I've got a show to recommend that I genuinely think you and your kids are going to love.
It's called Lightcatchers, a brand new award-winning cinematic audio adventure from the team behind Batman, High Volume and Story Pirates.
If your house is into pinna favorites like Grim Grimmer, Grimmest or Hero Hotel, this is absolutely your next play.
Stick around for a preview at the end of this episode.
Then search Lightcatchers wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, my name is Adam Gidwitz.
I'm an author.
I'm also a storyteller.
I like telling all kinds of stories, but I especially like telling grim fairy tales.
You may think you know grim fairy tales, and you may think that they are sweet and boring.
But listen, those tales you heard were the cute, happy little kid bedtime versions of the grim tales.
The original grim fairy tales aren't like that at all.
They're weird, and sometimes gross, and often scary.
In other words, they're grim.
And I'm about to walk into a classroom and tell one of the original grim, grim tales to a bunch of kids.
Do you want to join me?
Do you want to hear a grim fairy tale?
Let me help you decide.
On a scale of grim, grimmer and grimaced.
This episode is grimaced because there is just a lot of death like so much death.
If i get to a part of the story and you start to feel scared or uncomfortable, this is what you could do.
You could turn down the volume and count to five.
Then turn the volume back up if it still seems like a part you don't want to hear.
Just turn the volume down and count to five again.
You know how much weird and gross and scary you're ready for.
You know what you need.
Okay, I'm at the classroom door now.
There are kids inside waiting to hear a grim fairy tale.
So, are you coming in?
Grim.
Grimmer.
What are you doing?
I'm just stretching my legs.
Do you want to do it with me?
No.
Okay.
All right, time to come back to the rug.
Let's do it.
This is part two of The Two Travelers.
Do you remember where we left off?
It was one of the grimmest moments in the history of Grim Grimmer Grimmest.
And it's only going to get worse.
The tailor had taken one eye from each corpse and made his way into the town of Mantua.
This is the last thing that happened.
It was midnight when the tailor arrived in the city of Mantua.
The streets were empty, but he wandered around until he found a tavern that was still open.
He went inside and he stopped.
He saw the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.
He looked around him.
His skin crawled.
He wanted to turn and flee.
Everyone was dead.
And now we'll keep going.
Remember, you can turn down the volume if you want.
We are still in the middle of this grimmest of grim moments.
The bartender's eyes were open but unseeing.
Blood ran from his mouth.
A man in a chair at a nearby table had a knife sticking out of his side.
The barmaid looked like she was a hundred years old and her eyes were closed peacefully, but she did not appear to be breathing.
And yet there were sounds coming from the tavern.
The clink of glasses, the chatter of voices.
How was this possible?
Everyone was dead.
What the heck is going on?
Good question.
Maybe they're like they just had a radio on, so that like like like uh, like a spotify noise.
Oh, you think there were radios and spotify noises once upon a time, i think, since when he was talking to the dead people on the like gallows yeah, on the gallows um, He could talk to them and the dead people could talk to him.
And one of them said like half of his foot is like in the dead realm or something.
Interesting.
The tailor closed his eyes and opened them again.
Death.
Death as far as he could see.
Then he covered his right eye and looked through his left eye.
They were alive.
They were all alive.
They were alive and happy, talking and drinking and eating and laughing.
How had the tailor not seen that before?
Then he covered his left eye and opened his right eye.
They were alive, but they didn't look happy.
They were poor people worried about the future, trying so hard to smile in the face of the million difficulties that life throws in your way.
Then the tailor opened his eyes again. and they all looked dead.
He focused on the barmaid.
When he opened his left eye, she was a girl of twenty, happy and carefree.
When he opened his right eye she was still a girl of twenty, but she clearly did not want to be working in a tavern at this hour of the night bringing ale to old men.
When he opened both eyes, she was a hundred years old and dead.
When the tailor looked at the man in the chair from his left eye, he was loud and boisterous and clearly loved his ale.
When the tailor looked at the man with his right eye, he was a loud and angry drunk.
And when he looked at him with both eyes, he was five years older and someone had stabbed him through the side.
The tailor thought he knew what was happening.
He closed his right eye and went to the bar and ordered a cup of ale.
He drank half of it.
