Breaker Whiskey
Atypical Artists
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001 - One
Breaker Whiskey
07/24/23 • 3 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.
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[TRANSCRIPT]
Breaker, breaker, Channel 19, is anyone reading? [click, static] This is...uh- sh--
[click, static]
Whiskey...Alpha Romeo- this is Whiskey Alpha Romeo, calling out.
[click, static]
Once again, that’s Whiskey Alpha Romeo, currently along I-80.
[click, static] Breaker, breaker. [click, static]
You know, I just realized how bad those initials are, but that’s the rule right? W for east of the Mississippi, which–isn’t that a bit backward? Shouldn’t it be W for West? Anyway, W for east of the Mississippi plus the initials of your name– but I mean, still, WAR is a bit...Whiskey, I guess is okay. Though that’d be the part of the call sign that everybody in this area has, so...not really specific.
Then again, it doesn’t seem like anyone is here – no other W-call signs to mix me up with. So if you are listening somehow, Whiskey is...fine.
I don’t have a number? I don’t technically have any kind of license either, but who would be giving them out, right? I mean, in that case, I guess trying to stick to any kind of convention is sort of pointless at this juncture, so I could’ve picked any old name...
But, I mean, we all have to hold on to whatever bit of structure we can to stay sane, right?
And I don’t know, I have the pamphlet for this thing and it feels like I should follow it to the letter.
You know, this thing has been sitting in our garage for five years and this is the first time we’ve sent a signal out? I mean, we’re remote, yeah, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t’ve–
[click, static]
Sorry, not we. The first time I’ve sent a signal out, though Lord knows she never did either. And never will, I mean, I doubt she’ll even notice this is gone, I doubt she’ll miss it, I doubt she’ll miss–
[click, static]
Anyway, here I am, clogging up the airwaves. I think that’s bad etiquette. But if no one is listening, there’s no one to offend.
[click, static]
Yeah. Well, like I said. Whiskey Alpha Romeo along I-80–I’ll stay on this frequency for the rest of the day. Um...signing off.
3 Listeners
004 - Four
Breaker Whiskey
07/27/23 • 4 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.
--------
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
Alright, different channel today. Different channel and different state. I have made my way into West Virginia. And good lord, is it beautiful. I’m definitely avoiding all the flat just the way I wanted, but I am a little worried now that the mountains are going to make these signals even less likely to reach anyone.
I’m keeping my eye out for a better antenna, something I could boost the signal with. I don’t know much about this thing–radios aren’t my specialty–but I’ve always been good at tinkering with things and I pick stuff up quick. It’s why I got into the line of work I did. You need to be able to improvise, figure things out fast, and you’ve gotta be good with your hands.
I like discovering the way things work. In that sense, I bet you’d think this whole situation these past years has been my paradise. How do you improvise when the power’s out and the water stops being clean and you can’t get emergency services for shit because there might not be any kind of services at all anymore? I mean, sounds like a fun fair to me.
The reality got old fast. But I think I was able to build a pretty decent existence. It’s why I think I can do it again. I take comfort in the knowledge that if this car breaks down, I can fix it, and if it really breaks down, I can get another one going. There’s certainly enough of them scattered around.
Though not as many as I thought there’d be. I also expected the stores to be a lot more picked over. The gas stations, yeah, are mostly empty, but I think my odds of getting a stronger antenna are actually pretty good. I dropped into a hardware store late yesterday to get a tire gauge and air pump and the place felt...if not fully stocked, partly. And it’s not like I’m in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I’m still on a major highway. So why isn’t everything completely picked over?
[click, static]
I have seen a couple of lights on here or there, which I can’t make any sense of. One of them was a roadside burger joint–their neon ‘open’ sign was glowing like it was new. So I went in and...well, I didn’t expect to see anyone, I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I thought maybe...maybe there’d be a phone that still worked or a water heater or a working gas line.
It was the strangest thing. The neon sign was on. And the jukebox. And one of the lights over the counter. But nothing else. The phone was dead, none of the light switches seemed to do anything.
I did try playing a tune on the jukebox but...I don’t have any quarters. Why would I? I haven’t used money for anything in years.
