Given Sufficient Desperation By Bogi Takács An ice cream cone. A ceramic mug—brown with a single green stripe around the rim. A smartphone—I don’t recognise the brand. It’s been a while. Two sheaves of corn. A plush caterpillar toy from some cartoon. A table—rather worn, I’d say Danish Modern, but I’m not sure. I need …

Six Jobs By Tim Pratt 1. Exterminator’s Helper I was eleven when a little man with watery eyes who blinked and sniffed all the time shuffled into my classroom, moving carefully, not brushing up against any desks or people. My teacher stood frozen with her hand pointed at a map of Africa, and the …

National Geographic on Assignment: The Unicorn Enclosure by Sarah Monette In the unicorn enclosure, all five unicorns are clustered along the fence, batting their long eyelashes beguilingly at a troop of girl scouts. The girls ooh and aah and argue about which one is prettiest, and the unicorns trail them patiently down the perimeter line. …

Home Sick By M. Darusha Wehm I was encoding a batch of classic ebooks when the ulu-aliki walked in to the library, the outdoors scent of gardenias and overripe mangoes following him. “Afternoon, chief,” I said, pushing my chair back a bit. Joseph Seru spoke Tuvaluan with his family and the other council members, but …

Chasing Flowers by L. Chan Lian’s world is flat. Not just the landscape, which extends as far as the eye can see, horizon to horizon under the rolling twilight flux. Not just the houses, dotting the slate grey earth and the thunder cloud sky. Not just her folded servants, who used to pad around silently …

An Equal Share of the Bone By Karen Osborne To kill a theriida, you need gunboats and suits, laser cutters and open-mawed cargo bays, brawn and a stout heart, and God on your side. We, of course, had none of that. I learned in the merchant marines to never shoot a theriida with a standard …

Nozizwe and Almahdi By J. R. Dawson She was a princess and he was a prince, and they had been genetically made for each other. The science had been precise down to their anatomical make-up, the blood and the speed in which that blood pulsed through their perfectly symmetrical hearts. His name was Almahdi. He had […]

That Game We Played During the War By Carrie Vaughn From the moment she left the train station, absolutely everybody stopped to look at Calla. They watched her walk across the plaza and up the steps of the Northward Military Hospital. In her dull gray uniform she was like a storm cloud moving among the khaki […]

Unit Two Does Her Makeup By Laura Duerr Doctor Spencer has brought me an artist. My eyes on the outside of the building register the identity of everyone who enters, including her: Suzanne Chantal Salinas, age 26, licensed esthetician and makeup artist, amateur painter. I cut the feed after .3 seconds. The security feed could tell […]

Trash Talk By Holly Schofield I’m not a complainer, not me. I roll with the punches. I’ll be just another dead trash collector in about ten minutes but, hey, that’s okay. My son won’t die and, here’s a bonus, my life insurance policy will pay out. Unless they consider it suicide. Here we are, hugging …

Who Binds and Looses the World With Her Hands by Rachael K. Jones 1. Stranger On days when Selene locked me in the lighthouse, an old familiar darkness would well up within me, itching my skin like it had shrunk too tight to contain my anger any longer. I had grown accustomed to the rage’s …

Seven Things That Oughtn’t Cut Me By Jessi Cole Jackson They say troll girls appear only in brilliant shades of armored green. Their skin is faceted, unpierceable, and gleams in the sunlight like emeralds. They say we cannot be drab or fragile. They say we cannot bleed. If only. 1. A volleyball, round and hurtling. …

Wet Fur By Jeremiah Tolbert You can tell the dog owners when they board the plane; they see the black cloud hovering in the first row and their eyes widen in shock, then narrow in fear, followed by a glimmer of a smile, a hope as they glance at so many occupied seats. A hopeful …

AUTHOR: Bojan Ratković NARRATOR: Steve Anderson HOST: Norm Sherman Ride the Dragon is an Escape Pod original. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Bojan Ratković is a writer from Serbia, now living in Ontario, Canada. His work […]

RELEASED 3.August.2016 AUTHOR: Bethany Edwards NARRATOR: George Hrab HOST: Tina Connolly WARNING: profane language and violence This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Mystery! about the narrator… Multi-instrumentalist, singer, […]

AUTHOR: Gareth D Jones NARRATOR: Andrew Clarke HOST: Norm Sherman This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… I’m an environmental scientist, writer and father of 5. My stories have […]

AUTHOR: Kristin Janz NARRATOR: Ibba Armancas HOST: Tina Connolly This story has not been published previously. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Kristin Janz is a Canadian speculative fiction writer who has lived in the […]

AUTHOR: Michael Glyde NARRATOR: Joe Williams HOST: Alasdair Stuart This story has not been published previously. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our Wikia Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… M. Glyde recently moved 1813 miles from Pittsburgh, PA to El Paso, TX, …

by Sandy Parsons narrated by Nicola Seaton-Clark This story has not been previously published. At the end of the show, there were excerpts from a speech given by President Barack Obama 4 days after 49 people were executed in a shooting rampage in Orlando, FL, USA which you can see in full here: https://youtu.be/QMvxpyeq6xU Discuss on …

by Edward Ashton read by Josh Roseman This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Edward Ashton is a clinical research scientist and writer living in Rochester, New York. His short […]

These stories have not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the authors… Ben Hallert: I live in Oregon with my wife, two children, a plane, and a reach that regularly exceeds my grasp. […]

by Michael Buckley narrated by Barry Haworth This story has not been previously published. This episode also featured an excerpt from Ecko: Endgame by Danie Ware which you can get more info about on her website: http://danieware.com/tag/ecko-endgame/ and you can tweet her @danacea Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable […]

by Michael Reid narrated by Summer Brooks This story has not been previously published. Mentioned by Alasdair: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/mothership-zeta/ Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… I am a 2015 graduate of the Clarion Workshop, but I have no other …

by Gary Kloster narrated by Roberto Suarez This story has not been previously published. Mentioned by Mur: https://weightlessbooks.com/category/format/subscription/mothership-zeta/ Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… I’ve always loved speculative fiction. That’s the fancy name for stories that involve […]

by John Markley narrated by Carl Allery Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the narrator… Carl Allery has sold a couple of stories (Farthing Magazine, Killers ed. Colin Harvey), had a couple read out loud (BBC local radio, Escape Pod) […]

by David John Baker narrated by Mat Weller This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Aside from my philosophical essays, I also write short science fiction stories. Some of […]

by Samantha Murray narrated by Ibba Armancas This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter about the author… Samantha Murray is a writer, actor, mathematician and mother. Not particularly in that order. […]

by Beth Goder narrated by Andrea Richardson with guest host Kate Baker Welcome to the 2nd Annual Artemis Rising a celebration of women and non-binary authors This story has not been previously published. Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page Thank you for visiting us […]

At the Rialto By Connie Willis Seriousness of mind was a prerequisite for understanding Newtonian physics. I am not convinced it is not a handicap in understanding quantum theory. —EXCERPT FROM DR. GEDANKEN’S KEYNOTE ADDRESS TO THE 1989 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF QUANTUM PHYSICISTS ANNUAL MEETING, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA I got to Hollywood around one-thirty and started …