Talking Monsters with John Scalzi

Our guest this episode is New York Times bestselling science fiction author and Hugo award winner John Scalzi. Scalzi's work includes the Old Man's War series, the Lock In universe, the Interdependency series, and stand-alone novels like *Redshirts*, *The Kaiju Preservation Society*, *Starter Villain*, and *When the Moon Hits Your Eye*. His nonfiction work has included *The Rough Guide to the Universe* and *Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded*. His blog, Whatever, having started in 1998 and still usually updated daily, makes it one of the longest-running personal sites on the Web. His newest novel, Monsters of Ohio, is set in Darke County, Ohio, where Scalzi has lived with his family since 2001. The book will be released on November 3, 2026. The conversation ranged over numerous topics, including living in rural Ohio, the intersection of humor and horror, the process of adapting books to the screen, the business and craft of writing, getting the science in science fiction right, the status of Pluto as a planet, and much more. Featured image is an excerpt of the cover of *Monsters of Ohio* by artist Michael Koelsch. In This Episode - Whatever (John Scalzi's official website) - Books and Other Projects by John Scalzi (from *Whatever*) - John Scalzi's namesake asteroid: 52692 Johnscalzi - "John Michael Scalzi (b. 1969) is an American science fiction writer. His humorous and heartfelt works speak to the deeply personal impacts of global social issues, encouraging laughter at the absurdity of existence and deep thought about affecting change in our world." (from its entry in the Small-Body Database)