“Hello,” answered some whiteman. “Good morning! Could I speak with—?” He mispronounced her last name and didn’t abbreviate her first, as nobody who knew her would do. “Young lady,” he said. “Can you please tell me whether Miss Jean-Louis is there or…

PodCastle 535: The Threadbare Magician — Part 1

PodCastle 536: The Threadbare Magician — Part 2

PodCastle 537: To the Moon

PodCastle 538: Itself at the Heart of Things

PodCastle 539: Godfall

PodCastle 540: Flash Fiction Extravaganza! The Three Phases of Equinox

PodCastle 541: Andromache and the Dragon

PodCastle 542: Waters of Versailles — Part 1

PodCastle 543: Waters of Versailles — Part 2

PodCastle 544: Waters of Versailles — Part 3

PodCastle 545: The Aunties Return the Ocean

PodCastle 625: Salt and Iron Salt and Iron By Gem Isherwood There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside th… There’s a gash across her cheekbone, glass in her arm and her lower lip is twice the size it should be, but Dagna Müller is hardly a stranger to pain. She slumps on the steps outside the tavern, feeling her nose to check if it’s broken again. via Po… PodCastle 625 Salt and Iron - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2SE4QFu

PodCastle 626: DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) Authors : Tina Connolly and A.C. Wise Narrators : Tina Connolly and Dani Daly Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums … PodCastle 626 DOUBLE FEATURE! A Sharp Breath of Birds; A Guide to Birds by Song (After Death) - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2WptETR You are two on the day you see your first personal bird. It is the sort of thing you barely remember later, at six, seven, twenty. via Pocket

PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower Author : Claire Humphrey Narrator : Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 627: We Are the Flower is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Includes copious F… I didn’t clue in until I saw the ghost bike chained to a signpost on Adelaide, near a corner. I was stopped up close, and I looked down and the angles of the frame were familiar. A Cannondale CAAD 5, just like mine. via Pocket

PodCastle 628: Vincent’s Penny Author : Chris Barnham Narrator : Matt Dovey Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Dimension6, Issue 16 (April 2019). Rated PG. Vincent’s Penny By Chris Barnham  May 1941 I’m … I’m a child this time. Five or six years old. Fully clothed under a bed, on a wooden floor. I touch a hand to my throat, but there is nothing there. I examine my hands and arms, astonished by the smoothness of the skin. At last, I crawl out from ben…

PodCastle 629: Though She Be But Little Author : C.S.E. Cooney Narrator : Julia Rios Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Uncanny Magazine. Previously published in Jonathan Strahan’s The… PodCastle 629 Though She Be But Little - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2MmVoCH Though She Be But Little By C.S.E. Cooney Emma Anne had a tin can attached by a string to her belt. via Pocket

PodCastle 615: Field Reports from the Department of Monster Resettlement Author : L. Chan Narrator : Curtis C. Chen Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Future Fire in the Making Monster… Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: two ghosts, a pontianak and a manananggal are sitting around the third floor of a community centre after dark. The trick isn’t getting them to come to the support group, the trick is getting them to agree to …

PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telomerase; Mycelium Authors : Ian Muneshwar and Eleanor Wood Narrators : Sienna Tristen and Jen R. Albert Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 616: DOUBLE FEATURE! Telo… You lost your first word when I began to lose my hair. You brought a wicker basket to the hospital and opened it in the waiting room, taking out a blue-checkered blanket that you spread out over our laps. via Pocket

PodCastle 617: The Dead-Wagon Author : Greye La Spina Narrator : Wilson Fowlie Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums CW: illness and plague; references to violence and sexual assault Rated R. The Dead-Wagon G… The Dead-Wagon Greye La Spina “Someone’s been chalking up the front door.” The speaker stepped off the terrace into the library through the open French window. From his padded armchair Lord Melverson rose with an involuntary exclamation of startled … PodCastle 617 The Dead-Wagon - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/3cIkbxb

PodCastle 618: Odd and Ugly Author : Vida Cruz Narrator : Don Pizarro Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Previously published by Writers of the Future vol. 34. Rated PG-13. Odd and Ugly By Vida Cruz I. Y… You come to my tree at high noon in July, sweating, panting, young. So very, very young. I can’t help staring at you: it’s like watching a walking, talking circular window with square glass stuck through it. via Pocket

