S1, E11 The Strangers

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Episode Transcript

(00:28):
This is Ed Falco on the airreading The Strangers, a novel
in 19 episodes.
At the conclusion of episode 10,Severn and the kids are shocked
when they hear two strangersthey've just encountered speak.
After only a few words, theyrealize they're not strangers at
all, and they run to greet eachother.

(00:52):
That's where we pick up episode11.
You're human, Severn said,announcing what was obvious to
everyone at that point.
Where did you come from, thegirl asked.
They'd stopped abruptly whenthey reached each other,
suddenly awkward.
They weren't looking for us, theguy said, watching Severn.

(01:14):
They didn't expect us to show uphere any more than we expected
them.
That's right, Severn said.
We thought you were strangers.
Tommy, seeing the couple'sconfusion, explained.
That's what we call the aliens.
We call them strangers.
Birds, the guy said.
We called them birds.

(01:34):
Vi, who had been hanging backslightly, walked around Tommy to
Severn and approached the girl.
She looked like she was about tosay something when instead she
threw her arms around her.
The girl appeared momentarilytaken aback before she returned
the embrace.
Ah, honey, she said.
I know exactly what you'refeeling.

(01:54):
She looked to Severn and Tommy.
How long have you had to put upwith these two guys?
She turned to her companion andthen said to Vi, Imagine
thinking you'd have to spend therest of your life and only men
to hang out with.
Dude.
Tommy extended his hand to theskinny guy.
I'm Tommy.
I'm Matthew, the guy said,shaking hands.

(02:16):
And that's A'isha.
Severn shook hands with Matthew.
Vi waved to him, one hand stillaround A'isha's waist, as if
they were instantly bestfriends.
My name's Vi, she said, shortfor Violet, but nobody calls me
that.
A'isha gestured towards Severn.
Is this your dad?

(02:36):
Severn was our neighbor, Visaid.
He's been watching out for us.
Matthew looked at Sage, who wassitting at Severn's foot, her
tail wagging in the grass.
I don't understand the dog, hesaid.
That's got me confused.
Why?
Vi asked.
Because dogs won't have anythingto do with us since the birds
got here, A'isha said.

(02:57):
They hate us, Matthew added.
Not Sage.
Tommy knelt to Sage and pettedher.
She stuck with us even whenthose monster dogs showed up.
The pack?
Matthew said.
The what?
The big dogs, A'isha said.
They run in a pack.
She looked to Severn.
If they found you, she asked,how'd you survive?

(03:18):
Mystery, Severn said.
This morning was our firstencounter with them.
They surrounded us, and then thesun came up, and they left.
What did they look like, Matthewasked.
There were six of them, Severnsaid.
Two beige, a roan, and a grey.
And the other two, one wasblack, and the other was a
patchy brown, more chocolate.

(03:38):
A'isha and Matthew exchanged alook.
Same pack, A'isha said.
Same as what, Vi asked.
Same pack that's been chasingus.
A'isha turned to Matthew again.
We should go inside, Matthewsaid.
We've got a lot of catching upto do.
Severn joined Matthew and thetwo of them walked slightly
ahead of A'isha and the kids,though they all kept turning to

(04:01):
each other and talking as agroup, stopping now and then
when they told their stories.
Matthew and A'isha had met asfirst year students at the
University of New Mexico.
A'isha At the time of thelurchings, they were seniors.
They were to graduate in May andget married in June.
Then the lurchings happened inApril and put an end to all
that.
The weekend of the events, theyhad gone with a group of friends

(04:24):
to Carlsbad Caverns on a cavingexpedition.
There were 14 of them that madethe trip, all guys and A'isha,
who was their guide.
And they were trappedunderground when the storms hit.
They were stuck in the floodedcaves for more than a week, and
when they came up, everyoneabove ground was dead.
A'isha, A'isha, A'isha OneFriday night, A'isha said, we

(04:45):
were a bunch of kids on a cavingtrip.
A week later, the 14 survivorshad cleared out an apartment
building and established a basefrom which they tried to locate
other survivors.
And then in December, the birdsarrived.
Everywhere, and all at once.
Followed rapidly by the pack.
Their group ran, traveled easttogether, doing everything they

(05:08):
could to defend themselves.
Over the winter, the pack killedoff everyone but Matthew and
A'isha.
For the past month, the couplehad been living in the
surrounding caves at night.
During the day, they used thefarmhouse for a base.
But before it got dark, theyretreated to the caves, where
they had made a fortress forthemselves.

