I recently recorded a wide-ranging conversation with venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson on the weird, even spooky topic of quantum computing. Steve is a long-serving board member at D-Wave Systems?—?the world's oldest and largest quantum computing company. He and I go back a ways. We overlapped as undergrads at Stanford, then worked together in our first post-college jobs at Bain & Company. Our paths have crossed and re-crossed ever since, in and around the tech scene.

To access our interview at your leisure, either:

Type "After On" into your podcast app's search field, or . . .

Click the "play" button at the top of this page.

Click here, then click the blue "View on iTunes" button in the upper left corner of the page (requires iTunes, of course),

Quantum computing intrigues me as a writer because near-future science fiction rests on the conceit that next year could differ vastly from today. This is why alien invasions are so popular. Sure, it's unlikely one will happen this afternoon. But if one does, there's no limit to how weird shit could get by hockey season.