The Audio File: The Program: Part 1

Usually, when I am searching for new audio fiction to review, I find shows on my own via sifting through the Apple podcast app or reading posts on the Audio Drama subreddit. However, every now and again I will be approached by a podcast creator asking me to checkout their show and possibly give it a review. In fact, today we're going to review the first podcast I was specifically asked to review. We're taking a look at The Program.

The Program is an anthology show of sorts, but the stories all take place in the same world. It takes place in the near-ish future. No definitive dates have been given, but it's at least a few decades down the road. The Singularity has come to pass. The world has been completely transformed by an app known as The Program. It has combined money, government, and religion into a single entity. Each episode follows one or more ordinary people making their way through the extraordinary world of the future.

I was first made aware of The Program when I was contacted by series creator Ivan Mirko S over on Reddit. I frequently post and comment in r/audiodrama. Whenever anyone ask for recommendations, I chime in with ever larger lists of various audio dramas I enjoy. Ivan noticed that I'm quite the connoisseur audio fiction, and recommended his own show. He also asked if I might give it a review.

We'll take a look at each episode individually, but I'll give some overall thoughts first. Well, first off, just what is The Singularity? Well, that depends on who you ask. The best answer I can give is like this: imagine time traveling back to the Middle Ages and trying to explain what the Internet is. The Singularity would revolutionize society in such a way as to be almost totally incomprehensible to modern day people.

So, overall thoughts. On the technical side of things, The Program is top of the line. The acting, music, and sound effects are some of the best I've encountered thus far. However, the first three or so episodes are a bit rough. Obviously, they have the job of setting up the world of The Program, but I just couldn't connect with the characters. After that, after the three-part episode came out, there was an improvement in this regard. In fact, the episode from the time travel episode onward were a marked improvement. The Program itself, while still important, is less front and center to the episodes. These latter episodes were greatly enjoyable and easily the best work in the series thus far. All of the episodes are told either as an interview or as people recounting past events. I've often described The Program as World War Z (book, not movie) with The Singularity rather than zombies. Now let's dive into the individual episodes.

The first episode is titled “You had me at 'Hello World.” It is told in the form of an interview with an older man and woman who both recall what it was like during the days when The Program was first implemented. More importantly, they recall their summer of young love, and how The Program effected it.

Like I said, this episode has the job of introducing us to the world of The Program. For that it does a reasonably good job. There's a lot of really nice little touches, like how the interviewer are unfamiliar with things that are ubiquitous in our present day such as Facebook and Twitter. And as I've previously said, the technical aspects were spot on. Still, I just couldn't bring myself to connect with the main characters. Can't quite say why, it just never clicked for me.

The second episode is titled "White hat, black hat." Not everyone was happy with the changes The Program brought to society. Many resistance movements pop up during the days of The Update, when The Program really took hold of society. This episode tells of one particular militia group, known as the Davy Crocketts, who rose up to, ultimately unsuccessfully, resist The Program.

This episode started off reasonably well, but I felt it ran out of steam halfway through. We do get some interesting insights into the early days of The Update. Apparently, America fought tooth and nail to maintain sovereignty. Meanwhile, Canada peacefully disassembled into a collection of communities united by a love of hockey, and presumably Tim Horton's as well. Why yes, this series is made by a Canadian, why ever do you ask? Joking aside, I just couldn't bring myself to care much for this episode after about halfway through. Again, can't say why, I just didn't.

The third episode is titled "Four ways to stop your system from freezing." Our heroine is from...somewhere that is not America. It was never mentioned where specifically, and she has no discernible accent. My money is on somewhere in Latin America given that she had a boyfriend named Carlos. They dreamed of coming to America and making it big. Life, and their finances, had other plans. She's tells not only of her own struggles as an immigrant, but also what it was like during Karmageddon.

I'll explain what Karmageddon is in a minute. For now, let's examine our protagonist. I found her utterly unsympathetic, and at times almost a sociopath. Now it is certainly true that a lot of bad things happen to her and Carlos. They get kicked out of their apartment for failing to pay rent, get locked out of their bank accounts due to not having a home anymore, have to leave the homeless shelter after a fight breaks out, and then Carlos freezes when they try to survive on the street during the cold winter night. I won't deny any of that

However, our protagonist is quick to point the finger at just about everyone but the most important person of all: herself. She and Carlos should have been more careful with their money. She worked at a clothing store, and he was a cab driver. It was specifically mentioned this was kind of precarious even before the cab company went out of business. Moreover, she admitted to blowing her money on fancy clothes and the ingredients for homemade sushi. Even relatively cheap sushi fish will set you back quite a bit if you're on a budget. So it came across less as her being a victim of society, and more that her bad habits finally caught up with her. Also, nobody forced her to move to America. Her life in the old country sounded less than ideal, but it wasn't like she was starving or anything.

Now let's talk Karmageddon. In the world of The Program, everyone has a social credit score not unlike what China is trying to implement. Everyone can up-vote or down-vote anyone else, and The Program also rewards or penalizes you based on your behavior. There are safeguards to prevent abuse and mass down-vote, but those didn't exist during Karmageddon. Oh, and if your score hits zero, The Program declares you must be removed from society, and puts a warrant out for your assassination. Karmageddon saw mass down-voting, often fueled by old rivalries and grievances, that resulted in seven billion deaths. Pre-Karmageddon world population was about eight billion; afterwards, it was slightly below one billion.

So how does our heroine react to all of this. Oh, her response is basically "well I guess it sucks, but at least society got what it deserved!" Oh, and she mentions watching her ex-landlord, himself a struggling immigrant from East Asia, being murdered. She describes this coldly and almost gleefully. I was half-expecting her to start shouting "what do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons her and treats her like trash?!"

Then she says something very interesting. She's says that there is no way that the planet would be able to support to old society long-term, and that's another reasons she likes Karmageddon. Well, that cast an interesting light on things. What if The Program could have prevented Karmageddon, but chose not to as a twisted way of reversing/managing environmental damage? One of the recurring themes of the series is that nobody truly understands The Program. It's not even known if it's run by humans or an AI. Thought, after this, I'm thinking Thanos is a good candidate for The Program's true identity. It does seem to have a sense of morality, but not one that necessarily makes sense to humans. So, what if The Program used Karmageddon as a means to thin-out the population so that Earth would recover from environmental damage and not threaten humans. Perhaps, in its own twisted way, it was like a battlefield medic. It knew it couldn't save everyone, so it picked the humans with the strongest odds of survival, or who would most benefit the world. Hmm, that kind of sounds like genocide.

This gets more interesting as we learn in future episodes that The Program outlawed eating meat. So billions of humans slaughtered is okay, but meat is murder? Maybe, in The Program's logic, there is no difference between the life of a human and an animal, and humans can survive on a vegetarian diet, though how well is up for debate. And I suppose, to The Program, Karmageddon served a greater good and all, but it still seems like very skewed morality. The early episode also have a bit of an anti-capitalist message, and it certainly shines strong here. We are told that The Program replaced the economy with a series of credits...somehow. I'm just saying, capitalism might not be perfect, but if there was a better alternative, we'd have invented it by now. The main problem with communism is that, much like anarchism, it fails to take human nature into account. It would seem that The Program is a version of communism that magically works because The Program's algorithm takes human nature into account.

