Hey, sugar fans, this is Anne-Marie Sievertson, producer emeritus of Dear Sugars.
Now you know very, very well as a Dear Sugars listener that life is all about choices and what we choose inevitably shapes our futures.
So i'm here to tell you about a new wbur podcast that's also about choices.
It's sort of a sibling of dear sugars, if you will, a younger sibling, because this show is for the kids in your life And it's a pick your own path podcast.
It takes place 100 years in the future.
And it's all about the consequences of climate change.
It's called The Midnight Rebellion.
And it's unlike anything that I have ever heard before.
It's fiction, but it's rooted in actual science.
And you get to choose how the story plays out.
So if you have kids in your life, maybe they're your kids, maybe they're a friend's kids, think ages seven and up.
This is for you.
It's for the whole family.
It's for your friends' family.
It's for whomever needs to hear more about how the choices we make can help save the planet.
Yes, there is hope.
And today we are offering you a preview of the first episode of The Midnight Rebellion, right here, right now.
And then if you want to go on the rest of the adventure with us, join the rebellion, so to speak, then all 11 episodes or paths in part one of the podcast are already waiting for you.
Wherever you're listening to this right now, just search for The Midnight Rebellion.
Thank you so much and enjoy.
WBUR Podcast.
If you are listening to this, congratulations.
You have made it to the first chapter of The Midnight Rebellion.
This is an interactive podcast.
That means you will hear two choices at the end of each chapter.
I will say something like, should our heroes play it safe or risk it all?
Then you must choose how I will explain that when the time comes.
For now, just know that your decisions determine the outcome of our story.
Good or bad.
Life or death.
It's on you.
Choose wisely.
This is The Midnight Rebellion.
Part 1.
City of Tides.
Chapter 1.
Almost Midnight.
The hour is nearing midnight, but Jewel Watts Green cannot sleep.
She lies in bed watching bomblets of rain explode against her window's skylight, counting the seconds between the blindingly bright flashes of lightning and the rolling booms of thunder.
Jewel's mom, Dr. Elizabeth Green, taught her this counting trick.
The shorter the time between flashes and booms, the closer the heart of the storm.
But it is not the nearing storm that keeps Jewel up.
It is the fact that when the clock ticks 12 am, it will be one year to the day when her mom, Dr Green, entered her laboratory during a storm just like this and never came home.
As the thunder goes outside, a creak inside catches Jules' ears.
She sits up.
A pale shadow shifts in her doorway.
Jewel?
Jewel?
The shadow enters her room.
A flashlight flicks on.
And there is a grinning face.
Jewel's shoulders relax.
Heart, you scared me.
It is her brother Heart Tree, or Heart.
I scared you?
Would you say I gave you a heart attack?
Eh?
Please, never become a comedian.
No promises, sis.
Now, wakey, wakey, it's time.
She stares at Heart.
His irises shine bright like a blue flame.
He has the same broad build as Jewel, the same freckled nose, the same coarse hair.
Their ears are different.
His are slim and regal.
Hers are so big some say they make her look like a sailboat, earning her the much-loathed nickname.
Come on, sailor.
The winds be blowing.
Hang on to your sails.
I really wish you wouldn't call me that.
It doesn't even make sense.
I hate the ocean.
I hate being wet.
And speaking of, it's pouring.
I'm not going outside.
But now's our chances.
Dad's asleep.
We're not.
It's basically destiny.
Jules shakes her head.
How could two people born on the same day into the same family be so different?
Twins, age 12.
Jewel, the law-abiding citizen and heart, the roguish leader, with the ability to drag Jewel along, no matter how much she resists.
She followed him out of the womb.
Will she follow him now?
No.
Dad said the lab is off-limits.
Nobody's been in there since... since... Since Mom died.
You can say it.
The lab is dangerous, Heart.
It'll be good for us.
Come on.
I know you miss her.
What better way to honor her than raiding her stuff?
Heart has been trying for months to get Jewel into the lab.
Always, he says, to honor their mom.
While this may be true, it is also the case that Heart is, like their mother was, an inventor.
And Dr. Green's lab is full of gizmos for inventing.
No one knows what she was creating the day of the accident.
The police found nothing outrageous in the lab.
Except, of course, Dr. Green's ashes.
It was enough to condemn the place.
Are you...
Sure, detective.
She was a physicist.
She studied climate change.
