The NoSleep Podcast – Season 23 Episode 23 (S23E23)

Date: December 14, 2025
Host: David Cummings
Produced by: Creative Reason Media Inc.

Overview

This atmospheric episode of The NoSleep Podcast continues its tradition of original, chilling horror stories designed to unsettle and entertain. S23E23 features three haunting narratives centered around monstrous beings and the complications of human relationships—with the episode’s signature blend of darkly evocative narration, immersive voice acting, and original sound design.
The stories invite listeners to explore uncanny creatures—from legendary cryptids and mournful aliens to body horror lurking in family homes—all hinting at deeper truths about fear, connection, and loss.

Episode Structure & Key Stories

Opening: Brothers of the Night and Cryptid Legends

[00:02 – 04:45]

• Atmospheric Framing: The episode opens with a fictional late-night radio segment, “Brothers of the Night” on WNSP, setting an eerie tone and transitioning from cryptid folk tales into the world of NoSleep.
• Local Legend: A caller reminisces about the “Swamp Man” legend of old Virginia, contrasting local folklore with modern cryptid tales. He sings an old, haunting song about the Swamp Man:

  "There's a swamp man living deep down in the bog. / He’ll attack ye when the night turns deep and dark / He lives down in old Virginny and he’ll get ye and he’ll skin ye..."
  — [03:39], Anonymous Old Timer

• Notable Moment: The blending of local storytelling and a scratchy recording of the Swamp Man song evokes both nostalgia and unease, setting up the episode’s themes of creatures unseen and stories untold.

Host Introduction & Season News

[04:45 – 10:27]

• David Cummings greets listeners and toys with the spooky numerology of “six-six-six,” before laying out plans for the coming weeks:
  • Next week’s finale (Ep24) will be a thematic feature by Gemma Amor.
  • Christmas Day will drop two annual Christmas horror episodes.
  • The team will then take a rare weekend off, with bonus and hiatus episodes to follow in January, and Season 24 launching February 1st.

“It’s a good thing the NoSleep team is composed of entities that are human-creature hybrids. No mere humans could provide all that content.”
— [08:31], David Cummings

• Teaser: This episode’s stories focus on “creatures that will make your days horrifying and your nights sleepless,” and they move well beyond traditional monsters.

Story 1: “There’s Only One Thing I Want” by Matt Georgson

[10:27 – 28:07]

Summary

A scientist brings his young son, Harry, to a secret lab to view a captured alien—an unassuming, fist-sized, tentacled gray blob. What begins as a tense father-son visit rapidly morphs into a telepathic plea for help from the imprisoned creature, who calls herself Aili. As Harry is drawn into the alien's desperate desire to return home to her own child, lines between compassion, manipulation, and vengeance blur—with haunting consequences for the family.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Parental Abuse and Cycles of Violence:
  The relationship between Harry and his father is strained and hinting at violence. The motif of respect, inherited from father to son, highlights inherited trauma.

• Alien Empathy and Manipulation:
  Aili’s telepathy, her pleas for mercy, and her claims of suffering create ambiguity—is she truly sympathetic, or manipulating the receptive child?

• Symbiotic Horror:
  The alien fuses with Harry, guiding his actions and bestowing unnatural strength—driving Harry toward a final confrontation with his father.

Notable Quotes

“Your mind is open and beautiful. Your father and the other men… Their minds are closed and hard. Harry, you must rescue me.”
— [15:03], Aili (the alien)

“Aili, after I rescue you, will we ever see each other again?”
“Yes, I will always be here with you.”
— [24:00], Harry & Aili

“Okay, so what is it the alien wants, Harry?”
“Revenge.”
— [27:46], Harry & his Father

Memorable Moment

The horror crystallizes as Harry, under the alien’s influence, brandishes a screwdriver at his abusive father—raising unnerving questions about agency and retribution.

Story 2: “Mothers Without Children” by Andrew Cosma

[32:57 – 55:05]

Summary

A support group for pregnant women deals with a surreal epidemic: every member is visibly pregnant, yet there are no fetuses. The regular ritual—“the game”—is supposed to provide comfort, but as their bellies expand and haunting dreams accumulate, the truth behind their condition becomes terrifyingly clear.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Exploration of Motherhood & Loss:
  The story interrogates the emotional toll—and contradictions—of pregnancy, expectation, and the sense of emptiness when that expectation is unfulfilled.

• Ritual as Horror:
  The “game” involves physical and psychological connection, touch, and communal vulnerability, but also becomes a vehicle for something ancient and dangerous lurking beneath the surface.

• Body Horror & Consumption:
  The climax transforms the familiar (group therapy, the body) into the horrific: bellies invert, black voids appear, something monstrous emerges, and the counselor’s predatory joy is revealed.

Notable Quotes

“Our bellies were watermelons... our lovers rested their heads on our stomachs and imagined they could hear the ocean through our skin.”
— [33:11], Nanette (Narrator)

“The game had no name at first, but Molly called it Mothers Without Children and that was that. The counselor explained that the game would help us deal with contradictions. It would counter any feelings of identity loss we were having as our bodies were turned to another use.”
— [39:27], Nanette

“Across the circle I saw Molly... her pregnant belly sunk into her, hollowed out like the hole an ice cream scoop leaves behind... a dark liquid dripped from the edges of Molly's lips... In them I saw eagerness. I recognized hunger.”
— [54:24], Nanette

Memorable Moment

During the final “game,” women’s bellies collapse into black voids, monstrous forms emerge, and the group is trapped, watched over by a counselor whose hunger is not metaphorical but predatory.

Story 3: “A Mercy” by Emma E. Murray

[58:05 – 77:18]

Summary

A teenage boy, tasked with babysitting both his brother and comatose grandfather, witnesses the unintended side effects of a mysterious new medication. As the grandfather’s body transforms, the family faces a confrontation with mortality and mercy, played out in a sequence of body horror, familial dread, and bittersweet relief.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Caretaking Fatigue & Ambivalence:
  The narrator’s conflicted feelings about his grandfather’s care—simultaneously tender and wanting release—drive the emotional tension.

• Grotesque Rebirth:
  The grandfather becomes a slithering, nerve-like creature, both pitiable and terrifying, inverting expectations of resurrection or medical recovery.

• Merciful Release:
  In a final act, the boys return their grandfather’s transformed form to his comatose body and shut down the machines, granting him the peace that duty and medicine had denied.

Notable Quotes

“There are days I can talk to him like he's still Grandpa, but other times he's just something that lays comatose on the bed. Part of me wants this new cure to work... but another, darker part of me wants him to die already.”
— [59:11], Grandson/Narrator

“My brother's ear splitting shriek rings out behind me... the stringy thing following us... a thicker tangle like a spine that opens at the front to a bulbous hollow reminiscent of a head, pulsing and writhing with millions of connected smaller things.”
— [65:48], Narrator

“It's not a monster. God, I'm such an idiot. It's just Grandpa. That thing is not Grand— Yes, it is. And he's in pain. He's asking for help; I'm sure of it.”
— [72:25], Narrator

“Oh Dad, I wanted that new medicine to work so badly, but maybe it just made everything hurt more. I'm so sorry.”
— [76:59], Mom

Memorable Moment

The revelation that the monstrous, crawling form is the grandfather’s consciousness seeking freedom—and the boys' decision to mercy him—embodies NoSleep’s signature blend of horror and heartbreak.

Episode Closing: Announcements and Credits

[78:05 – end]

• David Cummings signs off, reminding listeners to stay safe, stay secured, and stay sleepless.
• Credits list out the creative team, production details, and copyright policies, bookending the nightmarish fiction with a sense of creative community.

Overall Tone & Takeaways

This episode epitomizes NoSleep’s brand of horror—rooted in the primal fears of the unknowable other, familial trauma, and the dangers lurking both outside and within. The tone is by turns melancholic, menacing, and reflective, never letting the listener escape the weight of the stories’ emotional realities.

For New Listeners

• You do not need to know previous seasons to enjoy this episode, but its blend of gothic storytelling, strong performances, and creative tragic horror is a perfect entry point.
• The stories offer a mixture of domestic horror, science fiction, and folk terror, each with a twist that unsettles both the mind and heart.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Cryptid Valley & Swamp Man Urban Legend Intro: [00:02 – 04:45]
• Host News, Season Finale Announcements: [04:45 – 10:27]
• Story 1 — “There’s Only One Thing I Want”: [10:27 – 28:07]
• Story 2 — “Mothers Without Children”: [32:57 – 55:05]
• Story 3 — “A Mercy”: [58:05 – 77:18]
• Credits/Outro: [78:05 – end]

For more sleepless tales and holiday horror, follow The NoSleep Podcast and keep the lights on.