Time travel to 1995 with scientist/science fiction writers Geoffrey A. Landis, Jr. and Yoji Kondo as we chew over the question of the age of the universe. We discuss how the idea of the universe even having a beginning is a relatively new concept, the way we choose between the many competing theories of its age, how the phrase "Big Bang" was a joke which stuck, the paradox of some stars appearing to be older than the universe itself, how a science fiction writer’s imagination might solve unanswered questions, whether knowing when the universe was born will help us calculate when it will end, and more.
Chow down on crab cakes with Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda as we discuss the convention at which he thought he was about to be punched out by Harlan Ellison, the book he wants to write but which he realizes he could probably never publish, how discovering E. F. Bleiler's <em>Guide to Supernatural Fiction</em> opened a whole new world for him, whether he faced judgment from his peers for believing Georgette Heyer is as important as George Eliot, why he wants to be buried with a copy of <em>The Count of Monte Cristo</em>, how Beverly Cleary's <em>Henry Huggins</em> is like a Proustian madeleine, the way he navigates the tricky act of reviewing the fiction of friends, the word he used which annoyed Gene Wolfe, and much more.