Speculative Sandbox

About Speculative Sandbox

(Speculative Sandbox is currently on break while Vickie writes a book on deadline!) Join author Vickie Lan to unpack the tropes that make fiction fun! Speculative Sandbox is for entertainment purposes only. This is a volunteer-run program. Opinions expressed by individuals on the podcast are their own. Cover image photographed by J.D. Fitzgerald. Episode cover images and zoom backgrounds feature royalty-free images from Canva and Pexels. Audio provided by Anchor and Transistor.fm

Publisher

Vickie Lan

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Mar 2022

Latest episode

19 May 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 130 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   19 May 2026TRANSCRIPT

   86. Genre-blending in fiction

   Author Leslie Baird discusses genre-blending in fiction, her debut novel "Salomé," and author marketing strategies in this interview.

2. 

   2 Mar 2026

   85. Forecasting through fiction

   Scientists make technological advancements...science fiction writers explore what happens when those technologies go wrong. But what happens when the fiction inspires the science? Science fiction author Michael Bland joins the podcast to talk about the disappearing line between fiction and reality and the predictions he's made that have since come true. The video version of this episode can be found on Spotify and YouTube. Speculative Sandbox is for entertainment purposes only. This is a volunteer-run program. Opinions expressed by individuals on the podcast are their own.

3. 

   2 Feb 2026

   84. Black Swan Events

   How well does fiction capture devastating levels of mass emergencies? Guest author Helen Hynson Vettori, a former EMT/paramedic and retired senior medical intelligence analyst at the Department of Homeland Security and author of the Black Swan scifi disaster thriller series, joins Vickie Lan to answer this question. The video version of this episode can be found on Spotify and YouTube. Speculative Sandbox is for entertainment purposes only. This is a volunteer-run program. Opinions expressed by individuals on the podcast are their own.

Inside a recent episode

86. Genre-blending in fiction

Published 19 May 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] I think that's a great question. And that is also a question for marketing, because there is a huge market for retellings. And I actually just had a reviewer who wrote like readers that come to this thinking it's going to be a beat by beat retelling might be disappointed. And I couldn't agree more. But, you know, hopefully they realize at some point that it's not that I try to use the word reimagining because It diverges so much from the story. I think if you wanted to map it onto the original story, it's going to have a lot of the same structure because most stories do, you know. All right, shifting gears a little bit, because your book is coming out in middle of May. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

6,361

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

25 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

23 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 62 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

74

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

51

Contact Speculative Sandbox

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.