Breaker Whiskey

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Well, I’ve done it, I’ve been to Nebraska. [click, static] I can’t say it’s really all that different from Kansas. That’s true of every state crossing, I guess. The borders feel especially arbitrary out here, all straight lines and perfect corners. The roads are all so straight too. Though I have started to wander more, dipping into suburbs and rural areas, keeping my eyes peeled. [click, static] I was gonna head back through Kansas the way I came before I start West again. I thought...I don’t know, it can’t hurt to go past where I saw that dog one more time and see if I can catch him again. [click, static] I keep running through it in my head, what would I say if I actually saw a person in flesh and blood. I didn’t really get to choose my first words to you, Birdie, because I was just speaking to...the concept of humanity I guess, but seeing someone in person would be different, wouldn’t it. [click, static] I’d start with my name maybe. Say it was good to see them because it would be good to see them. Ask them their name, ask if they’re okay, where they’re from. But from there...I have no idea how to carry on that conversation. Do I jump right into asking about what happened six years ago? Or is that rude? [click, static] Where’s Emily Post when you need her, huh? [click, static] It’s all a moot point. A fantasy, a daydream. And those can get dangerous if you let them take root. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I drove past a sign advertising “Pioneer Village” in a place called Minden and obviously had to check it out and guess what? It’s like Colonial Williamsburg—some guy in ‘53 decided he wanted to create his own little frontier amusement park. The place is half old west ghost town and half...random inventions from through the ages. Old airplanes and cars, guns, farming equipment, early electric lights...if I could figure out a way to get the power going again, I’m pretty sure I could live there for the next hundred years. Really homestead it up. What is it with America’s obsession with the past? Why do we create these towns that let you pretend you exist in a time that was more unpleasant for pretty much everybody? [click, static] God, I mean, talk about choice, right? The people who built this pioneer village - who claimed to have built this whole country, those are the people who have had every possible choice in front of them at all times. And so often they used it to make everyone else’s lives worse. And I’ve —I’ve never understood that. [click, static] I think—I’d like to think if I had that kind of control over other people, I’d just leave everyone alone. Is there something about getting to that level of influence that just rots away at someone’s brain? How do people care that much about what other people do for a living or what god they pray to or what they get up to in the privacy of their own homes? [click, static] Sorry, Birdie. I’m maybe getting a little off topic here. It’s only...well, I was thinking about upstate New York and my friend and Francis Lennon and a lot of different people I’ve known in my life who were, you know, maybe a little different than the norm, and therefore had fewer choices in front of them. Myself included. My life has been a series of diminishing crossroads. [click, static] And here we have a monument to ‘pioneers’, but what did they really pioneer? What ground did they break, what progress did they make? What did they have to do in order to claim that variety of choice on where to live, how far west to go, how to make their money. Who did they have to drive over? Who did they have to kill? [click, static] Don’t worry, I recognize the irony in me saying all this. Here I am, with the whole nation as my personal playground. A glut of choice. And it... well, it really feels like no choice at all. [click, static] Maybe that’s what happens to people at the top. They go insane with excess. [click, static] Alright, Birdie, hope to hear from you soon. Whiskey out. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] You know, the last time I took a trip was probably...it was ’65. Or—’66? Just a few years before the incident. The last time I took a vacation, I mean— [click, static] Not that this is a vacation, but, you know, it’s not a work trip, it’s uh— [click, static] I had this...um, friend—a writer I’d met at a club in New York—who had a house upstate. She technically lived in the Village, but she was hardly ever there—I guess writers really like their solitude. So I’d go up there sometimes, just for a weekend. Take the metro-north to the last stop—she’d pick me up in this old Ford pick-up she had and we’d go straight to the grocery store before heading back to the house. She’d ask me what I wanted to cook that weekend, like I ever had any idea. I’ve got about five dishes I can make with any kind of proficiency, but she loved to cook and she wanted to include me, I guess. Which was nice. I’d usually pick out the wine and then we’d take our haul back to the house and put on a record—Joan Baez or James Brown—and we’d drink and cook and eat and talk about books or what she was working on at that moment. She knew what I did, but she knew not to ask too much about it. So mostly I’d tell her about the weird people I’d met, or the shows I’d seen recently. [click, static] I loved going to see shows on Broadway. Maybe that’s surprising to you —it’s surprising to a lot of people who’ve met me. But I loved it. Loved any kind of live performance, whether it was Broadway, off-Broadway, music concerts, beat poetry, whatever. Just seeing people get up on a stage and open themselves up to strangers in that way...there’s something extraordinary in it. And my friend, she didn’t get to the city much by that point, like I said, so she liked hearing about all the shows I went to go see. And, uh, if I had enough wine by that point in the evening, I might even get up and act out some of the more dramatic bits of what I’d seen on her living room carpet. She would laugh so hard at that. [click, static] She had a great laugh. [click, static] There were so many times in the last six years that I wished I’d been trapped with her in her cabin in the woods instead of in Pennsylvania with Harry. I’m sure there would’ve been things about each other that drove the other insane, but at least there would have been... compensations. [click, static] She was a good friend. A really good friend, you know? It wasn’t...um, it wasn’t committed or anything, but...yeah, she was a really good friend. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Dear Harry, Today I saw the world’s largest ball of twine. The photo on the front of the postcard doesn’t do it justice. Don’t misunderstand—it represents the size well, but it doesn’t capture the central essence of “...huh?” that the ball draws out in the viewer. But that’s what art is, right? According to you, at least. Art is meant to provoke, to create a reaction; it’s not meant to be pretty all the time. Well, I’m sure you’d have quite an opinion on the ball of twine. Glad you’re not here—AR. [click, static] So. Yeah. I wrote out a postcard. Harry’s the only person I know alive other than you, but I’m already talking to you. Not like I’m going to send it or anything, obviously—I couldn’t even if I wanted to. But...I don’t know, it felt odd to write on the postcard without addressing it to anyone. [click, static] I’m gonna make this a thing, I think—postcards of the weirder attractions around this country. If and when I can find them at least. Because it did occur to me that even if I went and got a camera, I don’t know anything about developing film. The only way I could take any pictures would be if I came across a polaroid, so I’m keeping an eye out for that. [click, static] Have you traveled much, Birdie? Like I said, I’ve gotten around a little, but I’ve definitely never traveled this much in this amount of time. Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, it’s gotten...I don’t know, it’s kind of fun again, the way it was the first week or so. My body’s adjusted to driving so much and I’m headed to parts of the country I’ve never been to so it’s beginning to feel like an adventure again. Like a real adventure. I’m going to cross over into Colorado if I keep driving West, so I’m going to go up to Nebraska first, just so I can say I’ve been there. Alright, Whiskey out. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I wish I had a camera. I am in Cawker City, Kansas, home of the world’s largest ball of twine. [click, static] Can you believe it? That someone bothered to do this? To wrap up a ball of twine so big it gets its own sign? The world is a strange and mysterious place and human beings might be the most mysterious of all. [click, static] But I still wish I had a camera. I did go into the general store in town and found a postcard with the twine ball on it, so I’ve got a little souvenir, but I would’ve liked to put a camera on a self-timer and taken a photo of myself with the freakish thing. Proof that I saw it. Proof that I was here. Here in Cawker City, here in Kansas, here on planet Earth, all on my own. [click, static] I know I said I never had any power and I still don’t and…that’s true. For most of my life I’ve been an anonymous drifter with no family, no roots, no community. I couldn’t change the world, so I just tried to work around it. But I left my mark on it still. And I’ve had a lot of empty years to think about what kind of mark that is. And I’m not sure I like the answer. [click, static] Maybe I’ll actually write out something on the postcard, leave my mark that way. I’d just…I’d like to leave something good behind. Not just the imprints of my nails in the skin of this world from where I tried to hold on so tightly to my own life. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey calling out for Birdie. [click, static] I got your message. [click, static] “Job important. Hurt people.” I—I’m not sure what to do with that. Um, you told me that I wasn’t in danger and that you weren’t in danger, but I don’t know if that’s the same as knowing if you’re dangerous or not. I’m not sure knowing the answer to that question is important. [click, static] Yeah, I really don’t know what you want me to do with that. If you’re looking for a shoulder to cry on or looking for absolution. If it’s that—if it’s hoping that somebody will absolve you of the hurt you caused or the guilt that you feel then I am not that person. I guess I could tell you to not feel guilty because I don’t— I don’t think necessarily you should, but then again, what do I know about you or your job? [click, static] A lot of people think that their jobs are important and very very few people are right, so I’m not sure how to judge which one of those you are. I think being a doctor is important, healing p eople. But if you feel like you’ve hurt a lot of people as a doctor…I mean a lot of that is out of your hands, right? You don’t strike me as a type of person who would intentionally injure someone. [click, static] You know, when I first heard your code broadcasting, I wondered if it was some sort of government system. Some sort of emergency broadcast that had switched on six years ago and never switched off. And maybe you can’t tell me this, but maybe I wasn’t totally off. Government jobs can be important. They can also be useless and corrupt and hurtful. You could’ve hurt a lot of people working for the government. I know that I was hurt by— [click, static] Whatever it is—whatever you did, I can tell you not to feel guilty but I’m not sure that you should trust me on that. That’s—that’s what I mean by me not being that—that person. There are things that I should feel guilty for—things that I did, things that I was, things that I still I am I don’t know. And I don’t know that I feel all that guilty about any of it. [click, static] That’s not true. I do feel guilty for what Harry and I did. We—we made a choice that day when we started our weird little existence. Before everything happened or maybe simultaneous with everything that happened I mean…like I told you we were a little caught up in our own affairs and, well, we made a choice that day. Clear eyed and maybe not of completely sound mind, but no one could say that we had no other options. And we made a choice and I can’t say with complete certainty that I would go back and make a different choice but that doesn’t mean that I feel so confident about it. Anyway, if you knew me—really knew me, I don’t— [click, static] I don’t think that you would be looking to me to make you feel better about whatever it is that you did. And maybe if I knew what you did, I wouldn’t be trying to get to you, but I guess I’m curious… Do you feel like you had a choice? [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Okay, here’s a story I can tell you—one that won’t, um, incriminate me. Not that it really matters. [click, static] Pete was a born and bred New York City boy. He grew up in Brooklyn and then went to Fordham for college—why he bothered to get a college education, I’ll never know. I think maybe he tried the typical nine to five thing for a bit. It wasn’t like he was incapable, a degree from Fordham could get you through lots of doors. But he just liked doing what we did. He was good at it and he enjoyed it. Anyway, while he was at Fordham, he took anatomy lab. He didn’t even want to be a doctor, he and his friends just thought it would be a cool and creepy thing to do. They’d all grown up watching Frankenstein and fancied themselves proteges of Victor or something. [click, static] So, anyway, this anatomy lab ended up having an outsized impression on Pete. It was always before lunch, so he said the smell of formaldehyde made him hungry. Which…ugh. But it didn’t just make an impression on him—it ended up leaving its mark on all of Manhattan. Because Pete and his friends started a game—a competition to see who could sneak out the largest organs from class. A kidney, an eye, whatever. And then, they start leaving the organs behind on subway cars. [click, static] It was in the papers and everything—the police thought there was some kind of new serial killer. But then the semester ended and the boys stopped filching organs from the lab and the subway was returned to its relative normalcy and it’s now become one of those unsolved oddities of New York City. [click, static] God, that’s not a very funny story, at all…um, is it. It’s actually pretty gruesome. I’ve never told it before—only ever heard Pete tell it. And the way he does it, it feels funny, um, but its not. It’s really not, I— [click, static] Forget all of this. Forget yesterday too. I’m not a very good storyteller, clearly. I just, um— [click, static] Maybe you should talk for a while. [click, static] [beeps] .