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you listen to podcasts. Hello

1:09

everyone. I'm Christoph Laputka and this is Leviathan

1:12

Presents. It's a segment where we highlight one

1:14

audio fiction creator, have a conversation and then

1:16

play a full episode of their show right

1:18

here in our feed. I hope you'll enjoy

1:21

today's guest and without further ado, let's get

1:23

into the interview. This is Leviathan

1:25

Presents. Hey

1:33

Christoph. Hey Robin. Well, this is a

1:35

special day. It sure is. So

1:38

today we actually have the pleasure of being in

1:40

the same room together for this episode of Leviathan

1:42

Presents. We do. And

1:45

it is also a really special episode for

1:47

us. You know, way back in

1:49

2010 when we were wrapping up season

1:52

one of Leviathan Chronicles, we were invited

1:54

to be guests on a podcast produced

1:56

up in Maine called Radio Drama Revival.

2:00

It was a show that was very similar to what you

2:02

and I are doing today, where

2:04

they would have an interview with an audio

2:06

drama creator and then play some of their

2:08

work. It was one of our first real

2:11

opportunities to speak about what we were making,

2:13

and the host and producer of Radio Drama

2:15

Revival, a guy named Fred Greenhalge, was really

2:17

one of our earliest champions. So I am

2:19

so happy that today, almost 15 years

2:22

later, we're coming full circle. Chrisof and

2:24

I get the chance to turn the

2:26

tables on Fred and interview him for

2:28

our show. Fred, thank you so much.

2:30

Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me.

2:33

I maybe forgot that

2:35

connection. So that's wonderful. What a

2:37

journey we've been on together making

2:39

audio dramas. And in the

2:42

years since we went on Fred's show, he

2:44

has gone on to become one of the

2:46

leading figures in modern audio drama. He's

2:48

got a staggering body of work. He's made

2:50

a bunch of his own original shows like

2:52

The Cleanse and The Dark Tome. He's

2:55

produced the official audio adaptations of

2:57

Big IP like The X-Files and

2:59

Batman. And for the past

3:01

few years, he has been the head of

3:03

audio production at Realm, the audio fiction podcast

3:05

network that Leviathan Chronicles is a part of,

3:07

where he oversees all of their original productions.

3:09

I think it's something like five or ten

3:12

new series every year, maybe more. And

3:15

he is here today to talk about

3:17

his latest show, Narcosis. We're gonna

3:19

go deep. But Fred's not

3:21

here alone today. We are also joined

3:23

by Chris Bernier, who is the writer

3:25

and creator behind Narcosis. In addition to

3:27

writing for audio drama, Chris is a

3:29

screenwriter and filmmaker who most recently worked as

3:31

one of the screenwriters on a 2022

3:33

film, Halloween Ends. Chris

3:37

grew up here on the East Coast as

3:39

an East Hampton native, where he learned the

3:41

craft of writing by studying from local literary

3:43

heroes like Peter Benchley and Kurt Vonnegut. And

3:45

he's currently based in Maine and is working

3:47

on Lore, a horror movie set in

3:50

a haunted southern town, as well

3:52

as Weave, his feature directorial debut

3:54

about a group of rural Maine

3:56

neighbors who become trapped in a

3:58

cursed forest. Novella Dead Man's

4:01

Suit is currently available to download

4:03

for free on Amazon right now.

4:05

Gentlemen, welcome to Leviathan Presents. Hello,

4:07

thanks for having me. So Fred,

4:09

Chris, tell us to start, what

4:11

is Narcosis and why should our

4:13

audience be interested in it? So

4:16

Narcosis is a sort

4:19

of aquatic horror story about

4:22

a diver named Veronica West,

4:24

who's a professional diver working on a

4:26

project off the coast of Scotland when

4:30

she gets a call from an old friend

4:32

to return to the small main

4:35

island hometown where she grew up as

4:38

very much a child of the sea, but

4:41

left many, many years ago or 15 years

4:43

earlier to be exact under strange

4:46

circumstances and hasn't been home. And

4:49

she's called back to this island, Sinclair

4:51

Island, to rescue the body

4:54

of her childhood best friend

4:57

who has been missing and lost at sea.

5:00

So it's sort of a personal story, kind of

5:02

a, you know, you can never go home again,

5:05

return to her roots for Veronica with

5:09

some personal drama and mystery

5:11

surrounding her departure and

5:13

her return that also that kind of

5:15

quickly segues into being kind of a,

5:18

you know, underwater adventure horror romp where

5:20

things get progressively stranger as we go.

5:22

Oh no, yeah, things at the bottom

5:24

of the ocean are completely normal. That

5:28

people, all the biotin fans know that.

5:31

Yes, there's nothing spooky or terrifying

5:33

under the water whatsoever. It's a

5:35

very normal place. Yeah, I think

5:37

like one of the qualities that was

5:39

interesting to Fred and I when we were thinking

5:41

about this and then, you know, we think

5:44

we've brought to life was combining some

5:46

of the fun traits of I guess

5:48

the tradition you can call folk horror

5:50

or like horror that's really specific to

5:52

a place. But then

5:54

so having this kind of folk horror

5:56

onramp into something that feels very much

5:58

like an adventure tale and kind

6:00

of the tradition of John Carpenter movies

6:03

or things like The Fang and even

6:05

The Abyss. So we

6:07

were excited to sort of explore that

6:09

as a compact and personal way into

6:12

doing something that gets pretty adventurous and

6:14

strange. Well, in Leviathan, we certainly deal

6:16

with the underwater world a lot. And

6:19

it's almost like in Narcosis, there's two

6:21

worlds. There is the world of Sinclair

6:23

Island on the surface, but then there's

6:25

a second world, which is what happens

6:28

below the ocean, below the

6:30

surface of the water. Chris, as somebody

6:32

who has written for horror before and

6:34

done horror on film, how does terror

6:37

and horror translate underwater? Yeah, it's a

6:39

great question. And I think it was

6:41

both presented one of the biggest opportunities

6:43

and then also one of the biggest

6:46

sort of like, nervy points of diving

6:48

into this, so to speak, it

6:51

is the unknown. And it's the unknown in

6:53

the most extreme sense, like you can't mess

6:55

around, or the sea will take you

6:57

apart. You know, you can have all the human drama

6:59

you want on dry land, and you

7:01

can kind of hash out old wounds

7:03

and rekindle, you know, old dramas and

7:06

relationships. But then when you get in

7:08

the water, particularly when it's a challenging

7:10

body of water as the Bay of

7:12

Fundy is, then it's kind of like

7:14

all bets are off. So the fun

7:16

for the audience is being drawn in

7:18

through these sort of relatable emotional dynamics

7:20

that feel, you know, sort of soap

7:22

operatic, but then keeping those kind of

7:24

lean and mean. And then you're with

7:26

those characters, you're in their head, you're

7:28

sort of relating to the experience that

7:30

they're having. And then when you get underwater

7:32

with them, it's about as scary of an

7:35

environment as you can imagine being. And if

7:37

it's something that's out of your familiarity, it's

7:39

out of your depth. So to have something

7:41

that has like this incredibly challenging environmental or

7:44

physical challenge to it in deep sea diving,

7:46

but then to layer into that other threats

7:48

and other realities, it just felt like such

7:50

a wild and fun opportunity. The other thing

7:52

too, is it like there are monuments in

7:55

towns around here to fishermen who were lost

7:57

at sea every year people are lost at

7:59

sea. They die, their fishing boats

8:01

capsize, they go down in the deep sea. And

8:03

then the day calms down and you can kind

8:05

of almost like see from the shore where these

8:07

boats went down. And so it's sort of a

8:09

weird thing because there's actually like an immediacy. You're

8:12

like, you're not that far from where this

8:14

goes bad. I think that's it. There's just

8:16

a mythic and imposing quality to the sea

8:19

that I think will continue to transfix us

8:21

all. As well as if I could just

8:23

sort of like layer on one other thing, Chris, is we were

8:25

both – you had turned me on to

8:27

the film The Descent, which I think was a really good

8:29

reference point because I don't want to like spoil

8:32

too much, but basically

8:34

the story follows an

8:36

arc of like a journey home, a

8:39

dive mission, and the dive

8:41

mission sort of progressively builds

8:44

pressure. And there

8:46

are things that maybe are beyond this world,

8:49

but we were trying to be very

8:51

disciplined about where that comes in because

8:53

the inherent experience of being a couple

8:56

hundred feet above underwater has so much

8:58

horror to be had without even having,

9:00

boy, there's noises down here

9:02

that aren't things we can put our rational minds

9:04

to explain. Then it just sort of like really

9:06

gives us a lot of power because the goal

9:09

of like do as much as

9:11

you can before introducing a monster is a really

9:14

fun challenge. And yeah, I'll be

9:16

curious what people think because right

9:18

around about the five or

9:20

six episodes. If you think

9:22

it's scary then you just wait till you

9:24

hit the middle act. Well,

9:28

one of the things I thought was a

9:30

really interesting choice as a creator, Chris, is

9:34

you wanted to bring in the suspense

9:36

of being underwater, but specifically you chose

9:38

cold water

9:40

diving, which most people, when they

9:42

think about scuba diving, it's tropical,

9:44

it's reefs, it's just slapping on

9:46

a tank and a regulator. But

9:49

as you and I who

9:51

know about diving, cold water

9:53

diving is an entirely different

9:56

skillset and different ball of wax,

9:58

both from a technical base. and

10:00

a physics basis, why

10:03

did you choose a cold

10:05

water diving backdrop for

10:08

your story? Yes, I mean I think we got

10:10

excited about the idea of doing something off

10:12

the coast of Maine, because you

10:14

know there's something around

10:17

4,000 islands off the coast of

10:19

Maine, which is sort of a staggering

10:21

number. Now a lot of these islands

10:23

are you know the size of a

10:25

dining room table, but many of them are

10:27

not. So even like let's say conservatively

10:29

there are hundreds that are kind of unexplored.

10:31

So you're like well that's like a

10:33

really wild thing that is somewhat unique to

10:36

me. And yeah I think just the

10:38

conditions being as relentless and unforgiving as

10:40

they are, you don't get a lot of

10:42

deep sea diving around here, but you

10:44

do get a lot of shipwrecks, historically so,

10:46

less nowadays obviously, but

10:49

you do get mishaps in the ocean because

10:51

the ocean is so brutal here. So the

10:53

thought of putting someone you know putting a

10:56

team of expert divers up against those conditions

10:58

just kind of added another layer of fun.

11:00

Cold water diving is not something that I

11:03

think you can really convey the

11:05

difficulty of that. I'll say Fred

11:07

with the direction and kind of

11:09

working through the beats of the

11:11

story with me has really dialed

11:13

in the horror of the

11:15

experience in a way that I think is

11:17

very effective, but also was wonderful to witness

11:19

kind of him bringing that to life. It's

11:22

like you get in the waters, you get

11:24

in these cold waters and that alone is

11:26

just such an imposing

11:28

factor that will threaten you within

11:31

minutes. Within minutes you're in trouble. And I

11:33

think there was that portion of the story

11:35

where we really wanted it to be about

11:37

kind of human error, human struggle, you know

11:40

things go wrong, but it's not really driven

11:42

by an antagonist or by an evil presence

11:44

per se in that section of the story. We

11:46

just wanted to make it as hard as possible

11:49

on our main characters you know. I think it's

11:51

true to this day there's like uh

11:55

now I'm gonna forget which world war the

11:57

first the second, but there are I think

11:59

it's Nazis. I think it was World

12:01

War II. There are U-boats. There's like German submarines

12:04

sunk off the coast of Maine. Because there used to

12:06

be quite a huge naval presence here. Because, you know,

12:08

it's the most eastern seaboard of the United States where

12:10

there are, you know, people just not explored these wrecks.

