malka older

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.

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

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.