Listen with Other - a short story podcast
Because grown-ups need story-time too.
About this podcast
This podcast is an experiment to find a different outlet for my short stories as short audiobooks, as well as finding a way to combine my love of mixing and editing audio with presenting. It's self-hosted, carries no advertising, no sponsorship and is just for fun. I also welcome occasional guest authors.
No generative AI is used in any part of the writing, recording, mixing or creation of any artwork for this podcast.
About the author
Giles Booth was born in Bristol and grew up in North Somerset. He’s a former teacher and BBC radio sound engineer. He enjoys reading and writing short fiction. His 2008 novella for young adults Constance Breakwater and her Beautiful Museumhood is available as an eBook and paperback.
Series 7 - Hello World
Andrew takes a short lease on a cottage in west Cornwall to help him get over the death of his wife. In the small fishing village he meets the curator of an eccentric museum and Andrew becomes obsessed with the jewel in the crown of its collection.
Written, read and mixed by Giles Booth.
Original music by Lee Sparey.
The cover art for episode 1 is based a cartoon from Fun magazine, 2nd September 1865, page 155 entitled 'Buoyed with Hope, Puck laments the broken girdle' via Hathi Trust / University of Minnesota, public domain.
Episode 1 - The Curator
Andrew arrives in the fishing village of Poljizal and meets the museum's curator.
Episode 2 - The Caretaker
Andrew meets the caretaker and volunteers to help catalogue the museum's rambling collection.
Episode 3 - The Breakthrough
Becoming increasingly obsessed with the museum's star exhbit, Andrew has a breakthrough.
Series 6 - Esprit de Corpse
Go back in time to the early 2000s when the staff of a tiny British computer company are struggling to produce a new personal digital assistant called the MagicSlate. Join these four conflicting forces on a team-building exercise which has unintended consequences in every direction. Written, read and mixed by Giles Booth. Incidental music in episodes 2 and 3 by Lee Sparey.
Episode 1 - Smells Like Team Spirit
It's Facilitator of the Year 2003 Ken Carter's final day at Motivate! What will the day hold for him and his final delegates?
Episode 2 - Swamp Thing
The four colleagues face their first team-building challenge of the day: work together to navigate a swamp.
Episode 3 - The Hut in the Woods
Tempers fray as the four colleagues are split into two teams to embark on a treasure hunt.
Series 5 - The Interchange by Ray Newman
Series five of Listen with Other welcomes a guest author: Ray Newman, author of Municipal Gothic and Intervals of Darkness, who reads his new story: The Interchange.
Nobody knows who built the new exit road at Old Barn roundabout near the motorway interchange, when, or why. What is certain is that anybody who drives that way disappears. Every attempt by the authorities to investigate only raises more questions, and suggests new and more sinister possibilities.
The Interchange features original music and location recording made by the author. This story will be included in Ray's forthcoming collection Thin Places in Hard Concrete, due in spring 2026. Find out more about the author at his website https://precastreinforced.co.uk
Series 4 - The Curious Case of Room 623
Enter the world of an enigmatic academic, hidden at the top of a dilapidated brutalist concrete university tower, a professor of paranormal computing, looking for patterns in random noise, and debunking stories of the unexplained.
A persistent podcast researcher interrupts their near-solitude, leading to an investigation of a legend surrounding the fate of any student unlucky enough to be assigned room 623.
This is an adaptation of a story I wrote in 2022.
Content warning: each episode contains references to suicide.
Episode 1 - A Researcher Calls
We meet the professor of paranormal computing at the University of Lowlands. Their name? Their name is not important.
Episode 2 - Knock three times
The professor goes in search of the real room 623.
Episode 3 - Wrong number
The professor gets a wrong number. Is it a prank - or something more sinister?
Series 3 - The Ring O'Bells
Listen with Other is back with a new short story for the new year - and a new arrangement of the sig tune. Join me in two episodes to discover how 1970s family Ouija board sessions come back to haunt our narrator in the present day.
Half of this story is true - but which half?
Episode 1 - Ouija Board, Ouija Board
Our narrator starts to tell the story of a perfectly normal Seventies family séance... then becomes aware that he is not quite where he wants to be.
Episode 2 - Two suits
Two strangers attempt to unravel the mystery of the Ring O'Bells.
Series 2 - No Service
This is a new audio book adaptation of a Christmas short story I wrote in 2014, inspired by two possibly unlikely bedfellows, Alan Garner and the late Shirley Hughes.
Episode 1 - Worst Christmas Ever
Lucy and Tom reluctantly go away for Christmas with their dad and his girlfriend.
Episode 2 - Lucy and Tom at Christmas
Lucy and Tom's first day in the cottage takes a strange turn.
Episode 3 - The Attic Room
Lucy and Tom explore a strange room in the loft.
Episode 4 - Last Christmas
Christmas Day does not quite go to plan.
Series 1 - The Merry Milkmaids
A young couple in London take a New Year break in Somerset, unaware of strange forces triangulating their lives.
Episode 1 - Get Out of London
Kate's birthday fell just after new year so it was always a struggle finding people in the mood to party. Hoping to exorcise the memory of a disastrous birthday party five years ago, her husband lan books a getaway in rural Somerset. Unfinished business with Margate Louise, a friend they lost touch with, a storm called Arthur and a stone circle that is not what it seems, ensure that this new year and birthday do not go to plan...
Episode 2 - A Shot Rang Out
An unexpected visitor interrupts Kate and Ian's getaway.
Episode 3 - The Merry Milkmaids
The trio meet some merry milkmaids and have a life-changing experience.
Many thanks to Ray Newman for the episode photographs of the Stanton Drew stone circle.
Listen with Other is a GSB Radio Enterprises production.
© 2025-6 Giles Booth.