We would love to make Sebastian’s diary, the basis for the Peabody Award winning Queerskins: a love story and Queerskins: ARK VR experiences, into an intimate audio experience. As I learned in making Queerskins: a novel, the human voice–its timbre, paralinguistic qualities, even the length of pauses change the psychological impact of words. I had to slash and burn the audio monologues because they utterly overwhelmed the text of the diary.

Here is a quick version of what a daily podcast delivered to your inbox might sound like (<5min) perfect for waiting for a coffee or walking to the grocery store or as an adult bedtime story.

In this monologue spoken by Michael DeBartolo, Sebastian recounts his seduction of Jean-Marie at a bar in Mali. Tango music taken from a 78 record from the Internet Archive. Bamako sounds from Freesound.org.