Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Episode 600 - The Bus (Patreon)

Published:
2022-06-17 18:11:51
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Downloads

Content

Join us for a ride on The Bus by Shirley Jackson!

Special thanks to reader Heather Klinke!

Next up: The Vengeance of Nitocris by Tennessee Williams

Comments

G. Gorgo

Our society has so much loathing for elderly people. Elderly women are particularly reviled, especially when they have the temerity to want basic respect. I was afraid this episode was going to go that route, so I really appreciated Chad's empathy towards the protagonist.

GG2025

ImI officially have a new new favourite writer: Shirley Jackson rules! The way she cut through the Möbius strip of arriving at Rickets Landings again is genius. I just love how you guys have introduced me to new writers and to new sides of writers I thought I already knew.

Ratchbox

Congratulations on 600 episodes guys! Another great story and a great episode! I've just finished relistening to all the podcasts from the beginning so the timing on this one was excellent. I'm going to be sad to see the end of the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast, you've introduced me to so much amazing (and sometimes not so amazing) weird fiction, but I can't wait to see where you go next with Strange Studies! I'm particularly looking forward to you covering Terry Pratchett, as I'm a huge fan of his! In fact, his occasional dabblings into Lovecraftian waters was probably my first introduction to cosmic horror. The Necrotelicomnicon - the Discworlds equivalent of the mad Arab's tome - used to make me chuckle even before I fully understood the reference! Anyway.. may you continue for another 600 episodes and beyond!

Jeff C. Carter

Congratulations to everyone at Strange Studies/HPLLP! Thank you for brightening 600 of my days.

Background Noise Comic

There is nothing so Lovecraftian as taking an overnight bus trip on a razor thin budget. Congratulations on your 600th episode, looking forward to 600 more (then, the world ends).

Erik Sieurin

Thanks for your great work! I myself find travelling a chore and a horror, and I totally understand having a phobia of being lost - and I understand the sadeness of those around you losing their memories, their sense of self. Great story, great treatment!

Charles Dexter Weird

Congratulations on 600 consistently high quality and entertaining episodes! This story really taps into the anxiety inducing helplessness of a stress dream. Reminds me of a reoccurring dream I used to have where I was stuck in traffic for a seemingly infinite amount of time and I was so concerned that no one knew where I was. The Bus was perhaps not an extremely weird story but definitely creeped me out..

Carter Stepper

Great episode gents, thanks as always. I also started this story thinking she was a bit of a Karen, but quickly came to see she was simply frightened and felt helpless in a world that, as Chad put it, wasn’t made for her. I know I too could feel that way someday, old and more feeble, and that thought experiment certainly makes her more relatable. Call me a priest (cause I am), but a little charity, a little forgiveness, a little kindness goes a long way, whether as a service worker or a customer (I’m also a laborer, a bivocational minister, so I’m not speaking from an ivory tower here). On another note, I just finished the short story collection “The Lottery and Other Stories,” and have some observations about Jackson. None of her stories are truly “weird,” and I could see how some might even not want to call them horror, but I think they are; their vibe, as it were, is more unsettling, discomfiting, uncanny without being supernatural. It’s situations that are utterly believable, yet deeply disturbing the longer you think about them. I think you’d definitely benefit from reading the whole collection but for the show, not only the Lottery but The Witch would be an excellent choice, or maybe The Daemon Lover. It’s definitely caused me to broaden my perspective on what counts as horror, and honestly the longer I sit with her collection the more it disturbs me, which must mean it’s good!

Louis Hobbs

I was in my early 40s when I realized I had become an NPC in a game played by young people. I was invisible unless they needed to interact with me as part of their adventure.

KateSherrod

I really liked the lively, honest and spirited disagreement at the beginning of this episode. I never thought I'd say this, but I kind of love it when my horror daddies fight (because we all know it's not actually a fight). Except, wait, I know I'm older than both of you. I guess there's been another accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Please do Hill House soon, Strangers. And We Have Always Lived in the Castle!

FB

Great show! My mom is also in a similar situation, and she does often mix up the home she's in now with one she moved out of years ago. This story and The Hospice certainly seem to describe what seems to be going on in the mind of someone whose faculties are failing pretty accurately. Some memories or fears do seem to repeat from time to time (she’ll be worried that she forgot to pay the bills until we remind her that we’ve been dealing with that for her... and then a few weeks later she’ll suddenly be worried about it again.) We've been lucky that she's not having upsetting experiences often, and she knows who we all are. The important thing is not to argue or try to correct, but just accept that this is their reality now.

Jake Wilson

The young men accepting the tips from an old woman in distress was another thing that stood out for me. When I was in my early 20s, long-haired and leather clad, I was walking through town on a hot day when the wind suddenly got very strong. I looked to my left and saw a frail old woman making eye contact with me as she was blown backwards and fell over. I rushed over to help her up and she started talking about her husband but seemed very confused, possibly dehydrated or perhaps suffering from dementia. I had no idea what to do so I started walking her back to the town centre in the hope of finding her husband. Luckily, a man spotted us and could see something was wrong. He was a manager at a shop just around the corner so we all walked there together very slowly. At the shop several people immediately jumped up to help. Arms supported her, a chair was found and someone went for water, all within a few seconds. The old woman was gently taken off my hands, literally, and led into the shop while I stood just outside the door. As we parted her eyes were fixed on mine and there was a kind of urgency there I only understood when I saw she was trying to open her purse. It dawned on me with a kind of horror that she was attempting to get some money out to pay me for not leaving her lying in the street. Unlike those two young men in the story, I told her she didn't need to give me anything. Accepting money in those circumstances seems very wrong to me. Offering money in the first place suggests both women felt obligated to reward common decency.

Illegal_Structures

Congrats on the big 600! 🥳 HPLLP has been one of my favorite podcasts, ever since I discovered you guys during your initial run of Lovecraft stories. I even wrote you a fan e-mail back in the day (2010?), saying how much I loved the show and what a pleasure it was to hear a new conversation each week about one of my all-time favorite writers. I still remember your response: you loved having me as a listener. Thank you, guys, for so many hours of listening pleasure. Keep up the great work and I look forward to the next 600!

BaeOfPigs

“Young people are dumb, reckless, and mean” As opposed to…adults?

Patrick Lackey

I was on a bus in copenhagen and the drive infromed me that he was not a taxi...i slight horror story

Nicholas Sturch-Flint

Congrats on 600! My interpretation of the story was that she has alzheimers or dimentia. She is going out for her day, and coming home everyday, no time loop, she just forgets. Maybe the street name changed at some point, or she's living in a home, or whatever you may and these weird creepy moments and her spending money is more her mind filling in the gaps of what she can't quite remember. "Im out of ten bucks, i must have given it to those boys"

Karlandos

You know, since the restriction on what you can cover has been lifted why not cover stories as by they appear in Weird Tales and the edition/magazines they appear in. I'm sure there is plenty of content to be had by possibly seeing what stories were made when and when that magazine came out and what was going on in the world.

Falconhoof

The writing in this story was really effective. The strange, repetitive dialogue and anxiety-inducing situations gave it the feel of a Franz Kafka novel. Chad's mention of his sister's travel phobia reminds me of a time I was backpacking in China. Due to some confusion with similar-sounding station names (and me not speaking Chinese), I accidentally disembarked my train in the wrong town. I was travelling without a smartphone and the place was too small and rural to have an internet cafe. It was late in the evening, so I found the only guesthouse in town and decided to get a room and figure things out in the morning. However, there was a huge thunderstorm during the night, which knocked out the power. I had already spent all my cash on the room and the ATM wasn't working to withdraw more money for a new train ticket. I explained my predicament to the guesthouse owner and the staff at the train station, but this was the middle of nowhere and none of them spoke English. It's the kind of scenario I used to have nightmares about. But while it was actually happening, I was surprised how amusing I found it all

Steve

Here's to the next 600 years!

Richard Horsman

I read this story during a weekend getaway to Grand Rapids, during which we got lost repeatedly because Waze didn't believe our hotel was where it actually was. I felt reality and fairness slipping away from me as we went round and round the same block, almost approaching our hotel, almost SEEING it and then, woosh...no hotel. No hotel and Waze telling me "here's your hotel! GO TO BED OLD MAN". I related a lot.

Jim Cannon

What an effective ending. You think you're getting the Only a Dream Escape Clause and breathe a sigh of relief, then BAM! it's so much worse than you thought.

Ravewolf

Everyone has a podcast now, but Witch House Media was doing it before it was cool. Congratulations on such a long and successful run. The mix of analysis and humor here is still kind of unique. So many other casts of the type are only about movie versions of stories, are too distracted by talking about how their weekends went for thirty minutes, only recount a story or react to it like a React channel or, conversely, are too dry and academic. But this cast always has just the right balance of the analytical, the personal, and the humorous. As such, it does more in thirty minutes than many others do in two hours.

Donny Bliss

Years ago on the show Romper Room the host would end each episode by gazing through an enchanted mirror (hand mirror with a hole where the glass would be). She would call out children, by name, saying she could see them having a good day. I was absolutely horrified when she stared into my soul through the screen and said she could see Donny. In frenzied terror I ran from the room screaming and couldn't ever watch the end of Romper Room again. So you can imagine my shock and horror when Chad read my name and thanked me as a Patron on this episode. It was like Romper Room all over. Seriously, after listening for 11 years it was an honor to hear my name on the show. Thanks for all the great stories.

Derrick Mcmullin

This story hit me harder after your analysis of it. I recently started a job where i am required to travel to work sites and stay there for the week. Sometimes these sites can be over seven hours away from my house. I often wonder what would happen to me if I encounter car trouble or other problems that far away. I know intellectually that i could handle them but the thought of being that far away without any nearby support is scary. Also my job got so used to my predecessor knowing where everything is that they weren't always specific about where they were sending me. I lived in fear of showing up and realizing that i had gone to the wrong place and the real place being several hundred miles away.

Andrew Brown

For me this is horror. Horror for me isn’t zombies and vampires (how do they poop???) or alien horrors but the stuff like this. Powerlessness and hopelessness and endlessness. The endlessness of this and of The Fires Still Burn, that’s horror.

Samantha Hickey

Congrats on reaching 600, and thank you! This episode has given me the push I needed to go listen to the Shirley Jackson short stories audiobook I picked up a while ago and haven’t got around to.

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

Many congratulations - and thanks! - to you both on 600 truly remarkable episodes! I do hope you get better soon, Chris. I'd just like to add that I'm not sure the old woman is actually saying all of the things she reports saying. She thinks she is. But she may be objectively mumbling or incoherent. This goes some way toward understanding why others react to her as they do. Understanding is hard.

Trond Helstrup Poulsen

Congrats on the 600! Rooted for you ever since I came on board at like episode 120 and devoured your backlog. Sorry to hear about the Covid. It gets us all, eventually. But what brought you Denmarks way and why didn’t you hold court while here?

Adequately Excellent Entertainment

The way she called out, “Mommy!” After being rejected by her childhood toys will haunt me for the rest of my life

Doc Singles

Copied from the University of Michigan Health website: "Capgras syndrome, also known as Capgras delusion, is the irrational belief that a familiar person or place has been replaced with an exact duplicate." My grandmother suffered from this, and I've read that a possible reason for this delusion is that there is no emotional response upon seeing these familiar people and places, which has been blocked by the degeneration of her brain.

Doc Singles

For me the horror in this story is being isolated and having to rely on people for help in a world where no one would bat and eye were you to drop dead on the spot. That's why I'm am going to make a short-lived senior (in the not too distant future!). To quote Charlie Daniels, " I ain't asking nobody for nothin' If I cant get it on my own".

Matthew Bizzell

Chad, you mentioned you somehow missed Jackson's "The Lottery" even with an English degree, so I thought I'd share that I also have one of those and we were encouraged _not_ to read the story--so, of course, we all did. Was that their plan, all along? Chris, rest up and feel better!

Phil Jensen

Belle: "Hell you say"... "Hell".... sounds like this is Hell...

Pete Williams

Congrats on episode 600. Looking ahead does this mean 666 will drop around Halloween 2023?