thinplacesradio

[thinplacesradio]

cereal tastes better at night because the veil is thin

#reblog

[thinplacesradio]

#reblog #😭

[thinplacesradio]

two shopping carts discarded on their sides in the grass beside a parking lot, the grate of a storm drain visible in front of them. the greens, pinks, and blues of the image are heightened. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[027] THE LONG DISTANCE. A CALLER ASKS FOR RELATIONSHIP ADVICE. THE HOST GETS GROCERIES.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] 

I’m coming to you solo from my studio, which is what I like to call this closed-for-the-night grocery store, lit only by the white pulse of the fridges, and the strip of lights along the back wall of the store. I was trying to find that bowling alley again, and I know that this is the same town, but the bowling alley is gone, like it never existed. 

I know it did, though. It meant something to me while I was there. 

It’s strange to see the grocery store like this, shelves hulking and dark and rising up around me as I pass through the aisles. It’s strange to see it like this, which means that even though I can’t remember going grocery shopping in my old life, because there must have been an old life, I must have gone, and it must have been during the day, surrounded by the bustle of other people. Other people. Other people, huh. [laughs] No.

It’s always more fun to go grocery shopping with somebody else, tossing things in the cart and taking them back out, and joking about the names of the brands, and talking about your days. There’s nobody with me now, but there’s somebody a few aisles back. I’ve been hearing them follow me for the last half hour as I pick out what food I’m going to take back to my car. 

I’m sure I’ll see them when I reach the last aisle. But now that I’m looking, there are three aisles left in front of me, before the cold glow of the dairy section. There have been three aisles in front of me, before I reach the cold glow of the dairy section, for the last half hour. But here’s the thing. I’m dying for some cheddar. 

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Is this place cursed, or are you cursed in this place? 

Have you fallen in love with the universe? 

Are you looking for a friend? 

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

Hi here. I know you normally don't do romance advice or, you know, couple advice, but this one might be just a little bit more up your alley? Uh, you see the relationship I'm in is with an entity that’s a cosmic entity the size of a galaxy. Yeah. It's a little weird but it actually works out pretty well. We communicate through telepathy, and they actually contacted me years ago, and they've been helping me out ever since. And we've really become close. They're great, but sometimes I feel like, because they're so different, that I can't show the same support they give me. They never complain, but it's more of a personal thing. So when it comes to someone very different, especially in a long-distance relationships like ours, how can I show my support for them?

[click] 

You’re right, caller, your question is a little bit outside of my wheelhouse. I don’t remember exactly who I’ve loved, or exactly how. I don’t remember what it feels like to be loved, but I remember what it feels like to love. I must. I can feel the ghost of it. [eerie, curious music] There are people I miss, even if I don’t know why. I do miss them. I - I miss my mom, I think. 

But I’ll try my best here, for your sake. You’re missing things, too - someone to go to the grocery store with. Someone to touch. That specific someone, a world unto themselves. I’m glad you’re not asking me a question I can’t answer - will it last? How long will you have with them? None of us ever have as much time as we think we do. It’s sweet that you’re spending yours thinking about how to give back the love and support that you receive. 

But, why do you think that just being yourself isn’t enough, caller? Just speaking to them makes you feel supported. Maybe speaking to you makes them feel the same way. Or maybe they don’t need to feel supported - maybe you give them something else they do need. Groundedness. A personal touch. A reminder that there’s somebody out there in the vast void of existence. A way to pour their love out so they don’t have to keep it all to themselves. 

But my best advice is to stop guessing. If you don’t know what they need? Ask them. It’s the one luxury you’ve got. 

[click]

[music playing] [cart wheels spinning] [overhead announcement from the Traveling Sales Rep:] Don’t miss our sale on hagfish slime. It’s a great deal, we’re practically giving it away. Please take some. It won’t stop spreading. Freakishly fast. Related to that, can we get someone to clean up aisles 6, 7, 8, and 9? And 10? Don’t miss that slime, and don’t make me go in there. Please.] 