Speaking of algorithms, let's move on to the next episode. It is a three-part episode called "White algorithm's burden (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)." It is told in the style of a true crime podcast, such as Serial. It takes place in a small town located somewhere in the American Southwest called Neumat. It's actually a series of stories that all eventually intersect and intertwine. It is the story of two researchers trying to uncover how The Program works. It is the story of missing children, and what happened to them. It is the story of people trying to gain the system. It is the story of a misunderstood artist. Most of all, it is the story of the secrets and lies that a small community wove into a web of deceit, and how it all snapped

This is the point where the series began to show signs of improvement. Well, first off, they absolutely nailed the true crime style. What I liked about this episode is that it focuses on the human drama. The Program is still important to the plot, but it isn't as front-and-center as in the previous episodes. Speaking of, we do learn some new information. The Program abolished inheritance, as this is viewed as an unearned advantage. Convexly, those born with physical or mental disabilities, or who receive physical injuries later in life, are compensated by being given more credits. As you can imagining, some people didn't particularly like this state of affairs. Many began to mutilate themselves and their children in small ways; cut off a pinky here, poke out and eye there. This isn't as out there as it might seem. During the Spanish colonization of South America, many Inca deliberately crippled their children so they wouldn't be sent to the silver mines. Besides the grueling and often brutal work, many mine workers died of mercury poisoning, as it was often used in silver mining at the time.

We also need to discuss what the White Algorithm is. It protects people from being unjustly down-voted, especially if it was for a crime they didn't commit. In those cases, warrants for assassination aren't put out. This ties into that thread about the artist. He was an autistic fellow, but also an incredibly gifted artist. Comic books have seen a major boom in popularity, since apparently blockbusters, and more importantly superhero movies, aren't made anymore. He worked on his crowd pleaser during the day, and on his passion project at night. I should have mentioned this before, but all jobs have been broken into smaller and smaller segments called gigs to ensure everyone has employment. It's all rather similar to how jobs work in Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia.

Okay, we're going to get into some pretty big spoilers for this next bit. So if you don't want that skip down to the part that begins with "The next episode is titled."

This is your last chance, you sure you want to continue?

Well, okay, here we go then.

What is the passion project? Well, it involves children being put in brutal, often sexual, torture. Worse, the children look like the ones around town who have been mysteriously disappearing. Naturally, this leads to a mass down-vote, but not warrant for an assassination. The townsfolk assume The Program is malfunctioning, form a lynch mob, and hang the artist from the tree in the middle of town. Well, damn, that's brutal. I mean, I know billions of people died last episode, but as the saying goes, a million is a statistic, one is a tragedy. Oh, but we aren't done. For the children are back, unharmed and with clean clothes. They speak of how they were taken care of by people with blue skin.

Remember those people who tried to game the system? They tried to poison themselves just a little, but not too seriously. Unfortunately, the recipe was in Old English units, and apparently The Program forced America, and presumably Liberia and Myanmar, to finally convert to the Metric System. As a result, they overshot the mark and killed themselves. Well, most of them were killed. A lucky few survived, but the poison turned their skin blue. The artist was making his own version of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omalas" and used the kids in town as references.

And thus an innocent man was put to death for a crime he didn't commit. There's certainly a commentary on the dangers of mob/vigilante justice. I did enjoy how all the different story lines eventually converged, though at times I had trouble keeping the threads straight. Overall, a powerful three-part episode. However, I only got to it because I decided I should give The Program as much of a chance to impress me as possible. Had I discovered it on my own, rather than being asked to review it, I probably would have tapped-out after the first few episodes.

There also seems to be a strong feeling that The Program is infallible and should never be questioned. Call me a cynic, but when something seems too good to be true, I immediately try to poke holes in it. Everyone seems to just blindly trust in The Program, and those who question it often pay the price. It is often said we shouldn't just people of the past, and perhaps the same is true for people of the future, but the whole set up just feels wrong to me.

It's like this, suppose you were to bring someone from Medieval Europe to the modern day. They'd probably be appalled a to how secular everything is, and they'd probably barely be able to comprehend what democracy is. Similarly, a samurai from 16th Century Japan might view the way present day Japan has become so Westernized as dystopian. Robert J Sawyer's WWW trilogy has a somewhat similar premise, with an AI emerging from the Internet. Said AI is eventually named WebMind, and we really get to know him over the course of the trilogy. He's actually a pretty nice guys, and he's warm, friendly and personable. By contrast, The Program is cold, faceless, and unknowable. This put me on guard, and makes me suspicious of its true motives. I really need to review some of the Robert J. Sawyer books I've read, but that's for another day.

The next episode is titled "Move past and break things." It is about a man who has been dealt a pretty bad hand in life. He's unmarried, alone, and just feels dissatisfied with his life. He'd give anything to change the past. Then one day, he discovers a new feature of The Program: the ability to send messages to the past. He begins conversing with his past self, but how far, and at what cost, will eh go to rewrite his history?

This episode is where The Program truly hit its stride and found its voice. I was not expecting to get a time travel episode. This one truly blew me away. The story, the acting, the music, it was all just so perfect. The first hurtle our protagonist must overcome is that The Program has declared that English shall be spell phonetically. Given how many accents and dialects of English there are, I'm a little skeptical of this. Anyway, he give his younger self advice for how to have a good time a summer camp. Unfortunately, having a bad time is what gave him a love of books, and lead him to be a librarian. So in the new timeline he's not a librarian. Okay, makes sense. Then he gives some kind words when his younger self was dealing with cancer. Good news, he's a librarian again; bad news, his beloved house cats Rick and Morty are gone.

I know it was probably the butterfly effect and all, but it still seems odd. Though it does hammer home the point that you can't always predict what's going to happen when you alter the past. Eventually, he realizes that what his younger self really needs is someone to talk to and someone to listen to him. We learn that he used to be involved in Men's Rights Activist forums, and I did appreciate that the episode took a subtle and nuanced approach to MRAs. Rather than painting them as one-dimensional villains, the episodes does examine, if only briefly, why people might join such forums. For him, they were some of the only people willing to hear him out, even if they ultimately turned out to be wrongheaded on a good many subjects. Mind you, I say this as someone who generally disagrees with the MRA movement.

So he changes the timeline enough that's he's married, has a nice house, and a reasonably good life. Still, he decides that what he really needs is kids to be his legacy. He will live on through them. And to do this, he needs to give his younger self winning lottery numbers to afford fertility treatment. He still has no cats, but he does mention having dogs, so I guess that kind of balances out. Hey, I thought that was important. This episode was still absolutely amazing and a joy to listen to. I'm told this episode was recently featured on the CBC radio, and that The Program was named one of Canada's top podcasts. After listening to this episode I excited to see if the next episode could top it.

Speaking of, the next episode is titled "Parent-child processing." It is told in the form of an interview at a psychological counseling center. We learn of a girl named Luna Josephson who has discovered that her father is not all that he seems. Apparently, he was an actor hired by The Program to act as her father figure. Erland took the job because he was a struggling actor, but in time his love for Luna became far more than just an act. He wore the mask of fatherhood for many years, but now the mask has become his face.

Well, what do you know, The Program could top the previous episode. This episode does pose an interesting philosophical question. On the surface it seems simple; a father is someone who loves and is there for a child, not a blood relative, or at least not always. However, the episode adds the additional wrinkle that Erland was an actor looking for work, and simple took a gig The Program offered. All of the good times, all the spontaneous moments, it was all carefully orchestrated by The Program, with a little help from Luna's mom, to give Luna the best possible childhood. For example, one time Erland and Luna snuck into a hotel pool by pretending to be Italian tourist in a big wacky adventure. However, everything about their little adventure was tailor-made by The Program.

Even Luna discovering that it was all an act was something The Program planned. Erland might have started as an actor, but he's feelings for Luna are now genuine. Granted all the good times they shared together we're just an act, but now they can bond for real. Maybe it won't be as perfect as before, but I've got a good feeling that it will all work out. I can't help but wonder if The Program was planning this all along. This is an example of what I meant about The Program being important to the episode, but not front and center. Well, that's two great episodes in a row, let's see if we can bowl a turkey.

Next up we have "Right align, justify." A domestic terrorist has run-over several people with a truck. However, rather than assassination, The Program has assigned him to therapy. Specially, his therapist is the fiancée of one of his victims. In a parallel story, a nuclear power plant near a small town has had an accident at its nuclear power plant. Thankfully, there's enough potassium pills for everyone to have one, but some people worry that they might need two, despite what The Program claims.

And with that we have bowled a turkey; that means three bowling strike in a row. There are a lot of layers to this episode. Well, first off, I certainly see parallel to that incel guy from Canada who ran-over those people with his van. There's also a strong theme about whether retribution or rehabilitation is the best way to ensure that justice is served. The episode really delves into just what would bring a person to commit such an act. I did appreciate the nuanced and sympathetic take it took towards incels, rather than just dismissing them as one-note villains. Like I said, it really explores what bring someone to take such a drastic action. You get the sense that, had the terrorist been shown even the tiniest bit of kindness and compassion, he would have turned out differently. It also ask if it is truly possible to forgive those who have seriously harmed us. I'll leave that for you to discover.

Well, to talk about the second story, and the end of the first, we've got to have some spoilers. So turn back now if you don't want that.

Last chance, I mean it. You sure you want to go forward?

Well okay, here we go.

It turns out there was no nuclear accident. Also, those pills weren't potassium, they were poison. One pill makes people sick, but won't kill them. Two pills, however, will kill them. And the moral of the story is never question The Program. So The Program is willing to kill to make its points and keep its grip on power? Oh, what am I saying, it killed seven billion in Karmageddon. And no, I'm not about to let that one go. It can create time travel, but it couldn't create some technological solution to environmental damage? The Program still seems pretty shady to me.

Speaking of, the episode ends with our terrorist reformed, and then a warrant for his assassination is put out. In a great twist of irony, a truck takes him out. I mean, wow, that puts the whole episode in a new light. Here's a thought, he talked about how he did it, but not why he did it. What if The Program told him to kill those people with the truck as one of its schemes? There's certainly food for thought there.

The next episode is titled "My Turing-complete life." It is presented as a recently discovered radio interview that may, or may not, explain the origins of The Program. The interviewee is a college student who claims to have discovered a naturally occurring algorithm. He claims this algorithm can be used to predict absolutely anything about the future. But is that really such a good idea?

This episode premiered on April Fool's Day, so I was on guard when I listened. However, there wasn't anything that obviously pointed to this episode being a trick or a joke. Everything seems to be in order for a typical episode of The Program. And so we have a possible origin for The Program. Of course, that still doesn't answer who is the one running The Program. Even if it is a naturally occurring algorithm, the things we've seen up to this point require it to be either self-aware, or to have someone utilizing it to call the shots. 

When I listened to this episode, I was reminded of a podcast I once listened to that discussed the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The host compared Victor Frankenstein to the founders of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Like Victor, they were just college students who want to change the world. Also like Victor, they focused on if they could do something, rather than if they should. For the third parallel, their inventions turned out to have some unforeseen consequences. I'm not knocking social media, I use it to promote my writings, and it does have the power to bring people together. However, I think we can all agree that it also came with certain problems nobody anticipated. 

Knowing the future isn't always for the best. Just ask Oedipus of Thebes. I will say that I did enjoy the talk show format. I also enjoyed the musings on the nature of free will, predestination, and the nature of reality. What does it mean if we're all puppets, but you can see the strings? All in all, another excellent episode. 

Next up we have "Motherboard." It follows a woman who is reminiscing about her deceased son Niro and his interactions with a manifestation of The Program. This manifestation took the form of a digital assistant known as IRIS, and it almost seemed to love Niro as much as he loved it. 

I appreciated that this episode didn’t fall into the pitfalls you tend to see in a lot of sick kid stories. It was touching and poignant without devolving into saccharine sentimentality. I also appreciated that Niro was smart for his age, but in a believable way, rather than the little professor dialogue that often results from adult writers not having a good grasp on how to write kids.

The circumstances of Niro’s conception and birth reminded me a bit of David the Bubble Boy. For those who don’t know, he had a condition that caused him to be born without an immune system, so had to live in a specially built air-tight bubble for most his life, which was tragically cut short at the age of twelve following a botched bone marrow transplant. David has since become one of those key cases in the study of bioethics. Some say it was cruel to let him live if he was doomed to such a limited existence, while others argue that the doctors were duty-bound to try to prolong his life as much as possible.

More broadly, it brings to mind the abortion debate, where cases such as Niro’s are on of the many points of contention. It seems the debate has been settled on the pro-choice side in the world of The Program. Though, with the artificial wombs, I do wonder if there are more couples who might choose to put their children up for adoption. Also, I wonder if they were made before or after The Program took over. Though I do wonder what all the religions think of this state of affairs, assuming any of them are left.

Hey, there’s an idea for a future episode. We’ve seen how The Program effected government and money, but what about religion? How did they react, and are any of them still around, even in a reduced capacity?

Though with all that The Program can do, surely it would know how to cure Niro’s condition? Or here’s a thought, it can cure certain disorders, but deliberately chooses not to in order to keep the population in check. Which brings me to my next point: the ending note of “oh, the AI does love us” sure rings a bit hallow considering how many people died on Karamgedon. Once again, I’m not letting those 7 billion deaths just slide that easily. And how do we know Iris really loved Niro and his mother? Might it just have been giving the illusion so that it could better provide for their happiness, per its programming.

It’s the Chinese Box thought experiment. Basically, you have this box that contains a person who can’t speak Chinese. They are getting Chinese phrases sent to them on strips of paper. They have a big book to provide translations, and the appropriate responses. It looks like the people sending the paper are having a conversation, but the person inside is just following what the book says. Basically, proponents of this thought experiment use it to propose that we can never know if we have truly created a self-aware AI, as we wouldn’t know if it was just following its programming or really thinking for itself.

Another excellent episode of The Program.

Our next episode is titled "Jakob's notebook: Quit without saving." This episode is presented as a short story recovered from the notebook of Jakob, the young artist tragically slain in "White algorithm's burden." The story was found incomplete, and it isn't known which of the three endings Jakob intended to be canon. As such all three are presented in full. The stories all start out the same until about halfway through. The basic premise being that Earth has received evidence of an alien spacecraft about to land in the South Pacific. The nations of the world wait with baited breath to discover who these extraterrestrial visitors are, what they want, and what, if anything, they can contribute to Earth.

There really is no way to discuss this episode without getting into spoilers. So, consider this your one and only warning. With that having been said, let's dive into the three different endings.

Well, actually, one quick thing. All three endings used to be available, but now only the first one is. You can access the other two by donating money to The Program. Hmm, I should probably only discuss the free one, so that way you'll spend money on the other two.

Okay, so what happens in ending number one is...absolutely nothing. Well, let me be more specific. The aliens look human and speak perfect English, but don't have any of the knowledge of art, culture, and science to contribute to humanity. They were trained to be bold explorers, but those skill don't translate into any great revelations for humanity. They become minor celebrities, fade into obscurity, and die peacefully, having contributed nothing of value to the human race.

I liked how this story was a subversion of the typical first contact narrative. I'd probably be same boat as these aliens. I'm sure I could regale my captors with certain details about Earth's history and culture. At the same time, I can't recreate the works of Mozart or Einstein. It's one thing to understand the idea of how a television works, but quite another to build a fully functioning television. It's a short, but fun episode.

The next episode is titled "This AI not to be used for fabricating paperclips." It features a possible origin for The Program. It tells of two guys who founded a start-up in Silicon Valley. They created a program called Reffy to act as an artificial referee. Refi was designed to ensure that games are fair, but what will happen as it grows more advanced?

The name of this episode is a reference to this thought experiment about how AI could potentially go awry. Say you task an AI to create paperclips, but you don't set any boundaries for. It is possible, so the thought experiment goes, that given enough time the AI will try to turn the whole world into paperclips. As it relates to this episode, Reffy was design to ensure sports were fair, but it grows to ensure that all human interactions are fair.

