This Podcast is intended as Entertainment for Grownups and to spread awareness of 826 LA, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for children ages 6 to 18. For a full schedule of 826 LA's events and programs, including the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, visit 826.org.

And now here is the host of the Dead Authors Podcast, Mr. H.G. Wells. G. Welles. G. G. Welles, ladies and gentlemen, author and time traveler H.G. Wells here.

Pleased to present a brand new chapter of the Dead Authors podcast with a special guest Dr. Carl Sagan.

I suppose I should start introducing myself as author, time-traveler, and podcaster, but really

what's the use? The truth is, any halfwit possessed of vocal cords and a spare hour

can be a podcaster, no matter how untalented, non-creative, and over-rated he may be.

But enough about Jules Verne. Except to note that despite the shockingly low bar for entry, he apparently can't even get it together to start a podcast of his own. What's the matter, Vern? Still dithering about at the turn of the century? The last century?

More likely, he's just been twiddling his filthy thumbs, waiting for me to start this

podcast so he can steal half the credit for it.

Oh, how I would love to mash his face into a fan.

At any rate, I have a fantastic story to share with you before we present our latest installment.

If you've read my book The Time Machine and of course you have.

You know that my protagonist travels 800,000 years into the future, and then eventually, another 30 million years, spoiler alarm,

to the very end of the world.

But you know that because you've read it, at least the Cliff's notes.

So having already envisioned the end of life on this planet,

I thought, why not take a jaunt in the other direction and see how it all began? After all, that's the stuff

of so many of your modern comic book and superhero films and other than... all of you

you modern comic book and superhero films and other than nudity,

what better than an origin story to put as they say bums in seats?

As those who have read my book, all of you, know the end of the world is a cold and desolate place, but the beginning of the world, well, it was as crowded as a shopping mall playing unwitting hosts to a gaggle of unrelated flash mobs.

With the time machine hidden safely away in a nearby thicket, I began to approach this primitive

...