Podcast
Breaker Whiskey
Hosted by Atypical Artists · EN
BREAKER WHISKEY is an ongoing, daily microfiction podcast exploring one woman’s journey to find additional survivors in an America made empty by an unknown event in the late 1960s. In 1968, two women find themselves in rural Pennsylvania during what turns out to be some kind of apocalyptic event. By the time they discover that everyone else is gone, it’s too late to figure out what happened. Despite not liking each other at all, the women work together to survive, until six years later one of them sets out on her own, driving around the country to find other survivors. This is her, calling out to anyone who might listen. BREAKER WHISKEY is made by Lauren Shippen and recorded on a 1976 Midland CB Radio. Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey.
15episodes
Episodes
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299 - Two Hundred Ninety Nine
2w ago00:02:23Tap to summarizeTo RumPlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.----[Transcript]Wow, Rum, I haven't heard from you in an age. I think I remember correctly that you found your dog, and your dog had also picked up some other dogs in the process of being missing. So it sounds like all of you are doing well. I have talked to Harry before about finding some kind of pet, but I don't know. We have yet to happen upon any creature that would seem to have their life improved by joining up with us. Lots of wild animals, not a lot of domesticated left. I am sorry that people keep trying to take them from you. Sounds like it's sort of dodgy where you are. Weird that some woman claimed that she knew me and could take you to me. I guess maybe she's heard me on the radio too. Maybe she's heard me talking to you on the radio. But in any case, no, I don't know anybody. I mean, well, I guess I know you, I know Passerine. I know the Red family, solitude. Lots of people who have sent me radio messages, Morse code messages through the years, but I haven't met any of you in person. So any one of you is as trustworthy as any of the others. I guess that's not really that helpful. In any case, I hope you're well too, as well as you can be, and that you are able to track down your Birdie, whoever he is, wherever he is. I like the idea of having a secret language with a friend.I guess Harry and I sort of have that, a holdover from some of the signs and whistles that we would use in our work. But it's not like it comes much in handy now. We don't really need to speak in secret code when there's no one around to hear us. In any case, I'm glad you got your radio fixed and keep your head on a swivel. Sounds like there are some not great people where you are, but also sounds like you've got some good friends in those dogs. Whiskey out.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →298 - From Breaker Rum (Listener Message)
3w ago00:01:26Tap to summarizePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.----[Transcript]Hi Whiskey, I've been trying to fix this bloody radio for months, and it just now sprang to life and started playing hymns so I'll message you quickly before the God Squad track me down.Hypocrites. Let me warn you - there are bad people out there who pretend to be all holy and helpful, then they try to nick your supplies (and your dogs) when you're asleep. They tried this trick with me, which was a big mistake: let's jusy say that my dogs are a very protective of their Person...I also wanted to let you know that I met a squat, red faced, scarlet haired 70 something woman called Jay - she has a face like an angry terrier, do you know her? She reckoned she knows you and could take me to you. I fell for it for roughly 20 seconds until she started asking me things like how to cook wild meat, how to train wolf hybrids etc. No you can't have my dogs. Bugger off.It's always the same if we meet someone - they see a disabled lady and see easy pickings. Mugs, there's more than one way to be able. My dogs are a team. They keep me safe and fed and won't work for anybody else...except for Birdie, if we ever find him. He and I made up a secret language as kids and Iused this to train the dogs. Maybe Birdie would get me home if I let him have a dog I bred for him. A girl can hope...Hope you're well. Beware of red faced shrieking women and false Bible bashers!Your friendRum (and doggy family - now if YOU found me, you I'd trust to have a puppy, I have it on authority that you have a good heart) xxSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →297 - Two Hundred and Ninety Seven
Apr 2200:01:57Tap to summarizeTo PasserinePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]God isn't cutting your hair short. Just the best thing in the world. I definitely feel much better now that I have Harry cutting my hair short again, rather than me hacking away at it. It looks better too. Not that I'm ever looking at myself, but I think Harry appreciates it. I think I would have assumed that your favorite bird was the passerine, given you know the name. But I like that it's a raven. You know, they can live up to three decades. It's a long time to have something squawking nevermore at you.It's weird to think about that. That I've been on this earth for more than three decades now. And as long as I stay healthy and we continue to figure out the food situation, I could be here for three more decades. It seems like a long time, especially when there is so little change. I know you talked about how that's the only certainty in life, but.I don't know, we've settled into stagnation or something. Or. Or maybe. Maybe we're resisting change. Maybe we hit upon some degree of peace that any rupture to that, any shaking of the boat is too unbearable to think about. But it does feel like we should do something. Like we should pursue some change. Some…I don't know, extreme is the wrong word, but just something. Just something I don't know.I'm getting restless, my friend. I am getting restless. I don't know, maybe. Maybe. Right. Maybe change isn't something you ever choose. Maybe it's just something you wait for. And I guess I'll continue to wait.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →296 - From Passerine (Listener Message)
