Sci-Fi – The Drabblecast

John Brown wears brown John Brown pants, on this week’s Drabblecast!  We present an original story by Kay Vaindal called “Nowhere.” Enjoy!  Kay Vaindal (she/her) is a coastal ecologist and weird fiction writer. Her work has appeared in Seize the Press, Dark Matter, and anthologies including This World Belongs to Us and Death’s Other Kingdom: […]

A lesson on loneliness on this week’s Drabblecast– an original story by Arasibo Campeche called “The Sol Searching Fool.” Arasibo Campeche (he/him)”Arasibo is originally from Puerto Rico and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and horror that’s often inspired by scientific principles. His work has appeared in numerous venues. […]

This week on the Drabblecast- a melancholy story about loss, abandonment, and the perils of old magic. Avra Margariti is a queer author, Greek sea monster, and Rhysling-nominated poet with a fondness for the dark and the darling. Avra’s work haunts publications such as Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, F&SF, Podcastle, Asimov’s, Vastarien, and Reckoning. You […]

Stop asking so many damn questions. Come and listen to the newest weird story from Pop-Pop. He’s got something important to tell you. Zachary Olson(he/him) is a freelance writer and composer from Phoenix, Arizona currently residing in Chicago. Updates on his work can be found on Twitter @obfuscatingGod and here.  Steve Lillie Find them here: […]

Lights! Wheels! Wipers! Curtain! This week, a marvel of machines and carbureted choreography awaits you.  Kay Vaindal (she/her) is a coastal ecologist and weird fiction writer. Her work has appeared in Seize the Press, Dark Matter, and anthologies including This World Belongs to Us and Death’s Other Kingdom: Horror Tales of WWI. Find them here.  […]

You have a ring on your door bell, and laid on your stoop is a brown papered parcel, tied with damp twine. You bring the package inside, noticing that the sky is tinged a weird green. You smell burning hair.  You pull the ends of the twine, which is warm and wet and reminds you […]

Your curiosity and your inner voyeur are calling. Will you be able to meet their gaze? This week on the Drabblecast we bring you “China Doll,”by Kelsea Yu. Our artists is Matt Driver. Sydney based artist. Instagram @mdriverart Read by the Word Whore. Kelsea Yu (she/her) is a Taiwanese Chinese American writer and mother living […]

This week on the Drabblecast, become something new!  We bring you two stories about transformation by author Christine Nogle.  Narrated by The Word Whore. Reach your full biological potential at the Drabblecast’s patreon.      FALL INTO WATER, BECOME SOMEONE NEW by Christine Nogle Lines after lines of picnic tables are set on the plain, […]

One, two, three, what’s that staring back at me? Four, five, six, I know what this viscera predicts… This week on the Drabblecast, we are going on a journey. Pack your bags, and bring extra socks for the clown. “Learn to Count with the Doomed Expedition” is a reprint story by T.B. Jeremiah. T. B. […]

This week on the Drabblecast, we have arrived in the seedy side of space. The sign on the front says, “Boffel’s”, and the sensation on your back you don’t recognize.  “Slime on My Hackles” is an original story by Jessica Jewell. Jessica Jewell (she/her) is a science fiction writer. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario with […]

Tickets, please! Tickets! Right this way! Coupons to the right, and fast passes to left. NO pushing, folks. Watch your tendrils! Keep your goo to yourself. All lines will get you to the newest episode, “From Earth, to Io with Love. ” by Adelehin Ijasan!     Adelehin Ijasan is a Nigerian writer living […]

This week on the Drabblecast– mutant hillbillies!   Cover art by Bo Kaier Exit the Professor by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore We Hogbens are right exclusive. That Perfesser feller from the city might have known that, but he come busting in without an invite, and I don’t figger he had call to complain afterward. In […]

An uncanny episode of original fiction this week on the Drabblecast– we bring you, “The Tenant” by Sarah E. Stevens. Cover created by Bo Kaier in concert with the midjourney text-to-image AI (and unidentifiable, scraped contributors). We hope to experience your enjoyment.         The Tenant by Sarah E. Stevens     Vanessa […]

Finally, a Drabblecast episode for weird foodies. We bring you a Drabblecast original called, “How to Impress a Top Food Critic and Put Your Restaurant on the Galactic Map” by P.A, Cornell. Enjoy… Episode Sponsor– Mothmen 1966 Cover created by Bo Kaier in concert with the midjourney text-to-image AI (and unidentifiable, scraped contributors).   How […]

Episode Sponsor: Mothman 1966 In this week’s Drabblecast story, the only scenes that aren’t sex scenes are crime scenes. We bring you an original Drabblecast story by Tim Pratt about a dark future of vigilante justice sex toys, called “The Distributed Denial of Sexytime.” Also, Norm and guest Executice Producer Bart Epstein treat us to […]

This week’s show brings you an original commissioned HP Lovecraft mythos story by Nick Mamatas called “When the Sun Hits.”  Afterwards, Nick talks about the story in an Author’s Note and Norm gives everyone an existential crises in a Drabble News presentation on The Boltzmann Brain. When the brain is liberated from the body, only […]

