TMO Background Mode Interview with Science Fiction Writer & Biographer Alec Nevala-Lee

Alec Nevala-Lee is a science fiction novelist, essayist and biographer. He’s known for the scifi novels: The Icon Thief, City of Exiles, and Eternal Empire. He’s written for Analog Science Fiction, and he’s had essays and non-fiction published in the Los Angeles Times, Salon, The Daily Beast and more. We chatted about growing up in California, the influential book that inspired him to become a writer, his early career, life at Harvard, and quitting his job to become a struggling – then successful novelist. Alec also shared a bit about his writing tools and techniques. Finally, we explored his new biography entitled: ASTOUNDING, a critical look at the life, writing and mutual influences of four famous scifi authors: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard during the Golden Age of Science Fiction in the 1940s and 50s.

TMO Background Mode Interview with Planetary Scientist Dr. Pascal Lee

Dr. Pascal Lee is a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute. He’s also Chairman of the Mars Institute, and Director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center. His research includes the history of water on Mars and planning future human exploration of Mars. Pascal has a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Space Sciences from Cornell University. We chatted about how he spent his very early years in Hong Kong, inspired by American and British SciFi TV shows. Later, he migrated to Paris where he continued his education and, inspired by Dr. Carl Sagan, made his way to Cornell in the 1990s. He was Dr. Sagan’s last teaching assistant. Next, we talked about his trips to the remote Canadian island, Devon, to study Mars-like conditions. We wrapped up with an introduction to his thoughts on SETI.

APFS Corruption, Wi-Fi Numbering, and Backups – Mac Geek Gab Podcast 731

APFS has been available on our Macs for a year now, and we’re beginning to see the issues with corruption that can’t be yet be solved by Apple or third party utilities. Wi-Fi is changing names… and getting faster! And folks, Backups are still important! All this and more in this week’s Mac Geek Gab. Press play and enjoy!

TMO Background Mode Encore #5 Interview with Science Communicator Dr. Kiki Sanford

Dr. Kiki Sanford makes her fifth appearance on Background Mode. Kiki is a neurophysiologist with a Ph.D. from the University of California. She’s a popular science communicator and creator of This Week in Science (TWIS) podcast and radio show. In this episode, we chat about some some recent topics discussed on TWIS that fascinated me. 1) Yale roboticists have developed skins with embedded actuators that can turn just about anything into robots. 2) A 127 million year old fossil was discovered in China that fills in another gap in the story of how dinosaurs became birds. 3) The new NASA exoplanet search mission, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is operational. We talk about its mission and how it compares to the Kepler spacecraft. This is just a sample; we covered much more cool science stuff.

Don't Panic, Kernel. It's Just a Kill Switch and a Nuke-and-Pave – Mac Geek Gab Podcast 730

Sometimes things go wrong with your devices, and sometimes the path you think will solve it winds up running you in circles. The same things can happen to your two favorite geeks, and this week’s show talks about some of that while also answering your questions and solving your problems. Press play and enjoy!