Runalong The Short Shelves - Psuedopod

Helloooo!

And catch up continues with an look at the September podcasts that Pseudopod provided and I had lots of interesting reactions

First up was PseudoPod, episode 992, Chattering Spines by Mike Wyant Jr. Narrated by Dave Robison, hosted by Alasdair Stuart - this plunges us into an apocalypse and we as the reader have to slowly work out what’s going on. A really smart piece of storytelling where our wonderful main character given real grit and a sense of a working class man trying to keep his head above water thanks to Dave Robison’s narration. We think the threat is human in form and then Wyant Jr delivers a shocking and heartbreaking reveal. This packs a lot of punches and works very well

Episode 993, Home, Laced in Web, by Cameron Shuttle, narrated by Rae Lundberg, hosted by Alasdair Stuart - this sadly just didn’t grab me it’s got a weird western feeling that for me I more bounced off - not quite my thing.

Episode 994, for September 19th, 2025. The Bride, by Shaenon K. Garrity, narrated by Alethea Kontis - now this story is much more my cup of tea. This was a fascinating story about a young woman who a very strange not quite a doctor redirects to be his bride. We have dark themes of sexual assault, control but the story makes us look at this. Who really is the monster here? The links to Frankenstein are played well and then in the final act we realise our allegedly unfeeling narrator is very much getting a quiet revenge on the world that was indifferent to her fate. Brilliant storytelling and hits all the notes well.

And finally Episode 995 had Data Ghost, by Martha Wells, narrated by Rae Lundberg - a SF themed tale with some very effective parts of horror ad a cre arrive on a strange deserted space station. Wells really knows how to crank up the tension as our cast enter this strange silent area but we also get our main character and her awkward relationship to the Ai chip in her head. This story explores control and cooperation and could be seen to along to some of Murderbot’s themes too. It has a welcome warm ending

Happy listening!