Episodes

Check here for episodes of our current season. So far we’re read and discussed Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation and we’re just about to start The Caves of Steel (coming soon!).


If you’re looking for older episodes, here are Season 1 and Season 2!


Stars End S3E13: “The Creation of the Podcast Was Looked Upon as the Prime Example of the Overweening Arrogance of Humanity.”

We talk about “The Robot Chronicles,” an essay from Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection. But, really, the bulk of this episode is an engaging and free-wheeling conversation with our special guest Travis Johnson, whom you may know from Twitter as @travisjohnson and/or @startravcommand. He’s one of the hosts of the Black Alert Podcast and created, with his 11-year-old daughter, a Star Trek Prodigy podcast called Star Trek Podigy. He has also published A Matter of Right: Futures of Justice, a “science fiction comics and prose anthology” about the US criminal justice system. Join us as we discuss Robots, Foundation, all things Asimov, and more! You don’t want to miss this one!

Stars End S3E12: “Softly Beaming, A Steady Light of Hope… the Stars End Podcast.”

We come to the end of Forward the Foundation with the story of Wanda Seldon and finally see the inception of the Second Foundation as Hari discovers Wanda’s mental abilities and Wanda first becomes an important part of the Seldon Project before striking off with Stettin Palver to form the nucleus of the Second Foundation. Meanwhile, we hit the bittersweet part of any biography. Hari’s life winds down as he says goodbye to everyone he’s ever loved and is left only with psychohistory before we finally say goodbye to Hari himself.

Stars End S3E11: “No one outside the podcast has the faintest knowledge of how psychohistory works and not everyone inside does either.”

We finally get to the chapter of Forward the Foundation featuring… well no, they all feature Hari but this one’s named after Dors.  It was called “The Consort” when it ran in Asimov’s Science Fiction in April of 1993 and to be honest, Dors plays a larger role in this story than the so-called “featured” characters in the other eponymous chapters.

Our guest this week is Rick Tetrault, the host of the Starbase 66 Podcast from the Infinite Potato Alliance. He’s an “old friend” of Stars End. Rick gave us a great deal of sage advice when we were just figuring out how to do a podcast. You might recall that Starbase 66 was the site of our first collective guest appearance back in December. You’re more than invited to check that out here: Starbase 66: Foundationally Speaking.

But first, without further ado: Episode 11!

Stars End S3E10: “We Must Keep the Podcast Stable If For No Other Reason Than That We’re Here”

Well, here we are again with another installment on Asimov’s swansong, Forward the Foundation.

This time we’re discussing “Cleon I” which originally appeared in the magazine’s 15th-anniversary issue in April 1992 as “Cleon the Emperor.”  Much like the previous story, it isn’t very much about the titular character but it’s a lot about Hari Seldon.  This one is set during his tenure as Cleon’s First Minister. Join us for our latest episode as we continue through the life story of Hari Seldon!

Stars End S3E09: “I Suspect You Will Find That No Podcast Is Ever Truly Crucial”

We’ve officially been a podcast for over a year and we’re starting to talk about our fifth book, Forward the Foundation by the Great and Glorious Az.

And we have a special guest in this episode, who you may know as @stratotron from that bluebird site! They are a perfect person to join us in a discussion of a chapter entitled “Eto Demerzel.” Join us and welcome the delightful Daneel Adrian Cayce to the conversation, Asimov Enthusiast, Trekkie, Twitterer, chiptune creator, and namesake of the quintessential character in the entire Asimov canon! It’s going to be good!

And thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us for an entire trip around the sun! Never fear, there’s no getting rid of us now!

Stars End S3E08: “The Podcast Makes No Allowance For Unwitting Harm”

How time flies!  It’s our final Episode on Prelude to Foundation and you’re not going to want to miss this one! Our heroes finally, despite their best efforts, find themselves in the sector of Wye.

Also War! And the final climactic ending which, in classic Asimovian style, is people in rooms having conversations!  But with tons of intrigue, lots of reveals, and a bit of what some might even call romance.

