Thursday, March 11, 2021

The Dickheads Podcast for Hugo Consideration...

 

 


For Hugo consideration…

 

I know a podcast called Dickheads might seem a long shot for a Hugo nomination but I am writing this post to advocate for our show! So between now and March 19 members of Worldcon (The biggest science fiction convention of the year) are allowed to nominate entries in the various categories. In relation to this show, we wanted to remind folks they can nominate The Dickheads Podcast in the fancast category.  There are several deserving podcasts some of my favorites Seth Healsey’s shows Hugo’s There and Take Me to your Reader. Also, we have worked with and enjoyed Coode Street, Hugo Girl, and SFF audio to name a few. Behind the scenes, these podcasts share guests, notes, and talk it is a cool online community.

I want to use this moment to promote the reasons why we think Dickheads is worthy of a nomination for the award.

Since our start, we have profiled Philip K. Dick’s prolific novels starting with his first published novels to the late 60s through 2020.  During the pandemic year, we hosted publishers, scholars, and Three NY Times bestselling authors to talk about the range and depth of the science fiction genre both classic and modern.

We hosted a quarantine panel early in Pandemic featuring Lisa Yasek, Alec Nevala-Lee, and Gary Wolfe that we co-hosted with Seth Heasley of Hugo’s There. We also did a panel with academics, editors, and Translators on Asian Science Fiction and Translation. We did a panel on the impact of Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction co-founder Anthony Boucher, this panel featured Bestselling author F.Paul Wilson, The current magazine owner Gordan Van Gelder, and academic Gary K. Wolfe. Boucher was Philip K. Dick’s first mentor and most important influence.

His other most important influence was Don Wollheim, the long-time ACE books editor, and DAW books founder. This man’s influence on Science Fiction is often overlooked but he gave many authors their start and was the first editor to put the words Science Fiction on a book cover.  The episode of the year we are most proud of was our interview with this founding father of the genre’s daughter Betsy Wollheim. She is still an important figure in publishing but her insight into her father was so important.

In our Blade Runner coverage, we also hosted one of the world’s foremost experts in brain mapping professor Chris Firth. We also did interviews with Philip K. Dick’s last wife Tessa and hosted a few live events.

Over the year we also added to the conversation by continuing to cover the Hugo winners of the 60s including an episode about A Canticle for Lebowitz featuring professor and award-winning author Brian Evenson.  

In our Philip K Dick novel episodes we also had guest appearances by author-scholars like D.Harlan Wilson on Lies inc., and NY Times bestselling Author Stephen Graham Jones on Ubik. We also did panel episodes on important works of the 60s and 70s including Spinrad’s The Iron Dream and John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up.

 

Academic guests in the last year have included …

Lisa Yaszek is Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.

Alec Nevala-Lee is an American novelist, biographer, and science fiction writer. He is a Hugo and Locus Award finalist.

Gary K. Wolfe is an American science fiction editor, critic and biographer. He is an emeritus Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University's Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies.

Brian Evenson is the author of more than a dozen books of fiction and teaches in the BFA program at Cal-Arts.

D. Harlan Wilson is an American novelist, short-story writer, critic, playwright and English professor at Wright State University. His body of work bridges the aesthetics of literary theory with various genres of speculative fiction.

Christopher Frith, FRS FBA is a psychologist and professor emeritus at the Welcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London.

Stephen Graham Jones is a NY Times bestselling author and the Ivena Baldwin Professor of English, as well as a Professor of Distinction at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Nathaniel Issacson is an Associate Professor of Modern Chinese literature and cultural studies at North Carolina State University.

“The Dickheads Podcast is personally my favorite podcast. I particularly enjoy the amount of research that goes into each episode, collecting interesting insights and quotes from Dick and those close to him. Like many authors, PKD doesn’t get the amount of in-depth discussion he deserves, but the Dickhead’s are rectifying that in their absorbing, studious , and humorous way.” - Listener Christian Wylde

"The Dickheads Podcast provides history, insights and straight up entertaining discussion about Philip K Dick and his impact.  A dedicated broadcast, with visits from other D-Heads and notables, this does not remain anchored in the past but also casts lines into his impact on Pop Culture, as well and well as lifting the veil of Phildickian perspective and prophecy into the reality of our Now." – Zack Wood of the Phildickian.com

"The Dickheads Podcast has been a wonderful addition to the field of SF scholarship focusing on the novels of PKD. The three friends of the DHP are reading PKD's SF novels chronologically, and this has been an innovative approach. I find their discussions about PKD's novels - those I have read, and those I haven't yet read - to be equally as interesting. I also highly enjoy the "Dick Adjacent" and interview episodes, which feature conversations with other authors, editors, and scholars which address specific works or sometimes the entire history of SF literature and cinema. I have found the episodes of the Dickheads Podcast to be not only fascinating but also inspirational as well." – Librarian Russell Stone.

 

The nomination process is open until March 19th, please consider giving up a nod!

 

More details on the Hugo Awards




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