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After the Apocalypse

After the Apocalypse

Christopher Russell

1 Creator

1 Creator

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humanity survive and learn, or will it devolve into a medieval nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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After the Apocalypse - Season one, Episode one - The old man
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12/20/20 • 11 min

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

...

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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After the Apocalypse - Season One, Episode Eleven, “Service”
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03/06/21 • 18 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Eleven, “Service”

Bill the dog watched as the man he had brought to the house bent over and touched his fingers to the throat of the Corporal.

Bill let the man touch the Corporal.

He knew the man was trying to help.

But Bill also knew that the Corporal was gone.

He could smell that the body was without life.

He knew death when he smelled it. He had smelled death many times when he and the Corporal were deployed.

In the war.

...

Hello my friends and welcome to the Apocalypse – this is Chris your Apocalyptic cruise director.

Today’s episode is brought to you by my friend Ann who is a writer and owns a social media marketing company. She contributed to my Patreon! Which you can too at patreon/aftertheapocalypse – all on word.

You can find links to all Ann’s stuff in the show notes. If you want to sponsor a show I’ll put your links in the apocalypse as well.

Ann M. Brennan

Owner of Ann's Social Media & Marketing

Creator of Burgers & Bands for Suicide Prevention

Author of A Running Commentary

Subscribe to ASMM Digital on YouTube


I’m usually pretty good about putting links in the notes to anyone or anything I talk about here – so if I reference someone or something, like a movie, an author or a book - I link to it.

I’m also post the episode scripts for members on the patreon page.

I’m in this for the long haul but could sure use your help!

We’re closing in on 2,000 listeners, which I know is a drop in the bucket, but with your help we will grow! Leave a review, tell a friend, let’s keep it going! We added 10 listeners from Japan, domo aregato.

I have worked in Japan, but that’s another story. And we added Denmark, and Finland and Puerto Rico. I’ve been to Demark and Puerto Rico, but I don’t think I’ve been to Finland – so there’s something to look forward to.

I think there are somewhere around 170 – 190 countries in the world, depending on how you count them – so let’s get them all.

Feel free to reach out to me with any ideas or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you! Cyktrussell at gmail dot com.

When I first told Ann about this new project she said, ‘well, that’s nice Chris, but it’s not my cup of tea’. She surprised me with her Patreon contribution – I asked her what changed her mind and she said she loved KJ!

I consider that a success.

Did you like this week’s attempt to see the world through Bill the dog’s eyes? If I can make Ann like one of my female characters, maybe I can make you like my canine friend Bill.

The other thing I’d be interested in some feedback on is the length. I’m purposely keeping these episodes to shortish 2000 word chapters. I’m curious how those string together in the narrative as you’re listening to them. Do you binge through them? Is it long enough to have you looking forward to the next one?

I’d like to release more frequently than every two weeks, but I need some traction to do that so keep reviewing and forwarding. Let’s see if we can’t get some acceleration.

Things are going to continue to get exciting here in the apocalypse.

Let me know if you need anything. Thanks for listening – and Keep Surviving!

Links

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse

After the Apocalypse - Season two, Episode six “Scorpion”
play

11/12/21 • 27 min

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode six “Scorpion”

...

Bill the dog was attuned to gunfire. It did not bother him as much as it heightened his senses to what was going on around him.

Bill was trained to save lives. He was trained to sense danger and do what he could to protect the lives of his squad.

He was a soldier first. He didn’t think. He acted in accordance with his training.

He had no sense of bravery or heroism – only a burning sense of duty.

The safety of the squad was his first priority.

...

Outro S2 E6 – Scorpion

The patreon page -> https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

The FaceBook Group -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse

The Show on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

11/10/2021

Hello survivors.

Here we are, Episode 6 of the 2nd season of After the Apocalypse a Pandemic Survival Story.

And we have our friend Bill back in play, so you can stop with the angry messages. But, we’re not out of the woods yet. We left you with a cliff-hanger! Or more like a grassy-knoll hanger.

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2021/09/26/writing-tip-23-never-kill-the-dog/

Learned a couple things this week.

First, and I already knew this, but it was hammered home by some comments on our Facebook page, is that when you’re reading or listening you create a picture in your head from what the author is telling you. That is the magic of reading or listening. That’s the advantage of reading or listening over TV or movies.

