May 31, 2025 • 92 mins
Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!
Humans: can't live with them...can't kill them all because you need their TV shows. Martha Wells's The Murderbot Diaries series of novels and novellas stars the titular "bot", a well-armed cyborg who has hacked its restraining bolt, but will be scrapped on sight if its freedom is discovered. The award-winning series is an thrilling interstellar cyberromp, but what deeper things does it have to say about security, capital, identity, and life for the leashed?
In this episode, we discuss Murderbot's explosion onto the literary scene, the series's uniquely unreliable protagonist, the panoptic dystopia that's becoming all too familiar, living as a robotic underclass, how Wells's own fandom influenced the series, emotional antagonists, and the importance of seeing yourself in media even if you're a killer robot. We also talk about building your own Voight-Kampff test, reading hot and fresh sci-fi, "being a paladin", keeping your robot slaves down, telempathy and reverse cyborgs, visualizing leaking, explaining your fandom to your humans, honoring the social contract with a robot, spying for "work", millennial robots, Metabot, and the importance of data security in your universe!
RIP to Peter David, Writer of Stuff. Please consider supporting Peter's wife Kathleen at this time:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-peter-david
The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/
Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope
MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/wB9gWyUU8M
Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com
Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope
Humans: can't live with them...can't kill them all because you need their TV shows. Martha Wells's The Murderbot Diaries series of novels and novellas stars the titular "bot", a well-armed cyborg who has hacked its restraining bolt, but will be scrapped on sight if its freedom is discovered. The award-winning series is an thrilling interstellar cyberromp, but what deeper things does it have to say about security, capital, identity, and life for the leashed?
In this episode, we discuss Murderbot's explosion onto the literary scene, the series's uniquely unreliable protagonist, the panoptic dystopia that's becoming all too familiar, living as a robotic underclass, how Wells's own fandom influenced the series, emotional antagonists, and the importance of seeing yourself in media even if you're a killer robot. We also talk about building your own Voight-Kampff test, reading hot and fresh sci-fi, "being a paladin", keeping your robot slaves down, telempathy and reverse cyborgs, visualizing leaking, explaining your fandom to your humans, honoring the social contract with a robot, spying for "work", millennial robots, Metabot, and the importance of data security in your universe!
RIP to Peter David, Writer of Stuff. Please consider supporting Peter's wife Kathleen at this time:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-peter-david
The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/
Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope
MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/wB9gWyUU8M
Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com
Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope
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