PODCAST · fiction
The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane
by Jon Fredette
Readings of weird fiction and science fiction short stories combined with immersive sound design and music.
Episodes
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Episode 45: The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
First published in 1902 by Harper's Monthly and reprinted in his third collection of short stories The Lady of the Barge (also, 1902). The Monkey's Paw is one of the most well-known, adapted, and influential horror short stories ever written. An old war acquaintance brings a furry talisman in the...
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Episode 44: Midsummer by Arthur Machen
Arthur Machen, the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He has garnered a reputation as one most influential classic horror story authors to have ever written. Summary: Leonard, a farm hand, after a day in the city retires to his...
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Episode 43: Terra Incognita by Vladimir Nabokov
First published in the émigré journal Posledniya Novosti in Paris in 1931. Translated by the author and his son, the story was published in English in The New Yorker in May, 1963, and later added to A Russian Beauty and Other Stories.Three men traverse an area of unknown country, the tropical…
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Episode 42: The Beautiful Suit by H.G. Wells
Originally published under the title "A Moonlight Fable" in the April 10, 1909, number of Collier's Weekly. A young man acquires a hand-woven suit from his mother, and, becoming obsessed with its beauty over a period of days, he flees into the night with it. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by...
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Episode 41: The Awakening by Arthur C. Clarke
First published in Zenith in February 1942 and later revised and published in Future in January of 1952. Collected in The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937-1955. Upon discovering a terminal illness that will kill him within a year, an influential cult leader known only as "The Master" enters deep...
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Episode 40: The Guide by Ellis Peters
Ellis Peters (nom de plume of Edith Pargeter) was an English writer, and the short story (originally titled Guide to Doom) was first published in Alfred Hitchcocks: Stories that Scared Even Me in 1967. As a tour guide of an old fortified mansion finishes his last tour of the day, he is approached...
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Episode 39: Gateway of the Mind by Anonymous
Originally posted on Creepypasta on November 23, 2009 by an anonymous author. An experiment in the early 80s attempts to establish contact with God by depriving a test subject of all senses. Narration and Sound Design by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 38: The Writing of the God by Jorge Luis Borges
Original Spanish title: "La escritura del dios"First published in the literary magazine Sur in 1949, and later reprinted in The Aleph. An incarcerated magician seeks a divine script that will allow him the omnipotence to free himself and avenge the destruction of his pyramid at Qaholom. Voice…
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Episode 37: They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson
Originally published in 1991 through OMNI magazine. Two multidimensional aliens deliberate over contacting the human race once they realize their entirely made out of meat. Aliens: Mats Bennett and Jon FredetteSound Design by Jon Fredette
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Episode 36: An Inhabitant of Carcosa by Ambrose Bierce
First published in the San Francisco Newsletter of December 25, 1886 and was later reprinted as part of Bierce's collections Tales of Soldiers and Civilians and Can Such Things Be?A man from the ancient city of Carcosa awakens from a sickness-induced sleep to find himself lost in an unfamiliar...
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Episode 35: 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Published in the January 1962 in the Worlds of "If" Science Fiction magazine. A painter in the Chicago Lying-In Hospital witnesses an absurd scene in the lobby while he creates a mural immortalizing VIPs in a time of overpopulation. Cast (Instagram Handles): Painter - Gabriel Clausen...
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Episode 34: Leiningen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson
Originally published in the December 1938 edition of Esquire. It is a translation, probably by Stephenson himself, of "Leiningens Kampf mit den Ameisen" which was originally published in German in 1938.Summary: A Brazilian plantation owner and his 400 workers brave an onslaught of millions of...
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Episode 33: Darkness by Lord Byron
Written in July of 1816 and inspired by "The Year Without Summer", the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies the previous year, in which enough sulphur was cast into the atmosphere to change global temperatures and weather patterns. A post-apocalyptic "last man"…
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Episode 32: In the Court of the Dragon by Robert W. Chambers
First published in his collection The King in Yellow in 1895. An unnamed narrator attends an afternoon mass at the church St. Barnabe and has several frightful encounters with a menacing organ player. Sound Design, Music, and Narration by Jon FredetteMonseigneur C - Nik Marvin
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Episode 31: The Black Meat by Eric Dean
Published on Monologging.org, on S.H. Roddey’s Haunted Head, and in Literati Presents #5 by Literati Press. The original audio version, hosted on youtube.com/ericdean, was Recorded by Rish Outfield and released on his fiction podcast The Dunesteef...
