Hosts In The Shell

For full disclosure, although our podcast name is a pun on the title of this seminal manga and its myriad adaptations, we don't purport to be absolute experts - in truth, like everyone else we're just massive fans of the Mamoru Oshii anime version (as well as its spin-offs and sequel).
So when we heard there was a new version hitting our screens in 2026, and that it was a more faithful adaptation of the original manga, we had some trepidation about checking out - after all, how could it possibly surpass the 1995 classic?? Well, having watched all ten episodes, we can confirm it was certainly...... different...
Tune in to find out more about what we thought, and also to hear Matt learning live on air that the show has had a website for years that he didn't know about.

Put on your best sleeve and join us for part 2 of our interview with the legendary Richard K Morgan, author of Altered Carbon as well as a HOST (see what we did there) of other brilliant books!
In episode 2 we talk more about Richard's work, as well as the writing and ideation process (and how it's bizarrely similar to rock-climbing), and even veer off into famously non-controversial topics like AI and politics!
Enjoy the show, and please don't forget to visit Richard's website at www.richardkmorgan.com for the latest RKM news, including details of his latest novel, No Man's Land.

It isn't often you get to interview a person that meets the following criteria:
i)  Is a literary hero and writer of some of the best books ever
ii)  Is cyberpunk royalty
iii)  Is a fascinating interviewee
iv)  Is a lovely bloke
... but in Richard K Morgan, we have managed to achieve this implausible superfecta!! (And also learned a new word by googling 'what is a trifecta but for 4?')
Feast yer ears on the first half of our bumper-length cyberpunk showdown with one of the genre's greatest!!!
(And make sure you visit www.richardkmorgan.com for more info on Richard's work including brand new novel, No Man's Land)

The last time we talked about Fallout, we crammed in the entire video game series, some spinoffs, and of course the first season of the hugely popular Amazon Prime TV series!! This time we're focusing (ish) solely on season 2 of the latter, which was bigger, more ambitious, and potentially a bit more muddled... find out if we survived our visit to the Mojave Wasteland, or if we were gobbled up by deathclaws...

Who could be more cyberpunk than the man who wrote Blade Runner (aka Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall (aka We Can Remember It For You Wholesale), Minority Report and a host of other revered books, short stories and future movie adaptations??
The answer, actually, is multi-award-winning author T R Napper, a man who is LITERALLY a doctor of cyberpunk!!! Hear his thoughts on one of the greatest writers of all time, as well as on his own brilliant books including the recently-released This Machine Kills Billionaires...
Tim's website: https://nappertime.com/
Tim on Twitter: @TheEscherMan
Tim on Instagram/Facebook/Bluesky: @trnapper