I know it took me a while to get here, Radioheads, but I’m so happy you’ve joined me. For my (official) inaugural blog, I want to begin what will end up being an extensive project- a start on reviewing the NoSleep podcast, season by season.

On the off chance you’ve been living under a rock that doesn’t get wifi, I’ll start with a very short history of NoSleep. The show was started by producer and host David Cummings. It premiered on June 13, 2011 with the intention of producing stories from r/nosleep in a high quality, audiobook format. NoSleep has gone on to inspire and support producers and contributors for many other horror fiction pods, including Pseudopod, Creepy, Darkest Night, and more. As of the day I’m tapping this out, NoSleep has just launched their 14th season. At about 30 episodes per season (including special episodes for holidays and season pass exclusive content), and generally two hours per episode, the show has significantly over 500 hours of content for me to gibber on about.

TLDR; it’s a good show, Brant, and I’ll be talking about it periodically until blogging is only done by hipsters and grannies. (Or am I too late to grandfather in to that demographic?)

The early seasons of NoSleep have a real sense of nostalgia for a lot of fans, and I’m no exception. My personal favorite stories come from later seasons, but Season 1 in particular hits two of my favorite themes in horror straight out of the park.

The first thing season one really nails is urban legends. I know that a lot of that’s kind of done to death, and the tropes aren’t the ones that I’m talking about. I don’t give a fuck about your cousin’s girlfriend that swears she got creepy calls when she used to babysit, or you grandmother’s best friend who definitely found a dismembered hook-hand after driving home from Makeout Point. What I mean are the stories you have to practically drag out of someone, and they will only ever tell you one time, looking like they’re going to puke because they’re so freaked out. There’s a certain visceral-but-plain quality to a lot of the early NoSleep stories that makes them feel like they really could have been true. If this is your cup of cold bitter tea, then absolutely check out ‘We Don’t Talk About Sarah’ by William Delphin (E7), ‘My Best Friend’s Grandmother’ by Allison Stuart (E9) and ‘Georgie’s’ by Christopher MacTaggart (E14). All of these stories have a sort of primary resource feel, but with an implication of something unsettling, below the surface. All three authors were subtle enough to leave this unsettling facet obscure. Love it, tenouttaten.

The other thing Season 1 really does well is an unsettling, satisfyingly incomplete quality to it’s production.

Constant Reader, you’ll learn about me that I am an absolute sucker for continuity. But something else I enjoy is having just exactly the right loose ends left to give a real sense of the unsettling and uncanny. Obviously, horror be horror. But would Michael Myers be as scary if he had an identifiable, diagnosed sociopathy, or a known neurological disorder to explain how he can shrug off consistent, horrifying injury?

There’s a sense of super-creep mystery in so many Season 1 stories that hooked me hard from my first listen. If you’re excited for your own nightmare fuel, I highly recommend the stories ‘Butcherface’ by A.J. Garlisi and ‘correspondence:;//’, written by the redditer bloodstains. These stories make up full-length, stand-alone episodes, but I also highly recommend ”The Crawling House on Black Pond Road’ by William Delphin, from the Season 1 Halloween special, and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ by Anna Smith, from the Season 1 finale.

Speaking of these two stories in particular, their common narrator, Christina Schultz, is another high point of Season 1. She makes a few return appearances in later seasons, but these two stories, in addition to ‘Georgie’s’, which I mentioned earlier, are some of her best work for NoSleep. ‘Crawling House’ is particularly excellent. I’ve heard other narrations of it at least two other podcasts, and Schultz has a haunted, slightly disconnected quality to her narration style that really makes this version perfect.

As a last point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the most outstanding features of the first season of NoSleep- ‘Penpal’ by Dathan Auerbach. Narrated by Sammy Raynor, ‘Penpal’ tells the story of a man who has been stalked since early nchildhood by a mysterious figure bent on imposing themselves onto his life.

(For the sake of whatever journalistic integrity I’m supposed to have as a blogger, there is something that should be noted here. The ‘Penpal’ series was published as a novel in 2012. Auerbach personally provides intro narration to all six parts of his story on the podcast. While the publicity for the novel seems to imply that the story is fictional, Auerbach presents it as autobiographical in his introductions . So maybe take it with a grain of salt going in, but there’s a lot to love here, whatever the truth of the matter actually is.)

To be fair, this is the first season of the show. Every podcast needs time to find it’s feet. In my personal opinion (which is only the final word here, because my blog my rules), there were about 10 episodes that were total bombs. But compared to the episodes that had a lot going for them, that’s still a little over a 50% hit rate. For the first season of a podcast from 9 years ago, and accounting for quality inflation, I’m going to give the NoSleep Podcast Season 1 a C+. Go check it out, stick with it for the good stuff and hang in there. Season 2 is solid, and Season 3 really starts to hit their stride. We’ll get there when we get there fam.

Thanks so much for joining me for my very first transmission. I hope you found something worth checking out. Or, if you’re already familiar with NoSleep, I hope I’ve reminded you of a long-forgotten favorite. Until next time, Constant Reader.

Love,

Radio Knife