Imaginary Worlds - Movies for the Mind

Episode Date: October 4, 2018

There has been a renaissance of audio drama podcasts over the last several years, so picking up where I left off in the previous episode, I bring the history of audio dramas up to date with the help of Ann Heppermann, creator of The Sarah Awards for audio fiction. I also talk with Jonathan Mitchell of The Truth about the quest for realism and the pitfalls of fake interviews. Plus we hear the third audio drama that I wrote with The Truth, called "Nuclear Winter," about a pair of missile launch officers working in a silo that may be haunted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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to take a short survey that will help support our network. You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief. I'm Eric Malinsky. Imagine you're somewhere in North Dakota in an undisclosed location. It is sub-zero weather, and you're going to work at a nuclear missile bunker. It's starting to snow again. I know. Good morning, Commander Thompson

This is Commander Gomez It's Deputy Commander Jason Chen Here to relieve you Good morning, Commander Authentication sequence X-ray Delta Foxtrot I respond to you Whiskey Bravo

Come on down Here we go Okay You really think this is going to be a double shift? Closer to the century. Yeah, but that's BS, right? They always say that. Are you afraid of spending two days in a nuclear missile silo with me? The missiles I'm okay with.

Ah, it's me. I am glad to know that my reputation is still intact. It is. Did you press the elevator button? No, you didn't? Well, we're moving, so someone did. Is the elevator supposed to move by itself like this? It's probably nothing.

Nothing. It's probably nothing. Nuclear Winter is the third story that I wrote in the year and a half that I spent with The Truth. And by the way, that was my voice on the intercom coming from deep in the silo. Now, that story was inspired by my own childhood anxieties about nuclear war, but also an interview I did on a public radio show years ago with a real guy who used to repair nuclear missiles. And he told me about a silo that was supposedly haunted and no one wanted to work there. And I thought that was so interesting. These missileers were not afraid to rehearse World War III. But ghosts? That was another story. So I brought the idea to the truth.

And as usual, they had me spent months and months on the script getting the story right until it was finally ready to be produced and directed by jonathan mitchell we kept talking about when you were writing it that opening scene in war games yeah it was like a little bit like playing into my desires to create stuff that sort of felt like the the Cold War stuff I saw growing up and had that same kind of feel. Now, before I play the rest of that story, I want to connect the dots between last week's episode about the golden age of radio dramas and the current renaissance of audio dramas

that are being downloaded to people's phones around the world every second of the day. Now, I ended the last episode in the early 1980s, and I talked about how NPR's Star Wars helped influence the next generation of audio drama producers. And Jonathan remembers hearing that series as a kid, but it didn't influence him in the way that I thought, because it turns out he already had another audio drama of Star Wars in his house. When I was a kid, I got the story of Star Wars for Christmas, which was a record album. It was basically the dialogue and sound effects and music from the movie.

It all told the story, had narration. And it was, you know, in the days before vhs and so if you wanted to re-experience star wars in your own home you could go buy this record album and listen to the movie and when the npr star wars radio drama was you know on the air they had a marathon of it on my local public radio station one Saturday. I sat in my bedroom and listened to the radio for like three hours straight, just listening to that. And I was really disappointed with it because after hearing that record album, I wanted it to sound like the record album. In fact, Jonathan often cites movies as his inspiration more than radio dramas,

particularly the movies of the 1970s where the acting was more naturalistic and they usually filmed out in the real world. I didn't want to hear people faking it. If people were driving a car, I wanted to see what it would sound like to actually be driving a car. Now, when Jonathan was growing up in Illinois, if he was looking for radio dramas for inspiration,

there wasn't a lot out there. I mean, there have been a lot of radio dramas the last 25 years that are recorded in the style of the old 1940s, 1950s radio dramas. And sometimes they'll actually use those scripts with new actors. Those shows are great and they have a lot of loyal fans, but they are stylistically retro. They're great, and they have a lot of loyal fans, but they are stylistically retro. For most of the 80s and 90s, there weren't a lot of radio dramas that were pushing the medium in new directions. I mean, the one big exception that I knew of was Joe Frank, who was a pioneer and a maverick in public radio. When I first moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, I remember hearing him on the station KCRW and just being amazed at these surreal stories he'd tell with a deadpan voice.

