Fiction podcasts & Sudan

recs no.12

Welcome to the 12th (and maybe last) edition of Recs! It’s been a year of me recommending things to you. Thank you for reading my rants about things I’m fascinated by. I don’t have much to share today. Let’s get into it.

Borrasca

I got into fiction podcasts last year after a friend recommended it and I still can’t get over the fact that they exist. Before that, I enjoyed podcasts and audiobooks, but this is a blend of both. The best way I can explain fiction podcasts is a TV series—with the storyline, the actors, the sound effects and soundtracks—minus the visuals.

I’ve had so much fun with them (listening to them and doing chores or crocheting makes everything much more interesting), but none have taken me on a chaotic journey like Borrasca has.

Borrasca is a psychological thriller starring Cole Sprouse as Sam Walker, the main character. In the present, Sam is an ex-convict who meets with his parole officer weekly to test his urine for heroin and talk about the events of his past that brought him to where he is, including his sister’s disappearance.

The story shuffles between the present—with Sam narrating his story to his parole officer and navigating his heroin addiction—and the past where we meet pre-teen Sam who has just moved to Drisking, a small town, with his family.

Not too long after moving, Sam is with his new friends, Kimber and Kyle, when he hears a frightening sound from the mountains which the town folk refer to as ‘the scream.’ After some cajoling, Sam’s new friends tell him about Borrasca—the place where bad things happen. They tell him that every time they hear ‘the scream’, the town’s kids throw a party in the mountain and then someone goes missing. A few weeks go by and Sam’s sister, Whitney, goes missing. The series follows Sam and his friends, Kimber and Kyle, trying to uncover the twisted secrets of the town.

It’s an extremely captivating story and I find it so intriguing how much emotions, drama and thrill can be conveyed solely through audio.

The story was originally written by C.K Walker in a Reddit thread before it was produced as a podcast. There are two seasons and you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Let me know if you give it a listen and if you’re not convinced yet, check out the trailer below:

a section where we step away from ourselves & into the plights of others

Sudan

With over eight million people being displaced, according to the UN, Sudan is facing “one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.” And on Monday, a United Nations agency said Sudan is at a ‘breaking point.’ At least half of the displaced persons are children and people have been forced to eat grass as some refugee camps are experiencing famine.

If you’re looking to find more info about the civil war in Sudan or donate to the cause, Keep Eyes On Sudan is a website run by the Sudanese diaspora that urges the world not to ignore what is going on there. It has a collection of vetted fundraisers seeking donations for the people of Sudan and a curation of resources such as articles, videos, and podcasts to educate people on what’s happening.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed this or resonated with something. The newsletter is going through some changes and this is a heads up because this might be the last Recs I send out. But more information on that next month. Till then and thank you so much for being here. Enjoy the rest of your month <3