Third Shift Tales

CW: death of a kitchen worker described briefly and non-graphically. A hotel restaurant kitchen. Service ends at ten. The cooks go home in fifteen minutes. Then there's just Noel. In this episode we hear from Noel — a closing dishwasher who spent three years as the last person in a 1940s hotel kitchen every night. He knew every sound that kitchen made. The refrigeration cycling. The ventilatio...

CW: death of a security guard described briefly and non-graphically. Three buildings. Four hundred thousand square feet. Twenty two checkpoints. One guard. In this episode we hear from Garrett — a private security officer who worked the overnight at a corporate office complex in the mid-Atlantic for two years. Ninety minute rounds. Four times a night. Eleven months of finding exactly what he expec...

A two lane highway. Forty seven miles of dark. One patrol car running slow through the brush section at 2AM. In this episode we hear from Trooper Ellis — an eleven year night patrol veteran on a stretch of rural state highway in the plains. Eight years of knowing every mile, every curve, every car that belonged on that road. Then one night his headlights caught something standing dead center in th...

CW: death of an unidentified person, described briefly and non-graphically. A convention center. Eighty thousand square feet. Midnight. A crew of twelve returning it to empty. In this episode we hear from Sable — an overnight cleaner who spent two and a half years working the east wing of a large midwest convention center. Most of it was exactly what you'd expect. Hard, physical, repetitive wo...

CW: psychiatric facility setting, death of a patient described briefly and non-graphically. Ward C. Long-term acute psychiatric care. Twenty-two rooms. Checks every thirty minutes. All night. In this episode we hear from Callum — a psychiatric technician who spent three years on the overnight at a state-run facility in the northeast. By his second year he knew every patient, every habit, every sou...

Seven floors. One hundred and twelve rooms. One person at the front desk after midnight. In this episode we hear from Mara — a night shift hotel clerk who spent two years working the overnight at a mid-range hotel in the southeast. She knew that building the way you only know a place after hundreds of nights alone inside it. Which is why she noticed when something changed. It started with her own...

A gas station off a rural highway. Six pumps. One employee. Eight hours alone in the dark. In this episode we hear from Dex — a night shift attendant who spent fourteen months working the overnight at a small station in the rural south. Eleven of those months were fine. The last three were not. It started with Pump 4. During the dead stretch — 2 to 4AM when the lot went quiet — the display would l...

note: this episode includes the death of an elderly patient in a care facility setting. Some buildings are different at night. A nursing home at 3 a.m. is one of them. In our first episode, we hear from Renata — a night shift nurse who spent nearly four years on the overnight at a long-term care facility in the midwest. She was practical, grounded, not given to imagination. And then, for seven nig...