Uncanny Robot: AI Meets Old Time Radio Drama

We spent all last month filling in the world's longest and most detailed application for a multi-week accelerator training program designed to "help mid-career podcasters 'level up' with a renewed focus on business development, audience growth, optionality, video strategies, and long-term sustainability." Hey, that's exactly what we need! They said they're looking for "applicants that have already been producing media and podcasts for at least 3 years. Specifically, creators looking to take a current podcast past creative development and into business strategy." That's us! Applicants "must be able to demonstrate success and enthusiasm with current or past podcast(s) either through audience retention and growth, conceptual rigor, diversification of podcast offerings, revenue and/ or partnerships" That's us too! Also, applicants "must be willing to pause production during the program," "represent a range of geographies, backgrounds, views, voices, and styles," have "baseline technical and editorial skills," and be "interested in making their podcast sustainable through teamwork, openness to iteration and change, and pursuing revenue and audience growth." That's four more yeses! We figured we'd be a shoe-in for the program. ...we weren't. The rejection email arrived yesterday. But we did spend weeks creating a bitchin' Hollywood blockbuster cinematic audio trailer for our Asteroid Arnie episode and a mock interview episode to answer their questions: 1. Explain to us what this podcast, brand, and/or creative project would look like in its most fully realized form. 2. What are the key accomplishments and milestones you are striving to reach? 3. If you had unlimited resources and support, where would you take it? The way we figure, they're both pretty darn good pieces of audio we spent a long time making, so why let them go to waste? Enjoy! [Promo] A Happy Bureaucracy: Dark humor abounds as a tax agent tries to tame a post-apocalyptic hellscape. https://pod.link/1606645977 Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/B0B7AO84P Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

Hey, guess what: It turns out lots of people wish April Fool's Day would die in a fire. It's a good thing this definitely is not an April Fool's episode. Nope, no-sir-ree. Never was. Don't believe the rumors that we replaced the original with a version that has all references to April Fool's removed. Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/B0B7AO84P Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

The Stinky Lollies are out to exterminate the Mushiblooms. Can Asteroid Arnie and Princess Moom-a-Roof save them from certain death? Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/B0B7AO84P Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

The sound design for our next episode is taking a LONG time. It's going to be around 30 minutes total and each five minutes worth of music and sound effects takes a full day to complete. I wish I could work faster, but you can't simply sh*t these things out. We try to get every millisecond just right because we want people to enjoy listening to our episodes over and over, like the classic comedy albums we grew up with. To hold you over, here's the first scene of "Asteroid Arnie and the Mushiblooms." You're going to love this one, I promise. If you can find it in your heart to support us in some way, we'd be forever grateful. Please tell friends, family, co-workers, Uber drivers, random strangers in the supermarket, etc. that you enjoy listening to our stories as much as enjoy making them. This isn't the kind of podcast people are searching for. Nobody's Googling "AI-written stories read by humans podcast." We also have a Patron and Ko-Fi: https://patreon.com/thersamatsuura/ https://ko-fi.com/B0B7AO84P And a Discord. https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb It's for both Uncanny Japan and Uncanny Robot listeners. I share a lot of behind the scenes stuff because I love talking shop. Remember the DVDs that had a commentary track? That used to be my favorite part of renting a movie. So hold on—Asteroid Arnie, Moomaroof and the full cast of Mushiblooms are coming soon. It's going to be a really fun ride! Rich Pav

Terrie and Rich discuss the Valentine's Day episode. Please listen to Episode 3 before listening to this one! Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan (Yes, it's for Uncanny Japan; it all ends up in the same place.) Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

A heartwarming, futuristic dystopian tale of love, redemption, robot cameras and lots of explosions. Trigger warning: Lots of explosions. Other trigger warnings for this episode are on the website, but these days, this is a big one. Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan (Yes, it's for Uncanny Japan; it all ends up in the same place.) Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

Elvis and Jim Morrison have been alive all this time. Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan (Yes, it's for Uncanny Japan; it all ends up in the same place.) Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb Music Credits Happy Whistling Ukulele by Rafael Krux Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5453-happy-whistling-ukulele- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Little Trolls by Frank Schröter Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/8104-little-trolls License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Play along as we teach you how to generate your own AI story: https://6b.eleuther.ai/ The prompt: Once upon a time there were three bears: a momma bear, a papa bear and a baby bear. They lived in a little cottage in a big forest. One day, papa bear was standing in front of the bathroom mirror and noticed that he had the first ever grey strand of fur on the top of his head.

Memories Of Death: A dead man talks about what it's like to be dead. You Remind Me of Someone: A vampire contemplates his crimes in a church graveyard. Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio editor/sound designer Rich Pav. Their other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan (Yes, it's for Uncanny Japan; it all ends up in the same place.) Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb

Listen to a fine collection of surreal and hilarious AI-generated short stories. This is the trailer for the episode "Asteroid Arnie and the Mushiblooms."  Uncanny Robot is Bram Stoker Finalist and Clarion West 2015 graduate Thersa Matsuura and audio engineer designer Rich Pav. Our other shows are Uncanny Japan and The Soothing Stories Podcast. Check out Terrie's books including The Carp-Faced Boy on Amazon. Our website has trigger warnings and transcripts for every episode. If you'd like to help support the show, please visit Patreon. Support us on Ko-Fi (one-time contribution): https://ko-fi.com/B0B7AO84P Join our subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/uncannyrobotpodcast Website: https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyRobot Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyrobotpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgdzFk8yoR1pQp2HpHArrgA Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb