Escape Pod 1028: What Any Dead Thing Wants (Part 3 of 3)

Podcast: Escape Pod
Host: Escape Artists Foundation (Tina Connolly, host)
Date: January 15, 2026
Story: "What Any Dead Thing Wants" by Amy Ogden
Narrator: Isaac Harwood
Duration: ~38 minutes

Episode Overview

The final installment in Amy Ogden’s Nebula finalist novella concludes the science fiction story of Hob—a planet-cleanup specialist—and Ozzie—the ghost of a failed activist. As Hob grapples with the moral fallout of terraforming, he and Ozzie navigate loss, regret, and the small acts of rebellion that matter even in the face of systemic apathy. The episode explores themes of environmental devastation, grief, the value of life (both human and non-human), and the limits and necessity of individual action.

Key Story Developments and Discussion Points

1. Morning After: Aches, Regret, and Data (04:10–07:20)

• Hob wakes feeling physically and emotionally depleted after the previous day's events and exchanges awkward, unresolved conversations with Ozzie, who is frustrated with being a ghostly bystander.
• Hob receives messages from his colleague, Jara, about missed check-ins and work obligations, underscoring his growing disconnect from bureaucratic expectations:
  • "If I don't hear from you in the next hour, I'm sending Mzli and Rathorna to come collect your deceased ass." (05:25)
• Hob sifts through files on Ozzie and his activist associates, unsure what he's looking for, and feels overwhelmed by both the vastness of loss and his inability to provide meaningful help.

2. The Impossible Want of the Dead (07:20–12:10)

• Hob and Ozzie struggle to articulate what Ozzie wants as a ghost:
  • "I don't know how to help you. I don't know what you want. I don't know anything." (06:57)
  • "I guess I want what any dead thing wants." — Ozzie (07:30)
• Through manipulating illusions, Hob attempts a kind of exorcism—staging an encounter between a ghostly child CFM ("Cabbage-Faced Motherfucker") and its parent—to help another being accept loss and move on:
  • "All over the universe, small creatures want a parent when they're lost and confused and frightened…" (11:05)
• The haunting and hauntingly ineffective attempts to bring closure highlight the universality of grief and the urge to protect.

3. Destruction and Refusal: Hob's Crisis (12:10–18:10)

• Hob, wrestling with guilt, destroys the data safe containing footage of ecological destruction. Ozzie desperately tries to stop him:
  • "You've seen what the footage is like. Nightmare shit." — Hob (16:05)
  • "People care about human lives. Not exos, not fucking CFMs… It's all acceptable losses to them." — Hob (16:27)
  • "Whose mind do you think you were going to change?" — Hob
    "Yours would have been a good start." — Ozzie (17:06)
• The act is both impulsive and symbolic—destroying painful evidence as a means to shield, punish, or simply cope.

4. Addressing the Past: Complicity and Accidents (18:10–22:25)

• Hob finally examines the causes of the Deadship crash—hoping for villainy, finding only tragic incompetence.
  • "He would have known what to do if there were obvious bad guys. If there were obvious bad guys, it would be easier not to be one of them." (21:50, also referenced by the host)
• Ozzie returns for a final request—
  • "You can't go yet. You have to tell me where to send it." — Hob (22:57)
• Ozzie provides a code for a relay, and then, after a moment of ghostly effort and resistance dissolves:
  • "For what it's worth, I don't think I'm the only one it's going to matter to." — Ozzie (25:12)
• Hob is left with the responsibility of pressing ‘send’, symbolizing the individual’s role in collective resistance and remembrance.