12:13

And so that was just sort of mind boggling to

12:15

us where, you know, again, like, yeah, this idea that,

12:17

you know, and it comes up in the Python Chronicles,

12:19

right? People know more about outer space or, you know,

12:21

the ability to explore Mars is sort of on

12:24

some levels more technically feasible than some

12:27

of these like deep, deep underwater locations.

12:29

So I want to zoom out a little and sort

12:32

of talk to you a little bit

12:34

about, you know, the craft behind

12:36

this show and behind audio

12:38

drama in general. So Fred,

12:40

I've been following your work for quite

12:43

a long time. And, you know, something

12:45

I've always kind of admired

12:47

about you is, you know, you're

12:49

kind of this interesting bridge

12:51

between, you know, an

12:54

older generation of audio or back

12:56

then radio drama creators and, you know, the

12:59

more modern podcast era that

13:01

we're in now. I know, you know, early

13:03

on, you kind of forged relationships with people

13:05

at places like the BBC and National

13:08

Audio Theater Foundation that, you know, we're making

13:10

this stuff before any of us even really

13:12

knew what it was, which I think is

13:14

kind of a weird rarity for a lot

13:16

of the more modern audio drama creators in

13:18

our space. Yeah, I do feel just because

13:20

of the time I was born and the

13:23

time I got interested in the things, I

13:25

do feel like part of my like, your

13:27

journey in this life is sort of bridging

13:29

radio's history with the future. And that has

13:31

sort of weirdly helped me out in unexpected

13:34

ways. So like I got into this stuff,

13:36

I was still a senior in college. It

13:38

turned out I had listened to things like

13:40

the NPR Star Wars and like the BBC

13:43

Lord of the Rings, but I didn't know

13:45

to call it a radio drama. It was

13:47

just sort of like Star Wars on tape

13:49

or something. But then it was like a college buddy

13:51

who said, Hey, have you ever heard of these old

13:54

time radio dramas and gave me like literally the like

13:56

the Walter Cronkite best of the 20th century radio dramas.

13:59

And it was like a total. like black and white to

14:01

technicolor moment for me. Like how does this like

14:03

whole other way of telling stories, like how have

14:05

I gotten to be in my 20s and didn't

14:07

know it existed? And yeah, the reference points were

14:10

like, you know, Tom Lopez and the ZBS

14:12

foundation. I mean, I still adore the work

14:14

of Roger Gregg, who was doing stuff for

14:16

the RTE radio in Ireland at the time,

14:19

BBC grades, you know, the works of John Dryden, Dark

14:21

Mags, of course, you know, Dirk and John obviously are

14:23

still doing things, podcasts and Audible respectively. I mean, to

14:26

this day, a lot of creators are just like, I

14:28

wanted to make a thing. I started making a thing.

14:30

And eventually I found some friends on the internet. That's

14:32

like how a lot of us got started, where we

14:34

had like visions of making a film or

14:36

TV show. And we just said, I can make this

14:38

with a friend as a podcast that's a

14:41

lot easier than this other path. But

14:43

at the time, this was like, literally,

14:45

you still had to like hand code

14:47

an XML feed. And I think the

14:49

error I've watched is essentially the democratization

14:51

of production, where you had to go

14:53

from like, you know, Tom Lopez did

14:55

this amazing on location work, hauling around

14:58

a 50 pound Nagra reel-to-reel recorder to

15:00

the Amazon, whereas now, you know, like

15:02

$100 Zoom device kind of does the

15:04

same thing. In that era, well,

15:06

and I, this is like where

15:08

the like the history part is interesting. So I did literally one

15:10

paper on this in college, but it was enough to sort

15:12

of contextualize stuff. So like in the early days of like

15:14

the radio, that was kind of the deal. It was like

15:16

this technology that the military had sort

15:19

of said, I think this would be cool, but

15:21

you know, like basically ham radio people and their

15:23

addicts were just making stuff and playing around with

15:25

it. And then eventually it kind of caught on

15:28

and became bigger. And so that's where I've seen

15:30

podcasts. That's what podcasts was. Just a bunch of

15:32

like, and Christophe, you were right there with the,

15:34

you know, the Scott Sigglers and the JC Hutchins

15:36

and such, just being like, here's a new way

15:39

to tell a thing. We don't really know what

15:41

we're doing, but let's start doing stuff. And somewhere

15:43

like the creators and the people who wanted to

15:45

experience what the creators had to offer found

15:48

each other. You know, there's probably been

15:50

multiple phases within the modern journey of

15:52

audio drama, but we're now

15:55

at a point where someone in their 20s is much more

15:57

likely to be influenced by like, welcome to Night Vale or

15:59

archive 81. one or, you know, Oh

16:01

God to that Bellatia as they are, you

16:03

know, like a BBC show, they probably don't

16:05

even necessarily think the BBC has anything to

16:07

offer them. And that's why the BBC has

16:09

been through a whole journey. Yeah. So

16:12

that's, that's like the high level view. And like

16:14

my personal view, it's very, the longer I've done

16:16

it, the more I feel like there's sort of

16:18

no one way to tell a story. Like I've

16:20

done things like the cleanse that had 40 or

16:22

something actors with narcosis. We were, we still ended

16:24

up with like 15 humans, I think,

16:27

but a, but a much smaller, more tightly

16:29

knit core group of people. So the like

16:31

question of what works in audio, I think

16:33

is a very fluid question because I think

16:36

you can do very small, very

16:38

intimate closed set pieces. I also think

16:40

you can do really, uh, you know,

16:42

the big audio movie, the big sound effect,

16:44

and you'll barely cinematic stuff, you know, and

16:46

you can do really powerful stuff with like

16:49

one person gathering around the virtual campfire with

16:51

very little sound design. And that works well

16:53

too. And yeah, time has passed, but a

16:55

thing I keep learning about audio is that

16:57

there are no limits and we're still just

16:59

figuring out what can even be done. I

17:02

mean, it's interesting because you yourself have also

17:04

had like a big evolution in your craft.

17:07

What has it been like for you going

17:09

from producing stuff on your own to becoming

17:11

like a professional freelance independent producer to

17:13

now, you know, leading your

17:15

own full time team who'd make multiple series

17:18

a year that are all under your umbrella?

17:20

Yeah. Well, you know, you

17:22

guys remember like my, my very, very first

17:24

works were on like a

17:26

sound blaster card and like a radio,

17:28

you know, a microphone radio shack and they just,

17:30

you know, sound quality wise, we're not super good.

17:32

And I struggled at first. Like I think a

17:34

lot of people who are starting today, even though

17:36

it's easier to get microphones that don't suck, uh,

17:39

to just to get sound that is at all good, you

17:41

know, kind of my first mentor was Roger Greg, who, cause

17:43

he had just stuff that sounded so good. And like, what

17:46

are you doing? He's like, Oh, I just like record it.

17:48

Like it's a movie. Like you went to film school, right?

17:50

Can you just do that, bring actors out in the world?

17:53

And I bought literally the microphone he recommended I buy

17:55

and started doing that. And like immediately

17:57

my shows were like a hundred times better.

18:00

And that became kind of like my unique

18:02

thing that Fred did during that era. Like

18:04

looking back at the cleanse, we were like

18:06

running around and like abandoned warehouses and subterranean

18:08

tunnels and stuff. And that was the stuff

18:10

that like, you know, that got the Wall

18:12

Street Journal thought that was an interesting thing.

18:14

That's how I got that piece. That's how

18:16

I got even locking key. That was part

18:18

of like the pitch to audible that made

18:20

it unique is like, oh, they're going to

18:22

record it kind of like a movie. So

18:24

then to go from that, and then I

18:26

think on X-Files, we, it was like sort

18:28

of a good primer to the world we

18:30

live in today, because that was the first

18:32

time we were challenged with recording seven or

18:35

so studios involved in that. Like David Duchovny

18:37

and Gillian Anderson couldn't be recorded at the

18:39

same time due to availability issues. The

18:42

lone gunman, we did record simultaneously, but one

18:44

of them was on Australia and two were

18:46

like in Oregon and then like Skinner was

18:49

in California. And this was like the first time

18:51

we'd ever heard of isotope RX. And we're like,

18:53

how do we make all this stuff sound like

18:55

a piece? And so that I feel like was

18:57

really great training. I knew how to

18:59

get the quality of sound I wanted on location. How

19:01

do we get it in the studio? And how

19:03

do you get all these studio stuff to meld

19:05

together? And then, yeah, and then somewhere in there,

19:07

you know, flash forward like five, six years, and

19:09

there's a pandemic. And suddenly it's like, nobody

19:11

can be in the same room together. How do you make

19:13

it sound like a thing? And I definitely, you know,

19:15

I'll own that. Like I was among the curmudgeonly

19:19

old timers who were like, I don't know

19:21

about this remote recording thing. We record things

19:23

in studios or people don't aren't directed together.

19:25

I don't. But

19:28

then we all had to figure it out. And I

19:30

think at this point in time, that's what's really interesting

19:32

about it is I do, you know, I'm based here

19:34

in Maine. Narcosis had probably our

19:36

most complicated session, had a New York,

19:38

Chicago and LA performers all acting together

19:40

in real time over Zoom, except we

19:42

weren't using Zoom audio, of course. We

19:44

were using like local recordings from the

19:46

various studios and to get it all

19:48

to sound seamless. And I've been

19:51

very impressed at how good you can actually make that

19:53

sound and how it's and in certain

19:55

ways can be additive because like you can

19:57

just edit it however you want because you don't have sort

19:59

of like the. performance printed. And now, like, you

20:01

know, now we were far enough away from the

20:03

pandemic that like the move in

20:05

the studio recording has been, you know, very

20:08

happening. So, you know,

20:11

maybe on my next project, we'll be back out in

20:13

a barn. I don't know. But it's just right all

20:15

the way. Well, I mean, I know it sounds like

20:18

your location recording days are mostly behind

20:20

you. And I will say, I'll

20:22

say it's getting people to show up. It's getting,

20:25

I mean, I'd say back in those days, one

20:27

of the big differences is like, it's like spooking,

20:29

right, right. But back when we could book actors

20:31

for be like, hey, show up for an entire

20:33

day, and I'll pay you like 100 bucks and

20:35

feed you lunch. Like, that's very different than you

20:38

working under SAG contracts, it's sort of a whole different ball

20:40

of wax. And and if you're someone's in New York,

20:42

and you want to record them in a cave, it's

20:44

a whole, it's a whole journey to get them to

20:46

where the cave is. So that's, you

20:49

know, it's a longer conversation, but

20:51

never say never. So Chris, I

20:53

had a question for you as

20:55

as a writer for Leviathan. You

20:58

know, I originally first envisioned Leviathan

21:00

kind of as a novel that I

21:03

was adapting for audio drama. And then

21:05

I kind of decided that no, Leviathan

21:07

is always meant to be an audio

21:09

drama. And there was a shift. So

21:12

much of your screenwriting experience is for

21:14

film. What was it like

21:17

switching from a film writing process

21:19

into an audio drama writing process?

21:21

Yeah, it's a great question. So I

21:23

guess there's a couple things I'll kind

21:25

of key into upfront, Fred and I

21:27

had a conversation where he framed it

21:29

up for me. And it sort of

21:31

helped me wrap my head around how

21:34

to measure the sandbox, if you will.

