In A Walled City

"In A Walled City" is an experimental audiofiction series that serves as a guide to navigating the coming phases of human existence. Created and performed by Disparition (Jon Bernstein), the producer/composer of "Welcome to Night Vale" and "Alice Isn't Dead". This work is nonlinear and you may enter at any point.

Episodes

  • Album art for Disparition’s “How to Become a Ghost (Without Dying)” – a stark black background with a bold red arrow textured with tree bark, pointing downward; minimalist and foreboding.

    In A Walled City - Episode 1 - How to Become a Ghost (Without Dying)

    In their holy shadows we climbed and staggered.

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “Swords of Salt” – soft blue-gray clouds with a translucent downward arrow subtly embedded in the center, evoking calm and quiet descent.

    In A Walled City - Episode 2 - Swords of Salt

    And so they began to walk separately, further and further apart.

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “Freyam Dreams of Dust” – a bowl of vivid purple jacaranda flowers resting on dry grass, surrounded by a soft vignette fade.

    In A Walled City - Episode 3 - Freyam Dreams Of Dust

    How much do you remember? Temple under mountain / Limetree in a shaft of light / Gray robe on the edge of a shadow / Bare forearm dragging a branch along the floor / The river of stones, the sound of their shells clicking together

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “The Marketer” – a sketch-style illustration of a fuzzy-tailed mouse approaching a red crown symbol, on a pale cream background.

    In A Walled City - Episode 4 - The Marketer

    Do you remember the idea called fiction? We used to have this wall, this barrier, between what we thought was real, and what we decided was not

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “Five” – a monochrome satellite image inside a downward arrow over a twilight blue sky and distant mountain range.

    In A Walled City - Episode 5 - Five

    May your body be generic and featureless. May your wiring be thoroughly gutted and pulled.

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “Staves of Smoke” – deep, textured red and black bark with a ghostly, nearly hidden arrow shape descending through the center.

    In A Walled City - Episode 6 - Staves Of Smoke

    The roads and bridges that we see in our dreams are not metaphors, they are infrastructure.

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  • Album art for Disparition’s “The Rivers Dream of Rain” – a white ceramic bowl containing dried petals sits at the center of a radial arrangement of curled leaf blades on a wooden surface.

    In A Walled City - Episode 7 - The Rivers Dream Of Rain

    We like it when you hear our approach / when you hear us on your road / You quicken, you liquidize / your memory hears us before your self / begins to boil / to foam and rise

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  • Album art for “The Historian” – an abandoned, graffiti-covered diner bathed in surreal, iridescent colors with the title in blue typeface below the image, evoking decay and spectral memory.

    The Historian

    I am the one transforming this world into words. You are the one transforming these words back into a world.

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Reviews

  • “Ostensibly a fiction podcast, though it’s perhaps better described as a sound-art anthology.”

    Nicholas Quah, Vulture

  • "Nothing else in the vast field of podcasting sounds anything like this.”

    Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale Creator

  • “Brilliant and unique. Can't get enough of it.”

    Podchaser Member

  • “Eerie, beautiful and deeply engaging.”

    Reddit Member

  • “Really good for your mental health.”

    Apple Podcasts member

  • "I love the blend of music and poetry."

    Podchaser Member