Runalong The Short Shelves - Pseudopod

Hellooo!

A trip into the land of podcasts today with a great of episodes served up by the Pseudopod - it’s a big foot! It’s also a great listen

Ep 983 Grave Worms by Molly Tanzer. Narrated by The Word Whore and Preston Buttons. Hosted by Kat Day

I really liked this weird horror tale. It’s in dialogue with Robert Chamber’s King In Yellow - which I’ve not read despite that I just found it quite a fascinating story. It focused on a confident Dosha a business woman who finds herself coming up against a series of overconfident men and living and working in a city where things are getting stranger and more on edge. Lots of symbolisms, a sense of menace and yet here it’s freeing the woman who knows her own mind who keeps her head above water while others don’t. Very stylishly told and keeps you wondering where it is going.

Ep984 - Flash On The Borderlands LXXIV

Hosted by Alasdair Stuart we have four shorter takes all doing very smart things

The Talented Beetle By (and narrated by) Joanne M Harris is a short tale of insects and excrement that as we quickly look at the subtext is all about the dangers of AI theft. Smart and deliciously pointed in its criticism.

My Heart is a Snow Globe by Archita Mittra narrated by Tatiana Grey

A wonderfully spooky original tale as a mother’s talks of her fears about her children. However we soon work out not all is as it seems. The horror here comes out of love and a desperation to make the world safe and that makes it all the more chilling when we see the steps taken to do that.

Exposed, Every Inch Visible. Written and narrated by Kat Day”

An excellent slice of the strange as our narrator prepares to sing to her audience. There is a sense of underlying menace but we are not sure where it is coming from and then the audience get on the receiving end - when we eventually find out the song title it’s perfect for the story. Art is giving up part of yourself no matter the cost and hoping the audience feel it too - how this story does that is really well spun.

The One Who Lives In The Mound by A. L. Munson narrated by Samantha Loney

Horror stories are often about consequences and here it’s a child’s own selfish but yet understandable anger at being left in a place they do not want to live that creates huge issues for the community. A local deity is not pleased and a cost is required. Our narrator is one of the community’s children who had to act and it’s a take of costs and yet the horror is that there is no real mercy here.

Ep 985, Think of Me, by Lindsay King-Miller, narrated by Kitty Sarkozy, hosted by Alasdair Stuart

This is a hard story which I do need to call out covers transphobia and suicide but is also about grief, love and moving on. Our character is ghost trapped near her lover who is now to be married again. Neither though can quite move on. It’s going into the personal how everything is slightly different from sec to the way they talk to one another and the lies each are telling. This story really goes into that emotional cost and the toil a traumatic event of death leaves (for the living and the dead). There is a fascinating outro by Stuart looking at this subject matter and being stuck in a moment of relationships and pain which is very powerful and rung true with me too.

Ep986 The louder I call, The faster it Runs, by E. Catherine Tobler, narrated by Essie Batz, hosted by Alasdair Stuart

i do love stories with older protagonists and this story where our making character gets called into a missing person case on a lake really gives you a feel for this boatwoman who knows her land and community but likes the expanse of water. Then Tobler pulls back and makes us look again at ye story and it’s then a pivot of survival, generational conflict and I find myself taking a side I did not expect. Really enjoyable