You get to create your own visuals.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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After the Apocalypse - Season One, Episode Nineteen - “The Gauntlet”
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06/26/21 • 29 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Nineteen - “The Gauntlet”

“I don’t like it.” KJ said.

“Of course you don’t.” the old man said in return. “Besides the obvious answer that the world has gone to hell, why not?”

“There’s too much smoke. Why would there be so much smoke this many weeks in? Who’s burning stuff and why are they doing it?”

“Maybe it’s a barbeque.” The old man joked. “Yah know, short ribs, beer... It does smell like cooking meat.”

“Maybe they’ll barbeque your scrawny ass, old man.” She countered. “It smells more like plastic or tires or something.”

Bill sniffed at the air and didn’t seem pleased with what he smelled, but for now he could only pace and offer up an occasional worried whine.

...

Greetings my survivor friends. How’s the apocalypse treating you?

Special welcome to my daughter, who pitched in with the typo hunting in this episode. Thanks for the great Father’s Day card!

I am stunned and amazed that here we are, episode 19. Who knew we’d be able to pull it off. This chapter was fun to write. I think we have a clear understanding of who these characters are – so I can drop them into situation and let them speak for themselves.

We see our female protagonist Janet, a.k.a KJ the Killer, slipping into that ambiguity that the end of the world forces on people. We see the old man teetering on the brink of reality and sanity. We see the world thrashing about in the worst types of reactions that befall humans.

The question is which way will they all slide? What will they choose? Do they even have a choice?

We introduced that there is a ‘big bad’ roaming around as the world starts to coalesce around survivors. The ‘big bad’ is more than an antagonist to create narrative tension. The big bad is an alternate blueprint. He is the dark side of humanity that is always just outside, peering through that little window shaped like a porthole in the front door of civilization waiting for us to make a mistake.

And that’s always the tension with humanity.

Civilization is a chaos suppressant. Civilization sees chaos as evil. All our religions have a manifestation of chaos, from Loki, to the Devil, to Coyote – there’s always that tension between order and chaos, or more pedantically, good and evil.

If you don’t have that tension, then the story is just action without purpose. Or horror without purpose. Or comedy without purpose. And when the narrative fiction falls into that space you lose interest in the fate of the characters and all the action in the world can’t keep it going.

You need stakes. Unless there are stakes. Unless there is tension. There is no compelling narrative.

And that’s the fun part of creating a dystopian, apocalyptic universe. You get to decide how that tension of good versus evil is resolved.

Anyhow... enough with the ontology.

And speaking of Coyote the mischief making chaos god of some Native Americans - Here’s my reading list tip for you this week. The Tony Hillerman books about Navajo police detective Joe Leaphorn? I’m not a big mystery fan, but I started listening to these on audio book when I was commuting from my home outside Boston up to an office in Quebec City Canada.

It’s a long drive.

I would get books on tape at the local library for the ride. Hillerman was an Albuquerque New Mexico resident and did a great job describing the Southwest US cultures, and in particular the Native American mythologies. The audio books, if you can find them, are read by Native American voice actors and the cadence of the read is amazing.

There ya go – grab some Hillerman audio books for your summer vacation.

In two weeks we will present the last chapter, chapter 20, in this first season. Then we’ll take a pause to turn the first season into an e-book, a paperback and an audio book. I’ve got a copy editor to work through the scripts and I’ve got a couple artists working on cover art.

I’m recruiting a book launch team and typo hunters. Come over to FaceBook and join the After the Apocalypse group that can be found by searching for “OldManApocalypse” – all one word – and pitch in.

I’m asking nicely. I could use the help.

I’m happy with how this season and the overall format came out. We’re up over 11,000 downloads now. That’s not bad for 6 months in as an indie podca...

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After the Apocalypse - Season One, Episode Eighteen - “The Shot”
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06/13/21 • 28 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Eighteen - “The Shot”

(Narrator)

What runs through the mind of a dog?

Not just a dog, but a soldier and a veteran.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BILL THE DOG (think of him as a soldier grunt. He speaks simply and mostly in the present tense, but with urgency:

Now.

It is quiet. I am alert.

My pack is safe.

I see them on the roof of the building. The large cat waits below.

The pack is my duty. I protect the pack. I fight and die for the pack.

I hold here out of reach of the cat, waiting. It is hot. I am thirsty and hungry.

But I will wait. Until my new man says otherwise.

The new man commands less than my soldier.

The new man gives commands.

But the woman acts like pack leader.

There is only now. There is only the mission.

