Science Faction Podcast Podcast By Devon Craft and Steven Domingues and Benjamin Daniel Lawless cover art

Science Faction Podcast

Science Faction Podcast

By: Devon Craft and Steven Domingues and Benjamin Daniel Lawless
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A science and science fiction based podcast hosted by two high school friends, and two college friends. Listen and learn and geek out. In this podcast, science meets fact, meets fiction.Devon Craft and Steven Domingues and Benjamin Daniel Lawless Science
Episodes
  • Episode 600: Almost Shakespearean

    Episode 600: Almost Shakespearean
    Mar 18 2026
    This week we bounce from the eternal debate over pie superiority (and some truly questionable anti-pie opinions) into sci-fi revivals, strange travel stories, and the art of a good ending—before closing things out with a genuinely unsettling short story that may or may not leave you side-eyeing your bathroom forever. Real Life We kick things off with the most important topic we've ever covered: pie. Favorites, non-favorites, and a few takes that might genuinely damage friendships. No spoilers—but some of us have very strong opinions. Ben brings a little sci-fi hope (and caution) with talk of a possible return to the world of Firefly. Between comics and expanded universe material—like the recent developments covered over at SYFY Wire (https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/firefly-brand-new-verse-comic-boom-studios) there's clearly still life in the 'verse. But as always, the question is: should it come back, or is it better left alone? Meanwhile, the planned Buffy reboot/sequel has officially stalled out at Hulu, which… honestly might be for the best. [bad opinion AI] Devon takes us on a trip to Eureka Springs, a town built on the idea that its waters had healing properties. It's got that old-world charm mixed with just enough weird to make it interesting—complete with a glass-and-wood beam church, ziplining adventures, and a full-on St. Patrick's Day parade. A little history, a little adrenaline, a little chaos. Steven celebrates Pie Day the right way, follows it up with an all-day beach trip, and then pivots straight into Pirate Borg prep. There's a game on the horizon, and the hype is real. Future or Now Ben takes the wheel with a surprisingly thoughtful discussion about endings—what makes them work, why they matter, and how often they completely fall apart. This leads into Babylon 5 (with a shoutout to Josh), and if you want a refresher or a reason to revisit it, check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z54XNJivHOs From there, it's all about what's next in Star Trek. Starfleet Academy Season 1 has people talking, and the future lineup is stacked: Strange New Worlds Season 4 is on the way this summer, with Season 5 already lining up some heavy hitters—including Thomas Jane stepping in as Dr. McCoy and Kai Murakami as Sulu. And then there's the truly baffling situation: Star Trek: Prodigy just won an Emmy… and is basically impossible to watch. If you want to feel equal parts excited and frustrated, here's the breakdown: https://trekmovie.com/2026/03/04/star-trek-prodigy-wins-emmy-for-animation/ Steven dives into some fun (and slightly chaotic) tech territory with green screen experimentation. Corridor Crew breaks it down here: https://youtu.be/3Ploi723hg4?si=Mu_9whhpY_gvJldY and if you want to mess with it yourself, the open-source tool Corridor Key is here: https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey Book Club Next week, we're checking out Arco!—you can find it on Apple TV right here: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/arco/umc.cmc.16jgcgmdg48xptfayroel0yvy We'll report back on whether it's worth your time (and money). This week, we read What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom by Angela Liu: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-the-hole-in-the-bathroom/ And look—this one sparked some debate. Ben tries to walk Steven through it… because it didn't quite click at first. But Devon cuts straight through the noise and nails it: this is a horror story. Not loud, not obvious—but deeply, quietly unsettling in a way that sticks with you longer than you'd like. One More Thing Ben's got boots on the ground this weekend at the Beacon Art Show Ekphrastic Poetry Reading, happening Saturday (3/21) at 2pm at the SLO United Methodist Church. If you're local, go check it out—support some art, hear some poetry, and maybe report back. If you've got strong pie opinions, thoughts on whether Firefly should come back, or theories about that bathroom story, we want to hear them. And if you haven't yet—subscribe, follow, and share the show with someone who enjoys a good mix of chaos, sci-fi, and questionable food takes.
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Episode 599: Devon Sold a Guitar for THIS?

