Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Eating the Fantastic episode of 2017—which also happens to be the first episode recorded at an Uzbek restaurant. My guest and I snuck away from the Gaithersburg, Maryland convention Capclave one night for dinner at Silk Road Choyhona, where we feasted on plov, dimlama, and a variety of other delicacies.

My guest this episode is James Morrow, whose novels and short stories have won him multiple Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, as well as the Prix Utopia for life achievement from the French Utopiales International Festival.

His most recent novel, Galapagos Regained, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2015. His next will be The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, coming June 2017 from Tachyon Publications.

We discussed his first novel (written when he was only seven years old!), why he feels more connected to the fiction of Arthur C. Clarke than that of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, his many paths not taken, including that of filmmaker, the ethical conundrum which occurred after Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. autographed a book “for Jim Morrow, who writes just like me,” how Charles Darwin “confiscated our passports,” and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation—

1) Head on over to the iTunes store and subscribe, as well as find the previous 25 episodes.

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3) Or simply listen using the embed below.

Here’s what we ate this episode—

Naan

Pickled vegetables

Cabbage salad

Beef tongue

Mushroom soup

Veggie kabob

Plov

Dimlama

As I promised during the episode, here’s Jim’s 1972 short film A Political Cartoon, which hints at an alternate universe containing not James Morrow the writer, but James Morrow the filmmaker.

What’s next for Eating the Fantastic? Well, this time around I have two answers for you—one about the next episode, the other about the podcast as a whole. So—

Next episode, I’ll bring you a conversation with editor Ellen Datlow, who for more than thirty-five years has been bringing readers amazing stories in magazines such as Omni, on sites such as SCI Fiction, and in anthologies such as Fearful Symmetries, The Doll Collection, and more than 90 others.

But wait, there’s more! If you liked this episode and what Eating the Fantastic is trying to accomplish, check out how you can support the show over on Patreon. I’m hoping to make this podcast even better, and I’d like your help in helping me capture all the amazing people who make the world of the fantastic so great.

Whether or not you can help out financially, you can always help by subscribing to Eating the Fantastic so you never miss an episode, rating the show on iTunes, and liking us on Facebook.

Thanks, as always, for your support!