After the Apocalypse
Christopher Russell
1 Creator
1 Creator
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Season one, Episode one - The old man
After the Apocalypse
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.
5 Listeners
Season One, Episode Nineteen - “The Gauntlet”
After the Apocalypse
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...
1 Listener
Season One, Episode Eighteen - “The Shot”
After the Apocalypse
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...
1 Listener
Season two, Episode six “Scorpion”
After the Apocalypse
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.
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Season One, Episode Six, “Anarchy”
After the Apocalypse
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.
1 Listener
Season one, Episode nine, “Bill the Dog”
After the Apocalypse
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.
1 Listener
Season two, Episode nine “Reunion”
After the Apocalypse
12/25/21 • 25 min
After the Apocalypse
A Pandemic Survival Story
Season two, Episode nine “Reunion”
Bella watched as the big dog pushed his head into the old man’s lap. The dog was wiggling its butt like a puppy and the old man was pretending to be mad.
“No”, the old man said, looking away from the supplicant dog, who was vigorously nuzzling at him. “You didn’t listen to me. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
The dog gave a big push and the old man slipped out of the chair sprawling onto the linoleum floor. Bill pounced on the old man as he fell to the ground and licked at his face. The old man put his hands up for protection and laughed despite himself.
...
Outro S2 E9
Hello my survivor friends.
Welcome back to the apocalypse.
In this episode I wanted to give all y’all a bit of a breather from all the tension and action. That last episode where KJ has to escape across the river was harrowing. Death, destruction, fear, tension, cats and dogs living together – real end-of-the-world stuff!
My editors and I had a multi-day discussion as to whether she would bring her boots with her. Tim said to tie the boots around her neck. I just couldn’t see how she could swim with the boots around her neck.
I rewrote it 3 times. Tried a compromise. Long distance swimmers actually have these waterproof floaty bags they put stuff in and tie to their ankles. But it was getting to complex and awkward, so I sent them a text that read “I don’t care about the @#$%@ boots!”
It’s running joke between us now.
I figure in the Hollywood version of the story this scene will give them an excuse to have the heroine take her clothes off! Of course, by the time Hollywood is done with it there will be sea monsters, laser beams and aliens.
So – I wanted to take it easy on you this week. And I gave you that tense reunion scene as a flashback so you would already know the outcome and it wouldn’t require so much stress.
Then we got them all together back at the school.
A bit of a holiday gathering if you will.
The security of the group.
The gathering. Not the quickening. The gathering.
It’s odd how strangers can come together for a common purpose in times of crisis.
...
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Season one, Episode Fourteen, “Run”
After the Apocalypse
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...
1 Listener
Season two, Episode two “Pursuit”
After the Apocalypse
09/18/21 • 34 min
After the Apocalypse
A Pandemic Survival Story
Season two, Episode two “Pursuit”
KJ clutched the knife in one cold hand, lowering the heel of her other hand to the ground for support.
She was in a full crouch now. Just a few yards away she could see the hooded man on the bench, under the portico, and he looked to be dozing.
“If he’s a guard, he isn’t a very good one,” She thought.
Something about him didn’t fit.
A moment ago, as she was sneaking along the wall, she had glanced into the window of the resort and saw some of the thugs.
The King’s soldiers were no better at guard duty. They lay sprawled and asleep on the lobby furniture, surrounded by trash and bottles, no doubt sleeping off another hard debauch.
...
Outro Episode 1 Season 2
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Season One, Episode Seventeen - Prey
After the Apocalypse
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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FAQ
How many episodes does After the Apocalypse have?
After the Apocalypse currently has 122 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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