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Bill DeSmedt | Scribl

Singularity

A Science Fiction , Fiction and Arts podcast

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About the show

What if the cataclysmic Tunguska explosion of 1908 was caused, not by a meteor or a comet, but by a microscopic black hole? What if that fantastic object - smaller than an atom, older than the stars, heavier than a mountain - is still down there, orbiting deep inside the earth, slowly consuming the planet? What if only a rookie government agent and an uncannily-insightful consultant stand between a renegade Russian billionaire and his plans to use the black hole to change history - or end it? What if it's all true? For an alternative view of the Tunguska event and to explore the science behind Singularity, visit the Vurdalak Conjecture website. Accolades Winner of the Gold Medal for Science Fiction in Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Awards Winner of the Independent Publishers Association's Ippy prize for Best Fantasy/Science Fiction novel of 2004 "Singularity is a swift, gripping novel with a goose-pimple mix of scary science and near-future action. An excellent debut from Bill DeSmedt - and I'll be looking forward to his next one!" - Greg Bear, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author "DeSmedt veers an action-packed thriller into perilous realms of black hole physics. The combination of adrenaline and intellect sizzles." - David Brin, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author

Newest episodes

Announcing Doctor Jack's Soapbox Seminars!

3 min

Singularity's over, but the science behind it goes on. Join everybody's favorite cosmologist as he delves deeper into the Tunguska Event right here on Podiobooks.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 47: The Last Word

1 hr 9 min

The Great Singularity Q and A Episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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All episodes

Announcing Doctor Jack's Soapbox Seminars!

3 min

Singularity's over, but the science behind it goes on. Join everybody's favorite cosmologist as he delves deeper into the Tunguska Event right here on Podiobooks.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 47: The Last Word

1 hr 9 min

The Great Singularity Q and A Episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 45: Mopping Up

11 min

All over but the debriefing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 43: Le Mot Juste

12 min

This is the way the world ends ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 42: A Stitch in Time

26 min

In which the Omega Sequence lives up to its name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 41: The Singularity

26 min

If you could gaze into a naked singularity, what would you see? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 40: Project Report

36 min

Origins of the Antipode Project revealed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 39: Descent

19 min

The voyage down to Antipode station is interrupted by an unexpected intruder, and an unanticipated revelation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 38: Welcome Back

12 min

Knox regains consciousness only to find he's back aboard Rusalka, this time with a score to settle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 37: Dry Run

14 min

In which the future repays its debts to the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 36: Big Bang

23 min

The Battle of Weathertop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 35: Closed Timelike Curve

18 min

What DOES the Shadow KGB want with a naked singularity? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 34: Spin Doctor

22 min

Global causality violation??? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 33: Hackers

25 min

So intent is Mycroft upon breaching the barricades of CROM's communications security that he fails to notice he's being hacked himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 32: Doomsday Scenario

28 min

What's the worst that could happen? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 30: Midnight to Dawn

12 min

Warning: SMUT ALERT. (Bad author! Bad!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 29: Discovery

30 min

Grishin has discovered Jon and Marianna's whereabouts once again -- but who is it that has discovered Jack Adler's? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 28: Flight Plans

16 min

All revved up and no place to go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 27: Harm's Way

22 min

Jon and Marianna land in New York, to find Arkady Grishin's welcoming committee lying in wait. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 26: Bell's Inequality

17 min

At Marianna's urging, Knox dredges up the past -- and, with it, the drug-induced, quantum mechanics-inspired origins of his strange talent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 25: West with the Night

17 min

Marianna still can't seem to come to terms with Knox's weird pattern-matching ability. But, then, neither can Knox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 23: Armageddon

34 min

August 3rd, 10:47 p.m. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 22: Departures

36 min

Their innocents-abroad cover story shredding fast, Knox and Marianna count themselves lucky to catch an unscheduled chopper flight from Rusalka back to the Azores -- until they see that Yuri's coming along for the ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 21: Raise the Titanic

23 min

Down in Rusalka's secret lab, chief scientist Galina Postrelnikova makes final preparations for the culmination of Grishin's mysterious Antipode Project -- tonight! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 20: Alive!

