort particularly difficult to understand — a description of a really lovely gift from tob — a discussion of my further travel plans — an expression of confidence that my printer woes are at last over, and of gratitude to an angel of mercy who helped make that happen.
- 2026–03–07 Money museum reviews : Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago — from railroad to whale–road — challenges inherent in using cryogenic methane as a ship fuel — idiocy masquerading as science, with an anti–nuclear payload — more unconscionable, blatantly unlawful, and above all stupid acts of aggression by the present US government…
- 2026–03–14 Tenerife — Coral Methane — metacentric height — Artemis II — Ursula van der Leyen’s “strategic mistake” and the predictable German reaction — “Commander in Chief” — Eastercon?
- 2026–03–21 Justus Freiherr von Liebig — why does it always come back to him? Oil refineries burning — who could possibly have foreseen this? A Canadian spaceport… in Nova Scotia? Also, meter–gage railways of provincial Spain, and possible consequences of helium supply constraints.
- 2026–03–28 South Australia — not just for sea chanties anymore? Related, petrol rationing in New Zealand, and the difficulty of getting and maintaining political support for slow–maturing measures against problems which appear as occasional crises of moderate duration. Also, Artemis II, supply–chain attacks very literally, re–stranded whales, computer–related (but not –generated this time!) idiocy, and more generally, thinking like an Ayatollah. (archive incomplete owing to network problems)
- 2026–04–04 ARTEMIS II — an opportunity to re–define the First of April, or a golden opportunity for conspiracy nuts? Also, wars and rumours of worse ; and a thought about “financialization” and why it poses a problem in the modern world.
- 2026–04–11 ARTEMIS II grabbed the imagination of the world, but left us with two thoughts. First, that we somehow have all this to do over again ; and second, it sets before us once more the stark choice of what to do with our scientific–technological mastery over the inanimate world.
- 2026–04–18 Anything would be a let–down after last week. This show ended up being mostly about my upcoming travel plans in Britain, and some of the interesting industrial museums there, with a mention of something described as a “Luxury Dreadnought”. Also a discussion of the economics of the Eurail Pass, water damage on printed materials, the continuing policy failures of the Bundes Ministerium, and congratulations to the Japanese for getting one of the reactors at the Kashiwazaki–Kariwa power plant back in operation. If all of them were working, it would be the largest nuclear power site in the world, but that never has happened.
- 2026–04–25 Britain! The British Museum, and why I can’t get in even though it’s just outside my window… Also a report on my visit to Thurso, at the northern extremity of Britain ; and (continuing from last week’s Pannonian Ethanol) a brief thought about the perhaps–reasonable justifications for the use of biofuels, as opposed to the environmental ones, which are delusory.
- 2026–05–02 Backpool, and why I am not likely to visit Pleasure Beach. This episode recorded ex post facto, because I lost track of time while riding the tram system — the only one in Britain to have been spared. From its northern terminus you can see the Heysham nuclear power stations. Also a “Museum of Water and Steam”, and Humphrey Davy and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, still two names to conjure with.
- 2026–05–09 Anything but nuclear strikes again, with a proposal to link Canada and Europe by an undersea electric transmission line. The problem is not that this is a bad idea, per se : it is merely a costly and roundabout way of approaching a problem that we already have a more satisfactory solution for. Also, more doubt cast on the Canadian Atlantic spaceport ; and a consideration of common misconceptions and their implications.
Supplementary Shows
- 2026–02–03 Audio from two recently–transferred educational films, The Transuranium Elements with Glenn Seaborg and collaborators, and Understanding Electricity.
- 2026–02–27 (second part) Audio from four new film transfers : Atomic Power Comes of Age, a trailer for an article in the 1965 December Reader’s Digest ; Inside the Atom, an Encyclopædia Brittannica film ; Everyday Radioactivity, an introduction to gamma ray spectroscopy ; and How Much is Enough?, an introduction to the concept of statistical uncertainty in measurements, using radioactive counting rates.
- 2026–03–24 From the 1955 book Atoms for Peace by Donald O Woodbury, the Foreword, and from Part I Atomic Power is on the Way, chapters 23 “How Safe is Atomic Power?” and 24 “Skill Beats the Atom”, describing the December 1952 accident at NRX, Chalk River, Ontario, and the ensuing cleanup and recovery operations ; and chapters 1 “Dawn at Midnight” and 2 “Approach to Peace”.
