This week was a little lighter on the host count, as Devon was trapped in the endless gravitational pull of legal work, but Ben and Steven still managed to cover everything from adopted kittens to the future of humanity in space.

Ben started things off with an apology for being a little checked out during the last episode. He was physically present, but mentally running on fumes. Fortunately, life is looking up. The foster kittens are beginning to find homes, which is both exciting and bittersweet. He also took a moment to congratulate all the recent graduates out there before diving into family TV time. The household continues its journey through Star City, and after episode two, Nicole is already predicting where the story is headed. While the series has proven compelling, some mature content, light torture, and strong language have made it a slightly awkward fit for younger viewers.

Devon wasn't able to join us this week thanks to an overwhelming amount of lawyering. We assume he is somewhere buried beneath paperwork and legal precedent, emerging only occasionally for coffee.

Steven reminisced about a Disney trip he took with Ben years ago before jumping into a discussion of the For All Mankind season finale and what season six might bring. We unpack the strengths and weaknesses of the latest season, revisit the complicated Baldwin and Stevens family connections, and discuss why the Stevens kid is definitely not the mysterious Mars Peacekeeper. The conversation also explores the implications of the show's latest time jump and what it could mean for the future of the series.

Steven also finished Gravity Falls with his kids, watching the final five episodes of season two in a single marathon session. Even when the show edged close to becoming a little too intense for younger audiences, it always managed to pull back and deliver an emotional, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful conclusion. Years after it first aired, it remains one of the best family animated series ever produced.

Ben kicked off the science segment with an ongoing issue aboard the International Space Station. Astronauts were temporarily instructed to shelter while engineers continued monitoring a long-running air leak in the Russian section of the station. The culprit is a small connecting tunnel that has developed microscopic structural cracks over time. Despite years of repairs and investigation, the leak remains one of the ISS's most persistent engineering headaches. The story naturally led into a broader discussion about the future of orbital habitats, including new commercial space stations currently under development and what might eventually replace the aging ISS.

Steven brought a much more optimistic story to the table. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new perovskite-based catalyst that dramatically lowers the temperature required to produce hydrogen from water. The breakthrough could allow industrial facilities to use waste heat that would otherwise be discarded, turning it into a valuable source of clean hydrogen fuel. If the technology scales successfully, it could reduce production costs, improve efficiency, and help make hydrogen a more practical energy source for industries ranging from steel manufacturing to renewable power generation. It's the kind of breakthrough that could quietly reshape entire sectors without most people realizing it until years later.

From leaky space stations to cleaner energy, adopted kittens to animated mysteries, this week's episode covers a surprisingly wide range of topics—even with one host missing in action.

Welcome back to Science Faction, where this week we cover everything from Disney trips and dying handheld consoles to exploding rockets, prestige television, and one of the most unsettling science fiction stories ever written.

Steven is preparing for an upcoming Disney adventure and is especially excited to introduce his nephew to Galaxy's Edge. The kid's current obsessions are droids and starships, which means Disney has essentially engineered an entire section of the park specifically to drain Steven's wallet. Devon wrestles with the chaos that comes with family trips, navigating in-law logistics and the impossible task of fitting too many events into a single day. He also takes a moment to recommend comedian Josh Adam Meyers, whose visit to Devon's hometown left quite an impression. Meanwhile, Ben says goodbye to his foster kittens, affectionately known as "the captains," and reflects on their departure. To distract himself from the sadness, he gives us a fascinating history lesson on the WonderSwan, Bandai's handheld gaming system that briefly challenged Nintendo's dominance in Japan.

In Future or Now, Ben dives into the recent failure of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket and why industry experts view the incident as potentially catastrophic for the company. Beyond the loss of a vehicle, concerns center around damage to launch infrastructure and the enormous delays that can follow major launch pad failures. We also spend time discussing For All Mankind, with Ben currently watching the first season alongside his child while also keeping up with the latest season. The conversation turns to the show's increasingly tense alternate-history storytelling, particularly its depiction of Star City. Ben also highlights Becky Chambers' upcoming novella, As You Wake, Break the Shell, which immediately caught the attention of science fiction fans.

