Unfolded

A gardener seeks solace in the earth. A pig hunt doubles as a first date. A young mother wrestles with what’s possible. A fox bite changes a life. A table speaks. A navigator reckons with the gift, and burden, of ancient knowledge. 

We’ve all read stories that changed our lives. We’ve all imagined places that feel like home. We’ve all met characters who feel like family.

Now, we’ll hear the stories, then go to the source. We’ll speak with the authors, to find out what makes a story great, where they come from, and why they connect.

These are stories: Unpacked. Understood. Unfolded.

Join us for season 1 of Unfolded as Seth Robinson and Professor Tony Birch speak with authors Chris Flynn, Claire G. Coleman, Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun, Miriam Webster, Paige Clark and Laura Jean McKay.

Subscribe now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

A fox bite changes a life.

Kitsune by Chris Flynn.

Read by Harry McGee.

Synopsis

Plans change for Christmas morning when a bite from a fox sends a man to the emergency room, but a rabies shot is only the beginning.

Soon, strange dreams of nine-tailed foxes, a sensory overload, and a sex drive he can't contain push him to the brink of his reality.

Kitsune is a story of vulpine velocity that is equally parts hilarious and compelling. 

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning. 

Chapter 1: In conversation with Chris Flynn

Chris Flynn takes us inside the world of Kitsune, discussing the scattered moments that gave life to the story, his literary inspirations, why he's sceptical of the term 'speculative fiction', and how it's best to write short stories like mini-novels. 

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning. 

A pig hunt doubles as a first date. 

Territory by Laura Jean McKay

read by Ben de Pagter

Synopsis
Territory takes listeners inside an Australia that few of us ever get to see: from the dried creek beds of the Northern Territory, to a Sunday afternoon at the pub unlike any other.

It's a visceral story, that captures a sense of heat, violence, and tension of a place, that makes us reconsider the relationships with have with animals, and each other.  

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning. 

Chapter 2: In conversation with Laura Jean McKay

Come visit the Territory with Laura Jean McKay.

Hear how a visit to community on Australia's fringes and a real – stranger than fiction – experience inspired this story, how giving voice to the voiceless has become part of Laura's practice, and why the voice we gave her story caught her off guard. 

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning. 

A table speaks.

How to make a table a table from memory by Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun

read by Alfie Baker

Synopsis

What might your kitchen table say to you? What about the phone in your hand? Or the shoes on your feet? 

How might the things in our lives look back on where they came from, or where they're going? 

How to make a table from memory tells us a powerful, non-human story, that highlights how we, as humans, might reconnect with natural world, and what we take from it. 

 

Chapter 3: In conversation with Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun

Hear from Frankey Chung-Kok-Lun how to make a story about a table, and so much more.

Frankey takes inside his practice of writing non-human voices, the relationship between the objects in our lives and how we understand climate change, and why writing, or simply existing, might be an act of resistance. 

 

A young mother wrestles with the unknown.

It's Possible by Paige Clark

read by Gabrielle Ng

 Synopsis

On an unseasonably beautiful day, a trip to the park paints a picture of potential. From a moment on the monkey bars, to a dog without a lead, there is what is, and what could be.

There is what is safe, and what's known, and then, there's something else ...

It's Possible presents a scene of the everyday, a story that is equal parts charming and sinister. It reminds us that life is lived on the edge of uncertainty, and there is beauty in the balance. 

Chapter 4: In conversation with Paige Clark

Join us as we speak with Paige Clark about what made her story possible.

From inspirations and influences, to writing the specific and the hyperlocal.

'It's Possible' is a story about the big issues, and menace playing out in the minor moments. 

A gardener seeks solace in the earth.

Farrow by Miriam Webster

Read by Molly Holohan

Synopsis

On the day of his Grandmother's death, a gardener digs back through the fertile ground of his memory, seeking something down in the roots of his family tree.

He finds comfort amongst fecund, and a connection to the earth few of us will ever understand.

Farrow delivers a sensory experience that goes beyond the page or the headphones, and leaves listeners tingling. 

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning.

Chapter 5: In conversation with Miriam Webster

We get the dirt on how 'Farrow' came to be with Miriam Webster, and talk about our love of 'sparkly' language despite (or perhaps because of) it's limitations, writing for all the senses, and how Miriam was always going to be a writer, despite her best efforts. 

Listeners are advised that this episode of Unfolded comes with a language and content warning. 

A navigator reckons with the gift, and burden, of ancient knowledge.  

Ancestral Memory / As Slippery as an Eel by Claire G. Coleman

Read by Chelsea Hawke.

Down in the belly of the ship, a crewmate waits for the test that will determine her role, and how she will pay her way on this ride across the stars.

But it's in her dreams and the memories that can't possibly be hers that destiny awaits. A destiny shaped by blood. 
Ancestral Memory / As Slippery as an Eel, considers how there are some knowledges as old as time, ways of being, and knowing that will survive long into the future, perhaps even once we have left this world. 

Chapter 6: In conversation with Claire G. Coleman

In the final episode of Unfolded for this season, Claire G. Coleman takes us into the workings of her story, Ancestral Memory / As Slippery as an Eel.

We talk about how she finds inspiration in all kinds of mediums (especially music), how writing speculative fiction allows her to speak about the real world, and the importance of Ancient Knowledges and stories being told, without being exploited.