The Porcupine Presents ...

The Porcupine
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The Porcupine Presents... is a curated audio cabinet of wonders: absurdist original comedy like The World’s Worst Docent series, classic golden-age radio dramas, and smart, salty commentary from your spiky host. Whether it’s a baffling museum tour or a suspenseful tale from 1947, each episode pokes at the strange edges of history, storytelling, and human folly—with affection and bite. Tune in for vintage weirdness, contemporary satire, and the occasional emotional sucker punch. You never quite know what you’ll get—but it’ll be lovingly crafted and unexpectedly sharp.

  1. 3d ago

    A Secret Carried for 21 Years | Broadway Is My Beat - “Spring Death Is Round the Corner” (1953)

    A classic noir detective drama from the golden age of radio — plus bonus commentary and trivia after the show. Broadway Is My Beat – “Spring Death Is Round the Corner” (1953) Step back into the golden age of radio with Broadway Is My Beat, the rain-soaked noir drama where jazz, loneliness, and murder drift together beneath the neon lights of postwar New York. In this 1953 classic, “Spring Death Is Round the Corner,” Detective Danny Clover investigates a silent old man found clutching a recently fired revolver in a shabby rented room — a mystery that gradually uncovers buried family secrets, blackmail, failed fatherhood, and the emotional wreckage hidden beneath the performance of success and respectability. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including how Broadway Is My Beat transformed crime stories into studies of loneliness and emotional exhaustion, why this episode’s father-son relationship becomes so psychologically devastating, and how the series used Broadway itself as a landscape of isolation, guilt, and quiet despair. Originally aired: 1953 Approx. runtime: 35 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

  2. 6d ago

    Nothing to Fear? | Quiet, Please - “Nothing Behind the Door” (1947)

    A classic cosmic horror thriller — plus bonus commentary and trivia after the show. Quiet, Please – “Nothing Behind the Door” (1947) Step back into the golden age of radio with Quiet, Please, the eerie and philosophically unsettling suspense series created by Wyllis Cooper. In this 1947 classic, “Nothing Behind the Door,” three criminals carrying out a seemingly straightforward scheme travel high into the mountains near Mount Wilson Observatory, where a fenced-off structure and a series of increasingly ominous warnings lead them toward something far stranger — and far more terrifying — than they ever expected to find. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including how Quiet, Please transformed scientific wonder into existential horror, why the episode’s astronomers function almost like priests guarding forbidden knowledge, and how the story uses the terrifying concept of “nothingness” itself as one of radio’s most haunting ideas. Originally aired: June 8, 1947Approx. runtime: 36 minutesWebsite: theporcupinepresents.com

  3. Aug 13

    Step Right Up to Murder … with Vincent Price | ”The Saint - “The Carnival Murder” (1951)

    A classic radio mystery with Vincent Price — plus bonus commentary after the show. The Saint – “The Carnival Murder” (1951) Step back into the golden age of radio with The Saint, the stylish adventure series starring the suave and ever-unflappable Simon Templar. In this 1951 classic, “The Carnival Murder,” Vincent Price finds himself drawn into a shadowy world of carnival performers, deception, and murder beneath the midway lights — where danger hides behind every smiling face and striped tent. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including why Vincent Price became one of radio’s most magnetic performers, what made The Saint different from many detective programs of its era, and why carnival settings became such perfect territory for mystery and suspense fiction. Originally aired: February 4, 1951Approx. runtime: 37 minutesWebsite: theporcupinepresents.com

  4. Aug 10

    Help, I’ve Been Kidnapped by Three Bat-Shit Crazy Women in a Crappy Ford Contour | 1 : “The Kidnappers”

    A nostalgic American road trip audio memoir — where family chaos meets Route 66 Americana. Help I’ve Been Kidnapped by Three Bat-Shit Crazy Women in a Crappy Ford Contour | 1 : “The Kidnappers” Welcome to Season 2 of The Porcupine Presents and the premiere of an all-new original series inspired by a real 2003 cross-country family road trip. When Corie’s grandmother Jackie suddenly announces that the family is driving to the Grand Canyon, there is no discussion, no negotiation, and absolutely no planning. Soon, one anxious thirty-year-old academic finds herself trapped in a rattling Ford Contour with three loving but deeply chaotic Pennsylvania women — including a profanity-wielding great-aunt, a relentlessly talkative navigator, and a grandmother who believes all roads eventually “come out somewhere.” In Episode One — “The Kidnappers” — we meet the doomed occupants of the Contour before the journey west begins, as family folklore, roadside Americana, digestive anxiety, and interstate dysfunction collide. Blending humor, nostalgia, memoir, and vintage-inspired storytelling, this new Porcupine Productions series explores the strange beauty of family road trips — and the emotional chaos hidden inside old vacation memories. Released twice monthly on The Porcupine Presents. Originally aired: August 2026 Approx. runtime: 22 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