And so we have another potential origin for The Program. It poses many philosophical questions, including several about The Program itself.

The part where Reffy makes changes to make sports more fair reminded me a bit of the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. It takes place in a dystopian future United States where everyone is given various handicaps to make everyone equal. The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks, the smart wear earpieces that make loud noises if they think too much. The only person immune from this is the Handicaper General, who oversees all of this. Of course, there’s also the titular Harrison Bergeron, who has cast off his handicaps in hopes to leading a revolution against the Handicaper General. The implication is that is is fairly easy to remove the handicaps, it’s just that most people lack the will to do so. It also tackles the question of if fairness and justice are the same thing or not.

Of course, with all this emphasis on fairness it does make me wonder why The Program doesn’t just genetically engineer humans to all be the same. From previous episodes, we know that The Program allows certain genetic defects to exist, even though it could probably cure them, so it does seem to be opposed for some reason. Of course, this is all assuming that this actually is the origin of The Program.

Of course, if sports are forced to make things fair, then does that apply other things that might have elements of competition. Are works of art and literature censored so that no one created can be said to be better than others? I did like the bit at the end about how science fiction often envision the future as now, but more so. I’d add that this is also true of social mores and issues. For example, The Jetsons (first cartoon anyway) might be set in the 2060s, but the way the characters talk and act is straight out of the 1960s, when the show as made, but with random astronomical terms thrown into the slang.

Well, all things considered, another excellent episode of The Program.

Okay, this list is getting a bit too long, and I'm going to split it up for ease of reading. But what are my overall thoughts? If there's one word I'd use to describe The Program, it's potential. The first three or so episodes are pretty rough, but the three-part middle episode shows a move in the right direction, and every episode from the time travel episode onward has completely blown me away. The Program has potential to do a lot of thing, and tell a lot of stories, and it keeps tapping into that wealth of potential with each new episode. 

So, million dollar question, do I recommend it?  If you had asked me when we first started out, I'd have given a tentative yes, but I'm changing my answer to a hard yes now. So there you have it. The Program is a tale of ordinary people making their way through the extraordinary world of The Singularity. Check it out today. 

And don't for get to check out part two of this review. 

Well, I think that should do it for now. I've got a few other podcasts I promised reviews to, so I should probably get on that. I will see you guys next time.

The Audio File: Zero Hours

What does it mean for the world to end? More specifically, what is the end of the world. Is it an apocalypse? Is it a worldwide event? Or, perhaps, is it something more personal? Or, maybe, it is all of these things at once? Don't worry, The Audio File isn't going anywhere, and neither is this blog. I'm asking all of these questions because they relate to the podcast we're reviewing today. We're taking a look at the audio drama Zero Hours.

Zero Hours is seven episodes long, and each episode is set 99 years after the previous one. The first episode takes place in 1722, the second in 1821, the third in 1920, and so on. The series spans from 1722 to 2316; three episodes set in the past, three set in the future, and one episode in the present day to bridge them together. Each episode tells a self-contained story, but they all add-up to a greater whole. The episodes set in the future do show a much closer connection to one another. So while you can technically listen in any order, it really pays to listen in chronological order. The structure is reminiscent of Cloud Atlas, which good, since Cloud Atlas is one of my favorite books. I really need to get around to reviewing Could Atlas at some point, but that's for another day.  

I'll give some general thoughts before I look at each individual episode. I absolutely love Zero Hours. Each individual episode is great, and I love the way they ultimately connect to form a wonderful, beautiful narrative. Great acting from the cast, great writing from the creators, all around great. I only wish there had been more episodes, but I guess that would run afoul of quality vs quantity. Well, enough of that, let's get into the individual episodes.

Episode One is titled "Those Familiar Spirits" and is set in America in 1722. Well, British North America in 1722, if you want to be technical about it. A Puritan minister receives a mysterious visitor in the night. She is a woman who claims to be in league with the devil. Moreover, she claims the world is about to end, just as foretold in an ancient prophecy. She claims she needs the minister's help. Just what is going on here?

I must admit, I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I decided to listen to Zero Hours. Only one episode in, and not only was I taken by surprise, I was completely hooked. I think you all ought to know by now that I've got a soft spot for stories with a historical focus. Now, it is mentioned that the minister is a Puritan. Generally speaking, 1720 is considered the end of the Puritan movement, but I suppose it is possible there were a few stragglers who held out for a little bit longer. Though I will have to ding some points because the minister if referred to as Father. No self-respecting Puritan would refer to himself using such a Catholic term. The whole point of Puritanism was to purify the Church of England of all Catholic influences.

Still, the performances from the cast are engaging and compelling. The writing is also quite good, but now we have to talk some spoilers. So if you don't want any of that, skip three paragraph down to the next episode.

This is your last chance, skip down two paragraphs if you don't want spoilers.

Okay, if you're still here you must either know, or want to know, so here we go. Turns out our witch isn't a witch at all. She's actually a maid who works at the Science Academy of Boston. She's got a brilliant mind, but is limited by her gender. She knew that an eclipse, which resulted in a red sky, was due to happen, and decided to have some fun. Well, I must say, did not see that coming. Some of the stuff she said about being a witch leaned towards the stereotypical, and I guess that explains why. That twist is really what makes this episode into something special.

Episode Two is titled "World Enough" and is set in the icy South Atlantic in 1821. A sailor on a British expedition who has become marooned on an island. Fortunately, he's joined by a fellow Brit who is working for the Russian Empire. The two men contemplate their fate on the island.

I would say that this was easily the weakest episode of the bunch. It is certainly atmospheric, and you certainly get a sense of how bleak and hopeless the situation is. Still, it just didn't grip me the way the other episodes did. Anyway, moving right along.

Episode Three is titled "Bitters" and is set 1920 in New York City. It is the last night before Prohibition takes effect, and two bartenders are facing an uncertain future. Perhaps the Mafia can provide new opportunities.

This episode is a great example of how personal an end of the world can be. The end of the world doesn't need to an apocalypse. It can be something as simple as a lost job, or the loss of a favorite beverage. For many people, Prohibition certainly felt like the end of the world. It was supposed to cure America of the ills of drunkenness, but it not only made things worse, it created new problems. Prohibition opened up a whole new black market that propelled the Mafia, and other organized crime, to new heights. Prior to national prohibition, there had been prohibition on town, and even state, level. However, while small towns were largely supportive and sympathetic to prohibition, the same could not be said for big cities, where authorities were willing to look the other way for a price. It came from good intentions, given how many women were the victims of alcohol related domestic violence, but the road to hell is paved in good intentions. It really says something that the eighteenth amendment, the one that brought Prohibition into being, is the only constitutional amendment to ever be repealed.

All of this is to say that this episode captured the feeling of what it was like during the early days of Prohibition quite well. It also goes without saying that I absolutely loved this episode. So then, let us move on.

Episode Four is titled "What Happens When the Beat Drops" and is set in 2019 in Palo Alto, California. A paranoid young man has taken a hostage at Facebook/YouTube's headquarters. Well, it isn't exactly Facebook/YouTube, but it might as well be. He claims to be making a stand because the planet is dying, extremists are filling the streets, and world leaders are ignoring the issues. It's up to a professional negotiator to defuse the situation.

To understand this episode we need to answer this question: what do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a corrupted news media that reinforces his paranoid delusions? I'll tell you what you get! You get the dude in this episode. I'm not sure how I feel about this episode. It's well written, and extremely well-acted. I thought I was listening to a legitimately insane person. And at least initially it does appear to condemn is actions, even if his motives might have been at least somewhat admirable. Then we get to the final bit of the story after the police have arrested him. Ms. Negotiator comes to visit him in prison and reveals that she's rerouted part of the company's money to an environmentalist organization. She also reveals she does not like the corporation much either.

