The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane

The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane episodes:

• 03.07.2023

  Episode 45: The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

  First published in 1902 by Harper's Monthly and reprinted in his third collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge (also, 1902). The Monkey's Paw is one of the most well-known, adapted, and influential horror short stories ever written.  An...

  
• 04.05.2022

  Episode 44: Midsummer by Arthur Machen

  Arthur Machen, the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He has garnered a reputation as one most influential classic horror story authors to have ever written.  Summary: Leonard, a...

  
• 01.10.2022

  Episode 43: Terra Incognita by Vladimir Nabokov

  First published in the émigré journal Posledniya Novosti in Paris in 1931. Translated by the author and his son, the story was published in English in The New Yorker in May, 1963, and later added to A Russian Beauty and...

  
• 10.29.2021

  Episode 42: The Beautiful Suit by H.G. Wells

  Originally published under the title "A Moonlight Fable" in the April 10, 1909, number of Collier's Weekly. A young man acquires a hand-woven suit from his mother, and, becoming obsessed with its beauty over a period of days, he flees into...

  
• 10.02.2021

  Episode 41: The Awakening by Arthur C. Clarke

  First published in Zenith in February 1942 and later revised and published in Future in January of 1952. Collected in The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937-1955. Upon discovering a terminal illness that will kill him within a year, an influential...

  
• 09.06.2021

  Episode 40: The Guide by Ellis Peters

  Ellis Peters (nom de plume of Edith Pargeter) was an English writer, and the short story (originally titled Guide to Doom) was first published in Alfred Hitchcocks: Stories that Scared Even Me in 1967. As a tour guide of an old...

  
• 07.18.2021

  Episode 39: Gateway of the Mind by Anonymous

  Originally posted on Creepypasta on November 23, 2009 by an anonymous author. An experiment in the early 80s attempts to establish contact with God by depriving a test subject of all senses. Narration and Sound Design by Jon Fredette. 

  
• 05.13.2021

  Episode 38: The Writing of the God by Jorge Luis Borges

  Original Spanish title: "La escritura del dios"First published in the literary magazine Sur in 1949, and later reprinted in The Aleph. An incarcerated magician seeks a divine script that will allow him the omnipotence to free himself and avenge the destruction...

  
• 04.01.2021

  Episode 37: They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

  Originally published in 1991 through OMNI magazine. Two multidimensional aliens deliberate over contacting the human race once they realize their entirely made out of meat. Aliens: Mats Bennett and Jon FredetteSound Design by Jon Fredette

  
• 02.20.2021

  Episode 36: An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce

  First published in the San Francisco Newsletter of December 25, 1886 and was later reprinted as part of Bierce's collections Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Can Such Things Be?A man from the ancient city of Carcosa awakens from a...

  
• 12.31.2020

  Episode 35: 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

  Published in the January 1962 in the Worlds of "If" Science Fiction magazine. A painter in the Chicago Lying-In Hospital witnesses an absurd scene in the lobby while he creates a mural immortalizing VIPs in a time of overpopulation. Cast (Instagram Handles): Painter...

  
• 12.06.2020

  Episode 34: Leiningen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson

  Originally published in the December 1938 edition of Esquire. It is a translation, probably by Stephenson himself, of "Leiningens Kampf mit den Ameisen" which was originally published in German in 1938.Summary: A Brazilian plantation owner and his 400 workers brave...

  
• 11.01.2020

  Episode 33: Darkness by Lord Byron

  Written in July of 1816 and inspired by "The Year Without Summer", the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies the previous year, in which enough sulphur was cast into the atmosphere to change global...

  
• 10.24.2020

  Episode 32: In the Court of the Dragon by Robert W. Chambers

  First published in his collection The King in Yellow in 1895. An unnamed narrator attends an afternoon mass at the church St. Barnabe and has several frightful encounters with a menacing organ player. Sound Design, Music, and Narration by Jon FredetteMonseigneur C...