--- --- -... / .. -- .--. --- .-. - .- -. - .-.-.- / .... ..- .-. - / .--. . --- .--. .-.. . .-.-.- Job important. Hurt people.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Hey, Birdie. I haven’t heard from you in a few days. Not that you need to talk to me every single day, but I’m still waiting for you to explain the whole “betrayed your job” thing. [click, static] I hope I didn’t scare you off by putting certain topics off limits. But I promise, we’ve got other things to talk about. Uh, like, um… [click, static] Okay, how about this—I’ll tell you about how Pete and I met, how about that. I told you how Harry and I met and this is, um…well, this is actually a nice story, strangely Um, Pete had been working in the art and antiquity racket for a while—I don’t know how he got into it, but he was good at it. Really understood museums and security systems and always seemed to have a line on which rich art collectors would be out of town when and— [click, static] Well, anyway, he’d been doing it for a long time. But every now and then, the gap between jobs would stretch a little too long for comfort. For as much as there were feast times, there were plenty of famine times too. So he’d have to dip down into less…prestigious jobs. That’s how I first heard about him—I’d had my eye on a couple of Park Avenue apartments with these great big jewelry collections, and Pete beats me to one of them. And let me tell you, I was not happy. I was in a famine period myself—one that had lasted for a while. So when I got wind that he’d scooped me, I was mad mad. And, of course, there’s nothing I can do—I’m twenty two and broke and trying to make my way in the world, but then I realized, Pete may have gotten there first, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take something from Pete. You know what they say, there’s no honor among— [click, static] Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this story. I don’t want to put another topic off-limits, and I’ve already told you plenty that’s incriminating, but these are still public airwaves that anyone could be tuning in and I don’t know if I should still be paranoid— [click, static] I’ll come up with something else. Another fun story, okay? And you just get back to me when you can. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I saw a dog today. I mean, I’ve seen a few dogs since I got on the road. Stray cats, deer, squirrels, a couple of raccoons and possums…animals really are the only thing I do have to look out for when I’m on the road. But today I saw a dog that looked… [click, static] I don’t know how else to describe it, but it looked loved. It wasn’t mangy or dirty or underfed. I could see a collar around its neck. My brain didn’t quite process it at first. It was…what’s the word— [click, static] incongruous. Didn’t make sense. Almost an entire minute passed before it clicked in my brain. (huff of laughter) I turned around so fast. Drove slow, keeping my eyes peeled for it. When I finally saw it, I barely threw the car into park before jumping out. I’m not sure what my plan was exactly, but I just…ran at the thing. It was walking along the side of the road, sniffing the ground, and I guess I thought—well, a dog looking like that, it must have some kind of human taking care of it, right? If it could…take me to its owner then maybe… [click, static] I know. But I did say that planning was never my thing. It raced off, of course. And I like to think of myself as being pretty in shape—I guess all those years of not smoking has made it easier to run—but there was no way I was going to catch up to what I’m pretty sure was a border collie. [click, static] Despite my plans, I’ve ended up right back in the flat. I’m in Kansas now and given the other option was Texas, I guess it was going to be flat either way. But maybe it’s not a bad thing—if the land stretches as far as the eye can see when I’m driving, I might pick up on something in the distance I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed. I’m gonna drive up and down the same road tomorrow, I think. Just in case I can catch sight of that dog again. [click, static] It’s strange, you know? Seeing something treated with such care. I don’t know much about dogs, but it seemed…happy. Even though it was all by itself, god knows how far away from its home or the person who’s looking after it, it looked happy. I guess that’s what being cared for does. It makes it so that even the loneliest parts of life seem surmountable. When you’re accustomed to the feel of a warm hand, the night chill doesn’t seem so bad. When you’ve got someone to brush you down each night, or clean your collar, it doesn’t matter that you’re getting your feet dirty on a dusty road. [click, static] I know I’m not a dog, but sometimes I— [click, static] It’d be nice to be cared for. Or to have something to care for myself. The absence of love…erodes you. It compounds, over and over, until even the tiniest moment of self-aware solitude feels like a knife sliding between your ribs. [click, static] But the reverse—the slightest bit of care—is a bulwark against so much. Loneliness is a bottomless pit with sides you can’t get a grip one and love is a ladder you can always use to climb your way out, even if there isn’t anyone at the top. (huff) God, that’s maudlin. Here I am, jealous of a dog. It looked soft. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] (sigh) God, fine, you really want me to pay attention to this message, huh? I don’t see what’s so important about it, unless I’m translating it wrong. [click, static] “You and Harry, what happened?” That’s what you’re asking, right? [click, static] I don’t really know how to answer this, honestly. It’s not really much of a question at all. [click, static] I mean, what exactly are you asking? What happened when we were working together, what happened six years ago, what happened before I left? What? A lot happened with Harry over the past fifteen years. There was that disastrous first meeting, then there were all the jobs we did after that... then there was the last job. And it was really meant to be Harry’s last—like I said, she had wanted out and it was going to be a big payday. And everything was going exactly as planned up until the moment it wasn’t. And when things go wrong with what we do, they go really wrong. We got caught, that’s the long and short of it. This was right before everything changed and— [click, static] You know what? I don’t want to tell you about that. And I don’t have to. Vague questions get...vague answers. [click, static] And, actually, while we’re talking about it—I don’t want to answer any questions about Harry at all anymore, okay? I’m...I don’t even know why I’ve been talking about her so much. I guess I’m in the habit of seeing her and therefore in the habit of thinking about her but now that I actually have someone to talk to, can we just forget all about her? She isn’t important. [click, static] Yeah, she’s not important. So I’m going to go ahead and put her in the “off limit topics” pile. Pick something else to ask me. There’s nothing that happened with Harry and I that’s worth telling. Alright, Birdie, I’m signing off. [click, static] -.-- --- ..- / .- -. -.. / .... .- .-. .-. -.-- / .-- .... .- - / .... .- .--. .--. . -. . -.. ..--.. [You and Harry what happened?]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] [beeps] Hey, Birdie. Got your message. Thanks, for telling me something about you. I’m not sure I totally understand it though? You said “Betrayed my job. Ruined my future.” [click, static] That’s... Look, first and foremost, I am not judging. Obviously. My job wasn’t something a lot of people would be proud of, but I’m—I guess I’m confused. How do you betray a job? Do you mean someone at your job? Because, you know, your job—your “have to earn a living to survive” job doesn’t deserve your loyalty. Didn’t deserve your loyalty. I’m assuming you’re not doing your job anymore. [click, static] And, I mean, if it makes you feel better, I don’t think any of us have a future to ruin anymore. I don’t know when, exactly, your whole thing happened, but no matter what, it wouldn’t have made a difference when everything happened. [click, static] But it sounds like...I don’t know, it sounds like you feel guilty. Maybe I’m reading into nothing—it is six words after all, and it’s not like morse code has a tone, but— Betrayed is a big word. That’s what I’m sticking on. But I think... [click, static] Look, I can’t tell you how to feel. And obviously I don’t know what your job was, but clearly it was important to you. But I think we have this idea that work is supposed to be everything, you know? You go work in an office so that you can make enough money to buy a white picket fence property in the suburbs and feed your wife and two children. And if that was your life and you liked it, I’m not trying to say anything bad about it but... It’s not the only way to live, is it? You don’t owe an office your life and living in the suburbs isn’t the pinnacle of success. And success isn’t the pinnacle of living! [click, static] I know I’m probably the last person who can speak on this topic with any kind of clear head. I am who I am—I’ve never done anything traditionally and I’ve never worked in a real office in my life. And like I said, I was never going to be anyone’s wife. But I’d...invite you to think differently about your situation, whatever the specifics might be. There’s a lot to hate about the circumstances we’ve found ourselves it, but if there is an upside, its that we get to build our own futures now. At least, that’s how I’m trying to think of it. I’m out here, aren’t I? [click, static] -... . - .-. .- -.-- . -.. / -- -.-- / .--- --- -... .-.-.- / .-. ..- .. -. . -.. / -- -.-- / ..-. ..- - ..- .-. . .-.-.- [Betrayed my job. Ruined my future.]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] [beeps] I learned something new today. Cigarettes expire. Or, not so much as expire as go very, very stale. [click, static] [beeps] Or maybe I just don’t have the taste for it anymore. All I know is, that’s gotta be the biggest let down I’ve experienced since Harry and I thought we found a working television. [click, static] [beeps] It did work, it literally turned on, there was just...you know, nothing on it. [click, static] [beeps] [click, static] Okay, I get it, I get it. You’ve been broadcasting the same phrase all day. And it’s not that I haven’t decoded it yet, I just don’t (want to talk about it)— [click, static] Besides, I think it’s my turn for a question. So Birdie - what were you doing before all of this? [click, static] Whiskey, signing off. [click, static] [beeps] -.-- --- ..- / .- -. -.. / .... .- .-. .-. -.-- / .-- .... .- - / .... .- .--. .--. . -. . -.. ..--.. [You and Harry what happened?]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, channel nineteen, this is Whiskey Alpha Romeo, calling out for anyone on the line. [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974. Currently on State Highway 37, just west of Norman, Oklahoma. [click, static] Yeah, I figured it was a bit of a long shot. [click, static] So I finally got to the point where I needed to start looking for more food —I’ve still got some jerky and some canned peaches, but I’ve definitely burned through my supply faster than I thought I would. I’m not a huge fan of peaches. [click, static] Anyway, I popped into a grocery store in Norman—it was like every other grocery I’ve been to in the last six years. A lot of rot. Thank god for America’s insistence on canned food, huh? Otherwise I really would be shit out of luck. I restocked, got some more beans and what not, but here's the really exciting thing— [click, static] Cigarettes. [click, static] God, remember cigarettes? I’d half forgotten that they existed. I hadn’t even thought to look for them until now because Harry never let me have them in the house. She hates the smell, always despised the habit. Which I always told her was absurd give she was an artist in New York - isn’t it, you know, mandatory for people like her? But she wouldn’t budge. First year or so, I would just smoke out in the yard—way out in the yard —but I had to have a designated smoking jacket—not, you know, an actual smoking jacket, not a velvet thing, though I’m now understanding why smoking jackets exist. Huh. I’d never put two and two together on that one. Um, mine was this massive Carhartt that was in the house we settled in —it must’ve belonged to a man who was about six five because I swam in it and I’m not a small person. It was too big to really do any work in, but it became the coat I smoked in. Because not only did I have to do it outside, but Harry would throw a fit when I came in smelling like smoke, so that Carhartt was designated to soak up cigarette smoke and be hung up in the shed. That all got old after a while—having to skulk off anytime I wanted to enjoy a cigarette in my own home. So I just...stopped. [click, static] Harry was so annoying about it when I finally got over withdrawal. Because, yeah, I did feel better, but that could’ve been all the exercise I was getting or the lack of drinking or eating food fresh from the ground. It wasn’t necessarily giving up smoking. [click, static] Well, I don’t have to give it up anymore! I grabbed a bunch of different brands and I’m going to indulge, figure out which is the best now that I don’t have to worry about paying for them. Lemme tell you, it has really improved my day. I hope you’ve got something to brighten your day too, Birdie. Whiskey out. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. As a patron, you will also receive each week's episodes as one longer episode every Monday. