1.02 Access to the Biological Specimens

02/18/20 • 45 min

1 Listener

In Episode Two, “Access to the Biological Specimens,” Zahava and Zei head out for a day at the beach, and James investigates the local wildlife. Mandry comes downstairs for a visit; we find out who can bake, who can braid, and what those black seas look like up close. Calendars are invented; wildlife encountered; Saccharomyces Cerevisiae rehydrated.
The transcript is available.

Content Note: this episode is free from sensitive content other than some mild swearing, still mainly but not entirely James.
The showrunner and lead writer for this project is Evan Tess Murray. The sound designer, audio engineer, and composer is Trace Callahan. Sounds and music are her original creations, sometimes with the assistance of others who remain Nameless. This episode guest starred the North Atlantic as the black ocean of the Nameless Planet.

This is a collaborative ensemble project. Many of the character decisions are made by the actors as part of the story and script development process. Please check out the links below for more of their work:
Presenting the Nameless Crew

Trevor Bean creates and voices Mandry
Trace Callahan creates and voices Kolian
Alexander Endymion Hernández Díaz creates and voices Cyrus
Alexander Doddy creates and voices James
Sawyer Greene creates and voices Quill
Anjali Kunapaneni creates and voices Devi
Dominic Mendez creates and voices Ángel
Caroline Mincks creates and voices Zahava
Evan Tess Murray creates and voices Zei

They're also just a ton of fun to hang out with. Our corner of the internet is very friendly, and you're welcome to come say hello. We'd also love you to join the Ground Crew by supporting us on Patreon, if you can.
The promo at the end of this episode is for Diary of a Space Archivist, a delightful show about space, family, and chocolate by Becky Stirrup.

This story is being told by people in various parts of the world. Every episode, we'll give a bit of space in the shownotes to an effort by indigenous people that could use some support. Inspired by Endymion's connection to the Guanches, we decided to ask you to support Native Land, a community mapping project to help us all understand the people who have gone before us.
Our podcast art was created by Katy Schifferer. Check out her work!

A great deal of this episode was written and edited at Candy’s, an LGBTQ+ community space in Portland, Maine. Check them out at http://candyslovesyou.space.
We tell a story about another world, but we're not giving up on this one.

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Trevor Bean creates and voices Mandry
Trace Callahan creates and voices Kolian
Alexander Endymion Hernández Díaz creates and voices Cyrus
Alexander Doddy creates and voices James
Sawyer Greene creates and voices Quill
Anjali Kunapaneni creates and voices Devi
Dominic Mendez creates and voices Ángel
Caroline Mincks creates and voices Zahava
Evan Tess Murray creates and voices Zei

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Previous Episode

Bonus: Meet James O'Dowd

Now that our first episode is live, we're working on the second one - and the third! And in the meantime, we have a few more of these bonuses for you. Here, James answers a questionnaire as part of his job interview to head toward the nameless planet. Warning: James is fond of some words sometimes considered taboo. If you don't want to hear a bit of gentle cursing, give this one a miss.
This is written by Evan Tess Murray and Alexander Doddy, performed by Alexander Doddy, and engineered by Trace Callahan, and the transcript is available.
We did these interviews as character development exercises; they're partially scripted and partially improvised. In this case, mostly improvised! Anyone interested in learning more about our collaborative process is welcome to email us, get in touch on twitter, or join us on the friendliest corner of the internet to talk about it.

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Next Episode

A Message of Hope

Hey everyone. This isn't a bonus episode, not really. It's a note from the Nameless Crew to everyone out there listening, because we're thinking of you, and there are a few things we want to say.

People are frightened right now. We're facing uncertainty at best. People in some parts of the world are dealing with grief and loss. Many of us are afraid and alone. And we, here, happen to be telling a story of hope in a hard world - it's what we very deliberately do. And now we're hearing that some of you are finding solace in these people we've created and their stories.

We want to give you a little more than fiction. All we have are words, so we're going to try to find some good ones. But we aren't going to offer you empty promises that everything will be all right. You'd know they were meaningless. We don't know any more than you do.

Instead, what we have to offer is this: please, in this uncertain time, when things are hard, look out for each other. Look after yourself. Let yourself be afraid, and know that even in hard times, moments of joy matter.

We, every one of us, contain multitudes - we can find beauty in between our fears. We can look hard at the things we cannot control, and still create art that connects us to each other and the world. We can struggle to trust that the future has meaning, but choose to act as though our choices matter.

We can let ourselves be human and fallible, and also the best of what humanity is - a clever, creative, social ape that has invented stories. We are the animal that makes meaning. We do it urgently; we need our stories the way we need air to breathe, the way the touch of a gentle hand reminds us we're alive, the way we let ourselves sleep at night, trusting that the morning will come.

We can be fierce in our defiance of despair. We can let ourselves cry when we need to cry, and we can still choose, again and again, to hope.

That's what we have to give you, right now. From the Nameless Crew to all of you: please, if you can, choose kindness, love, art, beauty, joy, wonder. Please, if you can, choose hope.

-with much love, from Alex, Caro, Endy, Evan, Nerys, Sawyer, Trace, and Trevor

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