transarchivist

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so ive been listening to eskew

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Just smoked some shit that lets me step in the same river twice

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I’m so sorry if you’ve already answered this elsewhere, but I have been wondering this for over two years: why did Hayward make up his fake wife?

This provokes a lot of speculation and hilarity but honestly, it always seemed clear enough to me that Hayward is trying to pull a Columbo and get his suspects to open up to him by playing the part of the henpecked, pathetic husband - but that he keeps getting lost in the weeds of his character and inadvertently blurting out his genuine self-hatred and repressed desire to escape from his life.

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i recently listened to I am in Eskew, and it's driving me insane. out of curiosity, when exactly did Allegra get overtaken by Eskew? i totally get it if you don't want to reveal this, that sort of ambiguity and uncertainty lends itself to the true horror of the series.

Bug would have you believe it was after David became homeless. but on the plane, "Allegra" states that their first date was at the ballet. But we the listeners know this isn't true, that they actually met over dinner some time before that. Is that just Eskews own lack of awareness? David did say they were trying not to attract the cities attention, and nothing the city does truly focuses on them until the actual ballet. but, the chance that Allegra truly could have become a construct of the city far before any of us realized paints so much more of the series in a completely different light. It's probably the former option, but either way it still drives me up the wall

I really like the latter possibility as a theory - the idea that the person pleading with David to genuinely connect with her before she's swallowed up by the horror and becomes just another false consciousness is already a false consciousness is cool as hell - but yeah, I'm afraid I do not know and I believe it is crucial to our experience of the story that we do not know.

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list of horror/horror adjacent podcasts I would recommend. This list will not focus on the big ones because you all know about tma and silt verses

the wrong station--my favorite horror anthology by far. The stories range from sf to modern horror to historical horror & fantasy to a sort of omniscient narrator/fairy tale fantasy tone. DOES know people have other jobs besides office jobs DOES know women are people and DOES get weird and gross enough on occasion to go toe to toe with the meat-themed tma eps

Palimpsest s1--ghost story that will get you in the heart. Loved the slow build up and creeping sense of dread. Sort of a Shirley jackson-esque vibe and incorporates some gothic themes

A voice from darkness--eventually commits the common horror podcast sin of being the lead-up to a book or a patreon-exclusive story, but I really enjoyed many of the more standalone episodes. What I like is that it dives into the horror of small town america & American hucksters. would rec the Traveling Salesman eps in particular

Down--I will NEVER get tired of doomed sea or space explorations and this is just that, but well-produced and with a great grasp of narrative pacing. The monster was also cool as fuck

Janus descending--speaking of doomed explorations, can't rec this one enough if you want to actually be scared. This one is TENSE

Video palace--just a fun mystery with a creepy cult. Hits that wikipedia deep dive spot and I remember this one being genuinely tense as well. The only downside is the house-of-leaves-style heterosexuality. but if you can tune that out it's good fun

Among the stars and bones--more of a psychological thriller than true horror but the horror vibes are there, especially in early episodes. It's a basic abandoned facility plot but gets more into hard science than most stories of this genre so if you like that, I'd recommend it

Knifepoint horror--personally I really enjoy the bare-bones production and the more meandering, naturalistic style of narration. A horror anthology with stories that often deal with themes of isolation. Your mileage may vary, but when this one hits it hits

I have some others on the list that I'd love to get to later this summer so tune in for more podcast opinions when I'm not talking about lesbian necromancers I guess. We all cope with the alectopause in our own ways. I may make a list of my favorite nonfiction podcasts as well

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PROPAGANDA

Alexander Hilbert:

Big on human experimentation, does not care if the humans in question consent. Genuinely believes his experimentation is for the greater good of humanity but doesn't really care about the human suffering he causes on the way there. He starts out as a silly mad scientist stereotype but gets a lot of emotional depth as the series goes on.

This man went into a spaceship to experiment on his fellow crew members. Then after the first bunch died he did it AGAIN. He went BACK TO SPACE to experiment with a weird disease thing.

Carlos Robles:

Perfect hair. Gay. We love to see it

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Not a shipper, but a one drunken handjob in 2006 truther

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Voice actors of tumblr! The time has come - we, the makers of The Silt Verses and I Am In Eskew, are assembling a cast of lovely and talented people to work on our next weird fiction / horror / fantasy audiodrama, and we'd really love it if you auditioned to join us.

Details and roles are all in the link above, but this is a paid opportunity. Auditions are set to close on 14th July. Hope to hear from you.

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And while we've got your attention - we commissioned the amazingly talented @rosenkranz-does-things to create a piece of artwork for Our Wars Have Ended, our next audiodrama after The Silt Verses, to help us set the tone.

It's gorgeous, it's awful, we love it. Really excited to share more in due course as we stumble frantically in the general direction of production!

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i think of that joke in a81 that parodies like, npr podcasts. every time i listen to an npr podcast. they really do sound like that

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season one faulkner

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love being able to clock podcast characters at 20 paces. see some random art immediately go hmm getting doug eiffel vibes from this and guess what! doug

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Ties that bind

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wolf 359 is a podcast with very fun dialogue.

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mayday mayday mayday all ships at sea

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im so glad i go to this website this is the only place where other people remember mid-2010’s fiction podcasts

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who was the mean asshole in a81 again. cynthia? sometimes i think about her and how she was probably intended as a "love to hate" character but it's not even fun to hate her. she just sucks and it's not even interesting