Who was that? 

[click] 

The dairy section remains 3 aisles ahead of me, but I’ve fashioned a kind of pulley system out of materials I found in the pantry, baking, and cleaning aisles. I think that if I throw this part kind of like a lasso -

[clanging] [dragging]

Okay, no, hold on -

[clanging, dragging] 

No, let me just -

Haha! Yes! F**k yeah! We’re having a good night after all, folks. And all by ourselves, too. [pause] Kind of, there's that - I think there's someone trapped in that hagfish slime? I’ll go look on my way out. 

[click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by a mystery caller. The sound FX, music, and voice of our Travelling Sales Rep are by Miles Morkri. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme and Unearthed, by Miles Morkri. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

#027 #the long distance #mystery caller #thin places radio #tpr #episodes #fiction podcast #liminal #surreal #thin places #traveling sales rep #relationship advice

[thinplacesradio]

Where to go? All signs point to the same place.

#reblog #hee hee

[thinplacesradio]

Got Bones? (Printable)

Hey, I made a printable .PNG version of that “got bones” flyer if anyone wants to make a few copies to hang up in real life and cause some minor chaos around their town. Have fun, feel free to send me pics if you stick it up anywhere

#reblog

[thinplacesradio]

Driving through the night across Oklahoma

Taken March 2021

#reblog

[thinplacesradio]

stacked sound equipment and a radio with glowing green numbers. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[026] THE SEEKER... A CALLER WAITS. THE SEEKER HEARS A VOICE ON THE RADIO.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[traveling sales rep: don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right b-]

[a high-register voice, not the Host’s:]

Car radio, yet again. Fixed, for now. It’s from a 2005 Honda CR-V, which I know is old, but, as you know, it’s been acting up for months now, um, and it finally just gave out on me. I don’t even know what worked to resurrect it here, but, well. [tools moving] The mystery of life, I guess. I’m sure it’ll start jumping stations again any day now.

[beep]

I could use a distraction so we are back to the transmitter. I’m building it from scratch instead of from a kit, uh, which basically means I’m just buying the parts that would have been in the kit separately, so I don’t really know if I’m saving money here or losing it. [tools clink] It’s pretty much kid stuff, but hey. It’s nice to go back to the basics sometimes, I guess. I think just to make it interesting I might take one of the old desktops to see if I can link it to some visuals? With different colors representing, I dunno, different letters, maybe? Maybe… make it so the words will show up as you tap the code in? Or I could just leave it with the binary, do kind of a black and white thing. I don’t know. [sigh] I don’t know.

[beep]

[phone ringing] [voicemail]

Hey, it’s me, you know what to do!

[beep]

[phone ringing] [voicemail]

Hey, it’s me, you –

[beep]

No one knows where she is, why does nobody know where she is. I - I think there’s something wrong.

[beep]

[phone ringing]

We’re sorry. You have reached a number that has been disconnected, or is no longer in service. To -

[beep]

I didn’t quit my job today. This isn’t really a project log, but I almost quit my job today, and I didn’t, and I, I think that deserves to be noted down, somewhere. I love what I do. But - doing it doesn’t seem as important anymore when I could be looking for her. I know I haven’t found a single thing, but that’s no reason to stop. I - [sigh]

I don’t know why I’m talking around it like this. Someone that matters to me is gone, and no one knows what happened, or why, or if - 

I wish she was just ghosting me, specifically. Like, that’s not something I want, at all, but I would take it if it meant that she was safe, living her life somewhere else. [sigh]

I don’t. I don’t think she’s dead. I really hope she isn’t dead. Sometimes I’d be at work glancing at the chat and there would be no new messages. Or at home with my phone on the table building myself a new desktop, and there would be no new messages. But I could still feel her on the other side, connected to me with that, I don’t know, electronic tether. Even when she wasn’t there, it helped knowing that she was somewhere.

That’s how it feels, still. I think she’s somewhere. I just don’t know where.