  
• 09.24.2020

  Episode 31: The Black Meat by Eric Dean

  Published on Monologging.org, on S.H. Roddey’s Haunted Head, and in Literati Presents #5 by Literati Press. The original audio version, hosted on youtube.com/ericdean, was Recorded by Rish Outfield and released on his fiction podcast The Dunesteef (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dunesteef-audio-fiction-magazine/id284671097).Follow Eric on Instagram...

  
• 07.30.2020

  Episode 30: The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce

  First published in the San Francisco Examiner on April 12, 1891 and reprinted in Bierce's collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians the same year. A narrator recounts what he knows of an old woodsman who lived in a mysteriously boarded up...

  
• 06.13.2020

  Episode 29: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

  Originally published in the October edition of New Dimensions 3 in 1973. The story was nominated for the Locust Award for Best Short Fiction in 1974 and won the Hugo Award for Best Short story in the same year.The utopian...

  
• 04.09.2020

  Episode 27: The Screwfly Solution by Raccoona Sheldon

  Originally published in the anthology "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact" (June, 1977) the novelette went on to win the Nebula Award that year under the pen name James Tiptree Jr.As an unprecedented sickness spreads around the globe, a scientist hurries home...

  
• 02.28.2020

  Episode 26: Orientation by Daniel Orozco

  Originally published in The Seattle Review and subsequently in The Best American Short Stories 1995.A new office employee is given orientation on the first day of work by a detached, yet knowledgable, veteran of the job.Narration, Sound Design, and Music...

  
• 01.17.2020

  Episode 25: The Mirror by Haruki Murakami

  Written in 1981/2 and published in 1983 in an undisclosed Japanese periodical. Later added to his short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman which was published in 2006. A man recalls a frightening experience he had in his brief time as...

  
• 12.16.2019

  Episode 24: The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges

  First published in the magazine Sur in 1943. Failed playwrite Jaromir Hladik is captured during the Nazi occupation of Prague in the early stages of World War II. Awaiting his execution in prison, he seeks redemption for a wasted life through...

  
• 11.01.2019

  Episode 23: The Kraken by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  First published in Tennyson's first solo collection, "Poems, Chiefly Lyrical" (1830) when he was around 20 years old. One of the few sonnets Tennyson penned and with this one specifically he grossly distorts the sonnet form to better fit the...

  
• 10.14.2019

  Episode 22: The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino

  A modern folktale which takes place in a parallel-universe New York City; mysterious lunar women are hypnotized by the moon's influence and converge at the edge of the city to undertake a clandestine task for the satellite. First written in 1968...

  
• 07.12.2019

  Episode 21: The Continuity of Parks by Julio Cortazar

  "Continuidad de los parques" was originally written in Spanish and first published within the Editorial Sudamericana in 1964. Summary: A man settles down to finish reading an immersive novel and suffers the consequences of doing so. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by...

  
• 05.15.2019

  Episode 20: The Sect of the Idiot by Thomas Ligotti

  First published in Crypt of Cthulhu in 1988. A man visits a nameless town and questions his existence as reality transforms into nightmare around him, leading him to a clandestine sect of dreams and dark dimensions. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by...

  
• 04.16.2019

  Episode 19: The Moon-Bog by H.P. Lovecraft

  First written around March 1921, the story was first published in the June 1926 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales.Summary: a man visits an isolated castle at Kilderry, where an old friend plans to drain an ancient and locally-revered...

  
• 02.28.2019

  Episode 18: The Star by H.G. Wells

  First published in the Christmas number of The Graphic in 1897. It is credited with the creation of the subgenre depicting the "impact event" of science fiction, and is referenced in Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". Summary: At the turn...

  
• 12.18.2018

  Episode 17: The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe

  The story was first published in May 1842 in Graham's Magazine and has since been adapted in many different forms, including a 1964 film starring Vincent Price. Prince Prospero walls himself in one of his abbeys, passing the time with wealthy...

  
• 01.11.2018

  Episode 16: Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan

  Originally published in the March 2001 edition of Esquire magazine. It was the basis for the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. A man with anterograde amnesia hunts for his wife's murderer. Narration, Sound Design, Music Composition by Jon Fredette. 