5. Aftermath and Small Resistance (25:40–30:40)

• Hob is summarily fired and locked out by the company. Jara, poised to take him into custody, gently interrogates his motives:
  • "Why did you do it?" — Jara (27:43)
  • "The people who want to know what it's like, they already know. The rest don't give a shit. Why bother? ... I guess I wanted to give a shit. A little bit of one." — Hob (27:59)
• The two collaborators attempt to clear as much life as possible from the crash site before the next terraformation pulse—futility and tenderness mixed.
• Jara mourns for the trees, and Hob confesses that it isn’t enough, but “...it's better than nothing. Has to be.” (31:24)

6. Creating a Preserve: A Final Stand (31:00–33:40)

• Together, Hob and Jara use their abilities to create a preserve, drawing boundaries (physical and symbolic) against further destruction.
  • "This is a preserve... Put up walls, put up barriers, but do not fucking touch a cabbage or on these cabbage faced motherfuckers heads or we will put up a fight." — Hob (31:53)
• The act is fraught with doubt—will it matter? Will it last? But it’s an assertion of agency and reverence for non-human life.

7. Resigned Hope and Quiet, Fleeting Peace (33:40–34:32)

• Jara asks, “What now?” They rest together as another exorcism cycle ends, marked by the distant calls of a CFM family.
• Their exhausted humor and tenderness find purchase in the ashes:
  • "The third week of an exorcism campaign is the absolute fucking worst." — Hob
    "But you're leaving off the next part. ... That if we can survive the third week, the rest is cake." — Jara and Hob (34:15)
• The episode ends on a note of weary solidarity and the possibility that—however briefly—something good was saved.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

"I guess I want what any dead thing wants."
— Ozzie (07:30)

“Remaking a world in your own image is only a good idea if you aren't ugly as shit to begin with.”
— Hob (paraphrased by Host, 34:58)

“He would have known what to do if there were obvious bad guys. If there were obvious bad guys, it would be easier not to be one of them.”
— Hob (21:50, discussed by Host at 34:58)

"The importance is in the doing. The importance is in Ozzie doing his part and Hob doing his part, and so on and so on, one at a time. It's like the parable of the starfish—you may not be able to return every starfish to the sea, but you will make an awfully big difference to the ones you can save."
— Tina Connolly, Host (36:00)

“But it matters,” he says aloud. He’s not sure who he’s trying to reassure ... Maybe the battle slug feels better for hearing it. Maybe just for now, maybe just to you and me. But it matters."
— Hob (32:45)

Structure and Tone

• The episode maintains a direct, wry, sometimes bleakly humorous tone, mirroring Hob's weary pragmatism and resistance.
• Dialogue between Hob and Ozzie is rife with frustration, sadness, and wry affection—reflecting a long, adversarial sort of friendship between the living and the dead.
• The narrative is punctuated by moments of resignation, dark comedy, and a sharp awareness of the limitations of hope and activism.

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Quote | |----------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:10–07:20 | Hob's morning, Ozzie's regrets, administrative woes | | 07:20–12:10 | CFM illusion exorcism, universal longing | | 12:10–18:10 | Destroying the data safe, Ozzie's plea | | 18:10–22:25 | Crash investigation, facing moral ambiguity | | 22:57–25:12 | Ozzie's last act, inputting the destination code, crossing over | | 25:40–30:40 | Hob's firing, Jara's compassion, clearing the crash site | | 31:00–33:40 | Founding the preserve, defensive declaration, “But it matters” | | 33:40–34:32 | Rest and closing exchange between Hob and Jara, CFM family in the distance |

Host Commentary (34:32–36:00)

• Tina Connolly reflects on the episode’s emotional and ethical complexity, citing particularly effective use of magical realism (the baby CFM), and the story's central moral question about complicity versus resistance.
• She draws a parallel with the “parable of the starfish”—emphasizing that individual acts of kindness or resistance, even if small and possibly futile in the larger scale, matter deeply to those affected.

Conclusion

"What Any Dead Thing Wants (Part 3)" masterfully explores grief, guilt, and resistance in the aftermath of ecological catastrophe. Hob and Ozzie’s journey underlines the loneliness and necessity of caring in a hostile system, suggesting that the smallest acts—preserving a scrap of life, sending a final message, making one more stand—are profoundly meaningful, even when the world refuses to change.

Summary written for those who have not listened. For complete context, starting with Part 1 is recommended.