21:36

And he was like, it's

21:38

sort of somewhere between a movie

21:40

and a season of a TV series.

21:42

It's not the clipping along plot, plot,

21:44

plot of a movie, which even if

21:47

you watch the, you know, drama,

21:49

they tend to clip along, you're packing

21:51

a good bit of information, particularly

21:53

like things that come out of the

21:56

modern system, if you will, not

21:58

talking about, you know, old and wonder

22:00

French and Italian movies, but modern day

22:02

movies tend to be very plot-centric, plot-driven,

22:05

even the more kind of character-based ones.

22:07

And whereas, you know, television is, it's about

22:09

the character and building that world and situating

22:12

an audience. So he kind of, he was

22:14

like, it's somewhere in between those two. So

22:16

I started thinking in terms of kind of

22:19

like longer form movie storytelling,

22:21

the sort of like standalone season

22:23

television. And so that kind of

22:25

kind of gave me an

22:28

orienting point in terms of like, well, how much

22:30

narrative are we getting at? What does this kind

22:32

of character arc need to be? Let's try to

22:34

keep, you know, not to give anything away, but

22:36

let's try to keep it relatively contained to

22:39

this one season of Narcosis. And

22:42

then, you know, honestly, the job

22:44

of a screenwriter for the studio

22:46

system, writing movies, is just

22:48

a very different job than writing a

22:50

season of an audio podcast. And I

22:53

think they have different, I don't like

22:55

the word constraints, because I sort of

22:57

like look at the guidelines or guardrails

23:00

as sort of being part of your

23:02

process that helps you make decisions.

23:04

But I think the first point is just

23:06

there are far fewer people involved in the

23:08

process, you know, so you have far fewer

23:10

people involved in working out what

23:12

the story is going to be. And

23:15

thereby, you know, a little bit more

23:17

latitude to embrace a vision,

23:19

kind of do something that feels

23:21

more singular, more auteur based.

23:24

There are many people who are writer

23:26

directors who had that luxury in the

23:28

studio system making movies where they can

23:30

write a thing and direct it, but

23:32

that hasn't been my experience to point.

23:34

So usually, there's just a lot, there

23:36

are a lot more people involved in

23:38

sort of changing things and making creative

23:40

decisions and giving notes, and you've got

23:42

to kind of tweak it, adjust it,

23:44

you're constantly, constantly doing that, you're in

23:46

a concept process of remodeling and rewriting.

23:48

Whereas this one was more of like,

23:50

let's get the design, let's get the

23:52

architecture, the structure that we want to

23:54

attend to, and then let's, you know,

23:56

let's sort of take perhaps a little

23:58

more of that. like authorial approach.

24:00

So it's a different kind of energy because

24:02

I also think that like you can, audiences

24:04

can feel it, you know, you can sort

24:07

of feel it when something is, not

24:09

to use a red letter word,

24:11

but content, you know, you can

24:13

kind of feel it, right? Whereas if it's, if

24:15

it's just the creation of a couple people who

24:17

are coming together and saying, what's a really fun

24:20

story we can tell, you can also sort of

24:22

feel that as well. And some of the narrative

24:24

decisions then can be a bit bolder. And some

24:26

of the narrative decisions can feel a little bit

24:29

shaggier, but I think there's also this, there's energy

24:31

to those shaggy ends. That's a good thing. It's

24:33

exhilarating. It's really good to get to work on

24:35

something where, you know, you're, you're not, you know,

24:37

kind of constantly staring in the mirror, wondering if

24:40

it's any good. Well,

24:43

I just want to say that from

24:45

our end, as two guys that love

24:47

underwater audio drama, we are super stoked

24:50

to hear the rest of Narcosis. There

24:52

are nine episodes of Narcosis in total,

24:54

and you're going to be listening to

24:57

episode one of Narcosis in

24:59

just a minute, but we're really excited

25:01

to hear where the story goes. So

25:04

yeah, Fred, Chris, thank you so much

25:06

for joining us. Thank you.

25:08

If there's anything else you guys want to plug right

25:10

now, take it away. Can

25:12

I plug OG Leviathan Chronicles? There's a

25:15

sequence, I forget where it is, but

25:17

like when they first started exploring the

25:19

underwater location that is like a, an

25:22

extended underwater sequence, which I think

25:25

was one of my first times hearing something like that executed.

25:27

So, you know, listen to

25:29

that one. Great plug. Thank you. We

25:32

love it. Chris, where can everybody find

25:34

Narcosis? Narcosis is where you

25:36

listen to podcasts. It's on all

25:39

platforms on the

25:41

wonderful Undertow feed, which is Realm's

25:44

channel for elevated horror. Get it there.

25:46

Well, great guys. Thank you so much

25:48

for joining us for this episode of

25:50

Leviathan Presents. And without

25:52

any further ado, here's episode

25:54

one of Narcosis. You're

26:01

listening to... Arcosus.

26:05

There's a woman in the man's right

26:08

here in the hallows. The message of

26:10

the day is it's the only thing he's agreed. Veronica?

26:17

What's your location? I've lost you on

26:20

the finder. Veronica?

26:29

Veronica, do you copy? I have visual on us,

26:31

on us. She's welding the semen engine 5. Almost

26:35

done. All

26:39

patched up. No other signs

26:41

of compromises or obtrusions. Turbine

26:44

halls are clean. Diagnostic looks good. Good

26:46

work. We are headed back. Well, that

26:49

went quicker than I was expecting. I had

26:51

a chance to get cleaned up before the dinner with siege ensuits. I

26:54

prefer to do my executive meeting in Pribsaw. Did

26:58

you hear that? Sounds

27:00

like an engine went down. Number

27:03

2. Up ahead. Let's

27:05

check it out. Veronica,

27:08

be careful. Because so

27:10

much of the propeller you could inject at any moment. Something's

27:12

sticking out at the... I don't

27:15

believe it. I don't believe

27:17

it. I don't believe it.

