PODCAST · comedy
A Thousand Maybe Worlds
by Rocket to Mars
Two non-experts work their way through the entire available run of the old time radio anthology X Minus 1 with occasional guests.
Episodes
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Episode 55--"Mr. Costello, Hero"
Rescued from obscurity, an episode we recorded in July of 2017. We briefly discuss the story of a convincing activist and then the nature of evil. Insights into people bad at blackmail, audiobook celebrities, and Richard's dating profile. Are we back? One can only hope.
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Episode 54 -- "Where Ever You May Be" X Minus One
Now featuring both of us... William Redfield and Ernest Kinoy do their best to delight us with a really dumb story, Richard dreams of Bewitched, Ryan gets creeped out by old timey sexual innuendo and we all find a way to enjoy something bad. Ryan gives it a 2 and Richard a 3 like us on...
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Episode 53 -- "Project Trojan" X Minus One
From out of nowhere comes a new episode. That we kind of discuss. As well as Riverdale, other anthologies, and Ryan eventually falls off the planet. Ryan gives it a 7 and Richard gives it a 6.5 in a category divide. Follow us at Twitter @1000maybeworlds, facebook...
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Episode 52--"If You Was a Moklin" X Minus One
We complete a years worth of weekly episodes in the span of a year an half or so with Murray Leinster's "If You Was a Moklin" where we discuss the line between adorable and scary, we forget our own podcasting history, and discuss evolution the way people who don't 'believe' in evolution think it...
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Episode 51--"Project Mastodon" X Minus One
I finally got some time set aside to edit one of the two episodes on deck, so here for your listening pleasure is Simak/Kinoy joint Project Mastodon. Topics include chill time travelers, goofy plans, a half-assed history of our writing, and the defense contractor pitch for top down scrolling…
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Episode 50 - "Lulungameena" X Minus One
We're back. We've flipped the audio problems once again as we dive into the linguistic sorta story "Lulungameena." We discuss arcane grammar rules, ruin classic comedy bits, and quibble over what literal is. Ryan give it a 7, Richard a 6.5 [email protected] @1000MaybeWorlds and A...
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The Final 7 Minutes of Episode 49
So, somewhere along the line, I erased the last seven minutes of Richard's recording on the last episode...or i have space madness and Richard is just in my head... Either way, he was elbow deep in what is undoubtably the most popular part of the podcast, him talking about books he's read. So for...
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Episode 49--"The Defenders" X Minus One
Finally it's here, except there's twenty minutes up front where Richard talks about Lem instead, then pitches a few shows based on mis-speaking, and eventually we get into a bunker episode that washes the taste of Hello, Tomorrow out of our mouths. Ryan clocked in at a 7 and Richard an 8 Find us…
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Episode 48 -- "Hallucination Orbit" X Minus One
Our first remote recording, some audio problems, timing problems, but it's an uploadable episode so here it goes. X-1s grumpiest man returns in a space madness episode "Hallucination Orbit". Ryan complains about his stomach, Richard reads a kids book, and we encounter the first man in literature…
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Episode 47 -- "The Seventh Order" X Minus One
Richard gets the title right on the second try, but Ryan can't count. Another invasion story, this time from a Blue Man Group Robot. Bad piloting, a strange plan, and another episode we talk ourselves out of liking in this week's belated episode. Fours all around. Do the facebook thing at...
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Episode 46--"Sea Legs" X Minus One
Back from the dead, the first of the previously lost episodes "Sea Legs" despite the fact that Richard calls it "The Seventh Order" and Ryan agrees. Listen as we slowly talk ourselves into disappointment, Richard soapboxes a pet peeve again, we get Ryan's favorite grumpy voice actor William...
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A Thousand Maybe Worlds Special: The Brooklyn Brain 2000 Plus
So, maybe my hard drive did not survive this last move, maybe it's just the power supply. Either way, hard drive failure and last minute thinking have brought you this special edition of A Thousand Maybe Worlds, our pre-release test recording of the 2000+ episode"The Brooklyn Brain." I haven't…
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Episode 45--"A Sense of Wonder" X Minus One
The ship is all, praise the ship...yep, we're on another generation ship and it's stupider than Ryan remembers. Goofy dialog and wooden characters leads to a discussion about classic dystopian novels, an old table top roleplaying game, and Richard drops a Small Wonder reference. It's twos all...
