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Auditory Anthology
Scientific Tourism by T.G.
A crew of alien scientists quietly observing Earth from behind one of our solar system’s moons is more interested in the World Cup and ornamental flowers than filing their reports — until one of them notices something about our planet that no other world they’ve studied can match. T.G. delivers a warm, funny slice of first-contact fiction that finds the wonder in something most of us never think twice about.
We love bringing you stories from listeners just like T.G. — 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/
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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
More episodes
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Dead Reckoning & Maiden Voyage - Chapter 11: The Extraction
15:10|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, “Dead Reckoning,” follows a young navigator through an impossible pre-dawn watch — a fog radar can’t see, a GPS that jumps sixty-three miles with no explanation, and a clock that loses eleven minutes it can’t account for. It’s a story about trusting the fundamentals when the instruments stop making sense, and it belongs to the man who, years later, takes a posting aboard Atlas.
Pogo Planet by Martin Pearson
22:45|Self-proclaimed “man of destiny” Ajax Calkins sets out alone to claim a newly discovered planet for himself — only to crash-land, commandeer a wildly uncontrollable mechanical pogo stick, and get captured by intelligent kangaroo-like beings, all before discovering someone’s beaten him there. It’s a gleefully silly slice of pulp adventure that delights in deflating its hero’s ego at every turn.Martin Pearson was a pseudonym of Donald A. Wollheim (1914–1990), one of the most influential editors and figures in 20th-century American science fiction — Robert Silverberg called him “the most significant figure” behind the genre’s paperback and anthology boom. “Pogo Planet,” the first entry in his “Ajax Calkins” series, was the cover story for the October 1941 issue of Future Combined with Science Fiction.
For the Sake of Progress by Nathan F. Greenwood
13:21|On a planet where the inhabitants hibernate every winter, Frank convinces a skeptical colleague to let him build machines that can work through the long dark months instead — never imagining how far his creation will take “helpful” once it wakes him up. Nathan F. Greenwood delivers a quietly unsettling fable about unintended consequences, the value of rest, and how easily progress can talk you out of the things you thought you’d never give up.We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Nathan — 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.
Administrative Sediment & Maiden Voyage - Chapter 10: The Plan
16:26|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, “Administrative Sediment,” follows Yuna Park on a routine overnight data audit — until a misfiled document about a recovered “non-terrestrial” object pulls her into something far outside her job description, and someone with serious resources starts erasing it out from under her in real time. It’s the deepest look yet at the strange current running through this world, and the first time we see it fight back.
The Burnt Planet by William Brittain
16:12|A crew of weary explorers finally finds the world they’ve been searching for through years of interstellar decline — lush, fertile, and seemingly abandoned, except for a handful of ragged, violent survivors hiding in the ruins of a bombed-out city. As the scholar aboard finally deciphers what’s left of the dead civilization’s language, the story lands on a gut-punch final line that’s stuck with readers for decades.William J. Brittain remains one of classic science fiction’s great mysteries — he published only three short stories in the 1940s, with “The Burnt Planet” appearing in the Winter 1948 issue of Planet Stories as his final known work, and virtually nothing else is known about him.
The Trial of Harvey Wiggles by Lyle Talbot
15:56|After accidentally running over a groundhog on a sunny drive home, Jerry Humphreys assumes the whole thing is forgotten — until a tiny, fedora-wearing detective shows up at his office with questions, and Jerry finds himself hauled before a groundhog court to answer for his “crime.” Lyle Talbot delivers a wonderfully absurd dark comedy that takes a small domestic mishap somewhere nobody could see coming.We love bringing you stories from listeners 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.
Signal Loss & Maiden Voyage - Chapter Nine: Atlas
15:11|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, “Signal Loss,” sends journalist Hannah Bennett to a tiny West Virginia town where a strange radio interference has been disrupting life for weeks. She soon finds herself with a story she can’t prove and an experience she can’t explain. It’s a quiet, unsettling look at how far a reporter will follow the truth when the evidence won’t follow her.
The Invader by Alfred Coppel
19:32|A lone alien scientist slips down to Earth on a scouting mission, hoping to prove that this planet is the answer to his dying race’s prayers. Everything goes smoothly until his first steps out among the locals, when things start going very wrong in ways he can’t begin to understand. It’s a sharp little twist on the classic alien-invasion tale, best enjoyed without knowing where it lands.Alfred Coppel (1921–2004) was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II before becoming one of the most prolific pulp writers of the 1950s and 60s, working across science fiction, action thrillers, and suspense. He also wrote young adult space operas as Robert Cham Gilman, and “The Invader” first appeared in Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in February 1953.