EA Metacast, December 2014

[Talia]

EA Metacast, December 2014

What’s in store for Escape Artists — and for you — in 2015? Listen and find out!

Listen to this year's Metacast!

[danooli]

Holy cow, I am so excited for all of this!

I am also a kickstarter addict, I backed the project AL and Dan worked on, and it was awesome. Dan is a great narrator!

So, yeah...take all my money!

[Unblinking]

Can the transcript be put here or something ? I can't listen at work.

[Thunderscreech]

Re the novella for supporters, will us Dwolla folks be getting the mail too or just PayPal?  It didn't work out last year for the premium episode, hoping I can hear the content this time! 

[Hiker]

Just listened to the Metacast. Simultaneous glee and fear in my heart.
I'm happy we have come so far that the threat of closing down is no longer imminent.
I'm not a proper subscriber (I can fix that!), but I do have 5 T-shirts, so perhaps that counts for something.
(BTW, would be pleased with a new Podcastle design. The Escape Pod design is classic.)

So, now for the fear part. Expansion. Sounds so good and future-thinking.
Starship Sofa expanded too. The Farfetched Tales addition is very good, but the original Starship Sofa cast IMHO, deteriorated from a Hugo award winning 'magazine' to basically  a fiction podcast.
Still good fiction, but certainly not what it was. Please don't spread yourselves too thin in your enthusiasm for all the new projects.

Thanks for all the great content up to now! And really I'm happy about the plans and the upbeat Metacast. I've been listening for quite some years and am have enjoyed it all.

Hiker

[Chairman Goodchild]

J Daniel Sawyer (I believe, if I have the voice right) "We're looking to add two, yes two, podcasts in different genres."

Wow.  So... really?  Since the first time since 2009, Escape Artists is looking to expand into another podcast, not once, but twice?  Between science fiction, fantasy, and horror, speculative fiction is pretty much covered.  Alternate history, perhaps?  Maybe subgenres of sci-fi or fantasy, classics, or more serialized stories?  Or else Escape Artists is going to branch out from speculative fiction?  Detective stories?  My mind is running overdrive on baseless speculation.  

To Alasdair, congratulations.  I'm sure you have the best interests of Escape Artists at heart.  I'm afraid I don't know J Daniel Sawyer, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him.  

To run an organization that's branching out into e-books and print?  as well as adding two new podcasts? (if I understand this right), this is a huge step.  Big changes in the future, and if everything goes well, it looks like Escape Artists is really shaping up to be a big player.

[Kaa]

This has brought me out of months-long forum-hibernation to comment.

Wow! When you guys make changes, you don't mess around! So excited for all of it, and for all of you. I look forward especially to finding out what the new podcasts are.

I also second the Dwolla question someone asked above. I contribute via Dwolla and haven't received anything yet, but I wasn't sure if it's been sent out to the PayPal people or not, so I haven't complained. but today is 12/31/2014, so . . . this is me bringing it up.

[Devoted135]

Wow! So exciting! I think Alasdair is the perfect person to take on the "owner" role and J Daniel Sawyer seems like a stand up person, so this gets a huge thumbs up from me.

Count me as another person who is super curious about what other podcasts could possibly cover... And the magazine sounds great! But I'll echo the caution not to spread too thin, better to move forward on solid ground. I'm sure the team will make great decisions!

I also second the Dwolla question someone asked above. I contribute via Dwolla and haven't received anything yet, but I wasn't sure if it's been sent out to the PayPal people or not, so I haven't complained. but today is 12/31/2014, so . . . this is me bringing it up.

Paypal subscribers haven't received anything as of right now, so no need to panic quite yet.

[Unblinking]

Wow, lots of news!

I am also wondering what the focus of the two new podcasts will be.  I'm not sure what to think because it's either got to be specific subgenres, overlapping genres, or non-speculative genres.  More episodes is good, but the spec fic seems like it's already pretty well covered.

Cool to see Alasdair rise to the top of the org chart--he's the one who's been around the longest, and I feel very confident that he will do well in the role.  I don't really know a great deal about J Daniel Sawyer, but if Al and Steve and everyone are happy to have him with Al at the top I'm happy too.