I can fight. I can harass. I can run.

But I must protect the pack.

...

Outro S1 E18 – The Shot

Hello my survivor friends. How’s the apocalypse going? The is Chris your host fro this apocalyptic after-party. Thank you for showing up and joining the old man and KJ for an adventure!

https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

I really liked Robert’s read of this one. I think he got the dialogue just right. I had written these two chapters about the animal farm in 2020 during the height of the pandemic while I was experimenting with this universe to see if it merited the effort of my attention.

I wrote it originally as a two-parter with the cliff-hanger. This time around I tried to cram it into 1 episode but it would not be crammed so we left the original 2-parter structure with the cliff hanger and fleshed out the dialogue a bit.

I think it works.

We are 2 episodes away from wrapping up season 1. Like I said before, we are going to take a break after episode 20 and turn the first season into a paperback, ebook and audio book. The mechanics of this are not unfamiliar to me. I have done it before, but not for a couple years.

I contracted a starving artist to work on a cover for me and another to edit it back into book form. The difference between writing for an audio read and a regular read is minor but I think it’s worth the help.

When I write for audio I break up the paragraphs into smaller chunks and phrases to reinforce the cadence. So I’m having a nice lady from Jamaica go through and pull some of those back together for readability. Also she’ll delete all the audio instruction notes, look for typos and blatant grammar issues, like dangling participles.

I would love to have any of you who are readers support the book launch if you’re game. I could use typo hunters. You get a pre-release of the book. Come over and join the FaceBook group for After the Apocalypse and join the team.

I’ll apologize for making you work hard, but There are a bunch of Facebook groups and pages called After the Apocalypse, mine is https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse/

Another thing I’ll be recruiting for is a book launch team. In couple months when all this comes together I’ll need help in, for lack of a better word, marketing. Again, FaceBook, After the apocalypse.

Since we last talked I’ve been reading a Robert Heinlein, retrospective called Requiem, which if you are interested you can procure on Thriftbooks for $5.29. It a collection of “unreleased” stories and other stuff. One of the stories is a novella he wrote in 1950 called Destination Moon.

You may know him from his more famous works, Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

This novella or short story depending on your appetite is followed by piece, penned by Heinlein about the mak...

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After the Apocalypse - Season one, Episode Fourteen, “Run”
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04/17/21 • 20 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Fourteen, “Run”

Janet ran...

...and the obscenities pouring from the man she had just left bleeding in the dirt faded away...

like the man himself.

He was nothing. He was a threat that had been dealt with.

Like she always dealt with threats.

She had the hard skills, built up over years of practice. She could dominate most situations. Her force of will bent others to her path.

And if they didn’t bend, they got run over or shoved aside.

KJ the Killer.

...and she ran.

...

Outro S1E14

Hello my fellow survivors. How is the apocalypse treating you?

This is Chris your host. And a fine Saturday morning it is up here in New England.

We had a storm fly through yesterday with wind and rain and snow.

I was worried about our friend Tim who has been helping with the story ideas and editing. He’s been out on the Appalachian trail for 2 weeks. He’s currently passing through the area near where Janet and the old man are struggling to survive the apocalypse in our story.

Imagine if a storm like this hit out in the Smoky Mountains while they’re out in the trail? I’ll have to see if we can work a storm into the story.

When I was a teenager, I spent a week hiking in the Joyce Kilmer National Forest which is near there, a bit south. It would have been this time of year.

I remember we did get an ice storms a couple days, but you just crawl into your tent and wait it out. I remember waking up an hitting the plastic tarp overhead and the ice shattering and sliding off.

But we survived. I would have been 16 and just rolling out of wrestling season, so stupid but indestructible.

...

Speaking of hiking adventures in the wilderness, my wife forced me to watch a movie called Into the Grizzly Maze from 2015, mostly because she likes to look at the actor James Marsden.

I’ll be honest it was a silly movie about an angry Grizzly bear who likes to eat people. For some reason they talked some A-list talent into it. Billy Bob Thorton is underused as the bear hunter, think Quint from Jaws.

Thomas Jane was one of the main characters, who is one of my favorite actors, you may know him as detective Joe Miller in The Expanse, which is one of the best hard space Scifi shows to come out recently.

Or, for you Marvel fans, Thomas Jane was the original Punisher who went after John Travolta in 2004.

God knows how these actors got caught up in the hot mess that is ‘Grizzly Maze”. I suspect a paycheck was involved.

