StarShipSofa Creators & Guests

Tony C. Smith is a gardener, YouTube content creator, and podcast creator. He posts videos to YouTube about allotment gardening. He hosts the podcast "Starship Sofa." He also runs the District of Dreams network, which includes the podcasts "Starship Sofa," "Tales to Terrify," "Crime City Central," and "Protecting Project Pulp."

Dave Robison is an avid Literary and Vocal Alchemist who pursues a wide range of creative explorations. A Brainstormer, Relentless Optimist, and “Keeper of the Buttery Man-Voice”, Dave's efforts to boost the awesomeness of the world can be found through his work at Wonderthing Studios. He’s currently shepherding multiple projects in the world: • ARCHIVOS, a story mapping and presentation tool• Manifest, a board game combining the positional strategy of chess with the fantastical diversity of Magic: The Gathering. • Story narration for numerous audio fiction podcasts and endeavors, including work with The Escape Artists series of podcasts (Pseudopod, Podcastle, EscapePod, and Cast of Wonders) as well as narrating books for J. Daniel Sawyer, James Silverstein, and more!• The Archivos Podcast Network featuring interviews and brainstorms with veteran authors

Brian is a voice actor living in Colorado. He narrates short fiction, audiobooks, and hosts the Dorky Geeky Nerdy Trivia Podcast. Reach out to him to narrate your next project at TheVoicesInMyHead.com

Nikolle Doolin is a voice actor and writer.

David Barr Kirtley is an American short story writer and host of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast.His short fiction appears in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy and Weird Tales, in online magazines such as Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show and Lightspeed, and on podcasts such as Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and The Drabblecast.

Seth Shostak is a senior astronomer for the SETI Institute and former director of the Center for SETI Research when it was a separate department.

Simon Hildebrandt is an author and narrator. Professionally, he is a web developer.Hildebrandt received his B.Sc. in Computer Science from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Dr. Amy H. Sturgis is an author, speaker and scholar of science fiction and fantasy studies and Native American studies.Sturgis has served on the advisory board of Mythopoeic Press, and contributed to the Hugo Award-winning StarShipSofa podcast and the Liberty and Power group weblog. She served as adjunct instructor at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, North Carolina, before becoming a professor at Belmont University.Sturgis is author of four books on U.S. presidential history and Native American studies, five edited works on science fiction and fantasy, and other scholarly and mainstream book chapters, articles and presentations. She has been interviewed on science fiction and fantasy topics by organizations including NPR.She regularly contributes to the podcast StarShipSofa.Sturgis received her Ph.D. in intellectual history from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. David Raiklen is a music composer and producer. He also hosts the radio show, "Classical Fan Club."

Jeffrey Ford is an author, primarily of fantasy fiction. He also teaches writing and literature at Brookdale Community College.Ford's stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, MAD Magazine, Weird Tales, Clarkesworld Magazine, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Subterranean, Fantasy Magazine, and have been in collected in anthologies such as The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, New Jersey Noir, Stories, The Living Dead, The Faery Reel, After, The Dark, and The Doll Collection. His first novel, "Vanitas," was published in 1988.

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in NYC. His nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge, Digital McLuhan, Realspace, McLuhan in an Age of Social Media, and Fake News in Real Context have been translated into 15 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (winner of the Locus Award for Best First Science Fiction Novel of 1999), Borrowed Tides, and The Plot to Save Socrates. He appears on CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, and NPR. His 1972 album, Twice Upon A Rhyme, was re-issued in Japan and Korea in 2008, and in the U. K. in 2010. His first new album since 1972, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, was released by Old Bear Records and Light in the Attic Records in 2020.

Dr. Harry Norman Turtledove is an author. He is best known as a writer of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction.In addition to his birth name, Turtledove writes under a number of pen names: Eric Iverson, H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko, and Mark Gordian. His first book, "Wereblood," was published in 1979, and he has since published over 50 novels.Turtledove received his Ph.D. in Byzantine History.

Evo Terra is podcasting’s original professional contrarian. Ex-expat, skeptic, & often funny. CEO of Simpler Media. Hip he/him.

Alex Shvartsman is a science fiction & fantasy writer and editor.

Jason Sanford is a science fiction author. He is best known for his short stories.Sanford's fiction has appeared in Interzone, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Year's Best SF 14, InterGalactic Medicine Show, and other anthologies. His first novel, "Plague Birds," was published in 2021. Sanford founded the magazine storySouth and ran their annual Million Writers Award for best online short stories.

Aliette de Bodard is a science fiction writer. Although French is her first language, she writes in English.de Bodard works as a software engineer specialising in image processing.de Bodard is a graduate of École Polytechnique.

Mika McKinnon is a Canadian field geophysicist, disaster researcher, and science communicator. She is a co-investigator of the Southwest Research Institute's Project ESPRESSO and was a science adviser to the science fiction television series Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe.

Anna North is a writer, editor, and reporter who specializes in gender-related issues. She is currently a senior reporter at Vox Media.Prior to working for Vox, North was a contributor and member of the editorial board at the New York Times from, and headed the segment "This Week In Hate." Her work has appeared in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, and Salon.North is also the author of two novels, "America Pacifica," published in 2011, and "The Life and Death of Sophie Stark," published in 2015.

Dr. Hannu Rajaniemi is a science fiction and fantasy fiction writer who writes in both English and Finnish. Currently, he is Co-Founder and CEO of Helix Nanotechnologies.Rajaniemi's stories have appeared in Futurismic, Interzone, StarShipSofa, and Escape Pod, and have been collected in anthologies. His first book, the collection "Words of Birth and Death," was published in 2006.Rajaniemi received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Oulu, a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics from the University of Edinburgh.