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Podcast: Traveling to 'Berlin Station' and 'Americatown' with the Creators

We spoke with Brad Winters and Larry Cohen about their new spy TV show and sci-fi graphic novel.
Image: EPIX

What do you do when your dirtiest secrets are revealed to the world? That's one of the questions at the heart of Berlin Station, a new TV series from the cable network EPIX, which explores the fallout of leaks of classified information from several CIA bureaus around the globe, especially the titular one in Germany.

On the latest episode of Radio Motherboard, we spoke with two of the show's writers, Brad Winters and Larry Cohen, about how to craft a riveting, realistic show about spies and spycraft in the era of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Wikileaks.

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Winters and Cohen are also the writers of a new, completely separate sci-fi graphic novel series called Americatown, which explores a very different question: What happens if Americans become a massive immigrant population, illegally entering other countries in search of work?

Americatown is set in the proverbial "five minutes in the future," where technology such as holograms, augmented reality, and ultra-skinny transparent smartphones are commonplace, at least among wealthier parts of society. We spoke to the writing duo about their own use of technology and why immigration remains such a controversial issue in the United States, a country quite literally built by immigrants.

You can stream the premiere of Berlin Station and the second episode for free on EPIX. We've also embedded the free YouTube version of the first episode below.

With permission from Cohen, we've reprinted the first issue of Americatown below. You can purchase the first collected volume of the series online or in your local comic shop.

Americatown Issue #1 by MotherboardTV on Scribd

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