Devon joins the For All Mankind discussion and branches out into several other shows. We talk about the gleeful brutality of The Boys and the unusual premise of Widow's Bay on Apple TV+, which Devon describes as feeling like Parks and Recreation collided headfirst with a Stephen King novel. Steven mostly enjoys the ride this week, contributing commentary while the conversation bounces between exploding rockets, television recommendations, and speculative fiction.

For Book Club, we begin by announcing next week's story, The Stars Look Away From This Vessel by Dave Ring. The story opens with a wonderfully strange description of how to draw a spaceship, setting the tone for what promises to be a memorable piece of science fiction.

This week's discussion focuses on The Things by Peter Watts, a modern classic that retells the events of John Carpenter's The Thing from the perspective of the alien itself. The story radically reframes the film's events, transforming what appeared to be a horrifying monster into something far more complicated and tragic. We discuss the unforgettable line, "I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front," and examine how Watts uses the alien's perspective to challenge assumptions about identity, communication, and survival. Naturally, comparisons to The Thing (1982) dominate the discussion, while we mostly leave the 2011 prequel out in the cold where it belongs.

Thanks for listening to another episode of Science Faction! If you'd like even more content, including bonus episodes, exclusive posts, Discord access, AI-generated artwork, and direct interaction with the hosts, be sure to check out our Patreon. You can also subscribe on YouTube, leave us a review wherever you listen, and join us next week as we discuss The Stars Look Away From This Vessel.

This week on the podcast, we dive into a galaxy far, far away, a dangerously beautiful state park, the surprising success of four-day work weeks, and why people are wildly confused about the environmental impact of the food they eat. Then we wrap things up in the Book Club with a poetic AI encounter that left us intrigued, confused, and maybe slightly emotionally mugged in a dark alley behind a fusion restaurant.

Steven and Ben both checked out The Mandalorian & Grogu together… sort of. One of us managed to participate in the review despite not fully seeing the movie, which honestly may be the most authentic Star Wars fan experience possible at this point. We talk about the surprisingly fantastic stop-motion effects, some genuinely cool CG creature work, and whether Hutts should really be speaking Basic. Steven remains unconvinced. Ben argues the movie wisely avoids dragging along the baggage from season 3 of The Mandalorian and feels more focused because of it.

Meanwhile, Devon took a trip to Cossatot River State Park-Natural Area where the scenery was beautiful and the children were apparently training for a career in extreme sports. Watching kids play near dangerous rapids is apparently one of the most effective ways to discover new forms of parental anxiety. Fortunately, nobody was swept away into the wilderness, and everyone had a great time risking life and limb in nature.

Ben brings us a story about 15 Australian companies that switched to a four-day work week and found that things went… suspiciously well. Productivity held steady, employee happiness improved, and workers generally seemed less miserable. We discuss whether shorter work weeks are the inevitable future or whether society is too psychologically dependent on pretending exhaustion equals virtue.

Devon covers a study showing that most people completely misunderstand the environmental impact of food. A lot of folks assume "processed" automatically means environmentally terrible, while massively underestimating the impact of beef production. Even foods people often think of as universally eco-friendly can have surprisingly high environmental costs depending on water usage, transport, and production methods. It turns into a conversation about how humans love oversimplified categories, even when reality stubbornly refuses to cooperate.

Steven, meanwhile, contributes absolutely nothing this week, which honestly may have reduced the overall chaos level of the episode by at least 12%.

This week we read Narcissus Meets the Ghost of AI in a Dark Alley Behind a Fusion Restaurant by Lesley Hart Gunn, and the title alone probably tells you this was not going to be a straightforward experience.

The poem opens with the line:

"I suppose you want my wallet. No? My body then."

…and from there things only become more surreal, philosophical, and emotionally slippery. We spend a good chunk of time trying to unpack what the poem is actually saying about identity, technology, desire, performance, and the strange relationship humans are developing with artificial intelligence. It's dense, layered, and definitely one of those works that demands active engagement instead of passively washing over you.

In other words: the exact kind of thing that makes for a great podcast discussion and an exhausting homework assignment.

Next week we'll be reading The Things by Peter Watts.

"I am being Blair. I escape out the back as the world comes in through the front."

If you enjoy horrifying perspective shifts, existential dread, and science fiction that actively stares into your soul, you may want to read ahead before the episode drops.