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Science Faction Podcast

Science Faction Podcast

By: Devon Craft and Steven Domingues and Benjamin Daniel Lawless
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About this listen

 A science and science fiction based podcast hosted by two high school friends, and two college friends. Listen and learn and geek out. In this podcast, science meets fact, meets fiction.Devon Craft and Steven Domingues and Benjamin Daniel Lawless Science
Episodes
  • Episode 603: We Broke the Episode

    Episode 603: We Broke the Episode
    Apr 8 2026

    Special Note:
    This episode fought us. Hard.
    There was some extreme editing required, and yeah—you might notice a slight dip in quality. We hear it too. But we're owning it, learning from it, and making sure it doesn't happen again. Appreciate you sticking with us through the chaos.

    Real Life

    Ben kicks things off with a classic combo: in-laws, tacos, and just enough drama to keep things interesting. Somewhere in the middle of that, he also put together a wild Spider-Man 3 edit with a Twilight Zone twist—honestly, it's worth your time:
    https://youtu.be/YDzSjRKUXuA

    Steven's house has officially entered a Gravity Falls era, and it's pulling him in too. The cyphers, the hidden messages—it's that perfect blend of kid-friendly and secretly brilliant that makes you feel like you're solving puzzles alongside the show.

    From there, things spiral (as they do) into TV talk. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is hitting right, but it raises a bigger question—are shows getting too dark for TV? We bounce through The Mandalorian and Grogu, try to remember what even happened in Season 3, and land hard on one standout: Maul: Shadow Lord. It's peak Star Wars animation and feels like a true evolution of what Clone Wars started. Also, For All Mankind gets some love in the mix.

    Future or Now

    Ben brings in a strong recommendation this week: more animated feature films—specifically Your Name.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU47nhruN-Q&pp=ygUReW91ciBuYW1lIHRyYWlsZXI%3D

    He walks us through the premise, the emotional weight, and why this one stands out. If you've been sleeping on animated films outside the usual Western stuff, this might be the one that pulls you in.

    Steven… had something planned.
    But we talked too much Star Wars.

    So… NOT THIS TIME.

    Book Club

    Next week:
    We're reading Terms of Enlightenment by Patrick Hurley:
    https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/default/terms-of-enlightenment/

    If you want to read ahead and join us, now's your chance.

    This week:
    We dive into The O'Neill Cylinder in Geostationary Orbit Above Earth's Equator by Katlina Sommerberg:
    https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/poetry/the-oneill-cylinder-in-geostationary-orbit-above-earths-equator/

    This one's a little different—it's sci-fi poetry, and we go line by line trying to unpack it. What does it mean? What's it saying about humanity, space, and perspective? We don't pretend to have all the answers, but that's kind of the fun of it. It turns into a thoughtful, slightly chaotic, and genuinely interesting conversation.

    If you made it this far—seriously, thank you.
    And if you want more of the show (bonus episodes, Discord access, behind-the-scenes chaos), you know where to find us.
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Episode 602: Artemis II and the AI Art Problem

    Episode 602: Artemis II and the AI Art Problem
    Apr 1 2026
    This week's episode kicks off exactly how you'd expect: a mix of chaos, parenting wins (and losses), and just enough sci-fi to keep things on-brand. Real Life Devon's been deep in the thick of family life—birthday parties, Easter egg hunts, and a firm stance on "No Kings in Texas," which is either a political statement or just a man trying to maintain order in a house full of sugar-fueled children. Either way, it's survival mode with style. Ben's living that logistical nightmare we all eventually face: coordinating kids' events, managing shifting social zones, and navigating the emotional weirdness of realizing your kid doesn't need you quite as much anymore. It's a mix of pride and quiet existential dread. Naturally, he copes the way any rational adult would—by getting wrecked in a Steam sale. Casualties include Speed Demons 2 (https://store.steampowered.com/app/2851640/Speed_Demons_2/) and Q-UP (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730790/QUP/). No regrets. Probably. Steven's been volunteering at a "Kids Night Out," which sounds wholesome until you remember he also ran a Pirate Borg session where the players stripped their former captain completely bare. So yeah—community service on one hand, absolute pirate degeneracy on the other. Balance. Future or Now Ben brings in something surprisingly grounded this week: the science of purpose. Pulling from research and articles like Dan Harris' piece (https://www.danharris.com/p/if-you-care-about-longevity-you-need?publication_id=2723534&post_id=192338785), the conversation digs into how having a sense of purpose isn't just feel-good advice—it's statistically tied to longer life and better emotional resilience. Studies show it can predict mortality rates (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24815612/) and even how quickly you bounce back from negative experiences (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24236176/). It's one of those moments where the show briefly brushes up against self-improvement… before inevitably spiraling back into nonsense. Devon shifts gears with This Week in Space, highlighting NASA's Artemis II mission (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-launch-astronauts-flight-plan/). We're talking a real-deal crewed flight looping around the moon—something that still feels unreal decades after Apollo. It's a reminder that while we argue about Steam sales and parenting, humanity is quietly gearing up to head back into deep space. That leads naturally into For All Mankind talk—specifically the upcoming Season 5 and the teased "Star City" arc from a Russian perspective. If you're not watching the pre-season news reports, you're missing half the fun. The show continues to be one of the best "what if we actually committed to space?" thought experiments out there. Book Club This week's reading, Through the Machine by P.A. Cornell (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/through-the-machine/), starts as a discussion about the story itself… and quickly mutates into something much bigger. What begins as a review turns into a full-on conversation about AI art—how it's made, how people consume it, and whether we're all just collectively deciding not to ask uncomfortable questions. The discussion pulls in real-world context, including coverage like Ars Technica's piece on AI-generated storytelling (https://arstechnica.com/features/2026/02/why-darren-aronofsky-thought-an-ai-generated-historical-docudrama-was-a-good-idea/), and asks the question nobody really has a clean answer to: what are we supposed to do with this? Next week's reading shifts tone a bit with The O'Neill Cylinder in Geostationary Orbit Above Earth's Equator by Katlina Sommerberg (https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/poetry/the-oneill-cylinder-in-geostationary-orbit-above-earths-equator/). Expect big ideas, space habitats, and probably at least one tangent that derails everything. This episode is a good snapshot of what the show does best: start grounded in real life, drift into science, and end somewhere in the middle of a philosophical argument about the future—while occasionally mentioning pirates stripping a man naked. Pretty standard week, honestly.
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Episode 601: Thank You, Flea!