But anyway, it all got me thinking...if I could find a working radio tower, could I boost this signal? As it stands, I’ve just got to keep driving round and round and round until I get lucky enough to come into range with another CB. But if parts of the grid are still working, then maybe—
[click, static]
Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it wouldn’t make a difference because maybe there is no one to find. And I’ll just keep tuning into a new frequency every single day and talking to the air.
[click, static]
But I think it’s...helping. Even if I’m not talking to anybody.
[click, static]
Maybe because I’m not talking to anybody. If no one can hear me, there’s no consequence to anything I say. And talking to yourself isn’t embarrassing or sad if no one knows it’s happening. Right?
So, who knows, maybe I’ll keep going on this no matter what happens. I’ve got nothing to lose.
Signing off.
[click, static]
[beep]
3 Listeners
002 - Two
Breaker Whiskey
07/25/23 • 2 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.
-----------------
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
Breaker, breaker, WAR1974 on the line currently eating some jerky on the side of I-76.
[click, static]
It occurred to me that I won’t actually be East of the Mississippi much longer. I’ve officially crossed over into Ohio and have no plans on stopping so– I don’t know, do people change their handles when they move around? No way, right? That’d be useless. Then again, the FCC also probably doesn’t give out the current year as a call sign number, but I wanted to feel more official. And, you know, “War 1974” rhymes so...
[click, static]
I don’t know what I’m doing, clearly! This is the longest I've been alone in six years and I may already be losing it.
But I don’t know, it can’t be worse than having only one person for company for that time, right? I have to think that if other people are out there, they’ve been in a similar bind. You guys get it.
[click, static]
I’m gonna try a new channel tomorrow I think. Because I really am just...speaking into the void here. Hello? Anyone out there?
[click, static]
I don’t know what I expected. I think I expected someone. Or something. I knew the electricity was out pretty much everywhere, I mean, we barely scraped together a working generator. And even then, we couldn’t run it all the time. I haven’t taken a hot shower in...
[click, static]
If anyone is out there, would you mind tuning in just to tell me if there’s a working gas station in this state? I’m...acquiring gas just fine at the moment but I’d rather not have my first encounter with the world in half a decade be getting busted for siphoning-
[click, static]
Probably shouldn’t talk about that kind of stuff on a public frequency, huh?
[click, static]
If folks are nervous making themselves known to a stranger, I get it. Trust me, I get it. But I’m safe. I’m a good person, I just...would love to know what the hell has been going on. I’ve got plenty of food and I like to think I’m a pretty good conversationalist so. Just. Please.
[click, static]
Alright. Second verse, same as the first–I’ll be on this frequency all day. Signing off.
3 Listeners
Episode 0 - Start Here
Breaker Whiskey
07/17/23 • 1 min
Email the show at [email protected]
--
Hi there. I'm Lauren Shippen, creator of Breaker, Whiskey. If you're new to this feed, let me give you a brief overview of the journey we're on.
Breaker Whiskey is a micro fiction alternate history that explores an empty 1970s America.
In 1968, two women find themselves in rural Pennsylvania during what turns out to be some kind of apocalyptic event. By the time they discover that everyone else is gone, it’s too late to figure out what happened. Despite not liking each other at all, the women work together to survive, until six years later one of them sets out on her own, driving around the country to find other survivors. This is her story.
Breaker Whiskey takes place in post-apocalyptic America and involves themes of loneliness, existential dread, hopelessness, and other heavy topics. There is strong language, drinking, and mild peril. If you have a concern about a specific trigger warning, please email us at [email protected] and ask!
I've been making audio drama for a long time and when I started it was very, very DIY. While I've so enjoyed making shows with large casts and large teams, there are times when I miss the spontaneity of doing things myself. Breaker Whiskey is an ongoing, living, breathing show. I don't have the entire thing planned out, I don't necessarily always know where the story is going. It is a road trip without a map, a way for me to explore single narrator storytelling and build a story as I go, following whichever plot points or character points I fid most interesting.
And this is a journey I'm not going on entirely by myself. As Whiskey goes on her journey, she'll start to receive mysterious morse code messages from a stranger. If you would like to send a morse code message of your own, you can send Whiskey a message or a question at atypicalartists.co/breakerwhiskey.
The show is released every day, Monday through Friday and each individual episode is under 5 minutes. Start with Episode 001. If you are a supporter of Atypical Artists, you'll receive each week's episodes as a single episode, on Mondays, instead of smaller missives each day. If you'd like to become a supporter, please visit atypicalartists.co/supportor patreon.com/breakerwhiskey
All the links are in the description of this episode.
