Storytime With Bastards

Episode 22: It kept getting worse

I am currently coping with...everything by keeping in mind that it's only going to get worse, so I've got it pretty great right now and I'd better appreciate it before we go from Strange Days dystopia right over to Soylent Green. Sometimes, bad turns to worse, and the turning becomes a spiral of tragedy and carnage. What fun! Today brings us three stories of things only getting worse. You'll hear about a boat ride that nearly kills several children, the horrors of the French Revolution, and the true tragedy that was the fate of the Donner Party. While the last chapter of the people of earth is written, we hope you can add to it, by sharing more of your tragedies/comedies/buddy cop musicals. We are all the better for it.

I just need to tell you something: Star Trek Fan Productions

There is nothing so powerful or moving as something made by a person that cares. We have seen our fandoms and our very world torn apart by gormless money-pushers with no mind for craft and no heart for the material, but the noble madmen (and hey, madwomen) who spend years of their life creating Star Trek fan productions continue to create works of heart and genius. With the last gleaming speck of hope left in my calcifying heart, I urge you to give at least one of these a try. Not all of them will be your thing, but one of them will be, and you will be better for making the plunge. Link referenced in today's episodeStar Trek Continues, without question the most professional and high quality of these productions Fanfilmfactor.com and its dubiously complete list of fan productions Star Trek Hidden Frontier and associated productions. (I didn't mention that they have multiple audio dramas, and Federation One is the West Wing in Star Trek, for those who want something more political.) Star Trek: The Holy Core a fan production that takes the challenge of 15 minutes or less and runs away with it, to exceptional success Space Command Kickstarter by Marc Zicree. You can also check out the Youtube channel which has hours of free content for the series. The Time Warp Trilogy I know none of you will watch this, but all of you should. One's soul is not sufficiently formed until making it all the way through this. We also want to reiterate that this podcast is meant to serve as a repository for all those beautiful things that would otherwise be forgotten. So many things took heart and effort and time but would be lost if they weren't given memory. Please, tell us something beautiful you have seen or made that you don't want lost. We think the world is better for it.

Episode 21: Immoral Solutions

Just because something is effective doesn't mean it's necessarily the right thing to do. It's all the worst when doing things the wrong way doesn't even work out. Today we are going to be talking about taking the low road, and the many strange places that can lead. Learn about the Creep Bomb, Operation Fast and Furious, and a curious implementation of goat testicles. Brief apologies to our listeners for a lapse in content, but we will be back on track for the foreseeable future. If you want to make sure that we have more episodes, the best person to talk to is, well, you. That's how all this works. So get on the line and let us hear about your own questionable decisions.

Episode 20: Drunk Logic

Alcohol is a treacherous mistress. It makes you sick, drains your funds, fills you with calories, increases aggression, and eliminates impulse control, but in return it makes you forget about the problems that your drinking keeps creating. The inflated sense of confidence you get when drunk is usually limited and harmless, because usually your ex knows to block your phone, but when you have an unusual amount of privilege and authority, things can become more complicated. This episodes starts in the hallowed yet foolish halls of college, but ventures into a military campaign and some astronomically poor piloting.If I know anything about history, and I don't, I know that I can't convince anyone to keep themselves from drinking to excess. What I can do is tell you to eat some bread and drink plenty of water along with whatever booze happens to be your personal favorite. The extra trips to the bathroom are worth the diminished hangover the next day.What I might be able to convince you to do is get in contact with us once you are finished with your ridiculous antics. We would love to hear about, learn from, and mock your tales mercilessly. We don't know any other way.

Episode 19: Badass Women

People think that history is a settled thing, just because the past is behind us. That isn't true. History is manipulated. It changes all the time to suit a narrative. It is deliberately suppressed, and today's episode is the smallest of rages against that machine in the hope that we can correct a misconception. Women have contributed to society since the dawn of time, but their stories have not been told, leading to the lie that only recently have they been able to make meaningful stands. Today we are going to talk about some women who put their lives on the line and stood up for what they believed in.We want to stress that while the two we chose to highlight were responsible for military victories, that is not the only lens through which you should view accomplished women or societal impact. There are thousands of ways that a person can make their world a better one, as this week's listener attests to, putting her life on the line without ever picking up a weapon.This episode is entertainment, but in its small way it is also a call not to heed the narrative that has been fed to you. Seek out the stories you haven't been told, and be inspired to be more than you are. Or, in absence of such decency, come spill the fruits of your degeneracy on our podcast, so that we can laugh in amazement and horror.