infomocracy

Welcome to the latest episode of TROPED OUT PODCAST—a podcast where we interview your favorite (and future favorite) author’s about all things tropes! Today we are chatting with Science Fiction author, Malka Older! 

Malka Older is a writer, sociologist, and aid worker.  Her  science-fiction political thriller INFOMOCRACY was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, Book Riot, and the Washington Post. She is also the author of the sequels, NULL STATES (2017) and STATE TECTONICS (2018), and the full trilogy was nominated for a Hugo Award. She is also the creator of the serial NINTH STEP STATION and lead writer for the licensed sequel to ORPHAN BLACK, both currently running on Realm. Her short story and poetry collection AND OTHER DISASTERS came out in late 2019. Her short fiction and poetry can be found at WIRED, Future Tense, Leveler, Sundog Lit, Reservoir Lit, Inkscrawl, Rogue Agent, Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, and others. She has written opinion pieces for the New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and NBC Think.

• Em kicks things off by asking Malka what she is reading and loving lately and Malka came prepared! Malka is reading and loving: John Scalzi’s KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY, Cherie Priest’s FLIGHT RISK, THE TOWN OF BABYLON by Alejandro Varela, THE LEFT HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON by Garth Nix, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourne, Emily Wilde’s ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FAERIES, Richard Osmond’s THURSDAY MURDER CLUB series, and Melinda Lo’s A SCATTER OF LIGHT, MERU by S.B. Divya, and finally Annalee Newitz’s THE TERRAFORMERS.
• EJ comments that Malka’s list covers a wide range of fiction—she wonders if Malka has books that are on her id list and Malka admits that she really loves different takes on Sherlock Holmes stories (so she wrote one!).
• EJ asks Malka what it is that makes a Sherlock-themed book so distinct. Malka explains that she thinks it has to do with the mystery being the focus—not the crime or gore or horror. There is a cerebral aspect that is always present in a Sherlock-style mystery.

Malka says that there is something about neuro-divergence—when you have a character who thinks very differently than everyone around them and is fine-tuned particular approach. Having a flipped approach to how you observe and deduct. Also the relationships. Typically in a Sherlock-style mystery, you will have a relationship between two people (sometimes coded as neurodivergent and neurotypical—but not always). The story unfold between the partners and we can observe the contrast with how they approach the case.

• EJ asks Malka about Narrative Disorder—a disorder that is present in Malka’s book Infomacracy. Malka explains how she came up with the concept of Narrative Disorder and how she folded it into the story. 
• Malka explains how there is a hunger for narratives—an addiction really. When coming up with the idea and concept of Narrative Disorder, she thought of how in the future we would feed this addiction.
• Malka has a new release titled THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES. Malka tells EJ and Em about her newest book. It is a holmes-ian inspired novel. It is a fun comfort read for a murder mystery. It has dark academia vibes, and also long train rides, rainy weather outside with cozy indoor spaces. And it is set on Jupiter, after mankind has ruined Earth AND Mars.
• EJ has gathered from reading Malka’s other books, that one of the signatures of a Malka Older book is how incredibly international they are. How there is always a wide range of cultures present. EJ asks how she implements this feeling to Jupiter.
• Malka explains her process for creating that same feeling in a book that takes place with Jupiter transplants. Short answer—yes—she pulls it off perfectly! 
• Em speculates that there are a ton of ideas and stories in Malka’s mind and asks how Malka decides which idea to attack and grown into a novel?
• Malka does have tons of ideas, and when she begins she knows characters and ideas—but not a solid plot. The more she explores character and place, the plot becomes evident.
• It’s time to play TROPED OUT!
• EJ starts the game with: Humanity Destroyed Earth or Humanity Destroyed Society?
• Em asks: Big Brother Is Watching or Mega Corporations Rule?
• EJ finishes things up with asking Secret Baby or Secret Robot?
• Em asks Malka and EJ how they’d interpret secret robot.
• (Sci-Fi robot ratatouille. Genius!)

And that is a rap for this episode of TROPED OUT PODCAST!

You can find today’s guest—Malka Older—online at: 

www.malkaolder.wordpress.com

Twitter: @m_older

Instagram: @infomacracy 

Facebook: @MalkaOlder

Malka’s books are available everywhere books are sold, including out Troped Out Bookshop, which you can visit to find books from all of our Troped Out guests.

Malka’s latest book, THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES (a Most Anticipated in 2023 pick from TODAY.com) releases on March 7. Be sure to pick up your copy!

To stay up to date with Troped Out, visit our website (www.TypoProductions.com) and find us on most social media @TypoPodcasts: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | TikTok

If you enjoyed the show, spread the word by leaving a review. 

