Episode 686-With Daniel H. Wilson

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Daniel H. Wilson, author of Hole in the Sky.

About Hole in the Sky: On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.”

Daniel H. Wilson’s Hole in the Sky is a riveting thriller in the most creative tradition of extraterrestrial fiction. Drawing on Wilson’s unique background as both a threat forecaster for the United States Air Force and a Cherokee Nation citizen, this propulsive novel asks probing questions about nonhuman intelligence, the Western mindset, and humans’ understanding of reality.

About Daniel H. Wilson: Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and the multiple New York Times bestselling author of techno-thrillers such as Robopocalypse, The Clockwork Dynasty, and The Andromeda Evolution (an authorized sequel to the Crichton classic). He earned a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Masters degrees in Machine Learning and Robotics. His next novel, Hole in the Sky, is a story of Native First Contact, releasing October 7th, 2025. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon.

This week’s picks:

• Daniel: Die Hard: The Musical
• Tracy: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow
• Patrick: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Steam)

Links:

• Daniel H. Wilson on Facebook
• Tracy Townsend on BluSky
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2025 Patrick Hester

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