  5. Aug 6

    When Radio Refused to Die | The General Mills Radio Adventure - “The Adventures of Oliver” (1977)

    A classic literary adaptation from the twilight years of radio drama — plus bonus commentary after the show. The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater - “The Adventures of Oliver” (1977) Step back into a curious moment in broadcast history with The Adventures of Oliver, produced as part of The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater. In this 1977 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, a story born in the 19th century is retold through a medium many believed had already vanished. Stripped of spectacle but rich in narration and voice, this episode reflects both a reverence for radio’s past and an uncertainty about its future — offering a rare glimpse at how storytelling survives even after cultural relevance fades. After the broadcast, stay tuned for commentary exploring radio drama’s late survival, corporate patronage of the arts, and why some stories refuse to disappear. Originally aired: 1977 Approx. runtime: 46 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

  6. Aug 3

    A Mystery Without an Ending | Suspense - “The Mystery of Edwin Dood” (1953)

    A classic literary suspense from radio’s golden age — plus bonus commentary and trivia. Suspense – “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” (1953) Step back into the golden age of radio with Suspense, the definitive anthology of psychological and literary drama. In this 1953 adaptation of Charles Dickens’s final, unfinished novel, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood,” obsession, secrecy, and moral ambiguity take center stage in a story that famously ends without resolution. Rather than offering tidy answers, this radio version leans into uncertainty — exploring jealousy, repression, and the unsettling possibility that truth itself may be inaccessible. With its claustrophobic tone and emphasis on interior motive, Suspense transforms Dickens’s fragment into a meditation on guilt, power, and unanswered questions. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and behind-the-scenes trivia — including how radio dramatists approached Dickens’s unfinished work, why Drood fascinated generations of readers, and how ambiguity itself became the story’s greatest source of tension. Originally aired: 1953 Approx. runtime: 59 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

  7. Jul 30

    Ambition, Guilt, and Moral Reckoning | NBC University Theater - “Great Expectations” (1950)

    A classic literary drama from the golden age of radio — plus bonus commentary after the show. NBC University Theater – “Great Expectations” (1950) Step back into the golden age of radio with NBC University Theater, a series created to bring major works of literature to a wide American audience with clarity and seriousness. In this 1950 adaptation of “Great Expectations,” Charles Dickens’s psychologically rich novel becomes a study of ambition, guilt, and moral awakening. Told through the experiences of Pip, a young man who mistakes social advancement for personal worth, Great Expectations explores how aspiration can quietly erode gratitude, loyalty, and self-knowledge. As Pip chases refinement and status, he slowly loses sight of the human bonds that once grounded him — until experience forces a reckoning. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and analysis — including how Great Expectations functions as a moral education story, how NBC University Theater’s narration-heavy style shapes Dickens’s themes, and why this novel resonated so strongly with mid-century American anxieties about class, success, and self-reinvention. Originally aired: 1950 Approx. runtime: 65 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

  8. Jul 27

    Kindness, Comedy, and Social Folly | Mercury Theatre on the Air - “The Pickwick Papers” (1938)

    A classic literary comedy from the golden age of radio — plus bonus commentary after the show. Mercury Theatre on the Air – “The Pickwick Papers” (1938) Step back into the golden age of radio with The Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Welles’s innovative 1938 series that brought classic literature vividly to life. In this adaptation of “The Pickwick Papers,” Charles Dickens’s beloved early novel is transformed into a brisk, character-driven radio comedy filled with social satire, misadventure, and generous humor. Rather than centering on high drama or moral catastrophe, The Pickwick Papers celebrates everyday decency and human folly. Through a series of loosely connected episodes, Dickens explores how kindness, curiosity, and tolerance quietly hold society together — even when propriety, law, and status threaten to pull it apart. After the broadcast, stay tuned for bonus commentary and analysis — including why Pickwick adapts so naturally to radio, how the Mercury Theatre approached comedy differently than tragedy, and what this novel reveals about Dickens’s belief in humor as a form of social stability. Originally aired: September 1938 Approx. runtime: 67 minutes Website: theporcupinepresents.com

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About

The Porcupine Presents... is a curated audio cabinet of wonders: absurdist original comedy like The World’s Worst Docent series, classic golden-age radio dramas, and smart, salty commentary from your spiky host. Whether it’s a baffling museum tour or a suspenseful tale from 1947, each episode pokes at the strange edges of history, storytelling, and human folly—with affection and bite. Tune in for vintage weirdness, contemporary satire, and the occasional emotional sucker punch. You never quite know what you’ll get—but it’ll be lovingly crafted and unexpectedly sharp.

Information

  • Creator
    The Porcupine
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    154
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © The Porcupine
  • Show Website
    The Porcupine Presents ...