Cosmic fantasy with roadside heart.
Desert Skies follows characters moving through the astral plane, where memory, friendship, danger, and roadside oddities all matter. It is brisk and tender, with jokes about ketchup nails sitting beside fear, loyalty, and the question of what comes next.
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Desert Skies is a scripted sci-fi fantasy audio drama about the strange business of traveling through the astral plane. It has an afterlife setting, but it rarely sounds distant or solemn for long. Characters ask practical questions, make bad jokes, panic, negotiate, hug, threaten, and try to understand rules that are bigger than they are. The result is cosmic fantasy with a roadside rhythm. Recent chapters move through the interstate, celestial spheres, trials, memory bargains, and the uneasy politics of sphere movers. The mythology can get grand. Then someone notices an eyelash, worries about ketchup-painted fingernails, or treats a talking pickle as part of the problem. That contrast gives the show its shape. It is warm, brisk, and emotionally direct, but it has enough dry absurdity to keep the sentiment from floating away. The excerpts keep returning to friendship as something forged in danger rather than comfort. They also treat memory as both a burden and a gift. A removed memory can delay pain, but it also raises the fear of losing the person or promise attached to it. Hugs matter here. So do oaths, reunions, and the small kindnesses that help characters face impossible places. The danger is not abstract either: characters discuss soul consumption, extinction, hostile forces, and whether someone can be saved without losing someone else. Still, the show is not grim by default. Its funniest names and strangest rituals are delivered with the confidence of a world that has always worked this way. The Grand Trivia Lizard begins as Alan, a gecko observed by Keto, and somehow that becomes lore with consequences. Cash, Tendi, Nani, Olinus, and others move through scenes where loyalty and confusion often share the same breath. Desert Skies suits listeners who want serialized fantasy with heart, momentum, and a taste for the beautifully odd. It makes the next life feel less like a sermon than a dangerous stop where everyone still has feelings, questions, and unfinished business.
Made for: For listeners who like serialized audio drama where afterlife mythology, friendship, and absurd comedy share the same scene. It especially suits fans of character-first fantasy that explains its world through argument, confusion, and emotional pressure.
What sets it apart: Desert Skies stands out by making metaphysical stakes feel like everyday conversation. Its lore is big, but its grip comes from small exchanges: a pinky promise, a hug, a lost eyelash, a strange name taken seriously.
On a lonely highway between life and the next life there's one last stop that we all have to make. Desert Skies Astral Plane Fuel and Service Station serves travelers as they embark on their journey through the celestial spheres. Meet the Attendant, the Mechanic, and C.A.S.H. Register. Together, they'll make sure you're prepared for the ride. All episodes written and produced, and all characters performed, by Jared Carter. Club 86: https://patreon.com/desertskies Merch: https://desertskies.myshopify.com Discord: https://discord.gg/7fuUU78mUh Website: https://desertskiespodcast.com/
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jared Carter makes an intricate astral mythology feel intimate through comic dialogue, vulnerable relationships, and a solo-performed ensemble.
Desert Skies turns metaphysical peril into character comedy without treating either mode as disposable. Jared Carter writes, produces, and performs a serial where Cash, Tendi, Olinus, and their companions contend with endangered souls, altered memories, and the unstable boundary…
A pinky promise holds reality together, and somehow you are also getting emotional about hugs.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A strange, patient chapter that turns a lizard legend into a usable clue.
Chapter 28 keeps Alan, the Grand Trivia Lizard, at the center while the story folds him into the machinery around sphere movers. What works best is the restraint: the lore comes in through conversation, and the wonder stays tied to the scene instead of drifting off into lecture…
A pinky promise and a missing eyelash make the astral feel unsettlingly close.
Chapter 27 turns the Interstate into a place where a pinky promise and a nervous joke can still feel like serious business. The chapter keeps circling the same question without overexplaining it: what is the Interstate, and how can a place where the physical and the astral…
A tense, funny standoff in which loyalty keeps speaking louder than fear.
Edgar gives the episode a cold center, treating what is outside as something built to hold more than keep out. That framing sharpens the pressure around Fathom, where the crew is trying to keep the base from turning deadly on an ordinary schedule while a threat seems to spread…
A patient, funny chapter where memory, trust, and an impossible hug all matter.
The episode turns a reunion into a quiet argument about what friendship costs. Between waiting, memory, and a promise, the scene carries a soft weight, and the astral-plane talk stays grounded by plain worry.
A weird, tender argument about memory, belonging, and what it means to let things go.
The episode builds a strange promise around a pool that seems to offer relief from bad memories and insists there are no side effects. Dorothy and Abraham carry it with deadpan questions, absurd proper nouns, and a lively argument over whether bad memories should be kept at all.
Four McElroys narrate a wizard battle-royale tournament across elimination trials on Octave Ziggurat.
A continuous Fabula Ultima actual-play campaign following one party through the world of Perpetua.
An ensemble cast plays teen superheroes through Masks: A New Generation campaigns and guest one-shots.
A recurring cast plays full Pathfinder 2E, Shadowdark, and Pendragon campaigns session by session.
A Dungeon World actual-play campaign following three comedians battling villain Callum Blackhammer.
Alan was not always the Grand Trivia Lizard.
The interstate gets explained, sort of.
Nani leaves anyway.
A memory turns into leverage.
Bad memories land with weight here.