Fugues

Ever had a little mouse in the house? They can be cute! Some folks I know have actually named them. But rats are not quite so endearing, especially when they’re cat-sized. My college roommates and I faced a full-blown rat infestation in our first NYC apartment in 1999. Twenty-five years later, I was catching up with fellow rat-trauma survivor and old friend Ned Rauch when we started swapping war f...

Do all bullies stay bullies? Growing up in 80s Lexington, Massachusetts, I was friends with Tyler Brooks - a kid who could terrorize smaller students one moment and charm parents and teachers the next. Something about him was uniquely Boston-coded. I figured my unofficial role as a bully's friend was to use my privilege for good. This episode was inspired by one fugue that I’ll never forget - an a...

The Fugues fiction expedition ventures into romcom territory - or maybe anti-romcom? Remember I Adore You began as a TV pilot my writing partner Natasha Schwartz and I wrote years ago. We loved the script so much we adapted it for audio and produced it ourselves with talented musician and actor friends, recording it live. It’s half table read, half audio drama. Based on a true story, we subverted...

The next evolutionary step of free will? This is an excerpt from a series called Audiocorpse. It's inspired by Exquisite Corpse, a game where participants take turns writing or drawing on a sheet of paper, folding it to conceal their contribution, and then passing it to the next player for the next contribution. It became popular in the 1920s when it was adopted as a technique by artists of the Su...

This teacher and her class are learning all about earth in the 50s.   -- Take a close look at this episode’s thumbnail. This image (cartoonified for the purposes of this post) was the prompt for a recent Fugues submission to Audio Flux. We were challenged to create something in “3-D” audio. In other words, it should make use of spatial audio or stereo to give a sense of the space. Developed, writt...

Look I’m not gonna get all gloomcore about the state of things in the world, but it does seem that our appreciation of morality has waned a bit in the last few years. It had me thinking of this one funny (and traumatic) memory from college. Recounting it made me wonder - is it better or worse to have morals? This little tail tale has me reconsidering long held beliefs. (PS - this is basically an a...

If you’re going through a breakup right now, stop what you’re doing and listen to this, I think it will help. This is Fugues’ first guest contributor, Mae Nagusky.  She wrote, produced and performed this great piece of audio - it’s a brilliant series of tips to manage painful breakup fugues. Mae releases her podcast in June, 2025. Keep an eye out! -- Follow Fugues: Substack | Instagram | TikTok

When you have young children, the well-meaning, unsolicited advice flows. "Enjoy the moment, be present!" “It goes by so fast, cherish everything,” but also “don’t worry so much!” It feels like trying to grab a river with your bare hands. This short episode originated from a project I love called AudioFlux, they post open calls for audio submissions with specific prompts (1) focus on “firsts” (2)...

For anyone unsure if a recent memory was a dream or reality - come on down! YOU’re (kind of) the next contestant on…”WAS! I! DREAMING!?” This episode is the crossover between Waking Life (Richard Linklater), The Game (David Fincher) and The Price is Right (Bob Barker) that absolutely no one asked for. In a post-reality world maybe it’s a good idea to test our boundaries a bit more. Odds are you wo...

Almost at the same time, my family experienced a loss I feared my whole life and a new addition I’d fantasized about for decades. And I had a dream as it unfolded that was so clear I wrote down every detail after I woke up. Actually it was more like dream theater. And this theatrical production’s imagery and characters were scripted by grief, memory, and anticipation. I’m pretty sure this little o...

The age old question. Does empathy cure personal beef? Actually from a butcher’s perspective that’s no good. Curing actually preserves beef. Nevermind, nevermind... I had a psychedelic experience with a mosquito that reminded me of an aggressive driver. It may, or may not have, changed my life. Do I have to anthropomorphize EVERYthing? -- CREDITS: Written, produced and performed by Gabriel Berezin...

The Reveal.  Find out how this Mediclub experience ends. The Assholes push the outer limits of the ASS scale. (What geminis!) They stumble on unexpected terrain, questioning the very nature of reality. This is Part 3 of 3. -- Credits: Written and produced by Gabriel Berezin . Original music by Santiago Arias-Rozo . Opening and closing music by Monuments (featuring Grant Zubritsky (bass), Robby Sin...

In part 2 of Assholes, the immersive story of the Mediclub experience continues with three more fugues. The Asshole co-hosts review the similarities between meditation, marijuana and the right hemisphere of your brain. Then you'll see if 12-step programs fit or (don't fit) into the event. Most importantly you'll find out what Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” has to do with the most under-appreciated par...

Ever been to a group meditation? How did you feel? Third eye open and a blissful permagrin? Or awkward and self conscious? Fugues is back with a new talk show that measures gullibility and skepticism using a powerful scale. This new spectrum is defined by Larry David, Woody Harrelson, Betty White, Bill Murray and cats (not the musical). Gabe and his Inner voice co-host discuss the neurological and...

How does increased power impact human minds? It’s almost not someone’s fault if empathy wanes while power accumulates. In fact, it’s basically inevitable.   Joe Smarro, one of the subjects of the HBO documentary, "Crisis Cops: Ernie and Joe," is an exception to the rule. Joe is a police officer and trainer who gives a Master Class in how to sidestep fate when encountering people in crisis. We hear...

Why do we help strangers? And why do we love revenge stories so much?  The same thing that connects those questions connects us all - bonding. There’s an invisible line between groups of people - it can be a thin dotted line between acquaintances, a steel girder between mother and child, or a series of chain links between millions of people in the same country. In Part 2 of this series on fate and...

You ever get in a fight?  I did. Once. Wearing my Red Sox hat at Yankee Stadium. Me (and two Yankees fans) were basically high on an aggressive cocktail of brain chemicals that forced our collective hand. Stupid, pointless violence with strangers that almost cost me an eye.   This episode’s fugue will describe the experience, followed by Inner Voice and I doing a post-fugue analysis. Together we’l...

Why are we so prone to bad logic? We’re going to hear two everyday fugues in this episode: the search for a lost spatula and a spilled beer. The real story here is how easy it is to be irrational. Who is “we” in this episode? It’s me and my inner voice obviously. Inner Voice and I will do some post-fugue analysis to find out what mental phenomena are at play while I make really bad assumptions abo...

What's a fugue? In this podcast it's a story - a story that sheds light on how our conscious experience of any given moment operates. Find out what each fugue tell us about the basic ingredients of mind.  -- Credits: Written, produced and hosted by Gabriel Berezin. Music and sound design by Grant Zubritsky and Monuments . Logo and art design by Justin Montan. Follow Fugues on Twitter and Instagram...