Apr 1500:02:18Tap to summarizePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Breaker breaker, it's Passerine, once more joyously heard. You said you wanted to hear from me again, and well, I like writing out to you. I like hearing my words read out and answered, just another reminder that I'm real and that other people find worth in my words. You feel like a friend, even though we've never met, and likely never will. Thank you.I'll be completely honest with you Whiskey, I've rewritten this message so many times. I keep trying so hard to say something profound or meaningful, something from the heart. The issue is that my heart keeps changing, I go from hopeful to hopeless, and words I believed in one day seem like lies the next.It's obvious to say, but that sort of change is certain. The world around you changes, and you change with it, sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once. You know something about that, about breaching into the unknown, choosing that change, and realising that really, you have very little control of what comes next. But, in a way, that's the best part. Because if things keep changing, if things are chaotic and unpredictable, then at least it means you're still there to experience it. And if you're still there, then it means things can change for the better still. It means the candle is still lit.Again, I think you get that. The refusal to let the chaos and darkness and uncertainty win, because you have a goal, you have a fire, and you need to keep fighting.By the way, I've never had a Charleston Chew, but now on my adventures, I've been keeping an eye out for them. Haven't found one yet, but I'll keep looking, and when I find one, you'll get my honest review. Also, about the tree thing, everyone does really dumb and idiotic things at seventeen. It's the magic of being seventeen. If anyone out there listening is currently that age, keep going kid, it'll get better.I'll give you a few more fun facts about me and my life. I cut my hair short last year and I finally felt like myself when I looked in the mirror. Sometimes I think I'm in the wrong universe too, because I always seem to be the odd one out, no matter where I go. I find cleaning dishes to be soothing. My favourite bird is the raven.I hope you get this message. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. I hope your life keeps changing, and that the fire doesn't go out.We're not alone. Passerine out.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →295 - Two Hundred and Ninety Five
Mar 2500:03:10Tap to summarizeTo SolitudePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Breaker, breaker. This is Whiskey calling up for solitude. I like that: the in between. It's better than anything I've ever called whatever this is in my head, and it really does describe what it feels like just existing in this in-between. In between versions of my life, in between past and future, in between a different state line every other month.Because you're right. I do think about it. I think about what my life would be like if I hadn't met Harry, if I hadn't met Pete, if I hadn't made the choices that I made. I know Harry thinks about it, too.We don't talk about it as much as we should. Maybe. I mean, other than the few blow up fights we've had, we've never. Well, we just don't really talk about it so much anymore. And maybe that's because it hasn't been that big of a problem since we reunited. We haven't heard or seen a peep from Junior and whatever change Birdie was warning about. I mean, there's someone else here, something else here it hasn't reached us yet. We do keep moving to avoid anything reaching us, but I don't know. It's a big country.I do think that we could stay in one place for a little while and probably avoid whatever is coming our way. Then again, maybe I don't want to settle down into a particular place. I get what you mean, Solitude. I am also bored a lot of the time and being on the move, constantly setting up a new home base, driving, trying to find more fuel. All of that stuff keeps me busy, keeps us busy. I do think Harry would be satisfied just reading every book that's ever been published, but I need action.I miss talking to everybody every day too. It was easier, I guess, when I wasn't with Harry. Now I have someone who talks back in the moment that I'm actually talking to them. And well, I like trading radio messages back and forth, but I also I don't have that much to say. There haven't been that many seismic changes after a year full of them.I think since Birdie explained what they could, I've been more at peace with the in-between. I don't really understand how it works, why it works the way that it does, or if there is any way for us to get back or get somewhere else, because I'm not even sure that there's a back to get to. Despite all of that, I'm still. I don't know, I'm just a little bit at peace, I guess. I hope you find that too. Peace. Not just solitude.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →294 - From Solitude (Listener Message)
Mar 1800:02:09Tap to summarizePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Do you ever wonder what your life was leading up to had you not been transported to the In-Between? Or if you hadn't met a specific person that that would've kept you from getting trapped here? Like, do you think if you never met Harry, or the rest of your group, or Juniors Dad wasn't on shift that day, that you would've ended up here? Or that you were always destined to be in this place?I think I was always supposed to be here. I've always felt out of place. More comfortable by myself. Aimless with school and jobs and relationships. And now here I am. In The In-between. Alone with myself, my thoughts, and my stories. I love stories. But, well, I'm sure you know this, they can get kind of,, stale, after a while.I've been stuck here for a few years and at first, it was like Heaven. No people, but everything still moved around like there were people here. That's why I call it the in-between by the way. It's kind of just like everyone else in invisible and I'm the only one visible? Or maybe it's the other way around. Pretty sure my town is convinced it's been infested with ghosts. It was nice at first, if a bit of a dangerous learning curve. I got to read my backlog of books, play games, listen to the radio, though the signal is terrible on this side of the veil. But it started to get boring. And then I heard your voice, which was MUCH clearer. It helped. Hearing you travel around was like my own little serial story. I miss the daily updates. I've gotten off track. Sorry, it's like I said. I'm very bored. Anyway besides the boredom due to a lack of socialization, I feel like I'm more free than I ever was. Free to learn, to read, to write, to ponder. And I've been thinking about the events that led me here lately. If I could've avoided it or if this was always to be my destination. I'm not sure what my answer would be. What do you think? Oh! Uh, you can call me Solitude. I was gonna go with a pun or something like SoliDUDE but,, I'm feeling introspective lately so I'll save the silly for later. Solitude, out.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →293 - Two Hundred and Ninety Three
Feb 1800:02:49Tap to summarizeTo August.Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]This is Whiskey calling out for August. Are you saying that you've been alone since you were a kid? Uh, I don't even know how that's possible. I, I mean, what choices--What kind of circumstance could you have been in to separate a timeline into its own branch? I'm sorry. That's awful. And I'm sorry that you're on another continent. Because maybe, maybe somehow we are part of the same timeline and we could actually see, meet, talk to each other. But how would we get there? I don't know if you heard my broadcast the other week, but the idea of sailing across the ocean terrified me. It's not something I have the training to do or the stomach for. Frankly, too many things can go wrong.I don't know, would it...would it be worth it if it meant there were people on the other side? It sounds like you've been alone for a lot longer than I've been alone. So maybe...maybe people don't solve anything, if they're not the right people. If you're the wrong person. I've been in groups like that before, and it's a rare thing to find what I found. To find a handful of people to whom you belong, with whom you actually like spending time. But all that said, it is still kind of an extraordinary thing that we're alive at the same time. Maybe not in the same place, maybe not exactly, but that we can talk to each other. What a what a wonderful thing to be alive at the same time as someone else's, as anybody else. Human existence is so singular, you know. I mean, sure, maybe aliens do exist, but for all we know, we are the only intelligent life in the universe. And we're such a small blip in the lifetime of our earth, of our galaxy. And so, to get to experience it is this one in a million chance. But at the same time, for a singular as human existence is, we are all experiencing shades of the same thing. I don't know, maybe it's not a comfort to somebody who has felt on the outside their whole lives. I guess...I guess I just want to say you might be on the outside, but you're not alone on the outside.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →292 - From August (Listener Message)
Feb 1100:02:28Tap to summarizePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Hello, Whiskey. I'd like to tell you a story. Nothing more, nothing less. You don't have to respond. You don't even have to listen. It's just nice to talk to someone after... There was once a child. For they can't have been much more than that. Maybe ten or eleven years old. And this child lived in a sleepy little village in the English countryside. The child always knew they were different to anyone else in the village, but they didn't know why or how. They didn't understand their people, and in turn, their people did not understand them. But it was all right. You don't need to understand one another to teach one to read or to help out on a farm. And all was well. But the child always felt left out, misunderstood as they were. They hated their people. But hate is such a strong word, I hear you cry. They hated their people with a burning passion. It ate them up inside. Tearing out a hollow in their chest. till they were completely and utterly empty. I wish I was alone, they would cry. I wish you would all just leave me be. So I could be alone. And one day when they woke up, their wish had come true. It was not what they had wanted. They screamed and they cried. And then they fell to their knees and laughed and laughed and laughed.I have been alone for years. I walk a lot nowadays. Always in the same few square miles, my dear. I have a little hoard of books and music and radios and televisions. A lot of it doesn't work anymore. Of course, sometimes when I travel outside of my area, I will hear a voice and I will think that maybe, just maybe, this time I am not alone. And that is how I found you. Whiskey. I realized you were alive and at the same time as me, you were alive. But then I realized you are not even on the same continent as me. And so I remain alone. My name is August, by the way. Nice to meet you.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →291 - Two Hundred and Ninety One
