iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 09/04/2026

PodCastle will be closed for submissions at the end of April! GET YOUR STORIES IN NOW!!!

PodCastle @podcastle.org · 23/04/2026

#NarratorCall: we need a Hawaiian male-presenting narrator for an incredible 4700-word story. $30 paid! If this is you, record a 2min sample MP3 and email it to podcastle@escapeartists.net so we can check recording quality.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 09/04/2026

PodCastle will be closed for submissions at the end of April! GET YOUR STORIES IN NOW!!!

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 08/04/2026

#PC938: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - "Scry" by Anne Ivy. Rated R. Previously ran as episode 292 and first published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. podcastle.org/2026/04/07/p...

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Sonia Sulaiman @soniasulaiman.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Is Falasteen Friday a thing? Please enjoy this story of mine from the vaults. It is actually a retelling of the Patronage of Athens, and featuring Handala, the ageless child representing Palestinian refugees. Thanks to @podcastle.org for giving it a home. podcastle.org/2024/11/12/p...

podcastle.org

PodCastle 865: Handala. The Olive, The Storm, and the Sea - PodCastle

Handala. The Olive, the Storm, and the Sea by Sonia Sulaiman The little boy raised an umbrella over his head and looked out over the sea. His clothes were tattered, loose stitches of what had been a...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 01/04/2026

#PC937: Kɛrozin Lamp Kurfi by Victor Forna, read by a full cast. Rated PG. A #PodCastleOriginal! podcastle.org/2026/03/31/p...

#PC937: Kɛrozin Lamp Kurfi by Victor Forna, read by a full cast. Rated PG. A #PodCastleOriginal!

Breath
KADE MAKASI: In . . .
ALL THE CHILDREN: Awt . . .
Storyteller
She tells the children to call her Kade Makasi, and if this was one of her stories, she’d describe herself as bent and wrinkled and spider-like for a touch of myth and poetry . . . but she’s none of these things . . . she’s tall, thick-browed, with two braided rivers of night on her head, and you’d have never guessed what she was: kurfi, dɛbul, demon, and that she stole my child.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 27/03/2026

#PC936: Ananconfabulation by Mar Vincent, read by Rosie Sentman. Rated G. A #PodCastleOriginal! podcastle.org/2026/03/24/p...

#PC936: Ananconfabulation by Mar Vincent, read by Rosie Sentman. Rated G. A #PodCastleOriginal!

Our homes are buried, so we built tunnels. From Tomas’ window to mine, from Ryan’s to Kimber’s and back to Tomas’ attached garage where it has little windows up high in the door. A rabbit’s warren of passages just wide enough for our juvenile bodies.

I remember the day it happened. Opening curtains and seeing the sun, the trees, the clouds. Opening them again, only a few hours later, and seeing nothing but solid gray against the glass. Time keeps moving the cat clock on my wall and the appliances in our kitchens tick forward, but is it day or night or real at all? I don’t trust that time is what it used to be.
The TV stopped working, and the internet, even the radio, so all we could do was guess what had happened. Was the whole world buried, or just the neighborhood around us?

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 12/02/2026

#PC930: Parsley Girl, Parsley Girl, Let Down Your Trichobezoar by Natalie Zutter, read by ValerieValdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content notes for pregnancy loss, post-natal depression, and second-person narration podcastle.org/2026/02/10/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 02/02/2026

Reminder! PodCastle is open for submissions through April! SUBMIT (your stories) TO THE DRAGON!!🐉🐉🐉

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jay kang romanus @jelliclejay.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

with that winter storm coming in idk if anyone’s thinking abt global warming rn BUT you should still listen to/read my new waterworld-riff-but-with-giant-singing-turtles at @podcastle.org 🐢 can’t overstate how much of a dream come true this is podcastle.org/2026/01/20/p...

podcastle.org

PodCastle 927: The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died - PodCastle

The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died by Jay Kang Romanus I’m leaning in to kiss a stranger when the shooting star passes overhead. The sounds of people celebrating nearby swim through the humid ai...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 25/01/2026

#PC927: The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died by Jay Kang Romanus, read by John Chu. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content note for drowning podcastle.org/2026/01/20/p...

#PC927: The One Who Carries Abinakhee Has Died by Jay Kang Romanus, read by John Chu. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content note for drowning

I’m leaning in to kiss a stranger when the shooting star passes overhead. The sounds of people celebrating nearby swim through the humid air like the ancient turtle below us swims through the world’s ocean and the shooting star above swims through waves of night sky. I’m still breathing heavy from my performance, glowing from the warmth of so many eyes on me and the warmth of the stranger’s body next to me.