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Episode 30: The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce
First published in the San Francisco Examiner on April 12, 1891 and reprinted in Bierce's collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians the same year. A narrator recounts what he knows of an old woodsman who lived in a mysteriously boarded up cabin for several years before his death. Music…
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Episode 29: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Originally published in the October edition of New Dimensions 3 in 1973. The story was nominated for the Locust Award for Best Short Fiction in 1974 and won the Hugo Award for Best Short story in the same year.The utopian Omelas enjoys its annual summer festival amid the dark secret that is kept...
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Episode 27: The Screwfly Solution by Raccoona Sheldon
Originally published in the anthology "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact" (June, 1977) the novelette went on to win the Nebula Award that year under the pen name James Tiptree Jr.As an unprecedented sickness spreads around the globe, a scientist hurries home to be with his wife and daughter.…
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Episode 26: Orientation by Daniel Orozco
Originally published in The Seattle Review and subsequently in The Best American Short Stories 1995.A new office employee is given orientation on the first day of work by a detached, yet knowledgable, veteran of the job.Narration, Sound Design, and Music by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 25: The Mirror by Haruki Murakami
Written in 1981/2 and published in 1983 in an undisclosed Japanese periodical. Later added to his short story collection Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman which was published in 2006. A man recalls a frightening experience he had in his brief time as a night watchman at a school in the Niigata...
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Episode 24: The Secret Miracle by Jorge Luis Borges
First published in the magazine Sur in 1943. Failed playwrite Jaromir Hladik is captured during the Nazi occupation of Prague in the early stages of World War II. Awaiting his execution in prison, he seeks redemption for a wasted life through contemplating his unfinished work, The Enemies....
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Episode 23: The Kraken by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
First published in Tennyson's first solo collection, "Poems, Chiefly Lyrical" (1830) when he was around 20 years old. One of the few sonnets Tennyson penned and with this one specifically he grossly distorts the sonnet form to better fit the horrendous mythical sea creature he describes.…
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Episode 22: The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino
A modern folktale which takes place in a parallel-universe New York City; mysterious lunar women are hypnotized by the moon's influence and converge at the edge of the city to undertake a clandestine task for the satellite. First written in 1968 and originally published with the rest of his…
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Episode 21: The Continuity of Parks by Julio Cortazar
"Continuidad de los parques" was originally written in Spanish and first published within the Editorial Sudamericana in 1964. Summary: A man settles down to finish reading an immersive novel and suffers the consequences of doing so. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 20: The Sect of the Idiot by Thomas Ligotti
First published in Crypt of Cthulhu in 1988. A man visits a nameless town and questions his existence as reality transforms into nightmare around him, leading him to a clandestine sect of dreams and dark dimensions. Narration, Sound Design, and Music by Jon Fredette
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Episode 19: The Moon-Bog by H.P. Lovecraft
First written around March 1921, the story was first published in the June 1926 issue of the pulp magazine Weird Tales.Summary: a man visits an isolated castle at Kilderry, where an old friend plans to drain an ancient and locally-revered swamp bog. Narration, Sound Design, and Composition by Jon...
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Episode 18: The Star by H.G. Wells
First published in the Christmas number of The Graphic in 1897. It is credited with the creation of the subgenre depicting the "impact event" of science fiction, and is referenced in Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". Summary: At the turn of the 19th century, a celestial collision in our...
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Episode 17: The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe
The story was first published in May 1842 in Graham's Magazine and has since been adapted in many different forms, including a 1964 film starring Vincent Price. Prince Prospero walls himself in one of his abbeys, passing the time with wealthy nobles in hedonistic masquerades, in hopes of waiting...
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Episode 16: Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan
Originally published in the March 2001 edition of Esquire magazine. It was the basis for the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. A man with anterograde amnesia hunts for his wife's murderer. Narration, Sound Design, Music Composition by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 15: The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges
Originally "Las ruinas circulares". First published in the literary journal Sur in December 1940. It was first published in English in View (Series V, No. 6 1946). An itinerant magician discovers a site of arcane, circular ruins, a forsaken temple, and finds inspiration to complete his earthly...
