Podcast Introduction

Call Me Joe is about a group of scientists who are working on exploring Jupiter. They don’t land. They’re orbiting the planet, and they’re using some kind of telepathic remote control of an artificial body that is suited for life on this hostile planet with high gravity, where you take shelter in an ice cave and breathe hydrogen and helium, and drink methane.

Socratica Reads Podcast

Call Me Joe

by Poul Anderson

In this short story, a paraplegic man named Ed Anglesey remotely controls an artificial life form named Joe on Jupiter's hostile surface. As Joe thrives in the brutal Jovian environment, Ed begins to feel a deep connection with the creature, leading to questions about identity and consciousness. Anderson explores the boundaries between man and machine, human ambition, and the allure of becoming something more than human.
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“If you’ve been going to sci-fi movies and think that’s what sci-fi IS, I encourage you to reach back into the archives and explore some of the early examples of sci fi writing. I think you’ll find it more challenging in a good way. Science fiction, at its heart, is not about the spectacle, and that’s where I think sci-fi movies have lost their way. Good science fiction makes you think.”

Kimberly Hatch Harrison

The Midnight Library

Nora Seed, feeling overwhelmed by regret, finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place between life and death where each book represents a different version of her life. Guided by her former school librarian, she explores the lives she could have led, from the mundane to the extraordinary. Haig's novel is an introspective journey into choices, possibility, and the thin line between despair and hope.
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A dimly lit, mystical library stretching into the horizon. Rows of towering bookshelves reach into the ceiling, each filled with glowing books. In the center, a 21st century woman is sitting alone, staring at an open book, with glowing paths of alternate realities swirling around her.