It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton

"Phoenix Tile" by Guan Un, narrated by Wil

Original Publication Credit: Khoreo (including audio version): https://www.khoreomag.com/fiction/phoenix-tile/ 

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://guanun.com/ 

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"To Carry You Inside You" by Tia Tashiro, narrated by Wil

Today, we are going to visit a future where child actors are still exploited, still used up and discarded, facing an adult life without purpose, that they were never prepared for, because nobody cared what happened to them past an arbitrary age.We will meet a young woman who is doing her best to assemble the pieces of a stolen childhood into a fulfilling adult life. It isn't what she wanted, or would have chosen for herself, but she's doing her best, which is all any of us can do.

This is: To Carry You Inside You

Original Publication Credit: "To Carry You Inside You" was originally published in Clarkesworld in print and audio in November 2023; it was translated into Chinese in print in Science Fiction World: Translations in October 2024.

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://tiatashiro.com/ 

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Bird-Girl Builds a Machine" by Hannah Yang, narrated by Wil

Today, we have a beautiful story for you that is all about love, specifically the kind of love we have for our children. And when we're finished, I think you'll want to hug your kids, or reach out and tell them you love them. I know that I did.

This is: Bird Girl Builds A Machine.

Original Publication Credit: Clarkesworld Magazine

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://hannahyang.com/stories/ It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Heathman Ldg" by Brian Evenson, narrated by Wil

A splashing fountain in the center court of a mall with fully stocked stores but no shoppers, muzak cheerfully playing for an audience of none. A paper ticket in your hand, in an airport departure lounge that hasn't seen a passenger in fifty years, the board still updating flight information, with whirling letters. The front desk in the empty hotel lobby, an abandoned cigarette burning down in a glass ashtray, static on a black and white TV.

.These are Liminal Spaces: familiar, recognizable, but not quite right, and also a little bit wrong, in a way that is just beyond your ability to describe. Fortunately for us, it is not beyond author Brian Evenson's ability to describe. In fact, you may want to look up now and then to remind yourself where you actually are, as we take you out on the road, destination: Heathman Ldg.

Original Publication Credit:  “Heathman Ldg” was first published as a limited edition concertina chapbook in Brazil, in English with facing Portuguese translation:  Heathman Ldg (Sao Paolo, Brazil: Raphus Press, 2023). Edition of 88, concertina.  Nearly simultaneously it appeared in English as:  “Heathman Ldg,” Bourbon Penn 32 (2024), 7-22. 

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://www.brianevenson.com 

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The Nine Scents of Sorrow" by Jordan Taylor, narrated by Wil

This week's story features one of history's memorable, real-life villains, and while this isn't her story, directly, when she tells it, she is the hero, and so very, very justified. And as much as I hate it, I gotta tell you that she isn't wrong. 

Original Publication Credit: Uncanny Magazine Issue 35, July 2020

To learn more about the author, please visit: https://jordantaylorwrites.com/ 

It's Storytime was produced in 2025 by Traveler Enterprises, Inc., who holds the copyright. Our producer is Harris Lane. Our Story Producer and Director is Gabrielle de Cuir. Our Content Editor is Michael Thomas. Our Podcast is mixed, edited, and mastered by Alex Barton of PhaseShift AV. Special thanks to Wes Stevens and Christopher Black. It's Storytime is recorded at Skyboat Media in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, California. 

If you'd like to support the show and get an ad-free feed, visit ⁠patreon.com/storytime⁠ 

I'm your Creator, Executive Producer, and host, Wil Wheaton. You can find me online at ⁠wilwheaton.net⁠. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices