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#PC917: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar read by Marguerite Croft. Previously ran as episode 139 and originally published in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Rated R.

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#PC917: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar read by Marguerite Croft. Previously ran as episode 139 and originally published in Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories. Rated R.
November 12, 2025 at 11:13 PM
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#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G

podcastle.org/2025/11/04/p...
#PC916: Woodpecker, Warbler, Mussel, Thrush by by Ruth Joffre read by Julia Rios. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated G Yesterday, I was a bird. A slender-billed curlew, to be exact. My girlfriend helped me ID the bird. Took photographs of my decurved bill, the flash of white under my tail, the small brown speckles on my cream-white breast. “Some of these spots look like hearts,” I said this morning, once I was human again and able to compare her pictures to the one in an article I found: “The Slender-Billed Curlew Is Declared Extinct.” It always happens like this: a species disappears once and for all, and I transform into a replica of it for one day. Thirteen hours, at least, maybe more if I wake up especially early. It takes about an hour each way for the metamorphosis to be complete — long enough, in theory, for me to prepare. To lock the doors, rush to the bathtub if I feel gills opening in my throat. I often track the process in the mirror as it unfolds. Watch scales harden over my flesh, feathers push through my pores. It never stops feeling like magic.
November 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
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#PC915: The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by Leah Ning, read by Amanda Ching. Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023). Rated PG-13

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#PC915: The Hunter, the Monster, and the Things That Could Have Been by Leah Ning, read by Amanda Ching. Previously published in Monster Lairs (Dark Matter INK, October 2023). Rated PG-13 You find the dying woman-thing in an alley, breathing her final wet, rasping breaths in a heap of white trash bags that seems more like a throne. Everything tells you to run: twenty-four years of instinct, the government monster information pamphlets, the hard, practical voice at the back of your head that sounds a lot like your monster hunter girlfriend. And then the woman-thing looks up. Her dark, scaled cheek drags on the distended belly of plastic that makes her pillow. Her chapped lips part and she says, in a voice like acid and smoke: “Eiko.” That should make you run, too. Things that know your name and shouldn’t are firmly in “get the hell out and don’t look back” territory. But something in her voice hooks into the bottom of your soul and tugs.
October 28, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/10/21/p...
#PC914: The Magnolia Returns by Eden Royce, read by Laurice White. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. The Magnolia blooms out of nowhere at any time of year it chooses, bringing its dilapidated wooden slats and rickety front steps to a neighborhood that somehow believes it has always been there. The butcher shop itself is well-worn, looking like it has seen better days: peeling seafoam green paint on salt-blasted boards, the once-vivid red front door now a faded smear like lipstick after an ardent lover’s attention. Once it arrives, the locals begin to talk about visiting. They have always talked of the things they miss in life, and more often than not, it’s the food, the ingredients. Depending on when and where the Magnolia appears, either the supermarkets don’t stock the items the locals crave — the chicken feet, the pig tails, jowl, and ear — or these once-reviled parts of the animal have become so popular with the wealthy, it’s impossible for the poor to attain them.
October 22, 2025 at 8:17 AM
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#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning

podcastle.org/2025/10/14/p...
#PC913: Verditsa of the River by Adriana Kantcheva, read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Trollbreath Magazine. Rated PG - CW for drowning The Kamchia river had grown turgid after a storm. I surfaced from my habitual pool and bent over the young girl as she lay washed on the bank, her limbs cold and pale as the settling twilight. A small tin boat lay near her half-opened hand — the reason she took a tumble into my river. I paused. Yes, though weak, a current flowed beneath the child’s skin; her heart still worked. I placed a palm on her chest. The river water in the girl’s lungs had no choice but to obey me. I willed it out, and it obliged in a single great spurt. As if she had waited for just that, the girl’s eyes flew open, her hand clamping around my wrist with desperate strength.
October 15, 2025 at 10:53 AM
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#PC912: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Tanuki-Kettle by Eugie Foster, read by Tina Connolly. Previously ran as #PC28 and first published by Cricket Magazine. Rated G.

podcastle.org/2025/10/07/p...
#PC912: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Tanuki-Kettle by Eugie Foster, read by Tina Connolly. Previously ran as #PC28 and first published by Cricket Magazine. Rated G. When Hisa was a baby, her mother called in a soothsayer to cast her daughter’s horoscope. The old woman pulled out her astrology charts and consulted them while incense turned the air blue with perfumed smoke. That day, the fortuneteller had a headache and was in a black mood. Though Hisa’s mother brought her a cup of hot, green tea and fanned her sweating brow, the old woman continued to scowl. “This child will be too bold for her own good,” the fortuneteller grumbled. “Is there nothing I can do?” asked Hisa’s distraught mother. “I could hire tutors to teach her the folly of brashness.” “That is not sufficient.” The soothsayer’s eyes lit upon the brimming teapot. “She must grow up to be a lowly tea girl.”
October 9, 2025 at 10:17 AM
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#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/09/30/p...
#PC911: Mycelium by Beth Goder, read by Tatiana Grey. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Rated PG. I only travel to the golden head when the dragonflies are in season. It’s Piack and me this year, rafting up the river past the lilies and arched trees. While I steer us through the river’s gentle snarls, he sings about lost keys to pass the time — he’s always had a thing about lost keys and the doors they’ll never open, the places we’ll never find. “Are you going to eat what the head gives you?” asks Piack. He’s one year older than I am — nineteen. With the sun behind him, his form swims in light. The dragonflies buzz around us, brush their wings against our faces.
October 3, 2025 at 6:02 AM
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#PC910: Tusker Blue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, read by Shweta Adhyam. Previously Published in Strange Horizons. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide.

podcastle.org/2025/09/23/p...
PC910: Tusker Blue by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, read by Shweta Adhyam. Previously Published in Strange Horizons. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for animal cruelty, blood, and suicide. You still remember the first time Hailé visited the pharmacy, because that was the day the rogue battle elephant overturned the village water tank and flooded five stores on Sacred Heart Road. The pharmacy was one of them, and you were bailing it out with a plastic jug, swearing a blue streak, when the bells jangled over the door. Without turning, you shouted, “As you can see, the pharmacy is closed today!” “Please help me,” begged a voice hoarse with smoke, and you plunged your arm into the yellow water and cursed Raj, as you’d done frequently since the wedding, for leaving you to handle customers along with everything else. “If you just walk to Trincomalee Street, the surgeon’s office will be opening soon — ”
September 23, 2025 at 9:46 PM
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#PC909: Resurrection Rum by Stephanie Malia Morris, read by Dominick Rabrun. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for death, gun violence, and racism

podcastle.org/2025/09/16/p...
#PC909: Resurrection Rum by Stephanie Malia Morris, read by Dominick Rabrun. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for death, gun violence, and racism ALBEMARLE COUNTY, July 1927: WANTED! One ROBERT HOWARD for the MURDER of JOHN LITTLE. Physical description: NEGRO MALE of lightish hue, aged SEVENTEEN or EIGHTEEN, of LOW STATURE and AVERAGE BUILD, head PEANUT-SHAPED with CLOSE-CROPPED hair. Known to dress above his station in GENTLEMAN’S SUITS, outrageous HANDKERCHIEFS, and WING-TIPPED SHOES (stolen, all). Wanted also for the illegal possession and transport of RESURRECTION RUM across county lines. KNOWN ASSOCIATES: a gang of six or seven Negro rumrunners both MALE and FEMALE variously aged TWELVE to NINETEEN (descriptions, sketches below). DANGEROUS BY ASSOCIATION. REWARD $100 for information leading to hideout and/or capture. Suspect known to be ARMED and HIGHLY DANGEROUS. DO! NOT!! APPROACH!!! Report all sightings to the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office at the following address: ——
September 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
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#PC908: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson, read by Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy, and Katherine Inskip. Previously ran as #PC722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction. Rated PG-13

podcastle.org/2025/09/09/p...
#PC908: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - Said the Princess by Dani Atkinson, read by Andrew K. Hoe, Kitty Sarkozy, and Katherine Inskip. Previously ran as #PC722 and first published by Daily Science Fiction. Rated PG-13 Once upon a time in a far-off land, in a tiny room, in a tall tower, at the centre of a vast and impenetrable maze, the princess Adrienna cocked her head and frowned. “Who said that?” said the princess. She looked around the tower room, but saw no one. “This isn’t funny. Who’s there?” said the princess. She crouched by the bed. Underneath it she found the chamber pot and a nervous brown spider. The princess shuddered. Straightening up quickly and dusting off her rosy skirts, she paced the circumference of the room, searching every inch.
September 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM
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#PC907: Maintenance Phase by A. D. Ellicott, read by Emma Osborne. Previously Published by Body of Work, ed. C.Z. Tacks, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (2023) Rated PG - Content warnings for fatphobia and eating disorders.