(05:30):
The conversation went onanimatedly after they returned
to the house.
Neither Matthew nor A'isha hadany idea what happened while
they were underground, and theylistened as if entranced while
Severn and the kids explainedthe sequence of events as they
had experienced them.
Matthew made them repeat againand again the details of how
they survived by sleepingthrough the lurchings.

(05:53):
He kept shaking his head,perplexed by what he was
hearing.
Severn shared his theory ofdeath by disruption of humans
waking electrical impulses, butMatthew was skeptical.
It's hard to comprehend, hesaid.
Severn agreed.
Best I can come up with, hesaid.
He added, Where my thinking isnow is that it doesn't matter.

(06:15):
We know the strangers did it.
They have a way of targetinghumans only and whatever it is,
you have to be awake for it todo its damage.
Severn looked at Tommy as ifmaking the argument to him.
The details don't seem all thatimportant to me now.
They had already returned to thehouse when Vi realized that
they'd left their weapons.

(06:36):
She was panicked a moment,believing they were defenseless,
before Matthew led them up tothe attic, which turned out to
be, in addition to a comfortableliving space, a small armory.
There were dozens of automaticrifles and pistols, along with
crates of ammunition and avariety of miscellaneous
weaponry stacked neatly alongthe walls.

(06:57):
In each of the four corners ofthe attic there were windows
that gave a 360 degree view ofthe surrounding hills and
fields.
The windows were long and narrowand Severn saw right away that
Matthew and A'isha had to haveinstalled them themselves.
They were designed to give aview of the surroundings and to
be adequate for shooting out ofand yet too small to allow
excess.

(07:18):
Tommy picked up a tube likeweapon.
From watching old war movies, heguessed it was a bazooka.
AT 4, A'isha said, taking theweapon from him and leaning it
against the attic wall.
Matthew took a seat at a tablein the center of the room.
An 84mm unguided portable singleshot recoilless weapon built in

(07:39):
Sweden by Saab, he said,referring to the AT 4.
I was in the Corps of Cadets.
He sat across from Severn at thetable.
I wanted to be a weaponsspecialist.
They make a lot of noise, A'ishasaid, but against the dogs they
turn out to be useless.
She took a seat next to Matthewand Severn and motioned for Vi

(07:59):
and Tommy to join her.
Everything turned out to beuseless against the dogs.
They're too fast and too smart.
Wherever you fire, they're notthere anymore.
Sage moved away from one of thewindows, where she had been
staring at the fields.
She stretched out beside Severn.
The table was cluttered with apair of desktop computers,

(08:19):
various electronics, and a mazeof wires plugged into surge
protectors and USB hubs.
Severn followed a pair of fatwires to a hole cut in the floor
in a far corner.
Where's the generator?
He asked Matthew.
Matthew was watching Sage.
Basement, he said.
We're conserving gasoline,A'isha said, explaining why the

(08:40):
generator wasn't running.
We're running low, she grinned.
The Ferrari's drinking it up.
Matthew squeezed his upper lipbetween his thumb and forefinger
in a way that made everyone waitfor what he was about to say.
He looked almost as if he wastaking a pinch of snuff.
Listen, he said finally.
And he turned from Severn to Vi.

(09:02):
I can see that you're allattached to the dog, but she
makes me nervous.
I'm sorry, he said, and heleaned back in his chair.
But I don't think it's safe tokeep her with us.
Why?
Vi asked.
And her eyes moved from Matthewto A'isha.
They're dangerous, A'isha said.
They're friendly to birds.
Vi made a kissing sound, andSage was instantly on her feet.

(09:25):
She hurried around Severn andjumped upon Vi to lick her face.
Sage is part of our family, Visaid.
She's been with us from thestart.
Why do you think she'sdangerous?
Severn asked.
I understand, he added, that ourdogs, human dogs, seem hostile
to us.
We've had our own run ins withthem, but Sage has been
unfailingly loyal.