[voicemail]

Hiiiii, iris! Hi-riss! That’s nothing, sorry.  I texted you but I guess you must’ve lost track of time? I’ll just scale the building here and crawl in the IT window - you guys have windows, right? I feel like I imagine you in like a scifi basement most of the time. Anyway. I’m here, I’ll see you soon. Get down here before I bribe the security guard to let me in. I... yeah. See ya. I’ll be here.

[beep]

[morse code beeping] 

T-E-S-T. S-O-S. [pause] Where… are… you? 

Stupid, Iris. Just, stupid.

[beep] [equipment rustling, clinking, scraping]

It was, um, same company, different cities. I called her on the phone before I ported in to fix her computer, and she was – warm? Tired. Not exactly funny, but trying to make me laugh. I didn’t, but I thought about it, just to see if she’d laugh back? She messaged me on the company chat after, to thank me, and sent me a link to an article we’d been talking about while I worked on her desktop. I don’t remember what it was about even though it feels like I should. There are a lot of things I’m already forgetting. But I messaged back, and then we didn’t stop messaging. Until eight months ago.

I always want to know more about everything. Too much, probably. I can never stop digging. But she was the only one who really wanted to know more about… me.

I’m glad I got to meet her, but - I was supposed to keep meeting her - I - 

[beep]

[morse code beeping]

Don’t… be… dead.

[beep] [equipment moving aggressively]

Rob told me today that if I’m not going to go out for drinks with them after work anymore my only hobby can’t be looking for someone who’s been missing for a year. Really kind of insensitive, honestly. [huff] But I have been reading too many police reports, so today I will be starting a new project altogether.

[beep]

It’s the car radio, again, always the car radio. I should just buy a new one at this point, but then I’d never find out what was wrong with this one. Alright, okay, we’re trying scanning again, here we go.

[channels scan] [we hear the Sales Rep, and then the Host, cutting in and out:]

- Thank you for - feel - on - as always, our number is 71–

[Iris scrambles to stop the station but misses it. She tries tuning it back.]

Wait, wait wait wait wait. W-wait wait wait. 102 point 1. Oh my god. Oh my God. Wait. Hold on. 102 point - Wait, come back. Come back. 

I don’t – I don’t understand – [the road prov-] that’s Ha -

[beep] [keyboard clacking] 

I’m not the only person who’s heard her. There are people on subreddits talking about catching a radio call-in show on one frequency, exactly when they needed to hear it, but then not finding it again when they look for it, but just - How do I not need to hear it?

Here’s what I know about “the Host,” from what they know about the Host. Um, she’s always moving somewhere. She cares about her listeners. She’s experiencing impossible things, and so are the people calling in. And there’s a number.

Here’s what I know about my friend. She listened. She hated her job and always wanted a longer break. She loves pigeons and thinks that if aliens exist they’re single celled and acidophilic. She misses her mom. She was always reaching out for something. She was my friend.

[frantic music begins]

I know her voice, even if I haven’t heard it again. I know it was her, and I know I’m going to hear it again. I’m going to find the station. I’m going to find her.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. 

The voice of Iris is Kaitlin Bruder. 

The voice of H[static] is Kristen O’Neal. 

Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music track you heard in tonight’s episode is: Junoon by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Junoon plays]

#if you're gonna listen to an episode make it this one. fyi. #026 #the seeker #thin places radio #tpr #episodes #fiction podcast #liminal #surreal #thin places #caller: redacted #:) #iris

[thinplacesradio]

a snowy, tree-lined residential street, lit by a yellow streetlamp on the right and and the warm glow from the houses. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[025] THE FRIEND. A CALLER REACHES OUT. THE HOST HEADS HOME.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] 

[soft street noises] [crickets]

I’m coming to you one foot in front of the other from my studio, which is what I like to call the darkened street with the careful orange glow of street lights rising up above and around you as you walk home from your shift, wired headphones trailing down from your ears. Your hands are in your coat pockets. You didn’t turn any music on before you left, but you’re not gonna do it now, either. There’s something about the moment that it doesn’t seem like you can interrupt. 

