Introducing ‘The Laser Age,’ a New Podcast from The Reveal

Longtime readers of the work Scott and I have done over the years might remember “The Laser Age,” a column I used to write at The Dissolve. I conceived it as a survey of science fiction films, both major and minor, released between 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator and the cultural trends that informed their creation. I almost reached the end of the 1970s before the site shut down in 2015. That project has stayed with me ever since and when we launched The Reveal, I knew I wanted to do something with that world. But I didn’t want to pick up where I’d left off, so I decided to do something different. Hence, this new podcast.

This incarnation of The Laser Age broadens the scope of the original a bit to look at science fiction films from the second half of the 20th century. (My bookends are the Roswell incident of 1947 and the release of The Matrix in 1999.) I’m also jumping freely across time rather than proceeding chronologically, though I might do themed batches in the future, if this project proves popular enough. (At the moment, I’ve essentially recorded five episodes that I’m treating as a miniseries that will appear every other week. We’ll see what happens next.)

The episodes are essentially divided into two halves. In the first half, I talk about the history of the film in question. In the second, I’m joined by a guest to discuss it further. If I did this right, DNA from some of my favorite podcasts will be evident in the results, specifically Karina Longworth’s You Must Remember This and Eric Molinksy’s Imaginary Worlds. I’ve also been enjoying Ayesha Khan’s Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever Made*, a chronological trip through sci-fi movie history that’s currently nearing the end of the 1950s.

For this first episode, I chose Silent Running, a strange, haunting, very early-’70s film directed by special effects veteran Douglas Trumbull and starring Bruce Dern as a botanist charged with tending to some of Earth’s last bits of remaining plant life with the help of his robot friends. (Yes, it directly inspired Mystery Science Theater 300o.) If you haven't seen the film, it's available to rent digitally. There's also an excellent Blu-ray/4K version available from Arrow Video.

I was thrilled to be joined by author, actor, and TV presence John Hodgman. John’s current projects include his newsletter Secret Society and the long-running podcast Judge John Hodgman. His most recent book is the excellent Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms. (And if you haven’t seen Dicktown, the excellent animated series he co-created with David Rees, be sure to check that out. It’s streaming on Hulu.)

I hope you enjoy this episode and please remember to respect plant life everywhere and, if you don’t care for cantaloupe, maybe give it a second chance?

Finally, all the usual podcast requests apply here. If you like it, please rate, review and subscribe through your podcatcher of choice. For starters, you can find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.