{"podcast":{"title":"Golden Age Fiction","slug":"golden-age-fiction-7113362","podcast_index_feed_id":7113362,"rss_url":"https://feeds.redcircle.com/43f90e90-8c8e-40b4-9c4c-7d3d9ce904e3","website_url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/golden-age-fiction8846","image_url":"https://media.redcircle.com/images/2026/1/9/1/2032e917-8cdc-405f-be16-f8a9bea7af62_Podcast_Square_Artwork_v2.png","author":"Paul Lawley-Jones","episode_count":178,"summary":"Stories from the \"Golden Age of Pulp Fiction.\" The \"Golden Age of Pulp Fiction\" is generally considered to be from the last decade of the 1800s to the mid-1900s, when magazines published on cheap pulp paper filled (mostly American) news-stands. Notable examples of these pulp fiction magazines include Argosy, Blue Book Magazine, Adventure, Detective Story Magazine, Weird Tales, and Astounding Stories. If you have a story that you'd like me to perform, please let me know at goldenagefiction@proton.me. Please note that performance of a story is not a condoning, endorsement, or promotion of attitudes, prejudices, biases or opinions therein—particularly of gender and gender roles, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality—that an inhabitant of modern times would find distasteful.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T04:19:16.531003+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362"},"episode":{"title":"Microcosmic God, by Theodore Sturgeon","slug":"microcosmic-god-by-theodore-sturgeon","published_at":"2026-01-18T22:00:12+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362/microcosmic-god-by-theodore-sturgeon","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362","url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/43f90e90-8c8e-40b4-9c4c-7d3d9ce904e3/episodes/2c344f7c-4401-4509-891f-4fd5805983bc","audio_url":"https://audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/2c344f7c-4401-4509-891f-4fd5805983bc/stream.mp3","summary":"Kidder had a system for inventing things in a hurry—and he thought he had a system for handling the results. His method was inhuman—but his agent was human—and dangerous! \"Microcosmic God\" It appeared in the April 1941 issue of \"Astounding Science Fiction\" on pages 46 to 68. ----- \"Microcosmic God\" was recognized as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the Nebula Awards by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1970, and was named as one of the best science fiction stories in polls by \"Analog Science Fiction and Fact\" in 1971, and \"Locus\" in 1999. In 1976, it was also published as a comic book version in issue 3 of \"Starstream: Adventures in Science Fiction,\" by Gold Key Comics. Sturgeon wrote the 1967 \"Star Trek: The Original Series\" episode \"Amok Time,\" which featured the first appearance of 'pon farr,' the Vulcan mating ritual, the Vulcan hand gesture, and the phrase \"Live Long and Prosper.\" ----- Theodore Sturgeon (born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918, New York City – May 8, 1985, Eugene, Oregon) was an American author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror. He wrote more than 120 short stories, 11 novels. Sturgeon also wrote the screenplays for the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes \"Shore Leave\" (1966) and \"Amok Time\" (1967.) Sturgeon also wrote several more Star Trek scripts that were never produced, one of which first introduced the Prime Directive. Sturgeon's science fiction novel More Than Human (1953) won the 1954 International Fantasy Award (for SF and fantasy) as the year's best novel, and the Science Fiction Writers of America ranked \"Baby Is Three\" number five among the \"Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time\" to 1964. Ranked by votes for all of their pre-1965 novellas, Sturgeon was second amon…","meta_description":"Kidder had a system for inventing things in a hurry—and he thought he had a system for handling the results. His method was inhuman—but his agent was huma…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4897,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/golden-age-fiction-7113362/episodes/microcosmic-god-by-theodore-sturgeon/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362/microcosmic-god-by-theodore-sturgeon.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}