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PodCastle 904: TALES FROM THE VAULTS – The Illuminated Dragon

Previously ran as episode 18 and first published by Strange Horizons

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:11 — 55.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated G

The Illuminated Dragon

by Sarah Prineas

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. (Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle 903: On the Shoulders of Giants

PodCastle 903: On the Shoulders of Giants is a PodCastle original.

content warning for suicidal ideation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:11 — 55.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

On the Shoulders of Giants

by Charles Chin

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. (Continue Reading…)

PodCastle 902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike

PodCastle 902: Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike is a PodCastle original.

Content warning for ableist attitudes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:55 — 55.3MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike

E.M. Faulds

 

I remember your mum telling me, after it all went down, that during the lockdowns you washed your hands so often your skin cracked and turned scaly and angry red, but you had to keep going just in case neglecting it killed her.

It echoed, not much later, when the worst of the pandemic was past, only it wasn’t just your hands. All your skin changed into islands of mottled gray or khaki, building up tire-rubber thick in patches, and turning numb where your body just up and decided to not work the same anymore. It was all part of what you were becoming, whether you liked it or not.

There were days, fewer and farther between, where she could still see a glimpse her son Michael, the gorgeous boy you used to be: a spill of curls that fell down one side of your brow, a diffident slant to shoulders on a gangly frame, eyes the clear amber of long-steeped tea, that knowing grin. She’d see a ghost of that smile and be transported back through the ages of you, all the way to when you first announced yourself with a wriggle-kick to her womb. Then your grin would slide away as the pain did its thing and the beautiful boy submerged so your new self could rise, wrathful. (Continue Reading…)

PodCastle 901: Moths in a Fluttering Heart

Previously published by Abyss & Apex

Content warnings for ableist slurs and attitudes, violence, and misogyny

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:06 — 76.2MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Moths in a Fluttering Heart

by Christine Lucas

 

When Maria returned to her village, she found it burned to the ground. Nothing was left of her kinspeople but blackened corpses littered across the village square. She searched around, with the moths in her gut a panicked swarm, stinging to be let out. Everyone else had been shot on the narrow cobblestone streets. On weak knees, with eyes burning from the lingering smoke, she turned towards the woods, her moths breathless with guilt and relief in equal parts. If Evdokia, the midwife, hadn’t sent her to the herbalist two towns over, she’d be dead too. At the edge of the village, Maria stumbled on Papa-Kostas, shot by the Virgin’s shrine, in a pool of blood.

Maria sniffled and he raised his head, his eyes unfocused.

“Maria? Is that you, girl?” Barely a whisper. (Continue Reading…)

PodCastle 900: Sour Fruit

PodCastle 900: Sour Fruit is a PodCastle original.

Content warnings for domestic abuse and the death of a parent

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:08 — 48.7MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Sour Fruit

By Gillian Knox

 

The large open field was encircled by forest. Its sandy soil was home to scrubby flowers and grasses whose spindly roots reached deep into the loose ground, teeming with ants for whom the medium was perfect. Not quite in the middle was an old apple tree, twisting up from the ground, this way and that. Short and stubby. The fruit it produced was the sour, small sort that puckered the mouth with every bite. The sort that farmers had been trying to breed out of existence for countless generations. Yet, it lived. Thrived, even, in the clearing in the middle of the woods.

Fish would run to it when the lake grew too loud. Snuggling herself inside its crooked roots, stretching her small hand upwards to poke into the hole that had rotted through the middle of the old tree, watching the sun as it came through her fingertips.

The tree was the one place on the peninsula where the lake would soften. (Continue Reading…)

The PodCastle logo (a serpentine dragon flying with a castle on its back) over a Disability Pride Flag (muted red, yellow, white, blue, and green stripes on a grey background). Text reads: PodCastle Disability Pride & Magic In the background, there is a fantastical scene of floating islands in the sky with buildings on them

PodCastle 899: Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart

Previously published by UNLOCKING THE MAGIC, edited by Vivian Caethe

Content warning for PTSD, suicidal ideation, and body horror

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:05 — 51.4MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart

by Cat Rambo

 

It was a lizard dropping on her face from the ceiling that woke Ambra in a panic. They ran back and forth all night, feasting on spiders and midges and the slower moths, but they were sticky-footed and rarely lost their grip. This one scampered away while she smacked herself in the face, much harder than she’d intended, so that she saw stars and bit her tongue, all at one.

Dawn, seeping gray, outlined the window, showing the shutter slats as faint lines of light. She nursed her tongue, which felt awkward and painful in her mouth, and swallowed blood as she swung herself up and out of bed, abandoning thought of sleep. Once she’d had a soldier’s knack of being able to sleep anywhere, anytime, but nowadays that skill was long gone and she was lucky to pluck a few uneasy hours from a night. (Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle 898: This Mentor Lives

Previously published by Haven Spec

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:04 — 77.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG

This Mentor Lives

by J.R. Dawson & John Wiswell

 

Abraham was rushing through his miracles. He drew out the rune-etched broadsword of young Haddad’s great-grandfather and laid it in the boy’s hands, along with the elegant sheath that lunar moths had woven from their own silk. Then came the maps that would send Haddad on the next leg of his journey: those that told how to navigate mountains by constellations of the sky, and those of the eight oceans that could only be read amid sea breeze.

Underneath that pile of iron and parchment and enchantment, the little Haddad wriggled. He was barely visible under the pile of destiny he held.

“Wait! What do I do with this one? Does it re-dead zombies?” (Continue Reading…)

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Disability Pride & Magic Month

The PodCastle logo (a serpentine dragon flying with a castle on its back) over a Disability Pride Flag (muted red, yellow, white, blue, and green stripes on a grey background). Text reads: PodCastle Disability Pride & Magic In the background, there is a fantastical scene of floating islands in the sky with buildings on them

This July 2025, 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.

We have five wonderful stories for you:

“This Mentor Lives” by J. R. Dawson & John Wiswell, narrated by John Bell

“Broken All My Boughs and Brittle My Heart” by Cat Rambo, narrated by the author

“Sour Fruit” by Gillian Knox, narrated by Karen Menzel

“Moths in a Fluttering Heart” by Christine Lucas, narrated by Kat Kourbeti

“Godzilla as a Young Man Named Mike” by E. M. Faulds, narrated by Eliza Chan

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PodCastle 897: Oops! All Swords

PodCastle 897: Oops! All Swords is a PodCastle original.

Content warnings for repeated violent death and strong language throughout.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:29 — 45.1MB)

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Show Notes

Rated PG-13

Oops! All Swords

by Jessie Roy

 

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. Scimitars cross the door, trapping your master in a cage so tight you can see a few white beard hairs at his feet. (Continue Reading…)

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PodCastle 896: TALES FROM THE VAULTS: Defy The Grey Kings

Previously run as episode 438, and first published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies (#180)

Content warning for frequent and bloody violence.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:10 — 84.5MB)

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Show Notes

Rated R

Defy The Grey Kings

by Jason Fischer

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. (Continue Reading…)