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Auditory Anthology

Keith Conrad / Darren Marlar

Embark on a journey through time and imagination with 'Auditory Anthology,' a weekly podcast bringing to life the most captivating science fiction stories. Each episode, award-winning voice-artist and host of Weird Darkness Darren Marlar breathes life into a unique blend of classic and modern tales, ranging from time-honored masterpieces to groundbreaking works by emerging authors. Curated and produced by Keith Conrad.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Play
  • 36 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 18 min
  • English
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • Yesterday · 15 min

    Breaker’s Yard & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Seven: The Team

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Our companion short story, “Breaker’s Yard,” follows Marcus Webb — soon to join Mercer’s team — during a routine compliance job aboard a decommissioned Navy ship being torn apart for scrap. What he encounters alone in her stripped, powerless corridors is impossible to explain, and impossible to shake. It’s another quiet thread of the unexplained, and our first real look at the man who’s about to become part of something much bigger. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Thursday · 23 min

    Membership Drive by Murray F. Yaco

    An alien named Keeter makes an unplanned emergency landing near the Jefferson Memorial and treats the entire assembled US government with breezy, condescending indifference — right up until he needs a favor. What follows is a wry first-contact comedy where Earth’s eager officials keep giving away more than they realize, chasing the promise of a “test” for interstellar federation membership that may not be quite what it seems. Murray F. Yaco was born in Queens, New York in 1927, served in the Army in Japan during World War II, and later worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam and Kuwait. He wrote only a handful of science fiction stories in the mid-20th century, with “Membership Drive” appearing in Amazing Stories in July 1960. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • Tuesday · 9 min

    The Unobserved Observer by F. Davies-Mouncher

    Late for school and dreading the stares of her classmates, Olivia gets an anxiety she never asked for when she suddenly realizes no one around her can see or hear her at all. What starts as a terrifying morning quickly turns into something else entirely, as Olivia begins to understand exactly what she can get away with when nobody’s watching. F. Davies-Mouncher delivers a sharp coming-of-age story about visibility, power, and the temptation of getting away with it. We love bringing you stories from listeners just like F. Davies-Mouncher — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 13 · 15 min

    They Can’t Stop All of Us & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Six: The Ask

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Our companion short story, “They Can’t Stop All of Us,” follows Bennett before all of this began — covering the infamous “Storm Area 51” gathering as a journalist, and catching something in the Nevada night sky that her camera can barely explain, let alone she can. It’s a quiet, personal glimpse at the woman who’s about to become central to Mercer’s plan, and one more thread in this world’s stranger undercurrent. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 10 · 26 min

    Glow Worm by Harlan Ellison

    After a nuclear war wipes out all life on Earth, Seligman — an experimental soldier engineered to survive the unsurvivable — finds himself the planet’s sole occupant, marked forever by a strange green glow that clings to his skin. Alone and searching for any remaining trace of humanity among the stars, he begins to realize that what was done to his body may have cost him something far more permanent than he first understood. Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) was one of the most prolific and celebrated writers in science fiction, winning eight Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Stoker Awards over a career that spanned television, film, and prose. “Glow Worm” was first published in the February 1956 issue of Infinity Science Fiction, early in a career that would go on to include work on The Outer Limits, Star Trek, and the acclaimed anthology series Dangerous Visions. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 8 · 9 min

    Gravit by K.C. Ozden

    Ash has spent three days convincing a skeptical partner to search a stretch of empty ocean for a shipwreck he swears is carrying something impossible: cars made of a rare element the world thinks was mined to extinction decades ago. When their meter finally comes alive, it turns out Ash’s “story” might be worth more than either of them imagined. K.C. Ozden delivers a tight, tension-filled treasure hunt with a sharp sci-fi twist. We love bringing you stories from listeners just like K.C. — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 6 · 17 min

    North Sea Retrieval & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Five: The Pitch

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Our companion short story, “North Sea Retrieval,” pulls Mercer, Novak, and a salvage specialist onto a listing, half-sunken supply ship to recover a mysterious sealed case — and into a locked compartment that shouldn’t be making any sound at all. It’s another quiet thread of the unexplained running underneath this world, tangled up with a job that’s already dangerous enough on its own. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 3 · 22 min

    Home Is The Spaceman by George O. Smith

    After becoming the first human to travel faster than light and vanishing for eighteen months on what was supposed to be a twelve-hour mission, test pilot Billy Enright finally returns to Earth — only to find himself hauled before a Board of Inquiry demanding to know exactly what took him so long. His explanation is one of the great punchlines in classic pulp sci-fi, and it turns a “missing persons” story into something far funnier and stranger. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • September 1 · 8 min

    Pulling the Plug by Tony Tidwell

    When aliens who secretly engineered human evolution announce they’re shutting the whole experiment down, world leaders and scientists gather at the UN with nothing left to offer but excuses. Tony Tidwell delivers a sharp, darkly funny fable about squandered potential — and what happens when the universe finally decides humanity has run out of chances. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 30 · 22 min

    X Minus One: Early Model

    Unfortunately we were not able to put together our normal Sunday episode with Chapter Five of Maiden Voyage, our audiobook for paid subscribers on Substack. We’ll have that for you next week, but in the meantime to tide you over, here’s one of my favorite episodes of X Minus One, the series that inspired our podcast. It’s “Early Model,” an episode that originally aired July 11, 1957, based on the short story of the same name by Robert Sheckley If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 27 · 25 min

