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In a world so uncertain, it's eerie how prophetic some writers can be when it comes to forecasting the future. Fiction Predictions explores the books, TV shows, and movies from the past that predicted the world we live in today. Fiction Predictions is a Mashable podcast created and hosted by Nikolay Nikolov and Sam Haysom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Like '1984', 'Catch 22' is one of those books that's become a part of our everyday language. But when it comes to contemporary society, what exactly did Joseph Heller's famous satire predict? This is the question we attempt to unravel in the final episode of our first season. Helping us are three guests: Business Insider reporter Isobel Hamilton; h…
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'Good Omens' is a book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 30 years ago. This year it also became a TV show. There's a reason for that. Now, with international tensions and the shadow of climate change constantly hanging over us, the story's apocalyptic themes feel more relevant than ever. In this episode we spoke to Neil Gaiman and the cas…
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'1984' turned 70 years old today, but it doesn't feel outdated. In fact, it's constantly coming back to dominate the news. Just a few days ago, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted a quote from the book that went viral. In this second part of our exploration into how much of the Orwellian dystopia has come true, we look at the three giants in our world today:…
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Podcast Special: "We are all handmaids now"
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A few weeks ago, a New Yorker cartoon of a bookstore employee moving a stack of dystopian novels from the 'fiction' section to the 'nonfiction' section went viral. It naturally set off a polarised conversation online about which of the novels – '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Handmaid's Tale' – offered the best prognosis for our world today. With t…
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George Orwell's '1984', a book about a dystopian future in which a totalitarian regime assumes full control over an individual's body and mind, suddenly shot to the top of the Amazon best-seller list in the United States back in 2017. You can probably guess why... On the eve of the 70th anniversary of its publication this June, we're dedicating two…
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How 'The Simpsons' predicted the cacophony of American politics
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The Simpsons is constantly going viral for the ways it seems to predict aspects, both small and big, of our contemporary life. Politics is no exception. With the help of Mashable's Marcus Gilmer, we break down the ways America's favourite animated family anticipated the populist appeal of the Trump administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri…
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The novel that predicted the sinking of the Titanic
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The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most infamous disasters of the 20th century. Almost everyone has heard of it. What far fewer people have heard of is a novel published 14 years earlier. A novel that tells the story of a giant passenger ship named 'the Titan', which sinks after hitting an iceberg... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for…
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How Stephen Merchant’s comedies predicted two existential crises we face today
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This week's episode features an interview with writer/director Stephen Merchant, and two predictions for the price of one. For the first, Nik explores how The Office predicted a grim trend in work culture. And for the second, we chat with Stephen about how his comedy Extras predicted the way people act on social media today. Finally, as a special b…
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The 18th century prison that predicted the rise of our global surveillance society
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We think about surveillance as a contemporary phenomenon. It's not. It all goes back to an 18th century prison design called the panopticon. If you've ever watched Guardians of the Galaxy or Lord of the Rings, or binged the TV series Oz, you'll have seen it. But you might not have realised that you were looking different versions of the same thing.…
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The 1979 Stephen King novel that predicted Donald Trump's rise
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A controversial, anti-establishment politician with a frenzied fan-based. Plenty of people would read that description and think of Donald Trump. But it also describes a character that features in Stephen King's "The Dead Zone". In this episode we explore how the horror writer's novel, first published in 1979, was a long way ahead of its time. Host…
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How much do you know about works of fiction that end up predicting the future? Fiction Predictions is a podcast created by Nikolay Nikolov and Sam Haysom that dives into the books, TV shows, and movies from the past that predicted the world we live in today. In our first season, with a little help from friends and guests, we explores some of the cl…
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