Those Snowy Nights You Read to Me, They'll Never Be Forgotten
21 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 months ago - ★★★★★ - 151 ratingsWorks written and produced by Soren Narnia. The text of these stories is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA. Email: [email protected] -- When I was in the fourth grade, my teacher asked me to sit next to a handicapped kid named Sean and help him along a little if I could. It wasn't easy, because he was quite slow, but I tried. When Sean got especially excited about something, or if he was told he had done something well, he would smile and shout out nonsense words. One of them I remember, which he used to shout many times over the few months I sat beside him, was "Sorinarneeya!" Again and again, it was a harmless word he used when he was happy, and seeing my puzzled expression would just make him say it once more, even more pleased than the first time: "Sorinarneeya!" For some reason that word stuck with me for years, until one day as an adult I realized how neatly and curiously it cut in half. And I thought that was so perfect, how this little gem of a thing had sprung from a bit of the absurd and a bit of the tragic. That seemed like all of life to me: momentary bits of perfection out of all the absurdity and tragedy. And amazingly, they just keep on coming. - SN
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Episodes
Little Boy Games
July 11, 2023 01:43 - 1 hour - 143 MBAn ex-athlete reminisces fondly about his years in a half-forgotten, strictly mid-tier baseball league, recalling the characters, the laughter, and all the other tiny pleasures of a long chapter in his fortunate life. Written and performed by Soren Narnia. Music: “All There Is” by Mateja Kojadinovic, all rights reserved. Narrator: Linda Wojtowick. Photo by Hitoaki Koishikawa, Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
The Angle of the Light
February 01, 2021 15:00 - 2 hours - 145 MBIn this love story set in a small American town in the late 19th century, a wanderer seeking shelter from troubling memories is changed forever by the women who befriend him there. Additional narration by Amy Paonessa. Music: ‘Wooden Starlight’ by Dear Gravity ‘Better Now’ and ‘Liquid Mirror - Piano Version’ by Philip Daniel Zach ‘Landscape with Airplanes in the Rain’ by REW<< ‘Three’ by Neon Ridge
In the Realm of the Eight Dollar Soda
March 05, 2020 23:07 - 1 hour - 125 MBFive movie parodies for those times when you get wistful about the closure of that discount theater you used to go to with your weird friend Sidney. The movies: Eyes Wide Shut - Aguirre, the Wrath of God - Solaris - Winter Light - Heat With Amy Paonessa, Jason Hill, Linda Wojtowick, Josh Hillinger, Cal Butera, Rich Albert, Les Lentz, and Soren Narnia. Written by Soren Narnia. Music by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com, as follows: "Night In Venice" Link: https://incompetech.filmm...
Town With a Tranquil Name
October 30, 2019 17:37 - 3 hours - 179 MBA cryptic family album hiding a mystery 170 years old; a lonely cemetery revealing disturbing patterns no one will acknowledge; a dreaded knock at the door on a night of deserted streets, hushed voices, and villagers cowering by candlelight. These are a few of the elements of this tale of slowly mounting dread, in which an anguished mystery writer explores the secrets of a strange and ominous town beckoning her from the past. Abridged from the novel. Additional narration by Amy Paonessa o...
Tyrant, Draw Thy Sword
September 19, 2018 19:00 - 2 hours - 229 MBThe year was 2007, and conditions in Bello Gardens, one of the most squalid and dangerous housing projects in America, were at their worst. Decimated by poverty, tortured by crime, and suffocated by neglect, the slum known cynically as the Joke faced a lonely, unnoticed death. When tensions in the community rose to a breaking point, the last remaining inhabitants of Bello Gardens--desperate gang members turned remorseless freedom fighters--vowed not to give up its deserted streets without a ...
If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking
February 08, 2018 01:24 - 1 hour - 161 MBFor diehard romantics only, these are the letters of a reckless stargazer who turned his back on reality to lose himself in a love story whose ending seemed foretold from the beginning. Narrated by Soren Narnia and Justy Gee of the Starless podcast. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Joke Meets Ground
August 13, 2017 14:43 - 2 hours - 232 MBWhat do you mean, you don't remember my podcast Joke Meets Ground? Here's the entire run (I would have gone much farther, but I seem to recall the audience had other ideas). Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Three Stories for a Rainy Sunday Afternoon
July 13, 2017 03:12 - 21 minutes - 40 MBMusic: “Feather Waltz” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Bride, Groom, Sunday, Forever
February 20, 2017 22:00 - 1 hour - 156 MBBride, Groom, Sunday, Forever depicts the unusual on-stage wedding of Stanley and Muriel, a ceremony filled with stunningly honest testimonials and reenactments which reveal the couple’s deepest secrets. In the space of ninety minutes they experience hilarity, embarrassment, wonder, and sadness, all with the goal of emerging from a tiny small town theater cleansed and determined enough to face the uncertain but boundless future. Narrated by Soren Narnia, with Angela Mae Johnson. Music: ...
