Richard Syrett's Strange Planet

FOLLOW RICHARD Website: https://www.strangeplanet.ca YouTube: @strangeplanetradio Instagram: @richardsyrettstrangeplanet TikTok: @therealstrangeplanet EP. #1295 Manufactured Nightmares: When Science Fiction’s Monsters Crawl Out of the Lab Monsters were never meant to be real. They were warnings. In the final chapter of our four-part series on Science Fiction & Reality, we confront the most unsettling idea of all: the creatures that once haunted novels and movie screens were never fantasies — they were prototypes. From mutants and cyborgs to engineered viruses, mind control, cloning, and immortal elites, science fiction didn’t invent our fears. It documented them in advance. Tonight, with Professor Mark Brake, we ask the forbidden question no one in power wants answered: What if the real monster was never the creature… but the human who created it? GUEST: Professor Mark Brake is a leading science communicator and author exploring the hidden feedback loop between imagination and innovation. He is the author of FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science and numerous bestselling books examining the real science behind Star Wars, superheroes, time travel, and the multiverse. Known for translating complex ideas into gripping narratives, Brake argues that science fiction doesn’t merely entertain — it quietly shapes the laboratories, technologies, and futures we eventually inhabit. LINKS: https://www.instagram.com/profmbrake BOOKS: FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science The Science of Star Wars The Science of Harry Potter The Science of Star Trek The Science of Doctor Who The Science of Jurassic World The Science of James Bond The Science of Sherlock The Science of The Beatles The Science of Super Heroes SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! CARGURUS CarGurus is the #1 rated car shopping app in Canada on the Apple App and Google Play store. CarGurus has hundreds of thousands of cars from top-rated dealers, plus those deal ratings, price history, and dealer reviews on every listing so you can shop with confidence. Their advanced search tools and easy-to-use app put you in control, with real-time alerts for price drops and new listings so you’ll never miss a great deal. And when you’re ready, CarGurus connects you with trusted dealerships for a transparent and hassle-free buying process. Buy your next car today with CarGurus at cargurus dot ca. GHOSTBED Every GhostBed mattress is designed with premium materials, proven cooling technology, and their exclusive ProCore™ layer—a targeted support system that reinforces the center of the mattress where your body’s heaviest. It helps keep your spine aligned and your back supported while you sleep. Right now, during GhostBed’s Holiday Sale, you can get 25% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to GhostBed.com/strangeplanet and use promo code STRANGEPLANET at checkout. FOUND – Smarter banking for your business Take back control of your business today. Open a Found account for FREE at Found dot com. That’s F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who’ve already streamlined their finances with Found. HIMS - Making Healthy and Happy Easy to Achieve Sexual Health, Hair Loss, Mental Health, Weight Management START YOUR FREE ONLINE VISIT TODAY - ⁠HIMS dot com slash STRANGE⁠ ⁠https://www.HIMS.com/strange⁠ MINT MOBILE Premium Wireless - $15 per month. No Stores. No Salespeople. JUST SAVINGS Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET. That’s MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET ⁠BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER!!!⁠ https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Three monthly subscriptions to choose from. Commercial Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and a Subscription to my monthly newsletter, InnerSanctum. Visit ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Use the discount code "Planet" to receive $5 OFF off any subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm/

EP. #1294 Programming the Cosmos: How Science Fiction Conditioned Humanity for Space What if humanity didn’t invent the space age—but inherited it? In Part Three of our four-part series on how science fiction shapes reality, Professor Mark Brake traces an unsettling pattern: rockets, satellites, lunar landings, arcologies, even cosmic megastructures all appeared in fiction long before engineers built them. From Kepler to Clarke, storytellers sketched the architecture of the modern world centuries in advance. Were these writers merely imaginative—or were they quietly programming our collective future? Tonight, we follow the thread into orbit, where fiction stops entertaining us and starts directing us. GUEST: Professor Mark Brake is a leading science communicator and author exploring the hidden feedback loop between imagination and innovation. He is the author of FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science and numerous bestselling books examining the real science behind Star Wars, superheroes, time travel, and the multiverse. Known for translating complex ideas into gripping narratives, Brake argues that science fiction doesn’t merely entertain — it quietly shapes the laboratories, technologies, and futures we eventually inhabit. LINKS: https://www.instagram.com/profmbrake BOOK: FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science SUPPORTbOUR SPONSORS!!! CARGURUS CarGurus is the #1 rated car shopping app in Canada on the Apple App and Google Play store. Buy your next car today with CarGurus at cargurus dot ca. GHOSTBED GhostBed is a family-run company, founded and still led by real manufacturing experts with more than 20 years of mattress-making experience. They’re not marketers chasing trends. They’re craftsmen focused on building quality you can feel, night after night. Right now, during GhostBed’s Holiday Sale, you can get 25% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to GhostBed.com/strangeplanet and use promo code STRANGEPLANET at checkout.  FOUND – Smarter banking for your businessTake back control of your business today. Open a Found account for FREE at Found dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who’ve already streamlined their finances with Found. HIMS - Making Healthy and Happy Easy to Achieve Sexual Health, Hair Loss, Mental Health, Weight Management START YOUR FREE ONLINE VISIT TODAY - ⁠HIMS dot com slash STRANGE⁠ ⁠https://www.HIMS.com/strange⁠ MINT MOBILE Premium Wireless - $15 per month. No Stores. No Salespeople. JUST SAVINGS Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at MINT MOBILE dot com slashSTRANGEPLANET. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm/