She wasn't a bomb maker.
Mr. Watts, if I was you, I'd lock up that lab of hers and never step foot inside again.
This led to much speculation at East Boston Middles.
The dominant theory was that Dr Elizabeth Green had faked her death because she was tired of being a mom.
It is well known that before she was mom, people called her Lightning Lizzie.
My dad called her a radical.
An earth nut.
A green freak.
A rebel.
Many moms are tired of being moms and some even have exciting pasts involving protests and jail time.
Yet faking a death to escape one's children is very, very rare.
Unfortunately, that leaves us with the hard truth that Jewel's mom is dead and something in the scientist's lab did it.
You're just like Dad.
Afraid of breaking the rules.
I break rules.
Name one.
I don't double knot my shoelaces sometimes.
That's not a rule.
That's never been a rule anywhere ever.
Besides, I see your shoes every day.
They're double knotted.
That's not true.
I triple knot for baseball.
Ugh.
Fine.
Stay here.
I'm following in Mom's footsteps.
And that means I'm going.
With or without you.
You'll get yourself hurt.
Ugh.
Fine.
I wish I could tell you why exactly Jewel decides to go after her brother.
I do not think she herself knows.
It may be that she is worried for him, or that she is jealous of how similar he is to their mom.
Regardless, Jewel throws on a sweater and jeans and tiptoes downstairs.
She laces her sneakers single-knotted because at this moment she is feeling quite rebellious, and follows Hart out the sliding back door into the rain.
The laboratory was once the family's detached garage.
A two-story Victorian with purple shutters.
It sits far back from their street and the top floor offers a lovely view of Boston Harbor when it's not storming.
Immediately, Jewel regrets her wardrobe.
Her sneakers squelch through mud.
The sweater drinks in the chilly June rain as she waits seemingly forever for Heart to pick the lock.
Come on, Heart.
I'm breathing.
Idly, Jewel kicks the pools forming in the handprints on the walkway.
Years ago, when her parents were converting the garage, she and Hart had pressed their palms into the concrete walkway as it dried.
It was another thing Hart made her do.
She thought her parents would get upset, but they loved it.
Jewel looks up.
Hart drops a rock and slips his hand into the broken glass window to unlock the door.
Seriously?
It was cracked already.
That'll think the storm did it.
Aha!
Here we are.
The laboratory.
Now, keep your eyes peeled.
I need a few actuators and a light sensor and a new battery for my latest creation.
The K-9000.
Get it?
Like, canine?
Because it's a dog robot.
Jewel rolls her eyes.
Wringing out her mane of hair, she enters the cluttered space.
Pinewood crates stacked to the ceiling.
Whiteboards with strange symbols.
Glass jars of brown liquids lining the shelves.
All of it gathering dust.
Hey, be careful with that stuff.
Heart is head down in a crate, tossing out gizmos.
His feet kick in the air.
Then he reemerges flushed and pleased.
Hot.
Look.
Mom's most advanced piece of technology.
He holds aloft a radio.
A little red radio.
The sight of it hits Jewel with a wave of emotions.
Her mother loved that radio.
She listened to it every day while she worked.
This is 90.9 WBUR, Boston's NPR.
It's 1159.
Here's the news.
Brutus Bright held a rally today on Boston Common.
Over 10,000 were in attendance.
I can just feel mom in here.
Can't you?
The tech billionaire received roars of approval when downplaying the severity of climate change.
First, they take your fuel.
Then they'll take your freedom.
We won't let that happen.
And the sound throws her back in time.
It is a gray morning in June.
It is the day her mom died.
Jewel watches as her mom hunches over her workbench, twisting away at tiny gears and springs.
This is ridiculous!
Can you fix it?
I'm sorry, I don't know what I did wrong.
Her mom is mending a gold pocket watch.
A family heirloom that Dr. Green carries with her everywhere.
That was except for the day before, when Jewel borrowed it for a class presentation and the timepiece broke.
What was that, hon?
Your watch.
You seem mad.
Oh, no, no.
It's not the watch.
Jewel said he would burn more fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, despite the fact that they are the single biggest cause of climate change.
Oh, I just worry about the world we grownups are leaving you.
By the time you're my age, It'll be too hot to think, and half the city is going to be underwater.
Oh, yeah.
Did you know a bad climate brought down civilizations before?
The Maya, old Egypt.