Follow the links to learn more about co-hosts Emma C. Wells and E. J. Wenstrom

Welcome to a special two-part series about the looming clash over the future of America. In Part 1, we looked at the tattered state of our democracy and searched for peaceful ways through an election season in which one candidate—Trump—has threatened violence and disruption if he doesn’t win. Here in Part 2, we look at the work waiting for us after the election: fixing the way we govern ourselves so that we’ll never have another president like Trump or another year like 2020.

The real breakdowns in our system go much deeper than Trump—hence the cliché that he’s the symptom, not the disease. Boxed in by demographic change, the Republican party has devolved over the past half-century into a force that taps racial and economic anxieties to win elections, erodes faith in government by deliberately and cynically undermining government, and exploits Constitutional loopholes and Congressional procedure to exercise endless minoritarian rule. Democrats, of course, are beset by their own internal divisions—and by a growing thirst for revenge.

To reverse this toxic dynamic, we’ll need reforms that give both parties a fair shot at legislating and lower the risk of tyranny by the minority or the majority. It’s a tall order, given that we’re more sharply divided along ideological, geographical, and economic lines than at any point in American history. Which is why the necessary reforms could end up going so deep that we come out the other side looking like a different nation—or nations.

This episode draws on a range of ideas from thinkers such as journalist David A. French, political scientists Adam Przeworski and William Howell, and sociologist and science fiction author Malka Older, along with an assortment of other commentators on the topics of polarization, federalism, and the possibility of secession or breakup. And in the best Soonish tradition, there’s also a little dose of Apollo 13.

You'll find the full show notes and transcript for this episode at soonishpodcast.org.

You can also read an essay version of "American Reckoning" on Medium.

The Soonish opening theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay.

Additional music is from Titlecard Music and Sound.

If you like the show, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts / iTunes! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show.

Listener support is the rocket fuel that keeps this whole ship going! You can pitch in with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish.

Follow us on Twitter and get the latest updates about the show in our email newsletter, Signals from Soonish.

Painted face photo by Oskaras Zerbickas on Unsplash. Thanks Oskaras!

Gadi Evron and Karen Castelletti host Malka Older and discuss topics such as her book “Informocracy”, society and information, “Fake News”, Narrative Disorder. and Representation vs. Appropriation. On the show were also Tammy Coxen who taught us how to mix a drink created for “Infomocracy by Criminal Element, “Ginfomocracy”, and Stephen Llano on Information Quality, and academia in the days of Covid-19. Karen also read for us “I, Cthulhu” by Neil Gaiman.

Part two of the episode includes Tammy’s and Steve’s show corners, and Karen’s reading.

Full show notes can be found here. For more information and updates on future shows, check out the Essence of Wonder With Gadi Evron website.

Gadi Evron and Karen Castelletti host Malka Older and discuss topics such as her book “Informocracy”, society and information, “Fake News”, Narrative Disorder. and Representation vs. Appropriation. On the show were also Tammy Coxen who taught us how to mix a drink created for “Infomocracy by Criminal Element, “Ginfomocracy”, and Stephen Llano on Information Quality, and academia in the days of Covid-19. Karen also read for us “I, Cthulhu” by Neil Gaiman.

Part one of the episode includes Malka Older’s interview.

Full show notes can be found here. For more information and updates on future shows, check out the Essence of Wonder With Gadi Evron website.

The moment in the voting booth when you put your pen to your ballot (or put your finger to the electronic touchscreen, as the case may be) is democracy distilled. It’s the act that makes America a republic. But while the casting your vote is critical, it’s everything that happens before, during, and after that moment that makes up the larger election system. And these days there are whole armies of people working to influence and disrupt that system—and opposing armies working to protect it and make it safer and more accessible.

In this special Halloween 2019 edition of Soonish, we look at the scary vulnerabilities in the U.S. election system that were exposed after the 2016 presidential election, and we meet a company working to make it possible for everyone to vote securely on their smartphones. 

We hear from a retired U.S. Air Force major general who’s deeply worried about the lack of good “cyber hygiene” within state election agencies, and national security experts who fear the 2020 presidential vote could once again be manipulated and distorted by social media misinformation and disinformation. 

And we meet a science fiction author who says democracy is always a work in progress, but argues there’s an urgent need now for better media literacy and clearer thinking about how to strengthen the key beliefs, norms, and institutions behind democracy.

Check out the complete show notes, including a full episode transcript, at soonishpodcast.org. 