There was a time when I looked in the mirror and I could see nothing. There was a space where I was supposed to be. I realized I'd become invisible. Ann Hepperman teaches audio drama at Sarah Lawrence College, and when she began teaching there around seven years ago, her students had very idea what they were supposed to be mimicking and creating. So they were just thinking of creative ideas on their own. They were really embracing their voice. They weren't tainted in any way. And they'd say to Anne, what can I do with this?

What station will put this on the air? And she'd say, you know, I bet you this would make a really great Christmas gift for your mom. Like you can you can probably just put it on a CD or or the other thing, if I had somebody who was really serious, I would be like, well, you know, you could go to the BBC, you know, maybe reach out to some of the experimental fiction that's happening in Australia, because the people I knew who were making it and who were making even just a little bit of money off of it, that's where they were going. It's like we had brain creative fiction brain drain. And then in 2012, which was also the same year that The Truth launched,

I started having students say, like, have you heard of this thing that I found out about on Tumblr called Welcome to Night Vale? This is a story about you. You live in a trailer out near the car lot next to old woman Josie's house. Occasionally, she'll wave at you on her way out to get the mail or more snacks for the angels. She'll wave at you on her way out to get the mail or more snacks for the angels. If you haven't heard it before, welcome to Night Vale. It's a little bit like the news from Lake Wobegon on Prairie Home Companion, if that show also existed in a swirling mix of sci-fi fantasy genres. Anne was so impressed, she asked the creators of the show to talk to her students.

And I remember when they came to my class. So here I am, this, you know, like born and bred, you know, public radio zealot. And they're like, yeah, you know, to do this, all we did was have this like Bluetooth microphone. So that's all you need. And I was like, oh, my God, what are you saying? And it's true, right? As long as you have a really good story, that's all that really and somebody like who can deliver it really well. That to me is the most important thing. And that can still be revolutionary.

Today, Anne runs the Sarah Awards, which is an international competition for audio dramas. The big winner last year was Homecoming, which is an audio drama from Gimlet Media, starring Catherine Keener. You worked at the Homecoming Initiative. Well, yes, that was years ago. But what is this? And Homecoming was just adapted into a TV series on Amazon Prime with Julia Roberts. You were employed at the Homecoming Transitional Support Center. What were your duties there? I don't know.

You don't know? When Anne first launched the Sarah Awards three years ago, she never thought that audio dramas would have that kind of cultural impact. But around that time, the podcast Serial was becoming a sensation. Serial proved that podcasting as a forum was something that people really wanted. And Welcome to Night Vale, in my mind, proved the thing that I'd always been hearing and I became so frustrated by was that there was no audience for audio fiction. And that was something that I kept hearing over and over and over again from the gatekeepers here in the United States. And to me, like Welcome to Night Vale just fucking blew that opinion out of the water.

2015 was also the beginning of another trend. Audio dramas that sounded like serial where a fictional reporter would uncover a mystery over a series of episodes. There was The Message, Limetown, The Black Tapes. In fact, I even heard that a podcast called Imaginary Worlds did a few kind of fake news episodes. Another trend that I noticed in the last three years is that a lot of new audio dramas are making an effort to explain where the audio is coming from. I mean, we know which character has turned on the microphone and why. And with all these shows, there's usually a sci-fi fantasy element to the story,

which is then grounded in the naturalism of the production style. Like, for instance, The Bright Sessions. Patient number 11A7, session nine. Male, 16 years of age, with the abilities of a highly advanced empath. When The Bright Sessions first launched in 2015, each episode was supposed to be the raw audio. They were hearing of a therapy session with somebody that has supernatural or superhuman abilities. Would you stop that? I can feel your fucking pity bleeding out of you, and I don't need it.

I'm not some pathetic emotional loser, okay? I'm not like him. Okay, okay, Caleb. Fiction is so difficult because the audience goes in knowing it is not true. And so you have to convince them to buy into this world. And I think part of that is recognizing and really thinking about how people, for the most part, experience that world. Everything should not be in a studio. You can have crappy Skype tape. Another audio drama that used the medium in very creative ways was Limetown. I mean, they had these regular half-hour episodes of a fictional reporter uncovering a mystery, but in between, they'd have these mini two-minute episodes that would just land in your podcast feed.

