Hugo History

← Hugo History11 dec 2025 · 1 u 08 min

Starship Troopers

Starship Troopers11 dec 20251 u 08 min

Join us as we discuss the sixth Hugo Award winner: Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers!

Host: Christine D. Baker, a historian who lives in Vancouver, BC. You can find her at @klaxoncomms.com‬ on Bluesky or follow what she's reading at her website: https://klaxoncomms.com/reading/

This month's guest is journalist and long-time Doctor Who podcaster, Warren Frey, @freyburg.bsky.social, from Radio Free Skaro.

From about 4:18 to about 27:30, Christine is recapping the book, which has A LOT of spoilers. The rest of the episode isn't spoiler free, but that section goes through the plot in detail.

Some things mentioned in the episode:

Leo Laporte MacBreak  1960 Hugo nominees Proceedings for the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies Theodore Cogswell Anthony Boucher, founder of SFF Poul Anderson Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll  John Scalzi's Old Man's War Paul Verhoeven Joe Haldeman The Forever War  Jo Walton on the 1960 Hugos: https://reactormag.com/hugo-nominees-1960/ New intro music by Breakz Studios!

Come find us on patreon for more info: https://www.patreon.com/cw/hugohistory/posts (Sign up for the free tier and you'll still get extra details, links to references, and images of primary sources!)