You’ve been at this job for a month, now, and you’re starting to feel like you’ll never get the hang of it. Every time you clock out, your head’s too full, and your neck is too sore. But you’re telling yourself a lie. Not that you mean to. It seems true right now, on this street corner, as you hurry across to the other side. But it isn’t. 

[owl hooting]

Everybody feels like this at the start of something new, even if it’s exciting, and even if you’re good at it. [crow cawing] Your hands will become surer. Things will become second nature. You’ll be the person the next new person asks for help, and you’ll help them. I promise. It’s all already happened. 

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Are you having relationship trouble?

Have you been feeling lost in a big city? 

Have you felt the presence of your lost loved ones near you? 

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

Hey, long time listener, first time caller. I don't really have a story. I just wanted to maybe ask a question. I recently moved, and I'm from the deep South, a very very small City, and I moved to a much bigger city far away. More people than I've ever really been around in my whole life, if I’m being honest. And if I'm being honest, I don't really have many friends here, and I've never felt more alone. But your voice is very comforting, and you seem so nice, and I'm - I guess I was wondering if we could be friends? That's all. Thank you. My name’s Adrian, by the way, and I hope that we can call each other friends. Thank you.

[click] 

Hi, caller, thank you for listening, and for picking up the phone to finally call in. I could use a friend, too, these days, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like I remember how to be one, with all these gaps in the person that I used to be. But there are ways to introduce yourself even when you don’t know your own name, or where you came from. 

Hi, Adrian, I’m talking to you as all the people that I used to be, but forgot. I’m talking to you as myself. [searching music] I like Doritos, but I hate jerky. I love what I do, even when it’s hard, and I know that I’m heading somewhere, because I’m trying to do it. I love listening to these calls, and I love you, too. 

Everybody feels like this at the start of something new, even when it’s exciting. Everybody feels like this, but nobody feels it exactly like you do, right now, what you brought with you on purpose from where you came from and what you left behind, and what you tried to leave behind but brought with you, by accident, because you didn’t know how not to. 

You say you recently moved, and I want to tell you that time will help ease the loneliness, because I think that it will. But you’ll also have to do what you’ve done, right now, with me - reach out to somebody else. And you’ll have to do it over and over. But people will reach back. I promise. There will be a voice on the radio when you need it. And on your voicemail, and at work, and at the park, and in a hundred other places, too. 

And you’ll still feel that loneliness press up against you like the crowds do. You’ll bring that with you, too. That’s okay. There’s something in that feeling that tells us how to be human, too. I think I know that best of all. 

I’m so happy to call you my friend, Adrian - and I know so many other people will be, too. I know they already are. 

[click]

There is a crane fly somewhere in the garage , buzzing its large, ungainly body against the floorboards, the lights, when someone happens to turn them on. The crane fly, unlike the human, is a child its entire life - months or years - and an adult for just a few weeks. It will live in this garage for six more days. It will die on a shelf beside a dusty hammer without passing along its line. It will not consider this a failure because it does not know how. To a human being, it is a week’s nuisance. To the crane fly, it is everything. There is something beautiful in its spindly awkwardness, if you look. Please, notice it while you can. It won’t hurt you. Watch it fly. 

[crane fly buzzes]

[click] [footsteps crunching]

When you turn the corner onto your own street, tonight, the image strikes you like you’re seeing it for the first time, even though you’ve lived here for a while. You’ve seen this collection of buildings, the small tree fighting its way up, the signs in your neighbor’s window. But something about the way the moon shines over all of it, the wind stirring around your collar, makes you stop to look at it. [footsteps pause] To say, I'm going to take a picture here, in my mind, so I can remember it when I’ve left. The shadows across the street. The red brick. The cluster of irises growing… up -

The - 

Oh. Iris. [breath in] Iris… I know that name. I remember it.  

I don’t think it’s mine. But it’s somebody’s. Maybe a friend. 

