The new anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 includes stories from leading authors such as Victor LaValle, Rebecca Roanhorse, and Charlie Jane Anders. Tobias S. Buckell, whose story "The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex" appears in the book, was particularly impressed with Ken Liu's story "Thoughts and Prayers." "Ken is really a complete master of the short form," Buckell says in Episode 452 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "It's always a pleasure to read a Ken story." "Thoughts and Prayers" is about a mother and father who advocate for gun control following their daughter's murder only to find themselves targeted by internet trolls who harass them with violent deepfakes of their daughter.

In recent months the science fiction world has grown increasingly political, with dozens of writers contributing stories to anthologies such as Resist: Tales from a Future Worth Fighting Against and If This Goes On. Another prominent example is A People's Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams. "I wanted to use my position as an editor to try to help magnify the voices of the people that we invited to participate in this anthology," Adams says in Episode 354 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "To sort of shout back at the Trump administration, and also to try to imagine some new futures that might help us figure out how to get back to normal from here." The book draws inspiration (and its title) from Howard Zinn's counterculture classic A People's History of the United States, and like that earlier work, A People's Future of the United States tries to present a wide variety of marginalized perspectives.

Insurtech entered common vernacular in the market towards the end of 2015, but it's been slow to take off compared to disruption in other areas. A report last year by the European Insurance and Occupational Authority (EIOPA) said that digitisation had not yet reached the point of truly disrupting the insurance sector. For some, the insurance industry faces a unique myriad of challenges, that would naturally hold back new players or incumbents – traditionally seen as slow movers - attempting to embrace new technologies. "The insurance industry has always been perceived to be a laggard," says Jason Sahota, Charles Taylor InsureTech CEO, "and I use the word perceived because that isn't always the case. So, have they used technology yes, was it quite disparate yes, was it difficult to change in a regulatory environment, yes." "There are challenges in the insurance industry which meant it was difficult to bring technology in, so that first generation has been an education of technology coming in and how can it be applied. Whether that is through artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, or blockchain," says Sahota.

The new John Joseph Adams anthology Cosmic Powers, which collects stories of super-powered adventure in deep space, was inspired by Adams' love of godlike comic book characters. "Half the time Silver Surfer is hanging out in the cosmos, between planets, talking to some sort of god-thing," Adams says in Episode 255 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. I love the idea of stories that are like, 'Hey, we're walking around on the head of a dead god.'" Geek's Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley also admires those stories, and wishes those sorts of ideas would crop up more often outside of comic books. "The idea of spaceships running into gods in space I feel is not super-explored in science fiction," he says. Becky Chambers, who wrote a story for Cosmic Powers, says using religious imagery makes it easier for her to tap into a sense of wonder than in her other, more science-based work. "Science is there to uncover the mystery, whereas if it's just pure mystery and awe, that's the realm of religion," she says. "We're going beyond what we can understand, what we can puzzle out and rationalize, and instead going into something that is awesome in the original meaning of the word." The way that science and religion might merge is something Tobias Buckell explores in his Cosmic Powers story "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance," which imagines a robot taking confession with a superhuman AI that gets erased at the end of each session, ensuring total privacy. "That's what I would want out of a confession booth," Buckell says. "I don't want a human being who's going to turn around and be like, 'That guy!'" Listen to our complete interview with John Joseph Adams, Becky Chambers, and Tobias Buckell in Episode 255 of Geek's Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below. "My first book was the first time I had any fiction out there.