Bradbury 100 returns - new episode!

Bradbury 100 returns for 2026 with another "Chronological" episode, this time starting us off with the year 1945. In this year, Ray published no fewer than thirteen stories.

In this episode, I cover the first four stories: 

• "The Poems" (Weird Tales, January 1945 - online here)
• "I’m Not So Dumb!" (Detective Tales, February 1945 - no online version)
• "Hell’s Half Hour" (New Detective, March 1945 - no online version)
• "The Tombstone" (Weird Tales, March 1945 - online here)

There's a mixture here of two genres still favoured by Ray as a professional short story writer, namely the detective story and the weird tale; none of that science fiction stuff...

In my coverage of "The Poems", I also review Ray's "about the author" text which he supplied to Weird Tales magazine. It contains some interesting insights into his writerly process back when he was a mere twenty-four years old. 

In future episodes of the podcast, I will review the remaining stories from 1945, including the two short stories called "Skeleton".

You can find the new pod episode using your podcast app, or through any of the podcast platforms listed at the bottom of this post.

Or you can simply click play, right here:

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 73 - Chronological Bradbury 1945 (part 1)

 

 

 

 

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 - Castbox - Deezer - Fountain - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn - YouTube

 

 

Coming Soon - a new series of Bradbury 100 pods!

It's been a while, but my Bradbury 100 podcast is returning soon!

Starting on 26th February and appearing every two weeks, I'll be bringing you a variety of topics. What I have planned so far includes the Fahrenheit 451 (1966) movie, The Illustrated Man at 75(!), and more "Chronological Bradbury".

Now would be a good time to check your podcast app and make sure you're subscribed. You should find a little trailer there very soon (although I've also put it down below).

While you're at it, make sure you're following the pod on Facebook, here! 

 

 

 

Here's the trailer:

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 Returns Soon!

 

 

 

 

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 - Castbox - Deezer - Fountain - Listen Notes - Player FM - Pocket Casts - Podbean - Podcast Addict - Podcast Index - Podcast Republic - Podchaser - Podfriend - Podlink - TuneIn - YouTube

 

 

Mars is Heaven!

I've just guested on another podcast - Postcards from a Dying World - discussing Ray Bradbury's classic Martian Chronicles tale "Mars is Heaven!" (aka "The Third Expedition"). Postcards is (among other things) working through the stories in the seminal anthology  called The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, edited by Robert Silverberg.

You can listen to the pod via any good podcast player, or play it from the players below. There's an audio version, and a YouTube video version. Take your pick!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the video version:

New podcast episode: Laurel and Hardy and Ray Bradbury!

Today is 22nd August - Ray Bradbury's birthday! He would have been 105 years young.

To celebrate, here's a new Bradbury 100 Live! in which I discuss Ray's favourite comedy act, Laurel and Hardy. Stan and Ollie turn up again and again in Ray's stories, and I've tracked down as many appearances as I can.

I decided to do this as a visual episode - hence the Bradbury 100 Live! tag - so you could see "the boys" in action, as well as see some of Ray's words as written.

HOWEVER... the occupational hazard of using movie clips within YouTube is that you get hit with copyright strikes, even if your use of said clips falls under "fair use"...

So right now, the visual version is not viewable in some parts of the world. I'll leave it below, but don't be surprised if you can't get it to work.

But right here is the AUDIO-ONLY version (very slightly modified) - and you can of course also pick it up with any decent podcast app. 

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - episode 71 - Laurel & Hardy and Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

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 - YouTube

 

Ray Bradbury and The Simpsons

Time for another new Bradbury 100 podcast episode!

A few weeks ago, there was a new episode of The Simpsons which was entirely based on the works of Ray Bradbury. "Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes" is not the first time Ray has been referenced by the show. In fact, the number of Bradbury allusions across all of The Simpsons (i.e. on TV, in comics, and in books) now totals: thirteen.

In this episode I detail them all!

Many of them are represented by audio clips. But there are a few gags which are purely visual, including the comic-book and book appearances, and so I'll present a few of them below. (Click on the images to embiggen!)

Also below - of course - is the podcast episode itself. But you can also pick it up using any decent podcast app, or via any of the podcast platforms listed at the bottom of this post.

 

"The Coffin" adapted for comics

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fahrenheit 451 referenced in comic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Element Rb = Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

 

 

 

"All Hail!" in comic

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wicker store

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ray, Illustrated Man, Richard Matheson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 60 - Ray Bradbury and The Simpsons!

 

 

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 BRADBURY 100 Episode - Chronological Bradbury: 1942

Time for another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast, and it's another one of the occasional "Chronological Bradbury" series. This time, we hit 1942, the year when Ray broke through to the two leading science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines of the time: Astounding Science Fiction and Weird Tales.

It's actually a fairly quiet year, as Ray only published two stories in 1942. (But he was evidently busy writing, because the following years will be full of professional appearances.)

The two stories I cover today are "Eat, Drink and Be Wary", from July 1942, which you can read in full here...

...and "The Candle", from November 1942, which is available here.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 55 - Chronological Bradbury 1942

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New BRADBURY 100 Episode - Bumper Question-and-Answer Show for Xmas!

 Seasons greetings!

Here's a special, bumper, double-length Christmas episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast in which I answer questions about Ray Bradbury and his works.

The questions were submitted by members of the "Science Fiction Book Club" Facebook group. And there are some excellent questions here, and in some cases I have to do a bit of thinking and/or digging to come up with a suitable answer.

Members of the Facebook group (which you can ask to join here) also get to see a written version of my answers, but the audio version in the podcast has some extra detail. In the audio version, I've anonymised the question-askers, and used a cast of highly-trained AI helpers to voice them.

