Episodes

  • Bradbury 100 - episode 72 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 3)

    Bradbury 100 - episode 72 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 3)
    Sep 4 2025
    My Chronological Bradbury series continues with the third and final look at the year 1944 - which sees Ray continue to dabble with crime fiction, but still turning his hand to SF and fantasy, completing the NINETEEN short stories he had published in that single year. The most notable story of the batch is the timeless "The Jar", a creepy yet amusing fantasy set in the Lousiana swamps. Written when Ray was just 24 years old, it was a story which maintained a fascination for readers/listeners/viewers well into the 1990s and beyond. In the full shownotes (at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/09/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html), I provide links to most of the stories mentioned in this episode, in their original pulp appearances; these versions sometimes differ slightly from the versions in Ray's books. With this episode, Bradbury 100 takes a short vacation. But it will return later in 2025!
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 71 - Laurel & Hardy and Ray Bradbury

    Bradbury 100 - episode 71 - Laurel & Hardy and Ray Bradbury
    Aug 23 2025
    This is the audio version of a live talk I did for Ray Bradbury's 105th birthday (22 August 2025). For more info, check out the show notes at: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-laurel-and-hardy.html
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    37 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 70 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 2)

    Bradbury 100 - episode 70 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 2)
    Aug 7 2025
    Time for another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published. This time, we continue with the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing a string of crime stories alongside the more familiar fantasy and science fiction tales. As you will recall from last time, there are too many stories from 1944 for me to cover in a single episode, so this is the second of three episodes for 1944. For the full show notes - including links to online versions of some of the stories discussed - head to https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/08/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html
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    30 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 69 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 1)

    Bradbury 100 - episode 69 - Chronological Bradbury 1944 (part 1)
    Jul 24 2025
    Time for another podcast episode - and another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, where I work through Ray Bradbury's stories in the order they were published. This time, we reach the year 1944, which sees Ray publishing "The Lake" - which he always said was the first "good" story that he ever wrote. It's also the year of "I, Rocket", the story which nabbed him a posthumous Retro Hugo Award for best short story of 1944. For more details - and links to online versions of the stories covered in this episode - check out the shownotes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/time-for-another-podcast-episode-and.html
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    54 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 68 - Chronological Bradbury 1943 (continued)

    Bradbury 100 - episode 68 - Chronological Bradbury 1943 (continued)
    Jul 10 2025
    Here's another new podcast episode, picking up the "Chronological Bradbury" thread once more, with the remaining Ray Bradbury stories which were first published in the latter part of 1943. I cover five stories in this episode, completing the total of eleven stories Ray published in that year. All of the stories are available online within archived copies of the original pulp magazines. The stories are: Doodad (Astounding, September 1943) And Watch the Fountains (Astounding, September 1943) Promotion to Satellite (Thrilling Wonder Stories, fall 1943) The Ducker (Weird Tales, November 1943) King of the Gray Spaces (aka R is for Rocket) (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943) If you visit my website for the shownotes, you'll find direct links to the stories as they appeared in the original pulp magazines: https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/07/heres-another-new-podcast-episode.html
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    27 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 67 - "The Wind"

    Bradbury 100 - episode 67 - "The Wind"
    Jun 26 2025
    This episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast is something of a partner to the last episode where I looked at Ray Bradbury's stories from the year 1943. You may recall I talked about "The Wind". Well, in this episode, I look at that story in more detail - and give a reading of the entire, original version. What you will hear is the first-ever published version of the story, taken from Weird Tales magazine. This is before Ray re-wrote it for inclusion in his first book, Dark Carnival (1947). Incidentally, the revised version of "The Wind" is the version you will find in all of Ray's books. After that Weird Tales appearance, Ray didn't give the original version any further outings. Comparing the two versions is quite fun, and something of a lesson in how to improve a story by re-writing. After I've read the story, I give a comparison of the two versions. If you want to read the story for yourself, you can find the Weird Tales issue online, here: https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v36n10_1943-03_ATLPM-Sas/page/n3/mode/2up Next time: I cover the rest of Ray's stories from 1943! Don't forget to check out my website at www.bradburymedia.co.uk
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    39 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 66 - Chronological Bradbury 1943

    Bradbury 100 - episode 66 - Chronological Bradbury 1943
    Jun 12 2025
    Bradbury 100 podcast time! And it's another of my "Chronological Bradbury" series, this time covering the year 1943. This is the year when Ray broke all his previous records, by having no fewer than eleven stories published in professional magazines - in contrast to the mere two published in 1942. This is also the year that Ray became 23 years old. It's remarkable to me that a 22-year-old could write a story like "The Wind", "The Crowd" or "The Scythe". All three of these classics were published before his 23rd birthday. To be fair, not every Bradbury story of 1943 is a timeless classic. Some of them are quite pulpy! But all of them are interesting. In this episode, I cover roughly half of 1943, and I'll cover the remainder of the year in a future episode. The stories I feature this time are: The Piper (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1943) The Wind (Weird Tales, March 1943) Gabriel's Horn (co-written with Henry Hasse (Captain Future, Spring 1943)) Subterfuge (Astonishing Stories, April 1943) The Crowd (Weird Tales, May 1943) The Scythe (Weird Tales, July 1943) For links and more detail, check out the shownotes at https://bradburymedia.blogspot.com/2025/06/new-podcast-episode-chronological.html
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    33 mins
  • Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One

    Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One
    May 29 2025
    Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One by Bradbury 100 podcast by bradburymedia.co.uk
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    28 mins