Deep Dream State

Show

Deep Dream State is a full-cast serialized audio drama about desire, transformation, power, and the worlds people build around what they want. The first four seasons establish the show's desire horror: the horror of what we run towards, instead of what we run away from.

Season Five, After After, moves monster romance to the foreground. That's not a move away from desire horror. Queer desire has always contained an element of horror for the status quo, and monster romance is the flip side of the same coin: the thing coded as monstrous becomes the object, subject, and possibility of love.

It's also one of the longest running erotica audio dramas on the open web. The adult components of Deep Dream State aren't a bug. They're a feature. They're part of the theme, and part of our deep commitment to refuse niche containment. This is a very queer show; when people say genre boundary, I hear closet door.

Structure

The organization can seem complicated but at the core, it's simple. There are five arcs, aka Seasons. Each is a full story with a consistent location and throughline. Within the arcs, there are episodes.

I attach a GE or "global episode" number to each episode. That tracks the TOTAL count across all seasons.

I've used Cycles to identify thematic episode batches. It describes the episode but doesn't impact organization. "Cycles" describe what a group's about; they aren't necessary for the taxonomy.

To navigate here, you can click on the pictures above to explore an arc. You can also click on an arc or episode title below for a fuller explanation with sourcing. Links from the GE lead to the IMDb pages.

After After: Arc 5 Current Season

Humanity is over. After After is Deep Dream State's transition into monster romance, but it isn't a retreat from desire horror. Queer desire has always carried an element of horror for the status quo; monster romance turns the same coin over and asks what happens when the thing called monstrous gets to be loved, choose, transform, and imagine the happily ever after.

The season also makes the audience part of the mechanism. Seven extrahuman factions make their case, and listeners can choose a monster and vote on what comes next. After After will also be part of the Intimate Audio Business class at Closing Credits, tying the season's production to the larger conversation around making intimate audio.

Vale Four: Arc 4

Vale Four picks up where Sitri ended. It's about commerce and money and advertising. Beneath that, it's about the dreams and fantasies that animate money.

The "hidden" Christmas arc, Solsticial, often says that there's an older currency. Vale Four asks what that might be. Each "Cycle" dives into a different advertising phenomenon, and looks at what sort of kink in the collective unconscious it might represent.

The plotting is detailed. There's a very continuous throughline. The twists are numerous, but they're earned. If you see where this is going from the outset, you are a true galaxy brain. Even cracking the riddle of the name requires knowing audio drama cliches and demonology. Dig in.

Sitri Center: Arc 3

Is there a collective unconscious? Is there a structure to dreams that runs deeper than history or specific cultural moments?

I don't know. I can say confidently, though, that if there IS a collective unconscious, it's unimaginably messed up and kinky.

The Sitri Center exists in that imaginal space. Each group of episodes explores a dream phenomenon that's real, but spins it out in fictional ways. Dream interludes punctuate the action. The plot never takes "just a dream" outs.

This arc also introduces in-universe ads. They're potentially unsettling, often satirical, and might be part of a larger story.

Incognitoh: Arc 2

Reality shows are humiliating. That's baked into the premise. The viewers and contestants all understand the kinky voyeuristic contract at the heart of the genre. Once in a while, it breaks to the surface.

Incognitoh aims to make that contract very apparent, while staying true to the tone of reality competitions. The result is definitely dizzying; I think it's chaotic in the best way.

Chthonic: Arc 1

The arctic ice is melting. The social fabric is tearing. The Chthonic is about a cruise ship with a wedding party on the surface; it's really about what lies beneath.

I've always been fascinated and repelled by Lovecraft. Brilliant mythos, evocative storytelling, terrible politics. If you're going to write Lovecraft, I think you have to account for that, and account for how humans are the worst monsters of all. Lovecraft Country did this well, RIP. I'm following that thread.