Depending on how you look at it, it is either a great or rough time out there for speculative fiction, as reality continues to bite at the heels of even the most dystopian visions. Jason Tester is a futurist with a knack for telling prescient stories about our imminent urban realities, in a startlingly graphic way. The visually compelling Insurrection: an American Future predicted troop deployments in San Francisco in early January 2025; by June, a real-life version of that story began unfolding in Los Angeles, then Washington, Chicago, and Portland. Tester gazes into the abyss with Unfrozen, in another episode a bit too close for comfort.
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Intro/Outro:
“System Error,” by The Cooper Vane
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Discussed:
What Is The Insurrection Act? Here’s What Happens If Trump Invokes Law
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
San Francisco Proposition E - Police drone authorization
The beleaguered Whole Foods on Market
Grand juries say no to sandwich crimes
Barbara Walter at UC San Diego: How Civil Wars Start