17 min

Cosmological reveries presage a wholly unanticipated return from the dead ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 19: Party Animals

40 min

A spur-of-the-moment indiscretion is instantly regretted. A post mortem is conducted in the cold, gray light of dawn. And a midnight dinner in Rusalka's sumptuous banquet hall features a curious bit of scientific legerdemain and an even more curious toast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 18: Night Moves

45 min

Marianna raids Rusalka's clandestine lab and discovers riddles wrapped in enigmas: a strange undersea base and an even stranger wall-safe. Meanwhile Knox, running interference for her up on bridge deck, inadvertently learns more from a casual conversation than he was supposed to -- if only he could figure out what it was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 17: Buy-In

25 min

It's back to business, as Marianna drags a reluctant Knox into a raid on Rusalka's secret lab, while back in DC her boss is planning an assault on a whole different order of magnitude. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 16: Idyll

35 min

A day aboard the megayacht Rusalka offers every manner of indulgence, from romance and frivolity, to remembrance and regret. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 15: Patterns

36 min

Seeking the secret harbored at Rusalka's heart -- with paper, pencil, and force majeur. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 14: Hull Number Forty-Seven

47 min

Knox and Marianna's tour of the megayacht Rusalka unexpectedly hands them the key they need to break the Grishin case wide open. As far as Knox can see it's mission accomplished, but Marianna's only getting started, and all the while Rusalka is setting sail ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 13: Puttin' on the Ritz

28 min

Knox attends the Kennedy Center gala intent upon winding up his involvement in the Grishin investigation as quickly and painlessly as possible, only to find that Marianna has something quite different in mind. Meanwhile, the target of that investigation, Arkady Grishin himself, retires to GEI's fabulous megayacht Rusalka, there to summon up a computer-generated chronogram of recent Russian history, and drink an ominous toast to its might-have-beens ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 12: The Illusion of Choice

22 min

Marianna manages to extricate Knox from the clutches of Russian State Security in the nick of time. But the rescue comes with strings attached ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 11: The Beast of Evil Heart

17 min

Jack Adler's academic adversaries seek to quash his research via bureaucratic maneuvering. GEI hitman Yuri, however, favors the direct approach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 10: A Visit to the Smithsonian

16 min

Jonathan Knox wanders the halls of the museum and the corridors of his own memories, pondering whether to help CROM, so lost in thought that he fails to notice he's got company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 9: Ghost

13 min

Plagued by insomnia, Jack Adler wrestles late into the night with balky equipment and his own doubts -- which means he is there to witness it when his primordial black hole goes flashing across his screens. Is it the greatest discovery of all time, or the greatest danger the world has ever faced? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 8: Press Gang

18 min

When Marianna fails at sweettalking Knox into joining CROM's anti-Grishin taskforce, her boss Pete Aristos puts the pressure on, only to have that backfire too -- big time! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 7: Mythologies

23 min

Guided by an aged shaman's chants, Jack Adler reconstructs the aftermath of the Tunguska Event, and the evidence for a tiny black hole as the culprit. And all the while, Grishin's hired killer Yuri is closing in on his next target -- Jack himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 6: Our Ship Comes In

37 min

Knox learns more than he ever wanted to know about CROM's secret inner workings -- and about how his own checkered past fits into their undercover investigation of Grishin Enterprises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 5: Interview with the Shaman

36 min

As Jonathan Knox makes some unusual preparations for his morning meeting, on the far side of the planet Jack Adler toils to the top of a sacred mountain, to a meeting with an ancient holy man who can teach him the secret of the Tunguska Event and, just possibly, the meaning of his own life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 4: Reacquisition

26 min

Marianna drags Jon Knox into her investigation against his will, and gets more than she bargained for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 3: Schwarzschild Radius

56 min

Marianna pins her hopes of building a case against Grishin on a man with a past, an unconventional analyst for the Archon Consulting Group named Jonathan Knox. Meanwhile, half a world away, maverick cosmologist Jack Adler tries prove that the true cause of the Tunguska Event was - a submicroscopic black hole! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 2: Resource Recovery

40 min

Arkady Grishin, billionaire chairman of Grishin Enterprises International, has a secret agenda of his own where the Tunguska Event is concerned - a secret his minions are only too willing to kill for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chapter 1: Proliferation Threat

25 min

New York City, present day. Marianna Bonaventure, rookie field agent for the supersecret agency known as CROM, tries to nail the shadowy Grishin Enterprises International conglomerate for trafficking in weapons of mass destruction research, and nearly pays for it with her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prologue - The Tunguska Event

22 min

June 30th, 1908, a forty-megaton explosion obliterates a swath of ancient Siberian forest half the size of the state of Rhode Island, yet leaves behind not a trace of the object that caused it. What was it? A meteor? A comet? An alien spacecraft in reactor overload? — Or something stranger still? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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