He examined it with just his left eye, a cup of ale, half full and frothy, waiting to be drunk.
Then he closed his left eye and looked at it with his right.
What do you think it looked like then?
Good.
Did it look half full?
Half empty.
It looked half empty, that's right.
Then he looked at the cup of ale with both eyes, and he saw, anyone have a guess?
Yes.
He didn't see death, but close.
What would it be for a cup?
It would be all empty.
That's exactly what he saw.
Huh?
He saw an empty cup.
So the tailor knew a few things.
From his left eye, he saw things as he always had, with an easygoing and optimistic attitude.
From his right eye.
He saw things as the shoemaker did, like a pessimist who was always prepared for the worst.
And from both eyes, he saw into the shadowy realm of death.
He saw how things would end, how people would die.
This is like the story, one's like bad, one's good.
Yeah, it's kind of like repeating, but it's not.
Yes, it's kind of like the first half of the story, but repeating in a different way.
Great point.
So he dug through his tailor's pack until he found some leather, and right there in the tavern he made himself an eye patch.
He covered his right eye with the patch, and suddenly the tavern was full of life and joy.
The tailor ordered some food, and that night, as he lay in one of the guest rooms of the tavern, he decided that everything would be just as it used to be as long as he kept the eye patch over his right eye.
What do you think?
Is that how he should live?
No.
What do you think?
I think he should open both eyes so he could see goodly.
But I think that both eyes show good and bad.
Like it shows the right side of things.
So that's why he should open his right eye too.
Interesting.
So he should balance the two ways of looking at life.
Very interesting.
In the morning, when the tailor came down for breakfast, he saw the young barmaid still cleaning up from the night before.
She asked him if she could make him some food, and he said yes.
But he wondered what she would look like if he switched his eye patch over.
So while she was in the kitchen fixing him up breakfast, he switched his eye patch from his right eye to his left.
And when she came back with a plate of sausage and bread, he saw how tired she was and how she wished she could go home.
But also the sausage looked fatty and the bread looked stale.
So once he'd thanked the barmaid, he switched his eye patch back to his right eye and the breakfast looked delicious and he dug in.
And when he stood up to leave, he left the barmaid a very generous tip.
Back in the day, did they have like tips of doubloons?
Yes, I'm sure he tipped her a doubloon.
He walked around the town of Mantua that day, wondering how his life would be now.
Looking through his left eye, life was simple.
Looking through his right eye, he better understood the suffering of everyone around him.
Could he live as he used to?
Happy-go-lucky and carefree when others were suffering?
But on the other hand, or through the other eye, would suffering along with them, do them any good at all?
So I would see how the.
I would take the eye patch off and find the shoemaker and see how he would die.
Okay.
And then do that.
You just want revenge.
If you take both eye patches off, you can actually see, you can sort of see the future.
And you can look for with both of your eyes.
You can look for the people that will kind of need the most help.
If they're going to like die, he should just try and help everyone else instead of just suffering along with them.
Interesting.
But Taylor kept moving his patch from his right eye to his left eye and back to his right, unable to make up his mind.
And just as he was moving it for the hundredth time, in the moment when he had both eyes open, he saw a piano fall from a window and crush an old man.
He put the eyepatch back on his left eye.
No, the man wasn't dead.
The piano had not fallen yet.
But the tailor could see that the man was walking right towards where a piano was being lifted from the street to be put through a window on the second floor of a fine house.
He would be under it in less than a minute.
He was going to be crushed by a piano.
There was no hope for him.
Then he moved the eyepatch to his right eye and looked through his left.
And the tailor thought, of course there's hope for him.
And he rushed forward, running as fast as he possibly could and reached the old man just as he passed into the shadow of the piano.
The tailor jerked the old man out of the way and, crash!
The piano fell to the ground, smashing itself to pieces.
But the old man was safe.
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And remember, it's not a Smurf.
Patrick, let's go!
The clue is floating away in a hot air balloon!
Hey, sorry, this is kind of a bad time.
Claire and I just found a major clue, and now it's airborne.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that the parents behind Law & Order have something brand new for families.
Our podcast, patrick pickle bottom everyday mysteries.
Patrick, it's headed towards the water tower.
Gotta go listen on apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
Many people on the streets of mantua had seen this and they rushed to the tailor to congratulate him for being a hero and saving the old man's life.
My hero, That was incredible.
How did you know?
But how had he known the piano would fall?
It was magic.
They brought him to a tavern for there were many taverns in Mantua in those days and bought him drinks and begged him to explain how he had known the piano would fall.
Please, sir, tell me how you knew.
Yes, tell us.
So he told them.
Now everyone wanted to know how they would die, and if there was a way to prevent it.
Please, sir, tell me how I'm going to die.
Tell me next.
I must avoid death.
So the tailor took off his eyepatch and looked at each person, one by one.
For some, like the young barmaid, it was clear that they would live long lives and die in their sleep.
These people left the tailor's side beaming with hope and joy.
But others had tragic accidents in their future.
The tailor saw that one man would drink himself to death.
That means drinking so much alcohol he got sick and died.
The man stood up and swore then and there he would never drink another drop of alcohol again.
I'll never drink another drop of alcohol as long as I live.
The tailor saw that a lady would drown in the middle of the sea.
She vowed never to go on another sea voyage.
I'll never go near the ocean again.
The tailor didn't know if these two would avoid their fate or not.
Do you think they can?
Do you think they can avoid their fate?
He's going to tell all of them how they're going to die and they're just going to be fearful for the rest of their lives.
In the Sea Witch one I forgot what it was called they tried to keep the child away, but that didn't work.
And I think there's always just going to be like like the tsunami that came in.
There's always going to be like some thing.
You can't escape your fate.
Yeah.
Except the old man and the piano, it did change his fate.
I feel like it's one of those stories where it's like this guy has ruined the whole entire space and time continuum because he saved this man from dying and he was supposed to die.
It's like Back to the Future.
The tailor remembered that the old man had not been crushed by a piano.
So it seemed that some fates, at least, could indeed be changed.
So he told them their fates and the people would give the tailor money in exchange, just whatever they could afford.
Days and weeks went by, and soon the tailor was famous.
He walked the streets and he let his beard grow and he wore his eye patch, sometimes over his right eye, sometimes over his left, depending on whether he felt he needed to relax or be prepared.
And only when someone asked to know their fate would he look through both eyes at once.
One thing he never did, though, was look into a mirror with both eyes.
He didn't want to know.
Why doesn't, what doesn't he want to know?
Oh, his death?
Yeah.
Meanwhile, the shoemaker's life had changed since his journey through the wood.
He was plagued by guilt for what he had done to the tailor.
He was what?
Plagued by guilt.
He felt so guilty for putting out the tailor's eyes.
He felt bad.
But wasn't he bad?
Well, people can be complicated.
They can do bad things and then they can feel guilty about it.
He still did a bad thing though, right?
But his guilt did not make him kinder.
It made him live in fear.
Fear of everyone.
Fear of his guilt. and especially fear that the tailor would somehow find him and get his revenge.
I should have left him to die in that forest instead of breaking him out to the other side.
The shoemaker mumbled to himself as he made his way around Mantua, looking for work.
Well, you should have just let him stay alive.
Yeah, maybe you shouldn't have done all that terrible things to him in the first place.
Does he sound like he's a good guy now?
No.
No, he's saying he wished he'd let the guy die, right?
Everywhere he went, every minute of every day, he repeated this phrase.
I should have left him to die in that forest.
Which didn't make people very eager to hire him.
Can you imagine that?
If someone's going to get a job and they're like, will you hire me?
I should have let him die in that forest.
Um, no, I'm not going to hire you.
You sound terrifying.
And then, one day...
The shoemaker heard that there was a fortune teller in Mantua, one who could see the manner of your death.
Who is that fortune teller?
The tailor.
The shoemaker was thrilled.
Aha!
That's how I will sleep well at night again.
The fortune teller will say whether the tailor will be revenged upon me or if I will die happily in my bed.
And he hurried off to find the fortune teller.
I think the tailor's going to recognize the shoemaker and then he's going to be like well, I'm going to kill you.
That's how you're going to die.
I predict I'm going to kill you.
The shoemaker came across the tailor in a tavern.
His beard and hair were long now, and he wore an eye patch over his right eye.
The shoemaker didn't recognize him at all.
