Episode 649-With Strange Horizon’s Kat Kourbeti and Michael Ireland

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Kat Kourbeti and Michael Ireland from Strange Horizons to talk about the new podcast project celebrating 25 years of the magazine: S.H.@25.

S.H.@25 Links:

• Arkady Martine’s SH@25 episode, featuring her soundscaped poem
• The John Scalzi interview
• Ootheca by Mário Coelho (with the cockroaches for teeth)
• Alhaji Jerry by ML Kejera (with musical interludes by the author)
• Kat’s favourite author narration she’s produced (Rasharelle Little by Isaana Skeete, who now volunteers with SH):

About Strange Horizons: Strange Horizons is a weekly magazine of and about speculative fiction. We publish fiction, poetry, reviews, essays, interviews, roundtable discussions, and art.

About Kat Kourbeti: Kat is a queer Greek/Serbian SFF writer, film critic, and podcaster based in London, UK. Her (very gay) novel-in-progress about a secret society of Swedish superheroes was shortlisted for the London Writers Awards in 2019, and she was a juror for the Best Non-Fiction category in the 2020 British Fantasy Awards. She organises Spectrum, the largest critique group for SFF writers in the UK, and her day job is in theatre. You can find her on all social media as @darthjuno.

About Michael Ireland: Michael Ireland is the Podcast Producer for Strange Horizons. Based near Glasgow, Scotland, he is also the co-creator and director of the acclaimed audio drama The Secret of St Kilda. As a disabled creator, he has also worked in television, short films and documentaries. He only has four cats at present and would be easily convinced to adopt more. @mickallister on Bluesky and @MichaelStKilda on other Social Media.

Links:

• Kat Kourbeti on BluSky
• Michael Ireland on BluSky
• Tracy Townsend on BluSky
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2025 Patrick Hester

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