This is Lauren, signing off.
3 Listeners
003 - Three
Breaker Whiskey
07/26/23 • 2 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey.
--------
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey driving West on a beautiful day.
Still in Ohio. The Buckeye State. I’m thinking of heading South actually–the last time I was in the Midwest was...god, probably sixty? Sixty-one. I just remember a lot of flat. I haven’t hit that yet, but knowing it’s coming...yeah, anyway, I’ve been thinking about heading south. Cutting back over into...(rustling of paper), 77? And going down to West Virginia. I blew right past Akron without seeing a single sign of life, so I’m thinking maybe the big cities are out.
[click, static]
Jesus, not that Akron, Ohio is a big city. Maybe I should’ve gone up to Cleveland, I don’t know. I guess I’m still a little skittish of anywhere that might have–
[click, static]
(sighing) Anyway, West Virginia seems like a place worth checking out. Harry mentioned this doomsday cult she’d heard about down there–granted, that was back in ‘66 or something that she heard those rumors but...what else do I have to go on, huh?
Man, if she could see me right now, she’d laugh and tell me ‘told you so’. Not even a week into this and I’m already going looking for a weird survivalist cult. Bet she’d love to have me go slinking back with my tail between my legs, giving up on any hope that there’s something worth looking for in this godforsaken country.
But she’s not gonna get the satisfaction. I’m not going back, not for anything. It was safe, sure, but at what cost? Human beings aren’t meant to live in a cage, even ones of their own making. I mean it’s just—
[click, static]
Well, even a bunch of nuclear war freakouts would be better than being alone.
I’ve been alone for so long now.
[click, static]
Harry would take issue with that, I think. Try to logic me into some kind of admission that because I wasn’t actually alone, I couldn’t claim being lonely. And maybe I wouldn’t’ve been if every conversation with her wasn’t exactly like that, where she would–
[click, static]
(deep breath) I’m not gonna talk about her. I’m not even gonna think about her. I’ve spent the past six years doing nothing but–
[click, static]
If I’m gonna head south I should probably figure out where the hell I can get on I-77. I’m working off a Rand McNally from 1963, but it’s not like they’ve done any public works since ‘68 so I’m counting on it being somewhat reliable. But if you hear this and have a hot tip on the best route to take...
This is Whiskey, signing off.
3 Listeners
060 - Sixty
Breaker Whiskey
10/13/23 • 1 min
[TRANSCRIPT]
[static]
(morse code, tuning radio, radio snippets, sonic chaos)
(a voice tries to break through)
[static]
2 Listeners
165 - One Hundred Sixty Five
Breaker Whiskey
03/08/24 • 2 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday.
------
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
“F not here” — I assume by F, you mean Francis. And not that I’m going to take your word for it, but it’s...it’s interesting. That you should say that. That you should know that.
I think maybe I’m starting to understand. Well, maybe not understand, but I...I’m beginning to form a theory. Maybe.
So, there’s a pond. The pond is quiet, maybe has some ripples in it from what’s swimming underneath the surface, or the wind, the rain—the normal stuff that a pond experiences. And all those things create some kind of...chain reaction. But again, it’s the usual things—a frog dies, a tadpole grows legs, algae blooms, whatever.
But if you throw a huge boulder into that pond, everything goes fucking bananas. It kills a duck or displaces so much water that fish drown on dry land and then...
You have an empty pond? You have a series of smaller ponds? The water evaporates? I don’t know where to go from there. But if Harry, Leann, and I are all fish that got thrown into another pond by the water splashing around the boulder then...
[click, static]
(frustrated sigh) I’m not sure that that’s anything.
I wish there was...I don’t know, a book I could read, a scientific journal, something. I’m going to go into the next library I find and see what I can dredge up. Because this all feels vastly beyond my comprehension.
I—it occurred to me...well, am I a terrible person for thinking of my art fence before thinking of Martha? It’s not that I didn’t care about her—sure, we were never committed, but I cared.
I think I’ve just been hoping that I wasn’t important in her life to really have an impact. She was this bright, uncomplicated spot in a pretty messy life and I hope...I hope she stayed that way. I hope we were both a refuge for each other, an escape from our real worlds. And that, because of that, the mistakes of my real world didn’t shake hers.
