We encounter the back cover of the Good Doctor’s first actual book as we wrap up The Pebble in the Sky with chapters 14 through 22.

“Podcast Along With Me The Best is Yet to Be.”

If you’ve been around for a while you probably remember our discussions of the “Great Man Theory of History” vs the “Bottom-Up” paradigm. In other words, do remarkable individuals with unique characteristics write history or is it driven by powerful historical forces that generate great leaders when they are needed? It’s a false dichotomy, but a useful one. In the Foundation Universe the bottom-up theory must dominate otherwise psychohistory could not work the way it does.

But Joseph Schwartz is just the right Jewish tailor with a special kind of trick memory who is accidentally thrust to an exact moment in Earth’s future. Once there he is brought to the only scientist on Earth doing a particular type of brain research. He then survives a dangerous experiment that gives him an unlikely set of psychic powers which he uses to save the lives of nearly every human in the galaxy.

Put those numbers into your Prime Radiant and crunch them!

This probably delayed the creation of psychohistory by hundreds of years. “I just don’t understand it, Hari, the math says everyone in the galaxy should be dead right now.”

You’ll want to hear this! Let’s GO!

For some additional content, check out Of Pebbles and Pulps exclusively at StarsEndPodcast.com!

Here’s your chance to join the discussion about Pebble in the Sky, Chapters 7 through 13! Also, we’ll open up the “Stars End Mailbag” and talk about Star Trek: Discovery!

“There is Only One Reason Why a Synapsifier Can Possibly Be Used – To Improve a Podcast”

A lot of us who are past the point where we would be culled by the 60 take supplements to, theoretically, help improve our memory. Just the other day I couldn’t remember the title of the Star Trek episode “Return to Tomorrow.” That was no fun. I think most of us would like to be at least a little smarter and maybe some of what would come from a device like the synapsifier could be helpful.

I’ll pass on the parts about being lost in the department store, wandering about the automat, or being driven mad by the thoughts of strangers though. Those don’t sound fun either. “Lost in the Supermarket” by the Clash might sum up all of these potential side effects.

It would though, improve a podcast, to a point. Remembering what we want to say would help quite a bit. And having perfect recall would save a lot of note-taking. But telepathic communications would ruin things even with state-of-the-art recording equipment unless an hour of silence would be an improvement.

In the meantime, we’ll muddle through and bring you the best podcast possible with regular human brains and imperfect memory! Let’s GO!

We begin our conversation about Pebble in the Sky with Chapters 1 through 6.

“Between One Podcast and the Next.”

Isaac Asimov is famously prolific; if you know one thing about the Great and Glorious Az it might be that he wrote more than 500 books. Asimov-Reviews.net puts the number at 514 counting the Good Doctor’s dissertation. Asimov.Fandom.com puts the number at a much more modest 506.

Why is this relevant? Well, Pebble in the Sky is Asimov Book #001; it’s the first thing he wrote that got stuck between its own two covers (unless you count his dissertation, which he did not). It’s also only his first novel even though he had already been writing professionally for eleven years. Most of I, Robot and the Foundation Trilogy were in the rearview mirror; those quickly became books 002, 004, 006, and 009. Pebble in the Sky is also a lot of fun!

Don’t miss it as we delve into this significant moment in Asenion history! Let’s GO!