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I wrote a BRAND NEW sci-fi story with Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir.
Andy is one of the most popular science fiction writers alive today. He also wrote The Martian. What’s special about his work is how real his fake stories are. He showed me the secret spreadsheets he uses to calculate the science in his writing (including my favorite, “wrong math”).
The reason that matters is that fiction can help you see the real world more clearly. Sci-fi is “huge if true”!
This show is about real science and tech, but we’ve done a little sci fi to explain complex things. So I wanted to learn from Andy.
In this conversation, we go deep inside Andy’s fictional worlds to see how exactly he makes them so real…
And we play out a BRAND NEW sci fi story together in real time…
Welcome to HUGE* Conversations.
Chapters
00:00 Who is Andy Weir?
03:10: The world’s largest meteorite
06:04 Andy Weir’s secret spreadsheets
10:04 How Rocky became Rocky
13:02 Where Rocky’s story really began
15:07 What didn’t make it into the book for Project Hail Mary
17:22 How to create a true alien
19:25 Rocky’s body v. your body
23:38 Our new sci-fi story
27:23 How to tell if a planet has alien life
31:23 The biggest question if we do find aliens
36:48 How do you talk to a new alien species
41:16 The biggest changes in The Martian
44:55 The secret sauce of HUGE* and Project Hail Mary
48:15 Does sci-fi influence science
51:17 Andy’s new book
51:42 The biggest sci-fi changes in real life
54:54 The optimistic future Andy sees coming
57:35 What Andy Weir wants to be remembered for
58:42 Sneak peek at our next video!
58:53 🙂
You can find me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/cleoabram
On TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@cleoabram
Or on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/cleoabram
Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, HUGE* If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.
Additional reading and watching:
– Novels by Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary, The Martian, Artemis
– “The Egg”, a short story by Andy Weir
– Webpage with details of Eridian biology https://www.galactanet.com/eridian/
– Interviews with Andy Weir:
– The Talking Room with Adam Savage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SemyzKgaUU
– Penguin Random House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16bKLuAZvyw
– Dr. Becky: https://youtu.be/JOgwM941nV4?si=MnS-VdLFJ_GcbShR
– Re: Thinking with Adam Grant https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worklife-with-adam-grant/id1346314086?i=1000607234826
– Lecture at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2tfh6OUUYUw
– Paper, “What Changed when Andy Weir’s The Martian Got Edited?” by Ketzan and Schoch https://dh2017.adho.org/abstracts/317/317.pdf
– NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/exep/
Vox: https://www.vox.com/authors/cleo-abram
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10108242/
Gear I use:
Camera: Sony A7SIII
Lens: Sony 16–35 mm F2.8 GM
Audio: Sennheiser SK AVX and Zoom H4N Pro
Music: Musicbed, Tom Fox
Follow along for more episodes of HUGE* If True: https://www.youtube.com/cleoabram?sub_confirmation=1
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Hey, welcome to the joke down low!
What do you give an alien when they’re upset?
Some space.
Find a way to use “space” in a comment to let me know you’re a real one who made it to the end of the description 🙂 Read More Cleo Abram