    Episode 599: Devon Sold a Guitar for THIS?
    Mar 11 2026
    Real Life This week's episode begins the way many of our weeks began: confused, slightly annoyed, and one hour short on sleep thanks to the time change. Ben kicks things off by voicing what everyone is feeling — daylight saving time is rough. Losing an hour never gets easier, and the collective fog hangs over the whole episode like a mild but persistent headache. Devon isn't exactly escaping the chaos either. Between a hockey game down in Louisiana and spring break activities with the kids, his schedule is all over the place. Add the time shift on top of that and it's a miracle anyone is awake enough to record. Ben quickly pivots into defending Starfleet Academy, which he insists is a "tremendously good show." According to him, the loudest critics clearly aren't watching it. During the conversation Steven realizes he somehow made it this far in life without fully understanding what the Omega Particle is, which becomes a small but hilarious rabbit hole. Meanwhile the group grumbles about the Voyager game releasing day-one DLC — a move that feels more than a little gross. Steven brings a literary palate cleanser to the table. After wrestling with the famously labyrinthine House of Leaves, he recommends another unsettling architectural mystery: Strange Houses by Uketsu. If eerie homes and unsettling mysteries are your thing, it might be worth checking out here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/strange-houses-uketsu/1146276773 Ben contributes a strange internet gem called Pricemaster, a bizarre and hypnotic video that quickly becomes one of those "you just have to see it" moments during the episode. If you want to experience the same confusion we did, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/CUmmxW7Ksc8?si=6s1IRr2FuGy72Zo8 Devon then unveils the real headline of the Real Life segment: a brand-new guitar amp. He picked up a Fender Mustang GTX 100, and the excitement level is off the charts. The amp includes digital modeling, built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity, and an accompanying app that lets him endlessly tweak tones. Devon is talking about it so much that it raises a bigger question — he actually sold a guitar to buy the amp. If you know Devon, that's a shocking development. Future or Now Ben kicks off this segment with a fascinating animated project called Arco, produced by Natalie Portman. The story follows a ten-year-old boy from the year 2932 who isn't supposed to time travel yet. Naturally, he steals a time-travel cape and gemstone, aiming for the age of dinosaurs… and instead crash-lands in the year 2075. There he meets a girl named Iris and her robot nanny, and the unlikely trio may be the only ones who can prevent a global catastrophe. You can read more about the project here: https://collider.com/arco-streaming-online-natalie-portman/ Devon brings a science question that sounds simple but gets weird fast: why aren't mammals as colorful as reptiles, birds, or fish? If you look around the animal kingdom, mammals mostly stick to browns, blacks, and muted tones. The explanation has a lot to do with fur structure and evolutionary pressures — bright pigments are much easier to display in feathers, scales, and bare skin than in thick mammalian fur. The article that sparked the discussion is here: https://www.livescience.com/animals/why-arent-mammals-as-colorful-as-reptiles-birds-or-fish Steven rounds out the segment with something even stranger — humans secretly have stripes. Not visible stripes, unfortunately, but real biological patterns called Blaschko's lines. These lines emerge from the way skin cells divide and migrate during development. Under certain lighting conditions or medical circumstances, these patterns can actually appear, meaning everyone is walking around with hidden tiger stripes or cow-like patterns built into their skin. You can read more about that discovery here: https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-actually-have-secret-stripes-and-other-strange-markings Book Club Next week's reading is "What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom" by Angela Liu, a title that raises several questions before you even start the story. If you want to read ahead with us, you can find it here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-the-hole-in-the-bathroom/ This week the group dives into "Presence" by Ken Liu, which you can read here: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/presence/ The story centers on an elderly parent living abroad and the adult children trying to care for them remotely through telepresence technology. The discussion quickly expands beyond the story itself. The hosts talk about the stark contrast between elder care in America and in other countries where multi-generational households are more common. That leads into a broader conversation about American individualism — the cultural idea that success means leaving home, chasing opportunity, and building an independent life. While that independence can open doors,...
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Episode 598: The Twenty Year Window

