What The If? Creators & Guests

Dan Moren is the author of the sci-fi espionage capers The Aleph Extraction and The Bayern Agenda, from Angry Robot Books, as well as The Caledonian Gambit from Talos Press. He also co-hosts tech podcasts Clockwise and The Rebound; writes, hosts, and produces the nerdy game show Inconceivable!; and is a frequent panelist on the Parsec-award-winning show The Incomparable.

Paul J. McAuley a botanist and science fiction author. His fiction is mostly hard science fiction about biotechnology, alternative history and alternative reality, and space travel. He has also written a thriller, crime novels, several collections of short stories, a Doctor Who novella, and an anthology of stories about popular music, which he co-edited with Kim Newman.McAuley's first book, the far-future space opera "Four Hundred Billion Stars," was published in 1988. It won the Philip K. Dick Award.

Dr. Robin George Andrews is an volcanologist and science journalist and photographer.Dr. Andrews's work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Quanta Magazine, Vox, Nature, Science Magazine, Earther, Gizmodo, Forbes, The Verge, Atlas Obscura, New Scientist, Supercluster, Discover Magazine, WIRED, CNN, the Guardian, the Observer, The Times, and The Daily Beast. He has appeared on BBC News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and Good Morning America.Dr. Andrews's first book, "Super Volcanoes: What They Reveal about Earth and the Worlds Beyond," was published in 2021.Dr. Andrews was the 2022 recipient of the European Geosciences Union's Angela Croome Award for continued, excellent and successful reporting of Earth, space & planetary science topics.Dr. Andrews received M.Sci. in Geology from Imperial College London.