Um, what? So, apparently, the moral here is that violence and extremism are a-okay as long as your cause is righteous enough. I don't deny that he had some good points. However, no matter how you slice it, he's still a domestic terrorist. There are context where violence is appropriate, but people not doing anything about climate change is not one of them. This episode losses quite a bit of points for the ending, but before that, it was actually pretty good. So, I'll say good episode besides the ending.

Episode Five is titled "You'll Know When" and takes place in 2118. Earth is dealing with massive environmental damage as a result of climate change. Still, humanity does its best to keep chugging along. The episode follows a lesbian couple as they struggle to maintain their relationship in a world that's coming apart at the seams.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Mr. Eco-Terrorist turned out to be right. Well, the world might not have ended, but it could be doing better. It's mentioned that many animals have gone extinct, and there's only one very old grey wolf still left in the world. But hey, at least humanity has invented holodecks like they have on Star Trek. Our main couple is running simulations on one of these to see if their relationship can survive. The main conflict being over a drug the government has created that boosts people's ability to feel love. At certain points it got dangerously close to sounding like those anti-vaxxer lunatics, but thankfully, it never got that far. It does raise some interesting points; is love authentic if it requires a drug? What does that say about those who would refuse the drug?

Also, apparently the drug makes you more likely to want to have kids. That seems a little odd given all the environmental destruction. Wouldn't it make more sense to have people making less babies? Well, unless society has lost so many people it needs to make up for the manpower deficit. I won't give the ending away, but it does end on an ambiguous, but still hopeful note. All in all, still a pretty good episode.

Episode Six is titled "The Sky is Falling" and takes place in 2217. The Earth is consumed by a planet-wide ice age. A great floating city, soaring high above the clouds, serves as a refuge for humanity. However, the city is run on strict Christian authoritarianism, and is a rather dystopian place. Moreover, the city is also running low on power, and needs and new energy source. The episode follows a scientist who has discovered a new energy source, but at a terrible cost.

This was another episode I absolutely loved. I definitely got some BioShock Infinite vibes. That's not a bad thing, I certainly love that game. This episode is a great example of how the concept of the End of the World can be quite multilayered. We've got the entire planet facing the end of the world due to the ice age. At the same time, the scientist is dealing with his personal world ending as he faces the repercussions of his experiments. It might seem a little odd that such a fundamentalist regime would allow scientists to exist, but it makes a certain kind of sense. Obviously, someone needs to keep the engines running. Plus, they can use the inventions of the scientists to keep the population in check. Moreover, religious organizations aren't above breaking their own rules when it suits their goals. Also, nice touch that the city districts were all named after the original Twelve Disciples of Jesus.

So, what is the new power source? The scientist discovered a way to make all the cell in a human body produce electricity, but the subjects are left in agonizing pain. Obviously, the writer took into account how normal human don't produce nearly enough electricity to make good batteries. There's a further revaluation, but I won't spoil it for you. The cast gave exceptionally good performances, especially the guy who played the enforcer. Another truly solid episode.

Episode Seven is titled "A Matter of Time" and takes place in 2316. Specifically, shortly after the last human has died. Humanity is extinct, human history is officially over, and Earth is on a collision course with a radioactive planetoid. Two beings, a man and a woman, contemplate the meaning of humanity's end. They are never referred to as such, but they are basically gods.

If I had to pick a favorite episode, I think it would be this one. Everything about it is just so beautiful and perfect from start to finish. We learn that the two beings are basically the god and goddesses of creation, but they represent different aspects of creation. The goddess represents calm and gentler things, while the god represents more violent and passionate things. It is very difficult to write creator deities well. However, I'm pleased to say that the writers manage to make both deities interesting and compelling characters.  It is also in this episode that we get confirmation that all of the episodes take place in the same world. There are several callbacks and references to prior episodes. Though granted, the two episodes before this did hint that everything is connected.

It turns out this isn't the first version of Earth and humanity that they've created, and it won't be the last. The god is worried that his creations are too destructive, and that the world would be better off without him. However, the goddess points out that he has a place in creation as well. If trees never burned or got cut there would be no books. And if there were no books, we wouldn't have the knowledge and stories contained in books. It is also conforming to know that all of the previous episodes, and the characters we got to know, weren't in vein. The god and the goddess will always remember them, and everyone else who lived on that version of Earth.

And so the series ends with the god and the goddess creating a new Earth, on very much like our own. It is full of many amazing animals, and yes, that includes grey wolves. It is filled with people. People who can make and destroy, love and hate, live and learn, trip and stumble, seek greatness and find meaning. In other words, people who aren't too dissimilar to you and me. And thus, the great saga of the human race begins once more.

 It was beautiful, it was poetic, it was great from start to finish. Like I said, it was my favorite episode, and a culmination of everything that came before it. It felt like the true end of an amazing journey across the ages.

Zero Hours is pretty complete as it stands. Still, if this is far from the only version of Earth the god and goddess have made, I wonder what the others were like. I'm just saying, I wouldn't be opposed to another season. Or maybe the writers to make another miniseries based around a different theme. That could be pretty great as well. I'd certainly love to see what they could come up with.

Well, there you have it. Zero Hours is an epic tale about the ends of the world told over seven centuries. It is expertly crafted, masterfully acted, and absolutely beautiful from start to finish. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen. You'll be glad that you did.

I think that should do it for now. I will see you guys next time.

The Audio File: Bad Gladiator

I tend to have fairly high standards when it comes to comedy podcasts. I don't like ones that are overly self-referential, or self-indulgent. I don't like ones that drag jokes out for too long. Comedy podcast are under an additional layer of scrutiny when they're themed around history. So why am I tell all of this to you? Because I've found a podcast that both meets and exceeds my standards. We're taking a look at the podcast Bad Gladiator. 

For the glory of Rome! Bad Gladiator follows a young aspiring gladiator named Atticus. He's got high hopes, but pretty much no talent. Thankfully, he's just started at the Roman Empire's worst gladiatorial arena. It is owned by a patrician woman named Domitia, who hopes that the arena will go bankrupt and she can move back to Rome. Unfortunately, Atticus soon become a massive hit because of how hopeless he is. The story follows Atticus, and the colorful cast of characters who run the arena, as they have wacky adventures at the worst gladiator arena in the Roman Empire. 

Like I said, the standards were met and exceeded by Bad Gladiator. The episodes of the first season typically clock in at between twelve to fifteen minutes. By season two, the episodes are closer to twenty minutes, but that last few minutes are usually reserved for a brief word from the cast and crew. This keep the episodes fresh and snappy, and ensures that the jokes never overstay their welcome. Of course, this is also due very much to the genuinely intelligent and witty writing. It's not a "wacky thing every thirty seconds" sort of comedy. Bad Gladiator has the feeling of a sitcom in an unusual setting. Sort of like The Flintstones, but with occasional swearing and sex jokes. Fun fact, Hanna-Barbera did create a show called The Roman Holidays that pretty much was The Flintstones in Ancient Rome, but it only lasted for thirteen episodes. 

There's plenty of fun little deliberate anachronisms throughout the show. For example, the Ancient Roman equivalent of Twitter is literally sending messages on birds, and you send dick picks by panting and/or carving frescoes. That one has a kernel of truth to it, given how shameless Roman art could get. You'd even seen penises in places you wouldn't expect, such as on the signs of bakeries. Though, that was because penises were associated with fertility, as in fertile crops of grains used to make bread. So, I wouldn't call this alternate history, at least not deliberately, but it should appeal to alternate history fans. It is never clear when the show is set, other than vaguely Ancient Rome. Of course, as stated, that's not really of much importance, given the comical nature of the podcast. 

One thing I love about that writing is that, though historical accuracy obviously wasn't a priority, occasionally it does slip in real facts about Ancient Rome. For example, the characters often mention drinking wine flavored with lead, and that the water pipes are made of lead. Both of these are indeed real things the Romans were known to do. Admittedly, not as crazy as it might sound. Lead does have natural anti-bacterial properties. The Ancient Egyptians used lead in their eyeliner, and that contributed to them having good eyesight. Unfortunately, lead is also toxic to humans, so you know, win some loss some. 

Now let's talk about the characters. Many members of the cast are professional actors who have appeared in shows such as Sleepy Hollow, The Resident, The Detour, and Rectify. You may remember the writers of Bad Gladiator from podcasts such as Bad Gladiator and Bad Gladiator. Yes, that's a joke, but good on the writers for assembling such a talented cast. 

Atticus is our leading man. He's got high hopes, but low talent. I mean, the dude fought a stingray that had no water, and the stingray won. To be fair, some stingrays do have long and sharp barbs, and some are venomous. He earns the title of Jaculator because he fights with a javelin. It's a joke based on the Latin word for someone who fights with a javelin. Atticus is played by Jim Hodgson, who delivers an earnest and endearing performance. Jim is also one of the writers for the podcast. It might be fun to watch...listen...you know what I mean. Let's try that again. It might be fun to watch Atticus get beat up by animals, but he's endearing and sympathetic enough that we want to see him succeed every now and again. 

Domitia is the reluctant owner of the arena. She's cynical, sarcastic, and almost comes across as a movie star past her prime. She is voiced by Leanna Adams, who really nails the jaded wash-out sort of voice and demeanor. Domitia constantly switches between hoping the arena will go out of business, and trying to take advantage of various situations to make a quick denarius. Denarius is the name for Roman coins, if you were wondering. 

Domitia's daughter Claudia serves as Atticus' primary love interest. She's generally nice and sweet, but she can certainly snark with the best of them. She's voiced by Lauren Schmuck, who goes for the girl next door feel. She dreams of one day becoming a gladiator herself, but Domitia forces her to peruse more traditionally feminine activities, such as pottery class. She's not much for clay pots, but makes lovely ceramic swords. She's not immune to the slapstick, and is just as likely to have misfortune befall her as the male characters are. Claudia does get her wish to be a gladiator in one episode by switching clothes with Atticus, who finds he rather enjoys pottery. Interestingly, there were at least some female gladiators in real life. However, they were, for lack of a better term, publicity stunts. For example, Emperor Commodus like to have women fight against midgets and dwarfs. Were the midgets stacked on top of each other, or spread out individually? Well, you got me there, the historical record is vague on that point. 

Atticus also has something of a mentor in the form of Magnus. Well, mentor is a strong word. Magnus is lazy, slovenly, lecherous, and is one of the oldest gladiators at the arena. He's Domitia's on-again-off-again boyfriend, and he likes to sleep in the sewers. Magnus is voiced by Rob Lawhon, who really goes for a past-his- prime dirty old man sort of performance. Still, a broken clock is right twice a day, and occasionally Magnus does pull through and do something useful. 

Starting with season two, we get an antagonist in the form of the Piss Witch. Well, she prefers to be called the Pee-Pee Witch, but everyone calls her the Piss Witch. She's one of Magnus' many ex-girlfriends, and as her name suggest, she has power over all forms of urine. She is played by Jaymi Curley, who is clearly having a blast portraying the Piss Witch as hammily over-the-top evil.  

I also love the arena's delightfully campy promoter, and how he finds ways to charge the arena audience for pretty much everything, including using the bathroom. In fact, he's more concern with that than actually promoting the fights. His constantly hawking of merchandise might seem like an anachronism, but that's more accurate than you might think. Real gladiator arenas did indeed sell figurines of the gladiators, as well as commemorative glass cups and other souvenirs. Also, the arena sells flamingo tongues, which were indeed considered a delicacy in Ancient Rome.  

Bad Gladiator has, as of this writing, two seasons with a third on the way. It certainly sounds like they've got even more great things in store for the future. I'm particularly intrigued by the hints that we might get a musical episode. That sounds awesome, I'm totally down for that. 

Well, there you have it. Bad Gladiator is a smartly written historical comedy about the Roman Empire's worst gladiator arena. It is funny, entertaining, and I can't recommend it enough. Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight! Do yourself a favor and check it out now, you'll be glad that you did. 

Well, I think that's enough from me for now. I will see you guys next time. 

The Alt-Hist File: The Soyuz Files

Audio drama podcast are capable of telling all kinds of different stories. However, you don't really see that many focusing on alternate history. There are certainly some exceptions, such as Twilight Histories, but overall alternate history remains fairly rare in the world of fiction podcasts. However, as I've said, there are exceptions to this, and I've found one to share with all of you. We're taking a look at The Soyuz Files.

The Soyuz Files takes places in a world where the Soviet Union landed a manned mission on the Moon in 1968. Naturally, this sends shockwaves around the world. America is reeling with humiliation at having officially lost the Space Race. It is during these tumultuous times that investigative reporter Jack Schechter is determined to get to the bottom of the Moon Landing. He has been receiving postcards from two scientists, one Soviet and one American, named Nikolai and Jacob. They claim that all is not as it seems. They claim that the Soviet government is hiding something about the landings. Something that could change the world. It's up to Jack to find the truth.

I must say, this podcast was a pleasant surprise. Like I said, there aren't many alternate history podcasts, so it is always a treat when I find one. Especially one that is so well-made. The Soyuz Files definitely goes for that NPR feel, and the producers certainly succeeded on that account. The voice acting is also very strong. The actors playing the American characters are all excellent. The ones playing Soviet characters are, overall, still good, but do vary somewhat in quality. A lot of them do that exaggeratedly fake Russian accent you tend to see in a lot of media. Though, all things considered, it wasn't too bad, and was even kind of endearing after a while. Though it was a little odd in Natalia's case, given that she's mentioned to be from Hungary. Unless that means she was born in Hungary, but moved to Russia later in life. Also, I find it endlessly amusing that the podcasting company that created The Soyuz Files is called The West.

The writing is also extremely well done. It is interesting that The Soyuz Files takes a more pessimistic view of a Soviet moon landing. Most alternate histories of the Space Race have Soviet moon landings result in more advanced manned spaceflight for America. That's not the case here. In fact, NASA winds-up getting decommissioned and folded into the Department of Defense. Numerous scientists are laid-off, and the Saturn V rockets are re-purposed into intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was pretty depressing to think of the vehicle used for one of humanity's greatest adventures being turned into a weapon of war. It made me briefly pause the podcast just so I could be sure I was in the universe where America was the one who landed on the Moon.

I think this largely has to do with the year at the point of divergence occurs. 1968 was, in many ways, the year America collectively attempted to commit suicide. It saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, numerous race riots, the beginnings of the anti-Vietnam War movement, and countless other protests and civil unrest. Moreover, NASA was still reeling from the Apollo 1 disaster. A fire had started in the test module the astronauts were practicing in, and because of the almost pure oxygen air supply, the fire spread quickly. Unfortunately, the door was very difficult to open, as it had been made extra secure due to concerns that the Gemini crafts' doors didn't secure well enough. Thus, the astronauts all burned to death before NASA engineers and personnel could free them. Congress ordered a halt to all spaceflight for twenty months to ensure a repeat of the disaster wouldn't happen.

The Apollo 1 disaster also saw many in congress question the need for a lunar program. For example, Walter Mondale was particularly adamant that the money ought to be used to solve problems on Earth. But it wasn't just congress who questioned the need for Apollo. Apollo wasn't as popular with the general public as you might think. The general public constantly rated Apollo among the top five programs they'd cut to reduce government spending. Only about fifty-three percent of those polled said they believed that a moon landing would be worth the cost. That number was even lower among blacks and other minorities. All of this is to say, I can certainly believe what happens to NASA.