FOLLOW RICHARD Website: https://www.strangeplanet.ca YouTube: @strangeplanetradio Instagram: @richardsyrettstrangeplanet TikTok: @therealstrangeplanet EP. #1293 Machines That Dreamed Us First: How Science Fiction Built the Future We Now Live Tonight, in Part Two of our four-part series, we plunge into the mechanical heart of science fiction—and the chilling realization that our world of drones, algorithms, and AI was imagined long before it was built. From Čapek’s enslaved robots to Asimov’s hopeful laws, from Wells’s remote-controlled war machines to Orwell’s watchful screens, the blueprints were drawn in stories. Professor Mark Brake reveals how these fictions didn’t just predict the future—they scripted it. Are we masters of our creations, or have the machines we dreamed up already begun reshaping humanity itself? The déjà vu is real. The reckoning is now. GUEST: Professor Mark Brake is a leading science communicator and author exploring the hidden feedback loop between imagination and innovation. He is the author of FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science and numerous bestselling books examining the real science behind Star Wars, superheroes, time travel, and the multiverse. Known for translating complex ideas into gripping narratives, Brake argues that science fiction doesn’t merely entertain — it quietly shapes the laboratories, technologies, and futures we eventually inhabit. LINKS: https://www.instagram.com/profmbrake BOOKS: FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science The Science of Star Wars The Science of Harry Potter The Science of Star Trek The Science of Doctor Who The Science of Jurassic World The Science of James Bond The Science of Sherlock The Science of The Beatles The Science of Super Heroes SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! GHOSTBED GhostBed is a family-run company, founded and still led by real manufacturing experts with more than 20 years of mattress-making experience. They’re not marketers chasing trends. They’re craftsmen focused on building quality you can feel, night after night. Every GhostBed mattress is designed with premium materials, proven cooling technology, and their exclusive ProCore™ layer—a targeted support system that reinforces the center of the mattress where your body’s heaviest. It helps keep your spine aligned and your back supported while you sleep. Right now, during GhostBed’s Holiday Sale, you can get 25% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to GhostBed.com/strangeplanet and use promo code STRANGEPLANET at checkout. That’s GhostBed.com/strangeplanet, promo code STRANGEPLANET. Upgrade your sleep with GhostBed—the makers of The Coolest Beds in the World™. Some exclusions apply, see site for details. FOUND – Smarter banking for your business Take back control of your business today. Open a Found account for FREE at Found dot com. That’s F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who’ve already streamlined their finances with Found. HIMS - Making Healthy and Happy Easy to Achieve Sexual Health, Hair Loss, Mental Health, Weight Management START YOUR FREE ONLINE VISIT TODAY - ⁠HIMS dot com slash STRANGE⁠ ⁠https://www.HIMS.com/strange⁠ MINT MOBILE Premium Wireless - $15 per month. No Stores. No Salespeople. JUST SAVINGS Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET. That’s MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER!!!⁠ ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Three monthly subscriptions to choose from. Commercial Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and a Subscription to my monthly newsletter, InnerSanctum. Visit ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Use the discount code "Planet" to receive $5 OFF off any subscription. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our w Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm/

