How do you write science fiction when technology is moving so quickly? John and Craig welcome back journalist and screenwriter Max Read to look at the trickiness of predicting the future, how our imagined futures can affect our reality, and ways that writers can protect their work from becoming dated before it’s even released.
We also follow up on the new Dogma manifesto, words we don’t have in English, questioning ChatGPT, and answer listener questions on hosting your scripts on your website, offline writing software and how to find the time to goof around.
In our bonus segment for premium members, Max walks us through his Letterboxd lists and proposes a new, niche film genre.
Links:
- Max Read’s newsletter Read Max and his Letterboxd
- Dogma 25 Explodes at Cannes by Annika Pham, Marta Balaga for Variety
- Maze by Christopher Manson
- Blue Prince
- Graham’s source for Egypt’s GDP and John’s sources
- Neal Stephenson
- William Gibson
- Red Rooms
- This Strange Mutation Explains the Mystifying Color of Orange Cats by Gayoung Lee for Scientific American
- The Simulation is Failing. by Jessica Mazin
- r/OneOrangeBraincell
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Craig Mazin on Instagram
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by Spencer Lackey (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt with help from Sam Shapson. It’s edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.
UPDATE 6-17-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here.