[NumberFive]

I add my congratulations and well wishes on the transition. Looking forward to what's ahead. I also want to send well wishes to Steve Ely. His was the voice that introduced me to this years ago. All the best to you, Steve. Wherever you are...Have fun!

[Max e^{i pi}]

Glad to hear that things are steadying for our favorite 'casts. Also glad to hear that the transition happened and we didn't notice, that is what we (computer nerds) like to call good programming. If the program is doing what it should and the user doesn't notice, that is a job well done.
I don't know much about Alasdair, except that he has some rather long and interesting endcaps where I only get about two thirds of the references (probably because I'm half a generation behind him).
But I know J. D. Sawyer. His (and some of his talented voice actors) is the voice that narrated my university commutes for 4 years. He is also the only author of a podcast that I have listened to no less than 5 times (Down From Ten). I'm really happy to hear that he has completed a bloodless coup and now (co)steers the EA into the murky and enticing future. He's a man with big plans, vision and the knowhow and gumption to make it all happen.
I wish the best on both of them, and everyone else at EA HQ. Here's looking forward to many good things.

[Chairman Goodchild]

I don't know what Escape Artists is doing for the other two podcasts.  I look forward to finding out. 

One criticism I'd make for Escape Pod specifically is when Steve was still running Escape Pod, every so often there would be often times weird and twisted episodes with heavy sexual content.  And those episodes have died out.  The last episode tagged for sexual content was 390, and that episode was about sexual assault and rape.  Before that, the previous episode was in the 240s, and that's nearly half the history of the podcast ago. 

One of my favorite episodes of all time is "Little Worker" from way back near the beginning of the show, and that wouldn't have worked at all without the sex being present.  I can't see Escape Pod running that episode today. 

It seems like Escape Pod is limiting itself from sexual content, and while this may be done for a good reason, it's still a limiting factor for the podcast.  Maybe one of the upcoming podcasts can help restore some of this balance if Escape Pod is not able to. 

It's not my intention to start any argument over this.  It's a negative criticism, I know, but I love all of Escape Artists.  I just thought this would be the thread to make that observation.  I'm aware that the show has gotten much bigger than it was when Steve Ely was running it, and that may create its own kind of pressure to shy away from stuff like this. 

[eytanz]

I don't think Escape Pod has attempted to specifically exclude episodes with a heavy sexual content. When I was actively reading slush, I know that I was never instructed to avoid them. But different editors have different tastes; whenever there is an editorial change, there will be changes in content. I think it's a very valid point to raise that (in some ways, at least) your tastes aligned more with Steve than with the subsequent editors. I just don't think it's correct to view this as a self-imposed limitation as much as it is a case of different story choices made by different people.

[Unblinking]

I don't think Escape Pod has attempted to specifically exclude episodes with a heavy sexual content. When I was actively reading slush, I know that I was never instructed to avoid them. But different editors have different tastes; whenever there is an editorial change, there will be changes in content. I think it's a very valid point to raise that (in some ways, at least) your tastes aligned more with Steve than with the subsequent editors. I just don't think it's correct to view this as a self-imposed limitation as much as it is a case of different story choices made by different people.

As both a writer and a sometimes-slushreader, writing GOOD stories that have more than passing sexual content is hard to pull off.  When it works it can work fantastically, but it's not easy.  And from a writer's marketing standpoint, there are fewer markets who'll consider the story.

Which is neither here nor there, necessarily, just that good stories heavy on sex are a minority.

[Chairman Goodchild]

I don't think Escape Pod has attempted to specifically exclude episodes with a heavy sexual content. When I was actively reading slush, I know that I was never instructed to avoid them. But different editors have different tastes; whenever there is an editorial change, there will be changes in content. I think it's a very valid point to raise that (in some ways, at least) your tastes aligned more with Steve than with the subsequent editors. I just don't think it's correct to view this as a self-imposed limitation as much as it is a case of different story choices made by different people.

Thank you for the reply.  That cleared up the issue for me. 

[Chairman Goodchild]

"Mothership will not launch without your support of our Kickstarter this March"- Mur Lafferty. 


Sooo....?

[Alasdair5000]

Prep's taking longer than anticipated. When we're set, you'll know:)

[Chairman Goodchild]

Thank you much for the reply.  I was very curious about that.