Auditory Anthology

When a paleontologist on an asteroid expedition encounters the last of an alien race, he faces an impossible request and a startling discovery that could change the future of two species. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.s...

Back in 2020 during the middle of the COVID pandemic, I released a sci-fi novel called Righteous Might. There was a movie I really liked as a kid called “The Final Countdown.” It wasn’t exactly a big hit in its day but by the time I came on the scene it used to play late at night all over the place. In it the USS Nimitz was caught in a storm, and when they came out the other side they found themse...

A murder aboard a starship, a vanished secret to faster-than-light travel, and the only witness is a silent, shapeshifting alien who may not be what it seems. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a pai...

An intern uncovers a mysterious news tape from a station that doesn’t exist—airing a broadcast from two days in the future. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commute pass a little faster. If you have a st...

In this episode we’re sharing the story "Blowups Happen", written in 1940 by Robert Heinlein. Among other things, Heinlein might be best known as the writer of Starship Troopers. This story was also featured on Weird Darkness, the paranormal podcast hosted by our narrator Darren Marlar. You can check out that podcast at Weird Darkness dot com.  "Blowups Happen" describes the tensions among th...

A man plagued since childhood by a recurring dream of a monstrous serpent stalking him across the African grasslands fears that if it ever catches him—even in sleep—he will lose his mind forever. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryant...

A coma patient who hasn’t spoken in five years suddenly sits up and warns a night nurse about something that will happen tomorrow—at the river, at exactly 2:14 p.m. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commu...

When a mysterious alien lands in small-town Illinois, the town must decide what makes someone a “person”… before it’s too late If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to e...

When Elliot gets a notification about an unexpected package at his apartment building, a mundane occurrence changes his entire understanding of life and the universe. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their com...

When a drunken guard leaves a woman stranded in a sleazy saloon on Ganymede, she finds an unlikely protector in a quiet, man whose strange cowardice may hide a deadly secret If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By...

A young nurse receives a page from a hospital room that no longer exists—and discovers a patient who claims he’s been waiting since 1953. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commute pass a little faster. If...

This week’s story is Slaughter On Dornel IV By Ivar Jorgensen . It was first published in Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in April of 1957. Most of the time, getting in a fight in a bar is a very bad idea. But for Larry, a human getting ready for a big boxing match on Dornel IV, it just might save his life If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https:/...

When Tom begins dreaming about deadly accidents— before they happen—he’s forced to confront a terrifying connection to strangers who never wake up. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commute pass a little...

After discovering a mysterious and disturbing painting in a museum, a man brings it home—only to find that some works of art were never meant to live beyond the canvas. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com By beco...

While adjusting to the night shift at a rural Mississippi hospital, a new nurse begins to suspect that reality itself is shifting around her—and that she may be the only one who notices. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stori...

At the bottom of the Atlantic, a small leak in Subatlantic Oil’s drilling chamber triggers a race against time — and a chilling reminder that ambition, arrogance, and pressure don’t just build under the sea. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https:/...

During a quiet late shift at a rural TV station, two staffers discover their broadcast has mysteriously crossed into a parallel reality—one where a familiar celebrity’s life has taken an impossible turn. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally tra...

This week’s story is The Star by H.G. Wells , which might be a prequel to The War of the Worlds. There’s actually a cameo by Ogilvy the Astronomer and the Martians, who are watching all of the hijinks on Earth from afar… probably with less envious eyes than they are in War of the Worlds. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia...

A night-shift nurse discovers a ghostly presence lingering in an empty hospital bed, its vital signs still active on the monitor years after the patient’s death. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help their commute...

This week’s story is The Shrine by Walt Sheldon. A skeptical American journalist journeys to a remote Japanese shrine in search of a story about magic—but what he finds challenges his understanding of everything If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: htt...

A screenwriter battling exhaustion and mounting pressure finds the line between fiction and reality dissolving when her dark, brooding anti-hero begins to rewrite his own story—and refuses to stay on the page. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Al...

This week’s story is Infiltration by Algis Budrys. An alien sleeper agent—hiding in human form for half a million years—senses the end of his mission approaching, as enemies prepare for the final move in a secret war humanity never knew it was hosting. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/ You can support the show by be...

A weary ER nurse's routine night is upended when a mysterious, burned patient from the future arrives with a cryptic warning of an impending disaster—and only she can stop it. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to Mason and Ally trading spooky stories to help...

This week’s story is Hang Head, Vandal By Mark Clifton . On a desolate Martian plain, a discarded spacesuit stuffed with straw sways from a homing tower—left behind by a crew fleeing the silent guilt of having unknowingly ignited the slow, unstoppable destruction of an alien civilization hidden beneath the dust. If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://subm...

After a grueling night at the studio, a TV producer wakes to find himself trapped in a time loop—repeating the same day again and again—until a mysterious figure appears with a cryptic clue that might be his only way out. Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has led to...