[click, static]
[beeps]
.- ... .. -- --- ...- / . -. -.. / --- ..-. / . - . .-. -. .. - -.--
Asimov End of Eternity
2 Listeners
065 - Sixty-Five
Breaker Whiskey
10/20/23 • 2 min
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
Hey Birdie.
I think—I think I need to get out of this park. Out of Wyoming. I still don’t understand how the hell you’ve been managing to reach me this whole time, no matter where I’ve been, but I feel like maybe—
[click, static]
Huh. Well, actually, I’m realizing that I’m not even sure you’ve been reaching me wherever I am. For all I know, you’ve been sending messages every single day for the past three months and I’ve only received a quarter of them. And you’re having the most frustrating conversation of your life.
[click, static]
If that’s the case...christ, I’m sorry. Here I am gabbing onto the airwaves every single day and you’re desperately trying to tell me something. Then again, maybe you’re receiving only a quarter of my transmissions. I guess there’s really no way to know for certain.
[click, static]
Whatever’s actually been happening over the course of our conversation, I’m pretty sure that I’m in a hard to reach spot right now, no matter what you’ve got rigged up. I think you were trying to send something the other day, but I was only getting every tenth beep, so it’s impossible to tell. But scanning through the channels every time I’ve come back to the car, it’s been almost entirely static. And less varying static than normal, which probably sounds like nothing, but when you’ve been listening to so much static, you start to learn the slightly different flavors of it. Trust me.
[click, static]
Anyway. This whole diversion has been...well. Diverting. I needed it, I think, on some level. I’m not entirely certain why, but I do feel more grounded. Maybe it was seeing that dog, or nearly getting caught in that tornado, but I’ve been feeling...
I’m feeling better now. So I’m gonna hike back over to my campsite, break everything down, hike back, and then get on the road. Leave national parks exactly as you found them, right? This place doesn’t need people intruding on it anymore.
[click, static]
I’ll get back on the horn when I’m on a major highway again. I hope I hear from you the moment I do. Whiskey out.
[click, static]
2 Listeners
052 - Fifty-Two
Breaker Whiskey
10/03/23 • 5 min
Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday.
------
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey, finally leaving Kansas. Up next: Colorado.
[click, static]
I did not see that dog again. I knew it was a long shot, but I still felt disappointed. How stupid is that?
I could have driven around more maybe—spent more time driving through all the little towns that surround the highway where I saw him. But to be honest, I really want to get the hell out of Kansas. The tornado, it—
[click, static]
It was terrifying. I didn’t—it was one of, I think, the scariest things I’ve ever experienced, I think. I never would have guessed that—that a tornado was actually that terrifying. I don’t know why. I don’t know why I would’ve thought different.
I used to love storms as a kid—actually, you know, as an adult too. There’s nothing quite like cozying up with a good record and a little project during a thunderstorm.
[click, static]
This is a little embarrassing, maybe, but I used to—I used to, um, build miniatures. Like, furniture and other things for dollhouses.
[click, static]
I know, I know. But it can’t be car engines and spackle all the time. It was good to work on smaller things. More delicate things. Usually there’d be a toaster or a lamp or a typewriter for me to tinker with, but when there wasn’t...
I always wanted a dollhouse as a kid. I wanted one so badly, but we could never afford it. Not a real one. My dad and I tried to build one out of an old milk crate once, but neither of us had the eye for it. At least not then.
It was actually, um, another fence of ours—Sylvia—who got me into it. She owned this weird little curio shop in Soho and would usually be able to find a buyer for any antiquities or, um, what’re they called—objet
d’arts—that we might come across. Stuff that wasn’t your typical six figure painting or what have you.
And her shop was legitimate and it was full of so much interesting stuff. I may have not ever been an art person, but I love...stuff. You know? The ephemera of peoples’ lives, the clocks, the letter openers, the desks and the paperweights. Some of it is beautiful, of course, but I was always more interested in the function. Or the marriage between function and form, as Harry would say. She tried to convince me that I did appreciate art after all and I would tell her that I appreciated beautiful things that had a purpose and that that was different. And she would say ‘being beautiful is a purpose’ and I would roll my eyes and she would snap at me and we’d just go—
[click, static]
Anyway, before I met Harry, I was in Sylvia’s shop and somehow we got on the topic of her repair work and how, as much as she loved doing it, she was getting too old for it—her eyes too weak, her hands were too shaky from her arthritis. And I needed a little extra cash, so I started helping her out with it. She taught me pretty much everything I needed to know—fixing the lining inside a piece of vintage luggage is not the same as rewiring a toaster—but I don’t know, found I liked most of the work.
