Season 2

Jan. 14, 2022

Eternity and Imperfection

Isaac Asimov's time-travel masterpiece The End of Eternity ends with a profound philosophical statement about the future of humanity. That, and Stephen Hawking's birthday got me thinking about the value of doing challenging t...

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Dec. 31, 2021

Foundation and History with TCA Achintya

Isaac Asimov loved history and used many important lessons from the past in writing his stories, including his greatest epic Foundation. Historian TCA Achintya joins Seldon Crisis to share his unique perspective from his expe...

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Dec. 24, 2021

Holiday Sampler: Some Favorite Scenes

A little holiday sampler collecting some of my favorite scenes from the series so far including; Seldon maneuvering Ling Chen into granting him exile, a bit of Lord Dorwin, Hardin vs Wienis on Anacreon, Ponyets vs the Grand M...

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Dec. 17, 2021

The Science of Foundation with Stephen Webb

A wide-ranging conversation with astrophysicist Stephen Webb, owner of all the canonical works of Isaac Asimov save for a couple of wall charts. Dr. Webb talks about Asimov the teacher, speculations on the distant future of h...

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Dec. 3, 2021

The Will to Challenge Fate

A brief look at the three mysterious Greek goddesses who were imagined to shape human destiny, and how Hari Seldon chose to challenge their authority. A look at what we must do in our current time, with our own fateful …

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Nov. 19, 2021

The Mule, Part III

Bayta & Toran Darell, Ebling Mis, and Magnifico arrive on the ruined former capital planet of Empire, Trantor. Mis searches frantically in Hari Seldon's psychohistorical archives while their old friend Han Pritcher pays a vis...

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Nov. 5, 2021

The Mule, Part II

Foundation has fallen to the Mule and the proud citizens of Terminus are shocked and dismayed. Haven is under siege and our heroes make a mad dash for the center of the Galaxy to find clues to the location of …

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Oct. 8, 2021

Thoughts on the Show (so far)

I share some thoughts on the new AppleTV+ adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series from the perspective of someone who loves the books and wants the elements that make it a beloved classic to me to be retained, but also...

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Sept. 24, 2021

The Mule, Part I

We begin the grand story of the unconsidered variable in Hari Seldon's equations, a mutant being of indescribable powers known only as the Mule. He conquers worlds overnight, including the honeymoon destination of Bayta and T...

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Sept. 22, 2021

Foundation for Newbies

This brief episode is for any prospective watchers of the new Apple TV+ Foundation television series who have not yet read the books and are looking for a quick primer on the series. The new show will likely cover at …

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Sept. 3, 2021

The Dead Hand and the Living Will

We go a little deeper on the theme of The General, the opposing forces of psychohistorical determinism vs the futile efforts of Bel Riose to exert his free will against it. Bringing this into our current universe, we talk abo...

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Aug. 20, 2021

The General, Part II

We pick up where we left off with the meager Foundation reeling from the onslaught of the Empire's great general Bel Riose. The Emperor's sycophantic envoy Brodrig joins him at the front and insists on personally interrogatin...

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Aug. 6, 2021

A Moment of Meta

Brief comments in the interval between episodes, thoughts on the intended audience, and an explanation for shift to a more relaxed episode cadence. Transcript: Web (Read/Listen) | PDF | MS Word While you wait for the conclusi...

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July 23, 2021

The General, Part I

Seldon Crisis returns with the second in the seven novel saga, Foundation and Empire, and the opening of The General, which tells the story of the young and brilliant General Bel Riose's attempt to destroy the growing, but st...

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