Spider on the Web show

Spider on the Web

Summary: Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author Spider Robinson speaks directly to his fans in this podcast, with subjects ranging from space exploration to technology, books, music, and anything else this writer's fertile mind settles upon. The weekly series begins with eight essays written while Spider was writer-in-residence at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, BC. Born in NYC, Spider Robinson has published 33 books and countless short stories since 1973, winning 3 Hugo Awards, a Nebula, the John W. Campbell Award For New Writer, and other awards. In 2006 he completed VARIABLE STAR, based on a 1955 outline by Robert Heinlein. The online Callahan's community, inspired by his books, is the largest non-porn cybernetwork. A singer/guitarist, he has recorded with David Crosby, Amos Garrett, and other legends. His op-ed columns appeared in Canadas national newspaper for many years, and he has reviewed SF for Analog and Galaxy.

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Podcasts:

 Spider on the Web 94 - The Starvation Box | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:10:52

The Starvation Box © 2013 by Spider Robinson Music: Colin MacDonald.

 Spider on the Web 93 - Another Free Lunch | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:19:50

Another Free Lunch © 2013 by Spider Robinson Reading: Chapters 3 & 4, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Tim Minchin, The Creber Family, Michelle Creber, Gina Sposto, Doug Cox, Marcus Eaton with James Raymond, Dori Rubbicco Legge.

 Spider on the Web 91 - The Voyage South | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:18:36

The Voyage South © 2012 Spider Robinson Reading: Prologue of Book I of the Astreya Trilogy, THE VOYAGE SOUTH, by Seymour Hamilton. Music: Kathleen Rubbicco, Strung, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Ella Fitzgerald with the Ray Brown Quintet, Tony Dominelli, and Lord Buckley.

 Spider on the Web 92 - A Free Lunch | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:30:25

A Free Lunch © 2012 by Spider Robinson Reading: "The Littlest Dragon" by Seymour Hamilton; Chapters 1 & 2, THE FREE LUNCH by Spider Robinson. Music: Mose Scarlett; Folk Uke; John Boutte; Gale Mead; Scarlett, Washington & Whiteley.

 Spider on the Web 90 - It's Time Now... | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:41:56

It's Time Now... © 2011 by Spider Robinson Reading: "Chronic Offender." Music: The Lovin' Spoonful, Spider singing Tim Minchin, Ann Earthling & The Planets, Nils Landgren & Michael Wollny, Joshua Penman and Akara, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Mose Scarlett.

 Spider on the Web 1 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #1 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:05

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #1: Space Tourism © 2007 by Spider Robinson I’ve spent several decades rebutting silly complaints about “money wasted in space.” Dollars have been spent getting there—but every single buck stopped here, on the ground, in the pocket of some smart person. Furthermore, every dollar NASA spent earned thirteen dollars back. Look what it got them: a manned space program that barely exists and has little future.

 Spider on the Web 3 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #2 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:40

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #2: Sustaining the Planet © 2007 by Spider Robinson Sustaining the planet means widely different things to all of us—so let’s try and define our aim. The phrase surely isn’t meant literally. Terra was sustaining herself just fine for millions of years before the first oxygen-producing lifeforms infested her and wrecked her nice methane ecosystem, dooming entire phyla to extinction. Mother Gaia’s not alarmed by “global warming”: she’s survived vastly greater environmental changes more than once, and will again.

 Spider on the Web 5 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #3 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:46

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #3: Spirituality of Space © 2007 by Spider Robinson The spiritual impulse can be a dangerous thing when it goes public. Ask anyone who was in New York five years ago, or anyone still alive in Baghdad today...It’s hard to talk about spirituality without talking about religion, and most of the world’s religions are, whether they admit it or not, mutually exclusive. That’s the only way I can explain the odd fact that spirituality is one of the least-known attractions of space travel.

 Spider on the Web 7 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #4 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 9:21

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #4: Militarization of Space © 2007 by Spider Robinson To my surprise, not even the wonderful Wizard Of Google can pin down exactly when the militarization of space became unstoppable. In the first place, China’s finally sussed out the secret to the Information Age: smother it with so much contradictory information nobody can say for sure just what you said, or when...much less why. And they’ve always known what to do about military information: lie. A lot of people will give you some variant of that same response if you ask them about space art. “Great idea. Somebody should try that.” “What space art?” I draw blanks with the idea all the time at social gatherings. Nobody seems to realize there is any.

 Spider on the Web 9 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #5 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 17:08

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #5: Space Art © 2007 by Spider Robinson It’s probably apocryphal—the best ones usually are—but one of my favorite quotations is what Mahatma Ghandi is supposed to have responded when asked what he thought of Western Civilization. They say he replied gently, “That would be very nice.” A lot of people will give you some variant of that same response if you ask them about space art. “Great idea. Somebody should try that.” “What space art?” I draw blanks with the idea all the time at social gatherings. Nobody seems to realize there is any.

 Spider on the Web 11 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #6 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:21

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #6: Space Law © 2007 by Spider Robinson Ask Elliot Ness. The power of a law—its meaning—depends on who’s committed to enforcing it, and how far they’re prepared to go. In David Milch’s HBO series Deadwood, nobody seems prepared to enforce much of anything, and perhaps you’ve seen the dire consequences of such anarchy: the rights of prostitutes were not respected, men were sometimes cheated, wealth and power and information lay in the hands of a few, undertaking was handled by voracious swine, and foul language was heard in public. Nothing like the shining civilization of laws we enjoy today.

 Spider on the Web 13 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #7 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:19

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #7: Space Society © 2007 by Spider Robinson “Space Society” is an ambiguous topic, just as “Space Art” was. There’s more than one way to interpret it. The easy way out would be to discuss some of the largest of the many organizations that exist to support the study of astronomy, cosmology, planetology and other space-related disciplines, or to encourage manned and/or unmanned spaceflight, or to promote orbital science, industry and/or tourism, or to call for demilitarization of space, or…

 Spider on the Web 15 - Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 12:11

Thrillin' at the MacMillan #8: Space Generation © 2007 by Spider Robinson The first thing “space generation” makes me think of is the quantum ramjet, a hypothetical star drive I chose as the motive force for the starship Charles Sheffield in VARIABLE STAR, my new collaboration with Robert A. Heinlein. It would make use of quantum fluctuations in the energy of the cosmic vacuum to propel a ship up to relativistic speeds quickly, without burning any fuel. No such engine has been built yet—but the engineer who proposed it, David Froning, mentioned parenthetically that if a quantum ramjet were ever built, it might very well create new universes, every second it was in operation, as a side effect. It’s kind of hard to top that for space generation.

 Spider on the Web 89 - Life Goes On | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:00:26

Life Goes On © 2011 by Spider Robinson Music: Naming the Twins, Corbin Keep, Slide to Freedom, Crosby-Nash, Across the Borderline.

 Spider on the Web 87 - Live at Tottering-On-The-Brink | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:11:46

Live at Tottering-On-The-Brink © 2011 by Spider Robinson Music: Dori Legge, Claude Debussy, CPE Bach, Steve Reich, Tom Johnson, Colin MacDonald, Jacob ter Veldhuis.

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