Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was trained as a chemist, but he achieved true immortality as a science fiction author. He wrote on every conceivable topic, including nonfiction works on the history of science and technology, The Bible, Shakespeare...His first big splash in sci-fi was the short story Nightfall, published when Asimov was only 21. You can buy your copy here:Nightfall and other stories https://amzn.to/38M5Y1pIf you’d like to try Asimov’s nonfiction, maybe start with The Roving Mind, a collection of 62 essays on a variety of topics including creationism, pseudoscience, censorship, population, philosophy of science, transportation, computers and corporations of the future, and astronomy: https://amzn.to/3EswBqTMy first book is here! How to Be a Great Student ebook: https://amzn.to/2Lh3XSP Paperback: https://amzn.to/3t5jeH3Or read for free with Kindle Unlimited: https://amzn.to/3atr8TJvisit our YouTube channel: youtube.com/socraticaand our website socratica.comIf you find our work at Socratica valuable, please consider becoming our Patron on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/socraticaIf you would prefer to make a one-time donation, you can also useSocratica Paypal https://www.paypal.me/socraticaWe also accept Bitcoin! Our address is: bc1qda47tgfyk67lxa7yqn8y5m02hjcglghsd5c58nTRANSCRIPTWelcome Everybody! To Socratica Reads. My name is Kimberly Hatch Harrison, and I’m the co-founder of Socratica. You can find our beautiful math, science and programming videos on YouTube and on our website, socratica.com. Our aim at Socratica is to create the education of the future. So it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that our work has often been inspired by the literature of the future: science fiction. Today I’m looking back at one of the earliest works of one of my favourite authors: Isaac Asimov. Asimov famously wrote or edited over 500 books. To say he is an inspiration to me as a writer is a weaksauce understatement!Asimov was a chemist by training, but you probably know him best as a science fiction author—although he only wrote a handful of sci-fi novels, including Foundation. Mostly he wrote short stories, and we’re going to talk about his first short story success today—a famous little tale called Nightfall. But, full disclosure—I really love Isaac Asimov for his nonfiction. There’s hardly a topic that I’ve studied that Asimov didn’t thoroughly digest and write about in the clearest of language. The other day, I watched an interview with Isaac Asimov and Dick Cavett from 1989, and somewhere in the middle, I couldn’t help but say out loud—what a treat it was to listen to such a clear, good-humored thinker. I love him. I just LOVE him. I’m so grateful he left so much of himself behind for us. The thing about science fiction is that it’s this wonderful combination—it’s both a peek into someone’s pure imagination and their problem-solving brain. I mean, I KNOW that Asimov had a firm grasp on previously solved scientific problems, and he was just a GENIUS at explaining things, especially the history of science and the story behind how much of technology emerged. But his works of fiction are also very precious to me because I get to see how this incredible teacher works out a hypothetical. I get to see Asimov doing thought experiments. It’s a real treat. Nightfall reminds me in its setup of the very first science fiction story I can remember reading: All Summer in a Day, by Ray Bradbury. I talked about it in my first episode of this podcast. In that story, set on Venus,...