It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton

"Wend-Way-Go" by Tim Pratt, narrated by Wil

Aesop, of the Fables, wrote that no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. If you've listened to me for any amount of time, you know how committed I am to choosing kindness, celebrating kindness, and encouraging kindness in others.

Today's Storytime is all about kindness with a capital K. It's also about Family with a capital F. Now, to me, Family are the people who love you no matter what, who always show up for you without question or judgment. When you are with Family, you are safe. Family can be your siblings, your parents. It should be, but not all of us get that, and for us, it can also be -- and frequently is -- chosen and assembled from friends, coworkers, and extended relations who are willing to do the hard work of being a Family.

We're just a moment away from meeting Wade, a man who is a little lonely, and a little lost. His cousin, Keifer, who is a bigger part of Wade's capital F family than I think Wade realizes, is pulling into his driveway. It seems that Kiefer knows Wade needs his Family right now, and he's here to drive him exactly where he needs to go, using his brand new Wend-Way-Go.

Original Publication Credit: Uncanny, September/October 2025 issue

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://www.patreon.com/timpratt 

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 

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"The Skin of a Teenage Boy is Not Alive" by Senaa Ahmad, narrated by Wil

Original Publication Credit: Nightmare Magazine in Aug 2019, with an accompanying audio version read by Stefan Rudnicki. Also reprinted in the 2022 Short Story Advent Calendar (Hingston and Olsen).

To learn more about the author, please visit: ⁠https://senaa-ahmad.com/

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Other Side of Mictlān” by M.M. Olivas, narrated by Wil

Hi, I'm Wil and it's Storytime.

I have an interesting life. I get create art and share it with a loyal

All of that is interesting, and it feels pretty good ... but it isn't even the best part of being me. That part of me, the most important and

The very best part of being me, is being married to Anne, and being Ryan

Today's storytime is about a family that loves each other the way we do.

Original Publication Credit: Uncanny Magazine Issue 49, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas

To learn more about the author, please visit: ⁠https://olivasthewriter.wtf/

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The Coffin Maker” by AnaMaria Curtis, narrated by Wil

I will never understand the reckless inaction humanity seems to have chosen in the face of catastrophic climate change. Last time I looked, Earth was the only planet we have, and taking care of her should probably land real close to the top spot on our species' to do list.

Catastrophic Climate Change is scary, it's real, and it's dangerously close to inevitable because it is so scary, we tend to look away and pretend it's going to somehow be okay.

Y'all, it is not going to be okay unless we choose to make it okay. And one of the ways we can inspire people to do that is through fiction that suggests what our future may look like, if we continue to choose inaction.

This week, we're boarding The Guiding Light, a research vessel that's been sent on a desperate mission from a dying world to find someplace new to live. They've been looking for a long time, and all they've found is death. Maybe this planet will be different. Let's find out, as we join The Coffin Maker.

Original Publication Credit: Uncanny Magazine

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://anamariacurtis.com/

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“A Cure for Solastalgia” by E.M. Linden, narrated by Wil

When we leave home for the first time, and enter the so-called Real World, we become responsible for so much more than our laundry, our food, and our bills. We truly become responsible for ourselves. We choose our values, we choose who we will trust to share those values, and when we come home for the first time, we will do everything we can to convince our parents that the values we are now living should also be their values.
The resulting, deeply disappointing and frustrating experience, is commonly called "The Generation Gap" and some of you are noticing a rueful grin has appeared on your face just now because you have experienced this for yourself. Some of you, like me, have experienced it from both sides of the gap. 
Today's Storytime is about someone who is very special, just as their mother intended them to be. They carry their mother's talents, shaped and nurtured by her teaching. They've been away from home long enough to discover that the way they use those talents is very different from the way their mother intended. There is no bridge that can cross their Generation Gap, and if I told you why, there wouldn't be much of a story left. So, we are about to join them, in their Real World, while they work to claim their talent for themselves, to make it their own, as they seek A Cure for Solastalgia.
A Cure for Solastalgia was originally published in January 2024, issue 1, of Strange Horizons.
E.M. Linden (she/her) is a speculative fiction writer from Aotearoa New Zealand who likes coffee, books, and owls. Her work has previously appeared in The Deadlands, Flash Fiction Online, Weird Horror, and elsewhere.

To learn more about the author, please visit: emlinden.blog or @emlinden.bsky.social.

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“The Sort” by Thomas Ha, narrated by Wil

We don't have to imagine a world where people who aren't doing anything wrong have to hide themselves -- or, at least, their true selves -- for their own safety. I wish that world only existed in imagination, but, well, you know. Today, we will experience that world through a father and his son, who share a very special, telepathic  bond. 
And, about that, a technical note: this communication is clear in the text, but it's less so in this format. So when they are communicating directly, our editors will make it sound like this. 
Now, let me bring you with me to a world that is all-too familiar, as we meet a family who are about to encounter The Sort.
The Sort by Thomas Ha was originally published in Clarkesworld Issue 215, in August 2024. 
Thomas Ha is a Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated writer of speculative short fiction. You can find his work in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Weird Horror Magazine, among other publications. His work has also appeared in The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. His debut short story collection, Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, is now available. In fact, I have a copy sitting on my desk. Thomas grew up in Honolulu and, after a decade plus of living in the northeast, now resides in Los Angeles with his family.

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://www.thomashawrites.com/

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Swarm X1048 - Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, ‘6’" by F.E. Choe, narrated by Wil

Every week, I take you with me through space and time to fantastical worlds, futures dystopian and hopeful, even to the rareified air of the gods themselves. This week, we're going to stay right here on Earth, but our visit will be just as fantastic as any of our tales as it comes to us through the eyes of an alien intelligence. They are called SWARM X1048 and this is their ethological field report on Canis Lupis Familiaris, "6". 
Swarm X1048 - Ethological Field Report: Canis Lupus Familiaris, "6" by FE Choe is a Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist. It originally appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 210 in March 2024. Runner-up for the 2025 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and reprinted in ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction. 
F.E. Choe is a Korean-American writer whose work has been published in The Moth Magazine and Fractured Lit. She is a 2023 graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and an Editor at 100 Word Story. Born in Toronto, Canada, she currently lives in South Carolina in the United States.

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://www.fechoe.com/

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Disassembling Light” by Kel Coleman, narrated by Wil

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"The Odyssey Problem" by Chris Willrich, narrated by Wil.

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"The Dark House" by A.C. Wise, narrated by Wil.

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