On this episode, special guest Neil Verma tries to show Jonathan what there is to love about old-time radio drama by playing him the classic 1948 drama The Thing on the Fourble Board by ⁠Wyllis Cooper⁠. 

CREDITS FOR “THE THING ON THE FOURBLE BOARD”

WRITER/DIRECTOR
PORKY
BILLY
TED
MIKE

Wyllis Cooper
Ernest Chappell
Dan Sutter
J. Pat O’Malley
Cecil Roy

You can hear more episodes of the classic anthology series Quiet Please here. You’ll also find information about the history of the program and its creators.

Here’s a ⁠link to Neil Verma’s essay about The Thing on the Fourble Board⁠.

Neil also has two books you might enjoy:

⁠Theater of the Mind⁠, a study of how American radio drama from the 1930s–50s developed its own narrative grammar through voice, space, sound, and psychology to create an intimate, interior “theater” uniquely suited to the medium.

⁠Narrative Podcasting in an Age of Obsession⁠, an examination of how contemporary narrative podcasts, from true crime to fiction to documentary hybrids, use style, structure, intimacy, and serialized attention-engineering to shape our current culture of listening and fixation.