New Podcast Episode: Chronological Bradbury 1943

Bradbury 100 podcast time! And it's another of my "Chronological Bradbury" series, this time covering the year 1943.

This is the year when Ray broke all his previous records, by having no fewer than eleven stories published in professional magazines - in contrast to the mere two published in 1942.

This is also the year that Ray became 23 years old. It's remarkable to me that a 22-year-old could write a story like "The Wind", "The Crowd" or "The Scythe". All three of these classics were published before his 23rd birthday.

To be fair, not every Bradbury story of 1943 is a timeless classic. Some of them are quite pulpy! But all of them are interesting.

In this episode, I cover roughly half of 1943, and I'll cover the remainder of the year in a future episode. The stories I feature this time are:

• The Piper (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1943)
• The Wind (Weird Tales, March 1943)
• Gabriel's Horn (co-written with Henry Hasse (Captain Future, Spring 1943))
• Subterfuge (Astonishing Stories, April 1943) 
• The Crowd (Weird Tales, May 1943)
• The Scythe (Weird Tales, July 1943)

 

Here's the episode. Enjoy! 

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 66 - Chronological Bradbury 1943

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Fountain - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

New Podcast Episode: Radio Classics - Dimension X / X Minus One

  

Here's another new episode of Bradbury 100, and this time I return to Ray's stories in the golden age of radio, looking at the classic science fiction drama series Dimension X and X Minus One.

I've mentioned these shows before on the podcast, but I figured it was time to make them the focus.

Although Ray Bradbury was himself a scriptwriter and dramatist, he didn't do any writing specifically for these two shows. And unlike the series Suspense (which I looked it in episode 61), Dimension X and X Minus One only produced adaptations of stories which had already been published.

But what terrific adaptations they were! With scripts by future Emmy Award winners Ernest Kinoy and George Lefferts, these series never put a foot wrong. The scripts are pretty close to the original stories, without being simple, lazy transcriptions.

In this episode I include clips of many of the Bradbury-based episodes, the most striking of which is the run of episodes based on stories from The Martian Chronicles. But if you've never listened to a Dimension X or X Minus One in its entirety, I would urge you to do so. Go to a darkened room, and let your mind conjure up... well, something like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits... or wherever your imagination takes you.

You can find all episodes of Dimension X and X Minus One online for free. Here are the best links for them, with the best available quality:

 

Links to DIMENSION X episodes (via Old Time Radio Researchers website, OTRR.org)

1. To the Future
   
2. There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour  
3. Mars is Heaven! 
   
4. The Martian Chronicles  
5. And the Moon Be Still As Bright  
6. Dwellers in Silence
7. The Veldt
8. Marionettes, Inc.  
9. Kaleidoscope

Links to X MINUS ONE episodes (via Old Time Radio Researchers website, OTRR.org)

1. And The Moon Be Still As Bright
2. Mars is Heaven!
3. The Veldt
4. Dwellers in Silence
5. There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour
6. To The Future
7. Marionettes, Inc.

 

And here's the podcast episode. Enjoy!

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 65 - Radio Classics: Dimension X / X Minus One

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

New podcast episode: It Came From Outer Space!

Sometimes the podstreams just cross, and this episode is a prime example. When Colin Kuskie, co-host of my other podcast suggested reviewing It Came From Outer Space, the classic 1953 science fiction movie created by Ray Bradbury, it was right up my alley - and so this new episode of Bradbury 100 is a crossover with the new episode of Science Fiction 101!

The discussion ranges from Bradbury's contribution to the screenplay to the quality of the 3D, and takes in your humble hosts' views on whether or not screen creatures should be revealed or concealed.

I also express my amazement that Kathleen Hughes gets such prominent billing at the end of the film, despite having hardly any dialogue or close-ups in the film itself. I also give the real reason why she is featured in this way.

In which way? Why, in this way, of course:

 

 

 

Also mentioned in the episode:

• The recently completed OMSI Film Festival, Oregon
• Which US states have the best chance of surviving an alien invasion?
• 75 years of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles
• Science Fiction 101 podcast
• Colin's other pod, Take Me To Your Reader

I also mentioned in the episode that I would provide links to other Bradbury-related pods that Colin Kuskie and I have taken part in. So here they are - they're all episodes of Take Me To Your Reader, and consist of a comparative review of book versus movie:

• A Sound of Thunder
  
• Fahrenheit 451 (1966 Truffaut movie)
  
• Fahrenheit 451 (2018 HBO movie)
  
• The Halloween Tree
  
• The Illustrated Man
  
• Something Wicked This Way Comes

 

Finally, here's the new episode... or look for it in your podcast app of choice (see list of possible pod sources below).

