Synthesized Sunsets is a podcast about speculative fiction and the future of popular culture. This podcast is tied to the magazine of the same name, so episodes will correspond to the current issue's theme. Your hosts are niche media enthusiasts Kevin and Gordon, who hope to put you on to some hidden gems and goofy ideas. Join us as we talk to members of the speculative fiction community and other future-forward thinkers!
synthesizedsunsets.substack.com (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
This week’s guest is qntm: he is most well known as the author of There Is No Antimemetics Division (https://www.amazon.com/There-No-Antimemetics-Division-Novel/dp/0593983750), a sci-fi horror novel depicting humanity’s battles against malevolent entities which erase all memory of their presence. He also has written a number of other fantastic short pieces of speculative web fiction you can find on his website (https://qntm.org/) or short story collection Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories (https://www.amazon.com/Valuable-Humans-Transit-Other-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BL24DFMW).
In addition to the book itself we discuss how There Is No Antimemetics Division’s (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub) origins as a collection of tales on the collaborative fictional database SCP-Foundation, Kevin’s article (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/p/there-is-no-antimemetics-division) on Antimemetics, and the future of fiction on or about the internet.
Hope you enjoy listening!
TIMESTAMPS:
0:12 - Introduction
1:01 - What is an antimeme?
5:24 - How did There Is No Antimemetics Division come to be?
7:54 - Antimemetics is a book where characters are forced to act without context
9:21 - Similarities between Antimemetics and a time travel story
11:12 - Writing characters who do not have a consistent memory and narrative
13:50 - Very little of what we sense is actually remembered
17:07 - Antimemetics had a lot of momentum
18:15 - Serialization forces you to make something happen in every chapter
18:58 - Does qntm view himself as a web fiction author?
22:48 - Writing a realistic portrayal of the internet
25:08 - When writing internet chatroom fiction don’t use the backspace key
26:08 - Maintaining old versions of stories
28:58 - It is instructive to have access to earlier versions of a work
29:45 - Discussing Kevin’s article “There Is No Antimemetics Division (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/p/there-is-no-antimemetics-division)as a Reminder of the Internet’s Wild Potential (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/p/there-is-no-antimemetics-division)”
30:12 - Fiction is less optimistic about the internet than it used to be
33:16 - There are less websites nowadays
35:58 - The internet is no longer opt-in
38:35 - Conclusion
39:47 - Start of Synthesized Sunsets Backstage
41:15 - Discussing Valuable Humans in Transit Collection
41:47 - These are stories that are clearly written on the internet
43:10 - Discussing “The Difference (https://qntm.org/differenc)”
48:41 - “Cripes does anyone remember google people (https://qntm.org/perso)”
51:57 - Cool to read a story that successfully predicted the future
53:31 - Versioning stories complete with a list of dependencies
57:30 - Discussing Kevin’s recent article “The Brilliance & Excess of (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/p/the-brilliance-and-excess-of-the)The Wandering Inn (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/p/the-brilliance-and-excess-of-the)”
1:00:36 - The genre of The Wandering Inn (https://wanderinginn.com/) is “long”
1:05:36 - When writing a story this long you already have reader buy-in to do whatever you want as an author
1:08:31 - The Wandering Inn tells big world spanning stories from the perspective of individuals
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
24 Mar 2026
XXVII: Subcultural Scenes w/ Cairo Smith
This week’s guest is Cairo Smith (https://substack.com/profile/62837185-cairo-smith): a prolific novelist and filmmaker who edits the literary magazine Futurist Letters (https://open.substack.com/pub/futuristletters) here on Substack. We sat down to talk about his extremely online novel Scenebux (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) and the extremely online subcultures that inspired it.
We also talk about his novels Current Affairs (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) and Komodo (https://mybook.to/cairosmith), as well as his short AI horror film Red Team (https://www.askariproductions.com/red-team). And we couldn’t resist talking about Vibecamp (https://vibe.camp), which makes a brief cameo in Scenebux (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) as “Edgelands”. Check out Cairo on Substack at Futurist Letters (https://open.substack.com/pub/futuristletters) or at Askari Productions (https://www.askariproductions.com), where you can find out all about his upcoming projects.
(This episode was recorded quite a long time ago, so we apologize if anything is out of date.)
TIMESTAMPS
00:00:12 – Intro
00:02:20 – Reinventing old forms of media in the Internet age
00:04:51 – The novelty of seeing tech slop Twitter in a real novel
00:08:36 – Why indie fiction is able to be more up-to-the-minute than trad pub
00:10:30 – ALL THAT WE SEE OR SEEM (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/224004657-all-that-we-see-or-seem) and the irrealism of “realistic” fiction in 2026
00:14:10 – When should you take the L for the art?
00:17:46 – The excitement of independently coming to ideas at the same time as everybody else
00:21:27 – Scenebux (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) and the vibes at Vibecamp (https://vibe.camp)
00:27:47 – Kevin’s anecdote about the “smell guy”
00:31:28 – The importance of subcultural preservation in literature
00:31:56 – Jargon as an antimemetic defense against subcultural dilution
00:32:38 – The short film Red Team (https://www.askariproductions.com/red-team) by Cairo Smith
00:37:36 – The changing role of the writer across eras
00:42:17 – Will anything replace the Hollywood film?
00:46:06 – Conclusion and final recommendations
00:48:42 – Synthesized Sunsets Backstage begins
00:49:26 – Brief synopsis of Komodo (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) and Current Affairs (https://mybook.to/cairosmith)
00:52:35 – Komodo (https://mybook.to/cairosmith) discussion
00:55:13 – Kevin’s thoughts on Scenebux (https://mybook.to/cairosmith)
01:00:25 – What is Vibecamp (https://vibe.camp)?
01:01:40 – Gordon explains why being waterboarded is fun
01:08:56 – Kevin yaps about his upcoming novel
01:14:35 – Conclusion and final recommendations
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
7 Mar 2026
XXVI: Jeopardy Retrospective w/ James Hirsh
This week is a special episode with lawyer and sports podcast host James Hirsh who recently competed against Kevin Kodama (https://substack.com/profile/59672315-kevin-kodama) on Jeopardy! We talked about their experience on the show and sports in Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Hope you enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS:
0:14 - Introduction
0:30 - Was the Jeopardy experience as expected
2:18 - Jeopardy was more fun than expected
4:02 - Anything especially nerve-wracking about Jeopardy
7:05 - Daily Double strategy
13:41 - Lack of sports in SFF
17:41 - Sports in SFF normally involve actual death
21:16 - Sports will have to reckon with continued advances in technology
27:13 - Sports need to be willing to change incrementally
27:40 - Conclusion and Recommendation of “1984 and Beyond” Playboy Magazine Interview (Unfortunately was unable to find this online but it appears in Playboy’s July 1963 issue)
29:35 - Start of Synthesized Sunsets Backstage
31:47 - Kevin got along well with Ken Jennings
34:06 - Lowbrow culture doesn’t really appear in SFF
35:27 - SFF stories, even futurist ones, don’t have modern economies
39:11 - Hockey does a great job of crafting a good watching experience through its rules
41:21 - MMA is more strategic than might be expected
45:26 - Recommendation of “Heretics (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/470)” by GK Chesterton
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe (https://synthesizedsunsets.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
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