The Women Make Science Podcast launched in June 2020 and is a women-presented and women-made podcast about science fiction across different storytelling platforms. Hosted by Dr Amy C. Chambers and Dr Lyle Skains, this women-led and made podcast specialises in women’s (including trans women) and non-binary creators’ entries into science fiction media.
From sea creatures to fan culture to robot boyfriends, we aim to both examine and uplift women and non-binary created science fiction media whilst deconstructing the discriminatory, patriarchal culture surrounding science fiction and creative industries more broadly.
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SEASON TWO [2025-2026]
Episode 2×3: Strange Days at 30
In this episode, we’re talking about Kathryn Bigelow’s underrated science fiction thriller Strange Days (1995), which was originally released on 13 October 1995 in the US and worldwide in February 1996. In part a response to the police brutality of the 1992 LA Rebellion (Rodney King Riots), Strange Days is a complex film about memory, addiction, and the desire to escape reality…
Download from: Podbean.
Episode 2×2: ReproFutures
In this episode, we are joined by speculative fiction scholar Dr Anna McFarlane (University of Glasgow), and we’ll be talking about recent women-directed SF with a focus on ReproFutures: imagined near futures of pregnancy, gestation, childbirth and child rearing. We’re focusing on recent films, The Pod Generation, written and directed by Sophie Barthes (who also made Cold Souls), and Fleur Fortuné’s The Assessment.
Download from: Podbean.
Episode 2×1: Style over [The Substance]
We’re back! Talking Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) and Ninagawa Mika’s Helter Skelter (2012) – re/introducing the project, talking about the films as science fiction and their approach to the male/female gaze, bodies and women in the film industry.
Download from: Podbean.
SEASON ONE [2020-2022]
Episode 1×10: Robot Boyfriends
(feat. Scott Midson)
Returning from ANOTHER long hiatus, this episode features the brilliant Dr Scott Midson from The University of Manchester whose work focusses on theology and posthumanism. We talk about the two most recent films we’ve ticked off the #WomenMakeSF list: Making Mr Right (Seidelman, 1987) starring John Malkovich as ‘Mr Right’/Ulysses and I’m Your Man (Schrader, 2021) starring Dan Stevens as ‘your perfect man’/Tom. So it’s #TeamRobotMalkovich (rather unfairly) versus #TeamRobotStevens as we discuss the representation of love, robots, and AI futures presented through these romcom science fictions.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1X9: Interview with Arati Kadav talking about Cargo (2020)
In this episode we welcome Indian filmmaker Arati Kadav whose Hindi-language SF Cargo was our more recent #WomenMakeSF films and is notably the first Indian SF genre film directed by a woman. We are so excited to have the writer and director here to answer our questions! Cargo combines references to lots of key SF texts and a retro-futuristic analog aesthetic, with a distinctly Indian narrative that places reincarnation in a science fictional setting. We think about why women are often led to producing original low-budget content rather than also being allowed into the realms of franchise, and why women deserve their own science fictions. Women read, write, watch, play, and make science fiction – why can’t we shake the stereotype?
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×8: Trans Representation (with Cheryl Morgan)
This week’s episode is our first look at the work of the Wachowski sisters – Lilly and Lana – who are the most prolific SF creators on the WMSF list with their work expanding across several platforms. We watched Jupiter Ascending (Wachowskis) – our first screening since September – and are avid fans of Sense8. We are joined this week by our SPECIAL GUEST science fiction critic, writer, editor, and publisher Cheryl Morgan who has some fascinating insights into their work and trans representation across different forms of SF. After a run of fairly serious space and science/fiction films we wanted to watch some pure space opera – but this is a Wachowski storyworld so it was never going to be that simple…
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×7: Women in Space
This week we are talking about women in space. How have space movies imagined women’s participation in space exploration and travel? Our cultural imaginaries have not always made space for women in space – despite the early SF positioning of women as part of humanity’s journey to the stars, much of contemporary SF see women as support for the male mastery of technologies and machines. We talk about #WomenMakeSF movies Aniara , a Swedish SF directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, Claire Denis’ English language debut High Life alongside key examples like Gravity, Interstellar, and Alien.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×6: Finishing Schools of Fear
Content warning: discussions of sexual assault, rape culture and violence against women.
This week we are looking at the films Paradise Hills and Level 16 that are both set at dystopian finishing schools where being the perfect girl is the goal. These young women are trapped in the trappings of femininity and sacrificed in the pursuit of an apparent notion of female perfection. We discuss this in relation to a recent TIME article that argues that women’s genre filmmaking is “about women’s deepest anxieties”.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×5: Fan Grrrling
(feat. Dr Kate Heffner)
We’re taking a break from focussing on #WomenMakeSF and taking an episode to think about women in SF fandoms and talk about our fan experiences. We are joined by science fiction scholar and historian of science Katie Heffner who is an expert on fanzines and the history and position of these artefacts in US/UK fan practice. Katie tells us about women’s use of self-publishing to engage with fans, SF, and science. Sharing with joy, not with judgement.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×4: Ladies of the Lakes
The sea merges myth and science – both a source of deep fear (and thus myth) and massive rewards (and thus science). In SF the oceans can be a space of imagined futures, a frontier, and a dangerous yet bountiful environment. We noticed a trend in the women directed movies we have been watching that focus around the theme of the sea and water, so this episode explores the sea in women made SF and the mythic connection between science, the sea, and female experiences.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×3: Stop Canceling our Shows!
We take a break from film to gab about our favourite women-created SF TV (which, given how short the list is, is all of them): Emergence, Vagrant Queen, Sense8, Killjoys!, Westworld, Altered Carbon, Roswell New Mexico, iZombie, Russian Doll, Jessica Jones, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×2: Defining SF is Hard
What is SF? Why “SF” and not “scifi”? In this episode we follow up on the ideas from the opening episode as we debate what really qualifies as science fiction. We also discuss our first three watch party movies: Welcome II the Terrordome (dir. Ngozi Onwurah, 1993), Tank Girl (dir. Rachel Talalay, 1995), and Évolution (dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015).
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Episode 1×1: Intro to Women Make SF
In our inaugural episode, we introduce you to us as your hosts, and the project itself: where it came from, what it is, and where we expect it to go.
Intro/Outro music: Inspire Glitches (2017) by Yuriy Shishlov (CC-BY-NC-SA)
Your hosts:
Dr Amy Chambers is a senior lecturer and researcher in Screen Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University. Amy specialises in examining the intersections between science, gender, and entertainment media.
Dr Lyle Skains is a senior lecturer and researcher at Bournemouth University. Known for her award-winning research in Science Communication, Lyle is also a creative practitioner and film enthusiast.
