Wil Wheaton

Three pieces, one longer than the others, that I have never done in public before. I hoped they would all fit together to tell a story, and I was scared to death the the story they told wouldn't resonate with the audience. But I needed to trust myself, trust Anne and my friend who told me it absolutely was going to work, and take what felt like a very big risk. So I did, and I think it landed the...

Is this machine recording? I made this ambient audioscape thing years ago. I can't remember if I ever posted it.

This classic horror story, about a mad prince who ignores a pandemic and dooms his sycophants to death, is surprisingly timely.

Radio Free Burrito Presents: The Invisible Man by HG Wells Chapter 10 by Wil Wheaton

Radio Free Burrito Presents: The Invisible Man by HG Wells. Chapter 9 by Wil Wheaton

Chapters 7 and 8 of The Invisible Man, by HG Wells.

Chapter 6 of The Invisible Man.

Chapters four and five of The Invisible Man by HG Wells.

Here's Chapter 3 of The Invisible Man. Artwork by Steve Dore. Used under CC License.

Today, I am starting the big finale of this project. Over the next few weeks, I'll release one or two chapters of The Invisible Man every few days. We begin with chapters 1 and 2.

From the October, 1958 Issue of Super Science, a short adventure tale by Science Fiction master Robert Silverberg. https://archive.org/details/Super_Science_Fiction_v02n06_1958-10/page/n3/mode/2up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Silverberg

Today, I bring you a short story from Philip K. Dick that is about as different from our last episode as you can get, while staying with the same author. The image I used comes from emilylongbreak dot com: https://emilylongbrake.com/day-325-the-eyes-have-it/ And here's the original text I used: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31516/31516-h/31516-h.htm

The great Philip K. Dick wrote about the human condition as well as any speculative fiction writer of the 20th century, and I am incredibly lucky that this story of his is out of copyright. This was originally published in 1953. It's about racism and colonialism, about how the participants in a war see themselves and each other. In a lot of ways, it's about the original sin of America, a sin we ha...

From the September, 1947 issue of Master Detective Magazine, comes "Alibi Girl", a pulp narrative of two police detectives, solving a murder case where their prime suspect confesses, but also has an air-tight alibi. This one was a lot of fun to read. I've been wanting to do a mid-century detective story since this started. https://archive.org/details/MasterDetectiveV37N01194709/page/n21/mode/2up

This is a children's bedtime story that I recorded specifically for my nephew to hear. If you have children, or you're a child at heart, I hope you'll give it a listen. I think it's a sweet story. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43558/43558-h/43558-h.html#mr-possum

By request, a short story from HP Lovecraft, one of (if not the) first things he wrote as an adult, in 1917. This wasn't published until 1919, and was published again in 1923, so I take that as a reminder not to get discouraged when things take time in publishing. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dagon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft

In the 70s, Time Life Books started putting out these collections of paranormal stories, culminating with the massively successful series Mysteries of the Unknown, starting in 1987. None of these stories are scientifically sound, or based in fact. They are just stories that people told and handed down for generations, stories that turn a creaking staircase or a house settling in winter, into a sup...

This is the title story from a collection of Wells' work that was published in 1911. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells https://www.gutenberg.org/files/456/456-h/456-h.htm#link2H_4_0001 http://sittingbee.com/the-door-in-the-wall-h-g-wells/

I've been looking for some classic Bradbury to narrate, and last night, I finally found some! This story was written in 1940, and collected into this paperback in 1973. It is *exactly* the kind of book I would have picked up from the spinning rack of fifty cent paperbacks in the drugstore. https://archive.org/details/MoscowitzSamAndAldenH.Nortoned. HorrorsInHiding1973/mode/2up

By popular request, here is Umberto Ecco's essay UR-FASCISM, published in 1995. In this essay, he talks about living in Fascist Italy as a child, growing up under that system during the Second World War. Then he details 14 qualities that define Fascist movements, regardless of the time and place they began. It's a powerful and relevant essay. Many -- MANY -- of the 14 qualities he identifies exist...

I am embarrassed to admit that, until last week, I had never read this essay. I knew it existed, but I never made the effort, and I am so glad that I finally did. A Modest Proposal is brilliant, biting, hilarious satire, that is as horrifyingly relevant in 2020 as it was in 1729. This reads like one of those brilliant editorials from The Onion, or a Hannity monologue. There's a ton of study availa...

Remember mixtapes? I always put dialog, commercials, and bits of spoken word into mine. This is mostly punk, with some surf, a little mid-century easy listening, some William S. Burroughs, and a few bits of audio weirdness I had in a directory that exists solely for that purpose.

Today's story is a really fun space adventure mystery from the Spring, 1941 issue of Planet Stories. "Inside the crippled Comet, a hard-bitten crew watched the life-giving oxygen run low. Outside, on Ceres' fabled Darkside, stalked death in awful, spectral form." https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61869/61869-h/61869-h.htm

I'm trying my best to choose from a wide variety of authors and genres, but I loved Tree of Life so much, I had to bring you another story from the brilliant mind of CL Moore. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28550/28550-h/28550-h.htm

Published in 1970, today's short story comes from a battered old paperback I own called SUPERNATURAL STRANGERS, by Robert Tralins. Because it's Earth Day, I recorded in my back yard. I hope you can hear some of the birds, and sounds of beautiful Spring life, behind the spooky tale.