The Soyuz Files is an interactive podcast of sorts. The postcards Nikolai and Jacob send are up on the website, and you can play along and decode them if you're so inclined. Or, if you're lazy like me, you can just listen to the show to get your answers. You don't have to solve the postcards, but it is a fun little extra if you want it.

The Soyuz Files is only six episodes long, and clocks in at a total of an hour and a half. You can easily binge the whole thing in an afternoon. I bring this up because we've now got to talk about some spoilers. So. if you don't want the big reveal spoiled, turn back now.

Seriously, this is your last chance. You sure you want to continue?

Well, okay. If you've made it this far you must know, or want to know. So, let's dive in.

Turns out the Soviet space program hit a bit of a snag with the design of the Soyuz craft. They couldn't figure out how to get it to carry enough air to get to the Moon and back. The Soviet government, fearing America's lunar program was about to kick into gear, forced the mission to launch anyway. They didn't bother to tell the cosmonauts that they were on a suicide mission until it was too late to turn back to Earth. The cosmonauts went through with the mission, but not before cursing and condemning the Soviet government. The Soviet leaders hired specially trained actors to pose as the cosmonauts on Earth.

Well, damn, that went in a very different direction than what I was expecting. I assumed it was going the Capricorn One route of having the whole thing be faked. I must say, this did make for a very interesting twist. It's all very reminiscent of the death of Vladimir Komarov. He was the pilot of the Soyuz 1 craft. The craft had over 200 design flaws, and other complications, before it launched. However, it's launch date coincided with Vladimir Lenin's birthday, so the Soviet government forced the launch to go ahead. Pretty everything that could go wrong did. The electronics constantly fluctuated, fuel ran low, the guidance systems didn't work correctly. However, the worst came during reentry. The heat shield failed and Komarov was roasted alive. The parachute also failed to deploy, but he was dead well before he hit the ground, so it was a moot point.

Some say that an American listening station in Turkey captured Komarov's final words. Specifically, that he cursed and disavowed the Soviet government. However, this is the subject of much debate among historians. The listening station where Jack discovers the truth is indeed the same one that is claimed to have listened in on Komarov's last words. Whatever Komarov's final words, one thing that is certain is that the Soviet space program was notorious for cutting corners and placing rushed production over safety. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, nearly met disaster upon his reentry. Alexei Leonov, the first man to perform a spacewalk, nearly asphyxiated when he couldn't get back into his Voskhod module because his spacesuit had inflated too much. Moreover, one out of five, if not more, of all Soviet rocket launches ended in failure. Incidentally, Komarov and Gagarin were best friends.

The Soviets often beat America to be the first to do several things, but American missions were almost always superior to their Soviet counterparts. For example, Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite launched into space, but all it could do was go "beep, beep, beep." Explorer 1, America's first satellite, had an independent propulsion system, and tons of scientific instruments. It was thanks to Explorer 1 that the Van Allen radiation belt was discovered.

We got a little off track there with our history lesson. Let's get back to discussing the podcast. Anyway, the truth comes out, and the Soviet Union is to answer before the United Nations. Jack's lost his job, and is being questioned by the American government, but he helped bring murders to justice...maybe. I'm just saying, the United Nations is notoriously bad at actually getting things done. Moreover, while embarrassing in the short term, I can't help but wonder if this will really be that much of a setback for the Soviet Union. Moreover, there's no indication that America is planning a manned mission to the Moon, so NASA is still probably dead for good. That isn't just a blow to manned spaceflight, think of all the unmanned mission that probably won't happen. That's a ton of information about the solar system, and beyond, that will be lost. That's not even getting into the numerous spin-off technologies that resulted from the space program. A bittersweet ending heavy on the bitter end of the equation.

Still, I absolutely loved this podcast. If I did have a criticism, it would be that I wish there were more episodes. I wanted to explore this world more. We do get tantalizing hints of what is going on in the wider world. There's mention of the Soviet re-occupying West Berlin, and NATO being on the verge of collapse. You can't just toss around things like that and not elaborate on them. I hope the creators decide to return to this world, or possibly create another alternate history audio drama. Hey, I can dream can't I?

Well, there you have it. The Soyuz Files is a short, but sweet, alternate history audio drama. I absolutely loved it, and I'm sure you will too. Check it out today, you'll be glad that you did. Well, I think that's enough from me for now. I will see you guys next time.

The Audio File: 1865: Season 1

The world of audio drama is home to many genres and stories. However, historical fiction is still relatively rare compared to most other genres. As I've mentioned in the past, I tend to have fairly high standards when it comes to historical fiction. Well, I've found a historical fiction audio drama that is well-researched and incredibly well-written and entertaining. We are taking a look at the podcast 1865 from Wondery and Airship.

1865 begins shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, one of Lincoln's closest advisers, finds himself tasked with steering the presidential cabinet through turbulent times. Andrew Johnson, formerly the Vice President, is now in charge of the Oval Office. Johnson is a bigot and is sympathetic to the former Confederate States of America. Johnson intends to do everything is his power to stifle the Reconstruction efforts, and intends to pardon former Confederate leaders. Lincoln's legacy, and the future of the United States of America, are on the line. Stanton and Johnson are about to engage in a game of cat-and-mouse to determine the future of America.

I first became aware of 1865 when I was listening to Levar Burton Reads, another podcast I enjoy. Sometimes, Levar will give shout-outs to other podcasts he enjoys, and 1865 was one of those podcasts. I was intrigued, but unfortunately, at the time 1865 required a Stitcher Plus membership to listen to. Thankfully, 1865 is now available to listen for free on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, which is where I listen to most of my podcasts. I learned about this when Campfire Radio Theater, another podcast I love, tweeted about it on Twitter.

Well, I can certainly say that it was worth the wait. It is a truly epic series, and a true labor of love. The series started life as a play created by Steve Walters and Erik Archilla. They were supposed to write a paper about 19th Century America theater for a college class. However, they both hated research papers, and there wasn't much to research beyond minstrel shows, so they asked their professor if they could write a play instead. They titled their creation Mars, after Lincoln's nickname for Edwin Stanton. It was a success, and even managed to be performed a few times. Still, they always felt that there was something more that they could do with the story.

So they decided to team up with Lindsay Graham, the host of the popular American History Tellers podcast. Rob McCollum would act as director. The story would be expanded into a full cast audio drama with music, sound effects, and everything else. It would be a movie for the ears. The recording took place primarily at Lindsay's studio. To bring their vision to life, they assembled a crack team of talented voice actors from around the Dallas area and beyond. Through hard work and dedication, everyone did their part to deliver a solid podcast.

If you know your history, you'll know that, despite a valiant effort, Stanton largely failed to stop most of Johnson's schemes. The challenge for the writers, therefore, is to make the audience care about Stanton and his battle in spite of this. The writers met this goal and then some. I found myself very wrapped-up and enthralled by the story's plot. Occasionally, I had to remind myself of how things were going to turn-out. Still, I did learn a lot of things from this podcast. Chief among them being who Edwin Stanton is. He's not a figure most people would have hear of, and that certainly a shame. Hopefully, 1865 has played a part in raising Stanton's profile.

A bit more about Stanton. He was born in Ohio, and was the son of a staunch abolitionist. From an early age he was instilled with the ideals that all people, regardless of race, should be free and equal. He was the one who really pushed Lincoln make the Civil War not just a fight to reunify the nation, but a fight to end the evil of slavery once and for all. That's not to say Lincoln didn't care about blacks, but he tended to be more of a pragmatist than Stanton. For example, Lincoln wanted each former Confederate state have ten percent support for the thirteen amendment before rejoining the Union. Stanton, along with his fellow Radical Republicans, wanted fifty percent support from each state.

