Escape Pod 129: Immortal Sin

First appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated, November 2005.

Rated R. It’s our Halloween episode. Expect to be disturbed.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:27 — 31.9MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
Broad Universe
The DrabbleCast

Immortal Sin

by Jennifer Pelland

Alex stumbled from the confessional, through the church, all the way to the curb. He had to get out of there. He couldn’t sit in the house of God anymore. God didn’t want him there. That was abundantly clear. Forty-one years of perfect mass attendance. Six years as an altar boy. A childhood spent praying for his grandmother’s soul to hasten her time in Purgatory. A spotless record of weekly confessions for the past twelve years. He’d even stopped having sex with Alison two years ago after she’d gotten a tubal ligation so he wouldn’t be committing fornication. He’d followed the rules when he could, and asked for forgiveness when he couldn’t. But none of it mattered. He would die unshriven.

Unless he didn’t die.

Escape Pod 128: Union Dues: Send in the Clowns

Escape Pod 128: Union Dues: Send in the Clowns is an Escape Pod original.

Rated PG. Contains superhero violence and organizational politics.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:00 — 28.9MB)

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Union Dues: Send in the Clowns

by Jeffrey R. DeRego

Tina tugs on Kindred’s bullet-tattered red cape. “What kinda tricks do you do?”

Kindred shakes her head as if bewildered by the question. “Tricks?” She glances back at Megaton, who now juggles three Jersey barriers about a hundred meters out in the devastation.

“Let it go Kindred. We’ve been through a lot.”

“Well that’s good. So now you’re free to put on a carnival. Get everyone together and onto the jet now. And I mean now!” Her voice is so loud it draws everyone’s attention away from the show.

Megaton drops the Jersey barriers and the ground shakes.

Kindred lowers herself to one knee beside the little girl. “My trick is special,” she says, “I can make the whole circus disappear. Abracadabra…”

Escape Pod 127: Results

First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, December 2000.

Rated PG. Contains serious themes involving family planning and childbearing.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:33 — 21.0MB)

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Show Notes

Special closing music: “Faithful” by The Shillas.

Results

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

She should have called her folks last night. They paged her three separate times after the test. But she wanted to wait until she had results, until she had something new to say instead of going over the same old arguments. She’s twenty-five, old enough to make her own choices. Old enough to make her own mistakes.

Her parents thought the testing was mistake number one. It certainly was expensive enough, but the doctor said he advised it for any couple about to get married. If they’re genetically incompatible, he’d said, they have the choice of terminating the relationship, planning for an expensive future, or tying tubes — practicing irreversible infertility, as one of her friends called it.

Options. That’s what her parents don’t get. It’s all about options.

And results.

Escape Pod 126: The Sweet, Sad Love Song of Fred and Wilma

First appeared in Science Fiction Age, November 1994.

Rated X. Contains explicit sex of several kinds. Not recommended for younger audiences.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:00 — 30.2MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Books:
A Small and Remarkable Life by Nick DiChario
Magic Feathers: The Mike and Nick Show, by Nick DiChario and Mike Resnick

The Sweet, Sad Love Song of Fred and Wilma

by Nick Dichario and Mike Resnick

So there you have him, Frederick Bannister, tripping across the highways and byways of of life, stubbing a toe here, bruising an elbow there, spilling this, dropping that, and managing to make it to the halfway point without too many major accomplishments or disasters.

And what of Wilma?

She possessed massive storage capacity, and no fourth-level equation, no matter how complex, was beyond her, but whether she was bright or merely well programmed is a moot point. Or at least it was in the beginning.

Escape Pod 125: End Game

First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April 2007.

Rated R. Contains profanity, sexual innuendo, and chess-related violence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:00 — 25.4MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
2007 Podcast & New Media Expo
California Brunch Meetup 9/30/07
Better Late Than Never (Stardust review)

End Game

by Nancy Kress

“What exactly happened in the seventh grade?” I found myself intensely curious, which I covered by staring at the board and making a move.

He told me, still unembarrassed, in exhaustive detail. Then he added, “It should be possible to adjust brain chemicals to eliminate the static. To unclutter the mind. It should!”

“Well,” I said, dropping from insight to my more usual sarcasm, “maybe you’ll do it at Harvard, if you don’t get sidetracked by some weird shit like ballet or model railroads.”

