In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan discuss genre boundaries in texts and criticism: how they're used, where they fall ... and what, if anything, they're good for. Is science fiction is more of a technique than a genre? Might it help to think about all texts as sitting across modes and categories? In the course of the conversation, Dan and Aisha return on several occasions to ⁠a recent episode of the New Yorker podcast Critics At Large⁠.

A transcript of this episode can be found at the ⁠Strange Horizons website⁠.

In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan discuss ⁠⁠a recent essay⁠⁠ by Jake Casella Brookins that appeared in the Ancillary Review of Books. "The vaunted prophylactic prophecy of science fiction—the ability to prevent an undesirable future by loudly predicting it—has consistently proven false," argues Brookins, and so Aisha and Dan ask themselves: what good, and bad, might SF do? And when we find a piece of good criticism such as this essay, how can it help us think better about its questions?

In this episode of Critical Friends, the Strange Horizons SFF criticism podcast, Aisha and Dan talk to critic and poet Catherine Rockwood about her new chapbook, And We Are Far From Shore , a set of poems about the television show Our Flag Means Death. Catherine reviewed the show for Strange Horizons less than a year ago, and discusses how reviewing and criticism feed into creative practice. There are also, of course, pirates.

The transcript of this episode can be found at the Strange Horizons website.