This week, we’re playing Wynabego Warrior: The Tale of John Waynnabe (eagle screech), the wacky western epic by Audioblivious Productions. John is a mysterious drifter who drives around the West(ern part of Kentucky) in a souped-up RV, righting wrongs. It’s a rollicking good time!

Later on, I chat with Austin, who co-founded Audioblivious Productions and plays John in the show.

I'm all about the growth mindset: the idea that you can always improve yourself and your work, and to me, nothing embodies that more than JIM ROBBIE AND THE WANDERERS, a constantly-evolving production that puts fun, ingenuity, and optimism where you'd never expect it: the apocalypse.

The world is different, scorched, sunk, and changed, but that doesn't really seem to bother our heroes, a wacky traveling band composed of two humans and a tin-can robot. Their off-kilter adventures take them through an America full of fairy queens, giant bees, and explosion-sports, and through it all, the show's commitment to surfacing minority perspectives, queer identities, and a cheerful attitude shine through.

Stick around after I play the revised first episode of Jim Robbie and the Wanderers, and you'll get to hear an interview with Iri and Laura, two members of the creative team behind the show. Then, I've got a Special Holidaytime Message for y'all.

See you in the New Year! Happy holidays!

This week, we explore HECTOR VS THE FUTURE, a bleakly-funny comedy podcast, recorded live in London by members of the creative team that brought us WOODEN OVERCOATS. Created by comedy writers James Huntrods and James Hamilton, HECTOR VS THE FUTURE is the story of two rival museums: the Uptodateum, the most au courant museum in town, and the Obsoleteum, a rusted hulk of an institution.

We're playing Episode 3 of the show, and after the feature, I'll speak to director Andy Goddard and composer Oðinn Örn Hilmarsson. Enjoy!

This week, Our Fair City’s executive producer, Jeffrey Gardner, joins me for a chat and a deep dive into one of his favorite episodes, the season 4 finale of OFC.

Warning: this episode contains spoilers for, y’know, the first four seasons of Our Fair City. Proceed with caution!

After the feature, Jeffrey and I discuss the piece, the power of myth, embarrassing stories from childhood, and self-care for artists.

We're belatedly celebrating World Audio Drama Day by bringing you two fabulous and spooky productions from 11th Hour--the annual tradition wherein audio dramatists of every stripe come together and make spine-tingling, spur-of-the-moment audio fiction in the month of October.

Producers Eli and Matt are on-hand to explain.

First, you'll hear 11th Hour Northeast's HEAVENLY DECEPTION, a 70s-cult thriller that takes place in a sleepy little beach town.

Then, I briefly interview Steve Schneider, the writer and director of that piece.

Finally, you'll hear 11th Hour Scotland's CARGO, a science-fiction horror piece.

You can hear all of this year's 11th Hour pieces at http://11thhouraudio.com

Host emeritus Fred Greenhalgh is back to try out the sofa and tell us about his new podcast, "The Dark Tome."

What if there was a book that literally opened up doorways to other worlds? Where would it lead, and could you handle what you found on the other side?

Cassie, a wayward teen, is about to find out. One day, after she wraps up community service at a local hospital, she stumbles out of the basement of a spooky bookshop and into a story set on a devil's staircase in a remote Italian village.

The Dark Tome is a new take on the anthology audio fiction podcast, featuring fantastic stories by contemporary authors from across the globe.

This episode features the first half of the chilling modern fable "The Devil on the Staircase" by Joe Hill.

This week, I play Episode One of Gareth Stack's startling psychological thriller, "The Wall in the Mind". It's the tale of a city split down the middle, and a woman whose life split with it. Claire O'Hanlon was a young woman in 1989 --an Irish national on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall--when she was arrested by the Stasi, the East German secret police.

After months of imprisonment and interrogation, Claire was set free, only to find the world had changed; the Wall had come down, and her lover, Emil Reichmann, had disappeared. In the present day, Claire returns to Berlin when she receives a mysterious cassette tape: a recording from her youth.

Following the episode, I'll talk to the writer, director, and producer of "The Wall in the Mind", Gareth Stack. We discuss love, loss, sanity, and the surveillance state. It's a conversation not to be missed!

This week, we're taking a little detour into UNCANNY COUNTY, the brainchild of playwrights Alison Crane and Todd Faulkner, both proud children of Oklahoma.

I play an episode of theirs, "Coulrophobia" (which is about spooky, spooky clowns!), and then the three of us have a little chat. Alison tells me a secret! Todd reveals the travails of creating custom foley for an army of [SPOILERS]! We talk at length about the unique qualities of Oklahoma that inform UNCANNY COUNTY; then Alison reads our horoscopes.

http://uncannycounty.com/

This week, Gabriel Urbina, writer and director of WOLF 359, joins me for a segment we're calling "Going Deep"; together, the two of us investigate one of Gabriel's favorite classic audio dramas, 1948's "The Thing on the Fourble Board" from QUIET, PLEASE. We play the feature, and then Gabriel and I take it apart, piece by piece, trying to unlock precisely what it is that makes "The Thing on the Fourble Board" so damn spooky.

Music credits:
"Danger DigiDoo" is licensed from DJ Stranger Danger.
"Devil's Candy Shop" by Nigel Simmons is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Generic License.
"Poppyseed" by Podington Bear is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.