Episode 15: Hopeful Science Fiction, with Becky Chambers

[instrumental music] Welcome back to Dreaming Against the Machine. I'm your host, Adam Becker. This week's guest is science fiction author Becky Chambers, and she is one of my favorite science fiction authors who's working today, and the reason is just that her work is so warm and so welcoming. A friend of mine introduced me to her first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, right after the 2016 election when I was very unhappy, as I imagine most of you were as well, listeners. And I knew when I started this podcast that she was one of my dream guests, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to have one of my favorite authors on the show. So without any further ado, here's Becky Chambers. [instrumental music] Becky, welcome to Dreaming Against the Machine.

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

It's great to have you here. You're one of the people who I have wanted to have on this podcast since I came up with the idea. Um, you know, not to, you know, put you on the spot or make you feel self-conscious in any way.

[laughs]

Uh, [laughs] no, I, I've been a fan of your books for quite some time, and, um, and it's just a delight to actually be able to talk to you, and this is one of the, the nice things about having a podcast is you get an excuse to call up writers who you like and say, "Hey, uh, can I talk to you on my podcast, person I don't know whose work I like?"

[laughs]

Uh, so no, I have several other friends, s- some of whom are writers, who are, who are quite envious that I'm actually having a conversation with you right now. [laughs]

Oh, well, I, I, I hope I, uh, I hope I live up to expectations then.

Oh, don't-

I'll do my best

... don't worry about that. [laughs]

[laughs]

I'm a giant goof. Don't worry about it.

Oh, good. That makes two of us.

Yeah, good.

So fantastic.

Perfect. Yeah. But I should actually introduce you for people who don't know who you are, uh, for, for listeners. Uh, Becky is a science fiction author of, of, uh, re- renown and acclaim. Um, the-

[laughs]

... the author of, uh, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and many other books, The Monk and Robot Series, and, uh, To Be Taught If Fortunate, and the Rest of the Wayfarer series of books that, that are sequels of sorts to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. And the reason I had you in mind as a guest for this podcast from the beginning is that your books are very warm and hopeful.

On purpose, yes.

Yes. It's very clear that it's on purpose i- in a good way, and that is one of the things that this podcast is about. I could have created a podcast that was just about the horrible tech people that I wrote about in my last book, but instead, I wanted to have a podcast that felt more hopeful and was actually about, you know, thinking through what a good future would look like, and that's, in a sense, what you do for a living. Um, so Becky, h- what does a good future look like? How do we, how do we fix everything? Uh [laughs]

How do we fix every- oh, good. Do you mean, I mean, I think I can solve that in five minutes, no problem.

Yeah.

Here, here's the thing about sort of a roadmap to a better future, right?

Yeah.

I don't believe there is a single solution to this.

Yes.

And I, I think-

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