Hi, I'm Lavar Burton and this is Lavar Burton Reads.

In every episode I handpick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

As we all know, 2020 has been a really challenging year.

But it has been this podcast and the power of story that has really kept me going.

Which is why I'm glad to bring you a special three-part series.

It's going to be a story told in two parts and then an interview with its author, one

of my favorite writers, the Niger American word smith, Nettie Okorafor.

Now I am drawn to Nettie's writing for a lot of reasons.

For her strong female protagonists, for her ability to imagine and draw rich portraits

of what our lives could look like in the future.

For me, literature and especially speculative fiction is a lens and a reflection of how

we view the world and that is certainly what's going on in this story.

Today's story is Mother of Invention and it's a real doozy.

You probably remember when I read a couple of Nettie's other stories, the Baboon War or

the Winds of Harmatan on this podcast, which are both just jaw-dropping in terms of their

world-building but neither of them touched on one of Nettie's other superpowers as a

writer.

Which is grappling with the future and technology.

Today's story was first published in 2018 as part of Future Tense, a partnership with

Slate, New America and Arizona State University that looks at emerging technologies, public

policy and society.

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