An Oral History of Hell
September 12, 2016 16:00 - 1 hour - 172 MBThis is a bleak, brutish tale of dark suspense related by a narrator condemned to Hell's wintry plain. The Grip, the Speaking Stones, the Far Mountains, the Perimeter, the Lie: In describing Hell's harsh geography and customs, Nicholas Strait also describes the events and people that brought him to damnation. His search for a way out must navigate madness, addiction, and the immutable hand of death. Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4...
Whatever You Find Within You
April 09, 2016 03:23 - 2 hours - 324 MBWhatever You Find Within You is a romantic comedy of both solemn longing and bumbling confusion, and the rather fine line between the two. When an unread love story by the great nineteenth century Icelandic playwright Dari Stanislad is discovered in 2011 by the brain trust of an educational institution of dubious reputation, numerous obsessed parties squabble like overstimulated chickens over its vast financial and intellectual significance. Just one problem: The play is incredibly awful, an...
Objects Found in a Faraway Field
February 01, 2016 01:48 - 13 minutes - 31.1 MBIt's funny, the little theories you develop over the years, so random and rarely spoken. One of mine is that if any true, irrevocable harm can come to a single innocent creature on this earth, then maybe, just maybe, life itself should never have existed--nothing has ever been worth that pain, none of it, going back to the beginning of time. I suppose that from such thoughts must occasionally come stories like this one.
The Tears of Sisyphus
November 02, 2015 02:39 - 59 minutes - 137 MBOver the course of one long day on a seemingly endless country road, a hitchhiker listens to the sad, desperate circumstances that her driver has found himself in--and becomes witness to his determined effort to free himself from a terrible trap of isolation and regret. The only weapon he has is a truly powerful one: his ever-wandering mind and its awesome ability to show him worlds no one else can see. Narration by Heidi Kole, thesubwaydiaries.com Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com...
Toward the Close of November
September 24, 2015 01:09 - 11 minutes - 25.8 MBA short and simple fable, written years ago, and one I think about whenever I feel the first chill of the season in the air.
New Players Welcome Here
August 31, 2015 00:54 - 1 hour - 195 MBYou never know which one of those temporary jobs you take in your twenties on your way to a real career will provide you with the greatest memories. For the narrator of this novella, it was unexpectedly working for the Pittsburgh Design Agreement, a board game company populated by dreamers with endlessly creative designs--all brought to the world through the recklessness of a CEO who understood ambition and adventure far more than dice and cards. Those familiar with the modern board game hob...
Song of the Living Dead
July 27, 2015 00:27 - 1 hour - 263 MBThe zombies rose and walked, the country went mad, and then the zombies laid down again--all without committing a single act of violence. Traveling randomly across the east with a group of close friends, the restless dreamer Lionel Gathers witnesses first-hand the nightmarish confusion that the living dead bring upon the land in this tale that is both satire and elegy. It's a story of one man's despair over his country's inability to unite in crisis, a tale of sudden, random violence and ill...
Sketch of a Bird in Flight
June 01, 2015 23:41 - 2 hours - 293 MBThis novella follows young Tobin Millane, lonely outcast and reluctant gunslinger, on his run for survival across the Kansas prairie in 1881. His desperate travels lead him and his silent partner into violent conflict with the bandits he stole from, the law enforcers who see him as nothing more than a lowly thief, and the wrath of a brutal Midwestern winter. Yet in the midst of his hopeless situation, a single ray of beauty unexpectedly touches his life. Created by a genius more famous than ...
3:13 a.m.
May 01, 2015 18:59 - 2 hours - 380 MBIt is 3:13 a.m., and now the human imagination reaches out to places and yearnings that it shies away from during life's daylight hours of quiet desperation. The brief parables, random episodes, and emotional wanderings presented here act as a repository of all that can be felt and dreamed when the night is dark, the soul is alone, and our thoughts become uncaged until the first blue of dawn ends the spell. Read by Soren Narnia End music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under ...
Loft
April 12, 2015 22:36 - 1 hour - 140 MBFor seven years around the turn of the 21st century, America was enthralled by one of the most intense sporting competitions ever invented. The game of Loft demanded extraordinary precision, athleticism, and daring, rewarding only those who made a total physical and intellectual commitment. This is the story of Loft's rise, glory, and controversial disappearance from the sports landscape. Its history was defined by the efforts of two men: its enigmatic creator and its indomitable, single-min...
Signs Pass By
March 28, 2015 12:09 - 1 hour - 189 MBWhen data analyst and closet comedian Calvin Tarby enrolled in depression treatment at a facility in the middle of nowhere, he was prepared to slog through six long weeks of isolation. But then he was tipped off to an unexpected perk of the program, and suddenly the barren winter fields all around him no longer held him completely captive. This is a story of unscripted travel via the kindness of strangers, and facing tough odds with a lightness of heart and a fierce spirit of adventure. Base...
A Listing of the Holdings of the National Museum of Romance
March 25, 2015 23:49 - 1 hour - 207 MBIn December of 2003, the National Museum of Romance in Tristia, New Jersey, closed its doors due to lack of funding. On December 14, the public came to bid on the artifacts in the museum's permanent collection, fascinated by the stories of passion, yearning, and heartache behind each item. From the longest breakup letter ever written (214 pages), to the movie prop which represented true love for an actress who died knowing it only on the screen, to the dueling sword that spoke to a man's del...