[footsteps start again] [click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Adrian. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

#thin places radio #tpr #welcome back! #episodes #025 #the friend #caller: adrian #fiction podcast #liminal #surreal #iris #friendship #loneliness #tw bugs

[thinplacesradio]

hi, listeners! no new episode today due to winter madness, but we will see you again in the new year. hug a living creature. think through your memories, the good ones and the bad ones and the just okay ones, and relish the space they take up in your head. pay attention to the way the light falls whenever you can. we love you.

#tpr #fyi #<3

[thinplacesradio]

a gray-stone path through a park, lit by tall lamps. plants on either side, a red wall at the back, a black bench to the right. white text reads:

[024] THE CARDINALS. A CALLER WANTS TO BELIEVE. THE HOST TAKES A WALK IN THE PARK.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] 

[crickets] [wind blowing] [cars passing distantly]

I’m coming to you still from my studio, which is what I like to call the bench on the edge of this empty park, lamppost lights casting strange shadows through the overhanging trees. There’s something I can feel in the air, here - it’s. Well. It’s thin. The way the wind is pulled in directions it wasn’t blowing. The way the lights flicker slightly different colors when somebody walks by them. People can slip between the cracks here. People have. 

The last person of the night is hurrying through in front of me, lights stuttering as they pass, and - 

[footsteps] [dog sniffing]

oh, hi, honey! Hello! Not to the person. Their dog saw me.

[dog collar jangles] [basketball dribbling] [feet moving] 

There are still a handful of kids out on the basketball court right now. Only one of them is still shooting hoops, laughing at something another one is saying; two more are walking slowly along the perimeter, one balancing carefully, hand on the other’s shoulder, listening. 

I’ll make sure they get home safe. 

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Are you looking for a friend?

Have you been thinking about the next life? 

Did you miss an opportunity that you can’t get back? 

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

So. I have had this feeling recently. I was raised Catholic but I am not sure what I believe anymore. I don’t know that I've been sure, ever, what I believe. I really struggle with my religion, and I always have difficulty finding my faith. And I often question whether or not there is a heaven or any kind of life after this. And when I think about the expanse of eternity my blood runs cold. Eternity alive or eternity in void. Either way, it terrifies me. And i don’t know what i believe is there.

But I find comfort in my grandparents, who have all passed away at this point. But they're with me somehow. I don’t know how to explain it but, whenever I am faced with something very difficult or upsetting, usually when I have to make a big choice, around the time that I’m really, you know, things are coming to a head, I have a dream where one of my grandparents visits me, and they just sit with me. And a lot of the time they don't say anything. They just sit with me, and they smile. And I feel warm. And I really think they're there, because the next day, I see a cardinal, and a cardinal is supposed to be the soul of a loved one returning to check in on you.

Recently I saw three cardinals after praying for the first time in a really long time. And the prayer felt weird and uneasy, and strange to me, and the loneliness of the way that i think and the way that I feel about faith and the possibility of a life to come, the thing that always brings me comfort is that my grandparents will come to see me, and I’ll see those cardinals. And I don’t know, I guess my question is, how do I… how do I find a resolution between those two things? It’s something that I’ve really been thinking about all day. 

It’s not quite the middle of the night. It’s the middle of the beginning of the night, for me, right now. But I just wanted to get this out of my brain and somewhere else, so. Thanks. Have a great night. 

[click] 

Hi, caller. Thank you for your thoughtful message. [eerie, curious music] I’ve seen so many strange and wonderful and terrifying things, and I don't know what any of them mean, or what they all mean together. Nobody does. I don’t know what forever looks like either, but it scares me, too. 

I don’t think you find the resolution. You see your grandparents, and you see the cardinals, and together, they mean something. But maybe when you pray - if you pray - it will always feel like a shot in the dark, a shout into the void. Maybe you’ll hear something back. Maybe not. Doubt is faith. Faith’s doubt. 

You will walk this tightrope your entire life, and maybe that is the resolution. I think it’s the point. The great mystery is where God lives. 

[click] [Morse code beeping] 

I - I hear it again. There’s something else coming through again. Something I’ve been hearing for a long time. Someone. It’s someone, isn’t it. 

-.. --- -. - / -... . / -.. . .- -..

Did you ask me to stay safe once? It feels like I’m trying to keep a promise I don’t remember making.

[click] 

[park sounds resume]

One of the teenagers is passing the basketball to their friend, now, who’s walking to the other end of the court. They’re all quiet, and it seems like the park is holding its breath, too. 

[like an announcer] Do we think they’ll make the shot? [breath] [ball bounces] Incredible. Nothing but net, if this basket had one. Three points. 

The kids are all leaving together, finding their way home. None of them are getting lost tonight. They all make it out of the park, and to their rides or bikes or well-worn paths, and through their front doors, and into their beds. 

But I think I'll sit a little longer. I’m not in danger, after all. I’m already in-between. I’ve already gotten lost. 

[a cardinal calls]

[click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Erin. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme and Unearthed, by Miles Morkri. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

[another cardinal calls back]

#thin places radio #tpr #episodes #024 #the cardinals #caller: erin #fiction podcast #liminal #surreal #faith #belief #signs #codes

[thinplacesradio]

they call me the forgetter because

#the host #sorry #reblog

[thinplacesradio]

darkness to the left, a stream on the right, flowing over rocks under a distant bridge; bare trees reach over the water. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[023] THE TEST. A CALLER MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY. THE HOST WADES IN.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under the cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme]

[water sloshing and flowing] [crickets chirping] [owl hooting]

I’m coming to you in the flow from my studio, which is what I like to call this stream I am currently standing in, pant cuffs rolled up to just below my knees. The water’s cold. It’s dusk, and there were too many mosquitos when I got out of the car wherever I am now to grab the winter coat that I saw caught in the barbed wire of the fence that’s stretching across this little hill. The hood is shredded, but the lining’s still intact, and that’s what matters. The road provides.

Mosquitos don’t like running water. They look for stagnant pools to lay their eggs. I think that’s something I might have judged them for, even just a few months ago. But don’t we all need a place to lay our heads? Every night I move, like water. I thought that meant I was always changing. Maybe it did. But isn’t there something stagnant about always doing the same thing, too?

I’ll wait them out. It really is freezing, though.

[water burbles]

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Do you keep seeing cardinals?

Are you being tested?

Did you have a vision from the other side?

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

I was in London several years ago for work, and a colleague and I were walking from a pub to dinner, and all of a sudden the woman appeared out of nowhere, uh, asking for money. Our initial response was to say no and to continue on our walk, but we reconsidered and turned around, and we turned around, she was gone - vanished. Even though it was a small, narrow alleyway that we were walking down. Was this some kind of a test? Was she a figment of our imagination? Not really sure what happened, but we've really thought about it since then.

[click]

Mm. Thank you for your quandary, caller. The shorter answer is: I don’t know. But here’s the long one:

She was real. You know that she was real - not because you both saw her, but because she’s still on both your minds. But was it a test? And if it was a test, what kind of test was it?

[searching music]

I want to tell you that it wasn’t, that life doesn’t work that way - that we're not being judged and measured by every small failing we accumulate. I don’t think that life is a test, but I think that we are often tested by it. We're often weighed down by our own shortcomings.

I don’t know if what happened back then was a test, but it’s become one since then. You’ve made it one in your memory through the very act of failing it. You have measured yourself and found yourself wanting. That’s a good sign, as long as you take it with you into the future instead of getting mired in the past.

Someone told me once that your second thought is the one that matters - the one that shows who you really are, once you take a moment to think a situation through, to recognize your own biases and internal voices, and lay them aside. This is good. But sometimes the second thought just comes too late. Sometimes the apology isn't accepted. Sometimes there’s damage done. Sometimes when you turn back to do the right thing, the person you wanted to help has vanished.

And what then? Maybe, then, we stop testing ourselves. Maybe we just try to make it right the next time.

