This is a bonus episode of Science Fiction 101, in which we abandon our quizzes and throw our past/present/future items out the window, and just give you a straightforward interview. It's all about staging a science fiction film festival!

Our guest is Russ Repp, who is responsible for the mammoth, eight-week, science fiction film festival currently happening in Portland, Oregon, in the city's remarkable OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).

Russ talks us through the history of the festival, and lets us in on the secrets of how a sci-fi film festival is programmed.

Full information on the OMSI Science Fiction Festival (which continues until late May 2024) can be found here: https://omsi.edu/exhibits/sci-fi-film-fest/

Even if - like Phil - you're nowhere near Oregon, this is still a fascinating tale of how a festival is put together.

Next episode, we'll be back to our usual format, but we hope you enjoy this little bonus!

Time for a new episode of the podcast. This time Colin and Phil meet the Hugo- and Nebula-winning author Robert J. Sawyer, to discuss his new novel The Downloaded.

You may recall we reviewed the Audible Original full-cast audio version of The Downloaded a couple of episodes ago (you can find it here). We were keen to find out how the book version differs from the audio version, so we invited Rob onto the show to discuss.

And what a discussion it is!

Also in this episode, we have listener responses to our "to be a fan" episode, and our usual ramble through the past, present and future of SF.

For the full show notes, check out our website at 101sf.blogspot.com

Are you a science fiction fan? Possibly, or why else would you be listening to this podcast?

Phil and Colin ponder what it means to be a fan, and whether there are are specific rules for entry into fandom.

We also have our usual quiz, and our past/present/future discussion. For full show notes, check out our website at https://101sf.blogspot.com/