Chapter Guide

00:00 Hub & Spoke Sonic ID

00:13 Opening Theme

00:22 A Scary Story from the Senate Russia Report

02:49 E-Voting Machines Without Paper Trails

03:38 The Nightmare Scenario

04:28 Maj. Gen. Earl Matthews on Cyber Hygiene

06:33 More Money for Election Security

07:23 The Big Question: Can We Achieve Fair Elections?

07:52 The Anti-Sikh Riots of 1984

09:47 Nimit Sawhney at SXSW

10:58 The Founding of Voatz

13:58 How to Vote on Voatz

22:03 Baby Steps and Criticisms

24:19 Meet Centenal Cycle Author Malka Older

27:58 Elections as Systems, and the Dangers of Disinformation

30:59 Adapting to New Communications Platforms

32:32 The Fragility of Legitimacy

33:45 End Credits, and a Shout-Out to Open Source

Notes

The Soonish opening theme is by Graham Gordon Ramsay.

Additional music is from Titlecard Music and Sound.

Episode logo photograph by Element5 Digital on Unsplash.

Sound effects / foley from Freesound.org.

If you like the show, please rate and review Soonish on Apple Podcasts! The more ratings we get, the more people will find the show.

Listener support is the rocket fuel that keeps this whole ship going! You can pitch in with a per-episode donation at patreon.com/soonish.

Give us a shout on Twitter and sign up for our email newsletter, Signals from Soonish.

Please check out Open Source, one of the newest additions to the Hub & Spoke audio collective. Try the episode Do we want democracy or two-day shipping? with Matt Stoller from the Open Markets Institute.

On this episode of The Open Mind, we're delighted to welcome Malka Older, author of “Infomocracy” named one of the best books of 2016 by the Washington Post and author of sequels, “Null States” and “State Tectonics.” The full trilogy was nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award for Science Fiction.

A humanitarian aid worker, an expert, Older was a fellow for technology and risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and has supported global programs in agency wide strategy for disaster risk reduction from Africa and Asia to the United States.

Today's subject is high tech dystopia and our guest is the preeminent writer of science fiction political thrillers. 

On this episode of The Open Mind, we're delighted to welcome Malka Older, author of “Infomocracy” named one of the best books of 2016 by the Washington Post and author of sequels, “Null States” and “State Tectonics.” The full trilogy was nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award for Science Fiction.

A humanitarian aid worker, an expert, Older was a fellow for technology and risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and has supported global programs in agency wide strategy for disaster risk reduction from Africa and Asia to the United States.

Today's subject is high tech dystopia and our guest is the preeminent writer of science fiction political thrillers. 

Where politics and democracy are heading into the future?

It is a theme that has run throughout the history of science fiction. Something that already in 1921, Yevgeny Zamyatin tried to imagine in his novel “We”, for example, and later developed in different directions by Orwell, Huxley and the likes. The following quote from “We” recalls the tone and the imagery of these reflections about the future of democracy, back in the past. A sort of archeology of the Future.

*It goes without saying that this does not resemble the disordered, disorganized elections of the Ancients, when – it seems funny to say it – the result of an election was not known beforehand. Building a government on totally unaccounted – for happenstance, blindly – what could be more senseless? And yet still, it turns out, it took centuries to understand this. *

Malka Older condensed a reflection on the topic in her Centenal Cycle, a series of cyberpunk technothrillers beginning with Infomocracy. Her premise is set in a not so distant future ad it portrays a world governed by micro-democracies. Countries have been replaced by districts (called centenals) of 100,000 people, and the entire world turns out to vote once a decade for their local government. The political party elected to the most centenals becomes the Supermajority, setting policy and direction for the world at large. Needless to say, the stakes are high as a new election approaches. In this episode we will start our space-time exploration of today with that premise.

How would Europe look like under Infomocracy?

Malka Older is a writer, humanitarian worker, and holds a PhD at the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations at science po in Paris studying governance and disasters. Named Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs for 2015, she has more than eight years of experience in humanitarian aid and development, and has responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali. Her first novel Infomocracy has been published by Tor.com in 2016, starting the so-far trilogy of the centenal cycle, which comprises Null States and her latest State Tectonics. She is one of the nominees for the prestigious Hugo Award for 2019 and she recently published for the New York Times in their series op-eds from the future.

Giuseppe Porcaro is the author of DISCO SOUR, a novel about Europe and democracy in the age of algorithms, among the winners of the Altiero Spinelli Prize for Outrech of the European Union in 2018. Giuseppe is interested in how the intersection between technology and politics is moving towards uncharted territories in the future. He also focuses on narrative-building and political representations in the European Union. He works as the head of communications for Bruegel.