“A Step Farther Out” 2025 Shows

ASFO airs weekly at 19z00, with occasional bonus shows at 15z00 Tuesdays or Fridays. Here you will find links to recordings of the shows from 2025, each accompanied by a brief description.

To understand what this show is about, and for recordings of the shows from 2021, go here. 2022 shows are here, 2023 shows are here, and 2024 shows are here.

  • 2025–01–04 We humans, time–binding animals that we are, have now exhausted the first quarter of the twenty–first century. And what do we have to show for it? Colonies on the Moon, research outposts on Mars, expeditions to the asteroids and Jupiter? Peace, prosperity, and healthy ecosystems on Earth? Make better choices, children!
  • 2025–01–11 The metaphenomenon of recurrent phenomena occupies a considerable part of my attention this week. Also, a recommendation for a book, The Flying Sorcerers by Gerrold and Niven ; a consideration of the Car Culture in America ; and a warning to be aware of the ape brain that lies between the lizard brain and the higher faculties of consciousness.
  • 2025–01–18 Has the capitalist owner–class, like its mediaeval equivalent (albeit with far less tangible reason), embraced the delusion that it represents a higher order of life than the working class? Will the USA, as a result, see a wave of CEO shootings in the coming year? Are our measures of historical time obsolete in the face of increased human life expectancy? Also, a little bit of astronomy, a little bit of space travel, and Mail Call! Two postcards from Canada this week, and a letter from Australia.

Supplementary Shows

  • 2025–01–03 “The domain of the virus is apparently the threshold between what we have known in the past as the animate and the inanimate.” Back to Bucky Fuller and Utopia or Oblivion — The Prospects for Humanity, which seems very appropriate as we begin this Glorious Future Year of 2025.
  • 2025–01–07 “When we have something vital to say we can usually develop the means of communication. Today with our great vocabulary inheritance we squander meanings on unworthy causes and communicate little that needs to be said.” More of Utopia or Oblivion by Bucky Fuller, the tail end of Prevailing Conditions in the Arts, and the start of Keynote Address at Vision 65.
  • 2025–01–10 “We find that man is developing an increasing confidence in the way in which computers are resolving heretofore vexing and seemingly unsolvable problems.” Completion of Keynote Address at Vision 65, and beginning of Summary Address at Vision 65.
  • 2025–01–14 “There is now a very large inventory of ways in which Man has been teaching, thinking, and accounting events and values which have no experimentally–demonstrated validity.” The remainder of Summary Address at Vision 65 just rounds out the hour (hey, it had to happen sometime), and provides the title for the book, Utopia or Oblivion.
  • 2024–01–17 “For every problem solved a plurality of new problems arise to take their place. But the problems need not be those of physical and economic survival.” More from Fuller, a short piece titled The World Game — How to Make the World Work, describing a very interesting computer simulation effort, and the beginning of a longer piece entitled Geosocial Revolution.

“A Step Farther Out”

If you recall the Eames Office film “Powers of Ten” ― we humans are at the midpoint between the galaxies and the atomic nucleus. It’s a great place to be!

Saturdays, 19h UTC

Why would I start a new show, when I have trouble keeping up with the one I already have?

This is a completely different concept, and will be a completely different format (whatever the format ends up being), from Hear Now the Words. About all they have in common is my speaking voice. HNtW is the show in which I read stories written by other people. ASFO is the show in which I talk about what I think are interesting and worthwhile things to know and think about. That is going to involve atomic energy and space travel a great deal. As I see it, those are two defining features of human existence in the present age, which is the age of transition from planetary to cosmic existence. If we fail to think about them, and get them in the correct perspective, we may not make that transition successfully. And that is a thought too hideous, too sorrowful, to bear examination.

Continue reading ““A Step Farther Out””

Hear Now the Words!

This is in the nature of an experiment, albeit a protracted one.

Having come up with the idea of “live–action audiobooks”, or live–streaming myself reading, I realized that the recordings I was making in the process could be edited & sent out later as audio transmissions.  aNONradio seemed like an ideal venue for this, in no small part because of its archive feature.

This is, then, a long–form spoken-word program, consisting mostly of my reading of classic science–fiction novels.  I hope you enjoy!

  • aNONradio timeslot :  15h UTC, Tuesdays and Fridays
  • Streaming on Toobnix : planned for 2200 UTC Sundays, ending with a call–in period during aNONradio OpenVoIP (listen for announcements)
  • PayPal : encourage the storyteller by leaving a tip
  • Patreon campaign :  tip the storyteller on a recurring monthly basis, and receive rewards — at the lowest tier, $1/month, you can download the individual story chapters (some free samples are available here)
  • Twitch streaming :  discontinued now that Toobnix is working
Major works read so far :
Shorter works read so far (as fillers, et cetera) :
  • Citadel of Lost Ships, Leigh Brackett (shows 002, 004, 005, 007, 014, 015, 018)
  • Shambleau, C.L. Moore (shows 038, 039)
  • Lorelei of the Red Mists, Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury (shows 040, 041, 042)
  • The Blind Spot, Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint ― this is actually a full novel, but I have read only the first 10 000 words so far (show 060)
  • Columbus Was a Dope by Robert A Heinlein ― perhaps his shortest story, and I did not seek the permission of his literary estate before reading it, but I don’t think they’re going to be too harsh to me. Live and unedited here.
  • A Sherlock of the Skies (1912) by Rene Mansfield ― live and unedited (with illustrations and re–typed text) here.
  • The Flying Scarab and the Seventh Heaven (1911) by the same Mansfield, here.
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