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Escape PodEscape Pod 800: Give Me Cornbread or Give Me DeathGive Me Cornbread or Give Me DeathBy N.K. JemisinThe intel is good. It had better be; three women died to get it to us. I tuck away the binoculars and crawl back from the window long enough to hand-signal my girls. Fire team moves up, drop team on my mark, support to hold position and watch our flank. The enemy might have nothing but mercs for security, but their bullets punch holes same as real soldiers’, and some of ’em are hungry enough to be competent. We’re hungrier, though.Shauntay’s got the glass cu...2021-09-0228 minEscape PodEscape Pod 794: Episode 4: The Deflection of ProbabilityEpisode 4: The Deflection of ProbabilityBy Premee MohammedThe tent billowed in the hot, humid wind, and Harriet thought if the canvas made that gun-crack noise near her head one more time she'd go mad—simply abandon her project and flee screaming into the meadow.She took a deep breath, ignoring the hovering cameras that hummed in her peripheral vision. They'd make something of that in final production, she thought gloomily. That sigh. The plucky lass from Berwick-upon-Tweed, a clear shoo-in during the first three episodes, has done very poorly indeed today, and seems to be...2021-07-2231 minEscape PodEscape Pod 788: Broken (Flashback Friday)Author : Jaxton Kimble Narrator : Mat Weller Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 788: Broken (Flashback Friday) is an Escape Pod original. Contains a couple intimate moments. Broken by Jaxton Kimble My favorite part about skimming is that I’m not broken when I do it. It […]2021-06-1027 minEscape PodEscape Pod 785: Death, the Universe, and EverythingDeath, the Universe, and EverythingBy Sherin NicoleThe morning after it happened for the first time, I--I’m not sure if I should tell you, but maybe you can tell me. If your understanding of reality fundamentally changes, does it change you?And how responsible am I for who you become? I don’t know.And that relative state of not knowing is the start of my conundrum. And my conflict.The morning after it happened for the first time, I woke up with half of my...2021-05-2039 minEscape PodEscape Pod 781: Seed Vault (Part 2)Author : Marika Bailey Narrator : Eden Royce Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums “Seed Vault” was originally published in Strange Horizons (Nov 2019) Seed Vault (Part 2) By Marika Bailey The desert rain has lulled me and I sleep all the way through the daylight hours. It is […]2021-04-2240 minEscape PodEscape Pod 779: The Call of the Sky (Flashback Friday)The Call of the SkyBy Cliff WinnigThe army hospital’s underground floors reminded me of Pluto Base, a place I’d never actually been. I’d never even been off-world, but I remembered those claustrophobic beige corridors. Two years before, I’d synced with a bunch of my alts home on leave after basic training. Today for the first time I’d be meeting one who’d seen combat. More than that, one who’d become a hero, the only Teri Kang to survive the Battle of Charon.We wouldn’t be syncing, though. Not this...2021-04-0836 minEscape PodEscape Pod 775: Spaceship OctoberSpaceship OctoberBy Greg van EekhoutWhen you live on a spaceship, you learn to make your own fun. Exploring the tunnels is some of the very best fun the October’s got. After school hour, me and Droller go scuttling through the darkest conduits you ever will find. The starboard Hab gets minimal heat, so our breath clouds in the light of our head torches as we crawl on our hands and knees.“You hear that?” Droller whispers from a couple of meters ahead.I do hear it, a deep, wet wheezing that s...2021-03-1128 minEscape PodEscape Pod 774: A Wild Patience (Part 3 of 3)Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) Contains cursing and discussions of sex. A Wild Patience (Part 3 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle When Jessica got home that night, she and I talked for […]2021-03-0427 minEscape PodEscape Pod 773: A Wild Patience (Part 2 of 3)Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) A Wild Patience (Part 2 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle The next day, school was in an uproar. The other mothers had talked to their kids too. […]2021-02-2526 minEscape PodEscape Pod 772: A Wild Patience (Part 1 of 3)Author : Gwynne Garfinkle Narrator : Alethea Kontis Host : S.B. Divya Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in GigaNotoSaurus (March 2020) Contains cursing and discussions of sex. A Wild Patience (Part 1 of 3) by Gwynne Garfinkle We first noticed something was off one April afternoon when Jessica […]2021-02-1833 minEscape PodEscape Pod 770: The First Trebuchet on MarsAuthor : Marie Vibbert Narrator : M. Darusha Wehm Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums This story first appeared in Analog (August 2017) The First Trebuchet on Mars by Marie Vibbert If you come to Mars you need to know that in the twelfth century a French engineer named […]2021-02-0417 minEscape PodEscape Pod 769: DealDealBy Eris YoungBeulah wonders what it would be like to touch the Visitor. Oil-slick iridescent, it is tennis ball-sized and scaled with an animated crystalline skin—or shell—or carapace. It floats, stationary, a foot above the rug in the corner of the living room. Its surface changes by the second, rippling back and forth as if stroked by an invisible hand. If she were to run her fingers—gently, gently—over its surface, would it be keratinous, like an iguana? Or feathery? Would it be warm to the touch?Kim is still behind h...2021-01-2833 minEscape PodEscape Pod 768: Balancing the EquationBalancing the Equationby Justin C. KeyJune 18, 2031Lauren led her two-year-old son, Sean, slowly to their car while carrying three full bags of groceries."Up," Sean said, showing her his palms. "Up, Mama, up!""Ask one more time and you're getting a time out when we get home."She should have used a cart to carry the groceries. She should have walked with Sean on the inside. She should have ignored the aching pain in her back and picked him up. The rest of her life would be...2021-01-2151 minEscape PodEscape Pod 767: Shadowboxer (Flashback Friday)Shadowboxer (Excerpt)By Paul Di FilippoGenerally speaking, I need only three minutes of concentrated attention to kill someone by staring at them. If I’m feeling under the weather, or my mind is preoccupied with other matters–you know how your mind can obsess about trivial things sometimes–it might take five minutes for my power to have its effect. On the other hand, if I focus intensely on my victim I can get the job done in as little as ninety seconds.…Now the nation is at war. Or so we’re told. I guess th...2021-01-1438 minEscape PodEscape Pod 766: The UnrepentantAuthor : Derrick Boden Narrator : Ibba Armancas Host : Tina Connolly Audio Producer : Summer Brooks Discuss on Forums Escape Pod 766: The Unrepentant is an Escape Pod original. This story has content notifications for language and violence. The Unrepentant by Derrick Boden First time I saw her, she was bleeding from her left […]2021-01-0743 minEscape PodEscape Pod 765: Tru LuvTru LuvBy Sarah PinskerThe first three Tru fanatics were already waiting outside Meetspace when Molly arrived to open the bar. They were easy to recognize, pushing up their winter coats' sleeves and glancing at the insides of their wrists every two seconds instead of their phones, each hoping for their algorithm-matched Prince or Princess or Princex to cross into range and light up their implant.For all that Molly thought the implants were a scam, she appreciated that they broke people of obsessive phone-checking, at least a tiny bit. It was actually part...2020-12-3131 min