“Checkmate,” Allen said.

Meetup Near LA

I know this is late notice; sorry about that. I’m speaking this weekend at the Podcast Expo in Ontario, California, and Cunning Minx and I have put plans together for a joint brunch meetup. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you there.

The brunch will be SUNDAY, SEPT. 30 AT 11 AM at Marie Callender’s in Ontario, CA:

MARIE CALLENDER’S
2149 E. Convention Way
Ontario, CA 91764

Here’s a Mapquest link for those of you who can use it.

Feel free to spread the word — but if you’re coming, please drop me an e-mail at sfeley@gmail.com so we know how big a table to get. Thanks very much.

This’ll be Fun.

Escape Pod 124: Save Me Plz

First appeared in Realms of Fantasy, October 2007.

Contains sexual innuendo, some mild language, and fantasy violence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:55 — 28.1MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
Geek Fu Action Grip
This Day in Alternate History

Blog of the Week:
Ogre Marco’s LiveJournal
(receives Carnal Knowledge by Charles Hodgson)

Save Me Plz

by David Barr Kirtley

Meg hadn’t heard from Devon in four months, and she realized that she missed him. So on a whim she tossed her sword and scabbard into the trunk of her car and drove over to campus to visit him.

Escape Pod 123: Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane

First appeared in Strange Horizons July 2005.

Rated PG. Contains scenes of graphic violence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:00 — 37.1MB)

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Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane

by Jonathan Sullivan

“Herr Doktor Bohr!” The captain’s cruel smile returned. “What a relief. We’ve been very concerned about you.”

Bohr sighed, looked up at the Gestapo captain with calm resignation, and took his wife’s hand. He started to get up.

“You are mistaken, sir,” Papa said.

I was nineteen years old. I had followed Bohr’s career for half my life, with something bordering on worship. A terrible miracle of circumstance had finally brought me into his presence. But at that moment his life meant nothing next to my own. Niels Bohr was already a prisoner of the Third Reich–nothing could stop that now. Papa’s action could only put us on a boxcar to Theresienstadt.

Escape Pod 122: Transcendence Express

First appeared in Hub Magazine Issue #2.

Rated R. Contains sexual innuendo, some strong language, and an R-rated bit of podcast feedback at the end.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:00 — 24.1MB)

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Show Notes

Referenced Sites:
Steve’s Dragon*Con Report
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
One Laptop Per Child

Blog of the Week:
Hares Rock Lots
(receives Carnal Knowledge by Charles Hodgson)

Transcendence Express

by Jetse de Vries

Unable to keep my distance, I walk up to three classmates interacting with one such a BIKO. The pictures are fuzzy, the colours ill-defined and the reaction time tediously slow. However, the letters appearing are large and easily readable, and after all three kids have been asked to introduce themselves the program equally divides its attention to each of them, making them take turns while the other two can effortlessly follow what’s going on. But man, is it slow. The display makes your eyes water and would have any western whizz kid tuning the screen properties like crazy.

Still, the real wonder is that those pell-mell constructions are doing anything at all. Furthermore, those African kids have nothing to compare them with, so are uncritically happy with what they’ve got. As dinner time closes in Liona has to wrestle most kids away from their new toys and promises that first thing tomorrow they will — after school hours — start making new BIKOs, so that eventually every classmate will have one. The whole class cheers and Liona’s smile doesn’t leave her face for the rest of the evening.

EP at Dragon*Con 2007

Just a quick note for those of you attending Dragon*Con 2007 — here are the places you’ll be able to find Steve during the weekend:

  • Steve will be producing the Daily Dragon Podcast every day of the con. Listen in for convention news, interviews, and music!
  • The panel Fancasting, 2:30 PM Friday in the Jackson/Carter room in the Hilton.
  • The 2nd Annual Parsec Awards, 7 PM Saturday in the Hyatt Regency V ballroom. Escape Pod and Pseudopod are both nominated for excellence in short fiction.
  • The Escape Pod Listener Meet-Up, 1 PM Sunday at the Gordon Biersch Brewpub at 848 Peachtree Street. Everyone is welcome!
  • The panel Podcasting Into the Future, 10 AM Monday in the Jackson/Carter room in the Hilton.

And of course you might just see me around the convention any other time. If you’re there, I hope to see you — and I hope you have a great time!