The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast Celebrates its 200th Episode

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast is celebrating its 200th episode with a very special broadcast of an L. Ron Hubbard story. During the Writers of the Future Volume 38 workshop week, a live performance of L. Ron Hubbard’s “The Professor Was a Thief” was presented to the Contest winners, judges, and special guests. This performance, followed by a Q&A with the actors who discuss the story, how to write good dialog, and the value of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest to aspiring writers and artists.

“The Professor Was a Thief” by L. Ron Hubbard and published in the February 1940 edition of Astounding Science Fiction, is one of the stories included as a bonus in Writers of the Future Volume 38. R.F. Daley (Game Night), Travis Oates (Piglet in Winnie the Pooh), and Roger Scott (Women of Desire) rounded out the hour discussing storytelling from an actors perspective. Interestingly enough, this was hardly the first time this story has been performed in the radio theatre format.

The popular radio show Dimension X performed a full-cast adaptation of the story in November of 1950. Dimension X adapted science fiction from all the popular authors of the day: Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut and L. Ron Hubbard.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast launched in 2019 and currently has 200 published episodes and over 36 million downloads in over 110 countries. The podcast is a three-time finalist in the Podcast Awards: The People’s Choice, a contest with over five million listeners voting, once in the Education and twice in the Storyteller/Drama categories.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast focuses on providing an education of necessary skills and hard-won business acumen while enhancing the ability to tell or illustrate a good story. It is dedicated to providing writing tips and art advice from Contest judges, winners, and industry professionals, as well as needed inspiration to the aspiring writer or artist to persevere. Each writer and artist also explains their own personal journey to success. Between all the show’s guests, there is a story that everyone can relate to and be inspired by. The podcast is based on the internationally acclaimed Writers of the Future Contest created by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983.

The writing and art podcast is one of several tools made available for aspiring writers and artists by the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests. For nearly four decades—and over 900 winning writers and artists—L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests have discovered and nurtured a steady stream of new talent who have changed the face of science fiction and fantasy. With entrants from over 175 countries, these Contests have been providing “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged,” as per the mission statement by L. Ron Hubbard in the first volume.

In addition to Contest winners, guests of the podcast have included such industry giants as Craig Alanson (Expeditionary Force series), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Echo Chernik (Art Nouveau artist), Tom Doherty (Publisher of Tor), Bob Eggleton (winner of 11 Chesley Awards), Larry Elmore (Dragonlance artist), Hugh Howey (Silo), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides), Rob Prior (Spawn and Heavy Metal artist), A.G. Riddle (The Atlantis Gene), Robert J. Sawyer (WWW Trilogy), Dean Wesley Smith (Seeders Universe), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn), Toni Weisskopf (Publisher of Baen Books), and Tom Wood (Tom Wood Fantasy Art).

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Podcast is available at bit.ly/SoundCloudWOTF as well as on all major platforms.

The website, writersofthefuture.com, is the hub for the Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contests and includes the history of each awards