podcastle.org/2025/09/02/1...
#PC907: Maintenance Phase by A. D. Ellicott, read by Emma Osborne. Previously Published by Body of Work, ed. C.Z. Tacks, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (2023) Rated PG - Content warnings for fatphobia and eating disorders. Mary woke in an unfamiliar bed, gasping for breath. She recalled the shots, the dancing, the giggling stumble into a stranger’s apartment while they pulled off each other’s dresses. Her internal organs felt cramped up together, as though they were rats fighting for scarce space in the sewers. Her plan was to sneak home later in the night and return to her own form, but instead she’d slept shifted. She groaned and smacked her hand over her eyes. “She wakes!” someone yelled from outside the open bedroom door. Her bedmate from last night walked in, red hair in a messy bun and spatula held aloft. “Want pancakes?”
September 3, 2025 at 8:58 AM
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#PC906: DOUBLE EPISODE: The House, The Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks by Amanda Helms, read by Cherrae L. Stuart. Previously published by Lightspeed. And To Pluck a Twisted String by Anne Leonard, read by Christiana Ellis. Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rated PG.
#PC906: DOUBLE EPISODE: The House, The Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks by Amanda Helms read by Cherrae L. Stuart. Previously published by Lightspeed. And To Pluck a Twisted String by Anne Leonard, read by Christiana Ellis. Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rated PG.
August 28, 2025 at 4:32 PM
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#PC905: The Next Dead Wife by Jeanna Mason Stay read by Valerie Valdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for coercive control, domestic violence, and murder.

podcastle.org/2025/08/19/p...
#PC905: The Next Dead Wife by Jeanna Mason Stay read by Valerie Valdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for coercive control, domestic violence, and murder. Every time a new wife crosses my husband’s threshold, I tell myself this time will be different. This time I’ll go free. As her body falls to the floor, I’ll seize my opportunity. As her soul rises from her body, I will snatch what should be mine — no cliched tunnel of light, just a doorway into the afterlife. But it will be my turn this time, my door. I’ll take it before she can. Not that I’ve been able to yet. When the moment comes, I am frozen in place. I can only watch as she enters the door and disappears. And I hate her for it.
August 19, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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#PC904: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prineas read by Steve Anderson. Previously ran as #PC018 and first published by Strange Horizons. Rated G.

podcastle.org/2025/08/12/p...
#PC904: TALES FROM THE VAULTS - The Illuminated Dragon by Sarah Prineas read by Steve Anderson. Previously ran as #PC018 and first published by Strange Horizons. Rated G. Rafe Greatorex thought he'd spotted a dragon. From where he stood on the cobbled street that ran between the leaning tenements, only a narrow strip of sky was visible. Rafe craned his neck. He was sure -- almost sure -- that something had flown by, above. A black shadow, an X against the distant blue. He looked down again, rubbing his neck. No, it was nothing. Dragons had been outlawed thirty years ago. He must have imagined it. Sighing, he adjusted his glasses, took up the string bag of potatoes with one hand and the canvas bag of books and supplies with the other, and trudged on toward home.
August 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
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#PC903: On the Shoulders of Giants by Charles Chin read by Eric Valdes.
A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/08/05/p...
#PC903: On the Shoulders of Giants by Charles Chin read by Eric Valdes. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG. I was born a T12. Sure, it was the lowest of the thoracic vertebrae, but it was higher than any of the lumbars. I should be thankful to have been born high enough to see above the clouds. The L2s and L3s that climb beside me spent most of their youth in the haze below, unable to see the sun, not knowing how much more of the giant there was left to climb. But not me: fortunate me. I grasp at rocky outcroppings and pull myself up the well worn stairs, carved into the ground by those who came before me. Moss hangs from the edges where feet avoid stepping, lest they slip down into the endless void of white below. The wall to my left rises as a sheer cliff of granite, or perhaps marble. It is difficult to know from the amount of lichen and foliage that hang down like curtains. But through the small holes cleaned out by the hands of travelers before, I can sometimes see the glint of the giant who breathes underneath.
August 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
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#PC902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike by E. M. Faulds read by Eliza Chan.
A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warning for ableist attitudes.

podcastle.org/2025/07/29/p...
#PC902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike by E. M. Faulds read by Eliza Chan. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - Content warning for ableist attitudes.
July 31, 2025 at 9:48 AM
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#PC901: Moths in a Fluttering Heart by Christine Lucas and read by Kat Kourbeti.
Previously published by Abyss & Apex. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny.

podcastle.org/2025/07/22/p...
#PC901: Moths in a Fluttering Heart by Christine Lucas and read by Kat Kourbeti. Previously published by Abyss & Apex. Rated PG-13 - Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny.
July 22, 2025 at 10:18 PM
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#PC900: Sour Fruit written by Gillian Knox and read by Karen Menzel. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13 - content warnings for domestic abuse and the death of a parent.