  
• 12.04.2017

  Episode 15: The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges

  Originally "Las ruinas circulares". First published in the literary journal Sur in December 1940. It was first published in English in View (Series V, No. 6 1946). An itinerant magician discovers a site of arcane, circular ruins, a forsaken temple, and...

  
• 05.17.2017

  Episode 14: Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh

  Originally published by Esquire in 1954. Summary: While at dock, a passenger of a banana boat encounters a mad, weary traveller seeking passage away from the terrors he experienced on a lost expedition. Dr. Goodbody played by Hunter Hash.Narration, Sound Design, and...

  
• 02.21.2017

  Episode 13: A Madman by Maurice Level

  Summary: A psychopath finds brief reprieve from a prolonged depression in a Parisian daredevil's act. The Cyclist played by Tony Wolf. Narration, Sound Design and Composition by Jon Fredette.Jeanne Mareteux Level (1875-1926) was a doctor and author of some 700 'conte...

  
• 01.15.2017

  Episode 12: Sredni Vashtar by Saki

  Summary: With his imagination, a sickly boy creates his own religion, worshipping a merciless and vengeful god, to help him cope with his dull, depressive existence. Originally written by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) between 1900 and 1911 and initially published in...

  
• 11.27.2016

  Episode 11: Aborted Mother by Mark Slade

  Summary: A baby and her mother are visited at home by a gift-bearing stranger in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Mark Slade has appeared in numerous publications such as The Stray Branch, Weird Year and Wicked Gardens. He has written/and created such audio...

  
• 09.23.2016

  Episode 10: The Hidden Beast by J.D. Beresford

  Summary: A man encounters an isolated stranger who lives at the edge of his village and discovers there is more to the stranger than he first surmised. John Davys Beresford (17 March 1873 – 1 February 1947) was an English writer,...

  
• 06.14.2016

  Episode 9: The Vector by Jon Fredette

  Summary: The fate of humankind hinges on informational broadcasts from the Emergency Alert System about an unknown pathogen outbreak. I decided to write a short story and keep the podcast going while I am away from my home system and incapable...

  
• 04.15.2016

  Episode 8: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

  Summary: Peyton Farquhar, a plantation owner in his mid-thirties, is being prepared for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge during the American Civil War.Background Info: Originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, it was...

  
• 01.28.2016

  Episode 7: The Russian Sleep Experiment by An Unknown Author

  Summary: In the 1940s, Russian scientists kept 5 men awake for 15 straight days. The results were horrifying. Background Information: This story was taken from the horror site Creepy Pasta, and is one of the more celebrated stories on the site....

  
• 10.06.2014

  Episode 5: Dagon by HP Lovecraft

  Summary: the testament of a tortured, morphine-addicted man who plans to commit suicide over an incident that occurred early on in World War I when he was a merchant marine officer and adrift on the open ocean. Written in July 1917,...

  
• 08.30.2014

  Episode 4: The Sphinx by Edgar Allen Poe

  Summary: A man encounters a terrific monster and believes it to be an omen of his own death. Background Information: "The Sphinx" was only published once, in Philadelphia's Arthur's Ladies Magazine during January of 1846. The story takes place right outside...

  
• 08.09.2014

  Episode 3: The Vulture by Franz Kafka

  (orig. German Der Geier) Written sometime between 1917 and 1923, shortly after Kafka's diagnosis with tuberculosis. A vulture slowly eats a man alive as he contemplates his salvation and the inevitable end. Read by Tony Wolf. "The Gentleman" and Sound Design by...

  
• 07.25.2014

  Episode 2: The Bridge by Franz Kafka

  Originally written in 1916. Published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). A bridge, personified, tells of its existence, purpose, and demise. Read by Jon Fredette. Sound Design by Jon Fredette.

  
• 06.27.2014

  Episode 1: Nyarlathotep by HP Lovecraft

  First published in 1920 to the November edition of The United Amateur. The arrival of an unknown evil alters the path of humanity forever. Read by Jon Fredette. Sound Design by Jon Fredette.