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Episode 44--"Jaywalker" X Minus One
Hey, did you like "Cold Equations" but thought that there needed to be a stupid personal drama and a way out of the situation? What's wrong with you? Well, here's "Jaywalker," where we talk about how bad the episode was, ways in which the episode was bad, and the general badness of the episode....
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Episode 43--"Star, Bright" X Minus One
Every parent's fantasy, a super genius child that transcends human existence. You know, with shenanigans. We discuss the dual-pronged difficulty of writing geniuses and children at the same time, what math goes where, and our different experiences in gifted programs. I don't remember the ratings,...
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Episode 42--"How-2" X Minus One
A kit getting shipped by accident causes an existential crisis, but the silly music keeps playing. Richard has a moment with an author he's almost read, Ryan proposes a new way to listen to The Shadow, and we come to terms with rooting for the bad guy. In a contentious three quarters of a point,...
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Episode 41--"A Pail of Air" X Minus One
The ultimate blanket fort goes in search of a story but gets lost along the way. Richard forgets a fallacy, Ryan...shit, I may have sat this one out..., and we make a hard pitch for our perennial not-a-sponsor in this week's "A Pail of Air" Hand wringy 4.5s and 5s as we try and give this episode…
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Episode 40--"A Thousand Dollars a Plate"
We go straight into lament that this story wasn't the pilot to a sci-fi McHale's Navy. We name drop a bunch of other old sitcoms, including Richard's take on Hogan's Heroes, we do the worst musical number in all of podcastdom, and we return to a classic by turning on teenagers. Ryan gave it an 8...
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Episode 39--"Tunnel Under the World" X Minus One
We go long and even occasionally talk about the episode. People from the future who can't remember the past encounter future disappointment, Richard gives Ryan an affirmation, Ryan throws shade on Dark City (get it?), Richard shares some hate for The Crow. Plus some Matrix talk and it all somehow...
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Episode 38--"A Gun for Dinosaur" X Minus One
We go way back in time with some characters equally out of time to explain why you need to be able to handle a big gun for dinosaur in..."A Gun for Dinosaur." Ryan gets all kinds of names wrong, Richard explains why there's no time travel Santa Claus, and we encounter the anti-sucker punch.…
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Episode 37--"Junkyard" X Minus One
The making up continues as we explore the Simak story, "Junkyard." We discuss the unimportance of details, have a minor nerd off on other subjects we bore people with at parties, and our willingness to just assume our heroes are wrong about what's going on if the rest of the story is charming....
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Episode 36--"Skulking Permit" X Minus One
This is it, we're in Sheckley territory now. We gush over one of our favorite episodes by one of our favorite X Minus One adapted authors. We discuss the role of sincerity in narratives and society, decide that generational stereotypes are heat loss, and Ryan misremembers a story he just listened...
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Episode 35--"C-Chute" X Minus One
Back on schedule-ish just in time for the heretic roles to be reversed. Richard talks through his problems in search of why he didn't like this story which involves a few greatest hits and why we don't like The Breakfast Club. Richard gave it a 4.5 and Ryan gave it a 7...imagine. You'll have to...
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Episode 34--"Cave of Night" X Minus One
Turns out we were faking space long before we got to the moon, also playing with 'found footage' style narratives. Richard puts his foot down on anthropomorphic nature documentaries, we contemplate why the obvious solution wasn't used, and Richard launches right into the reading corner. Richard...
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Episode 33--"Time and Time Again" X Minus One
Almost in time for Groundhog's Day a Groundhoggy story...sort of. Ryan is apparently trying to not wake a baby, Richard pitches hard for the CW, and Ryan tries to start a religion. Ryan gave it a begrudging 6.5, Richard a surprising 9. Click to like us on facebook, follow us at @1000MaybeWorlds…
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Episode 32--"The Roads Must Roll" X Minus One
We spend about as much time on plot as this story did, which is to say hardly anything. Instead we gave local shoutouts, threw unprovoked shade on Stockton, and generally had a hard time wrapping our head around the premise. Richard gave it a 4.5, Ryan never got around to scoring it. Click to…
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Bonus--Sound check nonsense...Richard explains nuts
If there's anyone out there who can't get enough of Richard explaining food to Ryan, here's a little bonus discussion about nuts. For no reason. Except I may or may not be able to stay awake through this week's edit...