podcastle.org/2025/07/15/p...
#PC900: Sour Fruit written by Gillian Knox and read by Karen Menzel A #PodCastleOriginal!. Rated PG-13 - content warnings for domestic abuse and the death of a parent.
July 16, 2025 at 11:16 AM
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#PC898: Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart written and read by Cat Rambo.Previously published by UNLOCKING THE MAGIC, edited by Vivian Caethe. Rated PG - Content warning for PTSD, suicidal ideation, and body horror.

podcastle.org/2025/07/08/p...
#PC898: Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart written and read by Cat Rambo.Previously published by UNLOCKING THE MAGIC, edited by Vivian Caethe. Rated PG - Content warning for PTSD, suicidal ideation, and body horror.
July 9, 2025 at 8:21 PM
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#PC898: This Mentor Lives by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell. Read by John Bell. Previously published by Haven Spec. Rated PG.

podcastle.org/2025/07/01/p...
#PC898: This Mentor Lives by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell. Read by John Bell. Previously published by Haven Spec. Rated PG.
July 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM
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PodCastle is very proud to join in celebrating Disability Pride Month with Disability Pride & Magic: a month of fantastic stories centering disabled characters and experiences.

See announcement on our website: podcastle.org/2025/06/30/d...
PodCastle Disability Pride and Magic
June 30, 2025 at 4:57 PM
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#PC897: Oops! All Swords by Jessie Roy. Read by Kyle Akers. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13. Content warnings for repeated violent death and strong language throughout.

podcastle.org/2025/06/24/p...
#PC897: Oops! All Swords by Jessie Roy. Read by Kyle Akers. A #PodCastleOriginal! Rated PG-13. Content warnings for repeated violent death and strong language throughout. Blackness, and a ringing in your ears, and the smell of ozone, frankincense, woodsmoke. Something’s happened. An accident. A magical accident. But you’re conscious, and your heart’s beating. You’re alive, probably. That’s a start. Vision returns in sparkles, resolving into blinding lines of glitter. You squinch your eyes almost shut as the image clears. It’s your master’s workshop, sort of. Bookshelves and scroll racks, salt-crusted alembics, a human skull perched on the mantelpiece above the motionless flames. Your master in the doorway, caught in the moment of hanging up his pointed hat. But through the haze of your lashes, swords gleam from every surface. Huge zweihanders pierce the countertops; miniature bodkins velvet the floor.
June 26, 2025 at 6:51 AM
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It's almost July, friends, which means: PodCastle will soon be OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS!

General subs call, so: fantasy stories <6k, originals or reprints. You can send one of each at a time, and submit as soon as you're rejected, so get sending!

escapeartists.moksha.io/publication/...
PodCastle Submissions will open July 1-31
June 21, 2025 at 11:55 AM
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#PC896: Defy the Grey Kings by Jason Fischer. Read by Wilson Fowlie. Previously run as #PC438, and first published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies (#180). Rated R, for frequent and bloody violence.

podcastle.org/2025/06/17/p...
#PC896: Defy the Grey Kings by Jason Fischer. Read by Wilson Fowlie. Previously run as #PC438, and first published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies (#180). Rated R, for frequent and bloody violence. There are many ways to kill an elephant. When that mountain bears down on you, shaking the earth and screaming for your blood, show no fear. Only without fear will you see the truth. They are quick, even draped in chain and iron, but you are quicker by a whisker. They fight like devils, but it only takes three people who know what they are doing to bring an elephant down. They are afraid of you. All elephants can die.
June 18, 2025 at 5:29 AM
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#PC895: The Day of the Sea by Jennifer Hudak. Read by Pippa Alice Stephens. Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rated PG-13.

podcastle.org/2025/06/10/p...
#PC895: The Day of the Sea by Jennifer Hudak. Read by Pippa Alice Stephens. Previously published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rated PG-13. When the Sea came to our village, she was an old woman. She arrived when the water crested and draped over the earth, its salty fingers pushing out offerings of sea glass and bladder wrack. Her dress trailed behind her, hair tangled with kelp and tentacles. No one doubted that she was the Sea. Everyone was disappointed. We’d all heard tales about the power of the rising ocean, how it leveled towers and returned rock to sand. How it would destroy everything in its path in order to make its way home, to our village. In those tales, the Sea was a warrior, beautiful and terrible, slashing her way across the continent, swallowing everything in her path. Even when gossips at the market began to whisper about nearby towns swallowed by salt water, about boats crushed like kindling and bones strewn across the ocean floor, even as the smell of salt wafted on the breeze, we did not seek her out.
June 11, 2025 at 11:51 AM