Transcript
1-800-FLOWERS Advertiser (0:00)
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Mixtape Stories Podcast Host (0:30)
Does this current distiller you got you down well? At the Mixtape Stories podcast, we replace your existential dread with original speculative short stories and miniseries filled with humor, hope and wonder and brought to life with music and a cast of human actors. Check out Mixtape Stories wherever you get your podcasts At Mixtape Stories, we're creating beautiful fiction in a disappointing timeline.
Karina Morita (Narrator/Character) (1:09)
Escape pod episode 1039 the many rebirths
Tina Connolly (Escape Pod Host) (1:14)
of Karina Morita by Tim Pratt. Hello and welcome to Escape Pod, your weekly science fiction podcast. I'm your host this week, Tina Connolly, and I am here to bring you the Many Rebirths of Karina Morita by Tim Pratt. This story first appeared on her Patreon. Tim Melody Pratt is a gender fluid Hugo award winning SF and fantasy author and editor and has been a finalist for World Fantasy, Philip K. Dick, Sturgeon, Stoker, Mythopoeic and Nebula Awards, among others. Pratt's short fiction and poetry have appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the Best American Erotica, Uncanny, Asimov's, and Clark's World, and she is the author of over three 30 novels. Your narrator this week is Isabel Jae Kim. Isabel Jae Kim is a Korean American speculative fiction writer based in New York City. She is a Shirley Jackson Award winner, a Hugo, Nebula and Astounding Award finalist, and her short fiction has been published in Clark's World, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other venues. Her work has been reprinted in the Best American Science fiction and fantasy 2023 and 2024 and translated into Chinese and Japanese. When she's not writing, she's either practicing law or co hosting her Internet Culture podcast, wow. If true, both equally noble pursuits. Find her at Isabel Kim or Isabelle Kim on Twitter, your audio producer this week is Summer Brooks, so get ready to visit the Interval because it's story time.
Karina Morita (Narrator/Character) (3:31)
The Many Rebirths of Karina Morita by Tim Pratt Narrated by Isabel J. Kim My problems all started when I died. People didn't die too often in my hab or anywhere else. On the planets and stations of the standard curve. We cured illness and aging long ago, but there were still occasional deaths by misadventure. I was flying an ultralight to the outdoor sex and ice cream festival on the melodious Archipelago when an unexpected updraft sent me spinning out straight into the side of a familiar mountain. It was hollowed out and contained an eternal night dance club. As the meticulously textured stone surface rushed toward my face, I thought, oh well, at least I had a backup yesterday. I'd lose my memories of the morning, sure, but my post breakfast orgasms hadn't been any better than usual, and the hollandaise on my dodo eggs was only okay too. I was supposed to wake up in the cozy rebirth lounge of my own home. On the shimmering terrace, my consciousness decanted into a fresh clone, as I had done a dozen times before. Instead, I awoke naked and shivering, stretched out on a long table in a small room with silver walls, while a short woman wearing a pure white jumpsuit and an elaborate crown of stainless steel smiled down at me. Karina Zephyrus Morita, she said. Welcome to the interval. I'm your technician. I see this is your first time passing through. Don't worry, we'll get you assessed and processed quickly. I shrieked and sat up on the table. Was I in some kind of clinic? Had there been a mishap with the cloning process? I felt fine, and the bits of me I could see didn't appear malformed. What's happening? Who are you? What is this place? The technician cocked her head and shrugged. It's the interval. The place in between lives. Some people call it the Bardo, which isn't quite right, but it's a similar concept if you're familiar. No? She had a clipboard, but it must have actually been some kind of tablet because she prodded it with her finger and gazed down. Ah, you're from a post scarcity milieu. Culturally beyond such concepts due to functional immortality. Okay, so you died, and this is the afterlife. But the afterlife is just a waystation before your soul moves on to a new world. Died.
