Auditory Anthology

Auditory Anthology

Embark on a journey through time and imagination with 'Auditory Anthology,' a weekly podcast bringing to life the most captivating science fiction stories. Each episode, award-winning voice-artist and host of Weird Darkness Darren Marlar breathes life into a unique blend of classic and modern tales, ranging from time-honored masterpieces to groundbreaking works by emerging authors. Curated and produced by Keith Conrad. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

December 30, 2025 16 mins

After stumbling into a mysterious Chicago tavern where the patrons treat him like a long-lost legend, a reserved young man disappears from his life forever, leaving his friends to eventually discover that the bar, and everyone inside it, never existed at all.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings out its own brand of weird, which has l...

Mark as Played

Back in January of 2024 when we launched Auditory Anthology, one of the first short stories we shared was Prime Difference by Alan Norse.


Here’s a highlight from that episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/52Uf0lF35EPpfxfbWpKR8X


We’ll have a link to that episode in the show notes. This is another story that was originally featured on the 1950’s radio drama X Minus One. We’ll be back with our normal original content on Tue...

Mark as Played
December 25, 2025 32 mins

I have always been bothered by the line in the Andy Williams Christmas song "It's the most wonderful time of the year" when he says "There'll be scary ghost stories." I always wondered who told scary ghost stories for Christmas. So naturally, with Christmas falling on a Thursday, I decided it was a good idea to share a scary ghost story. Here is "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens, certainly a writer people associate with Christmas....

Mark as Played
December 24, 2025 58 mins

It's Christmas Eve! It's A Wonderful Life has been a part of my family's Christmas experience my entire life. Back in 1947, Lux Radio Theater created a radio adaptation of It’s A Wonderful Life. This production stars Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed reprising their iconic roles as George and Mary. Just like the movie, George goes on an unforgettable journey of self-discovery, guided by the bumbling yet endearing angel Clarence, as he l...

Mark as Played
December 23, 2025 179 mins

Christmas wouldn't be complete without the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, and today we’re enjoying a very special version. We’re featuring Darren Marlar’s audiobook of A Christmas Carol. Whether you’ve heard this story a hundred times or are hearing it for the first time, Darren’s narration brings every character to life, from the rattling chains of Jacob Marley to the infectious joy of Tiny Tim. Let’s head back to 1843 and see if a he...

Mark as Played
December 21, 2025 25 mins

Back in 2024 when we launched Auditory Anthology, one of the first short stories we shared was The Snowball Effect by Katherine MacLean.


Here’s a link to our original episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ScU47W6gsiDYnZKPZByDT?si=f38308411b994a2a


This is another story that was originally featured on the 1950’s radio drama X Minus One. We’ll be back with our normal original content on Tuesday and Thursday, but in the mean...

Mark as Played
December 18, 2025 13 mins

Working his first shift at an abysmal call center for the “Vital-Link Wellness Band,” new hire Elias quickly realizes that the red status light on the wristbands is not a glitch but a death timer, and his scripted, seemingly nonsensical instructions are actually guiding the wearers to their exact, preordained places of demise.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptm...

Mark as Played
December 16, 2025 13 mins

On his first solo overnight shift at an old radio station, a young announcer is guided and mentored by the station’s kindly, veteran engineer, only to discover in the morning that the man who kept him company—and whose tools still sit on the console—died years ago in the locked transmitter room.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train brings ou...

Mark as Played
December 14, 2025 24 mins

One of my favorite episodes of X Minus One was The Merchants Of Venus, so when I was looking for stories to share on Auditory Anthology, it was one of the first ones I looked for.


We released our version of the story on April fourth of twenty twenty-four: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Y7AjqxR4KTNvtGHSnpKeT?si=26632dbb02104263


Here is the episode of X Minus One originally aired on July eighteenth of nineteen fifty seven. W...

Mark as Played
December 11, 2025 30 mins

When George and Lydia Hadley realize their children’s expensive, automated nursery… which projects any mental landscape with vivid reality… has been stuck on a terrifying, lion-filled African veldt, they find their attempt to shut down the machine may lead to a deadly confrontation with the technology that has replaced them as parents.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soun...

Mark as Played

The overnight staff at a dimly lit newsroom learns to dread… and then depend upon… a cranky, anonymous 11:37 p.m. caller on Line Seven who relentlessly complains about the station’s coverage of future events, accurately predicting everything from escaped goats at City Hall to the weatherman fainting live on air.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. Th...

Mark as Played
December 7, 2025 24 mins

Back when we launched Auditory Anthology, one of the first short stories we shared was Man's Best Friend by Evelyn E. Smith. It's a story that describes a very different way of picking political leaders.


Here’s a ink to that episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0SWMjsljmNR9bgtWkAuKbu


This is another story that was originally featured on the 1950’s radio drama X Minus One. We’ll be back with our normal original content on...

Mark as Played
December 4, 2025 19 mins

A lonely aunt’s pride in her exotic, gift-giving nephew turns to dread when his latest botanical offering—the Venusian “Rambler”—proves to be a massive, blood-sucking, mind-controlling carnivorous plant that begins feeding on local animals until it finally sets its sights on her.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/


You can support the show by becomin...

Mark as Played

The exhausted staff of a hospital’s chaotic night shift comes to depend on an unsettlingly silent, unscheduled janitor nicknamed “Saint Squeegee,” who materializes exactly when and where messes, accidents, and minor crises erupt, leading the nurses to believe he is either a guardian angel or a cleaning ghost.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The t...

Mark as Played
November 30, 2025 31 mins

Back in January of 2024 when we launched Auditory Anthology, one of the first short stories we shared was Chain of Command by Stephen Arr.


Here’s a link to the episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/579BArR03hwf1UgSP5kZwq?si=c505422014504396


This is another story that was originally featured on the 1950’s radio drama X Minus One. We’ll be back with our normal original content on Tuesday and Thursday, but in the meantime fo...

Mark as Played
November 27, 2025 18 mins

Exiled Martian dictator Marcius Kemble, maddened by defeat and banished to frozen Pluto, believes he has secured an escape ship from the mysterious native inhabitants, only to discover too late that his vengeful return to the inner solar system is foiled by a fatal design flaw: the ship is made of mercury and will melt under the heat of the sun.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submis...

Mark as Played

The late-night technician at an outdated TV station discovers a mysterious phantom channel that broadcasts a live, eerie feed of their town, only to realize the footage isn’t showing the present, but the immediate, inevitable future, with predictions that quickly turn from strange coincidence to terrifying catastrophe.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago toget...

Mark as Played
November 23, 2025 23 mins

Back in January of 2024 when we launched Auditory Anthology, one of the first short stories we shared was The Lights on Precipice Peak by Stephen Tall.


Here’s a link to that episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7IDdvopOUIyvGjaVvxKjp4?si=f09f5d43000e411b.


This is another story that was originally featured on the 1950’s radio drama X Minus One. It was one of my favorite episodes and I was very excited when I found the sho...

Mark as Played
November 20, 2025 26 mins

Bored with the comforts of 25th-century civilization, a famous adventure novelist and his bride convince a drunken friend to use an experimental teleportation device, the Cosmic Express, to send them to the primitive, wild jungles of Venus, where their romanticized notions of "back to nature" are instantly and miserably crushed.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconcep...

Mark as Played

The night shift at the hospital is dramatically altered when the staff discovers that the old, untrustworthy vending machine, an office joke, starts dispensing eerie and hyper-specific fortune tea bottles that accurately predict everything from missed birthdays to patient emergencies on their floor.


Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into downtown Chicago together. The train bring...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    The Burden

    The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

    SmartLess

    "SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc.