Classic pages, new voices, strange nights.
Bob's Short Story Hour is a literary anthology podcast where classic public-domain stories, independent submissions, and collaborative fiction projects get read aloud with informal framing. Its episodes move from Boccaccio and Lovecraft to folklore-inspired shared-world experiments and conversations about storytelling itself.
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Bob's Short Story Hour is a story-first literary anthology with a clear affection for the spoken form. It is built around readings, context, and creative cross-pollination rather than celebrity chatter or studio polish. The show moves comfortably between classic public-domain fiction, independent submissions, and original collaborative projects. Recent episodes show that range clearly. One installment continues a multi-part journey through Boccaccio's Decameron, handing sections to new and returning voices. Another opens a new year with a Lovecraft story that had been recorded and scrapped multiple times before finally landing. The Solstice Splitstone Saga episodes turn toward folklore, fairy-tale atmosphere, and shared-world mythmaking with John Cook and the Fido Podcast. A Jollyville Radio submission bends the same Splitstone material into character comedy, oral legend, and small-town storytelling. The show also pauses for conversation, as in the episode with Daniele Bolelli, where storytelling, history, philosophy, and influence sit close together. Its best identity is communal. Stories arrive through friends, collaborators, listener suggestions, and independent creators, then get folded into a growing archive. The delivery around the readings is casual and personal. The introductions often explain the episode's path into existence, whether through a request, an anniversary, a long-delayed recording, or a creative prompt. That looseness gives the show a handmade quality. The fiction itself can be dark. Murder, fear, uncanny houses, old magic, doomed romance, and strange moral consequences all appear in the sampled episodes. But the larger project is generous rather than grim, interested in preserving a listening culture where tales are told, retold, revised, and passed along. Bob's Short Story Hour is best for listeners who want a literary feed that feels like a small press, an audio campfire, and a scrapbook of collaborations at once. It rewards patience, curiosity, and a taste for stories that carry a little dust, moonlight, and danger.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy narrated short fiction, public-domain classics, indie storytelling, folklore projects, and spooky literary detours. It especially fits anyone who likes context before a tale begins.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating anthology podcasting as a living storytelling exchange, not just a queue of readings. Collaborations, submissions, anniversary projects, and retold legends give the archive a communal shape.
Bob's Short Story Hour is a podcast dedicated to telling stories of contemporary and classic authors in order to accomplish three things: preserve the art of storytelling, get a variety of new works out to the listeners featuring a variety of genres and authors, and to promote the works of little-known/up-and-coming independent authors. We also feature independent music. Visit www.bobsshortstoryhour.com to learn more about the show and for info on how to submit stories/music to be included on the project. Thank you for listening everyone!
Boccaccio and a sanatorium make excellent neighbors when your curiosity won't stay in one century.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Abby Brinker reads day four's first Decameron story, where anger and fear pull the tale toward grim consequences.
Bob's Short Story Hour returns to the Decameron Project for day four, with Abby Brinker of Lunatics Radio Hour taking the first reading. She carries Boccaccio's tale through Tancredi's late-life violence, Magdalene's death, and the fear that pushes Foulke and Nanette toward the…
A storm, a secretive house, and a long-delayed Lovecraft reading shape a careful descent into unease.
An early Lovecraft tale follows a traveler toward Arkham on what looks like an abandoned road, until a storm pushes him into an old, repellent house with bleared windows, overgrown walks, and a faintly hateful smell.
Great books, taken chapter by chapter, with delight
Book talk with room to wander.
Bob's Short Story Hour continues the Decameron Project with Day 4 readings from Abby Brinker and Colin Arnett, including Boccaccio's Tancredi, Guiscardo, and Guismonda story plus a separate tale about anger in Marseilles.
Lovecraft’s "Regnum Congo" and the first mention of Arkham sit at the center of this house scene.
Bob's Short Story Hour Episode 108 presents Day Three of the Decameron Project, with Michael Crosa reading Story Three and John Cook reading Story Seven.
Abby Branker and Alan Kudan frame Waverly Hills Sanatorium as both a Louisville tuberculosis hospital and a location associated with paranormal reports.
Ralabar Vuz dismisses the gods beneath Mount Vormithadrith before a disrupted ritual places him under a sorcerer's command.
Bob's Short Story Hour's Episode 101 presents a real-scary-stories collaboration with Abbey Bradford, Erin Franke, Alan Kudan, Bob Dawn, and Colin Arnett.
The host interviews Daniele Bolelli, discussing his podcasts and philosophy.
Bob reads horror stories about pyromania and pyrokinesis from the Lunatics Library, part of a collaboration with that show.
Bob introduces a collaboration episode with Lunatics Radio Hour, featuring a discussion on pyromania and pyrokinesis, and previews upcoming story readings.