“Did you see it?” I ask, momentarily distracted from his well-shaped lips. He nods.

“My mother used to say they were the starships of those who left us behind.” He smiles at me with those extremely well-shaped lips. “I don’t think she was right about that, though.”

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 14/01/2026

#PC926: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Gold Silkworm by Tony Pi, read by S. Qiouyi Lu Previously ran as #PC423 and first published in Fantasy Magazine. Rated PG-13 podcastle.org/2026/01/13/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 07/01/2026

#PC925: The Immortal Rabbit by Audris Candra, read by Zilla Paramita. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content notes for homophobia, violence, the death of a spouse, and second-person narration. podcastle.org/2026/01/06/p...

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Courtney Floyd @courtney-floyd.com · 25/11/2025

Delighted that my story, “CoverLetter_Version,5” appeared as a reprint with two other fantastic flash pieces in @podcastle.org today! They did my story proud! 🖤 Thanks specially to Kaitlyn Zivanovich for bringing my story to life so beautifully.

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B. Morris Allen @bmorrisallen.com · 25/11/2025

My latest story is up @podcastle.org ! You can read my flash story, "The Only Map is Memory" along with shorts by David McGuire and Courtney Floyd. podcastle.org/2025/11/25/p... This is, astoundingly, my 12th story published this year, far outstripping any previous year.

podcastle.org

PodCastle 919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities - PodCastle

The Only Map is Memory by B. Morris Allen I use my memory for a map. It’s the only map I have, but it’s unreliable in the way all memory is. Objects that I remember as big must have been smaller, loca...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 28/11/2025

#PC919: FLASH FICTION EXTRAVAGANZA: Possibilities! The Only Map is Memory (PG) by B. Morris Allen, narrated by Hugo Jackson, Valfierno (PG-13) by David McGuire, narrated by Steve Anderson and CoverLetter_Version5 (PG) by Courtney Floyd, narrated by Kaitlyn Zivanovich.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 19/11/2025

#PC918: Waterways by Diana Dima read by Matt Dovey. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content warning for self-harm and coercive control. podcastle.org/2025/11/18/p...

#PC918: Waterways by Diana Dima read by Matt Dovey. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. Content warning for self-harm and coercive control.

When his father died and left him the boat, he thought to himself, I can do it. I’m a boat-son, a boat-man, I’m no longer a child and no longer have to go home at sunset, when mother and sisters gather around the table and talk about the will and the debts. In the will his father had written to my son, who may yet feel at home on the water. So David spent days in the yard, scrubbing and polishing and waxing, and often fell asleep under the boat tarp in the cool May night.

When he left, he did look back at the hunched house and the village, faint as a smear of dirt on the green and the blue. He did feel a pang of guilt deep under the ribs. But mostly he was driven like a powerboat, like a steering wheel under his father’s hand. So he steered toward the northern shores where they used to go fishing for pike and drop anchor for the night in quiet coves.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 12/11/2025

#PC917: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar read by Marguerite Croft. Previously ran as episode 139 and originally published in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Rated R. podcastle.org/2025/11/11/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 04/11/2025

#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G podcastle.org/2025/11/04/p...

#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G

Yesterday, I was a bird. A slender-billed curlew, to be exact. My girlfriend helped me ID the bird. Took photographs of my decurved bill, the flash of white under my tail, the small brown speckles on my cream-white breast.
“Some of these spots look like hearts,” I said this morning, once I was human again and able to compare her pictures to the one in an article I found: “The Slender-Billed Curlew Is Declared Extinct.”
It always happens like this: a species disappears once and for all, and I transform into a replica of it for one day. Thirteen hours, at least, maybe more if I wake up especially early. It takes about an hour each way for the metamorphosis to be complete — long enough, in theory, for me to prepare. To lock the doors, rush to the bathtub if I feel gills opening in my throat. I often track the process in the mirror as it unfolds. Watch scales harden over my flesh, feathers push through my pores. It never stops feeling like magic.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 28/10/2025

#PC915: The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by Leah Ning, read by Amanda Ching. Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023). Rated PG-13 podcastle.org/2025/10/28/p...

