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Original Science Fiction - Makeshift Stories

Vern Hume
307 episodes   Last Updated: Jun 13, 25
Makeshift Stories is a sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction podcast for anyone who craves the thrill of the unknown and unexpected. Once a month, buckle up for an epic journey through possible futures, space, alternate realities, and beyond. Are you ready to explore uncharted territories and discover the unimaginable? Tune in and let your imagination soar!

Episodes

Jun 13, 2025
No I in AI
Salvini, an out-of-work programmer, uses a hidden backdoor in her former employer's system to create an AI called Bandhu, which hunts for jobs and outsmarts the hiring platforms. She asks it to find a position that won't be replaced by AI, and when it finally delivers a job as a remote robotics operator, she accepts without question. With a life hanging in the balance, she finds herself in a job she knows nothing about. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare). Read by Kathleen Connelly. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Jun 02, 2025
Utopia Base
Faraday and Quinn arrive at a remote mining site on the far side of the moon that supplies helium-3 to Utopia Base, where they have lived their entire lives believing the Earth has been devastated. Faraday soon realizes that she has forgotten her supply of a medication called Sustain, which everyone accepts is necessary to maintain their bone and muscle mass. As time passes, she begins to notice the alarming neglect of the camp and starts questioning its operations. To prove to herself that she isn't going crazy, Faraday destroys Quinn’s supply of Sustain. This act prompts Quinn to confront the unsettling truth: the maintenance systems have failed, and there are secrets being kept from them. Following a trail of clues, they discover that the resource shipments are not actually being sent to Utopia. Determined to uncover the truth, they stow away in a hopper as it prepares to launch. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare). Read by Kathleen Connelly. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
May 04, 2025
Personal Detritus
Liam, a laid-off tech worker turned scavenger, lives a double life—by day, a conscripted worker in a waste recycling plant; by night, Rupert Hudson, a venture capitalist, mingling with the elite using forged credit cards. When he retrieves a careless billionaire’s trash and uses it to access vast wealth, mysterious messages follow him around. Too late, Liam realizes he has been scamming money from a notorious cyber-criminal and is forced to run for his life. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written and read by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare). Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
At 75, Kaber Grewal should be retired in the sun, not taking gigs to pay for his hip replacement. Hired by a mysterious client to analyze communications, he uncovers signs of cognitive decline in Praeses, the AGI running the government. He is paid well for his time but warned to forget what he found. However, Kaber has trouble taking the money and walking away. When accidents start happening, he suspects his client is behind them. But after all the evidence of Praeses’s problem is destroyed, he must make a decision-walk away or expose the truth before it’s too late, before the consequences become irreversible. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare). Read by Stephen Peterson. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Professor Hollis Cooper, an underground scientist, must pass a daily test to prove her belief in the official facts. But she comes under investigation when she accidentally slips up in a lecture. Official interest in her couldn’t come at a worse time, as Hollis and a colleague, using banned equipment from a previous age, discover an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Hollis and her colleague must try to evade discovery long enough to determine where the asteroid will hit and find a way to warn humanity. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Vern Hume (AKA Alan V Hare). Read by Kathleen Connolly. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Feb 06, 2025
Floor Forty-two
During a routine license audit at a vertical farm, Carmen, a demoted field agent, discovers that the farmhands, including a man named Salvador, are genetically modified and memory-altered slaves. Carmen risks her job and her life to expose the illegal operation. In an unexpected twist, when events turn against her, help comes from a surprising source. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Vern Hume AKA Alan V Hare. Read by Steve Peterson. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Jan 18, 2025
The Forever Worm
After a long shift ice mining in Saturn’s rings, Pascoe heads for a drink and the company of fresh faces at the Methane Bar on Titan. When he arrives, the bar is deserted except for Allgera, a recluse, who is, after years of silence, ready to share her alluring secret—immortality. As Pascoe is drawn into her strange, ageless world, he must decide: is eternal life worth the price it extracts? CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written and read by Vern Hume AKA Alan V Hare. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Nickie and her cousin Noah stumble upon a mystery as they plan an adjustment for the Primate Council; someone appears to be following them. The mysterious person turns out to be a childhood friend who reveals their roles as adjusters, make them targets of the Council. In a desperate attempt to escape and preserve their existence, all three set out to cross the border before they are erased. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Alan V Hare. Read by Kathleen Connolly. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
Nickie Holmes is the best Adjuster in the business, erasing anomalies to align the physical world with the Primate Council’s official digital record. After a Forget injection wipes her memory of the last job, she takes on a new assignment with her cousin Noah, targeting a house, a store, and a car. As the duo navigates the eerie familiarity of their hometown, cracks begin to form in the certainty of Nickie’s work—and the reality she’s sworn to uphold. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Alan V Hare. Read by Kathleen Connolly. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.
After a century on Mars, crypto-trillionaire Devon Smit decides to return to Earth. He wants to be a god among the human masses, which he and his fellow elite left behind, to escape society's downfall and impending environmental collapse. His obsession with gaining godlike status blinds him to the warnings of a fellow trillionaire and subtle signs that his potential subjects are interested in something other than revering him. CONNECT WITH US makeshiftstories@gmail.com SHARE THE PODCAST If you liked this episode, tell your friends to head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe. CREDITS Written by Alan V Hare. Read by Steve Peterson. Opening and closing were composed and created by Matthew Erdmann. Produced by Vecada Studios. Makeshift Stories is released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution, no derivative license.