27:19

I don't believe it. Take

27:28

your time. I need to take a look at you. Okay,

27:32

deep breaths. There

27:36

you go. Okay,

27:38

your heart rate is spiking. Let

27:40

me give you something to calm you down. No,

27:43

I'm fine. Okay.

27:48

Let's head in. Let's

27:59

do this to him. phase two.

28:01

Phase two? Phase

28:04

two. Yeah, cheers. So now,

28:06

Billy, how about a game of dolls? Sure.

28:09

About another drink for it. Sounds

28:11

great. On me. So, we're

28:13

talking phase two already? Yeah, but it's in a

28:16

great position. Basically, we took the system design here

28:18

in Dronessa, which has been doing so well, products

28:20

with company in Japan. Board members were all impressed.

28:22

They want one just like it to go up

28:24

by the spring. That's ambitious. It is. But look,

28:26

Veronica, we came all this way because we're here

28:29

to promote you. Actually, we'd like you

28:31

to be our head of global logistics. With

28:34

me? Yes, you, Veronica. It's a big step up.

28:36

I know, but you're gonna kill it. I don't

28:38

know what to say. I'm- You're excited. Yes, yes,

28:40

of course. Yes, yes, I'm excited. And you're feeling

28:43

good about it. You're up for the challenge. One

28:45

thousand percent. Can I tell my team?

28:47

Of course, just a minute. Can we

28:49

get your phone? Oh, it's probably- What

28:52

is it? Are you okay? Oh, nothing.

28:55

I'm sorry. Can you please me for a minute? I'll be

28:57

right back. Charlie?

29:04

Hi, Veronica. Wow, I

29:06

am surprised to hear from you. How

29:08

are you? How's Sophia? Something

29:11

happened. Ted

29:16

Little's slipped it. They're going to be doubling our

29:18

salary. Oh, I always wanted to go to Japan.

29:21

Will we solve the local team's train? Veronica?

29:25

Can I get another? Another,

29:31

please. Whoa, okay, Veronica. Slow

29:33

down. I mean, they make great whiskey around here, but you're going

29:35

to be on the floor soon. Hey,

29:38

you- You still freaked out about what they saw?

29:41

There's something else. What's going on?

29:45

I just got a call from the husband of an

29:47

old friend. Sophia? She's

29:51

gone. What? Sophia

29:53

and I used to dive together on the island where

29:55

we grew up in Maine. Sinclair?

29:59

She went into- a solo dive ten days ago

30:01

in the Bay of Fundy. Not exactly the

30:03

spot to do a solo dive. No.

30:07

It most certainly isn't. But that's

30:09

where she went diving, and that's where she

30:12

went missing. And now... Sophia's

30:17

body is lost at sea. She's

30:20

been declared dead, and they're making the arrangements

30:22

for her funeral, and... I'm

30:24

so sorry. Her

30:27

dive tracker malfunctioned. They weren't

30:29

able to locate her until now. Tracker

30:32

started working again, and they've been able to pinpoint

30:34

her location. It's in a cave...

30:37

300 feet down. I'm...

30:42

I'm excited about phase two in Japan,

30:45

and I need to retrieve Sophia's body. We're

30:47

going with you. Oh. Guys,

30:49

it's your vacation. I'll

30:52

manage fine on my own. Please don't worry about

30:54

me. Seriously. Hey. We're a team. And

30:57

that's not going to be a dive you

30:59

can do on your own, or with inexperienced

31:01

divers. Let's go get your friend. From

31:12

one cold, isolated island to another.

31:16

I think it's cute. I need

31:18

to get one of those lobster sandwiches. Ugh.

31:20

Disgusting. Lobsters are the cockroaches of the ocean.

31:22

Yeah, plus they eat the garden. Well,

31:25

they're delicious. If

31:29

your friend's family has so much money, why

31:32

are we taking the fatty? Sophia's family doesn't

31:34

have any money, but her husband Charlie's

31:36

family owns most of the evidence. And

31:38

they always alter the evidence. And

31:41

we're going to be using one of their boats for the dive? Yeah,

31:44

Charlie's boat. He's the only one

31:46

I've spoken to about the retrieval mission. I

31:49

don't know what's going on with the rest of the family. But

31:52

you know these people. I

31:54

used to know them. Very well.

31:58

Hey, now you've got evidence in the cold. and

32:00

I lost me? Yeah, sure. I

32:04

can't believe I'm here. I promised

32:06

myself I would never come back. Okay.

32:09

You haven't told us anything about the

32:11

island and whatever happened to you. What

32:14

went down between you and Sophie? We

32:16

grew up together. Well, really her

32:18

family took me in as one of their own.

32:22

It was just me and my Aunt Kelly here on the

32:24

island and she was busy with work, so I was left

32:26

alone a lot. In

32:28

the summer after our senior year of high school,

32:30

CC and I took a failed photo. We

32:33

were planning to go diving in a restricted area on

32:35

the north side of the island, old

32:38

shankos, and just really nasty,

32:40

stretchy shoreline. No one

32:42

ever dived there and we were thinking it would be a

32:44

big momentous experience. We

32:46

heard stories of shipwrecks and things that we wanted

32:48

to check out. Our

32:51

own path is in a whirlpool. We

32:54

were both injured pretty badly. I

32:57

recovered quickly, so we were a bit unconscious for days.

33:00

Unconscious? We

33:02

landed in an urchin grove in a cuffed stone. We

33:06

looked like early shore rocks in their poison.

33:09

After you did that, I almost did.

33:12

I came around quicker. I

33:15

also noticed a family boy running through. You?

33:22

Yeah. He

33:24

wanted to be with me after that. When

33:28

did you get recovered, he tried to break up

33:30

with her. Fine. Seriously,

33:34

you mean way too hard for him. Really?