FOLLOW RICHARD Website: https://www.strangeplanet.ca YouTube: @strangeplanetradio Instagram: @richardsyrettstrangeplanet TikTok: @therealstrangeplanet EP. #1292 The Time Plot: When Science Fiction Stops Predicting and Starts Instructing Time travel has always been dismissed as fantasy — until you look closer. In this episode of Strange Planet, we venture into the strange frontier where science fiction stops predicting the future and starts engineering it. Joining me is Professor Mark Brake, who reveals how visionary writers like H.G. Wells mapped the architecture of time long before physicists dared to explore it. From quantum theories and alternate timelines to cryonics and suspended animation, we examine whether humanity has already begun slipping through time without admitting it. Is time a rigid law… or the next barrier waiting to break? GUEST: Professor Mark Brake is a leading science communicator and author exploring the hidden feedback loop between imagination and innovation. He is the author of FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science and numerous bestselling books examining the real science behind Star Wars, superheroes, time travel, and the multiverse. Known for translating complex ideas into gripping narratives, Brake argues that science fiction doesn’t merely entertain — it quietly shapes the laboratories, technologies, and futures we eventually inhabit. LINKS: https://www.instagram.com/profmbrake BOOKS: FutureWorld: Where Science Fiction Becomes Science The Science of Star Wars The Science of Harry Potter The Science of Star Trek The Science of Doctor Who The Science of Jurassic World The Science of James Bond The Science of Sherlock The Science of The Beatles The Science of Super Heroes SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! GHOSTBED GhostBed is a family-run company, founded and still led by real manufacturing experts with more than 20 years of mattress-making experience. They’re not marketers chasing trends. They’re craftsmen focused on building quality you can feel, night after night. Every GhostBed mattress is designed with premium materials, proven cooling technology, and their exclusive ProCore™ layer—a targeted support system that reinforces the center of the mattress where your body’s heaviest. It helps keep your spine aligned and your back supported while you sleep. Right now, during GhostBed’s Holiday Sale, you can get 25% off sitewide for a limited time. Just go to GhostBed.com/strangeplanet and use promo code STRANGEPLANET at checkout. That’s GhostBed.com/strangeplanet, promo code STRANGEPLANET. Upgrade your sleep with GhostBed—the makers of The Coolest Beds in the World™. Some exclusions apply, see site for details. FOUND – Smarter banking for your business Take back control of your business today. Open a Found account for FREE at Found dot com. That’s F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who’ve already streamlined their finances with Found. HIMS - Making Healthy and Happy Easy to Achieve Sexual Health, Hair Loss, Mental Health, Weight Management START YOUR FREE ONLINE VISIT TODAY - ⁠HIMS dot com slash STRANGE⁠ ⁠https://www.HIMS.com/strange⁠ MINT MOBILE Premium Wireless - $15 per month. No Stores. No Salespeople. JUST SAVINGS Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET. ⁠BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER!!!⁠ ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Three monthly subscriptions to choose from. Commercial Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and a Subscription to my monthly newsletter, InnerSanctum. Visit ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Use the discount code "Planet" to receive $5 OFF off any subscription. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our website and services Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm/

FOLLOW RICHARD Website: https://www.strangeplanet.ca YouTube: @strangeplanetradio Instagram: @richardsyrettstrangeplanet TikTok: @therealstrangeplanet EP. #1291 Poisoned by the Queen: The Woman Who Killed Alexander the Great In the opulent palace of Babylon, 323 BC, Alexander the Great—conqueror of empires—collapsed after a single cup of wine. Ten days of agony later, the world's most powerful man was dead at 32, his vast empire fracturing into chaos. History calls it fever or fate. But Graham Phillips, in his explosive book Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon, proves it was deliberate murder by poison. Using forensic toxicology, eyewitness accounts, and palace intrigue, Phillips exposes a shocking truth: the killer wasn't a rival general, but someone in Alexander's most intimate circle—a woman history has long underestimated. A conspiracy that rewrites the ancient world. GUEST: Graham Phillips is a former BBC radio journalist and bestselling historical investigator who specializes in solving centuries-old mysteries. Known for his rigorous, detective-style approach, he has authored acclaimed books on King Arthur, the Holy Grail, and the Templars. In Alexander the Great: Murder in Babylon, he collaborated with toxicologists and the Los Angeles Police Department to re-examine ancient sources, uncovering compelling evidence of foul play in the conqueror's death. A frequent contributor to History Channel shows like Ancient Aliens and The UnXplained, Phillips brings forensic precision and narrative flair to the shadows of history. WEBSITE: https://grahamphillips.net BOOKS: Alexander the Great: Murder in Bablyon The Original Zodiac The Lost Tomb of King Arthur The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant The Mystery of Doggerland SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS!!! FOUND – Smarter banking for your business Take back control of your business today. Open a Found account for FREE at Found dot com. That’s F-O-U-N-D dot com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Lead Bank, Member FDIC. Join the hundreds of thousands who’ve already streamlined their finances with Found. HIMS - Making Healthy and Happy Easy to Achieve Sexual Health, Hair Loss, Mental Health, Weight Management START YOUR FREE ONLINE VISIT TODAY - ⁠HIMS dot com slash STRANGE⁠ ⁠https://www.HIMS.com/strange⁠ MINT MOBILE Premium Wireless - $15 per month. No Stores. No Salespeople. JUST SAVINGS Ready to say yes to saying no? Make the switch at MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET. That’s MINT MOBILE dot com slash STRANGEPLANET BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER!!!⁠ ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Three monthly subscriptions to choose from. Commercial Free Listening, Bonus Episodes and a Subscription to my monthly newsletter, InnerSanctum. Visit ⁠https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm⁠ Use the discount code "Planet" to receive $5 OFF off any subscription. We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our website and services, you agree to our use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://strangeplanet.supportingcast.fm/