Could be a breaking news update or a voicemail left by a character. You've reached APR's Limetown tip line. Please leave a message. I want to say something to Leah Haddock. I don't know if my brother Kenneth is still alive, but I know he's a fighter. With a podcast, it can be any length it wants to be. So why not have an episode that's like two minutes and can jump the story forward? Jonathan also thinks a lot about the way people listen to audio now to create a sense of realism with his audio dramas.

But he says there is a drawback to that technique. We're very familiar with what a voicemail or an NPR story should sound like in the real world. So any moment that sounds slightly fake in the audio drama can totally take us out of it. I think that fake interviews are the hardest thing to do personally. We know it's like it's like the uncanny valley is so much more pronounced in that context. People don't think the way that scripts work. They don't express themselves oftentimes in that way. They're much more emotional in the way that they communicate.

They're much more about, like, I feel this thing and I'm trying to, my brain is working with the words and I'm not really thinking about the words. I'm thinking about the thing that I'm trying to, my brain is working with the words and I'm not really thinking about the words. I'm thinking about the thing that I'm trying to get out. That's what I spent a lot of work, a lot of energy trying to get to when we're recording actors is getting it to the point where it doesn't feel like they are saying it because it's written down and they're trying to like sort of check off all the words they need to say. Today, there are so many great audio dramas out there breathing new life into this old tradition. I mean, it's an embarrassment of riches. I mean, there's just too

many shows for me to mention. If anything, Jonathan wishes people would stop comparing the new stuff to the old stuff. And I know what he means. I mean, I've read a bunch of articles about this renaissance in audio dramas that will then include a reference to war of the worlds or they'll even have a picture of orson wells from 80 years ago like when we talk about television we don't constantly talk about the honeymooners i mean we can if it's applicable but it's not like you don't have to put a picture of charlie chaplin at the top of every film article or something, you know. You know, you can acknowledge the past without sort of dwelling on it. I wish the audio drama were more in that place where it was just assumed, yeah, of course it's a legitimate art form. This

is modern, contemporary, and this is one way people can express themselves. In a moment, we'll hear how I expressed my childhood anxieties about nuclear war in the audio drama, Nuclear Winter, that I wrote with the truth, produced and directed by Jonathan Mitchell. There are a million things demanding your time. Contact lenses should not be one of them. Simple contacts lets you renew your prescription and reorder your contacts from anywhere in minutes. Thank you. Contacts has been rated five stars over 5,000 times on the App Store. And while this is not a replacement for your periodic full eye health exam, the vision test is only $20.

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had gone down for a shift during a blizzard, one that they hoped wouldn't last for several days. But sometimes missileers get snowed in, and they just have to wait for backup can i go back to bed you just had a sleeping shift i know i know i just i did not sleep at all i've never been down here for two days the wind is so loud i just sat there doing my lsats uh your ticket out of here oh law school is my dad's idea. I just thought the LSATs would put me to sleep. I've done three-day shifts before.

You did three days? Blizzard of 05, Blizzard of 2012, and, of course, 9-11. Oof. Hey, you'd probably know. Wasn't there this story, uh, there was, like, a guy who was down here for a week, and he couldn't hack it, and he, like, hung himself or something? No, it's just a story. It's been floating around forever. Okay, yeah, but is it a true story?

Yeah, he hung himself because his deputy asked too many annoying questions. Okay. I'm just nervous because I can't get another infraction. I mean, that would be three strikes and then I would lose my scholarship. Well then, hey, how about not getting another infraction? What is the weather? Snow, snow, snow. Windchill, negative ten.

Heating system sucks down here. Equipment has old bones. Works best in the cold. Okay, yeah, but this is the oldest bunker. I mean, look at this. Floppy disks? Yeah, they still work. You just shove them in, and then with these old buttons, you flick them twice.

See? Works across the board. You'd think the Air Force would have enough money to spring for an upgrade. I mean, it's just nuclear missiles. Look, sometimes you just have to play the floor. What? You follow basketball? Yeah. Well, in the 80s, when I was growing up in L.A., whenever the Celtics would play the Lakers, I'd be nervous, because the Boston Garden had this piece of shit parquet floor warped in the weirdest places.

The Lakers didn't complain. They learned the floor. See, sometimes you've just got to take the crap and make it work for you. Hmm. Fair enough. All right. Let's do these checklists again. Just did them. Let's do them again. Yes, ma'am.