(09:47):
That's a mystery, Matthew said,but I won't argue with you.
He gestured to Sage, I can see.
She's reminding me of the waydogs used to be.
She's making me miss Roxy,A'isha said to Matthew.
To the others, she explained,Roxy was our family dog.
Matthew said, problem is thatthey can communicate with the

(10:08):
birds.
The strangers, you went on,switching to the way Severn and
the kids refer to the aliens.
The strangers can communicatewith dogs, cats, and horses that
we're sure of, that we've seenfor ourselves.
Oddly though, A'isha said, notbirds, real birds.
Not common birds anyway, Matthewsaid.
I wouldn't be surprised if theycould communicate with the

(10:29):
smarter ones, like parrots orminers.
And you've seen this, Severnasked?
You've seen them talking, too?
We spent some time living amongthe birds.
Strangers, Matthew said.
We figured out pretty quicklythat the pack wasn't attacking
strangers, only us.
And the strangers, on the otherhand, were passive.

(10:50):
What do you mean, passive?
They're not violent, A'ishasaid.
She pushed her hair back off herforehead and held it there, her
hand resting atop her head.
But, Vyse said, they killed offthe human race, how can you
think they're not violent?
They're not, Matthew said.
When they realize there arehumans around, they go into
their homes and lock theirdoors.

(11:10):
Matthew grabbed one by the armonce, A'isha said, and it looked
shocked, like it had no idea howto react.
He looked indignant, Matthewsaid.
This guy, several years olderthan me and bigger, too.
Matthew wound up letting him go.
Why were you living among them,Vi asked.
You explain, A'isha said toMatthew.

(11:32):
I'm going to get myselfsomething to drink.
Anybody else?
I'd love a beer, Tom, he said.
Severn said, Me too, if youdon't mind.
Before Vi could ask for a beer,he added, And I saw some cans of
coke in the fridge.
Vi?
Sure, Vi said.
Thanks, A'isha.
I'll have a beer, Matthew said.
Really?

(11:52):
A'isha said to Matthew, withobvious sarcasm, I'm shocked.
I like my beer, Matthew said toSevern.
So why were you living with thestrangers, Vi asked Matthew.
Behind her, A'isha pushed openthe trap door and dropped the
ladder.
She waited, watching Matthew, asif interested in how he'd tell
the story.

(12:13):
We figured out that they weren'tattacking the strangers, just
us.
We had already lost half ournumber.
These were our friends, and wewere losing them at a rate of
one every ten days or so.
Someone had the idea.
It was Jamie's idea, A'ishainterrupted.
We didn't know what to thinkabout the birds, the strangers,
Matthew went on.

(12:33):
We saw evidence that the dogsweren't attacking them.
Only wild animals, A'isha said.
They were only attacking andeating animals that couldn't be
domesticated.
We came to the conclusion,Matthew continued, that the dogs
were there to protect thestrangers from any animal that
might be a danger to them, orany animal they couldn't talk to
and control, A'isha threw in.

(12:56):
Jamie thought maybe if we livedamong the birds and showed them
that we were no danger to them,maybe the dogs would stop
killing us.
Didn't work, A'isha said.
She said it softly, with a touchof bitterness, and then
descended the ladder.
Matthew watched A'ishadisappear, and then was silent
until her footsteps faded on thestairs.

(13:17):
They still attacked while youwere living with the strangers,
Tommy prodded.
When we'd move into a house, thestrangers would move out, then
the dogs would come.
They took us one at a time.
Always just one of us.
Why do you think?
It was like they were playingwith us.
As if they were enjoying thebattle and the killing, so they

(13:38):
spread it out.
Dude, Tommy said, we triedforcing the birds to live with
us.
We wouldn't let them leave thehouse at night.
Matthew paused and got a farawaylook, as if he were still trying
to figure it out.
They understand us.
They understand English.
The strangers, they can't speakit, but they understand it.

(14:00):
How do you know that, Severnsaid.
We tell them to do something andthey do it.
This just gets crazier andcrazier.
Keeping the strangers in thehouse with us didn't work,
Matthew went on.
The dogs came anyway.
They attack from every angle.
The pack.
They're so fast that they'rethere one instant and then

(14:21):
they're gone before you can pullthe damn trigger.
He looked to the trap door as ifsuddenly anxious for A'isha to
be back with his beer.
Didn't make any difference thatthe birds were in the house.
They peeled one of us off andtook him away.
The next day, someplace nearby,we'd find what was left, which
was never very much.

(14:41):
And the strangers, Vi said, theyjust watched all this?
We buried the remains of ourfriends, and they went on about
their lives.
They were indifferent to us.
We're like animals, A'isha said,coming up through the trapdoor
with a tray of drinks.
Not worth their concern.
That makes me furious, Vi said,and when Severn glanced at Vi,

(15:05):
he saw that her face was indeedred with anger.
We thought about killing them,Matthew said, softly.
Who, Tommy said?
The birds.
Matthew took his beer fromA'isha and thanked her.
We were divided on that, A'ishasaid.
I didn't want to do it.
I did, Matthew said.
I wanted to gather them in ahouse with us and start blowing

(15:26):
them away at the first smell ofdogs.
A'isha retook her seat at thetable.
She wasn't making eye contactwith Matthew.
It was obvious that this was anold argument.
I thought, Matthew went on, thatit was worth a try.
I thought it might keep the dogsoff.
And we hadn't been able to findany other way.
They were killing us off, one ata time.

(15:49):
Severn was quiet then, as wereTommy and Vi.
They all seemed to be thinkingover the argument.
Matthew tilted his head back anddowned half his beer.
Tell us about the lurchingsagain, he said to Severn.
He held his beer bottle in frontof him on the table, both hands
wrapped around that as if tosteady himself.
His skinny frame and bald headwith dark glasses and yellow

(16:12):
croquis, which looked so strangeat first, had already settled
into a look that was more uniquethan ugly, that one could even
see as intriguing, or.
As appeared to be the case forA'isha, attractive.
Severn understood that Matthewwanted to change the subject and
so once again went into a longand detailed account of events

(16:32):
beginning with waking in bed tofind Sarah dead alongside him
and ending with the morning thedogs surrounded them.
Vi and Tommy added stories anddetails throughout the telling
while Matthew and A'isha onceagain listened as if mesmerized.
A'isha said, It's amazing youfound a way to survive.
Severn said, Nothing made anysense, but eventually it was

(16:56):
clear what was happening, thatanyone awake was dying, and the
sleeping or unconscious weresurviving.
Matthew said, Whatever it was,whatever they were doing, it had
to be something projected downonto the earth's surface,
because we escaped itunderground.
See, I don't get that, Tommysaid, suddenly sitting up

(17:17):
straight.
If being underground couldprotect you, there'd have to be
more survivors, people inbasements, people living
underground, like in missilesilos, people in submarines, if
I added, people working intunnels.
Not really, Severn said.
The lurchings went on for fourdays and nights.
People in tunnels and basementswould have come up from

(17:38):
underground, especially oncethey figured out something was
going on.
No one was answering phones,communications were down.
And we weren't just underground,A'isha said.
We were in Carlsbad, in thyLechub Giyah.
We were pretty deep, Matthewthrew in, like a thousand feet
underground or more.

(17:58):
He asked Severn, Do you knowanything about caving?
Tommy said, I know a little.
When Vi and Severn both lookedat him with surprise, he said,
What, I know some things.
Lechuch Giyah is like thelongest, deepest cave in the
world.
Not in the world, Matthew said.
Not even in the U.
S., A'isha added.
But it's long and deep.

(18:20):
She reached across the table andtouched Tommy's hand, as if to
reassure him about being wrong.
And she took a breath, signalingshe would not tell a story.
We went in, appropriately,through misery holes, she said.
We had no intention of goinganywhere near that deep or
staying anywhere near that long.
Matthew laughed, and though heprobably didn't intend it, the

(18:41):
laugh sounded pained.
It was supposed to be a weekendtrip.
A'isha said, I'm a guide.
I take people on trips all thetime.
When we went in on Fridaymorning, she continued, the sky
was clear and the weather wassupposed to be excellent all
weekend.
The plan was to explore all dayFriday and Saturday and come up
on Sunday.

(19:03):
Then Saturday night the tentstarted floating away, Matthew
said.
It was literally a river comingat us.
That was Saturday night, A'ishasaid.
So now we know for sure thosefreak storms hit in New Mexico
and Virginia.
Matthew said, we can safelyassume the whole planet.
We couldn't go up, A'isha said,so we wound up going deeper and
deeper, till I'm guessing wewere somewhere way down when the

(19:26):
water finally stopped coming.
We spent almost a weekendunderground, Matthew said, up to
our butts in water, cold water.
It's a little miracle wesurvived, A'isha said.
We spent a week down there,Matthew said, and when we came
up, no more world.
Well, he added, the world wasstill there, just the people

(19:49):
were all gone.
The conversation paused then fora moment.
They had been talking non stopfrom the instant they realized
they were all human, and thesudden pause didn't feel
awkward.
It felt more like everyonetaking a breather.
Outside the wind was picking upand the sky was clouding over.
The corners of the attic werehidden in shadow.

(20:11):
Around the table, the five ofthem were lost in their own
thoughts, their eyes distant.
The quiet lasted only a fewseconds, while the sound of the
wind blowing over the rooffilled the attic space.
The house creaked and somewherein the wooden frame of the
building something made aknocking sound.
The break in the talking, thefew moments of silence brought

(20:33):
with it a shift in mood, as ifeveryone was realizing at once
that their situation had notchanged.
Nothing had really changed,except now they all had more
company, more human company.
The world still belonged to thestrangers.
The dogs were still out there.

(20:54):
A'isha was the first to breakthe silence.
It's getting late, she said.
We should have something to eatand then head back over to the
cave.
Severn asked A'isha to give himanother second.
When you were living with thestrangers, he said, what was it
like?
What are they like?
Matthew was fiddling with hisglasses.
He took them off and tapped arubber coated earpiece on the

(21:15):
table.
It's crazy, he said.
They read our books, watch ourmovies.
They play baseball, tennis,basketball, A'isha interrupted.
The end.
Matthew pointed to thecomputers.
The internet is working fineeverywhere, all over the world.
Every country we check, we findweb pages, social networks,
Facebook, and Twitter, andInstagram.

(21:37):
And everything's the same.
Everything we had before thekill off, we still have.
Except now, it's them, and notus.
They have Facebook?
It's Matthew struggled a momentand then gave up, unable to find
the right words.
They don't appear to have theirown written language, he went
on.
Whatever country we monitor,their written communications are

(22:00):
in the language of that country.
We go to Italy Italian, we go toVietnam Vietnamese, etc.
That doesn't make sense, Severnsaid.
Tommy asked, How can they beadvanced enough for space travel
and not have their own writtenlanguage?
Matthew has a theory, A'ishasaid.
My degree is in biology, Matthewsaid, or would have been, he

(22:22):
corrected himself, if thelurchings had held off for about
another month.
My degree would have been inEnglish Lit, A'isha said to the
table.
The world ended.
And we're both still pissed offthat it happened before we got
our diplomas.
Tommy said, you were robbed.
So what's your theory, Vi askedMatthew.
We think they adapt themselvesto the cultures they inhabit

(22:44):
right down to the use of writtenlanguage.
A'isha said, they don't have tochange anything that way.
From books to signs toinstruction manuals.
Nothing.
They move into a culture and useeverything exactly as it is.
Severn thought back first to theshopping center in Lynchburg.
To Target and Starbucks.

(23:05):
To all the store signs that werein English while all the
shoppers were strangers.
It's a theory, he said.
It's an interesting idea.
Dude, Tommy said.
And he leaned over the tabletoward Matthew.
When we checked out the shoppingcenter in Lynchburg, everything
was the same except no cashregisters.
What's that about?
They don't use money, Matthewsaid.

(23:26):
Severn asked.
Is it digital?
Automatic?
No system of exchange at all.
It's free to them.
Everything.
Nobody has to pay for anything.
Severn said, I'm mystified.
That's Think about it, Matthewsaid.
All the goods they need,everything they could ever want,
is already here.
They don't have to mine thenatural resources.

(23:47):
They don't have to buildanything.
Whatever they have to do,delivery, service, maintenance,
farming, that kind of work, theyseem to share those
responsibilities.
So let's just say, unlikeEarth's indigenous population,
Us, who all had to work ourbutts off, they don't really
have to do hardly anything atall.
And what about when the goodsand materials and natural

(24:09):
resources that have already beenmined and refined and built,
etc, what about when they runout?
They won't, Matthew said.
They'll never run out.
Every place we look, we see thepopulation decreased by all but
a tiny fraction of the peoplewho used to be there.
We can just Google whatever wewant to know, A'isha said.
Google works like nothingchanged.

(24:31):
Population of New York, pre killoff, Matthew said, 8.
2 million.
Now, 400, 000.
Tokyo pre kill off, 12 million.
Now, about 600, 000.
Albuquerque pre kill off, 550,000.
Now, about 30, 000.
That extrapolates worldwide,A'isha said.