    Episode 601: Thank You, Flea!
    Mar 25 2026
    This week we bounce from toy-filled offices and pirate obsessions into brain-powered computers and philosophical robot chaos—before wrapping things up with a very French film discussion and next week's Book Club pick. Real Life Devon kicks things off by giving some Texans a tour of his office—which, unsurprisingly, is packed with what can only be described as adult toys. Naturally, this spirals into a broader conversation about how we're all just kids with slightly more expensive hobbies. No shame there. Ben brings us into the world of VR with Walkabout Mini Golf's Hollywood course (check it out here: https://www.mightycoconut.com/hollywood). But it's not all smooth putting—there's some concern about rising course prices, less frequent releases, layoffs, and reduced iOS support. The vibe is shifting a bit, and not necessarily in a good way. Devon also caught Project Hail Mary in IMAX and came away seriously impressed—calling it one of the best book adaptations he's seen. High praise. That leads into some appreciation for Andy Weir's writing style and a detour into the Cheshire Crossing webcomic, because apparently we're doing high-concept sci-fi and surreal fairy tale mashups in the same breath now. Meanwhile, Steven has fully committed to pirates. A Pirates of the Caribbean rewatch has set the tone, but instead of just watching, he's gearing up to run a full-on Pirate Borg game (https://www.limithron.com/pirateborg). There's also a shoutout to Land of Eem, a muppet-inspired TTRPG being run by Christina's husband—which sounds delightfully weird—but yeah… pirates won this week. Future or Now Devon brings in something that sounds like it's straight out of a dystopian sci-fi script: data centers powered by human brain cells. Yes, actual biological neurons. https://futurism.com/robots-and-machines/staff-brain-data-center-spine-fluid https://futurism.com/new-computer-neural-network-human-brain-cells These systems require daily maintenance—including swapping out cerebrospinal fluid—which is not a sentence you expect to hear in a tech discussion. What started as experiments where neurons learned to play Pong (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/10/14/1128875298/brain-cells-neurons-learn-video-game-pong) has now escalated to… potentially running DOOM. Because of course it has. If you want to go deeper into the company behind it, check out https://corticallabs.com/. But the real question is: at what point does this stop being "cool innovation" and start being "ethically complicated nightmare fuel"? Ben counters with some technophilosophy, specifically the Three Inverse Laws of Robotics (https://susam.net/inverse-laws-of-robotics.html). It's a fun twist on Asimov's classic rules—basically flipping the script to highlight how things could go very wrong. If Devon's segment is about can we do this?, Ben's is asking should we? Book Club Next week's read: Through the Machine by P.A. Cornell https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/through-the-machine/ This week, the crew dives into Arco!—which you can find here: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/arco/umc.cmc.16jgcgmdg48xptfayroel0yvy Ben gives a full rundown of the film, clearly coming in as the biggest fan of the group. Steven jumps in with context on the cast and sums up the experience as "very French," which tells you a lot if you've ever watched… well, anything French. Devon lands somewhere in the middle—appreciating a lot of what the movie does, even if it doesn't fully sweep him away. If you're into sci-fi that edges a little too close to reality, pirate RPG chaos, or just three guys trying to figure out where the line is between "cool tech" and "we've gone too far," this episode's got you covered. And if you want more—bonus episodes, unedited chaos, Discord access, and all the weird extras—head over to patreon.com/sciencefactionpodcast and join us there.
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    1 hr and 21 mins
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