It will take you nearly two hours to get through this episode, but feel free to break up the journey with rest breaks for Xmas pudding or left-over stuffing!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 54 - Q&A Special

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New Bradbury 100 Episode - Ray's Fanzine, Futuria Fantasia

In this new episode of the Bradbury 100 podcast, I explore Futuria Fantasia - the fanzine that Ray Bradbury produced when he was a teenage science fiction fan.

The first issue of Futuria Fantasia, published when Ray was eighteen years old, catches him just before he heads off to New York for the first-ever World Science Fiction Convention. In that first issue, he is very much focused on "Technocracy", a movement which promised to turn science fiction into political reality. The issue includes an essay on Technocracy by Bruce Yerke, followed by an early piece of Ray Bradbury science fiction: "Don't Get Technatal", a satirical look at how boring it will be to live in a utopia!

"Don't Get Technatal" was Ray's third piece of published fiction, although he hid behind the pseudonym of Ron Reynolds. I read it in full in the podcast, along with Ray's other contributions to FuFa No. 1. (I also read selections from the writings of the other contributors.)

If you want to read the whole magazine, it's freely available, since the copyright on FuFa expired decades ago. The best place to find it - and the other three issues that Ray published - is via the links at science fiction history site FANAC.

So, come with me now to the world of 1939, where fans of "scientifiction" enthusiastically support the bright future offered by the Technocracy movement, perhaps oblivious to the impending likelihood of world war...

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 53 - Ray's Fanzine, Futuria Fantasia

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New BRADBURY 100 Episode - Chronological Bradbury: 1941

Time for another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast - and it's another in my occasional series, "Chronological Bradbury".

It's 1941, and the year that Ray Bradbury makes the breakthrough as a professional writer!

In this year, Bradbury had six stories published: three amateur pieces published in fanzines; two semipro pieces (published in a fairly prestigious magazine, but he got paid with free copies of the magazine); and at year's end, his first professional sale, to the pulp science fiction magazine Super Science Stories.

In the podcast episode, I go through each story in turn, giving a brief summary and a review. If you want to read the stories for yourself, you can find some of them online. Some of them are only available in books, though. And one of them is, alas, not available anywhere that I can find.

Here's a list of the stories covered, with direct links where there are online copies:

• “How Am I Today, Doctor?”
• “The Trouble With Humans Is People”
• “Wilber and his Germ” - I haven't been able to find this story anywhere. Let me know if you have a copy!
• “Tale of the Mangledomvritch”
• “To Make A Long Story Much Much Shorter”
• “Pendulum”

 Stories which can't be found online are usually found in The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition, Vol. 1, or in The Earliest Bradbury. 

Here's the episode. Please let me know what you think of these stories!

 

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 52 - Chronological Bradbury 1941

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New Bradbury 100 Episode - Reviewing some new Bradbury product

Here's another new episode of my Bradbury 100 podcast. This time I review three new Bradbury-related products which I've recently received. Here are ordering links for the three:

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, 1980 TV miniseries on Blu-ray: order from ViaVision Entertainment

Phoenix 451, a collection of Ray's own dramatisations of Fahrenheit 451: order from Gauntlet Press

It Came From Outer Space, 1953 film written by Ray, on 4K HDR Blu-ray: order from Amazon US - or order from Amazon UK

Here's the pod. Enjoy!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 51 - Some Recent Bradbury Product

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

 

New BRADBURY 100 Podcast Episode: Chronological Bradbury, 1940

Can you believe it? My Bradbury 100 podcast has reached its fiftieth episode! And it's another in my "Chronological Bradbury" strand - this time covering the year 1940.

Ray published nine stories in 1940, nearly all of them in fanzines (and one of them in a semi-prozine). Here's a list, with links to online versions of the stories, where they exist.

• "The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa"
• "The Maiden of Jirbu"
• "The Tale of the Tortletwitch"
• "Luana the Living"
• "The Piper"
• "The Last Man"
• "The Tale of the Terrible Typer"
• "It's Not The Heat, It's The Hu-!"
• "Genie Trouble"

In the podcast, I say more about where you can find these stories. So without further ado, here it is:

 

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 50 - Chronological Bradbury: 1940

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New BRADBURY 100 Podcast Episode: Reviewing Ray Bradbury

This time on Bradbury 100 I talk about The New Ray Bradbury Review, the online journal I edit on behalf of the Ray Bradbury Center.

But I lead into the discussion by examining the ancestry of the journal - which stretches way back to 1952, and William F. Nolan's original fan publication, called simply Ray Bradbury Review.

I also pay tribute to Nolan as the first person to really study Ray's work, and I discuss his ongoing engagement with Ray as both a friend and a colleague.

You can download a free PDF copy of Nolan's ground-breaking original Ray Bradbury Review here, courtesy of FANAC: https://fanac.org/fanzines/1950s_One_Shots/ray_bradbury_review_nolan_1952.pdf

And you can find the modern equivalent - The New Ray Bradbury Review - online for free, here: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/nrbr

The other William F. Nolan books I discuss in the podcast are The Ray Bradbury Companion and Nolan On Bradbury. 

Here's the episode. Enjoy!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 49 - Reviewing Ray Bradbury

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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

 

New Bradbury 100 podcast episode - B100 Live!

As promised, the Bradbury 100 podcast feed now carries the audio of my recent livestreamed edition of the pod. Pick it up in all the usual podcast places, or listen below!

Towards the end, I mention The New Ray Bradbury Review. You can find it here - and the actual content of the new issue will be online very soon. UPDATE: the content of the Review is now live!

Bradbury 100 · Bradbury 100 - Episode 47 - Bradbury 100 LIVE, 2023 Edition

 

 

 

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

 

 

Main platforms:

 
Apple Podcasts  - Google Podcasts - Soundcloud - Spotify

 

 

 

Other platforms: 

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