I have two great episodes coming up.

June

In June, George Dyson will be on to discuss the very weird and wonderful The Voice of the Dolphins by Leo Szilard. In case you don’t know (I didn’t), Szilard was a contemporary of Einstein. He conceived of the nuclear chain reaction and wrote the letter that led to the creation of the Manhattan Project, and subsequently, the development of atomic bombs.

The Voice of the Dolphins is available on archive.org in case you want to read it there. I bought it for 99¢ on Kindle and read it on my phone using the Kindle app. Note that the book is a collection of short stories, but we only discuss the titular story “The Voice of the Dolphins.” It’s a fascinating story, a weird fantasy about super intelligent dolphin (literally dolphins) political scientists. According to Dyson, it was dictated by Szilard as he reflected on how atomic weapons might reshape the world.

We also make a number of references to Dyson’s book Analogia. It’s not required reading to enjoy the episode, but it’s a great book and I recommend it.

July

In July, Io Blair-Freese will be on to discuss “The Zahir” and “An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain” by Jorge Luis Borges.

I am once again asking you to buy Borges’s Collected Fictions. Note that links to books for purchase on Bookshop.org are affiliate links. I’ll add books to the Techs on Texts syllabus as episodes are planned.

As always, drop me a line at jed at techsontexts.net if you have suggestions for pieces to discuss or guests I should have on.

Happy reading!