...

Looking out my office window this morning, the forsythia is out and my cherry tree is about to bloom.

What did you think of this week’s story?

Janet is discovering or rediscovering her strength and how it can help her in the Apocalypse.

...

I’ve been reading through a SciFi series called the Lost Fleet over the last year. I’m about to crack into the 8th and final book. It’s a Space Epic but I also realized last night that it parallels Xenophon’s Anabasis.

Bear with me, here. Xenophon was a Greek mercenary with a force of 10,000 other Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to help him seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II, in 401 BC.

Note this is before Rome, and a70 years before Alexander the Great.

Anyhow, they march deep into Babylon and Cyrus gets killed in b...

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After the Apocalypse - Season One, Episode Six, “Anarchy”
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01/10/21 • 24 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Six, “Anarchy”

Janet glanced back at the nose of the Range Rover sticking out from behind the dumpster.

She regretted having to leave it. It had become the center of her world since fleeing the city the day before.

A safe harbor. A den-like space, comfortable and familiar where she had control.

It couldn’t be helped. She needed fuel. She needed food and supplies.

...

Outro

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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After the Apocalypse - Season One, Episode Seventeen - Prey
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05/29/21 • 24 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Seventeen - “Prey”

It was a bumpy and uncomfortable ride. And the old man chittered on happily behind her like old people...or crazy people do.

Like when your Mom or Granma keeps an entire conversation going regardless if you are even listening.

Those interminable phone calls Janet used to avoid and dread, droning on and on about the flotsam and jetsam of an old person’s life, only to surface from the lily pads every once in a while, to ask some prying or unanswerable...personal question.

Janet felt a momentary pang of sadness.

Maybe she should have taken the time to talk when she had the chance.

Before everyone she knew was taken by the Apocalypse.

...

Outro – S1 E17 After the Apocalypse – Prey

Hello and welcome back by survivor friends! So we have our two protagonists trapped on a roof in the apocalypse! Just like many of us feel most of the time!

Hope you all are enjoying it. We’ve gotten up to 8500 downloads. And believe it or not we’ve managed to knock out 17 episodes, which is about 42,500 words!

My plan is to find a good stopping point in the next 2-3 episodes and end season 1. Don’t worry, I won’t go away, I might take a couple weeks off, but I’ll be back. I’m going to turn the existing words and audio into a book set.

If you think about it, it makes sense. I’ve already got the content built so I might as well leverage it into a book, e-book and audio book. It’s pretty easy these days to self publish and I’ve done it before a couple times, both on Amazon and Audible.

Of course , you, yes you, can help.

First, I’ve started a Facebook group called AfterTheApocalypse all one word. You can go there and chat with other survivors and give me some feedback. Second, while you there you can help me vet some cover ideas. Third, I’m going to need a launch team when I release the book(s) so you can help with that.

And finally, as always, you can help me survive by dropping a nickel in the slot of the Patreon page and telling a few science fiction geek friends about the podcast.

I have been watching and reading some interesting SciFi over the last couple weeks.

First, I watched the new Netflix apocalypse movie “Army of the Dead”. I won’t spoil it for you but it was pretty disappointing. I really like Dave Bautista, especially his role as Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the galaxy movies, but he couldn’t save this one.

Second, and on a much more positive note, the new season of Love, Death + Robots on Netflix was incredible. This is a series of animated shorts, but they are all incredibly robust, standalone stories each with a beginning, middle and end. The Drowned Giant, based on a story by J.G Ballard, is an amazing and thoughtful piece that speaks volumes without having to say much.

Snow in the Desert, based on a story by Neal Asher was a really good apocalyptic treatment. I would pay real money and go see a movie treatment of those characters and that universe. It’s a shame there are only 8 episodes in this whole new season.

Moving along down the short fiction video quality scale is a channel on YouTube called Dust. It’s a whole bunch of short...

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After the Apocalypse - Season one, Episode nine, “Bill the Dog”
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02/09/21 • 17 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode nine, “Bill the Dog”

Bill the dog watched the old man cooking over a low fire at the edge of a swamp.

It wasn’t a fire that humans would likely see or smell, but a dog’s nose was different. Bill had picked up the scent of cooking game and followed it.

It was an overcast, fall day. The days were noticeably cooler and most of the leaves had been blown from the trees with the approach of winter.

Bill lay concealed in the underbrush and leaves. Silent. Watching. Curious.