[click] [Traveling Sales Rep over bouncy, distorted music:]

- we’ll work with YOU to get you the deal you deserve. Pay what you can. Because there’s always something you can pay. There’s always something you can give. What do you want? [voice distorts] What would you hand over to get it? [pause] Call now, and we’ll throw in a free -

[click]

[water flowing] [crickets chirping]

It’s dark - really dark, now. My feet have gone numb here, and my coat has gone warm, which means that it’s time for me to keep moving. I don’t have anything miring me, here in the present or back in the past. I never do. I don’t know if that’s a good thing.

I thought it was, when - when I - I don’t know. [frustrated] I can’t remember what happened. What I’ve done. That’s the anchor in the back of my head, now. Remembering that I don’t remember. Remembering that there was something to forget at all.

[owl hoots] [the host takes a steadying breath]

Okay. I’m going to run back to my car, now, from this ordinary stream, on unsteady feet that will sting as I pump blood back into them again, and I’ll probably fall on the way there, and my feet will burn when they thaw out, and I will savor all of these sensations as they come. Wish me luck.

[water sloshes as she gets out of the stream]

[distantly:] oh, oh my god, okay, ahh-

[click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Kevin. The SFX, music, and voice of our Travelling Sales Rep are by Miles Morkri. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

#thin places radio #tpr #episodes #023 #caller: kevin #the test #fiction podcast #liminal #surreal #traveling sales rep #deals #tests #we know about the brief audio glitch by the way! we will fix it after the weekend

[thinplacesradio]

the driver's side of a silver car from the outside, hazy, headlights illuminating the road in front of it. the lights inside the car are streaked and blurry. the hood is popped. the image is distorted by VCR static. white text reads:

[022] THE VISION. A CALLER REMEMBERS A MESSAGE. THE HOST TAKES A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD.

listen here, or anywhere you find your podcasts. transcript under cut:

[static, radio tuning]

[Traveling Sales Rep: Don’t touch that dial! We’ll be right back, after these short messages.] [static, radio tuning]

[click]

Hello and welcome to Thin Places Radio. I’m your host,

and it is the middle of the night. But don’t worry. You’re not alone.

[Thin Places theme] 

[hissing] [car door dinging]

I’m coming to you sweaty from my studio, which is what I like to call the side of this poorly paved road that my car has chosen to break down on. It’s hissing out purple smoke, which seems. Well. I don’t know. I’m not exactly the expert in what’s normal or not normal.

I’ve got the hood propped up and am looking around inside hoping that any part of this triggers something in my mind. But it’s looking like fixing cars is an area I was, and remain, totally useless in – ladies. Hey, at least that’s something I remember about myself.  

It's a clear night – a beautiful night, honestly. The stars are bright overhead, and past the heat of the car, the air is finally starting to bite with cold. I don’t know how many seasons I’ve been on the road like this, but something about fall turning to winter just feels right.

On such a clear and beautiful night, the wind should be clearing away the sea of smoke that’s hovering around the car, but it’s settling down across the road itself, now, a strange, luminescent fog obscuring the old farm that I thought I saw off in the distance.

[strange burbling gasping sound, followed by clangs]

Hm. [clang] Do we think that’s good?

So… what is Thin Places Radio? Well, you can call in about anything strange that you’ve got going on in your life - feelings, omens, premonitions, hauntings.

Are you being tested?

Is someone beyond the grave getting a message to you just in time?

Has time been pulled out of joint? 

When the veil between worlds is thin, we get closer than ever to the strange and the unexplained - but also to each other. Call in, get it off your chest. Lines are open.

[click] [voicemail:]

So this happened to my mother a long time ago, when my sister was little. She - my sister was really sick, but no one knew what was happening. And my - and so the doctors were like well, we'll just send her home for a few days. See if that goes, that goes away or something. And my mom was so tired. So exhausted. And she says that the image of my grandmother who had just recently passed came to her and said, don't you let them send my baby away. And so she didn't and they found out what was wrong with her and it was really bad, but they were able to get to it in time. To help her and save her. So, just wanted to let you know about that because that was a little weird. My name is Slay. You can use the name if you want to. Have a good day. Thank you.