Shark week on Drabblecast has never been so unnerving!  Enjoy an original Drabblecast story this week from Evie Mae Barber about what lurks even deeper in the depths… The great white looked like he was having a good time, swimming upside down, bone-white belly above water, teeth gnashing playfully. Like a puppy dreams of finally […]

Dinosaurs gone awry on this week’s Drabblecast!  We bring you an original story by John Wiswell called The Tyrant Lizard (and Her Plus One), enjoy! Episode Sponsor: J.R. Hamentaschen’s horror anthology, “You Know It’s True” Free on Kindle Unlimited! Dinosaurs don’t want to kill you; they just don’t care that you’re there. More people have […]

Drabblecast wraps up Women & Aliens month with a gritty and intense story by James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice B. Sheldon.  Hope you’re hungry! Remembering— Do you hear, my little red? Hold me softly. The cold grows. I remember: —I am hugely black and hopeful, I bounce on six legs along the mountains in the […]

What makes a hero?  The Drabbecast brings you an original commissioned story by Cat Rambo this week called “The Hands of Heroes.” The thing is, I was never a hero. The first wave of aliens taught me that. The war with them – my older brothers became heroes there, one died in the stand-off at […]

Who says Drabblecast doesn’t do Young Adult Fiction? This week we launch Women & Aliens Month with a fresh, original Drabblecast commission by Effie Seiberg. We’re grateful to be able to bring you this story this week! On the day I turned nine I didn’t get a pet nebula. I’d really really wanted one, just […]

This week on the Drabblecast– three stories about Strange Futures. We bring you Drabblecast originals, “Department of Invention” by R.L. Thull, “The One’s Who Won’t Be” by Martin Munks, and “Cannabilism in the Inhuman Age” by Jaye Viner. Closing Music by 19 Action News Saul broke down in an unusual way for a robot. Saul […]

On this week’s show, every day is Earth Day when you’re living on an Elder God! We bring you a hidden gem from the 1930’s pulp science fiction era, written by Pulp Master General Edmond Hamilton!

We’d tested plenty of missiles before, but Teeny was the only one that convulsed when we cut him open. Oh, your listeners need more background? OK, I’ll back up a bit. Lemme tell ya, kids today don’t know their history. Even locked up in here for the past ten years, I can tell. No education. […]

Norm pays tribute and bids farewell to the greatest unsung hero of the podcast for the past two years: editor Sandra Odell. This fantastic story and many others have been brought to your ears through her hard work! Our story is another original Drabblecast commissioned story for Women & Aliens month, this week by Darcie […]

Our first Women & Aliens Month commission for 2020–  It’s a goodie, a full-cast production of a Drabblecast original by Rachel K. Jones and Khalida Muhammed-Ali. Wash up, it’s time for dinner! On this diplomatic mission, I, Scholar, have two objectives: first, to advise Master Feeder TikTik on Earth customs and linguistic differences, and second, […]

The Drabblecast begins it’s 9th Annual Women & Aliens Month”– a full month of original commissioned stories by women about (you guessed it) aliens. First though, the Drabblecast presents a story by author Margaret Atwood about musicals, fungus, aliens and… well, you’ll see! The Martians descend to Earth in their spaceship. They intend to go […]

Episode Sponsor- I’m From Nowhere, a novel by Lindsay Lerman. This week’s Drabblecast explores unrequited love and how relationships, like anything in life, are susceptible to change. We bring you a full cast production of David D. Levine’s space opera story “Love in the Balance,” read to you by Mike Boris, Lauren Synger, Veronica Giguere, Adam […]

In this Drabbleclassics episode, author and Drabblefan Weirdo Abbie Hilton breaks down the hit Drabblecast story Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. The ship had no name of her own, so her human crew called her the Lavinia Whateley. As far as anyone could tell, she didn’t mind. At least, her long grasping vanes […]

This week, the Drabblecast presents a full cast production of “1977” by Carrie Vaughn. “Have another one,” the guy said, and Megan did because she was thirsty, though a martini was probably not what she should be drinking. She was too far gone to question. She downed the drink in three swallows while the guy […]

This week the Drabblecast brings you two new, previously unpublished stories by SF genre luminary Robert Reed. Reed published his first novel, The Leeshore in 1987. Since then he has received nominations for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, as well as numerous other literary awards. In 2007, he won his first Hugo […]

Today The Drabblecast brings you an original story commissioned by Karen Heuler: “Beauty Tips for the Apocalypse.” Karen Heuler wrote her first novel when she was eleven, and she’s been worshiping books at the altar ever since. Story Excerpt: In times such as these, with the world shaken to its core, it is all too […]

This week The Drabblecast presents “Wet Fur” by Jeremiah Tolbert. From Jeremiah: “This story came to me wholly formed in a dream one day. I wrote it in a white hot tear, desperate to capture all the details and emotions that had seemed so immediate in the dream. It’s about how our pets live such […]