There’s more!  A special report from our man on the scene at Star Trek: Mission Chicago!  A special interview with a classic Captain of the USS Enterprise and a special surprise from one of our favorite Foundation actors!

Don’t wait!  You don’t want to wait! Let’s go!

Stars End S3E07: “No Sane Podcast Wants to Uphold an Imperial System That Maintains Itself By Fostering Mutual Hatred and Suspicions”

It’s our penultimate episode on Prelude to Foundation!  We wrap up Dors and Hari’s visit to Dahl with more intrigue and more fisticuffs!  Did someone call the police?  Also, an announcement from Jon that you WILL NOT WANT TO MISS!  Let’s go!

Stars End S3E06: “The Podcast Was Alone in the Galaxy for Thousands of Years – Millions of Years”

If you’re reading along with us, this time we’re talking about “Heatsink” and “Billibotton” from Prelude to Foundation. We’ve left the depilated pates of Mycogen behind, but the strangeness remains.  Hari and Dors arrive in Dahl, where all the men luxuriate in their impressive black mustaches and sweaty people provide half of Trantor’s power while in various states of undress.  Also, Dors buys TWO knives (“I’ve got two hands,” she explains) and she and Hari fight off a bunch of street toughs.  Plus we meet Hari’s future adoptive son Raych and hear the first arcane and enigmatic legends of a planet called “Earth.”

Stars End S3E05: “We Have Something Far Better than Religion We Have a Podcast”

Hari Seldon, our protagonal mathematician, participates in the juiciest, spiciest, raciest scene in the entire Asimov canon.  And that includes the non-fiction. That scene is also startlingly strange.  We’ll talk about it.  Then we’ll move on to other grandiose notions like the nature of religion, governmental ethics, and Pascal’s Wager.  Also, there is a robot! Join us as we follow Hari and Dors through the remainder of their sojourn in Mycogen.  You’ll be glad you did!

Stars End S3E04: “The Podcast as a Whole in its Full Complexity Cannot Be Represented By any Simulation Smaller Than Itself”

This one has it all! Dors and Chetter deconstructing Hari’s trip to Upperside ad nauseam! Bad bald caps! Rigidly defined gender roles! Lots of complaining! Dors and Hari don’t understand their room! More complaining! And Hari drags some poor guy out of bed in the middle of the night to make him a sandwich. Let’s just say he’s not the ideal guest. Also with some more apologies, this time to Rod Serling, there’s an iPad… and IT’S A COOKBOOK! Also a new Apple TV+ Minute! Buckle up! This one will be fun!

Stars End S3E03: “Your Podcast is Obscure but I Think I Understand”

We’re joined this time by Paul Levinson; Fordham University Professor, author, singer-songwriter, podcaster, and all-around renaissance human.  Lots of that springs from his philosophy, “If I enjoy something, I try to do it,” he says.  We chat about robots, the Foundation, robots, Asimov, robots, artificial intelligence, robots, and lots of other things.  Also robots.

Stars End S3E02: “The History of Podcasts is Full of Simple Questions That Had Only the Most Complicated of Answers or None At All”

In our second conversation about Prelude to Foundation, we discuss “Library,” “Upperside,” and “Rescue.” Hari gets settled in at Streeling University and begins working on Psychohistory in earnest.  We also meet Dors Venabili who knows her way around a history library and is a quick study at Tennis. And Hari goes for a stroll to get some fresh air; that’s easier said than done on Trantor.

Also Trees! And our first M*A*S*H reference!  Don’t miss it!

Stars End S3E01: “The More Complex a Podcast the More Likely It is to Become Chaotic”

We start the interregnum between seasons 1 and 2 of Apple TV’s Foundation.  We have a plan and if you follow our plan and listen to our podcast it will seem like far less than 30,000 years until we start to get new episodes of the teevee show.

In this episode, we start discussing Prelude to Foundation in which we meet Eto Demerzel and begin Hari Seldon’s long journey to create Psychohistory.  If you’re reading along this time we talk about the first three sections, “Mathematician,” “Flight,” and “Library.” But whether you’re reading along or not, let’s go!  This will be fun!
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