[click] [searching music]

Hi, caller. I’m glad your sister is okay, first of all. It’s still scary that she was sick, even if she got better, and even if it happened a long time ago. This kind of near-miss reveals history’s many branching paths, some of the things that could have happened but didn’t. What a relief. What an act of faith and trust – to hear a message from beyond the grave and to believe it. And to deliver a message in the hope that it will be received, in perfect timing.

All communication is like this – reaching out across an uncrossable space and hoping that the thing you really mean can be understood by the person who has to understand it. But your mother listened to her mother, and her own gut. Thank goodness your sister had an advocate like that. The last thing you know how to do when you are very young and very sick is to stand up for yourself – even, or maybe especially, when you know something is wrong.

I don’t know what happens when you’re dead, and I don’t remember what it’s like to be alive, but I know a whole lot about the space in between. That’s where your sister was saved. That’s where your Grandmother found her, and said, no, please, not yet. It’s not time yet. I’m deciding that. I’m coming back for her.

[click]

Something strange, listeners. There’s something on the ground here, half buried in the gravel on the road beside my car. Hold on.

[rustling]

It’s a postcard, waterlogged and pocked but not torn. It's a picture of an old radio tower, black and white, and the light at the top is lit, I think, with a hazy bright glow. it says WISH I WAS HERE. It feels like if I found the right place, I could hold the postcard up to the horizon and the light would start blinking, full color. WISH I WAS HERE. So... where am I?

[click]  

The air is finally clearing, and the car is quiet again. Now that it's cooled and I can see under the hood, I can see that there's a cap that's come loose. [cap screws]

There. Let's give her a whirl.

[hood shuts] [door opens] [engine purrs]

There we go, baby! Where to next? I’ve been moving for God knows how long, forward and forward and forward. Maybe it's time to try to retrace my steps.

Do I have a mother, a grandmother, that cared for me the way the caller’s care for them? Who did I leave behind? Why? When? I’ve been reaching out to all of you, and you've been reaching back. Communication. A conversation. Maybe it's time I reach back to myself and see who shows up.

[car door shuts] [engine shifts to a low rumble] [turn signal clicks]

[click]

Thank you for listening, callers, and thank you for calling, listeners. I hope you feel a little bit lighter. I know I do. As always, our number is 717.382.8093. That’s 717.382.8093. Until next time. I’ll be here.

[static] [Traveling Sales Rep: visit us at the - diner just off -] [Various Garbled Voices: the - road - provides - the - road - provides -]

Thin Places Radio is a podcast written by Kristen O’Neal and produced by Kaitlin Bruder. The voice of Your Host is Kristen O’Neal.

Tonight’s voicemail was left for us by Slay. Editing and sound design are by Kaitlin Bruder, and the music tracks you heard in tonight’s episode are: the Thin Places theme, by Miles Morkri, and Umeed by RANA. If you have a question to ask, a story to tell, or a suggestion for the host, give us a call at ‪[phone]. The lines are always open.

[Thin Places Theme outro]

#episodes #022 #the vision #messages #apparitions #thin places radio #tpr #caller: slay #plot episode #surreal #liminal #fiction podcast #xoxo #i really love how this one turned out; kb absolutely KILLED the soundscape

[thinplacesradio]

lines are open: you can buy some TPR merch here :)

#tpr #thin places radio #wahoo!! #kb designed these and i love how they turned out especially the flyer!! #anyway. love you excited to share this with you :3 #merch #fiction podcast

[thinplacesradio]

honestly i just think we all need to slow down

#reblog

[thinplacesradio]

happy anniversary, listeners <3

#thin places radio #tpr #time is so strange

[thinplacesradio]

Hi! I think y'all might've only uploaded the credits for today's episode, it's only 29 seconds

thank you earth angel, there was a glitch in the autoupload but it's fixed now!

#mystery caller #asks #anon #fyi