I get the NPR:Most E-Mailed Stories podcast, which is essentially the most popular side-stories and interesting original pieces on any given day. Seeing as how I get most of my news from CNN.com, I don't need the regular news bulletin, but the pieces that are run here are so varied and random that it's something I try not to miss.
In any case, today's podcast (collecting yesterday's pieces) included the piece that can be fully heard here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6737044The quick intro from the page I linked:
Weekend Edition Sunday, January 7, 2007 · During the Cold War, science-fiction tales of alien invasion mirrored society's fear of Communism, and monsters from Frankenstein to Godzilla have tapped into our unease about the boundaries of science.
But a new type of genre fiction has plots centering around business and economics. A book by T. C. Boyle takes the subject of identity theft and treats it like a horror story.
Several other writers are also turning their attention to our preoccupation with finances and business, and finding fertile ground.
It's predominately, but not specifically sci-fi, as it begins by discussing an economic based horror-genre story, but the final four or five minutes of the piece (it's about seven minutes long) concerns Science-Fiction and Fantasy, and has some small interview pieces with a few authors, including a Hugo winner. I found it pretty interesting, and thought you all might want to check it out and/or discuss it.