Episode Overview

Podcast: It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton
Host: Wil Wheaton
Episode: "The Skin of a Teenage Boy is Not Alive" by Senaa Ahmad
Date: January 14, 2026

This episode of It’s Storytime with Wil Wheaton features Wil reading Sanaa Ahmad’s haunting and evocative short story "The Skin of a Teenage Boy is Not Alive." It’s a surreal, coming-of-age tale blending high school rites, friendship, and demons—literal and metaphorical. Wil frames the story with personal reflections on adolescence, and the episode concludes with his appreciation for Ahmad’s debut collection and his motives behind the podcast.

Key Discussion Points & Story Highlights

1. Wil’s Personal Connection to Teenage Angst

[02:01–05:20]

• Wil reflects on his own unique adolescent experience as a young TV actor, rarely amongst kids his own age, feeling pressured to ‘perform’ maturity before he was ready.
• He admits to struggling with shame over his perceived lack of maturity until he realized, “I didn’t have that maturity because it had not yet developed in my squishy young brain.”
• He draws parallels between his experience and universal teenage turmoil: “Our bodies are under assault from out of control hormone production. We are dead convinced that we are the first and last human who has ever felt this way…” (04:53, Wil Wheaton)

2. Setting the Scene: Introducing Ahmad’s Story

[05:40–06:30]

• Wil introduces "The Skin of a Teenage Boy is Not Alive" as a story about teenagers navigating identity, values, and belonging, with the added twist of a literal demon haunting their high school experience.
• Notable intro line: “They are trying to figure out who they are, what their values are, where they fit into the machinery of the clockwork that turns the universe. You know, normal teenage stuff. We’re also going to meet a demon who lives inside one of them.” (05:59, Wil Wheaton)

3. Story Summary: The Skin of a Teenage Boy is Not Alive (Sanaa Ahmad)

A. The Opening Trauma & Possession

[06:34–09:25]

• A high school party ends with Benny, part of a ‘demon cult’ of popular kids, leaping off a roof after being possessed during a ritual.
• “There is a face underneath his face and it is very, very old… He turns and climbs over the railing and walks off the roof. Just walks off the edge. Bam.” (08:20-08:37, Wil Wheaton via Ahmad)
• Benny survives, but the demonic presence lingers for months, if not years.

B. Friendship, Outsider Status, and Teenage Rituals

[12:00–20:00]

• Parveen, the quiet, skeptical narrator, and her best friend Aisha, are the only two brown girls in their class—practiced at being outsiders.
• Their friendship is painted with intimate, occasionally prickly details: “They invent their own language. Hello is a three note whistle… The middle finger. A classic. You’re being kind of a gonad.” (13:45, Wil Wheaton via Ahmad)
• Aisha attracts the interest of the cult kids after Benny’s fall, and Parveen is pointedly left out—a dynamic that reinforces her sense of exclusion.

C. Surreal High School Vignettes

Parade and Initiation [20:00–30:00]

• The story cycles through vividly described high school rituals: the Darwin Day parade, greasy cheeseburgers after the wrestling tournament, dances with macabre themes, and a strange, ambiguous ‘initiation’ ceremony where Aisha is inducted into the demon cult.
• “You’re in control of what you do next, aren’t you?” they ask Aisha; she nods: “Complete control,” she says. (29:32, Reading Ahmad)

D. The Demon’s Perspective & Universal Torment

[31:00–37:00]

• The story repeatedly returns to the demon’s perspective—trapped, frustrated, unwillingly inhabiting the skins of teens over decades.
• “He will try to snap the wrists of the teenager. He will try to punch open a window with its skull. He will try to combust its body… but it won’t change a thing.” (32:00, Reading Ahmad)
• The demon’s turmoil mirrors the adolescent agony—rage, yearning for escape, the sense of being a misfit in one’s own body.

E. Graduation, Memory, and Growing Up

[38:00–52:00]

• Both Parveen and Aisha graduate and pursue life, but the metaphoric (and sometimes literal) demons of adolescence persist.
• Their adult lives are filled with bittersweet victories, small moments of intimacy, bouts of nostalgia, and the ever-present sense of displacement.
• Even at their high school reunion, their bond and memories resurface with a mix of warmth and alienation: “Do you remember that time when you left the sleepover in the middle of the night? …It’s all in the past, right there with Spanish influenza and dot matrix printers, far away enough that it can’t make its way back to them.” (50:32, Reading Ahmad)

F. The Irresistible Compulsion & the Final Ritual

[52:00–59:00]

• At a senior bonfire party, the final attempt is made to free the demon by the cult kids, now joined by Parveen.
• In the mystical climax, Parveen describes how she alone remains untouched by the supernatural presence: “It does not want her back. It does not choose her. It passes her right by.” (58:17, Reading Ahmad)
• “Does it work? Does the demon escape? Of course it doesn’t work. There is no escape. Not for the demon, not for Parveen, not for any of them.” (58:49, Reading Ahmad)

4. Reflections on Adolescence, Demons, and Letting Go

[1:00:00–end]

• The story closes on Aisha’s future—raising her own children, watching them leapfrog from “6 to 17,” and feeling both nostalgia and relief when it’s over. But the demon, like the pains of youth, always returns: “They will try to escape these teenage bodies. Yes. They will try to turn into smoke and drift out of the ears… but there is no escape.” (1:03:16, Reading Ahmad)
• Repeated refrain: “See you later, alligator. In a while, crocodile.” (Multiple points, echoing the transience of youth)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Adolescence:
  • “Being a teenager can be rough, and I feel like adults just forget that our bodies are under assault from out of control hormone production.” (04:53, Wil Wheaton)
• On the Demon’s Rage:
  • “He will howl, yanking on the cords of this body's throat... but it won't change a thing.” (32:00, Reading Ahmad)
• On Friendship:
  • “They are kids on their way to being teenagers, certain that they are headed for somewhere better.” (13:57, Reading Ahmad)
• On Growing Up:
  • “She will wonder why she didn’t prize these when she was younger, and she will realize the obvious. She wouldn't have recognized intimacy if it was a 15 pound tabby clenched on the couch beside her on a Richter scale.” (41:40, Reading Ahmad)
• On Exclusion:
  • “She is the anomaly, the weirdo, the octopus at the dinner party. And she wants it. She wants it so badly. She has never known how wide this ocean of want could be.” (58:30, Reading Ahmad)
• On Letting Go:
  • “See you later, alligator. Seems it is that easy to say goodbye to an entire life, trapped and suddenly free, an anxious, rainbow throated hummingbird.” (42:57, Reading Ahmad)

Author and Podcast Mission Reflections

[1:05:30–1:10:30]

• Wil shares his motivation for the podcast, inspired by LeVar Burton and the wish to amplify emerging and genre authors who deserve wider recognition:
  • “My goal has been to elevate the voices of authors... in the mainstream normie world, they may not yet have been discovered by people who will absolutely love them.” (1:07:23, Wil Wheaton)
• Wil expresses excitement about Sanaa Ahmad’s debut collection, The Age of Calamities, encouraging listeners to “go find her work and support her directly.” (1:09:45, Wil Wheaton)
• The episode captures Wil’s warmth, admiration for new voices, and belief in the power of storytelling and empathy.

Episode Timestamps for Key Segments

• Wil’s personal teenage perspective: 02:01–05:20
• Story intro and context: 05:40–06:30
• Benny’s possession and party aftermath: 06:34–09:25
• Parveen & Aisha’s friendship, school rituals: 12:00–20:00
• Cult rituals and demon’s perspective: 20:00–37:00
• Reflections on growing up: 38:00–52:00
• Senior bonfire, final ritual, Parveen’s yearning: 52:00–59:00
• Story close & adult outlook: 1:00:00–1:04:00
• Wil’s post-story reflections & podcast mission: 1:05:30–1:10:30

Tone & Style

The episode maintains Wil’s conversational, empathetic, and sometimes wry tone, with Ahmad’s story delivered in vivid, lyrical, and occasionally abrasive prose full of surreal imagery and striking emotional clarity.

For Listeners Who Haven't Tuned In

This episode is a rich blend of chilling speculative fiction and unflinching emotional honesty about adolescence’s trials, told through both Wil Wheaton’s personal lens and Sanaa Ahmad’s evocative storytelling. It’s a meditation on the ways we’re haunted by the past, the awkwardness of growing up, and the “demons” (real and metaphorical) that cling to us—and are impossible to fully exorcise.