Stories are cultural artifacts, whether it's epics on clay tablets or big-budget films. Those artifacts can tell us a lot about the time and culture that made them if we take a few minutes to shake them and see what falls out. To that end, an independent scholar goes rogue from academic respectability, wanders out into the wild, and talks to the trees and rocks about science fiction and its place in historical study.

Grab your hiking pack and get your nerd-on, we've got a lot to talk about.