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Eden Royce @edenroyce.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Thrilled my story "The Magnolia Returns" is up at @podcastle.org! It's a tale of a lonely, traveling butcher shop serving its community and finally finding companionship. The audio is narrated by the incredible Laurice White, who always nails the dialect. podcastle.org/2025/10/21/p... #booksky

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 22/10/2025

#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. podcastle.org/2025/10/21/p...

#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG.

The Magnolia blooms out of nowhere at any time of year it chooses, bringing its dilapidated wooden slats and rickety front steps to a neighborhood that somehow believes it has always been there. The butcher shop itself is well-worn, looking like it has seen better days: peeling seafoam green paint on salt-blasted boards, the once-vivid red front door now a faded smear like lipstick after an ardent lover’s attention.
Once it arrives, the locals begin to talk about visiting. They have always talked of the things they miss in life, and more often than not, it’s the food, the ingredients. Depending on when and where the Magnolia appears, either the supermarkets don’t stock the items the locals crave — the chicken feet, the pig tails, jowl, and ear — or these once-reviled parts of the animal have become so popular with the wealthy, it’s impossible for the poor to attain them.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 19/10/2025

We at the Castle are still reeling from this wonderful news, thank you everyone!

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Alasdair Stuart @alasdairstuart.com · 12/10/2025

Immense congratulations to every finalist and winner and OH MY GOD TEAM @podcastle.org ! Amazing work!

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Now I am become Jeff, the destroyer of Whorls @trollbreath.com · 18/10/2025

How wonderful to see this story landing over at Podcastle! We're so glad to have found it in our slush pile, and I'm pleased she found a home for the audio rights that would do it justice.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 19/10/2025

Announcement: PodCastle Is Trialling a Six Month Submissions Window!! We will open in November and close in April. See our announcement on the website for details. All our usual Submissions Guidelines still apply. podcastle.org/2025/10/17/a...

podcastle.org

Announcement: PodCastle Is Trialling a Six Month Submissions Window - PodCastle

Greetings, writers of fantasy fiction! We at PodCastle are due to open back up to general submissions in November. When we do, instead of our usual one month open period, we plan to open for six month...

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Kat Kourbeti @darthj.uno · 14/10/2025

Congratulations to @podcastle.org for winning an Ignyte Award! 👏 What a beautiful happenstance that my new narration is up there today - 'Vedritsa of the River' by @catchingwords.bsky.social is a sapphic Rusalka story with cli-fi elements, and I was deeply honoured to work on it. Give it a listen!

podcastle.org

PodCastle 913: Vedritsa of the River - PodCastle

Vedritsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs co...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 15/10/2025

#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning podcastle.org/2025/10/14/p...

#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning

The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs cold and pale as the settling twilight. A small tin boat lay near her half-opened hand — the reason she took a tumble into my river.

I paused.

Yes, though weak, a current flowed beneath the child’s skin; her heart still worked. I placed a palm on her chest.

The river water in the girl’s lungs had no choice but to obey me. I willed it out, and it obliged in a single great spurt. As if she had waited for just that, the girl’s eyes flew open, her hand clamping around my wrist with desperate strength.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 09/10/2025

#PC912: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Tanuki-Kettle by Eugie Foster, read by Tina Connolly. Previously ran as #PC28 and first published by Cricket Magazine. Rated G. podcastle.org/2025/10/07/p...

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Beth Goder @bethgoder.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

"Mycelium" is out at Podcastle. The narration is wonderful and gives such a voice to the story. I'm so grateful to narrator Tatiana Grey and the whole @podcastle.org team for the amazing work they did on this story. podcastle.org/2025/09/30/p...

podcastle.org

PodCastle 911: Mycelium - PodCastle

Mycelium by Beth Goder I only travel to the golden head when the dragonflies are in season. It’s Piack and me this year, rafting up the river past the lilies and arched trees. While I steer us throu...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 03/10/2025

#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG. podcastle.org/2025/09/30/p...

#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG.

I only travel to the golden head when the dragonflies are in season. It’s Piack and me this year, rafting up the river past the lilies and arched trees. While I steer us through the river’s gentle snarls, he sings about lost keys to pass the time — he’s always had a thing about lost keys and the doors they’ll never open, the places we’ll never find.

“Are you going to eat what the head gives you?” asks Piack. He’s one year older than I am — nineteen. With the sun behind him, his form swims in light.

The dragonflies buzz around us, brush their wings against our faces.

