{"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":"Strange Playfellow, by Isaac Asimov","slug":"strange-playfellow-by-isaac-asimov","published_at":"2026-03-29T22:00:23+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362/strange-playfellow-by-isaac-asimov","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/golden-age-fiction-7113362","url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/43f90e90-8c8e-40b4-9c4c-7d3d9ce904e3/episodes/b4261722-86b6-495e-9a8f-27afa2535732","audio_url":"https://audio3.redcircle.com/episodes/b4261722-86b6-495e-9a8f-27afa2535732/stream.mp3","summary":"Robbie was only a machine, but he was Gloria’s best friend, and she wanted him back. \"Strange Playfellow\" appeared in the September 1940 issue of \"Super Science Stories\" on pages 67 to 77. \"Strange Playfellow\" was Asimov's first robot story, written on June 10, 1939, and initially titled \"Strange Playfellow\" by editor Frederik Pohl. The story was later reprinted under Asimov's preferred title, \"Robbie\", in collections such as \"I, Robot\" (1950), \"The Complete Robot\" (1982), and \"Robot Visions\" (1990). The story also features early elements of Asimov’s later Robot series, including the Three Laws of Robotics. In 2016, the story, titled as \"Robbie\", won the retrospective 1941 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, in recognition of its significance in science fiction. ----- Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the \"Big Three\" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction. Asimov's most famous work is the \"Foundation\" series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for \"Best All-Time Series\" in 1966. His other major series are the \"Galactic Empire\" series and the \"Robot\" series. He also wrote more than 380 short stories, including the social science fiction novelette \"Nightfall\", which in 1964 was voted the best short science fiction story of all time by the Science Fiction Writers of America. ----- If there's a story you'd like me to narrate, or a gen…","meta_description":"Robbie was only a machine, but he was Gloria’s best friend, and she wanted him back. \"Strange Playfellow\" appeared in the September 1940 issue of \"Super S…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2599,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/golden-age-fiction-7113362/episodes/strange-playfellow-by-isaac-asimov/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/strange-playfellow-by-isaac-asimov.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}