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] [beeps] When I said I was grateful for you keeping things short, I didn’t mean you had to only send one word, but okay. I’m assuming this is your first question. Just the word Harry and a question mark. [click, static] Harry. What can be said about Harry... [click, static] Well, first of all, she’s never been a huge fan of that nickname. But I’ve never been a huge fan of my full name and she never called me by anything else even though the nickname for my full name is plenty common, so... Harriet. Her name’s Harriet. Harriet Statdler. If you happened to be really tapped into the West Village art scene, you might have actually heard of her. But I’m going to guess that...you’re not and you haven’t. She was a painter. Is a painter. Because oil paints were deemed essential supplies that were worth going outside of our little boundary for, when trying to track down a coffee grinder so that we could actually use the whole bean coffee we found would involve “too much exploring” and be “too risky”. [click, static] As you might be able to guess, Harry was the more paranoid out of the two of us. [click, staticc] Which I guess makes sense. She lived a lot more carefully than I did. I mean, she had a legitimate—if not particularly profitable—career as a an artist under her real name. That’s how good she was at hiding what she did to actually make money. And I guess having a certain amount of paranoia is helpful for someone like that. We... [click, static] Oh what the hell, it’s probably pretty obvious by now—what Harry and I did was not exactly what you’d call “legal”. The two of us...Pete, Richie, Don, fucking Francis Lennon—we were all part of a, uh...underground art appreciation group. [click, static] Well, Harry and Francis appreciated the art. I appreciated the money. [click, static] There were other folks we worked with, and every job wasn’t always all of us, but that was the core group. Francis, of course, was never on the jobs, his role came...after. And sometimes before, when he had a good tip. Harry was the art expert we would take with us. She knew everything about it, knew how to handle it, how to protect it, transport it. Would know if there was something particularly valuable that we might overlook. [click, static] I remember being so excited when she joined the team. The guys were never...rude or weird about working with a woman, but it was still...it was isolating, sometimes, being the only woman in my line of work. At least on all the crews I was on. So I guess I thought it might be nice to have someone around who got it, you know? Who understood what it was like to have certain people underestimate you the moment they saw you. [click, static] But Harry...well, Harry was not there to understand anyone. We were all gathered, planning the job, and I made one stupid joke about the piece we were targeting—I don’t even remember what the joke was, but the piece was one of those modern sculpture things that looked like it was molded by a five year old and— [click, static] You know, I probably said something pretty much just like that. And Harry, well, she did not care for it. She dressed me down in front of everyone, called me some kind of five dollar word like...plebeian or philistine or something and...that was that. That was probably the friendliest interaction we had while working together. [click, static] So, uh, that’s Harry. She’s someone I used to work with. And she’s a total snob. [click, static] .... .- .-. .-. -.-- ..--.. [Harry?]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] [beeps] Breaker, breaker, channel seven, Whiskey calling out for Birdie. [click, static] Alright, this new one—“Alone alone. Never confirmed others. Haven’t moved.” I appreciate you keeping things short—I’m happy to take the time figuring out whatever you send, however long, but I’m thinking maybe it isn’t the most fun for you to tap all of it out on whatever system you’ve got set up. Or maybe you’re not able to for some reason. Either way... yeah, thanks. Thanks for giving so much with so little. [click, static] You say you haven’t confirmed others, so I’m wondering if that means you’ve had some potential encounters? I’m going to guess they’ve been on whatever radio you’re using, so maybe that’s why you’ve had a hard time confirming. And if you can’t call out...well, not everyone is going to bother figuring out morse, or even recognize it if they’re just scanning through channels really fast. And you say you haven’t moved. Which might limit the likelihood of someone hearing your messages, but then again, you seem to have rigged something up to broadcast far far. [click, static] But maybe that’s a recent development for you. What were you doing before? Do you remember the day that everything went all...hinky? [click, static] I guess it’s your turn to ask questions. I can be patient. I’ve got nothing else to do. [click, static] I think I mentioned already but we were...away from regular society when it all changed. Laying low, I guess you could call it. Maybe you’ll ask a question about that, but— Could you maybe not ask any questions about that? Not yet, anyway. I think that’s more, uh, tenth date stuff, you know? [click, static] Anyway, all to say that if there’s any way to have been even more ignorant of the events of the world than we were in that time...I have a hard time imagining it. [click, static] I’ve tried, so many times over the years, to think back on those weeks and really try to remember anything that was off—a sound, a flash of light, a smell on the air, anything. All I can remember are the dreams—the nightmares—that I was having. And those were about—well, it was obvious what they were about. It has nothing to do with...well, with anything. [click, static] I wonder if it even matters anymore. [click, static] There are those times I wonder if we did experience it happening— whatever it was—and we just didn’t think about it at the time because it’s what gave us the opportunity we had. [click, static] Maybe I’ve said that before. It’s hard to know what thoughts are the same ones that have been running around in my head forever and what thoughts are the ones I’m actually saying aloud. Like sometimes you’ll have a conversation with someone in your dream and then the next day be talking to that very same person only to realize that you’re referencing a conversation with them that never actually happened. [click, static] I’ve had so many conversations with Harry in my dreams. Those ones are usually pretty obviously not real though. [click, static] But this is a little like that, you and me. A conversation and not. Speaking my thoughts aloud while you’re limited to three word sentences, forced to listen to me ramble on about nothing at all. [click, static] Who are you talking to in your dreams? Who have you been trying to find with your messages all these years? [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [beeps] [click, static] Hey Birdie. Thanks for being so fast in giving me a new message. I’m telling you, maybe we can figure out a way to sign on at the same time, do a little back and forth. But in the meantime, you said—“Am alone. No physical voice. No idea what happened.” [click, static] That makes two of us. On the “doesn’t know what happened” front anyway. And the “alone” front. Though, maybe we’re not really alone anymore? [click, static] I’m not going to say I’m sorry that you can’t physically speak because I don’t know your situation and I know I hate it when it seems like someone is pitying me for something I don’t feel badly about. Did that make sense? I guess, what I mean to say is—I’m sorry if something happened to you that was, you know, traumatic, that made things that way, but also maybe you’ve never been able to speak and it’s not a big deal to you. Either way, I’m thankful you’ve taken the time to figure out how to talk to me in spite of it. And I swear I’m not going to be a jerk anymore. [click, static] Well, a jerk about this specifically. You tell me you can’t do the voice-to- voice thing and that’s fine. But I still want to, you know, know things. I still find other aspects of this whole deal frustrating as hell. But, well, if we’re gonna do this, if we’re going to be not alone together, I figure things should be fair. You answered a question of mine, so now I’ll answer one of yours. You just let me know. [click, static] Oh, also, wait, I do have one more question that I think is relevant to this whole getting on even footing thing—or really, a clarification of an answer you’ve already given. Have you seen or heard from anyone else in the last six years? [click, static] Alright, signing off. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] [beeps] Alright, goddammit, my curiosity got the best of me. I translated your fucking message. [click, static] Sorry, I don’t mean to be— [click, static] If I’m right, you said: “Sorry. Can’t speak. No voice.” [click, static] Which...well, aren’t I the asshole? I didn’t—I didn’t know. Obviously. How could I have? I’m not sure—I don’t know exactly what you mean by that. If you just don’t have anything—a mic or any PTT device—to speak into or if there’s something...if you can’t speak, physically. I don’t want to assume. It’s none of my business really and I didn’t mean to make you feel— [click, static] If I had known, I wouldn’t’ve acted that way, I don’t think. I wouldn’t be cruel about something you can’t control. God, I hope I wouldn’t be. So...you don’t have to tell me more. Not about that. But I would like to know more, if I could. About— [click, static] God, about anything. Anything you could tell me about you or the way you’ve spent the last six years or the view outside your window... whatever. [click, static] And I guess...I can keep talking too. I’m still— [click, static] Look, I’m not thrilled with this situation. But it’s not like we’re talking on a private channel—even if I wasn’t talking to you, I’d be talking. Clearly I can’t stop. That’s all to say—if you have questions. Well. Maybe I can answer them. Not that I feel like I have any answers. [click, static] Alright, well, yeah. I’m sorry. For the other week. But, uh, thanks for being honest with me, I guess. Or, I assume you’re being honest, I guess a lot of this is a leap of faith. But what else is there these days? [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] It’s been almost two months since I left. [click, static] Time has sort of lost meaning in a lot of ways these past few years. The seasons always give the year shape, but there’s no other structure to each day or each week or each month. The first few days I was driving, I kept track of how many miles I logged each day. I’m not bothering with that now. [click, static] I think it’s really starting to hit me that I’ll never see Harry again. [click, static] I’m not...I’m not sad about that. Don’t get it twisted, I’m glad to be out of there, glad to be rid of her, even if it means I’m on my own but I’m... I’m something. [click, static] Wistful? No, that’s not it. I’m not sad, I’m not happy, I’m not regretful, but there’s a certain...a certain pit in my stomach at the thought. [click, static] I’d like to think that it’s just because the idea of never seeing Harry again makes me wonder if I’ll ever see anyone ever again, but there’s no point in lying to myself or to you, whoever might be listening, so I have to admit that it’s not entirely not about her, you know? [click, static] It wasn’t all miserable. If I could go back and do things differently, I absolutely one hundred percent would, but it wasn’t all terrible. There’s that symbiotic bond that forms out of what we went through. I don’t think it’s a particularly healthy one, or even an at all nice one, but it’s there. And it’s...specific. [click, static] Like the haircuts. Or when I’d paint her nails because she never got the hang of doing her right hand herself. We shared a house, the same two shitty winter coats we had, the one pair of snow boots we found. We shared every meal, always cooking enough for two. Every problem, every little victory...all of them were ours, even in the times when we were barely speaking to each other. I’ve found myself wondering if she stayed. I have to think she did, that she’s still there, in that house, with all her paintings and her garden and the chickens. Because that was part of the problem, wasn’t it? She never wanted to leave, never wanted to venture outside the boundary we’d drawn for ourselves back when it seemed like our past catching up to us was inevitable. So of course she stays. She’ll probably die in that house. [click, static] It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. I said I wasn’t going back and I’m not. I’m not going back. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [beeps] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey driving up and down the Mississippi, currently in... [click, static] [beeps] [click] Uh, Rosedale? [click, static] [beeps] [click] Wait, no, that’s the Mississippi side. [click, static] [beeps] [click] I’m in Arkansas. I think. I’ve never been to Arkansas before. I wonder if I’ll get to all forty eight contiguous states on this little trip of mine. I don’t see why I couldn’t. [click, static] [beeps] [click] Hell, I could even drive all the way up to Alaska if I wanted! Maybe there are people in Canada. [click, static] [beeps] [click] Goddammit, do I have to switch channels again? I told you, I’m done. I haven’t decoded whatever message it is you’re sending, so you might as well just stop. I’m not interested in what you have to say. [click, static, click]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click] Breaker, breaker this is Whiskey Alpha Romeo…officially West of the Mississippi. Now, hopefully I’ll really stand out on these airwaves as the only one with a W-call sign. [click] Just a little joke with myself. [click] If you’re hearing this, please respond. [click] I’m not always on this frequency—I’ve been changing channels a lot this week due to the lack of activity I’ve found on any of them—so if you try to radio back and don’t hear a response, then keep trying. I know I will. [click] There’s got to be more people out there. Maybe not a lot of people have radios, or know how to work them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be found. I’ve mostly been sticking to the major highways and rolling through bigger cities, but maybe everyone had the same idea and decided to retreat into rural life. So I’m gonna spend some time really going through the small towns, stopping, having a look around. That means I won’t have my radio on me at all times, but I’ll always make sure to crank the PA up when I’m out of my car, so I can at least hear something that comes up [click] You know, when I first got into my car and drove away from—from where I’d been, it felt like that moment six years ago when Harry and I realized we’d really done it. The feeling of air rushing into your lungs because you’re on the edge of something that you couldn’t predict, but the uncertainty doesn’t matter, because the most important thing is that you’ve left that other thing behind. The getting away is the thing. The going on is a problem for future you. And future you has the beautiful freedom of possibility. So how could things ever feel worse than they do in that moment? The getting away is just the beginning, right? It’s not like that in reality. The getting away is the best part. Because the future just stretches on and on and on—an infinite road leading nowhere. So the point must be to take in the sights as you go. Sure, there’s some interest along the way, but then you’re untethered after so many years of striving. Of scratching and clawing and muscling your way into something resembling a life—a life that is constantly putting your back against the wall because that’s how you like it. And now the road has not a single bump on it and all the trees that line it start to look the same and… [click] It shouldn’t have been easier. To live in the aftermath, it shouldn’t have been easier than the before. And it wasn’t at first—there was so much confusion, and the fear that someone would come knocking on our door any day. There was the figuring out how to get the old water pump working and hook up a generator and plant food and raise chickens and fix the roof when it started to leak. But that’s all… [click] I mean, how is that different from searching the ground for enough change to buy a hot meal? I was fifteen when I had to first truly fend for myself and, sure, maybe if I’d been fifteen when all of this happened, I would’ve died straight away. I never would have made it past all that rocky road. But the rough path felt longer before. And maybe that’s because I’m more experienced, more knowledgeable than I was at fifteen, maybe it’s because we got lucky, I don’t know. I mean, after all, we never got too sick or hurt that we couldn’t fix it ourselves. We were never without shelter or clean water or firewood. So it all felt easier. [click] [for the rest of the transcript, please visit breakerwhiskey.tumblr.com]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click] (inhale [click] I— [click] Look. I just can’t do it. That’s the thing. I can’t do this again. Stand face to face with someone — or frequency to frequency in this case — and ask for a meal only to get fed scraps. I can’t let my life be dictated by someone else’s agenda. That was the whole point of this entire endeavor—to stop doing that. [click] So…it was nice knowing you, Birdie. But until you can be a bit more forthcoming with yourself, I’m gonna have to move on. Move on to what remains to be seen—but if you heard me, I have to believe you’re not the only one who can. Whiskey out. [click]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [beeps] [click] Okay, so, maybe I was a little overconfident in my abilities. That did take me quite a bit of time to translate. But I think I got it: [click] “Not safe to meet. You are safe. I am safe but far. Talk only on radio.” [click I’m glad to hear that you’re safe and that I’m safe—I guess I’ll take your word for it. And you say you’re far…so either you’ve rigged your radio to somehow find and reach my frequency or this is all happening on skip. I guess that’s not really all that important at the end of the day. [click] I’m not gonna offer to come to you, no matter how far you are, because I assume that you won’t tell me. Why isn’t it safe to meet? If we’re both safe… [click] I’m guessing you want me to drop this whole subject, huh? But you’ll understand why that’s a little hard for me, right? Why it might be just a little frustrating to find somebody after six years of no contact and that person doesn’t even want to talk to me—actually talk to me? Or…explain anything? [click] Here’s what I know. I’ve driven through and around seven states and not once have I seen any sign that somebody else is out here. Which makes no fucking sense, because I’m here and Harry’s here and you’re here and there’s no way that we’re the last three living human beings in America. [click] Everything else is the same, far as I can tell. Things are overgrown a little, but not as much as I would’ve thought and there’s still birds and deer and squirrels and crops growing in fields like they’ve been self-propagating for the past six years, which— [click] I know fuck all about gardening, despite Harry’s efforts. [click] So I really need you to talk to me, actually talk to me. I’m in Louisiana now and I really will drive anywhere. And if you really think it isn’t safe to meet, then at least give me something, some indication that you’re real and that there’s more people out there, or that you know what happened. I need something and this cryptic dot and dash bullshit is gonna get old quickly. [click] If you can’t do that, then I’m not sure what we’re doing here, you know? What’s the point of it? I’ve had enough empty human interaction to last three lifetimes. I’m not looking for a penpal, or a voice in the dark. If you don’t have any interest in actually connecting, then we can both go back to being alone, okay? [click]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click] [beeps] What does that mean “not safe”? You’re not safe? I’m not safe? The place you’re in isn’t safe, it’s not safe to meet, it’s not safe to say where you are? What? [click] …. [click] Sorry, I’m not—I’m not trying to come off as…difficult or angry or demanding. I know how irritating it is to have someone order you to respond right now when you maybe don’t know what to say or even what you feel about a certain thing. That’s not what I want to do to you, so— [click] But you can understand my concern. It’s a…fucking cryptic message to send to somebody. [click] Especially since, well, if I’m not safe, or if this frequency is unsafe, then should I stop broadcasting completely? [click] That hardly feels like the right course of action. Maybe I’ll…I’ll change channels, yeah? I don’t know if you remember the channel I used over the first few days—I don’t know if you even heard those broadcasts—but I’ll go back to that. And I guess I’ll just…trust that you’ll search through the channels until you find me. But, c’mon man, you’ve gotta give me more than “not safe”. I’ve got the full morse code alphabet with me, you don’t need to feel like you have to keep things short and sweet for my benefit. Alright, I guess I should…stop talking on this channel now. Please get back to me soon. Signing off. [click]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click] [beeps] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey calling out for Birdie. I am so glad you’re still here. I got your new message—at least, I’m fairly certain it’s new, it sounds different. And I had a thought—I haven’t actually decoded it yet— I accidentally packed the morse code book underneath some stuff, so I’ll have to stop over to pull it out, which I guess I would need to do to translate it anyway. I might not be abiding by traffic laws, but listening to the CB, reading a book, and driving all at once genuinely might kill me. But anyway, the thought I had—I’m gonna pull over soon, but I was thinking, if you’re hearing this right now, change the message again. I’ve got an idea of how we could maybe have a real-time conversation, even through morse. We just need to be on at the same time. [click] So I’m gonna get off the horn and let you transmit while I find a good spot to stop—not that there’s a bad spot, no one’s gonna get on me for stopping in the middle of the highway even—but, anyway, if you’re able get on and change the transmission while I’m driving, then I’ll know that you’re actually sitting in front of your radio and we can talk. Actually talk. Alright, Whiskey, going quiet. [click, static] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I haven’t heard from you in a few days, which I’m hoping just means you’re trying to think of what to say and not that I scared you away by sharing every single thought that pops into my head. I think I got used to talking to no one in particular fast. Sure, I knew that everything I said on here could be heard—that was the whole point after all— but after only a few days of realizing how unlikely that was, it became very easy to slide into using the CB as my own personal sounding board. Or head shrinker or…I don’t know, if I believed in God, maybe this is how I would talk to Him. [click, static] I know what you might be thinking—after everything, I still don’t think there’s some kind of higher power running the show? Well, sure, maybe God really did decide to pull another Noah and wipe out humanity, sparing a few, but if that was His plan, leaving me and Harry as the last standing pair doesn’t show the best forward thinking. Which, for someone who’s supposed to be omniscient, would be a little embarrassing. So, no, the world emptying out or everyone dying or the entire population deciding to play history’s most elaborate prank does not make me suddenly believe in the fairytale of God. If He wanted me to believe in me, he could come down here and tell me Himself. [click, static] Speaking of direct communication—how’s that for a segue—you really don’t need to put so much thought into your messages, if that’s what you’re doing. I’m clearly not thinking of being particularly delicate or interesting—though I hope I’m at least interesting. If it’s a morse code issue…you know, trying to keep things short and sweet…then just let me know where you are. And then we can do away with the radio waves completely. So. Birdie. Where are you? Can we meet somewhere? You pick the time and place and I’ll be there, long as its on this continent. [click, static] Whiskey out. [click, static] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] You know how sometimes, your nose will catch a particular smell, sometimes out of nowhere, and you’ll just be thrown back in time? And there’ll be nothing else about where you are or what you’re doing that should be reminding you of when you were a kid, but that one smell is just so powerful, all of your other senses briefly take a backseat while you go on a trip you didn’t sign up for. You’ll inhale that scent and suddenly you’re nine years old again, running out into the fields that surround your house even though you’re supposed to be helping your mom fold the laundry. Instead you go outside and you make more laundry, the hem of your skirt dusted in dirt, grass stains on the back of your pressed linen shirt. You smell that smell and it’s Sunday afternoon and you haven’t taken off your church clothes when you go sprinting off into the wilderness, even though that stiff collar makes you feel like you’re choking, because you don’t have any clothes that don’t suffocate you slowly, or at least not any your mother will let you wear. So feeling the ground underneath feet and the air rushing through your lungs as you run, run, run, that’s really…that’s pretty much the only way you know how to feel free. And you know you’ll have to go back in time for dinner. That your mother will complain about the state of your knees and the tangle of your hair and lament to your father about how she’s ever going to turn you into a respectable lady when you insist on going around the way that you do. And your father will laugh and say that you’re still a child, that you’ll grow out of it, become serious and proper and he winks at you like he knows that that’s not true. But you’ll agree with his words all the same, because there’s that part of you deep down that wants the tension in your mother’s shoulders just disappear. But that smell—that sunshine and grass and free and wild smell—will still be in your nose, forever, stronger even then the hot dinner your mother puts in front of you. And twenty-five years later you’ll wish you’d listened more, or that you’d really been in that kitchen instead of having your head in the clouds, because then maybe you would’ve appreciated the time you had with her, as frustrating as it could be. A whole quarter century later, you’ll be driving down an empty highway at the end of the world with the windows rolled down, in a state you’ve never really been in before, on a road you’ve never driven, and you’ll realize that you are finally truly free. Free in a way you never thought you could be—free from the starched collars and the rent bills and the locked doors. Free to roam as far as you’d ever want to, except this time, you know there’s no one waiting to put a hot plate of food in front of you. You have no way of ever going home again. Tennessee in the morning smells like that. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I realize I said “on my way back” yesterday. That I’d hit New York on ‘my way back’. I— [click, static] I don’t know why I said that. I would chalk it up to force of habit but…this is the first time I’ve left Pennsylvania in the whole time we lived there. It’s possible that it just hasn’t hit me yet, that I’m really…done. [click, static] I keep… [click, static] ..it’s not that I’m turning and expecting Harry to be there. The last few months before I left we were barely in the same room for more than fifteen minutes at a time. But, it’s like… [click, static] My hair is starting to get past my shoulders. And the fact that it had already gotten past my chin by the time I got out of there—well, I like to keep it short and Harry would always cut it for me, but because we weren’t really on speaking terms…well. I’m perfectly capable of cutting my own hair—hell, I could just shave all of it off. I barely look in the mirror anyway. But that was a habit I formed—Harry cuts my hair so I don’t have to think about it. Especially since she somehow always seemed to know when it was starting to bug me and would sit me down at the kitchen table, scissors in hand. I wouldn’t even have to say anything, she would just— [click, static] It’s odd to think about. That I didn’t think twice about letting Harry stand behind me with a sharp implement. [click, static] I guess our relationship was a bit like nuclear destruction in that sense—when everyone has an H-bomb, you can’t press the button without spelling your own destruction. When you’re with the only other person who is fighting to survive in a world that’s gone topsy-turvy, hurting them could resign you to a terrible fate. [click, static] Then again, I left. And I don’t—I don't feel like I’ve doomed us both to ruin. I guess that’s the difference between those first few chaotic, frightening years and where we are now, after spending half a decade figuring out how to muddle through. We’ve done it. We’ve muddled. And maybe I’ve doomed us both to a life lived without any meaningful contact with another person but, well, that actually, you know, assumes the contact between us was meaningful in the first place. Proximity does not equal closeness. [click, static] I hope the opposite is equally true. You and I may not have physical proximity—though for all I know, you’re just around the corner—but I hope we can have some kind of meaningful interaction. C’mon Birdie, talk to me. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974 calling out for Birdie. I’m making my way South now, for real this time—first stop, Memphis. I wonder if I could sneak into Graceland. I just—I can’t imagine living in a house like that. And I’m assuming….well, if Elvis and his family were still living there, surely they would have figure out how to get some kind of word out to…someone. They have, you know, private jet planes and everything. [click, static] It’s weird to think about someone like Elvis just…vanishing, or whatever it is that happened to everybody. It feels like something that wouldn’t happen to famous people somehow. Like the privileged few would be privileged enough to skirt doomsday. [click, static] I can’t say that I’m too sorry that Dick Nixon seems to be out of the White House. It’s not that I don’t want anyone in charge, but I sure as hell didn’t want him in charge. [click, static] Oh man, I just realized that there’s a good chance you’re someone in the government—it would explain why you’re transmitting a signal strong enough to be caught on my shitty CB. Unless I really am just damn lucky and picking you up on skip. [click, static] If you have been listening to each of my transmissions, then you can probably guess that I’m…pretty much the opposite of a government worker. Though, that wasn’t always true—when I was eighteen, I worked in the post office for a few years. I’d hoped to pay my way through college, but I never did get around to going. Spent the money getting to New York City where I fell into what became my real profession. Maybe I’ll drive into the city on my way back—I can’t imagine what the city is like right now. All…empty. Sometimes I’d get overwhelmed by the crush, but I’d do anything to stand in the middle of the Village again and let thousands of people pass me by. I said New York was the closest to a home base I ever got and that’s true. I didn’t really have, you know, an apartment or anything, but I knew enough people to have a place to crash and sometimes I could find a sublet for a few months. I guess that’s why I didn’t think twice about packing my shit into this car and getting on the road. I’ve lived out of one duffel since I was fifteen. I could have my pick of New York City apartments now though. Live in the Plaza, get a penthouse on Park Avenue. I don’t know, the fun of New York is the people. It wouldn’t be the same. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey, calling out for Birdie. Birdie, do you read me? [click, static] Hello? [click, static] Worth a try. I know it’s early, and I don’t even know what time zone you’re in but I could barely sleep last night I was so excited. I fell asleep wishing that I’d wake up to the code changing and you did not disappoint me. “I’m Birdie”. That’s what you said. So, hello, Birdie. It’s very good to meet you. [click, static] It’s odd, I feel like I don’t know what to say now. I don’t know exactly how long you’ve been listening, but I’ve been rambling absolute nonsense into this thing for the last month. A month. It doesn’t feel like a month. It feels like I left yesterday and like I’ve been driving for years. And I’ve barely wandered five hundred miles from where I started. I’m on the most inefficient road trip ever. [click, static] Road trip implies a destination, though, which I haven’t had. I’d like to have one now. I’d like wherever you are to be my destination. I know you don’t know very much about me—though you know more than most people I’ve ever met if you have heard all of these transmissions—and for all I know, you could be some kind of serial killer who’s run out of victims, but I figure we have to try. [click, static] I’m not the optimistic sort usually. I don’t know that I believe all humans are fundamentally good or what-have-you. I think most people are pretty selfish and even though I don’t actually have a clue, I’m assuming whatever happened six years ago was caused by our own stupidity or cruelty or an unholy combination of the two. So maybe you’re just as bad as eighty percent of the people I’ve come across in my life. Maybe you’re the kindest soul left in the world. Maybe you’re somewhere in between. But you’re alive. You’re not a relic from before, you’re not some kind of automatic radio signal, you’re talking to me. So that’s worth the risk in my book. Do you know what happened? Are there other people with you? Have you stayed in the same place this whole time, hoping someone would pick up your signal? What were you doing when everything happened? [click, static] Jeez, I probably shouldn’t be bombarding you with questions until you can either speak or we can figure out some kind of realtime communication. So, uh— [click, static] I’ll just focus on the important bit: where are you? Whiskey out. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Okay, I’m sorry for rambling the other day, and I really hope I didn’t come across as too weird, I’m regretting a lot of that now, because I think I figured it out and if I’m right, then…you are really talking to me. [click, static] God bless the public library system. In all my driving around these past few days, I found a little downtown—small, but seems to have all the basics. Bank, grocery, post office and…public library. I hadn’t even thought to check out the town but I popped my head into the grocery store and it didn’t look like it was all that well stocked to begin with. The place didn’t seem to be looted, but it didn’t really have much. And you know what wasn’t touched at all? The perfect, dust-covered library. I’ve never been much of a reader, so Harry was usually the one to go to our local library and pick up whatever novel she could find that she hadn’t read and then she’d read it in two days and make me listen to her recount the entire plot of the entire thing, whether I asked or not. And I never asked. But sometimes she’d bring back technical manuals for me on whatever she could find. Even if it was for something we didn’t have and had no way of getting. I guess she thought maybe I needed entertainment, or maybe she was trying to drop hints that she wanted to fix up or build a particular thing. [click, static] Not that subtly was ever her game when she wanted something from me. Demanding was more her style. But anyway, as I was driving this morning, scanning frequencies and keeping my eyes peeled for any scrap of a sign of human activity, it occurred to me—the library would have books on morse code. Any library would have books on morse code. And lo and behold, I am correct. So, now I’ve got everything I need to understand you. And guess what you’re saying to me? “Hello, Whiskey”. You’re saying hello to me! [click, static] I don’t know if you’re listening now, but you’ve clearly been listening enough to know my callsign. I’ve gotta assume that you’re not sitting by your radio every hour of every single day, like, you know, some people so I’m guessing you have set up some kind of automatic transmission system. Which makes me think that maybe you’ve rigged up your radio to record everything it picks up too, so you can hear my messages. [click, static] At least, that’s my hope. It’d be tricky to rely on the joint miracles of skip and being on the radio at the same time. So I’m going to keep talking, on this frequency, every morning, and you keep doing what you’re doing. [click, static] Hello, Whiskey… Listen, if you can, change your transmission tomorrow. If it’s different, I’ll know that you’ve heard this and I’ll… [click, static] I don’t know! I don’t know what I’m gonna do next but you bet your bottom dollar that you’re gonna be hearing all about it. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] It’s occurring to me now that you may not even be actively transmitting. This could be some kind of emergency alert system that’s been going out for years, sent from a station manned by no one. [click, static] If that station is here in Kentucky, I don’t have a clue where. I drove forty miles in each direction and the clarity of the code didn’t change in any way that made any kind of sense. It would get clearer or it’d disappear into static without any rhyme or reason. I don’t know, maybe it’s the hills, messing things up. [click, static] Or…maybe… [click, static] Maybe this is all…skip. Picking up signals from far away. It has something to do with solar flares, I think. I don’t know, my dad used to talk about back in the day. He always got so excited when he picked someone up from, say, Alabama or something. Somewhere really different. He mostly drove the northern east-west route—the route I set off on more than a week ago—so anything from the south felt exotic. I don’t know if I mentioned that. That my dad was a truck driver. He loved his CB. I wish I’d kept it. But I already had the car he’d fixed up for me, and needed to sell the truck and didn’t know how to get the CB out of the truck, so…yeah. I wish I’d paid more attention to him when he talked about how to use it too. Anyway. If you are a real person, somewhere, anywhere, and you’re listening, now you know a little more about me. I wish I knew something about you. Anything. I was never the most social growing up. I don’t know if its because I was a tomboy or because I was so used to it being just me and my dad, but I had a hard time fitting in with new groups. Other girls thought I was weird and the boys didn’t know what to think of me, so I mostly kept to myself. That’s the reason I fell in love with tinkering with things, I guess. Or part of it anyway. And even as an adult, it’s not like I had a bustling social calendar. But I was always surrounded by interesting people. Always meeting new folks. And then when I got into a rhythm with work, I ended up being on crews with the same people over and over and they…sort of become your friends. [click, static] Though that’s not how I would’ve characterized Harry back then. I’m not sure I would call her a friend now. I’m not sure there’s a word for two people who are relying on each other to survive but who hate each other’s guts. A…symbiotic relationship of sorts, I suppose. All this to say, it’s been a very long time since I’ve met someone new. And despite never seeking out reams and reams of friends, I didn’t realize just how hard it would be to never meet anyone new. I don’t think people are supposed to only talk to one other person their whole lives. And that’s what it was starting to look like—that we’d be talking to each other and only each other for the rest of our lives. [click, static] Maybe there’s people out there who have some kind of romantic notion that one person is all you need if that person is the one. Obviously, my situation does not apply, but I really think even in a romantic, soulmate style scenario, those two people would drive each other crazy. I’m guessing, if you exist, you’re equally in need of some variety. So, please, tell me where you are if you can. And I’ll…try and figure out what the hell you’re saying so that if you do tell me through morse code, I’ll actually be able to understand it. Whiskey out. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Good morning, mysterious stranger. So, as it happens, the moment I got my car back onto the highway, your transmission started to come in, loud and clear. I’m not a hundred percent, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same phrase repeated over and over. [click, static] Yeah, I don’t know morse code. Other than SOS. Dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot. So I’m fairly confident that there’s an “o” and an “s” in your transmission, but that’s all I’ve got. So if you can speak, that’d be preferable. [click, static] But don’t worry, not knowing morse is not gonna discourage me. I figure I’ll drive up and down the highway, find the limits of the range, and then do that again in some kind of square, circle I don’t know, I need to look at my atlas and figure out the best way to do this. Zero in on location or something. [click, static] So, if at any point you wanna help me out by giving me a clue, that’d be much appreciated. And in the meantime, I’ll just keep driving and you keep transmitting. [click, static] [static] [stray beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [beeps] [click, static] Hello? Hello? [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974, currently in Kentucky. I think I’m receiving something. [laugh off mic] Goddamn, I think I’m actually receiving. It sounds like morse code. [click, static] [extremely faint beeps] [click, static] Hello? Hello. Shi- [click, static] I don’t know if you can hear me, but I think I can hear you. The code was coming in so clear just a moment ago. I… [click, static] Crap. It’s these hills. It’s too late and too dark for me to want to go venturing out right now–I’m desperate, but I’m not stupid. So…keep transmitting if you can. And I’ll come out, and I’ll find you in the morning. Wherever you are. [click, static] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey, once again crossing a state line. Let’s see, in three weeks, I’ve been to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois—briefly—West Virginia, Virginia, and now back through both those states to Kentucky. [click, static] That’s not actually that many places for three weeks. I guess I’ve been doing a lot of aimless driving. Aimless is probably not a bad way to describe my whole life, if I’m honest. I never had any kind of plan. That wasn’t my job. Peter was always the brains of the operation, the planning guy. I worked with other guys leading the charge before, but he was always my favorite. [click, static] Hear that Petey? You were my favorite. [click, static] He probably wouldn’t care. He definitely hated being called Petey. But he otherwise didn’t care all that much what people thought of him as long as they got the job done. I don’t know if I should be thinking of him in past tense. But what other information do I have to go on? He wasn’t headed anywhere good the last time I saw him and I doubt he got lucky like Harry and I did… [click, static] Jesus, not that we were lucky. It was…horrible, one of the worst— [click, static] (clears throat) In some ways that is just part of life, isn’t it? Losing track of where someone is, if they’re even still alive. The older you get, the more people you have in your past. And I don’t even mean strangers—I’m talking about close friends, long time colleagues, exes. It’s not like you can subscribe to a magazine called “Everyone you’ve ever cared about! Where are they now?” [click, static] Like my best friend when I was a kid — Mildred Wilcox. Millie and I were thick as thieves from the time we were seven years old until we were fifteen and I left home. She was everything to me—my confidant, my partner in crime, my…sister. And I haven’t spoken to her in nearly twenty years. We kept in touch a little after I first left home—I’d send her letters and postcards from the places I went. But then she went to college and her family moved addresses or something, because all my letters came back to me, with “wrong address” stamps all over them. And I never had a reliable address to receive mail—not until I got my act together and at least got myself a PO Box, so we just…lost each other. I never got the phone number for her dorm and half the time I didn’t even have a phone myself… So we went from two people who were the closest of friends, to two people who tried to keep in touch as best they could to…never speaking again. I don’t even remember the last time I talked to her. It wouldn’t have stood out as remarkable at the time because I’d had no idea it would be the last time. [click, static] Did people know? That they were talking to their loved ones for the last time? Was it sudden or slow? Harry and I…we didn’t see anything, we didn’t hear anything. We didn’t know. We didn’t know there was anything to know until it was too late. What happened had already come to pass and hadn’t left enough evidence behind for us to put the pieces together. Six months we laid low, had no contact with anyone. I didn’t know it was the last time then either. If I had, I think I would’ve risked it. Would’ve risked being caught just so I could have a conversation with a stranger one more time. Even if it was just to say goodbye. Did anyone get a chance to say goodbye? [click, static] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------ [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] One week ago I was on top of the Blue Ridge Mountains and now here I am looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s…big. [click, static] That’s a stupid thing to say, of course it’s big, it’s the ocean. And it’s tiny compared to the Pacific. But it’s still, you know…yawning. Is that the right word? I thought the ocean—which always feels big—would just…fit right in with the rest off the huge emptiness. But it’s somehow even bigger in context. I wonder what’s going on over there—out, across the ocean, in other countries. Is it the same as here? Is everyone gone? Is anyone also trying to reach out? Fruitlessly? [click, static] There’s a lot of old shit in Virginia. Did you know they made a whole colonial town nearby? Williamsburg. The entire place is trapped in seventeen-whatever. “A Living History Museum” is what they called it on some brochures I found. They had…actors, I guess, dressing up as the founding fathers or whatever, going around and pretending like it was the olden days. What an absolute trip. All these old buildings, horse posts, the whole nine—and lemme tell you, it’s even creepier without any people around. Like I’ve been the last person on Earth for two hundred years. Which I’m not. No matter what I see—or don’t see—out here, I know I’m not the very last. I’m not the only. [click, static] Harry would probably love it. All the antique crap, the costumes…It’s…theatrical. Like she is. Like Francis was. [click, static] A widow’s walk. I remembered this morning—that’s what the little thing on top of Francis’ house was called. A widow’s walk. Like a crow’s nest on a ship—a place to look out over the ocean from. They’re all over Cape Cod. And I guess they’re called that because the people who’d be looking out from them were the wives of sailors. Men who were more devoted to the sea than the women they confined to their homes. Women who had nothing to do but stand on a perch and pace and worry when their husbands were coming back. But they’re not called ‘wives walk’s. They’re called ‘widow’s walk’s. The men rarely came back. And the women were still there, looking out over the endless water, waiting to see a boat that would never come. Is that… [click, static] (quietly) Is that what I’ve done to Harry? I told her I was never coming back but now I— [click, static] Never mind. It’s not important anymore. There aren’t any more widows to walk and I’d bet most of those houses are standing empty, ready to fall into the ocean, with no one any the wiser. I wonder if they’ve got widow’s walks out on the West coast. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] (for full transcripts, visit breakerwhiskey.tumblr.com [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey breathing in ocean air. Well. Almost. I’m still about seventy miles from Virginia Beach, but I swear I can smell the salt on the air. The last time I was at the ocean was…god, probably a year before the- I don’t know what to call it, The Incident, whatever the hell it was. I’d gotten a lead on another job up in Boston and my contact lived out on the Cape, so I went out there to get the specs of the gig. [click, static] Francis Lennon, that was his name. Sorry, Francis, for shouting your name out on the airwaves but I really don’t think anyone’s listening and also, I’m fairly certain you’re dead. Not to say I hope he’s dead or anything, not at all, just that the last time I saw Francis, he was already well into his eighties and that was seven years ago. and that’d be plenty of reason to think he might not be kicking anymore even before you add the realities of living on your own at that age in times like these… He was a real character. Lived in this great old house all the way up in Provincetown, you know, the kind that has one of those little perches up on the top, god, what are they called… [click, static] Anyway, he’d always be dressed in these fine shirts and fancy trousers, except he usually covered them up by wearing a dressing gown at all hours of the day, like he was Sherlock Holmes or something. I think he saw himself as a bit of an eccentric. Or he just was a bit of an eccentric. [click, static] You meet a lot of bizarre people in my line of work—my old line of work. Especially once I started doing the…higher class jobs, the ones that are way less expedient but a hell of a lot safer—that kind of stuff, the art, the antiquities, jewelry, whatever—weirdest bunch of people are obsessed with that stuff. And knowing everything about those particulars was never my job, so I never troubled myself with learning much about it. But Francis knew it all. The American masters were his specialty, but there wasn’t an art form he couldn’t talk about. And his place was just filled to the brim with it—I’m sure if I were a different person, or if someone like Harry were walking through his house, they’d be able to identify every piece. I wouldn’t doubt that his collection was worth seven figures or more. [click, static] Maybe that’s why he only ever invited me when he had a new lead, instead of Peter or whoever. He knew I couldn’t care less about what he hung on his walls—I’d listen when he told me all about his newest acquisition, but I wouldn’t try to…one up him, or sneak something out under his nose. He was a good man. An odd dresser, fast talker, and he’d put a dab of hot sauce in his iced tea, which I always thought was pretty foul, but he was kind. And I don’t know if he really had anyone. He lived in that house all by himself, and I only ever saw him…once a year at most? But I’d always go up with the intention to be out the next day and inevitably it’d turn into a whole weekend. He’d make me eat steamed clams—which I hate—and show me the new hobby he’d picked up. I think last time it was…stained glass? He’d walk along the beach and find bottles or bits of sea glass, break them down or polish them up and fit them together into some kind of pattern that he’d then solder together. He had three whole pieces done when I was there, and he’d leaned them against the window so that they’d catch the light, colors speckling his kitchen floor. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] [click, static] So here’s the thing. This junker I’m driving around isn’t exactly ready for Formula One, but it can get up to a hundred without gasping, and it’s not like there’s highway patrol so… [click, static] Whipping down I-64 at a hundred miles an hour…good idea or terrible idea? I could wrap myself around a telephone pole, but I don’t think I’m going to get pulled over. And it’s not like I’m in a rush anywhere but…come on, it’d be fun, right? I guess I should worry about deer though. I hit a deer once when I was sixteen and god, it was awful. The deer was fine, but it was goddamned terrifying and it bent my car up something good. And I loved that car. My dad started fixing it up for me when I was twelve and then I took over after he— [click, static] It wasn’t a fancy car by any stretch, it wasn’t even a particularly good car. But it ran. And it was mine. And even though the paint was dull and one of the side mirrors came from a different model car entirely, I still kept it pristine. And then a stupid deer broke one of the headlights and busted up the hood. I was never able to fix it—the hood that is, I did get a new headlight—but that car still saw me through the rest of my teen years and a good chunk of my twenties. I think that’s the last thing I had that my dad had touched. I had to ditch it on a job in Illinois when I was twenty-seven and I told myself I’d go back for it, but by the time I could, I’d forgotten exactly where I’d put it. Maybe that’s a way to spend my time—go looking for a car I parked eight years ago. It’d sure keep me busy. I think I probably will start heading west again once I’ve gotten to the coast. Go from ocean to ocean. I’m not as familiar with things once you cross over the Mississippi, but it’s not like getting lost is gonna delay me from something. I just know I can’t keep….circling around, never going further than eight hundred miles from Pennsylvania. Feels too much like I might decide to pack it all in and go back. And I am not going back. [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] [click, static] (sigh) Look, I know that no one is listening, I know I’m just talking to myself to keep myself from going crazy too quickly but I didn’t mean… [click, static] We didn’t cause this. Whatever went wrong six years ago that drained the world of seemingly every other human being had nothing to do with us. Which, you know, of course it didn’t. How could it? Two people with no real power between them can’t be responsible for doomsday. All I meant when I said that was…well. We—Harry and I—we weren’t exactly on our way up when this whole thing kicked off. The forecast wasn't so sunny and then all at once, we had this chance dropped in our laps. And we took it. You know, we didn’t even know that anything had happened for, god, months? And then, of course, it all made sense, I mean, how else would we have gotten lucky the way we did. And we tried to contact the rest of the team but, you know, it was never that easy to reliably get a hold of each other even in the best of times so… [click, static] Peter, Richie, Don—you sons of bitches weren’t exactly the best people in the world, but you knew your business and you never blinked at a woman doing what I do, which shouldn’t count for a lot, but that’s the world we live in, I guess. Wherever you are, I hope you got away scot-free too. Life doesn’t hand out these second chances all that often—third, fourth, fifth chance, if I’m honest so I hope to god we’re all doing it right. [click, static] I would have that nightmare sometimes though. That we did cause it. That wishing for something made it happen. That desperation led to destruction. It’s— [click, static] It’s goddamn stupid is what it is. Stupid and arrogant. I don’t have that much affect on the world, I never have and I’d wager that I never will. [click, static] Knowing that doesn’t stop the nightmares though. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974 from I-64. [click, static] That’s right. I’ve gone back East. I got a hankering to see the ocean and, well, I can do whatever the hell I want. [click, static] I’ve been up and down the eastern seaboard more times than I can count. If I had a stomping ground, this would be it. At least from Massachusetts to Florida, I never got up to Vermont or Maine much. I did spend a winter in Hastings, New Hampshire once. Tiny town, good place to catch some quiet. But the problem with certain small towns is that being a stranger is the most conspicuous thing you can be. People get curious. Curious people are never very good for business. Being on the road for the last few weeks, it’s really made me realize how strange it’s been to live in the same place for six years. Same house, same town, same roommate. The last time that was my life, I was fourteen years old. After that, the longest I ever spent anywhere was the four or five months at a time in New York. I guess that was home base as much as anything was, but it never felt like home. And bumfuck Pennsylvania sure was never home, but you spend six years straight somewhere and it becomes…something. You grow accustomed to things, like the way the morning sounds different in winter than it does in spring, when every goddamn bird in the state elects themselves as your alarm clock. You learn the patterns of the light over the fields behind your house, you know just how to hit the fridge when it starts making that rattling sound. You grow around someone else’s habits, make room for them, no matter how unwilling. [click, static] So, let me tell you, it has been pretty nice to just sprawl. The car is an absolute mess and I tried cleaning up the West Virginia house best I could, in case those owners ever do come back, but lord knows I probably left something behind. When I eat my lunch on the side of the road, I put my feet up on the dash and I don’t take my boots off first. The toolbox in my trunk is organized with my flawless system and it has stayed organized, because no one else is going rooting through it, moving things around and messing everything up. Not that being out here in the great wide world doesn’t come with a price. I’m definitely not sleeping as well as I usually do, what with all the strange sounds. Or, not even strange, it’s not like there’s very much out here, but just…unfamiliar. I have to make every meal myself, which is why I’ve been living mostly on jerky, and I tore my favorite pair of jeans the other day and have always been crap at sewing things up evenly. Not to mention that whole incident with the gas stove the other night. It’s a small price to pay, though. Freedom shouldn’t come at a cost but…well, I guess that’s sort of how we ended up in this situation in the first place, isn’t it? [click, static] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey broadcasting from the top of the world. [click, static] The top of West Virginia anyway. Well, the top of this particular area of West Virginia. I woke up this morning and looked around, picked the highest point I could see, drove as far as I could up the mountain and then walked the rest of the way. I think I must be in some kind of national or state park, because there’s hiking trails and everything. Or, what used to be hiking trails. They’re all overgrown now. [click, static] Jesus, I hope there’s not, you know, bears out here. I won’t stay for long. I just needed some fresh air. [click, static] I mean, all I’m getting is fresh air, but I needed…space, I guess, not just air. Partly because of the gas scare the other night but also because I’m starting to feel that stifled feeling. I think it’s time for me to move on. It was nice, kind of, to sort of settle down for a week, play house on my own, and who knows, maybe I’ll do it again on this winding road trip of mine. But I’ve been broadcasting every day, I said where I’ve been staying and I’ve barely heard a change in the static. [click, static] Actually, when I got to the top here, I did a scan of all the channels—even all the ones slightly off frequency— and I picked up some voices. My heart leaped into my throat, I was so excited. I nearly fell right off this mountaintop. [click, static] I wasn’t able to get a really clear read on it but clear enough to realize it was just…old ads or something. Canned broadcasts that are probably running automatically somewhere that my CB picked up on skip. Not a real person. Nothing real. It is beautiful up here though. Makes me think that maybe all this land doesn’t miss people all that much. It seems to be doing just fine without us. I guess I should go see more of it. I’ve been around this country a fair bit, but there’s plenty nooks and crannies I’ve never seen. A lot of beautiful, people-less land that is mine for the viewing, I guess. [click, static] It’s too big, this place. Too big for me. Too big for anyone. It’s not supposed to be this empty. [click, static] But it sure is beautiful. [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPTS] [click, static] Well, I nearly accidentally killed myself last night. [click, static] I got in late—no sign of any organized groups of people, doomsday or otherwise. No sign of people, period. It was a foolish errand maybe. And I was exhausted but I made dinner as I usually do—as usual as anything can be when you’ve only been doing it a few days—but I fried up a little spam, with some canned spinach, little bit of American cheese I brought from home that I think will stay good for a while— [click, static] Not home. It’s not home anymore. I don’t know if it ever really was home. No more than this random West Virginia house is. No more than any place has been since I was fifteen years old. The cars have been more of a home to me— [click, static] God, I’m still a little loopy. I left the gas on is the thing. I don’t know how, but when I turned off the burners, I guess one knob must’ve been a little finicky or something because by the time I was getting ready to go to sleep last night, I was feeling strange. Thankfully, I’m not an idiot, contrary to all the evidence I’ve given you, my radio stranger, my little void in the form of static, so I checked the stove and then opened all the windows the moment I figured out what went wrong. I slept with the windows open all night, just to be safe, checking the burners first thing this morning to make sure they stayed all the way off. So I’m fine! I’m fine. But it…I don’t know. [click, static] I could die out here, die anywhere, and no one would ever know. And I guess that could’ve been true during a lot of times in my life but no matter what I have to say about the last six years, I wouldn’t’ve have dropped dead without someone taking notice. [click, static] I can’t speak to how Harry would have felt about it, but she would’ve noticed. [click, static] For all she knows now, I am already dead. I ran out of gas or food or water or crashed the car. I’d like to think that—despite whatever else she might think about me—she at least knows me well enough to have a little more faith that I could survive than that but…I don’t know. [click, static] I don’t want to die alone. I don’t want to live alone. But what if I really am alone? What if we both are? What if we’re the last two people left in this stupid place and I’m the one who sentenced us to an existence of isolation? [click, static]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ---------- [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] I spent last night looking at the map of West Virginia and trying to remember where exactly that doomsday cult was supposed to be. There’s three towns that sounded sort of familiar for some reason, so that’s what I’m doing today. I got up early and I’m gonna drive to each of these towns and see what’s what. [click, static] If there are other people out there, I bet a lot of these kinds of groups have sprung up. The one Harry had heard about was panicked about nuclear war—but who isn’t, right? [click, static] It used to scare me, the idea that just a handful of people in the world could wake up one day and decide to end the world. All it would take is for one country to decide to drop a bomb and then it’d all be over. It never seemed that far-fetched either—America already did it. [click, static] When we first realized that something was different—that something had gone wrong…we’d been hiding out in this little abandoned cabin deep in the Pennsylvania wilderness. And I couldn’t hunt for shit and Harry certainly didn’t come with survival skills, so things were starting to look a little bleak. We weren’t strangers to planning outings that require a certain amount of stealth, so it was decided—we’d make our way closer to a town and scope it out for supplies. But when we got there, there was no one. It was a ghost town. We figured maybe it was an old coal town or something that had gotten abandoned when a mine closed—you see some of those types of towns out West, but we didn’t see any reason that it couldn’t happen in Pennsylvania too. So we kept going. And it was the same thing in the next three towns. [click, static] Of course we thought that nuclear war had broken out. What else could we have thought? Everyone disappears overnight, leaving their cars parked on the street, leaving the lights on—some of them, anyway. The breakout of nuclear war didn’t explain everything, but it seemed like the only possible explanation. [click, static] Except…wouldn’t we have died long ago? Wouldn’t we have gotten sick? In my driving these last two weeks, I haven’t seen any evidence of a bombing or nuclear fallout. So who was responsible then? Who made all the people disappear? Was it like it is with nuclear war—were there only a select few who had the terrible power to make that happen? [click, static] And if that’s the case, what the hell kind of button did they push? [click, static] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------- TRANSCRIPT [click, static Good morning, West Virginia. A miracle occurred this morning—this little house I’m holed up in? Somehow, it still has a working gas line. And they’ve got a gas stove. [click, static] That’s right, I had a hot breakfast this morning. And, look, it’s not like it’s been so long since I had hot beans, but I don’t know how likely this exact scenario is going to be on my travels, so I’m taking the little joys where I can. I do have a camper stove with me, but it doesn’t seem like a great use of gas. I’ll probably heat up food if and when I’ve got to boil water, and I guess I could always make a campfire but…I don’t know, you kind of get used to cold food after a few months and even though we eventually got a decent working kitchen at the house, I think the ability to eat something straight out of a room temperature can never really went away. [click, static] I’ve never been particularly fussy about what I eat. It’s all just fuel. I did use to be absolutely dependent on coffee, but I had that habit kicked out of me pretty quick. [click, static] God, I miss coffee. Good coffee, the kind that doesn’t come in a can. The kind that you don’t have to brew yourself. There’s not a lot I miss about the “old world” or whatever you want to call it. I wasn’t exactly the prime example of the American dream or anything, but there’s a few creature comforts that I’d sure like to access with ease again. The joy of sitting down at a coffee shop. And, you know, we never got more seasons of “Star Trek” for god’s sake, it’s just, it’s really— [click, static] How is everyone else keeping themselves entertained? There’s plenty to be said for the joy of a hot breakfast, beauty in the simple things, yada yada, but come on, has anyone else been bored? There’s only so many card games you can play with two people. As much as I like fixing things up, it can’t take all my time. [click, static] Well. Anyway. Guess I should indulge today, while I can. Or for a few days even. I have half a mind to spend the rest of the week here. I don’t think the owners are gonna come back, but you know maybe I can poke around, see what can be found in the little downtown I drove through. See if anyone might be about. If anyone might be listening. [click, static] Are you listening? [click, static] (sigh) Yeah. Alright. Whiskey, signing off. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------- TRANSCRIPT [click on] Ugh… [click, static] Jesus Christ. I– [click, static] The last time I had a hangover, I believe I was twenty-eight years old. I’m not twenty-eight anymore. Not that I’m old–least, I don’t feel it. Sure, maybe in a usual circumstance I’d be well into suburban adult life or something. Maybe. Probably not. I was never the get hitched and have kids type. Folks in my line of work usually don’t– [click, static] Ughhh god, I don’t even know if I can drive today. My head is pounding. Guess it wouldn’t hurt to spend a day just…resting. I’ve been driving most of the day for the past week after years of barely driving at all. It’s been harder on my body than I thought it’d be. Though I guess that might be the after effects of bourbon talking. [click, static] I guess I’m not used to sitting down for so much of the day. Those first few years after everything happened, it took a lot to find a spot we’d be safe in and then to set that place up. By the time we got everything running smoothly, I’d forgotten what it was like to sit still. Not that I did much of that before. My life has always been taken up moving around, fixing things, breaking things. I had to learn how to garden these past six years. [click, static] Who am I kidding. Harry did most of that stuff. I figured out how to butcher chickens I guess. Chop wood. Fix the roof. Rewire the house. It’s not like I had a purpose really. Other than keeping myself alive and trying not to strangle Harry every time she wasted a ton of flour trying to reengineer a goddamned croquembouche she had in Paris in 1962 from memory. That no-good pretentious— [click, static] I can’t figure out if I have less of a purpose now or more of one. I’m still trying to keep myself alive, though I’ve gotten pretty good at that. And there’s not as much…hazard, on the road, as I expected. I’ve got enough food to last me…months, probably. Water’s a toss up sometimes but boiling works in a pinch. As long as I can find gas, I’m good to drive around indefinitely. Which, you know… [click, static] Is that a life? Has any of this been? I wasn’t expecting to get past our driveway and find that the whole world had gone back to a normal, civilized society–I’m not even sure I would’ve wanted that. The fear of it is half the reason we never tried to contact anyone– [click, static] But there’s gotta be something–someone–out here somewhere. There’s no way in hell that Harry and I are the only two people who survived…whatever it was. So, once again, I’m begging–if you can hear this. Come and find me. I’m at a little house with a red door off Route 33, take left at the bridge and then the third right you come to. I’ll stay a few days, take a beat, and wait. [click, static] And just to be clear, if you come here and try something I don’t like, well…as I said, I have a lot of experience in breaking things. Alright, Whiskey out. [click, static] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ------- TRANSCRIPT Breaker, breaker, this is WAR1974. Same frequency as yesterday, but not on the road for once. I found a little house just off the main road that looked abandoned but didn’t have any broken windows so I figured… [click, static] I haven’t broken in. Just to be clear. The door was unlocked and I [click, static] Well, come on, no one’s really gonna hold me responsible for seeking shelter when there’s no one else around, right? I swear, if the owners show up, I’ll clear right out. But it’s nice. You know? Being in someone else’s home. Looking at the books they have, their clothes, their records. You can get to know someone through the things they own. Through what they give prominence to in their living space. Based on this living space, I’d guess…older couple? Been married…oh, I don’t know, thirty, forty years. But this isn’t the house they lived most of their life in. The furniture hasn’t worn patterns into the floor, the sun hasn’t bleached particular bits. There’s no photos. [click, static] But there’s a record player and they’ve got all the greats–Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline…god, I wish they had power, I’d kill to hear any of those folks. We mostly had classical records, a couple of big bands that almost made me think of my parents…one Beach Boys record. I know every word to every song on that one, it was the newest thing we had. It was barely two years old when the whole thing started but now it feels like a record I’ve been listening to my whole life, I’ve heard it so many times. [click, static Don’t tell anyone, but I think I’m gonna sneak the Hank Williams record away. Just in case I come across a working player. I’ve been trying the radio in the car every single day, and it’s pretty much all static. Every now and then I feel like I hear a little bit of music, but it’s never clear enough to tell. They won’t miss it. The record. I don’t think they’ll miss the bourbon I’ve dug into either. I hope not, anyway. [click, static (sip) That’s right. Bourbon. I found honest to god bourbon. I haven’t had a real drink in…god. Who knows. We had a little at the beginning and we…sort of? Figured out how to make our cider? I would’ve preferred beer, but apples are one thing, where the hell would we have gotten hops. And it’s not like I was ever allowed to go anywhere to find something that wasn’t absolutely vital for survival. I wanted to try my hand at making bathtub gin, but Harry thought I’d blow the whole place up. And you know, she’s just got a real big— [click, static] I think I will be taking my little alcoholic Kentucky friend here with me on my journey. Bring it back to the homeland. I hope wherever they are, the couple that lived here is happy and safe. They seem nice. Based on their music and the fact that they’ve got a bunch of dish towels with cartoon puppies and kittens on ‘em. No art on the walls. A couple of fish, a stag head. Which is art of a kind. But no paintings. Which is fine by me. If I never see another painting in my goddamn life, I’ll be happy. [click, static] Anyway…I’m just about falling asleep where I sit. My body’s not used to hard liquor anymore, I guess. So, I’m just gonna… [clicks off] [beeps]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Alright, different channel today. Different channel and different state. I have made my way into West Virginia. And good lord, is it beautiful. I’m definitely avoiding all the flat just the way I wanted, but I am a little worried now that the mountains are going to make these signals even less likely to reach anyone. I’m keeping my eye out for a better antenna, something I could boost the signal with. I don’t know much about this thing–radios aren’t my specialty–but I’ve always been good at tinkering with things and I pick stuff up quick. It’s why I got into the line of work I did. You need to be able to improvise, figure things out fast, and you’ve gotta be good with your hands. I like discovering the way things work. In that sense, I bet you’d think this whole situation these past years has been my paradise. How do you improvise when the power’s out and the water stops being clean and you can’t get emergency services for shit because there might not be any kind of services at all anymore? I mean, sounds like a fun fair to me. The reality got old fast. But I think I was able to build a pretty decent existence. It’s why I think I can do it again. I take comfort in the knowledge that if this car breaks down, I can fix it, and if it really breaks down, I can get another one going. There’s certainly enough of them scattered around. Though not as many as I thought there’d be. I also expected the stores to be a lot more picked over. The gas stations, yeah, are mostly empty, but I think my odds of getting a stronger antenna are actually pretty good. I dropped into a hardware store late yesterday to get a tire gauge and air pump and the place felt…if not fully stocked, partly. And it’s not like I’m in the middle of absolutely nowhere, I’m still on a major highway. So why isn’t everything completely picked over? [click, static] I have seen a couple of lights on here or there, which I can’t make any sense of. One of them was a roadside burger joint–their neon ‘open’ sign was glowing like it was new. So I went in and…well, I didn’t expect to see anyone, I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I thought maybe…maybe there’d be a phone that still worked or a water heater or a working gas line. It was the strangest thing. The neon sign was on. And the jukebox. And one of the lights over the counter. But nothing else. The phone was dead, none of the light switches seemed to do anything. I did try playing a tune on the jukebox but…I don’t have any quarters. Why would I? I haven’t used money for anything in years. But anyway, it all got me thinking…if I could find a working radio tower, could I boost this signal? As it stands, I’ve just got to keep driving round and round and round until I get lucky enough to come into range with another CB. But if parts of the grid are still working, then maybe— [click, static] Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it wouldn’t make a difference because maybe there is no one to find. And I’ll just keep tuning into a new frequency every single day and talking to the air. [click, static] But I think it’s…helping. Even if I’m not talking to anybody. [click, static] Maybe because I’m not talking to anybody. If no one can hear me, there’s no consequence to anything I say. And talking to yourself isn’t embarrassing or sad if no one knows it’s happening. Right? So, who knows, maybe I’ll keep going on this no matter what happens. I’ve got nothing to lose. Signing off. [click, static] [beep]See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. -------- [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, this is Whiskey driving West on a beautiful day. Still in Ohio. The Buckeye State. I’m thinking of heading South actually–the last time I was in the Midwest was…god, probably sixty? Sixty-one. I just remember a lot of flat. I haven’t hit that yet, but knowing it’s coming…yeah, anyway, I’ve been thinking about heading south. Cutting back over into…(rustling of paper), 77? And going down to West Virginia. I blew right past Akron without seeing a single sign of life, so I’m thinking maybe the big cities are out. [click, static] Jesus, not that Akron, Ohio is a big city. Maybe I should’ve gone up to Cleveland, I don’t know. I guess I’m still a little skittish of anywhere that might have– [click, static] (sighing) Anyway, West Virginia seems like a place worth checking out. Harry mentioned this doomsday cult she’d heard about down there–granted, that was back in ‘66 or something that she heard those rumors but…what else do I have to go on, huh? Man, if she could see me right now, she’d laugh and tell me ‘told you so’. Not even a week into this and I’m already going looking for a weird survivalist cult. Bet she’d love to have me go slinking back with my tail between my legs, giving up on any hope that there’s something worth looking for in this godforsaken country. But she’s not gonna get the satisfaction. I’m not going back, not for anything. It was safe, sure, but at what cost? Human beings aren’t meant to live in a cage, even ones of their own making. I mean it’s just— [click, static] Well, even a bunch of nuclear war freakouts would be better than being alone. I’ve been alone for so long now. [click, static] Harry would take issue with that, I think. Try to logic me into some kind of admission that because I wasn’t actually alone, I couldn’t claim being lonely. And maybe I wouldn’t’ve been if every conversation with her wasn’t exactly like that, where she would– [click, static] (deep breath) I’m not gonna talk about her. I’m not even gonna think about her. I’ve spent the past six years doing nothing but– [click, static] If I’m gonna head south I should probably figure out where the hell I can get on I-77. I’m working off a Rand McNally from 1963, but it’s not like they’ve done any public works since ‘68 so I’m counting on it being somewhat reliable. But if you hear this and have a hot tip on the best route to take… This is Whiskey, signing off. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ----------------- [TRANSCRIPT] [click, static] Breaker, breaker, WAR1974 on the line currently eating some jerky on the side of I-76. [click, static] It occurred to me that I won’t actually be East of the Mississippi much longer. I’ve officially crossed over into Ohio and have no plans on stopping so– I don’t know, do people change their handles when they move around? No way, right? That’d be useless. Then again, the FCC also probably doesn’t give out the current year as a call sign number, but I wanted to feel more official. And, you know, “War 1974” rhymes so… [click, static] I don’t know what I’m doing, clearly! This is the longest I've been alone in six years and I may already be losing it. But I don’t know, it can’t be worse than having only one person for company for that time, right? I have to think that if other people are out there, they’ve been in a similar bind. You guys get it. [click, static] I’m gonna try a new channel tomorrow I think. Because I really am just…speaking into the void here. Hello? Anyone out there? [click, static] I don’t know what I expected. I think I expected someone. Or something. I knew the electricity was out pretty much everywhere, I mean, we barely scraped together a working generator. And even then, we couldn’t run it all the time. I haven’t taken a hot shower in… [click, static] If anyone is out there, would you mind tuning in just to tell me if there’s a working gas station in this state? I’m…acquiring gas just fine at the moment but I’d rather not have my first encounter with the world in half a decade be getting busted for siphoning- [click, static] Probably shouldn’t talk about that kind of stuff on a public frequency, huh? [click, static] If folks are nervous making themselves known to a stranger, I get it. Trust me, I get it. But I’m safe. I’m a good person, I just…would love to know what the hell has been going on. I’ve got plenty of food and I like to think I’m a pretty good conversationalist so. Just. Please. [click, static] Alright. Second verse, same as the first–I’ll be on this frequency all day. Signing off. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Please visit breakerwhiskey.com for more information or to send a message to Whiskey's radio. Breaker Whiskey is an Atypical Artists production created by Lauren Shippen. If you'd like to support the show, please visit patreon.com/breakerwhiskey. ---------- [TRANSCRIPT] Breaker, breaker, Channel 19, is anyone reading? [click, static] This is…uh- sh-- [click, static] Whiskey…Alpha Romeo- this is Whiskey Alpha Romeo, calling out. [click, static] Once again, that’s Whiskey Alpha Romeo, currently along I-80. [click, static] Breaker, breaker. [click, static] You know, I just realized how bad those initials are, but that’s the rule right? W for east of the Mississippi, which–isn’t that a bit backward? Shouldn’t it be W for West? Anyway, W for east of the Mississippi plus the initials of your name– but I mean, still, WAR is a bit…Whiskey, I guess is okay. Though that’d be the part of the call sign that everybody in this area has, so…not really specific. Then again, it doesn’t seem like anyone is here – no other W-call signs to mix me up with. So if you are listening somehow, Whiskey is…fine. I don’t have a number? I don’t technically have any kind of license either, but who would be giving them out, right? I mean, in that case, I guess trying to stick to any kind of convention is sort of pointless at this juncture, so I could’ve picked any old name… But, I mean, we all have to hold on to whatever bit of structure we can to stay sane, right? And I don’t know, I have the pamphlet for this thing and it feels like I should follow it to the letter. You know, this thing has been sitting in our garage for five years and this is the first time we’ve sent a signal out? I mean, we’re remote, yeah, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t’ve– [click, static] Sorry, not we. The first time I’ve sent a signal out, though Lord knows she never did either. And never will, I mean, I doubt she’ll even notice this is gone, I doubt she’ll miss it, I doubt she’ll miss– [click, static] Anyway, here I am, clogging up the airwaves. I think that’s bad etiquette. But if no one is listening, there’s no one to offend. [click, static] Yeah. Well, like I said. Whiskey Alpha Romeo along I-80–I’ll stay on this frequency for the rest of the day. Um…signing off. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Support the Show Support Atypical Artists Send a Message Transcripts Email the show at [email protected] -- Hi there. I'm Lauren Shippen, creator of Breaker, Whiskey. If you're new to this feed, let me give you a brief overview of the journey we're on. Breaker Whiskey is a micro fiction alternate history that explores an empty 1970s America. In 1968, two women find themselves in rural Pennsylvania during what turns out to be some kind of apocalyptic event. By the time they discover that everyone else is gone, it’s too late to figure out what happened. Despite not liking each other at all, the women work together to survive, until six years later one of them sets out on her own, driving around the country to find other survivors. This is her story. Breaker Whiskey takes place in post-apocalyptic America and involves themes of loneliness, existential dread, hopelessness, and other heavy topics. There is strong language, drinking, and mild peril. If you have a concern about a specific trigger warning, please email us at [email protected] and ask! I've been making audio drama for a long time and when I started it was very, very DIY. While I've so enjoyed making shows with large casts and large teams, there are times when I miss the spontaneity of doing things myself. Breaker Whiskey is an ongoing, living, breathing show. I don't have the entire thing planned out, I don't necessarily always know where the story is going. It is a road trip without a map, a way for me to explore single narrator storytelling and build a story as I go, following whichever plot points or character points I fid most interesting. And this is a journey I'm not going on entirely by myself. As Whiskey goes on her journey, she'll start to receive mysterious morse code messages from a stranger. If you would like to send a morse code message of your own, you can send Whiskey a message or a question at atypicalartists.co/breakerwhiskey. The show is released every day, Monday through Friday and each individual episode is under 5 minutes. Start with Episode 001. If you are a supporter of Atypical Artists, you'll receive each week's episodes as a single episode, on Mondays, instead of smaller missives each day. If you'd like to become a supporter, please visit atypicalartists.co/supportor patreon.com/breakerwhiskey All the links are in the description of this episode. This is Lauren, signing off. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.