He came to the tailor's table and said, Please, kind fortune teller, tell me my fate.
How shall I die?
The tailor looked up and nearly fainted.
There was the shoemaker who he had shared his bread and money with his traveling companion, who had put out his eyes in the forest.
And the tailor thought, I could do anything to him.
I could scare him to death.
I could tell him to go swim in the ocean where he would surely drown.
And he would believe me.
Look how scared he is.
But the tailor was looking through his left eye and he also saw that the shoemaker was being torn to shreds by his guilt and that the fear and guilt he felt were worse punishment than anything the tailor could do to him.
It was as if he were already in hell, suffering infernal torment here on earth.
The tailor pitied him, and so he invited the shoemaker to sit down.
He said, Are you sure you want to know your fate?
Some fates are changeable, but others are not.
You already live in fear, sir.
I can see that.
Maybe you should try to relax a little.
Look at life through the other eye for a change.
But the shoemaker grabbed the tailor's hands.
Please, sir, please tell me my fate.
I cannot take this suspense any longer.
With this constant terror, I might as well be in the shadowy land of death already.
I am dead while I live.
He looked at the shoemaker.
He removed his eyepatch.
The shoemaker was startled.
The tailor's eyes were two different colors, one brown and one green, and two different sizes, one large and one small.
The tailor gazed with those strange, frightening eyes right into the shoemaker's future.
And after a moment, he said, I'm sorry.
Death will come for you today.
Today, cried the shoemaker.
Is it the tailor?
Will he be the one to kill me at last?
The tailor hesitated, then said, In a way.
I guess that, kind of.
How is he going to lie?
The shoemaker pleaded, But can I escape this fate?
Is there any way?
That I do not know, said the tailor.
But I know death is here, today, in Mantua.
Here, cried the shoemaker.
He leapt to his feet.
Then I can escape him.
Without so much as a thank you, he ran from the tavern.
As he banged through the door, he ran right into a tall man clad all in black.
The shoemaker looked up into his face and... Ah!
I think it's death.
It was death.
Looking down at him.
But death seemed as surprised to see the shoemaker as the shoemaker was to see death.
Who's death?
Yeah, so in some fairy tales, great question.
In some fairy tales, the devil is a character.
But in this fairy tale and in other fairy tales, death himself is a character.
And his job is to bring people to the underworld.
So death himself was there.
Oh, so like his body was there?
Like his dead body?
No.
A character called death.
A character whose name is death and who brings people to the underworld was there.
I'm the underworld.
The underworld is another name for the afterlife.
Like where you go after you die.
Some people believe in heaven.
Some people believe in hell.
I believe in God.
You believe in God.
Some people believe there's just an afterlife where people go.
But in any way you believe in these stories.
Death brings you from life to death, when it's your time.
Death's mouth opened into a circle, like a portal to the shadowy land of death.
And he pointed at the shoemaker with a bony finger.
Death opened his mouth in a big circle and pointed at the shoemaker with a bony finger.
Like, how are you?
How can you see me?
He's like, how can you see?
The shoemaker didn't wait to find out why Death looked so surprised.
He raced through town until he found a horse, which he jumped on without paying for and galloped out of Mantua.
I just need to get away.
He said to himself, as he drove the horse faster and faster.
I know, I will go to Turin, and if he tries to follow me, he may well get lost in the forest.
Or maybe I will.
Who cares?
At least death won't find me.
So the shoemaker steered the horse for the forest.
The forest was as still as a graveyard.
What did we say last time?
Do you remember?
I said the forest was as still as a... Do you remember?
Church.
And this time it's as still as a... Graveyard.
Why?
Because he's gonna die.
Not a breeze stirred.
Not a brook murmured.
Not a bird sang.
And not a ray of sunshine found its way through the dense leaves.
The horse's hooves pounded the path and the shoemaker kept looking over his shoulder to see if death was on his tail.
But the shoemaker didn't see death.
Yet.
The shoemaker did not know if he was on the two-day path or the seven-day path, but he did not care.
He just pushed his horse harder and harder to escape the pursuit of death.
He said that... So when the tailor was telling the shoemaker's fortune...
He said, well, the shoemaker said, will the tailor kill me?
And the tailor said, kind of, but right here, it's not really kind of.
What do you mean?
Like... How is the tailor killing you?
I think he means, like, I, in a way, that I kill you by...
Because he kind of scared him.
And that might cause his death.
Yeah, I also do agree with you.
Because if he didn't come, then he wouldn't die.
Because he went and he got frightened that death was coming for him today.
So he ran out, stole a horse, and then went through the woods.
And he's either going to starve to death.
Or he's not going to start to death or take the long route and death is going to find the short route, or something.
He's just going to die somehow.
Death did not catch him.
To the shoemaker's great surprise, he emerged from the forest with Turin just ahead.
He must have chosen the two-day path, and his horse had run so fast that the entire journey took less than a day.
He pushed the horse on. toward Turin, unwilling to slow even for a second.
He would be safe if he could just make it to Turin, he was sure.
He pushed his horse harder and harder.
I think his horse trips.
He came to a small stream and the shoemaker urged the horse to leap over it.
But the horse was too exhausted to jump and she stopped short and the shoemaker was thrown from the horse.
He landed with a splash in the water.
His head hit a rock.
Blood clouded the water around him, and he began to sink.
The shoemaker thought, No!
I cannot die here!
Not now!
I escaped death!
And then a form appeared over him and reached down to take his hand.
The shoemaker thought, I am saved.
Until he saw that the form who was reaching down to him was... Death.
Say it again.
Death.
Say it louder without your hand.
Death.
It was death.
Death.
The form was death.
Death took him by the hand.
Wait, cried the shoemaker.
Just tell me one thing, please, before you take me.
Death paused. as if he was waiting for the question.
So the shoemaker asked, You saw me in Mantua, and you looked so surprised.
Why?
And Death said, Because we had an appointment right here outside of Turin and I didn't expect to see you there in Mantua.
And then he grabbed the shoemaker and dragged him down, to the shadowy land of death.
Meanwhile, the tailor lived for many, many more years looking through his left eye first, and then through his right, and then through his left again.
So he was always prepared, but always happy.
The end.
All right, are you guys okay?
I told you a messed up story, everybody all right?
You're not.
I'm going to miss you guys too, but we will meet again.
You guys were so wonderful.
Thank you for being such great storytelling friends.
Far away on the high Caribbean seas roams a swashbuckling pigeon-loving, burrito-gobbling pirate.
Who's well?
A bit different than the other pirates.
Bless my Brussels sprouts.
Introducing the new podcast, Light Catchers.
Season one, Bob the Bad Pirate.
Bob the Bad Pirate wasn't bad because he liked to hurt people or call other pirates names like Petunia Pillow Pants.
Bob the Bad Pirate was bad because he just wasn't very good at being a pirate.
Give her me tutors.
We are pirates.
There it is!
Listen now to Lightcatchers, wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more at BeALightcatcher.com.
Light up the lanterns and follow me!
Hi Grimmers.
We're celebrating the finale of season five with a very special new video version of The Three Feathers and we need your help.
I would love it if you listened again to parts one and two of Three Feathers and start drawing.
Illustrate your favorite scenes, your favorite characters.
The more scenes you illustrate, the more helpful it is to us.
And Choose weird scenes.
You know definitely the big, exciting climactic scenes, but also just like strange little moments.
The more you draw, the more we'll be able to put into a special video version of the three feathers illustrated entirely by you all.
You can share your artwork either by sending an email to grim at realm.fm, that's G-R-I-M-M at That's pinna, P-I-N-N-A dot F-M slash G-R-I-M-M and submit your artwork for our special video version of the three feathers illustrated entirely by you.
Grim Grimmer Grimmest is a Penna Original Production.
Created, written, and narrated by me, Adam Gidwitz, author of A Tale Dark and Grim.
Produced and edited by Kaylin West.
Associate producer, Rebecca Cunningham.
Field recording by Julia Martin.
Casting and voice direction by Rebecca Cunningham.
Sound design and mixing by Kaylin West.
Executive produced by Molly Barton and Carly Migliori.
Production support by Devin Shepard.
Characters voiced by Emmanuel Elpenort, Andrew Adams, Peter McNerney, Kaylin West, and Baron Bass.
Special thanks to all the kids who joined us in Staten Island and Brooklyn for our storytelling sessions.
You guys...
