On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Janelle Shane about her short story “The Skeleton Crew.”The House of A.I. is a next-level haunted house: In it, a suite of advanced A.I.s read visitors’ facial express

Could a Robot Be Your Dog’s Best Friend?

Jul 29th, 2023 1h 6m

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Andrew Silverman about his short story “Furgen.”Tucker, the story’s canine protagonist, is the center of his owner Caro’s world. When Caro buys an A.I.-enabled dog tra

Who Gets to Escape the Climate Crisis?

Jun 24th, 2023 1h 14m

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Matt Bell about his short story “Empathy Hour.”In the story’s climate-change-ravaged future, society’s wealthiest are whisked away to luxurious, self-contained cities

When Robots Go to War

May 27th, 2023 1h 1m

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Justina Ireland about her short story “Collateral Damage.”The story follows a group of soldiers deployed alongside TED, the Army’s first self-aware combat drone. TED i

Live. Love. Die. Repeat?

Apr 29th, 2023 54m 31s

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to David Iserson about “This, but Again.” The story follows Marcus, who is forced to relive his life over and over again in a never-ending computer simulation. Thanks to a

Can a Pandemic Story Have a Happy Ending?

Mar 25th, 2023 1h 19m

On this month’s episode of Future Tense Fiction, host Maddie Stone talks to Annalee Newitz about “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis.” Annalee’s short story follows a disease-fighting robot—and its companions, both human and crow—on a que

Trailer

Future Tense Fiction: Coming March 25

Mar 18th, 2023 2m 32s

When you imagine how science and technology will reshape our future, does it excite you, or scare you, or both? Each month, the Future Tense Fiction podcast will introduce you to a short work of science fiction, one that will challenge, surpris

6: Coriolanus

Oct 9th, 2018 35m 12s

In this sixth and final episode of Lend Me Your Ears, host Isaac Butler talks to the Public Shakespeare Initiative’s Michael Sexton, Villanova professor John-Paul Spiro, Brooklyn College professor Roy Tsao, and theater critic Helen Shaw about t

5: Othello

Sep 11th, 2018 43m 36s

Othello isn’t just a play about race, toxic masculinity, and the nature of identity—it’s a play that has influenced our own views on race throughout the centuries. But what did race mean in early 17th-century London?In this fifth episode of L

4: Measure for Measure

Aug 14th, 2018 35m 28s

Five hundred years before #MeToo, Shakespeare wrote his darkest comedy, a story of religion, sexual coercion, and the nature of justice.In this fourth episode of Lend Me Your Ears, host Isaac Butler talks to theater critic Helen Shaw, Villanov

3: King Lear

Jul 10th, 2018 35m 25s

If a nation can be thought of as a family, what happens when the family running the nation falls apart? At the exact moment that King James I wanted to unite England and Scotland, Shakespeare answered this question with his masterpiece of tyran

2: Richard II

Jun 12th, 2018 38m 48s

Richard II is God’s anointed representative on Earth, but by the end of the play that bears his name, he’s dead and his cousin sits on his throne. This is the story of how Shakespeare used English history to ask still-relevant questions about l

1.5: Reading Julius Caesar in Modern Context

May 22nd, 2018 10m 9s

Slate Plus members get a bonus episode of Lend Me Your Ears every month. Here, we offer a preview of the Julius Caesar extra, in which Isaac Butler, The Handmaid's Tale screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry, and Vanity Fair film critic K. Austin Col

1: Julius Caesar

May 8th, 2018 41m 35s

Lend Me Your Ears is a six-part podcast miniseries exploring how Shakespeare’s works have shaped our modern views on politics. Each month, host Isaac Butler will dig into a different Shakespeare play to explore how Shakespeare was responding to