Missile launch sequence 34-7. Unlock code Sierra, Whiskey, Zulu, 7, 9, Tango, 4. Unlocking code Sierra, Whiskey, Zulu, 7, 9, Tango, 4. Enable switch, down and lock. Down and locked. Initiate key, down and lock. Down and locked. Initiate key, press. Initiate key, pressed. That's weird. The switch just turned by itself.

By itself? Is this like an old console thing? Initiate key, option two. I swear that turned by itself. I saw it. All right, I'm going to keep reading the checklist. Don't touch anything. Yes, ma'am. Initiate key option two. I swear that turned by itself. I saw it. All right, I'm going to keep reading the checklist. Don't touch anything.

Yes, ma'am. Initiate key option three. This is a joke, right? This is some kind of a hazing ritual that you do with all the newbies? No. Shit. It's happening again. What's happening?

Stay there. Where are you going? Commander Gomez? Keep your eyes on the console All due respect, ma'am, you are kind of freaking me out right now I'm just making sure everything's in place Did you move the coffee filters? No, I don't drink coffee Okay, that's just the pipes, I think

Ma'am, would you please fill me in? This happened once before, back in 09 The switches started moving on their own. Do you have any salt? Uh, the cabinet, maybe? We're out. My commanding officer sprinkled salt around the console to ward it off. Ward?

What are you warding off? I was worried he was going nutty, but it worked. Uh, it says the escape hatch is open. Hello? Hello? Are you calling the MPs right now? Oh, it's dead. It's dead?

It must be the storm. Stay here. Hey, whoa, you can't leave. You can't leave the hatch open. Turn on the walkie-talkie. Don't make a joke about it being from the 80s. Yes, ma'am. No matter what happens, stay here.

I have to. Can you hear me? Copy that. Good. So, what's the deal with the coffee filters? My CO told me it likes to move things. Okay, you keep saying it. What do you mean it? Don't worry. Just let me know if anything else weird happens.

Okay. Hey, so you know, my dad hates the Celtics too. Smart man. He used to watch them in Taipei all the time. It's the most popular sport in the world. I think you mean soccer. Hey, watch it. You already have two infractions. Anyway, when my family got to New York, my dad made it like a Chen family rule that we all had to watch every single Knicks game. I don't think my dad knew what he was signing us up for. A lifetime of disappointment. Tell me about it.

The Knicks suck so hard. Plus, my dad hates to lose, so it was like... I don't know. You know, the it was like... I don't know. You know, the Air Force is... is gonna pay for law school for me, and... just... if I get kicked out, then my dad would... probably... Hello?

Hello, are you there? Okay, I'm at the base of the ladder. Can you hear me? Yeah, but you cut out for a second. Damn it. What's wrong? All this out. I have a flashlight. Okay, yeah. The escape hatch is definitely open. I'm going to close it. Uh, you're technically not supposed to leave the bunker.

Jan, I've been doing this job since you were watching Power Rangers. Cut me some slack. Yes, ma'am. I'm not abandoning my post. Right, but you're just... we need two people in the silo at all times. Look, if we get an emergency action message, I'll slide down fireman style. I'll be there as fast as I can. I feel like this is a style, I'll be there as fast as I can. I feel like this is a mistake, ma'am. Well, unlike you, I have a perfect record. Damn it.

What? What's wrong? My flashlight. It's alright, it's okay. I'm almost there. Okay. Okay. I'm here. There's someone out there. Hey! Hey, you! Hello? Commander Gomez?

Commander Gomez? Marta, are you there? Hello? Damn it. Hello? This is Roger Hillman, reporting for duty. Thank God. Okay, listen to me.

I lost contact with my commanding officer. Did you see her outside? I'm here to relieve you. Access code 01 Bravo Whiskey Foxtrot. No, you... My commanding officer is out in... Access code 01 Bravo Whiskey Foxtrot. Wait, wait, hold on, hold on. That's... that's not the correct code.

Who is this? Is it Roger Hillman? Who are you? Hello? Shall we go through the checklist again? Jesus! How did you get in here? Your access codes are off.