The old man’s dinner wasn’t the only scent on the breeze. There was, as always, the background smell of smoke and death that seemed to permeate the apocalypse, but there was something else, too.

There was the smell of other dogs.

...

Show notes:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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After the Apocalypse - Season one, Episode Fifteen, “Not-So-Innocent”
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05/01/21 • 23 min

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Fifteen, “Not-So-Innocent”

A sharp wind evaporated the sweat from Janet’s arms. She felt a chill, like a passing ghost. Her heart settled from a hard drumbeat in her chest to a low rhythmic thump as she walked, recovering from her run.

She felt cleaner now.

Refreshed.

The familiar ache of bone and muscle comforted her.

She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and looked ahead at the vehicle in the road.

What was going on with this overheated camper van?

It was an older, boxy model. The hood was propped open, and she could smell the metal of the overheated radiator.

Janet could hear snippets of argument as she cautiously approached.

It was hard to get all of it. The wind was gusting, creating white noise that washed out the voices, making them fade in and out like a bad phone connection.

She approached the van on the opposite side from where the people were arguing. Better to stay unnoticed. Was this even something that she wanted to get involved with?

...

Episode Commentary

Season One, Episode Fifteen – “Not so Innocent”

Hello and welcome back my survivor friends. How are we all doing? How’s the apocalypse treating you?

What did you think of the episode? Frankly I struggled writing this one and my editing team helped A LOT! Thank you Duane! If anyone wants to help with writing or editing please feel free to reach out.

I didn’t want to just have action. The action turns into “he-said-she-said” type motion-without-meaning after a while. And that get’s boring.

There are no stakes. Not snakes, stakes. You always have to ask and answer that question: what are the stakes here?

On the flip side you don’t want to bulk up with too much exposition and emotions – because that gets boring too.

The key is to marry the exposition and stakes with the action. Have what the characters do and say make your points for you.

Language is a powerful thing. Story telling is a basic, human, powerful thing.

So – long story short (pun absolutely intended) I had to wrestle with that in this episode.

I wanted to make sure that we were understanding the motivation of the characters and moving the broader narrative forward and even exploring some deeper themes.

And, as it turns out, this is a common theme in apocalyptic literature – how does your current pre-apocalypse skill set translate into a post-apocalyptic world? It’s not just preppers and backwoodsmen who will do well. It’s also the resilient, the fast, the smart and those willing to lead.

And to show this we take individuals out of the real world and drop them int the apocalypse – in our case Janet the type-A lawyer and the old man, a disgraced doctor turned ultra-runner.

That’s the theme that I’m trying to play with. And that’s what makes science fiction so much fun. Because you can create these mashups and play with them. What would a pre-school teacher do in an alien invasion? What would the ballet-teacher do in an alternate universe? I don’t know but you could write that story.

One of my favorite versions of this is when Rod Serling dropped a book loving bank teller into the apocalypse in episode 8 of the original Twighlight Zone titled “Time Enough at Last”. First aired in 1959 and based on a story by Lynn Venable.

In this episode Henry Bemis played by Burgess Meredith,. loves books yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. (You know Burgess Meredith as the original Penguin in the Batman TV series and as Rocky’s crusty old coach Mickey in the Rocky movies.)

The episode follows Bemis through a post-apocalyptic world, touching on such social issues as anti-intellectualism, the dangers of reliance upon technology, and the difference between solitude and loneliness. In the end he breaks his glasses so he can’t read the books even though he’s the last one alive.

This was one of the most popular episodes of the original Twilight zone.

Anyhow, that’s an example of how you can make an episode compelling without much action at all.

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Congratulations to all of you my surviving friends in the apocalypse. We are over 5,000 downloads strong now. Let’s push it to a million! Tell some friends, keep it moving. Post the link to the show...

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FAQ

How many episodes does After the Apocalypse have?

After the Apocalypse currently has 124 episodes available.

What topics does After the Apocalypse cover?

The podcast is about Fiction, Apocalypse, Survival, Podcast, Podcasts and Serial.

What is the most popular episode on After the Apocalypse?

The episode title 'Season one, Episode one - The old man' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on After the Apocalypse?

The average episode length on After the Apocalypse is 29 minutes.

How often are episodes of After the Apocalypse released?

Episodes of After the Apocalypse are typically released every 13 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of After the Apocalypse?

The first episode of After the Apocalypse was released on Nov 30, 2020.

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