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Episode 31-- "A Logic Named Joe" X Minus One
In the best prediction of the future yet, the internet (Logic) meets it's first hacker, a snotty 12 year old. There's fawning, there's Ryan mispronouncing names, Richard spoils a book he recommends, and we go over the first year of X Minus One while insisting on calling it a season. Ryan gave it…
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Episode 30--"Marionettes, Inc" X Minus One
It's the episode that broke Richard. 50s husband caricatures deal with their equally thinly drawn wives with robots. Having not listened to "Perigi's Wonderful Dolls," they don't see the twists coming. Richard loses it about halfway through and filibusters for twenty minutes on places to get a…
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Episode 29--"To the Future" X Minus One
Time traveling vacationers visit 1955 and manage to not almost hook up with their parents in the Ray Bradbury tale "To The Future." We quibble over who the protagonist really is, talk about vague war, and for once Ryan doesn't have to be drug along to like a Ray Bradbury story. He still rates it...
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Episode 28--"Nightfall" X Minus One
We explore a goofy premise well executed in Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall"...usually I try and pick three things that happen, but mostly we just try and figure out how this story happens. And yet, we kind of liked it. Richard parsed out a 7.75 and Ryan a flat 7. Find us on Facebook, follow us on...
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Episode 27--"The Vital Factor" X Minus One
This week we (eventually) tackle X Minus One's erstwhile Elon Musk taking on space travel. Richard gets what he wished for Monkey Paw style; we discuss the relative lack of merit in poorly formed internet debates about economics, and we wonder out loud if engineers move in herds. It's 4s all…
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Episode 26--"There Will Come Soft Rains/Zero Hour" X Minus One
We take on a Bradbury two-fer that may not have actually happened and definitely contains both the X Minus One intro and part of the Dimension X intro. In the combining spirit we get the house death of "There Will Come Soft Rains" and the killer kid invasion story "Zero Hour" where we don't…
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Episode 25--"The Outer Limit" X Minus One
Today we learn that aliens have a bad grasp of the idea of 'quarantine' and 'warning' as we travel into the Outer Limit. On deck is people bad at science, weird alien morality, the Fantastic Four, and Richard all but invites you to sucker punch him. Ryan suffered from fatigue giving it a 5…
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Mini-sode 2--Who Wore it Best: X-1 vs Escape "Mars is Heaven"
Since Ryan doesn't know why his files are too big, we need to make a mini episode to fill a five-Wednesday December. This month we play "Who Wore it Best," comparing stories adapted by other radio anthologies. Up first is Escape's version of "Mars is Heaven" from 1950. We discuss story…
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Episode 24--"Dwellers in Silence" X Minus One
Ted makes his triumphant return for another Bradbury where people return from Mars to find a strange family. The finer points of the robot revolution are discussed, Ryan still doesn't know how food works, and Richard announces something that's been happening for six months in his new segment…
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Episode 23--"Hello, Tomorrow" X Minus One
We go underground for the first of our bunker tales. We discuss people bad at their jobs, the old paper and pencil game Paranoia, and terrible last lines. Richard gave it a 5.5 but Ryan needs to watch you experience that last line, giving it a 3.5 in an issue of how to rate the bottom episodes…
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Episode 22--"Requiem" X Minus One
An old man enlisting carnies to go into space--what could go wrong? Ryan achieves the impossible, Richard contemplates libertarianism without the hatred of the poor, and we discuss how many cylinders are too many cylinders. Ryan was charmed to an 8, Richard gives it a rounded up 7. Find us on...
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Episode 21--"Child's Play" X Minus One
We get our first mis-delivery episode as a nervous man gets a kit to build a man and promptly makes a clone of himself that is brimming with confidence, including the confidence to do away with his nervous self. The word 'nebbish' gets used a lot, Richard asks for another impression recasting, we...
