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Bobby's Snacks Vol. 49: Still Around
Bob Raymonda
September 18, 2026
Happy #FictionPodcastFriday Friends!
Wow. It’s sure been a minute. This summer has absolutely flown by, and as much as I didn’t plan to go dark for as long as I have, life had other ideas. I’m just under 3 weeks into my official unemployment at the moment, and I’ll be honest with you all: it’s had me pretty deep in despair. Both the lead up to the final day at my last gig and the ever dwindling prospects that seemed to be in front of me. There were a few opportunities I was convinced were a lock the last time you heard from me, but that quickly proved to be untrue between being a second choice and being outright ghosted by another company I’d already met with several times. It’s a brutal market out there right now, which shouldn’t come as a surprise who has been on the job hunt in even the most cursory of ways in the last few years.
I try desperately not to link my own feelings of personal worth or value to the amount of revenue I’m generating for a larger corporation. The work that I do, this work: of creating and consuming art, and doing my best to spread its joy with the wider world—that is a thing I can safely say that I’m proud of. And while it hasn’t given me the opportunity to earn enough to pay my mortgage (yet!), it’s wildly fulfilling stuff. Add that into being a new parent with a nearly one and a half year old who continues to surprise and delight me every day? And I think I’m doing pretty damn well, all things considered.
That said: I’ve got to figure out my way forward. And my first step right now is getting back into the groove of being myself. Working on my own podcasts and talking about the other ones that I adore. I’m officially going to go back to a bi-weekly cadence here with my regular snacks, if in a truncated format (no more than 4 spotlight shows and 1 update about whatever I’m currently working on or releasing), and also launching both a paid tier called Bobby’s Morsels and launching ad-supported free-posts. I plan on doing weekly deep dives, and in doing so, sometimes breaking out past my historical niche of strictly fiction podcasts so I can finally catch up on all that great narrative work that’s out there. I’ll also be recording monthly podcast interviews with creators I admire, which will only be available to paid subscribers.
So if this work that I’ve been doing in the last few years has meant anything to you. Please consider subscribing. Or at least maybe clicking an ad. You’d be doing me an enormous favor and helping me put more increasingly-expensive food on the table for my increasingly-hungry toddler.
On that note, let’s get back to it:
Getting a press email from Adam Cecil about another release from his Local Files Club is always a treat. A. Yeshaiek’s Oliver Green is a deeply flawed would-be standup comic performing in the bar area of a Queens shawarma joint, only: he isn’t very funny. He’s clearly disturbed by the path that he’s taken to get to this exact moment, and obsessed with finding a way to go back and right every perceived wrong that created the disappointment he views himself as. I never heard the original 2021 edition, but I can say: the addition of the epilogue, as well as the additional set from Oliver, in this remixed and remastered version makes the whole thing sing. There’s so much visceral anger and seething resentment that Green feels for all of his past and future selves, so getting to experience a brief moment of catharsis was well worthwhile. So glad I took a listen to this one, and still so impressed by the team’s commitment to encouraging folks to show direct support to artists by purchasing the RAW audio itself, rather than relying on an ad-supported RSS feed. Excited for the fourth release, which is just around the corner now!
Speaking of files that are available through bandcamp rather than a traditional RSS, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the latest collaboration between Ella Watts and Amber Devereaux at Tin Can Audio. This post-apocalyptic micro-fiction series about a pilot in a drowned future making dangerous flights across the expanse of endless ocean in order to find her lost loves is breathtaking. Beginning with a score that uses Morse code to beautiful and stylistic effect, propped up by luscious sound design, and anchored finally by performances that are out of this world. Ferah Ahmet effortlessly embodies the winsome loneliness and misbegotten hope that comes during a situation so dire, and pushes through the storm clouds in order to ensure there’s not a single chance that the multiple objects of her queer/polly affection are lost forever. The show IS releasing weekly via RSS for you now, but if it were up to me you’d do it like I did and tear through it all in one gorgeous sitting.
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DJ Sylvis spent four seasons showing us why they were a master of their craft with Moonbase Theta, Out, so you could have forgiven them from staying out of space for awhile after that. And sure, for the first full length season of this show, they did: while October was a fantastical setting full of moth men and kaiju and all other manners of cryptids, they were pretty explicitly tied to the celestial body they all inhabited together. Until, of course, our star crossed lovers Yvonne and Karo decide to accompany their friend Hodag on a journey to that great big ball in the sky. My favorite part about this premiere is how off-kilter it remains. Sure, we might be going to space, but we’re certainly not taking a rocket to get there. Instead? We’ll be boarding a small capsule that will be effectively pinballed off planet and directly onto our nearest neighbor in the sky. It’s such a fun sequence and promises plenty more delightful adventures to come.
The Kingmaker Chronicles and Killjam XXX are two sides of the same very ridiculous coin. The former is a magical steampunk journey through Victorian London, whereas the latter is a blood soaked romp through gladiatorial reality TV in a near future. There’s no reason that the two should mesh together so perfectly, and yet in this feature length special, they do. Sure, they’re both produced by the same core team, so their matched sensibilities should come as no surprise, but it’s the disparate settings and characters that make this such an odd couple crossover. Time travel shenanigans trap our erstwhile trio of thieves in the future with their own main antagonists hot on their tails, and are aided by one foul mouthed fighter and her meek but enterprising manager. I had a blast through all the bits of action, suspense, and body horror. But you all should know me well enough to know that my favorite scene is when Josh Rubino gets to act against himself as both Roger Talarico and Telesphore. chef’s kiss
There is a reason Jonathan Mitchell’s speculative fiction anthology made it to Apple Podcasts’ lists of the top 20 podcasts from the last 20 years last year. But what’s so amazing to me is that they’re still doing some of the most vital storytelling in narrative audio, releasing some of the best stories they’ve ever told, now. Hunter Nelson’s script for The Back Row is so clever in its entire journey. The story of a junior associate listening to a self help audiobook on the plane ride to an annual company retreat, only to realize his psyche is being flung ever forward into the bodies of his fellow passengers is already brilliant, but it’s the twist that cinches it as one of my all time favorite episodes of the show. But I’m not going to spoil it here! You genuinely have to hear it yourself. Just know that those final few seconds, after our protagonists last jump? Had me grinning from ear to ear.
My one big summer project, listening-wise, was doing a marathon of our own show. Our fourth season is premiering next month after a long delay (our team had two babies and started a job as a university professor collectively). What struck me was how much we’ve grown in the six years since we first premiered. That first season? It’s bold and weird and specific, but it’s nothing like what the show has become in the years since. Through holiday specials, crossovers, and trips outside the church, the world of the St. Patrick’s community has continued to expand and change. Are there things I’d change? If I’m allowing myself to nitpick? For sure. A few continuity errors, maybe a line read or two, but truthfully? I’m so happy with this tiny messy universe we’ve created where kindness and trying (and often failing) to be the best version of yourself are at the most important things you could ever do. Check out our feed now to catch up on some previously Patreon-exclusive minisodes, and a recap episode out in just a few weeks, before our next 13 episode season begins.
BONUS SNACK
When I discovered that Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans were releasing a followup to their brilliant 20 issue original series, I was in from the jump. That original run introduced us to a horrifying cosmic alternate reality where an entinty outside of our understanding creates an endless world of excitement and entertainment, in the hopes of never allowing us to go home. It’s equal parts Dungeons & Dragons meets Jumanji, and what’s even more special this time around is that our adventuring party is made up of novices in the world of roleplaying. Rather than a core group of kids who have adventured together for years, this is a group of mere acquaintances stumbling their way through this simultaneously horrifying/exhilarating new reality. And reader? Some of them are handling it quite a bit better than the others.