33:37

Yeah, we all make those ends of the thing very young. Where

33:40

the hell does the boyfriend know anyway? He didn't have to break up with

33:42

us here. Surely. A

33:45

husband. Yeah. Got

33:48

it. Charlie's family owns most of

33:50

the island, so... It

33:53

was a bigger deal than under normal circumstances.

33:56

I never should be again after that, all my time. I'm

34:01

going to be anywhere. I'm going to be

34:03

somewhere. Oh, so I'm just enjoying the view? The

34:06

Jagged Rocks in the sea exist. No

34:09

wonder there's so many shipwrecks. No! It's

34:11

rocket, frontal. Hmm.

34:16

I think the God-Mouth's burning it in. Hmmm.

34:30

Urgent Fest. The last name of the

34:32

whole conversation. Not on this island.

34:35

Urgent Fest is the biggest weekend of

34:37

the season. Thousands descend on Sinclair for

34:39

a taste of Urgent in all the

34:41

ways. Fried, baked, boiled, and broth. Even

34:43

raw. Mostly with the lost

34:45

heart. Veronica.

34:51

Hi, Charlie. You really didn't have

34:53

to come meet us down here. I'm

34:56

so sorry about Sophia. This

34:59

is Dr. Sona Anand and my dive

35:01

partner, Billy Moyes. Hello, Charlie.

35:03

Thank you for being here. It means a lot. I promise

35:06

you, Charlie, we are going to

35:09

retrieve Sophia's body. Ah, how about

35:11

that? Something

35:13

wrong? I

35:15

should have cleared your plan to dive for

35:17

my wife. Um, Sophia, with my

35:19

parents first. They'd prefer if

35:21

you held off on diving. What?

35:23

It's just too treacherous. The cave she's in

35:25

is deep and the conditions are extremely challenging.

35:27

Don't worry about it at all. We

35:30

specialize in deep caves and extremely challenging conditions.

35:32

All the same, my folks have instructed me to

35:34

ask you to hold off on the mission.

35:37

Charlie, we can't just leave her down there. Yeah.

35:41

I see you might have that reaction, so

35:43

they've brought in a support team. I'm

35:45

sorry, a what? My folks found a

35:47

few diving contractors through their government connections.

35:50

Ex-military. To escort you and assist you,

35:52

they'll be there to help. Really, that's

35:54

all. Charlie, we are

35:56

one of the best diving teams in the world.

36:00

We don't need help. Maybe if I could

36:02

explain to your parents. You know how they are. Very

36:04

sensitive about anything related to the family. They

36:07

wanna make sure that you're properly supported so that

36:09

there aren't any accidents. That's considerate

36:11

of them. I'm so grateful

36:13

that you're here. This

36:15

has been the worst nightmare of

36:17

my life. And I'm barely keeping my shit

36:20

together. This is the least I can

36:22

do for her, for you. Where

36:24

is this other team? They're at the resort now.

36:27

And thank you all for understanding. None

36:29

of this has been easy and my parents have a way of

36:32

taking control no matter the situation. But

36:34

I told them, Sophia

36:37

would have wanted it to be you. To go and

36:39

get her, so that's what needs

36:41

to happen. We'll find her. Yeah. Oh,

37:00

this place has changed. Yeah, there were some

37:03

break-ins maybe 10 years back. Whole

37:05

place is gated around the shoreline. The

37:08

guests don't like to mingle with the locals. Please

37:11

get their luggage to the rooms. Mom had everything covered.

37:14

Yeah, of course you sir. Well,

37:17

welcome to Acquia. This place is

37:20

a lot fancier than I remember. Our

37:23

clientele has climbed up a few notches. Everyone can't

37:25

get enough time in the grotto. Although

37:28

what? There are natural baths

37:30

in the caverns below the resort. Kind

37:32

of like hot springs. People come for their

37:34

healing qualities as what puts Sinclair on the

37:36

map. Yeah, and then in the last 10

37:38

years, the Instagram people found it. We became

37:40

a destination where you can have a unique

37:42

experience. My sister was more responsible

37:44

for that. Excuse me, Mr. Evans? We

37:47

have a problem with room 212. If

37:49

you could just come this way. Oh, yes, of course. Sorry,

37:51

I have to deal with this. Look,

37:53

lunch is on us. Well, everything

37:56

is on us. But meet these fellow diver

37:58

folks and hopefully you all get up. Okay, you're

38:01

over there on the patio So

38:13

mr. Evans I was speaking with your sister and

38:15

thanks Charlie, huh, there's something you're

38:18

not telling me Nothing. What

38:20

do you mean? That's a wetworks team I think he

38:22

just got a name from one of their high society

38:24

contacts and these are the contractors who showed up My

38:27

parents don't understand nuance in these situations.

38:29

They just want a hundred percent safety

38:31

uncertainty What's down

38:33

there? My wife's dead body Charlie

38:37

I am so sorry.

38:39

I need to understand

38:41

everything that's at play here I'm not doing

38:43

a good job of explaining anything to anyone.

38:46

I haven't even broached it with Alice Alice

38:49

our daughter my parents

38:51

had to tell her that Sophia isn't coming back. I

38:53

can't even handle talking to her about it you

38:56

and Sophia had a

38:58

daughter How old

39:01

is she 10 and

39:03

where is Alice now? Somewhere

39:05

around here. She comes and goes as she likes

39:07

Charlie. You know what? Maybe my parents are right

39:10

This is feeling too complicated right now. No, it's

39:12

not complicated. I'm here and I'm

39:14

going to go get her Sophia

39:17

really admired everything you did when you left

39:19

the career you've had we've been

39:21

following you from afar. I Don't

39:25

know what to say to that. She

39:27

wanted to reach back out to you over the years We

39:29

both did but then she changed her mind

39:31

why she didn't want you coming back

39:35

She felt like you escaped from Sinclair that you

39:37

found a great life. She didn't want to drag

39:39

you back here until now

39:55

Hi, welcome to aquea. Will you

39:57

be checking in? Yes Veronica

40:00

West, we've been expecting you. And

40:05

you must be Dr. Anand and Mr. Moyes. That's

40:08

hoes. Your suites

40:10

are ready. We've got you next to each other.

40:12

Have you run into Ms. Evans yet? Herly's

40:14

sister, Lois. That's right. She's our

40:16

general manager. She wanted to greet you personally.

40:23

They've redone everything. I

40:27

hardly recognize it. $300 for a facial.

40:30

Now you know how they're for the Greek tiles. Ms.

40:33

Evans is tied up at the moment, but she's

40:35

booked you all for complimentary treatments before dinner. So

40:37

if you'd like to settle in for a half

40:40

hour before heading over to the spa, oh,

40:43

I can get you a map. I know where it is. Great.

40:46

You're in rooms 119, 120, and 121. Thank

40:50

you. Oh,

40:53

and here you are. What's this? Complementary

40:56

sheets. Oh, uh,

40:59

sorry, it's a little... Not

41:01

alcoholic. It's a cleansing tonic. Should help you

41:04

get over the jet lag. Don't need

41:06

to tell me twice. Yeah.

41:12

It's that urchin again. They love that

41:14

urchin. It's gross. Enjoy your stay.

41:17

Thank you. Full

41:22

treatment, huh? That one didn't even have a

41:24

price on the menu. Sounds lovely

41:26

to me. I thought this

41:28

was work, not a vacation. Huh.

41:33

They weren't joking about the fog, were they? Veronica?

41:39

Did you see someone outside? Uh,

41:42

no. I can't see ten feet. There.

41:46

It's a girl. Veronica, what

41:48

are you doing? Veronica!

41:50

What the hell is going on? Veronica!

41:53

What the hell? Hello?

42:00

What are you doing out here? You

42:03

shouldn't be out in weather like this. Are

42:05

you Veronica? I am. And

42:08

you must be Alice. Come inside

42:10

and we'll talk. Are you

42:12

just going to tell me my mom drowned? Oh...

42:16

Alice. Alice?

42:20

Alice! Come

42:24

on, let's go inside and you can tell me all about it, okay?

42:27

No. You need to come with me. Where?

42:32

Me too. She knows where mom is. Narcosis

42:46

was created by Fred Greenhalt and

42:49

Chris Bernier. Written by Chris

42:51

Bernier. Additional writing by Fred Greenhalt. Directed

42:54

by Fred Greenhalt. Produced by Fred

42:56

Greenhalt and Roda Beiza. Executive Producers

42:58

John Brooks and Molly Barton.

43:00

Director Manager Devin Cheppert. Director

43:02

Coordinator Anjali Yee. Producers

43:04

by Ollie Hager, Chalei

43:06

Nipasina, Dino Blyan, Zoe

43:09

Glenn, Aaron Neuffer, Matthew

43:11

Yeager, Jonathan Buckley, Kimberly

43:14

Sumuri, Annie Miles, Crystal

43:16

Inloid, Christina Teluska, Ray

43:18

Goyos, Lydia Sue, Gina Petori, Jeannie

43:22

Belet, Josh Kline, Alan

43:24

Enloh, Robert Ynes, and

43:27

Masiuki Inozawa. Casting by Sonny

43:29

Boli Kennedy and Meg Morin. Principal

43:31

recording at Real Voice LA and

43:33

City Box NYC. Dialogating

43:36

by Corey Burton. And without a mixing,

43:38

you're Rory O'Shea. Original

43:40

music by Shigala. Tonsuma Gala. Narcosis

43:43

is a real, original production. Find more films like Narcosis

43:45

on Apple, Spotify, or at

43:47

our podcast service. If you're listening

43:50

on Spotify, we've got some questions and polls for you this season,

43:52

so be sure to let us know how you're thinking about the

43:54

show and what happened in this episode. Look forward to being in

43:56

your spot on the show. Hey

44:03

everyone, thanks so much for listening. All the links

44:05

to the show you've just heard are in the

44:07

show notes below. Definitely check them out

44:09

and subscribe to their feeds if you like what you heard today.

44:12

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Leviathan

44:14

Presents and maybe you've discovered a new show

44:16

that you'd like to binge. We're looking forward

44:18

to bringing you some more amazing audio dramas

44:21

to discover and letting you meet some of

44:23

the phenomenally talented creators that are driving this

44:25

renaissance in audio fiction today. Stay subscribed to

44:27

this feed for more installments of Leviathan Presents

44:29

as well as all the full episodes of

44:32

the Leviathan Chronicles, the Rhapskalian Agency, the

44:34

Invenios Expedition, and all the other spinoffs

44:36

we have planned. This is Christoph signing

44:38

off for now. Thanks again for

44:40

listening. I'll be talking to you all real soon.

44:42

Bye now. Hey,

44:51

it's Mae Whitman and I play Frankie in

44:53

the new Realm Podcast, The Sisters. The

44:56

Sisters is about a museum curator

44:58

of medical oddities who investigates the

45:00

origins of a mutated skeleton with

45:02

two layers of bones. Seven

45:05

ribs are completely fused.

45:09

And you have no idea where this

45:11

came from? No. She was sent

45:13

here anonymously. Uh-uh. Not she. They,

45:17

maybe? Wait. I've never

45:19

seen anything like this. Soon,

45:22

she uncovers an extraordinary mystery

45:24

that connects her present with

45:26

one family's tragic past in

45:28

hauntingly dangerous ways. My

45:30

grandfather was a journalist back in

45:33

the 60s and 70s. He specialized

45:35

in strange stories. Who

45:37

are they? How are they connected to

45:40

the skeleton? Play with the tape. You'll

45:43

see. Listen to The Sisters

45:45

wherever you get your podcasts. We

45:48

dream about it. We both dream about

45:50

it. How often? Every

45:52

night.