Open Culture » Sci Fi

Twilight Zone Radio: Download Free Episodes

Dan Colman — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:12:17 +0000

The Twilight Zone aired between 1959 and 1964, and it became one of America’s iconic television shows. Although the program ended long ago, the show lives on today … on the radio. Airing on 200 stations across the US, Twilight Zone Radio dramatizes Rod Serling’s classic scripts for today’s radio audiences. And it does it with help of actor Stacy Keach, the show’s host, and celebrities (Jason Alexander, Ed Begley Jr., etc.) playing lead roles in the dramas. You can catch the show on the radio (find your local radio station here). Or, right now, you can download three free episodes of past shows. Each runs about 40 minutes, and, if you find yourself hungering for more, you can always purchase individual episodes from the Twilight Zone Radio archive for $1.95.

On a related note, be sure to see our previous post: Orson Welles Vintage Radio

Twilight Zone Radio: Download Free Episodes is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Orson Welles Vintage Radio

Dan Colman — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:41:55 +0000

Back in the late 1930s, Orson Welles launched The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio program dedicated to bringing dramatic, theatrical productions to the American airwaves. The show had a fairly short run. It lasted from 1938 to 1941. But it made its mark. During these few years, The Mercury Theatre aired The War of the Worlds, an episode narrated by Welles that led many Americans to believe their country was under Martian attack. The legendary production was based on H.G. Wells’ early sci-fi novel, and you can listen to it here. Welles’ radio show also adapted a series of other major novels, including Dracula, Treasure Island, and The Count of Monte Cristo. And then there’s Dickens. In 1938 and 1939, The Mercury Theatre produced two versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In the 1938 version (get mp3), Welles played the role of Scrooge. The 1939 version (mp3) features Lionel Barrymore (yup, the granduncle of Drew Barrymore) playing the same role. Perfect listening for the holiday season. You can listen to these shows and others at this web site dedicated to The Mercury Theatre on the Air.

PS Orson Welles’ film, The Stranger (1946) with Edward G. Robinson, appears in our collection of Free Movies Online.

Orson Welles Vintage Radio is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Richard Dawkins on “The Greatest Show on Earth”

Dan Colman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:38:01 +0000

Richard Dawkins, the prominent Oxford University biologist, has followed up The God Delusion (2006) with The Greatest Show on Earth (September, 2009). After having made the case for atheism, Dawkins now looks to debunk “Intelligent Design” and lay out the sheer volume of evidence supporting evolution. Above, Dawkins reads passages from his book and then talks about evolution and why, relative to other scientific theories, it tends to meet so much opposition. The video comes from the Guardian where you can also find a review of Dawkins’ new book.

Note: you should be able to download Dawkins’ book for free (in audio format) through Audible.com’s standing offer. Details here.

Richard Dawkins on “The Greatest Show on Earth” is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book,” Watch A Chapter A Day

Dan Colman — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:56:24 +0000

Sci-fi author Neil Gaiman has the right idea. After making his well-known novel American Gods freely available online last year, he has gone the extra mile again in releasing his new novel, The GraveYard Book. In brief, he has just kicked off a nine day book tour, and each day he’s reading a chapter that you can later watch on the web. You can watch the first video — and all other videos scheduled to be released between now and October 9 — right here.

via BoingBoing

Free Audio Books

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Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book,” Watch A Chapter A Day is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Free Download of Cory Doctorow’s Graphic Novels

Dan Colman — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:30:36 +0000

Quick fyi for BoingBoing readers …. Cory Doctorow has just released comic adaptations of his award-winning science fiction stories — Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now. You can download them here for free, or buy the collection on Amazon.

Related Content:

Download free copy of Shake Girl

17 Free and Downloadable Graphic Novels

Free Download of Cory Doctorow’s Graphic Novels is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Arthur C. Clarke Retrospective

Dan Colman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:01:09 +0000

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and science fiction writer most well known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, has passed away. (You can read his obit here.) Below, we have posted a video recorded last December for his 90th birthday. Touching in many ways, the video offers a good reminder of how much our world changed during his 90 years.

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Arthur C. Clarke Retrospective is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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William Gibson, Father of Cyberpunk, Reads New Novel in Second Life

Dan Colman — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:49:52 +0000

William Gibson, who launched the cyberpunk genre with the 1984 classic Neuromancer, hasn’t lost any steam. Pattern Recognition, published a good 20+ years later, won wide praise in 2005. Now, he’s come out with Spook Country, and it’s currently #66 on the Amazon bestseller list. Below, you can catch Gibson reading from his new work in Second Life. What can be more fitting?Also, you may want to check out BoingBoing’s “nerdgasmic” interview with Gibson (iTunes – Feed – MP3 Stream), plus Cory Doctorrow’s reverential review of the new work. And finally, if you need more, you can watch Gibson give a book talk at Cody’s in Berkeley CA, courtesy of Fora.Tv.For your daily dose of digital culture, subscribe to our feed.