Jan 2100:04:14Tap to summarizeTo Rusty.Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Jesus Christ Rusty, tear gas? Sounds like you're having a much harder go of it than I ever had. I'm sorry that you're doing it alone. It does make it easier having Harry and I'm taking care of her as best as I can. She- she liked that part of your broadcast. She happened to be standing over my shoulder as it came in. And she was very pleased to hear you say that. She likes when I'm responsible for her in some way, I think makes her feel loved, which. Yeah. She is. You know, honestly, it never occurred to me to take a boat anywhere. Maybe because I haven't really spent much time on them before. Maybe because the thought of being lost at sea is so much worse than any version of my life over this past year. Decade, really. Here alone, at the end of the world, or nearly alone. So I hope if you do take that boat somewhere, that it's somewhere close and safe, and that you have clear weather your whole way. That old sailor saying? Francis used to say it...um...something about the sunset. Red sky at night. Sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailor. Take warning. I have no idea if that's anything. I don't know, maybe check the Anarchist Cookbook, see if they have anything to say about the sky and what importance for sailing the seas it holds. But if I find myself wanting to seek out some islands, I'll definitely check to see if your book is there. Who knows, maybe one of your other selves will find it. Now that you know you've been broadcasting to my frequency, it's very possible that they've heard you just like you heard them. It must be so strange. I might not be alone because I have Harry. But. You're not alone in a way that I think very, very few people can understand. All of you. Rusty. Scarlet. Red. You know that there are other yous out there living lives and speaking to one another about those lives. I mean, that's a kind of community that I can't even fathom. Once again, I think about what the hell my other selves are doing that they're not hearing any of these transmissions. And then I think, well, maybe they never really got into the radio. Maybe they had no reason to. Maybe they're all, I don't know, maybe they're all sitting in prisons somewhere. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcribe →290 - From Rusty (Listener Message)
Jan 1400:04:03Tap to summarizePlease visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen.If you'd like to support the show, please visit atypicalartists.co/support.If you'd like to send Whiskey a message, click here.----[Transcript]Hello, Whiskey. Sorry if my voice sounds rough. Haven’t used it in a while, I’m a little Rusty. Figure it’s close enough for you to recognize it, anyway. You know the drill by now, and I don’t have time to waste. Can’t stay in one place too long, or they’ll find me. I hear you’re dealing with some of that, yourself. I’m sorry to hear that. Not surprised, just sorry. I heard the broadcasts of my other selves, through your channel. I think Rosy and I followed a similar path in our lives – mine just seems to have gone in a different direction. Out of the bunker and into Black Forest. Lakewood. Santa Rosa. A hundred places that start with ‘Fort’. I know Rosy painted a rather… rosy picture of finding other people, but the truth of it is that not everyone is lucky like that. Most of us, the people we run into aren’t going to cozy up to us and keep us warm. More of them would sooner set you on fire. And you can hope for the former, but you need to prepare for the latter. There’s this book I managed to find – in one of the Fort-Somethings, ironically enough. You should find a copy. Hell, I’d leave you mine if I knew how. It’s called The Anarchist Cookbook. Ignore the parts about politics. There’s no mass uprising happening in either of our worlds. There’s not enough people to be a mass anything. But it has instructions for booby traps, hand-to-hand combat, tear gas… be especially careful with that last one, though. Don’t make my mistake. I know it… it sounds extreme. And maybe for your world it is. In mine it’s just… this is life, now. The world is on fire, and you can either run from it, you can fight it, or you can burn. And for a long time, I thought that this was all there was. All there ever would be. But hearing your broadcasts, hearing you find yourself, find love, find… something more than ash and cinders… it was like a breath of fresh air. So… thank you for that, Whiskey. It’s nice imagining a place where I could take in a lungful of air without choking on it. See a sun that isn’t blood red. Feel rain on my face that doesn’t burn. Or even just… find someone I can trust. I think I could weather the haze and the heat if I had someone with me, the way you do. You take good care of her, Whiskey. Make sure she takes care of you, too. I think I’ll leave you that book, after all. It’s risky, I know. And… it’s possible that it won’t even be there in your world, but… maybe. If you want it, head south, to just before the border. Well… where a border used to be. You’ll find a set of barrier islands, along the coast. My truck is there, along one of the side streets. I’ll leave the book in the glove box. I’ve found a boat – a working one, and I’m going to try to take it somewhere, instead. I don’t know where I’ll end up, but it’s gotta be better than here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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