    Welcome to Paradise by Allyn Donnelson

    A spot welder’s late-night mistake at a Chicago factory sends him somewhere no one could have expected — and pulls him into a top-secret discovery so significant, the government isn’t sure it should ever come to light. Told through a series of increasingly earnest letters to the President, “Welcome to Paradise” is a warm, funny slice of 1950s pulp with real heart underneath the gags. Allyn Donnelson is known today for a single published science fiction story, “Welcome to Paradise,” which appeared in the September 1954 issue of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy. Beyond that, virtually nothing is known about the author — but it’s a story that’s stuck around and found new fans for a reason. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 25 · 17 min

    The Luddite Contingency by J.T. Shannon

    Long after humanity has vanished, an automated global manufacturing system keeps grinding on — building, shipping, and consuming with no one left to use any of it. But when a single broken machine exposes a gap nobody programmed for, the system’s last-resort protocol sets off a chain reaction with nothing left to stop it. J.T. Shannon delivers a darkly funny, quietly devastating post-human parable about automation, purpose, and what happens when a machine keeps doing its job long after the reason for it is gone. We love bringing you stories from listeners just like J.T. — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it. Submit your story at submissions.soundconceptmedia.com and you could be featured right here on Auditory Anthology. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 23 · 11 min

    Wake Up & Maiden Voyage – Chapter Four: The Opportunity

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Become a paid subscriber at https://auditoryanthology.substack.com/ to hear Maiden Voyage Our companion short story, “Wake Up,” follows nine-year-old Elena as a warning arrives in the middle of the night from someone who shouldn’t be able to reach her at all. It’s a quiet, personal story — and the earliest thread yet in the strange, unexplained current running underneath this world. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 20 · 18 min

    The Outsider by H.P. Lovecraft

    Raised alone in an ancient, decaying castle with no memory of family or the outside world, a lonely figure finally attempts what seems impossible: climbing the one ruined tower tall enough to reach the sky above the trees. What waits at the top — and in the strange, moonlit world beyond — builds toward one of Lovecraft’s most haunting and often-cited revelations. H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer whose atmospheric horror and cosmic dread reshaped the genre, influencing generations of writers who followed. “The Outsider,” first published in Weird Tales in 1926, remains one of his most anthologized and beloved stories. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 18 · 16 min

    Coffee Grinder Love by Siobhan Gallahger

    After a disastrous divorce sparked by her fatally toxic coffee, a desperate woman navigates interspecies dating and Martian travel to prove her domestic worth—and finally stumbles upon an insectoid suitor who appreciates a decent cup of tea. Siobhan Gallagher is a turnip queen, currently residing on the side of a mountain in Colorado. Her fiction has appeared in over thirty publications, including On Spec, PodCastle, Abyss & Apex, and Cosmic Horror Monthly. This story was inspired by an early 1960’s Folgers commercial (it can be found on Youtube), where the husband declares his wife ‘s coffee to be “criminal” and “murder”. Coffee Grinder Love was originally published in Cosmic Horror Monthly, May 2025. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 16 · 13 min

    The Man at the Table & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Three: No Way In

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Our companion short story, “The Man at the Table,” follows a different operative entirely as he breaks into an empty house chasing a routine surveillance lead — and finds something waiting for him that no training could have prepared him for. It’s a quieter, stranger thread in this world, and one that’s far from finished. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 13 · 20 min

    Pink Grass Planet by Sam Merwin Jr.

    After five years stationed on the alien world of Lri-gTu-riANa, Ricardo Webb finally makes it home to Earth, his fiancée, and everything familiar he’s been dreaming about — only to discover that “home” doesn’t feel quite the way he remembers it. What follows is a sharp, funny look at culture shock turned inside out, asking what happens when the place you left behind changes just as much as you did. Samuel Kimball Merwin Jr. (1910–1996) was an American mystery writer, editor, and science fiction author best known in the genre for his editorial work — he served as editor of Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Fantastic Universe, and was credited with raising the standard of published science fiction toward a more adult readership. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 11 · 9 min

    I’ve Heard That Pluto is Nice This Time of Year by Lyle Talbot

    As Earth’s atmosphere runs out, Clark and Alice have minutes to choose which planet they’ll spend the rest of their lives on — but Clark’s endless second-guessing about tobacco, cave crawlers, and the size of the locals may cost them both a ticket out. Lyle Talbot delivers a story that’s equal parts dark comedy and heartbreak, about how hard it is to let go of home even when home is disappearing around you. We love bringing you stories from writers just like Lyle — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it. Submit your story at submissions.soundconceptmedia.com and you could be featured right here on Auditory Anthology. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 9 · 11 min

    Potential & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Two

    On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order. Become a paid subscriber at https://auditoryanthology.substack.com/ to hear Maiden Voyage Our companion short story, “Potential,” pulls back the curtain on what Mercer’s target is actually protecting. A young researcher named Wei joins a windowless, secretive facility to study a mysterious ancient artifact under the enigmatic Dr. Liang — and quickly discovers that some of what it does defies explanation entirely. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • August 6 · 20 min

    I'll Kill You Tomorrow by Helen Huber

    A night-shift nurse walks into the hospital’s basket room to find something impossible: thirty newborns, all in complete, unnatural silence. What she discovers waiting behind one set of very old eyes sets off a race against time before the nursery’s littlest patients grow into something no one could stop. “I’ll Kill You Tomorrow” first appeared in If Worlds of Science Fiction in November 1953. Helen Huber remains something of a mystery in pulp SF history. This story appears to be one of the few (if not the only) piece of her published work, though readers have long wished she’d left behind more. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode completely ad-free! Curator: Keith Conrad linktr.ee/keithrconrad Narrator: Darren Marlar https://darrenmarlar.com/ Other shows hosted by Darren: Weird Darkness: https://weirddarkness.com/ Paranormality Magazine: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/paranormalitymag Micro Terrors: Scary Stories for Kids: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/microterrors Retro Radio – Old Time Radio In The Dark: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/retroradio Church of the Undead: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/churchoftheundead Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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