    Episode 598: The Twenty Year Window
    Mar 4 2026
    This week we bounce from weddings with questionable video evidence to universal vaccines, rogue dubstep artists named after shingles shots, and a time-loop story that left us… conflicted. Let's get into it. Real Life Ben officiated a wedding. It was beautiful. It was meaningful. It was legally binding. There may or may not be video proof. Somewhere, there's a phone with 3% battery and a shaky clip of vows. Or maybe not. Either way, two people are married and that's what counts. If you're going to officiate a wedding, here's the lesson: double-check the recording situation. Memory is not a backup drive. Ben also discovered that in newer versions of iOS, you can type to Siri. This is huge for anyone who has ever whispered a text into their phone in public and immediately regretted it. We are slowly evolving into silent thumb-typers talking to machines. The future is polite and awkward. Devon talked about how he uses ChatGPT — not casually, but intentionally. He uses it for work. He uses it to rewrite drafts, fix spelling, tighten arguments. Think of it as a second-pass editor that doesn't get tired. He went deeper into why he chose to pay for it and what "professional analysis" even means in an AI context. If you're billing by the hour, clarity matters. He also raised the question: does LexisNexis have AI baked in now? (Short answer: of course they do. Long answer: it depends how you define AI, which is half the battle in 2026.) Ben uses "AI" differently — mostly for data sifting. Large piles of information. Pattern spotting. Less magic robot, more extremely fast intern. Steven admitted he uses ChatGPT to help generate episode notes and images. If you're creating consistently, tools matter. The question isn't "Is this cheating?" The question is: "Are you using the tool to think better or to think less?" Big difference. We also watched The First Minute of Demi Adejuyigbe Is Going To Do One (1) Backflip — and yes, he does the backflip. Watch the full clip on YouTube and the full special on Dropout. Demi Adejuyigbe (pronounced DEM-ee ə-DIJ-oo-EE-bay) is sharp, chaotic, and there's a killer Marge Simpson joke in the full show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kveA4wgIhI Speaking of Marge — Marge Simpson is not dead. The French voice actress passed away. RIP. The character remains immortal yellow. Ben also plugged his ekphrastic poetry workshop — Write Poems with Me — happening Saturday 3/7 at the Beacon Art Show or online. If you've been waiting for a sign to try poetry, this is it. Show up. Make weird art. https://buttondown.com/penciledin/archive/write-poems-with-me-saturday-37-at-the-beacon-art/ Future or Now Steven brought in a wild one: a possible "universal" vaccine from researchers at Stanford Medicine. Instead of targeting a specific virus, this nasal spray supercharges the lungs' immune defenses. In mice, it reduced viral load, prevented severe illness, and even blocked allergic reactions. COVID. Flu. Pneumonia. Allergens. If this holds up in humans, that's not incremental. That's foundational. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260222092258.htm Ben followed with research suggesting shingles vaccines might lower dementia risk. Studies around the shingles vaccines Zostavax and Shingrix have shown reduced dementia incidence in vaccinated older adults. There's also data suggesting the vaccine may slow biological aging markers, including inflammation. https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/could-a-vaccine-prevent-dementia-shingles-shot-data-only-getting-stronger/ This is where Steven held his jokes until the very end. Zostavax and Shingrix are dubstep artists. "Twenty Year Window" is their debut collaboration. "Dementia" is their first single. Sometimes you need the bit. But seriously — if preventing viral reactivation reduces neuroinflammation and long-term cognitive decline, that's massive. It's early. It's correlation-heavy. But it's promising. Pay attention to this space. Book Club This week: All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein (1958). https://lecturia.org/en/short-stories/robert-a-heinlein-all-you-zombies/19420/ Time travel. Identity loops. Paradoxes stacked on paradoxes. There are also… problems. Ben had major issues with the problematic elements. And they're not small issues. The story reflects the era it was written in, and not in a flattering way. Devon didn't love the no-stakes feeling. When a story collapses into inevitability, tension can evaporate. If everything always already happened, what are we gripping onto? Steven's take: the story is valuable as a historical artifact. It shows where science fiction was. You can see the mechanics. The ambition. The blind spots. You don't have to endorse it to learn from it. That's maturity in reading: understanding context without pretending flaws don't exist. Next week, we're reading Presence by Ken Liu, published in Uncanny Magazine. Ken Liu tends to blend emotional precision with speculative ideas, so ...
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    1 hr and 13 mins
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