Oh, I swear, if we keep making poor choices, it'll happen again to us.
I know.
You told me before.
Ah, right.
Your dad tells me that I scare you kids with all of my doom talk.
Well, I'm sorry.
It's just that I care.
I know.
You are strong, Jewel.
You and Heart, you are my little spark and fire.
You'll be okay.
I know.
And the watch will be okay, too.
Just one more twist.
Listen.
Jules shakes herself from the memory.
It is night.
Her mother is dead.
And Heart has found the worst station imaginable.
Do you think K-9000 should have a scary bark or shouldn't speak English?
Is that weird?
I'm going upstairs.
I can't think straight.
What do you want to think about?
She doesn't answer because saying it aloud is too hard.
Whatever, sailor.
Oh, but don't forget K-9000 needs an actuator.
Let me know if you see one.
Jewel climbs the creaking ladder to the hatch door in the ceiling and emerges in a dark den.
She flips the switch.
Nothing.
Hmm.
There's got to be a lamp around.
She peers into the dimness.
Then she spots a circular silhouette, like a black hole, a flash.
And that is when she sees it.
Whoa, what is that?
Tall, round, a metallic sheen of not one color, but many.
Copper, nickel, silver, bronze.
She steps closer.
And the thing comes to life.
Red lights flicker on.
The object is twice her height, a globe on four steel legs like a lunar lander or a diving bell.
There is a heavy vault-like door and a single porthole window from which more light shines.
Rods sticking out from the body begin to twirl.
Copper coils spark.
Ribbons of steam curl into the air.
What... what are you?
It is ugly. as if it climbed out of a junkyard.
The legs are uneven, the coils lurch and stutter.
The spherical shell is a patchwork of metals.
Its purpose is far from obvious, but it is a device of some sort.
An instrument, a vessel, a mechanism, a... what's the word?
A machine.
The door opens, folding down like a gangway, and the machine vomits.
Ew!
It smells like fish guts.
Wreaking fluid floods out of the opening.
Water and slimy green ropes of seaweed and, yes.
It is fish guts.
Gross!
The machine quakes.
She opens her mouth to call.
Hark!
But her brother's name dies on her lips because something else catches her eye inside the machine on the cabin floor.
Mom's pocket watch.
The one Dr. Green kept with her always.
The gold watch chain is caught in the grating at the back of the cabin.
Jules steps to the threshold driven by curiosity is crazy i should call heart i should.
Her mind narrows, the sound of the storm slips away.
The machine too, shakes in silence.
All she hears is the blood pumping through her body and her heart ticking like a clock.
This is where you come in.
Jewel faces a choice, and you must help her decide.
Should she run to get her brother, or should she step into the machine right now, alone?
To find her brother, select Chapter 2, Get Heart.
To step inside, select Chapter 3, Into the Machine.
That's right.
You will not listen to this story in numerical order.
To make your choice, go to Chapter 2, Get Heart, or Chapter 3, Into the Machine.
Choose wisely.
This is The Midnight Rebellion.
One more thing.
This is a show about making choices in the story and out.
So we will end each chapter with a real-life challenge.
Today's chapter features a bad thunderstorm.
Because of climate change, storms are increasing in places like Boston, the Southeast and the tropics.
A warmer planet evaporates more water into the air, making storms more common and stronger.
But just like Joule makes choices, we can too.
Try one simple thing this week.
For instance, to reduce pollution, ride a bike or take the bus instead of the car.
Big changes start small.
Keep listening for more tips and more adventure.
Up next, Chapter 2, Get Hard.
Or Chapter 3, Into the Machine. was written and produced by Dean Russell.
Directing by Emily Jankowski and Dean Russell.
Mix and sound design for this episode by Emily Jankowski.
Supporting mix and sound by Mumble Media.
Story by Dean Russell with Joanna Lewis, Taylor Orsi, Craig Rowan and Christine Songko.
Editing by Mary Cole and Dave Shaw.
This episode is starring Basma Ayyad as Jules.
And me, Eric Ransom, as your narrator.
Additional performances by Casting by Rebecca Shankula.
Art by Sophie Morse.
Samata Joshi is managing producer.
Paul Vikas is production manager.
Ben Brock Johnson is the executive producer and WBUR's director of digital audio.
Funding provided in part by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
For a full list of cast and crew, visit our website, wbur.org slash The Midnight Rebellion.