William Gibson, Father of Cyberpunk, Reads New Novel in Second Life is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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Sci Fi with a French Twist

Dan Colman — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:55:08 +0000

Thanks BoingBoing for spotting this one: Utopod (iTunes – Feed – Web Site) is a free French-language podcast, created by Lucas Moreno and and Marc Tiefenauer, that offers readings of fantasy and sci fi stories written by noted authors across the Francophone world. New episodes come out once every 2-3 weeks, and it’s not too different from an English language sci fi podcast that we’ve also mentioned here before: Escapepod (iTunes Feed Web Site). Both podcasts can be permanently found in our Audiobook Podcast Collection.

Related Notes: If you don’t know French, but want to pick some up, feel free to make use of our Foreign Language Podcast Collection. We currently list 8 separate podcasts that will get you started in French.

Also see our recent post: How Orson Welles Riveted A Nation: The War of the Worlds on Podcast.

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Sci Fi with a French Twist is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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The War of the Worlds on Podcast: How H.G. Wells and Orson Welles Riveted A Nation

Dan Colman — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:49:26 +0000

Today, by popular demand, we’re running an updated version of one of our more popular posts to date. Enjoy…

At hastened speeds during the past year, we have seen book lovers recording homegrown audiobooks and posting them on sites like Librivox (see our collection of free audiobooks here). For obvious copyright reasons, these audio texts largely come from the public domain, and, yes, they’re sometimes of uneven quality. Some good, some okay. Among the recent releases, you’d expect to find great classical works — the major plays by Shakespeare, the essential treatises by Plato and other philosophers, etc. — and you do get some of those. However, far more often you get texts by more modern writers who wrote within the thriller, sci fi and adventure genres. Here, I’m talking about Washington Irving, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H.G. Wells. (Find these podcasts here.)

It seems rather fitting that Wells, the father of science fiction, would be among the first to have his writings digitally recorded and distributed. Nowadays, you can download, sync and listen to his major works – The New Accelerator (mp3), The Invisible Man (iTunes – feed), The Time Machine (iTunes – feed), and The War of the Worlds (iTunes). But what’s better than all of this, at least in our minds, is this vintage gem …

Here you can download the version of The War of the Worlds that Orson Welles famously adapted and aired on national radio in October 1938. Presented so that it sounded like an actual news broadcast, the Orson Welles version was mistaken for truth by many listeners who caught the program midstream (more info here), and, soon enough, they found themselves fleeing an unfolding Martian invasion, running down into their basements with guns cocked and ready to fire. You can catch the mp3 version of the famous Welles recording here (and also alternatively here). Have fun with this broadcast. It’s a classic.

Related content: For more old time, sci-fi radio broadcasts, check out this nice collection on iTunes.

Also see: Vintage Radio Archive: The Lone Ranger, Abbott & Costello, and Bob Hope

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The War of the Worlds on Podcast: How H.G. Wells and Orson Welles Riveted A Nation is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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New SciFi and Horror Podcasts

Dan Colman — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 04:44:13 +0000

Here’s a little ear candy for the fan of adventuresome literature. Over the past week, Escapepod (iTunes – Feed – Web Site) released another one of its popular short stories, “Start The Clock.” You’ll also find in the feed (and presumably soon on iTunes) an audio version of Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall,” which was published first in 1941, in Astounding Science Fiction. Great combo here of new and old.

Next, Pseudopod (iTunes – Feed – Web Site), the world’s first audio horror magazine, has issued two new stories in recent weeks: Stephanie Burgis’ “Stitching Time” and Dave Thompson’s “Last Respects.” We think you’ll like them. (Thanks to BoingBoing for the heads up on these.)

Finally, we wanted to highlight Stranger Things, (iTunes – Feed – Web Site). This series features stories of ordinary people stumbling into strange worlds (a la The Twilight Zone). This is not just your everyday podcast. The stories are creative, and they’re told/acted out in very high quality video. This puts it on the cutting-edge of what’s being done with podcasting. Definitely have a look.

Other free audio books within these genres:

Beyond Lies the Wub, Philip K. Dick (iTunes)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle (rss feed)
The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe (iTunes)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving (mp3 download)
The Invisible Man, HG Wells (iTunes)
The New Accelerator, HG Wells (rss feed)
The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe (mp3 download)
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson (mp3 download)
The Tell Tale Heart, Edgar Allen Poe (feed)
Time Machine, HG Wells (iTunes)

New SciFi and Horror Podcasts is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

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