A Podcast About Sci-Fi Books

Sarah is excited that her degrees in English will be ever so slightly useful for once. By day, she’s the Founder and CEO of Growclass, an education company and lovely global community for marketers. By night, she’s a sometimes-spicy-feminist-author, but mostly a yogurt-covered toddler parent who falls asleep reading a lot. She’s the host of The Globe and Mail Podcast The Growth Effect, and you can find her periodically on the CBC, CTV, and CP24. Her favourite author is Erica Johansen, who was unfortunately right about a lot of stuff.

Richard is a web development nerd at heart. He spent his days on the early web taking websites apart to see how they ticked and still works in the field. He met the Pagenerds when he was living and working in Toronto but has recently moved back to his hometown of Winnipeg with his wife and son. The earliest sci-fi that he remembers reading was the Galaxy of Fear novels which were like Goosebumps in the Star Wars universe. His mind was first blown by sci-fi when he read about the concept of Psychohistory in Issac Asimov's Foundation series and has been a sci-fi fanatic ever since.

Tommy Guy is a data nerd with a Philosophy degree he's proud to be (sort of) finally using. Tommy met the Pagenerds in his Toronto era, but these days he lives in Seattle. When his nose isn't stuck in a book (paper, preferably), he's running around the Cascade Mountains or globetrotting. His favorite places to visit are big open spaces like Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand, and the Faroe Islands. (Three countries with more sheep than people! (Tommy goes into digressions.)) Tommy reads for the vibes, preferably of an existential crisis sort of flavor. His favorite sci fi (so far!) is Mary (Fucking) Shelley and Our Queen Emily St. John Mandel.

Andrew has enjoyed stepping into the vast sci-fi (and fantasy) worlds born from other authors’ minds and souls for decades. As a sci-fi writer himself (by night), he loves unpacking how authors structure stories to make plots work — from big speculative ideas down to the literary techniques that make them land. On the podcast he’s as likely to vastly misinterpret a lead character's description as he is to explain a scene or theme in the book being discussed, blending enthusiasm, and deep appreciation for writing craft nerdery. Keep an eye out for his debut novel — Lyceum & the Atavists — due out sometime later this year.

Jay used to work for the BBC in London but that was too much like a real job so he quit radio, moved across the ocean and became a Canadian. Now he writes and makes podcasts about cities and sci-fi for people like the Globe and Mail and Canada's National Observer, but Pagenerd is the best one. Jay's been addicted to sci-fi since he stole his dad's copy of Dune when he was 12 — now his favourite author is Ursula K. Leguin, but he's also working on his own novel (and has been for roughly twelve years).