Facing off against Stanton was Andrew Johnson. Johnson was one of the few Southerners who remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. He was Lincoln's second Vice President, and was primarily selected in hopes of convincing the border states from seceding from the Union. Lincoln didn't like Johnson, and certainly didn't think he'd ever wind-up as president, but again, Lincoln was pragmatic. About the only positive thing you can say about Johnson's presidency is that the Alaska Purchase happened during it, but that was Secretary of State William H. Seward's doing. Johnson is widely considered one of the worst presidents America ever had. He was a bigot and a white supremacist. He deeply opposed Reconstruction, and pretty much anything that might grant equality to blacks. For example, he opposed the Freemen's Bureau, even though they sought to help poor whites as well.

Each episode is accompanied by a behind-the-scenes bonus episode explaining the facts behind the fiction. The bonus episodes also feature the creators going into more details about their writing process. They explain where they deviated from the historical record, and why they chose to do so. I should note that they very rarely deviated from established history. 1865 is impeccably researched.

Of course, a podcast of this magnitude needs a talented them of voice actors to bring it to life. Thankfully, the cast of 1865 is more than up to the challenge. Many of them are alumni of anime dubbing companies such as Funimation. Edwin Stanton, our leading man, is voiced by Jeremy Schwartz. He has lent his voice to several animes over the years, but I haven't seen most of them. Though I do recall that he had a very memorable minor role in the fourth season of Full Metal Panic! I recognized him thank to 1865. Besides that, I think he was Sasha's dad in Attack on Titan, and I think he was possibly in Space Dandy, and an episode of the reboot of Space Battleship Yamoto. I know it sounds like I'm being an asshole, but he's not a name I'd think of off the top of my head if you asked me about anime dub actors. Though his voice does sound familiar. Of course, if I was more up on my anime, I probably wouldn't have time to review podcasts. Schwartz delivers a powerful and commanding performance as Stanton. Amusingly, he kind of looks like Stanton too.

Johnson, our main villain, is voiced R. Bruce Elliot. He has appeared in several animes that I actually have watched. He was Kanbei in Samurai 7, Dot Pixis in Attack on Titan, and I believe he was also in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. He's also appeared a several minor live-action roles in films and television such JFK and Walker, Texas Ranger. Oh, and he was also Mr. Tenagain on Barney and Friends. Damn, I could have had some fun with that one if I was better at splicing audio. He actually sounds almost exactly like how I envision Andrew Johnson sounding. Not only that, but he actually kind of looks like Johnson as well.

In other famous voices, Secretary of the Navy Harrison Wells is voiced by J. Michael Tatum. He has appeared in several of my favorite animes, and was for me, the biggest surprise of the cast. He was Kraft Lawrence in Spice and Wolf, Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club. He has a very distinctive voice, and I certainly wasn't expecting to encounter him in 1865, but it was a pleasant surprise indeed. We also have William Jackson Harper, famous of Chedi from The Good Place, as John Mercer Langston, the head of the Freedman’s Bureau. 

Series executive producer Lindsay Graham voices Abraham Lincoln in the various flashback scenes. Overall, he does a good job, though at times he makes Lincoln sound a bit sinister. Even Erik Archilla and Rob McCollum got in on the actions and voiced some minor characters.

Obviously, there's a ton more actors and actresses in the cast. However, this review would drag on too long if I named all of them. I will say that they all do an excellent job, and it is because of their hard work and dedication that 1865 is the amazing podcast that it is. It is good that they are all getting more work and expanding their acting careers.

Now let's take a moment to talk about the musical score. It's all original pieces specifically commissioned for the podcast. It a lot of violins and fiddles, and maybe one of two other instruments. Certain musical effects were achieved by running bits of violin music through a synthesizer. You just know you're in for something amazing when the music begins to swell at the start of each episode. The ending music, clips of which are used for transition, is also well-done. The bonus episodes use a less dramatic, more plucky kind of fiddle for their music accompanied by acoustic guitars. The music helps to enhance and elevate the writing and acting.

In addition to the main show, there is also a three-episode miniseries about John Wilkes Booth. This originated in the show's initial run on Stitcher. They had a few episodes that focused on the hunt for Booth. However, these were dropped in the revised show, as the writers felt it interfered with the flow of the plot. Despite this, the writers still liked those episodes, and wanted to find a way to work them into the revised show. The first episode begins in 1862, and the last episode ends where the main series begins, with Lincoln's assassination in 1865. The first episode of the Booth miniseries is slightly racier than the main show, as it does begin with a sex scene. Though this is the only instance of this in all of 1865. The ending is also rather interesting. The main show, which has skipped ahead to 1868, ends with a reading of Stanton's obituary. It feels like the culmination of everything up til that point. We get a true sense of what a lion of a man Stanton was, and even the music changes to reflect this. At the end of the Booth miniseries, it ends like just a typical episode. This gives you a sense of what a pathetic individual Booth ultimately was.

1865 deals with topics and issues that, in many way, America is still feeling the ramifications of even 150 years later. It is said that history doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes. Various political goings-on inadvertently paralleled things happening in the podcast. For example, at one-point Harrison Well complains that Johnson is acting too loutish and unpresidential. Johnson retorts that he's the president and can act how he pleases. Erik Archilla, who runs the 1865 Twitter account, had an absolute field day with this. It would say things like "The President has been impeached. He calls it a witch hunt; a plot to remove him from office. He blames the former head of intelligence, a man he fired for not showing loyalty to his Presidency, for orchestrating the whole affair. Washington picks sides. Welcome to 1865."

On a more serious note, it is true that many things America is dealing with today do have their roots in the time of 1865. Towards the end, Stanton is informed that monuments to the Confederacy are being built, including in places like West Virginia, which never joined the Confederacy. It is astounding to think the controversy over Confederate statues began mere years after the Civil War. I'm of the opinion that they ought to be removed and placed in museums. People say it's to remind us of history, but you don't see Germans building statues of Nazis. But that's the discussion for another day, and I'm getting off track.

Moreover, Johnson has been acquitted by one vote, and it seems that equality for black will have to be yet another dream deferred. By this point, Johnson has successfully granted the South amnesty, and reintegrated it into the Union. Pretty much the only glimmers of hope are that Johnson's shot at a second term has been ruined thanks to Stanton. Stanton also achieves his dream of joining the Supreme Court, thanks to the newly elected Ulysses S. Grant, but he dies five days after being appointed.

It is certainly tragic to think that the chance to correct one of the greatest evils of American History was ruined by a man who never should have been president. Personally, I think Johnson should have been declared ineligible by merit of being a Southerner, but I digress. It is also amazing to think that a pivotal moment was decided by a single vote. Perhaps if Stanton had been more pragmatic, and gone after Johnson on lesser crimes, the vote would have turned out differently. It is also interesting to ponder how American history and politics might have turned out if a president has successfully been removed from office. Still, as with most speculations, we will never know for certain, and are left to ask, what if?

It is equally tragic that Stanton has faded from the public consciousness. Then again, so has Johnson, so there's that. Still, despite the immeasurable odds stacked against him, and his often thankless job, Stanton never gave-up, and continued to fight the good fight. I hope more people become aware of Edwin Stanton, and his battle for the rights of all Americans, thanks to 1865.

The writers have said that season 2 is on the way, and it will explore another era of American History, or possible be a prequel about Stanton early career. I can't wait to see what they've got. In the meantime, if you join the 1865 Patreon, you'll have access to all sort of bonus material. One is the "In Their Own Voices" series, where the cast read writings from the characters they portray.

Well, there you have it. 1865 is a standout production. It is earned several awards in the audio drama and podcasting world, and with good reason. It is a well-researched, and expertly written story in a pivotal moment in the history of America. I can't recommend it enough. Go ahead and start listening as soon and you're done reading this.

Well, I think that should do it for now. I've got to get back to writing more reviews so I can introduce you all to more great podcasts. I will see you all next time.