“Ascendants author Don Schechter on Sci-Fi, the Afterlife, AI, and How Stories Rehearse Tomorrow and Decode Today’s Anxieties.”
Don Schechter is the author of Ascendants (March 2026, GFB), an award-recognized science fiction technothriller about a future where proof of an afterlife collides with corporate power, scientific ambition, authoritarianism, and the collapse of religious ideology. Ascendants was named a 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Science Fiction, a 2026 Pacific Book Awards Finalist in Science Fiction, received five stars from Readers’ Favorite, and is an international Amazon best seller.
Don is also the founder and CEO of Charles River Media, a boston based production company. He is a filmmaker (recently produced the thriller The Arborist) and is a professor of the practice at Tufts University in the Film and Media Studies Program. He was the director for TEDxCambridge, TEDxNewEngland, and the upcoming TEDxNewEngland Debate. He is also the co-host of the sci-fi podcast No Win Scenario.
As a guest, Don can speak about Ascendants as well as science fiction as a rehearsal for tomorrow: a way to explore the technologies, fears, power structures, and moral dilemmas already taking shape today. Ascendants has been praised by Ray Kurzweil as a “provocative thought experiment” and by Star Trek science advisor Erin Macdonald as a “mirror to our current society and values.”
Ascendants is a science fiction techno-thriller written by Don Schechter. Hailed as a must-read novel that blends fast action with deep moral complexity.
Don Schechter the founder and CEO of Charles River Media, Creator of The Ascendants, and a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University.
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