The Show…

Poli-Sci-Fi Radio is a weekly radio show and podcast featuring Steve Benen and Bill Simmon talking about politics and science fiction. We define both terms somewhat broadly. For example, while the show does focus on the week’s big political stories, topics can also include free speech, the democratization of media, and technology issues as well. Likewise, we interpret “sci-fi” to mean any sort of genre fiction in pretty much any medium — books, movies, TV, comics, fan-fic, etc.

The show airs live on Sunday evenings from 4-6 pm eastern time in Burlington, Vermont on WOMM-LP 105.9 FM. Listeners outside of the radio station’s reach can tune into a live stream of the show by clicking here.

The Hosts…

Steve Benen Is the lead blogger at WashingtonMonthly.com.  His former blog, The Carpetbagger Report, was a staple of the American political blogoshpere for five years.  Steve’s articles and op-eds have appeared in a variety of print publications, including Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and Church & State. He’s also been a guest on several radio programs, including NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” Air America Radio’s “Sam Seder Show” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” and XM Radio’s “POTUS ‘08.” In addition to The Carpetbagger Report, Steve is the former lead editor of Salon.com’s Blog Report, and has been a contributor to Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, Crooks & Liars, AlterNet, Political Wire, and Seven Days.  More recently, Steve has been making appearances on Rachel Maddow’s prime time MSNBC political talk show.

Bill Simmon is a filmmaker, writer and blogger in northern Vermont. Bill’s blog, Candleblog, was voted “Best Vermont Blog (non-political)” in 2005, 2007 and 2008 by the readers of Vermont’s popular alternative weekly paper, Seven Days. His short documentary about co-host Steve Benen, Digital Pamphleteer, was awarded the James Goldstone Award at the 2007 Vermont International Film Festival. Bill has won other awards for his films, but since this award is given in honor of the Vermonter that directed the second Star Trek pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, it is particularly relevant for him.

Behind the Scenes…

Poli-Sci-Fi Radio is underwritten by Vermont Community Access Media (VCAM), a non-profit community media and technology center in Burlington, Vermont’s south end. VCAM offers access to and training with state-of-the-art digital video production and post-production tools. Any member of the greater Burlington community is free to use VCAM’s digital video facilities and cable TV channels for any non-commercial purpose, free of charge.

Poli-Sci-Fi Radio is engineered by the lovely and talented Emily Stoneking, a history student, stained glass artisan and super-crafter.  Emily contributes to the show on mic number 3 and she moderates our live IRC chat during the broadcast. She is also married to PSFR co-host, Bill Simmon.

The show is broadcast on The Radiator, an LPFM community radio station in downtown Burlington, located in the offices of Big Heavy World. Coffee and community inspiration by Radio Bean.