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Episode 20--"First Contact" X Minus One
Earth has its first encounter with aliens in the vastness of space and then runs into a problem of what to do next. It's a first contact without Vulcans, Picard, or "Spirit in the Sky"...including Ryan's disappointment that it's not the version with the bombastic captain, a general admiration of...
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Episode 19--"And the Moon Be Still as Bright" X Minus One
I went to a wedding, then a birthday party, then at the last second decided to celebrate Back to the Future Day, but better late than never, right? Right? Aaaaannyway...Ray Bradbury takes us back to Mars and reveals that Ryan doesn't know much about poetry, confuses Bradbury stories named from...
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Episode 18--"The Castaways" X Minus One
More stranded aliens and another contentious doctor/commander relationship while we contemplate an intergalactic Improv Everywhere, a brief thought on a CW version, and Richard makes the case for Coneheads. Ryan gives it an 8 Richard landed on 7.5 Find us on facebook, follow us on Twitter...
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Episode 17--"Martian Death March" X Minus One
We slog through a western in space where the subtlety in allegory gives way to a giant hammer of obvious. Mistakes were made, Ryan comes dangerously close to achieving his goal, and we discuss the value of doing a bad job well. Fives all around. Find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter...
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Episode 16--"Shanghaid" X Minus One
Well, it's what's on the tin. We go spelunking to find a deeper meaning in a regular ol' story set in space. As usual, this means a visit to Richard's reading corner and an exploration of the non-existent "episode two" of this X-1 episode. Ryan gave it a 5.5 Richard gave it a begrudging 4.02...
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Episode 15--"Cold Equations" X Minus One
We finally cover an episode we keep talking about and proceed to not talk much about the otr X-1 episode "Cold Equations." A rambling discussion about ethics and science fiction story telling, adult stories and a lot of gushing. Can we make a good episode out of a good episode, listen and find…
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Episode 14--"Courtesy" X Minus One
What if Wheaton's Law was enforced by a deadly disease? We explore that idea discussing the X-1 episode "Courtesy" by Clifford Simak. Topics range from plot convenient deaths, an entire culture overreacting as one, and perhaps one of the biggest jerk characters we've had so far. Plus Richard…
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Episode 13--"Almost Human" X Minus One
This week we talk about the otr X-1 episode "Almost Human," gangsters and robots, the author of Psycho, Pinocchio and Frankenstein and what makes a good robot story, we invite our listeners to speculate on how different directors would approach the story, and halfway through demanding an Iron…
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Bonus Mini-Episode 1--Random Outtakes, Soundchecks, and Nonsense
So, every once in a while there are five Wednesdays in a month, and we're a small podcast that can only afford storage for four, especially when we get chatty. But we don't want to leave you hanging for the week, so here are some outtakes as Ryan tries his best to get the hosts talking to adjust...
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Episode 12--"The Veldt" X Minus One
Kids, right? We quibble on whether Bradbury's poetry in the text can overcome issues with the story, on who is the worst about 'kids these days,' and how your iPad is going to lead to your kids feeding you to a lion. Or something. Richard gave it a 6.5 Ryan gave it a 3
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Episode 11--"The Embassy" X Minus One
In this episode we answer the question, "What if The Parade was kind of boring?" Richard spoils an unrelated Clifford Simak story and talks about Barney Miller, we lament the early demise of Iron Man Dugan, and we start to establish a "bell curve" to our ratings. We both gave it a 4. Like us on...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does A Thousand Maybe Worlds have?
A Thousand Maybe Worlds currently has 60 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is A Thousand Maybe Worlds about?
Two non-experts work their way through the entire available run of the old time radio anthology X Minus 1 with occasional guests.
How often does A Thousand Maybe Worlds release new episodes?
A Thousand Maybe Worlds has 60 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to A Thousand Maybe Worlds?
You can listen to A Thousand Maybe Worlds on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts A Thousand Maybe Worlds?
A Thousand Maybe Worlds is created and hosted by Rocket to Mars.
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