Launch control sequence Alpha Bravo 3-9. What are you wearing? That uniform is ancient. Launch control sequence Alpha Bravo 3-9. What are you wearing? That uniform's ancient. Launch control sequence Alpha Bravo 3-9. Okay, wait. There's no... There's no Alpha Bravo 3-9. There's no Alpha... There's no launch control sequence...

Jason? Commander, there's someone down here. He's... Roger Hillman? Roger Hillman, where are you? He's... he's gone. He's gone. Marta, are you okay?

Where are you? Okay, this isn't happening. This isn't happening. This is a dream. I'm dreaming right now. I'm going to wake up. It'll be fine. The mark will be right there.

Standby for an emergency action message. Alpha Bravo 7 Delta 6. That's a launch sequence. Emergency action message. Jesus. Alpha Bravo 7 Delta 6. The code is verified. This is a lawful order to launch. That's five characters. We haven't had a five-character sequence since... Initiating launch sequence. No, no. Hey, hey. There's protocol.

There's a safe, and the safe has an envelope, and the envelope verifies the launch code, okay? See? See? It's not the same code. They have to match. Stand by for launch time. How do you get those keys? Key turn on my command. You need two keys to launch. You can't launch by yourself. Five. Oh my god, maybe you can't. Four. No, stop! Stop! Three. Come on. Come on, you stupid switch! Two. Gotta flick it twice. Two. Two. I'm sorry, sir. I can't do it. What?

Yes, sir. I passed my psych exam last month. Please, I'll do mob duty for a month. Just keep me in the Air Force. Who are you talking to? Please. You know who my father is. He'd kill me. Oh, my God. Hey, man. Can I borrow your belt? My belt?

Yeah, your belt, you're off duty, you don't need it, right? Are you talking to me right now? No, I haven't told my dad yet He is going to be real surprised to see me Here's a guy who hung himself I swear my belt buckle broke Standard issue, right? Roger, listen to me Go home

You don't know my father Thanks, Charlie Wait, wait, hold on, wait, Roger, wait, don't, don't You'll get this back tomorrow Deputy Commander Roger Hillman Yes, sir? Get back to the simulation and try it again Thanks, Charlie. Wait, wait, hold on. Wait, Roger, wait, don't, don't. You'll get this back tomorrow. Deputy Commander Roger Hillman. Yes, sir? Get back to the simulation and try it again.

Yes, sir. Key turn on my command. Five, four, three, two, one. Good job. Thank you, sir. Give me a blanket. Marta! Give me a blanket. God, didn't you hear me? I was screaming into the walkie-talkie.

No, it went dead. What the hell happened here? Oh, the console's off. Oh my God. Take those keys out. No, it's okay. Remove the keys. Puttalkie. No, it went dead. What the hell happened here? Oh, the console's off. Oh, my God. Take those keys out. Remove the keys. Put them back. Yes, ma'am.

Jesus, I can't overlook this. This is insane. Listen to me. He was here, or it, whatever. It was here, and it was trying to launch. I had the keys. I had to disable it. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

A tall guy with an old uniform? Yeah. Okay, I saw him, too, wait, wait, wait. A tall guy with an old uniform? Yeah. Okay, I saw him, too, up there. You did? Yeah. Yeah, we talked, and I think he's gone now. What'd you talk about? Never mind, never mind.

Okay, okay. What now? We get back to work. Are you sure you're okay? I'm just cold. Um, are you gonna record my infraction? Shutting down the console is more than just an infraction. Yes, ma'am. I know. I know. I know.

Alright, let's, uh, let's do the checklist again. Yes, ma'am. Enter launch sequence alpha dash zero bravo foxtrot five. Entering launch sequence alpha dash zero bravo foxtrot five. All systems functional. Unlock code SierraWhiskeyZulu79Tango4. Unlock code SierraWhiskeyZulu79Tango4. And switch to...

That was Nuclear Winter starring Woody Fu as Jason Danielle Delgado as Marta and Billy Griffin Jr. as Roger that is it for this week thank you for listening special thanks to Anne Happerman and Jonathan Mitchell Imaginary Worlds is part of the Panoply Network

my assistant producer is Stephanie Billman and as I mentioned earlier Thank you. Really fun to hear the original actors in new adventures. But let me know what some of your favorites are. You can leave a comment on the Imaginary Worlds Facebook page. I tweet at emolinski and Imagine Worlds Pod. And my website is imaginaryworldspodcast.org.