Closing out Women and Aliens month, The Drabblecast brings you another originally commissioned story: “Witches for Mars” by Eden Royce. It’s a surreal tale about considering greener pastures…   Story Excerpt: No one expected the government to allow it. To acknowledge it even, but Maira was looking at the advertisement above a webpage she was […]

Drabbleclassics: A fan-hosted Series that features fan-picked stories from the Drabblecast archives, remastered and brought to you by fans like our host this week, Bart Epstein.  Enjoy! This week for Drabbleclassics Bart Epstein brings your Primary Pollinator, by Nicole Kimberling. When Dr. Lopez came for me, I was plunging the geo lab toilet. She carried […]

Next up in Women and Aliens month: a Drabblecast original commissioned from author Eboni J. Dunbar, “The Translator.” Eboni Dunbar resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and specializes in queer and black speculative fiction. She is also a VONA Alum, an associate editor for PodCastle and a freelance reviewer. Story Excerpt: […]

We’re in the thick of Women and Aliens month, and we’re keeping it going with an original commissioned story— “The Moving Stars” by Premee Mohamed. Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and specfic auhor based out of Canada. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Pseudopod, Mythic Delirium, Automata Review, and other venues.  Her debut […]

“A Musical on a Submarine” Norm and author Kristine Kathryn Rusch discuss her story from way back in 2008 for Drabblecast #53. This is the “Director’s Cut – Sing.” We also dive into a discussion about unsung women in Science Fiction, like Leigh Bracket and James Tipree Jr. Why use a pen name after all? […]

Women and Aliens Month continues with Part 2 of “We Who Stole The Dream” by James Tiptree Jr., aka Alice Bradley Sheldon. If you have not heard part one, you can find that here. Sadism, slavery, power and oppression… are we ever truly innocent? Or is there the potential of cruelty in all of us? […]

The Drabblecast launches its 8th Annual Women and Aliens Month with Part 1 of “We Who Stole the Dream” by James Tiptree Jr. This is a dark, dystopian tale about sadism and slavery, and the potential for cruelty in all of us. Published postmortem in the 1990 compilation “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever,” this story […]

“My Kids Think I’m Nuts” Norm and Drabblecast Audio Producer Adam Pracht talk about the Maker’s Movement, everything wrong with Gloucester, the finer points of audio production and of course the three stories in this classic Trifecta Special themed around “Things We Made.” Drabblecast Director’s Cut Specials are regular monthly features where we bring back […]

This week The Drabblecast presents “The Day After the Day the Martians Came” by Frederik Pohl. Jokes can teach you a lot about the underlying anxieties of a culture. The old line “take me to your leader” was actually a jab at President Eisenhower’s leadership during the Cold War. This story is about jokes and […]

Today the Drabblecast brings you “Diamante and Strass” by Lucy A. Snyder. Lucy A. Snyder is a five-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author, appearing in publications such as Pseudopod, Strange Horizons, and Weird Tales. She lives in Columbus, Ohio and is faculty in Seton Hill University’s MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction.  Our story today has […]

A special throwback episode.  With One week left in the  Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter, Norm presents one of his favorite surreal stories from deep in the archive by Hootingyard writer and Resonance FM radio personality Frank Key, and gives us a teaser about Frank’s commissioned story for Drabblecast Kickstarter Supporters The bullet-riddled corpses of our dead […]

As the Drabblecast Reborn Kickstarter campaign continues, we bring you another Fan Pick: The Belonging Kind.  Drabblecast fan Kyle Sellers introduces this eerie story about how hard fitting in can be sometimes… It might have been in Club Justine, or Jimbo’s, or Sad Jack’s, or the Rafters; Coretti could never be sure where he’d first […]

The leadup to our Relaunch Kickstarter campaign continues with this Fan Pick: The Last Dog. This was a favorite of one of our newest team members, Jen Fisher, d(r)abbler of all things and master of none. We’ll be doing more of these with opportunities for fans to record their own introductions to their favorite stories […]

“Birds are what come after…” We present to you a special Relaunch Prelaunch episode—”The Director’s Cut: Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe.” This story was written by Ramsey Shehadeh and originally aired back in 2012. In it, Norm and author Ramsey Shehadeh talk about grief, Mr. Rogers, the apocalypse, and his popular story about compassion in the end […]

Norm sits down with author Shaenon Garrity to talk ghosts, comedy, and angry dogs in the Director's Cut: Flying on My Hatred of My Neighbor's Dog.

The Drabblecast concludes Women and Aliens month with “SUN MOON CAT MAN” by Julia Reynolds. This is a story about #Language#. #Language# is a key. #Language# can open doors of emotion, of empathy, and of connection. It unites us, it bonds us. #Language# can also lock those doors and keep us together alone. Story Excerpt: […]

Women and Aliens month continues with “Down the Well” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. Alaya is the author of speculative and historical fiction and has written six novels. Her stories have been featured in Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Welcome to Bordertown. She is also a recipient of the Cybils and Nebula awards. Story Excerpt: […]