(24:53):
Which means the population ofthe Earth is now someplace
around 350 million, down from 7billion, Matthew said.
Population of the Earth, whenShakespeare wrote, was more than
400 million.
You see our point, A'isha said?
There's now 350 millioncreatures on a planet that had
goods and resources andinfrastructure, the farms and

(25:15):
factories, the industries andcommunications, et cetera, to
support 7 billion creatures.
All they have to do, Matthewadded, is maintain some things,
restructure other things, whilethey share the minimal amount of
necessary work to provide for amuch smaller population.
And they've inherited aparadise.

(25:36):
That's just, Severn said.
It's starting to seem easy, butlet it hang.
That's not even the mostinteresting part of the theory,
A'isha said, and she looked toMatthew.
We know that there are specieson earth that can change their
form to mimic other species,Matthew said.
He hesitated and looked away, asif he might drop the whole

(25:56):
thing, but then pushed on.
It seems possible to me that thebirds not only mimic our
culture, but also our physicalform.
That would explain the slightlydifferent way they walk and
their inability to actuallyspeak our language.
The mimicry is less thanperfect.
Close, but not perfect.
Severn closed his eyes and triedto absorb what Matthew was

(26:18):
saying.
Vi said to A'isha, could thisget any creepier?
Severn said, I suppose that'spossible, but it's also possible
that lots of species throughoutthe universe evolve in forms
roughly similar to our humanform.
It seems more likely to me thatthey chose our planet in the
first place because we were somuch like them.

(26:39):
Tommy spoke as if he hadn't evenheard Severn.
So wait a minute, Matthew, hesaid.
You mean they don't really lookexactly like us?
They just changed into us?
A'isha said, it's a theory,Tommy.
Vi said to Matthew, what do youthink they really look like?
No, wait, she added quickly,this is getting too scary for
me.

(27:00):
She got up and stood besideSevern.
Severn put his arm around Vi'swaist.
Nothing is too bizarre for me tobelieve anymore.
Matthew said, really, Vi, it'sjust a theory.
Trust me, he added.
If you knew me better, youwouldn't put too much stock in
my theories.
But you think he could be right,Severn?

(27:20):
Severn said, I think A'isha isright.
We should get something to eatand head over to the cave before
it gets dark.
He pushed his chair back, stood,and put an arm around Vi's
shoulder.
A'isha pried the top off a crateof weapons.
We need to get you guys ready.
She pulled an automatic riflefrom the crate, loaded it with a
full clip, and handed it toTommy.

(27:42):
Tommy took the weapon, slung itover his shoulder, and started
for the trap door.
Uh uh, A'isha said.
She took him by the arm, pulledhim back, and gave him a second
rifle.
Always carry two, she said.
She pulled another crate close,opened it, and took out a pistol
and a leather holster.
And a handgun, she added.
She put the pistol in theholster and offered it to Tommy.

(28:05):
Why, two rifles, Severn asked.
He and Vi stood beside Tommy andtook the weapons from A'isha as
she handed them out.
Matthew was waiting at the trapdoor.
Because when the dogs attack,there's no time to reload.
We figured that out prettyquick, A'isha said.
The dogs will let you shoot toyour heart's content.
Then the second your handtouches the clip to reload,

(28:27):
that's it.
They're on you.
Smart creatures, Severn said.
Oh yeah, Matthew said.
Smart, but mostly just fast.
Unbelievably fast.
Fi held her pistol in front ofher and looked it over.
I don't get this, she said.
If he just unloaded twoautomatics and that didn't do
the trick, what's this going todo?

(28:49):
A'isha put her arm around Vi andguided her to the door.
Honey, she said, that's not forthe dogs.
That, if it's needed.
That's for you.
Oh, but I said, indicating sheunderstood.
Great.

(29:17):
That was episode 11 of TheStrangers.
New episodes will be availabletwice a week on Mondays and
Fridays until the novel iscompleted.
If you want to read ahead, aninexpensive digital edition of
The Strangers is available fromAmazon, Barnes Noble, and other
online bookstores.
This podcast is an experiment inalternatives to traditional

(29:39):
publishing.
If you'd like to support it, andmore like it in the future,
please consider becoming asubscriber or a supporter.
If enough listeners choose to doso, that will go a long way to
help ensuring the podcast'ssuccess and continuation.
In any event, I'm Ed Falco, Iwrote The Strangers, and I hope

(30:00):
you'll come back for the nextepisode.