A new season, weirder than the last.
post includes a new podcast episode based on last night's blog, a poll, and some fun news about books.
It’s time for season 2 of THE PHILLIP CARTER SHOW1. Season 1 saw us record episodes with some brilliant authors, poets, weirdos and other such people. Season 2 will be more of the same, but different. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes at gathering people for the show, going so far as to make a discord community for listeners and guests to interact with each other. It will be ready soon.
Episode 1 of season 2 is the beginning of a new format. From now on, episodes will be released every Friday night. Now I know I posted a bit early this time, but that’s because I wanted to make this post about it. I’m not actually allowed to time travel any more because of the incident with the velociraptor and the children’s hospital, so I had to upload the podcast before I linked it here today. Linear time annoys me, which might explain all the time travel books.
They obliterated that poor velociraptor. She never stood a chance.
Anyway, season 2 episode 1 is about the looming threat of humans. Do we pose an existential threat to AI, and should we be stopped?
The answer is a resounding “probably?”
No matter where you get your podcasts from, this handy little button should send you the right way. It opens my Podcasters page, from which you can find me muttering curated sci-fi comedy nonsense on Googlepodcasts, PocketCasts, Radiopublic, Spotify, and your partner’s wardrobe (it’s not what it looks like, I teleport using wardrobes). Here’s a button.
You can also listen to it on Youtube. The Youtube also has some standup comedy content (always sci-fi themed) and every episode from season 1, including that one where my pal Jo told me about David Bowie’s secret sex life. You can also click the image below, because clicking images is fun.
There are multiple reasons podcast episodes are now weekly.
Old posts were sporadic, this way is more reliable
Doing some shows on my own means that when guests join, it’s a treat
It’s a fun alternative to just text-based posts here
You can pretend I am inside your head
More time for more silly business
The bit with the poll
As you can see, I’ve developed some new social media graphics. I built and rendered the Lego me myself,2 and I've been designing no less than 150 instagram and facebook posts to go out into the universe automatically. I thought about these back in 2019, but the idea was massive and needed some psychic chisels applied to it. These posts will advertise each story in WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? in the run-up to the release of the pre-orders for WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? TWO, which I have made great progress with recently. Some characters are coming back, and one of the serious universes has a sequel that is so mindbending it gave me a headache. I promise I will remove the headache in editing, unless it defeats me in battle.
Anyway, poll.
Thanks for taking part. I promise that, unlike whatever government you are familiar with, I will count these votes properly and not manipulate you into picking one. That said, I’m picking the left one. All the cool kids pick the left one. Do you want to save the economy? Pick the left one to save the economy.
(Please pick whichever one you prefer).
The bit at the end
And beyond that, I am proud to announce that the first 20,000 words of THE STEPHANIE GLITCH are almost ready to go!3 It seems only fair that since I’ve let you read it here for free, I should show the world too, so there will be an eBook trailer for the novel coming soon to my bookfunnel. Structurally, it could even work to serialise it, as Stephanie moves between universes at the end of each macrochapter.
The bit with the footnotes
I did not choose the title of my show. My original title wasn’t as good. A listener picked this and since I am indeed present (at least physically) for every recording, I thought it worked.
The Lego renders are actually a service I do on the side for magazines and individuals. I have only had one client so far but it’s a nice balance between hard work and good fun. I’ll be making Brickheadz for some #scicomm celebrities soon, I hope! I want to do one for a wedding as well. That would be great.
I am a bit further along than 20,000, but the first 20,000 feel really solid. You’ll see a new part soon, now that I’ve fixed the image upload problem. I’ve also worked out how to include files inside Substack posts, so if it fits, I might put a story here that way in the future.