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Escape Artists Foundation @escapeartists.net · 01/10/2025

Dear Patreon subscribers: we’re aware of the multiple Patreon notifications/emails. We’re working on it. We recommend you turn off notifications for the moment and, if you can, set up a filter for emails. Please bear with us 😩

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 01/10/2025

PodCastle enthusiasts! We're getting reports of hundreds of notification emails being sent by Patreon and have received them ourselves. We're aware of it and are working on it.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 23/09/2025

#PC910: Tusker Blue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, read by Shweta Adhyam. Previously Published in Strange Horizons. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide. podcastle.org/2025/09/23/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 19/09/2025

#PC909: Resurrection Rum by Stephanie Malia Morris, read by Dominick Rabrun. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for death, gun violence, and racism podcastle.org/2025/09/16/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 09/09/2025

#PC908: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson, read by Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy, and Katherine Inskip. Previously ran as #PC722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction. Rated PG-13 podcastle.org/2025/09/09/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 03/09/2025

#PC907: Maintenance Phase by A. D. Ellicott, read by Emma Osborne. Previously Published by Body of Work, ed. C.Z. Tacks, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (2023) Rated PG - Content warnings for fatphobia and eating disorders. podcastle.org/2025/09/02/1...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 28/08/2025

#PC906: DOUBLE EPISODE: The House, The Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks by Amanda Helms, read by Cherrae L. Stuart. Previously published by Lightspeed. And To Pluck a Twisted String by Anne Leonard, read by Christiana Ellis. Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rated PG.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 19/08/2025

#PC905: The Next Dead Wife by Jeanna Mason Stay read by Valerie Valdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for coercive control, domestic violence, and murder. podcastle.org/2025/08/19/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 12/08/2025

#PC904: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prineas read by Steve Anderson. Previously ran as #PC018 and first published by Strange Horizons. Rated G. podcastle.org/2025/08/12/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 06/08/2025

#PC903: On the Shoulders of Giants by Charles Chin read by Eric Valdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. podcastle.org/2025/08/05/p...

#PC903: On the Shoulders of Giants by Charles Chin read by Eric Valdes.
A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG.

I was born a T12. Sure, it was the lowest of the thoracic vertebrae, but it was higher than any of the lumbars. I should be thankful to have been born high enough to see above the clouds. The L2s and L3s that climb beside me spent most of their youth in the haze below, unable to see the sun, not knowing how much more of the giant there was left to climb. But not me: fortunate me.
I grasp at rocky outcroppings and pull myself up the well worn stairs, carved into the ground by those who came before me. Moss hangs from the edges where feet avoid stepping, lest they slip down into the endless void of white below. The wall to my left rises as a sheer cliff of granite, or perhaps marble. It is difficult to know from the amount of lichen and foliage that hang down like curtains. But through the small holes cleaned out by the hands of travelers before, I can sometimes see the glint of the giant who breathes underneath.

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 31/07/2025

#PC902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike by E. M. Faulds read by Eliza Chan. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warning for ableist attitudes. podcastle.org/2025/07/29/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 22/07/2025

#PC901: Moths in a Fluttering Heart by Christine Lucas and read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Abyss & Apex. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny. podcastle.org/2025/07/22/p...

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PodCastle @podcastle.org · 16/07/2025

#PC900: Sour Fruit written by Gillian Knox and read by Karen Menzel. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for domestic abuse and the death of a parent. podcastle.org/2025/07/15/p...

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Devin Martin @quietandscreaming.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

The first of my picks for #DisabilityPride! Kicking off with a fun, heartfelt story from @jrdawson.bsky.social & @wiswell.bsky.social, and an absolutely phenomenal narration by John Bell — it almost sounds like a full cast recording!

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

For #DisabilityPride month, Podcastle has done an audio version of “This Mentor Lives” narrated by John Bell! This is a story of mentees teaching their aging wizard mentor to care for himself. I loved co-writing it with @jrdawson.bsky.social. This story was deeply personal for both of us.

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J.R. Dawson @jrdawson.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Oh hi, our reprint is out in @podcastle.org today! @wiswell.bsky.social and I teamed up to write about Abraham, which makes sense for Disability Pride, because Abe is disabled and ace. Like us! I love this story.

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Jess @rocketjessie.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Love this story so much.

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E.M. Faulds / Beth or Taxes / Not em faulds @emfaulds.com · 05/07/2025

Omg, the feels. I can't express adequately what words like this mean. My podcastle ep will be at the end of this month but please listen to all the stories and their unique takes. There's already one up! @podcastle.org

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