Hillsboro’s Seth Heasley Heads To Scotland For HUGO Awards

Hillsboro is a very cosmopolitan town with so many interesting people.  Local Podcaster Seth Heasley is one of them, and the Herald recently received information about Seth and his amazing life.  He, like so many people, has his hands on a lot of things.  In his case, it is his voice, too!  This local Podcaster from Hillsboro has a popular Podcast called Hugos There.  He mostly interviews guests from around the world, but occasionally other Oregonians.  This year he is a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast.  The Hugo Awards are the most prestigious award in science fiction, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) each year. This year, WorldCon is in Glasgow, Scotland, and Seth is planning to attend and hopes to bring home the win! He notably placed second last year.

What is Hugos There about?

Hugos There is a podcast in which Seth Heasley (rando on the internet) reads award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy books, one guest at a time.
Hugos There has podcasts covering all the winners of the Hugo and Retro Hugo Awards for Best Novel, with episodes featuring more than seventy unique guests ranging from veteran podcasters to journalists to teachers to scientists to average, everyday SFF fans.

Along with the Main Feed (Hugo-based) episodes, Seth started doing Comfort Reads episodes during the early days of the pandemic, allowing guests to come on and share what kind of books bring them comfort in difficult times. There are also occasional episodes in which Seth
just finds an interesting person (sometimes just a previous guest) and interviews them about a topic they care about.

Since finishing the list of Hugo and Retro Hugo winners, Seth has expanded the list of books to cover in Hugos There 2.0 to include basically any and all SFF award-winning (or nominated) works, as well as a bunch of SFF and non-SFF stuff he just wants to cover. Another new kind of episode in Hugos There 2.0 are Zoomed Out episodes, where Seth and his guest talk more generally about an author or subgenre of speculative fiction.

MORE ABOUT Seth Heasley

Seth is the one-man show behind Hugos There. He’s a middle-aged reader of many genres who decided to become better read in the science fiction and fantasy genres (though mostly science fiction). When not reading books for Hugos There, Seth often reads books for his other SF podcast, Take Me To Your Reader. On the occasions when he can do a bit of extracurricular reading, he tries to read as broadly as possible. He once described his reading habits as “wherever the whims may take me,” though in recent years, it’s been mostly podcast-curricular reading

Fun facts about Seth:

• Born and raised in Alaska, he now lives in Oregon and enjoys hiking with his wife and two dogs, Ender (RIP, died in 2023) and Bean.
• He is an avid (though mediocre) disc golfer, heading out on nearly daily “frolf” outings with his friends as a way to get outdoors and blow off some steam. (And often to lose a disc.)
• He and his friends have a friendly competition about who can play frolf in the most states and countries. Seth has played 11 U.S. States and 3 foreign countries.
• He works in the tech sector in the data center / high performance computing industry.
• He spent 10 years as a member of an acapella jazz Christmas caroling troupe in the Portland area.
• He’s the primary cook at home, and one of his proudest creations was recreating the amazing Lemon Tart with Italian Meringue that he and his wife had in Israel (he’ll gladly share the recipe if not the tart itself).

Contact info:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hugospodcast
Website: https://hugospodcast.com
Email: feedback@hugospodcast.com

The Herald wishes Seth the very best and we hope to see photos and updates from Glasgow!