PodCastle 619: The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle Author : Sofia Samatar Narrator : C. L. Clark Host : Peter Behravesh Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in The Starlit Wood. Rated… This story is at least a thousand years old. Its complete title is “The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle: It Contains Strange and Marvelous Things.” A single copy, probably produced in Egypt or Syria, survives in Istanbul; the…

March 2020 Metacast Transcript (Alasdair) Hi everyone, Alasdair here. We’re not going to ask how you are right now, because we have a pretty good idea. You’re fine. You’re FINE. You’re the same version of fine as everyone right now, the one Aeros… We’re not going to ask how you are right now, because we have a pretty good idea. You’re fine. You’re FINE. You’re the same version of fine as everyone right now, the one Aerosmith sang about. The one where you’re alternately anxious, terrified, fur…

PodCastle 620: When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains Author : Nin Harris Narrator : Chang Yiun Yee Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 620: When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains is a PodCastle original. Conte… When Hope Is Lost, Touch Remains By Nin Harris Chowrasta Market was where Maria had learned to love books — upstairs in the claustrophobic crush of second-hand book stalls, where the musty smell of old paperbacks was drowned in a panoply of aromas f…

CatsCast 289: The Thing in the Basement Author : Gerri C. Leen Narrator : Tina C. Connolly Host : Laura Pearlman Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Artist : Matt Dovey The Thing in the Basement by Gerri Leen You can hear it, in the basement, b… CatsCast 289 The Thing in the Basement - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/3bDT0Cf You can hear it, in the basement, behind the metal boxes that your human puts her outer-coverings in just when they start to smell good—when the boxes are done, she brings out her things stinking of flowers or fruit. via Pocket

PodCastle 621: A Salt and Sterling Tongue A Salt and Sterling Tongue By Emma Osborne I found my dying boy curled up in a pile of straw wet with his blood. Seamus rolled over as I entered the barn, and I saw then that he’d chewed his fingers down … I found my dying boy curled up in a pile of straw wet with his blood. Seamus rolled over as I entered the barn, and I saw then that he’d chewed his fingers down to the first knuckle. “I can taste my King in my wet,” he said, rocking forward, naming …

PodCastle 622: Spoken For Author : Evan Kennedy Narrator : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Host : Jen R. Albert Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 622: Spoken For is a PodCastle original. Rated PG-13. Spoken For by Evan Ken… Twenty-five years after the magic came back, Auden’s wife got turned to stone. It was the dog’s fault. A cockatrice had been wandering Harlan County for the past few weeks, ever since some damn fool two towns over let a cock’s egg hatch instead of c…

PodCastle 623: Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower Author : Allison Thai Narrator : Jennifer Tran Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums PodCastle 623: Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower is a PodCastle o… Sleep easy tonight, darling. I’m well and alive at the barracks the Party had seized in Sóc Trăng. Because I had sided with the enemy, I expected to be shot, or be assigned to clear the mines. via Pocket PodCastle 623 Caring For Dragons and Growing a Flower - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2KpwscY

PodCastle 624: TALES FROM THE VAULTS — Crickets Sing for Naomi Author : Eden Royce Narrator : Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Host : Eleanor Wood Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums This story was a PodCastle original back when we ran it… “If these danggone crickets don’t stop following me,” Naomi grumbled as the insect bounded out of the path of her wedge heel. Another of the bugs scuttled across the top of her foot, its spiny legs pricking her exposed skin. via Pocket

PodCastle 601: A Thousand Tongues of Silver Author : Kate Heartfield Narrator : Alyson Grauer Host : Setsu Uzume Audio Producer : Peter Behravesh Discuss on Forums Originally published in Lackington’s. Rated PG-13. A Thousand Tongues of Silv… PodCastle 601 A Thousand Tongues of Silver - PodCastle via Instapaper https://ift.tt/332TgWL I am a book. My pages are purple. This is how they made me. First, they flayed the calves, stretched and scraped their wet skins. Then they mixed lichen and leaves, rotted in human urine, to mimic the purple that comes of torturing sea snails to for… via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io