Announcement + Feed Drop - The Grotto

February 13, 2025·23 min·2 clips

Matt gets stuck in a cave collapse, feeling terror as he's cut off from David.

The episode opens as an announcement for a new show called Redacted, produced by Rusty Quill, followed by the first episode of The Grotto, a fiction podcast. The narrator, Matt, addresses his recordings to a person who has died, explaining that his therapist recommended the exercise. He has become withdrawn and depressive in the absence of this person, rarely answering calls and feeling nothing, then feeling guilty for feeling nothing. His coworker David intervenes and convinces him to take up cave exploration as a hobby. Their first trip is to a small local cave called the Grotto, a civic historic site off 7th and Meadow near City Hall. Matt is struck by unexpected comfort in the cave and finds himself drawn to the environment in a way he did not anticipate. David then invites him to a more serious cavern by the bay the following day, which is technically barricaded but which David assures him is safe. The car ride to the second location is uneventful but pleasant; Matt notes he has been isolated and appreciates even passive company. On arrival, David notes that risen water has altered their usual route and they take an unfamiliar entrance. The atmosphere shifts as they descend — David becomes quieter, and Matt notices a sense of foreboding. They reach a narrow squeeze passage that Matt must crawl through, guided by David's instructions: exhale to compress the body, feel the heartbeat to prevent panic, clear the mind to avoid freezing. Matt successfully passes through but shortly after, a cavern collapse separates him from David. Alone in the dark with blood on his hands from the rough walls, Matt must perform a second crawl, this time with a rib injury sustained when his bag caught and he twisted to free it. He emerges into a large section containing an underground body of water. In an oxygen-deprived and blood-loss state, he hallucinates the person he has been addressing, standing at the water's edge, crying. He crawls to the water and finds a letter there, written by a woman named Emily, who describes feeling haunted by someone she lost and not wanting to move on. Matt reflects that the letter mirrors his own grief exactly. He then swims through a submerged passage toward an underwater light, surfaces, and passes out. He wakes in a hospital bed, where David has found him after searching all night. Doctors confirm blood loss and oxygen deprivation. Matt spends seven days recovering, and during that time permits himself to grieve for the first time. He returns home, showers, and begins discarding cave equipment. Sorting through his belongings from the hospital, he finds his keys, wallet, phone — and a note. The episode ends with Matt revealing the note appears to be from the person he has been addressing throughout, though it is unclear how it got there.

As heard by us

A creator update that gives way to a claustrophobic cave descent.

The episode starts with the feel of a creator update, then drops into a first-person spiral that gets under the skin. The best parts are the plain, irritated details: the therapist's advice to record something for himself, and the cave guidance that lands with a sour edge.

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Why you'd press play

A recorded confession that starts with a bad week and ends deep inside a cave.

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