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Episode 14: Men Without Bones by Gerald Kersh
Originally published by Esquire in 1954. Summary: While at dock, a passenger of a banana boat encounters a mad, weary traveller seeking passage away from the terrors he experienced on a lost expedition. Dr. Goodbody played by Hunter Hash.Narration, Sound Design, and Composition by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 13: A Madman by Maurice Level
Summary: A psychopath finds brief reprieve from a prolonged depression in a Parisian daredevil's act. The Cyclist played by Tony Wolf. Narration, Sound Design and Composition by Jon Fredette.Jeanne Mareteux Level (1875-1926) was a doctor and author of some 700 'conte cruel', many of which were...
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Episode 12: Sredni Vashtar by Saki
Summary: With his imagination, a sickly boy creates his own religion, worshipping a merciless and vengeful god, to help him cope with his dull, depressive existence. Originally written by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) between 1900 and 1911 and initially published in his book The Chronicles of Clovis.…
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Episode 11: Aborted Mother by Mark Slade
Summary: A baby and her mother are visited at home by a gift-bearing stranger in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. Mark Slade has appeared in numerous publications such as The Stray Branch, Weird Year and Wicked Gardens. He has written/and created such audio shows as Blackout City, The Sundowners and...
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Episode 10: The Hidden Beast by J.D. Beresford
Summary: A man encounters an isolated stranger who lives at the edge of his village and discovers there is more to the stranger than he first surmised. John Davys Beresford (17 March 1873 – 1 February 1947) was an English writer, now remembered for his early science fiction and some short stories...
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Episode 9: The Vector by Jon Fredette
Summary: The fate of humankind hinges on informational broadcasts from the Emergency Alert System about an unknown pathogen outbreak. I decided to write a short story and keep the podcast going while I am away from my home system and incapable of recording my voice. Story, composition and sound...
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Episode 8: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
Summary: Peyton Farquhar, a plantation owner in his mid-thirties, is being prepared for execution by hanging from an Alabama railroad bridge during the American Civil War.Background Info: Originally published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 13, 1890, it was first collected in Bierce's 1891...
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Episode 7: The Russian Sleep Experiment by An Unknown Author
Summary: In the 1940s, Russian scientists kept 5 men awake for 15 straight days. The results were horrifying. Background Information: This story was taken from the horror site Creepy Pasta, and is one of the more celebrated stories on the site. To my knowledge, the author is still unknown to this...
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Episode 5: Dagon by HP Lovecraft
Summary: the testament of a tortured, morphine-addicted man who plans to commit suicide over an incident that occurred early on in World War I when he was a merchant marine officer and adrift on the open ocean. Written in July 1917, one of the first stories HP Lovecraft wrote as an adult. It was...
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Episode 4: The Sphinx by Edgar Allen Poe
Summary: A man encounters a terrific monster and believes it to be an omen of his own death. Background Information: "The Sphinx" was only published once, in Philadelphia's Arthur's Ladies Magazine during January of 1846. The story takes place right outside of New York City, where Poe was living...
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Episode 3: The Vulture by Franz Kafka
(orig. German Der Geier) Written sometime between 1917 and 1923, shortly after Kafka's diagnosis with tuberculosis. A vulture slowly eats a man alive as he contemplates his salvation and the inevitable end. Read by Tony Wolf. "The Gentleman" and Sound Design by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 2: The Bridge by Franz Kafka
Originally written in 1916. Published posthumously in Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin, 1931). A bridge, personified, tells of its existence, purpose, and demise. Read by Jon Fredette. Sound Design by Jon Fredette.
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Episode 1: Nyarlathotep by HP Lovecraft
First published in 1920 to the November edition of The United Amateur. The arrival of an unknown evil alters the path of humanity forever. Read by Jon Fredette. Sound Design by Jon Fredette.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Readings of weird fiction and science fiction short stories combined with immersive sound design and music.
HOSTED BY
Jon Fredette
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane have?
The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane currently has 43 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane about?
Readings of weird fiction and science fiction short stories combined with immersive sound design and music.
How often does The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane release new episodes?
The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane has 43 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane?
You can listen to The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane 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 The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane?
The Oddcast: Tales of the Occult, Weird, and Arcane is created and hosted by Jon Fredette.
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