Exploited Robots and a Commitment to Community Populate 2060’s San Francisco in Annalee Newitz’s ‘Automatic Noodle’

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As both a science journalist and a sci-fi writer, Annalee Newitz thinks a lot about what our technology-saturated future might hold for us. Newitz’s new novella, “Automatic Noodle,” is set in 2060’s postwar San Francisco after California has seceded from the U.S. In the midst of an exploitative dystopia, a crew of robots opens a noodle shop with a sweet and resilient commitment to community, excellent food and rebuilding. We talk about what Newitz sees in our AI future, and how the values and community bonds that have long made San Francisco great may fare then, and now. Guests: Annalee Newitz, science journalist, science fiction writer and co-host of the podcast 'Our Opinions are Correct' - their previous book is 'Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union. Give your savings account the love it deserves.
0:07.9	When you keep your money with Star One, you keep more of your money. Star One Credit Union in your best interest.
0:15.1	Ah, Benny's parents, thanks for coming.
0:16.8	I, uh, so Benny has really blossomed this term.
0:20.1	You're telling me, he outgrew his bike. We sold it, on eBay.
0:24.1	Oh, that's not quite what I meant.
0:25.6	It's free to sell on there?
0:26.8	Free to sell?
0:28.0	Easy too. Sold Benny's bike, your guitar, my jacket.
0:31.3	You sold my guitar?
0:34.4	Shall we talk about Benny?
0:36.6	When it's this easy to sell for free,
0:38.8	you can't help but say you when it's eBay.
0:41.2	Things people love.
0:42.6	T's and C's Apply, Excluses vehicles.
0:45.9	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:02.0	Well, folks, it's been done now.
1:04.1	The most San Francisco book that has been or could ever have been written has been written.
1:09.0	It's called Automatic Noodle by Annalie Newitz, and it
1:12.0	is delightfully sweetly, painfully about this place we call home. The plot simple, four robots
1:18.1	open a noodle shop in a jaggedly dystopian San Francisco in which California has won a war
1:23.8	of secession and climate change pounds on the city. But what comes across is that
	...

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