Certain episodes from early in the podcast's run are referred to as Aural Delights, but it is very much part of. Anyway, enough intro, onto the stories. Everyone has a story aboard. Let's go find some...In our world many passenger aboard thedied due to the lack of lifeboats. In this story, however, after the iceberg was struck a great raft was created to save all the passengers. Eventually the passengers go on to establish a near utopian society aboard the ever expanding raft. With such a perfect society will any of the passengers ever want to leave?With stories based around events like theor theyou usually have to resort to fantastical means when writing alternate history. In this case, however, we got a somewhat realistic alternate history of the. I say somewhat because things do go a bit idealistically aboard the raft. The biggest issue I can think of is that, besides rain, there didn't really seem to be any source of fresh drinking water on the raft. Nonetheless, overall I found this story quite enjoyable.This story is a great example of oceanpunk. What is oceanpunk? Oceanpunk is a punk set primarily at sea or on a world primarily covered by water.andare good examples of oceanpunk. In other matters, I enjoyed how the story was told as a series of letters. I also thought that Peter did a great job with the narration.An alternate history of thewith an oceanpunk twist. Very much recommended.This story takes place in a world where America split into two nations around 2004. The blue districts became the nation of Agnostica and the red districts became the nation of Faithland. The story follows a girl named Amy from Agnostica controlled Austin. She's obsessed with country music and conservatism and she determined to follow her dreams of traveling to Faithland. Are the two nations, however, really all that different?Okay, the plausibility of this story is definitely on the softer side. The point of this story, however, was less about being a believable alternate history and more about providing commentary on recent society. In that regard I think this story does pretty well. True to their names, Faithland is a lot more religious than Agnostica, but on the whole they're a lot more similar than they are different. I like to think that's what it would be like if this were to happen for real.Anyway, I found this story much more enjoyable than that otherstory I reviewed in the post on Escape Pod. As for the narration, Amy H. Sturgis isn't just great at writing fact articles, she's also an excellent narrator. For a great story from theanthology, look no further.This story is set in the Xuya universe. It's a world where China kept its treasure fleet, discovered and colonized the New World and the Aztec Empire survived. Within the Aztec Empire there used to be several different military orders named after animals, but now only the Jaguar Knights remain following a purge by the new emperor. A rebellion was started by a Jaguar Knight named Xochitl, but it was suppressed, and she was imprisoned. Her friend Onalli, however, is determined to bust her out and find a new life in either Xuya or America.The thing that really sold me on this story was the rich and detailed descriptions of life in the modern Aztec Empire. It's clear that Aliette did a lot of research and knows what she's talking about. As someone who writes stories set in an Aztec inspired fantasy world, I really appreciated that. I also liked the ways Aztec culture had adapted to the modern world. For example, human sacrifice has been phased out, but blood letting is still part of the religion.This was a really great introduction to the Xuya universe, and I can't wait to find more stories set in this world. Morag handled the narration quite well. It's a story about strange rumblings in a present-day Aztec Empire. Very much worth your time.Moe Berg was a true renaissance man. He had multiple Ivy League degrees, knew many different languages, played baseball and was a spy during World War II. In this story he gets involved in a plot to stop Werner Heisenberg and Germany's attempt to develop develop an atomic bomb.I'll admit that I didn't know too much about Moe Berg before listening to this story, but that didn't effect my ability to enjoy this story. Obviously, the Nazis were nowhere near capable of actually creating a viable atomic bomb, but it does make for a pretty good spy thriller plot. It's really a testament to Rick's writing talent that the story worked so well despite potential issues. Hey, it won the Sidewise Award so obviously it's pretty good.Of course, a story like this needs a good narrator and Logan is that narrator. It won the Sidewise for a reason and I happily recommend it.This story follows a recovering addict named Lydia who has joined a time traveler's club. At first it was all just pretend and games, but then one of the members brings an time machine to the meeting. Lydia and the other members try to figure out what to do with this astonishing discovery and grow closer together.Yeah, the summary doesn't really do it justice, but this is a really great story. The theme of a lost person finding friends through nerdy means struck a cord with me. I never really had many friends in high school or that many growing up, but then I went to college, met my now very good friends, got introduced to anime, went on many fun adventures...okay, that enough about my personal life. Point is I related with the characters in this story.One of the things I liked was how the time machine was just that, as opposed to a space and time machine, and the characters were always having to take the Earth's rotation into account. There are some slight alternate history elements to this story, but that's a surprise I really shouldn't spoil. As I've said before, the writing and characterization are top notch in this story.Ibba did an amazing job with the narration. A story about time travel, friendship and finding yourself. I couldn't recommend it more.This is the short story that served as the basis for Ted Kosmatka's. It takes place in a world where creationism won out over Darwinian evolution and is the accepted scientific explanation for how the world came to be. The story follows a biologist named Paul Carlson; he's been performing experiments since he was young to test if evolution is true. He's been assigned to a paleontology dig on the Indonesian island of Flores that could change the world of science.A recurring problem I find with Ted Kosmatka is that, though he comes up with some interesting ideas, he doesn't consider their full ramifications. So it is with this story. The explanation for why creationism is accepted in this world is that radiometric dating determined that the Earth is only 10,000 years old. However, despite that both science and the world as a whole look almost exactly like our world. Not only that, but the fossil record is exactly the same as in our world.Evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology and if you get rid of that you potentially get all sorts of changes. Also, no science is an island onto itself and knocking out evolution would have effects across the scientific world. For that matter, you don't always throw something out the window in light of new evidence, rather you can refine it in light of new information. You'd also expect that their be higher levels of religiousness in such a world, but again, nothing that seems different from our world.Now I have to be fair here, when it comes to writing characters and bringing that human element to the story Ted does an amazing job. There are also hints at the end of some kind of conspiracy. That being said, I simply can't get over the tremendous suspension of disbelief required by this story. For that matter, I'm surprised Ted felt the need to go the alternate history route, considering that we live in a world where nearly half of all Americans believe the Earth is 10,000 years old and created in seven literal days.Obviously, I didn't enjoy it too much, but I can't quite bring myself to give it the stamp of disapproval. Should you chose to give it a try I advise to approach with a considerable degree of caution.