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 64 - It Came From Outer Space

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

New podcast episode: The First Geeks!

The new batch of my Bradbury 100 podcast kicks off today, with an interview with Orty Ortwein, author of the book The First Geeks.

The book tells the story of three young men in the 1930s - Ray Bradbury, Ray Harryhausen and Forrest J Ackerman - and how they joined the nascent Science Fiction League and went on to be professionals in their respective fields.

If you've listened to Bradbury 100 before, you will have heard much about Ray Bradbury the young fan, with his fanzine Futuria Fantasia.  And in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand, you will have heard of his exploits as a fan writer who rapidly broke into writing professionally.

In my interview with Orty, you will hear more about this, and about how Orty conducted his research into the early science fiction world of the 1930s. And, of course, you can find out even more in his book - see the purchasing links below.

Among the things mentioned in this episode:

• The First Geeks by Orty Ortwein (at Amazon US, and at Amazon UK)
• FANAC, the free online archive of science fiction fandom
• The Waukegan History Museum at the (thanks to Ray) famous and now-renovated Carnegie Library
• Los Angeles' Clifton's Cafeteria, where science fiction fans of the 1930s hung out
• Hugo Gernsback, the man who coined the term "scientifiction", later replacing it with "science fiction"
  

Here's the new episode...and you can also get it wherever good pods are given away (see below for a list of selected podcast platforms).

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 63 - The First Geeks with Orty Ortwein

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

Bradbury 100 Podcast - new episodes coming soon!

 

 

It's been away a couple of months, but it's back: my Bradbury 100 podcast returns on 1st May 2025. Listen to the trailer for a taste of what's coming soon...

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 Returns - 1st May 2025!

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

New podcast episode: Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett

Time for a new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast - and this time I focus on Ray Bradbury's friend and mentor, Leigh Brackett.

Leigh Brackett (1915-1978)  was a short story writer, novelist and screenwriter. She has sometimes been called the "Queen of the Pulps" because of her substantial contribution to science fiction magazines such as Planet Stories. But she also collaborated with Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner on the screenplay for the classic movie The Big Sleep - and ended her career by writing the first draft of the screenplay for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Leigh was also Ray's mentor. He credited her with teaching him how to properly construct a story, and with influencing the stories he wrote between about 1942-1944.

All this and more is covered in the podcast, which you can play below, or find on your podcast app.

Useful links:

• Watch the film The Vampire's Ghost, Leigh Brackett's first effort as a Hollywood screenwriter
•  Learn more about Leigh Brackett's contribution to The Empire Strikes Back in this episode of my other podcast, Science Fiction 101
• Read "Lorelei of the Red Mist", the Brackett story that Bradbury finished. Can you tell where Bradbury takes over the writing?
• From 16th February 2025, enjoy Planet Zoom Players' audio dramatisation (with pictures) of Leigh Brackett's Terror Out Of Space!

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 62 - Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn

 

 

Ray Bradbury on Radio: SUSPENSE

Here's another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast. This time, I look at the early years of Ray's professional career, which saw him not only mastering the craft of short story writing and putting together his first book, but branching out into media - in particular, getting his stories and scripts onto national radio shows such as CBS's Suspense.

Over a span of a dozen years, Suspense produced no fewer than eleven shows based on Bradbury stories, with some of the stories being produced multiple times. I argue that this early media presence - which included a number of stories previously unpublished - helped cement Bradbury's growing popularity and reputation.

Here's the pod:

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 61 - Ray Bradbury and Radio's SUSPENSE!

 

 

And if you'd like to hear full episodes of Suspense, here's a complete set of links to the best quality recordings, held on the Old-Time Radio Researchers website:

1. 1947: Riabouchinska
2. 1948: Summer Night
3. 1948: The Screaming Woman, version 1
4. 1950: The Crowd
5. 1955: The Screaming Woman, version 2
6. 1955: Zero Hour, version 1
7. 1955: The Whole Town's Sleeping, version 1
8. 1955: Kaleidoscope
9. 1958: Zero Hour, version 2
10. 1958: The Whole Town's Sleeping, version 1
11. 1960: Zero Hour, version 3
    

 

 

Please subscribe to the Bradbury 100 podcast - it's totally free on all platforms. Where to find it:

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms include: 

Amazon Music - Audible - Bullhorn - Castbox - Deezer - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn