This week with Project Mastodon, we’re travelling back to a time when mastodons roamed and mosquitoes were… frankly, terrifying. This 1956 episode from the brilliant X Minus One series, based on a story by Clifford D. Simak, blends satire, suspense, and big ideas in equal measure.

When a group of entrepreneurs discover a gateway to the distant past, their first instinct isn’t scientific curiosity—it’s opportunity. Why stay in the modern world with all its rules and restrictions when you can head back 50,000 years and start fresh? Their solution: establish a brand-new civilisation in prehistoric times, free from government interference and full of commercial potential.

But while Mastodonia might seem like the perfect escape, the present-day world isn’t quite ready to let it go. What unfolds is a clever and often funny exploration of time travel, capitalism, and control.

As always, X Minus One delivers a high-concept story with real bite. It’s imaginative, thought-provoking, and surprisingly modern in its themes. Step into the past—and see what the future makes of it. And don't forget the bug repellent!

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This week on The Shiver Show, Mary Labrie and Greg Flynn cinch up their trench coats once again and step into the shadowy world of wartime espionage with “Five Fingers” from Lux Radio Theatre (1952).

Starring the incomparable James Mason, reprising his film role, this stylish spy drama is based on the real-life story of the infamous spy with the code name Cicero. Mason plays Ulysses Diello, a suave and deeply opportunistic valet working at the British Embassy in Ankara during World War II. By day, he’s the model servant. By night, he’s photographing top-secret documents and selling them to the Germans. Loyalty is negotiable, and everyone—especially Diello—has a price.

Mary and Greg unpack the fascinating true story of Albanian valet Elyesa Bazna, whose daring espionage earned him a fortune… paid in counterfeit money. Not exactly a retirement plan. They also explore the film’s legacy, from its glamorous 1952 cinema release (directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz) and shot in Istanbul.

Expect clipped accents, coded messages, and plenty of intrigue—though perhaps not perfect sound quality this time! Still, Mason’s velvet performance carries the day. Please join us for this terrific spy thriller.

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This week on The Shiver Show, co-hosts Mary Labrie and Greg Flynn bring you The Voice on the Wire, a delicious tale of psychological suspense.

At the centre of the story is Geraldine Reeves, played by Lesley Woods, a lonely widow living on a narrow island near the ruins of her former home. Years earlier, her husband—a composer—died in a tragic fire that destroyed the house.

Night after night she hears something impossible: her late husband’s unfinished musical composition drifting through the darkness, accompanied by the eerie howling of a dog. No one is there—or so it seems. Then one evening the telephone rings, and a mysterious voice calmly informs Geraldine she has just four hours to live.

Written by Robert Sloane, the story plays almost like a radio version of Clue—everyone seems suspicious, everyone denies everything, and someone is clearly lying. Is it supernatural revenge… or something far more calculated?

Tune in and decide for yourself—The Voice on the Wire delivers a double helping of suspense.

Thank you for listening! If you like the show, please share us with your friends and family AND give us a review! If you have a suggestion for a show or a question, please drop it in the comments!

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Join us this week on The Shiver Show, as Mary and Greg enter a time warp with “Time and Time Again.” This unforgettable episode of X Minus One, aired on the NBC Radio Network (1956), and is based on the 1947 novel by H. Beam Piper.

The story follows Allan Hartley, a 43-year-old soldier wounded during the Siege of Buffalo in World War III. It’s 1975. The world is fractured. Then—without warning—Allan wakes up in 1945… inside his own 13-year-old body.

Armed with knowledge of Hiroshima, the course of World War II, Allan faces an extraordinary moral puzzle: Can he change the future? Should he? Or does time resist interference?

Author H. Beam Piper was fascinated by time distortion and alternate histories, themes he explored across numerous short stories and novels. Mary and Greg explore the episode’s haunting central question: If you could return to your 13-year-old self for one hour… what would you do?

Thank you for listening! If you like the show, please share us with your friends and family AND give us a review! If you have a suggestion for a show or a question, please drop it in the comments!

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This week on The Shiver Show, we turn up the temperature with “August Heat,” a 1945 episode of Suspense. Adapted from the 1910 short story by W. F. Harvey, this deliciously eerie tale is understated and unsettling.

The episode stars Barry Kroeger as the artist, James Clarence Withencroft, whose automatic sketching leads him wander the streets of London until he meets a mason who has just finished a headstone. The heat presses in. Their fates are tied.

With an immersive soundscape and a lush, haunting score the oppressive atmosphere unfolds. August Heat is a slow burn tale that will have you fanning yourself in fright.

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This week on The Shiver Show, we bring you deceit and deadly intentions with “A Blueprint for Murder” from Lux Radio Theatre (1954), adapted just one year after the successful 1953 film, directed by Andrew L. Stone, and starring Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters.

This golden era radio episode features Dan Dailey as Cam, and Dorothy McGuire as Lynn, the dreaded stepmother with secrets to spare. McGuire is terrific here, proving she can go dark, despite Hollywood often casting her as the “nice girl.” The supporting cast is terrific too, with Barney Phillips as Captain Detective Pringle, Jack Kruschen as Lieutenant Cole, and William Conrad as the district attorney.

This is a compelling mystery with a slow-burn tension and meticulous clues. Join us for secrets, suspicion, and a blueprint that doesn’t quite go to plan.

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This week on The Shiver Show, Mary Labrie and Greg Flynn do the time warp with “The Thirty-Second of December” (1958), a clever and unsettling episode from the legendary Suspense series.

Starring Frank Lovejoy as Joe, the story leans heavily on Lovejoy’s everyman intensity. Drowning in gambling debt, Joe makes a disastrous choice: he pawns his fiancée Molly’s engagement ring… then impulsively spends the money on a strange watch from a deeply unsettling pawnshop owner, played to perfection by Barney Phillips.

Things go rapidly downhill when Joe discovers the watch can control time—and decides to use it to rob a bank. The robbery succeeds. The debt is gone. But Molly is gone and Joe still hasn't learned his lesson at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

Mary and Greg unpack the episode’s dark irony, its cautionary take on shortcuts and second chances. A morality tale with a supernatural sting— The 32nd of December is quietly cruel.

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Get ready for a real treat with this noir crime classic, Double Indemnity. This episode is packed with star power: a sultry Barbara Stanwyck, a tough and conniving Fred MacMurray, a commanding William Conrad and the writing of Jame M. Cain. This episode has it all.

Join us!

Thank you for listening! If you like the show, please share us with your friends and family AND give us a review! If you have a suggestion for a show or a question, please drop it in the comments!

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