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In this episode, we enter the unsettling world of Radio Rental, the horror anthology podcast that presents supposedly true encounters through the fictional setting of a video rental store. Presiding over the tapes is Terry Carnation, played by Rainn Wilson who breaks up stories of serial killers, possible stalkers, doppelgängers, disturbing childhood memories and glitches in reality with comments on rewinding tapes, Jane Fonda workouts and Hot Sauce for Tots. We cover Volume One, episodes one through seven, examining why stories such as “404 Not Found”, “Laura of the Woods” and “The Babysitter” linger long after they end.  Along the way, we discuss unreliable narrators, the fallibility of memory, the Mandela Effect, simulation theory and why unresolved dread is often more frightening than seeing the monster itself. We also examine the privilege involved in responding to strange encounters with curiosity rather than caution, particularly when several of the male storytellers ignore warning signs that many women are conditioned to recognise immediately.

Content and Spoiler Warning

Discussion of serial killers and their victims, stalking, being stalked, followed, and watched, terrorism, child death, grief, possible abduction or organ harvesting, homophobia, threatened hate crimes, murder, unreliable memories, doppelgängers and an existential discussion of simulation theory. We also spoil the major stories Radio Rental Volume One, season 1 and discuss plot details from several horror films, television series and books.

Palate Cleanser

Desperately Ever After by Laura Kenyon, a comic novel imagining the lives of familiar fairy-tale heroines after their supposed happy endings. Think princesses, friendship problems, romantic chaos, sleepovers and Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City energy.

Recommendations

• The Phantom Tollbooth audiobook, narrated by Rainn Wilson
• Parks and Recreation, Season 5, Episode 16, “Bailout”, for another eccentric video-store owner
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• Legally Blonde because it was played after the attempted shoe-bombing
• The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule (mentioned by one of the storytellers)
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• John Mulaney’s stand-up routine about accidentally frightening a woman while running for a train
• The Yogurt Shop Murders for the dangers of being a teen in retail
• Murder in Glitter Ball City
• Penpal by Dathan Auerbach, for a similarly relentless creepypasta atmosphere
• Hereditary, Pet Sematary and Bring Her Back for stories about grief affecting a parent’s psychology
• Psycho for wig-wearing impersonation and fractured identity
• The Black Tapes, NoSleep, Spooked and Madam Strangeways for more supposedly true or unexplained encounters
• “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” by Ted Chiang for alternate realities and branching possibilities
• “The Life of Chuck” by Stephen King
• We Used to Live Here for glitches, distorted memories and Mandela Effect unease
• Black Mirror: “San Junipero”, “Hang the DJ” and “White Christmas” to question whether we're in a simulation
• The Matrix (for glitches in the matrix)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Loki for the multiverse
• “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov, available through The Great Stories podcast
• Snakes on a Plane and Station Eleven for inescapable danger aboard a plane.
• The Office, because there can never be too much Dwight Schrute

As Terry Carnation reminds us: trust your paranoia. Dread can be a powerful intuitive tool.

Homework

The attempted plane bombing in Radio Rental ties in to Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L. Jackson, who stars in Deep Blue Sea. So that's what we're covering! Prepare yourself for smarter sharks, questionable science and LL Cool J’s omelette recipe.

Special thanks to Nancy Azano for the podcast cover art. Find her on Instagram at @nancyazano.

Thanks also to Harry Kidd for the opening and closing music. Find him on Instagram at @harryjkidd and on Spotify.