Pantheon Season 2 & More

Hello!

I hope your new year is going as well as possible.

I spent much of January working on an essay about how to create meaningful art in the age of AI, and I’m in the process of turning it into a talk as well. Writing the essay got me to research the history of cinema (another medium heavily mediated by technology) and to think about how we put ourselves into our creations and, in that process, learn more about (and are surprised by) ourselves. I’ll certainly announce it when the essay is published.

I have two pieces of news for you.

Pantheon Season 2 Coming to Netflix on 2/21

I’ll get right to the point.

Netflix will exclusively release the previously unreleased yet completed second season of the critically acclaimed adult animated series Pantheon in all countries beginning in February 2025.

More specifically, February 21, 2025.

This will be the first time that most viewers will have a chance to see this show based on six of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories.

I love what Craig and the team have done with season 2. If you enjoyed season 1, you’ll definitely want to find out how the story ends.

Picks and Shovels Event with Cory Doctorow

I’ll be at the Brookline Booksmith on February 14, 2025, to talk with Cory Doctorow about his latest novel, Picks and Shovels.

I’ve admired Cory’s work as a novelist and activist for decades. He is one of the most influential figures in my journey as an artist and thinker. I’m thrilled to be in conversation with him, and this is the perfect book for the occasion.

The novel is the origin story of Martin Hench, the “two-fisted, scambusting forensic accountant” who stars in Cory’s bestselling techno-crime-thriller series.

The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant--what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money--but for now he's an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted.

When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who've founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he's on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women found themselves exhausted by the predatory business practices of Fidelity Computing and set out to beat them at their own game, making better computers and driving Fidelity Computing out of business. But this optimistic startup, fueled by young love and California-style burritos, has no idea the depth of the evil they're seeking to unroot or the risks they run.

Martin Hench is basically a hero made for me. As a technologist, I 100% share his enthusiasm for computers, the engines of modern magic. As a former tax lawyer, I, like he, know more than most people about the sort of shenanigans our oligarchs engage in order to get subsidies from the rest of the country. I had a big grin on my face the whole time I was reading this book.

If you’re anywhere near Boston, I hope to see you there to celebrate the launch with Cory.