And then one day she asked me to repair this gorgeous dollhouse. And it was so frustrating and fun and opened this whole world to me of making tiny little things—tiny chairs and tiny settees and tiny little lamps that really lit up and...
[for the rest of the transcript, visit breakerwhiskey.tumblr.com]
2 Listeners
063 - Sixty-Three
Breaker Whiskey
10/18/23 • 4 min
[TRANSCRIPT]
[click, static]
[stray morse beeps]
[click]
Birdie??? Birdie, are you there?
[click, static]
Birdie. Do you read?
[click, static]
Goddammit.
I could have sworn that I heard...
[click, static]
I was tuning through the channels and there were beeps that sounded like you. Like you were trying to send something.
[click, static]
(sighs) Maybe I’m imagining things. Wanting to hear from you.
(laughs) You know, it sort of reminds me of sitting by the phone waiting for a date to call, or whatever.
Not that I ever did that much dating, but I remember the first time I had a genuinely good date, I was twenty-one, living in that terrible shoebox apartment with a million other people, and I went on this date with this—uh, they were a friend of a friend of a friend, one of those set ups that happens when you’re in your twenties and you know a ton of people but you don’t really know any of them. Did you experience that?
(mumbling) I guess I don’t even know how old you are.
Anyway, I’d met a bunch of people through my roommates and my job and a few of the bars that I would frequent and I had this one friend, Sissy, who made it her life’s mission to set everyone in the world up. It didn’t matter how tenuous the connection between her and the two parties were, she was shameless anyway.
So she set me up with—lets call them “K”. K worked on Wall Street, which made me immediately suspicious but Sissy assured me that they were cool because the friend that she knew them through was a choreographer and had good taste in people. I don’t know, I agreed because, again, really lonely and also I thought if K was a Wall Street person, maybe I’d get dinner at a really fancy restaurant out of it, somewhere I could order a twenty dollar glass of wine or something.
But it wasn’t like that at all. K took me to get gyros at this street vendor that they swore was the best food in the city. And it was pretty good and K paid, so I was plenty happy. And then we went to a jazz club where they knew the owner, so we got the best seats and really good service and...I don’t know. It was nice, to be somewhere that treated you like you were special.
And that all would’ve been enough for me to go out with K again—I was twenty-one and dead broke, I would’ve gone on as many dates as I could if it meant I got a free meal or a good night on the town. But, much to my surprise, I had fun. Sissy had been right. K was funny, and smart—one of those people you’d never run out of things to talk about with. I hadn’t really experienced that before.
So we exchanged numbers at the end of the date—kissed on the cheek to say goodbye, I think maybe we were both nervous—and I waited by the phone for days. I drove my roommates insane—any time I came home from work I’d hound them about if anyone had called when I was gone. We didn’t have a phone service, so we were pretty reliant on one of us being home at all times, which usually someone was. But there was nothing.
Eventually I just bit the bullet and I called K—who did have a phone service, of course, which is what I got when I called. It’s what I got every time I called. And I’d leave my name and number with the service every time—even starting saying when I’d be likely to be home so they could tell K when was best to call back and...the phone stayed silent.
[click, static]
Please don’t stop answering my calls. Or, if you do, at least give me a reason. K never did.
[click, static]
2 Listeners
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FAQ
How many episodes does Breaker Whiskey have?
Breaker Whiskey currently has 264 episodes available.
What topics does Breaker Whiskey cover?
The podcast is about Science Fiction, Podcasts and Fiction.
What is the most popular episode on Breaker Whiskey?
The episode title '002 - Two' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Breaker Whiskey?
The average episode length on Breaker Whiskey is 3 minutes.
How often are episodes of Breaker Whiskey released?
Episodes of Breaker Whiskey are typically released every day.
When was the first episode of Breaker Whiskey?
The first episode of Breaker Whiskey was released on Jul 17, 2023.
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