History Podcast / WithinTheWires

A book set in the world of The Society, ''You Feel It Just Below The Ribs'', was released in November 2021.

* In Season 6, Cliodhna sees some damselflies in the garden, initially thinking that they're faeries. She's surprised as there doesn't seem to be enough water around for that many damselflies.

* AlienGeometries: The connections between Grainne's house and the rest of the world take a greater or lesser amount of time to travel, for no readily apparent reason. [[spoiler:When she tries to walk to town, she walks for five hours without making progress. When she turns around to head back, it takes her twenty minutes to get back.]]

* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Society might brainwash and forcibly lobotomize people, but it doesn't discriminate on the basis of sexuality, gender, or race. It's not perfect--Michael does describe having some problems with people misgendering him when he was earlier in his transition--but it actually seems to be slightly further along than our world; this is especially prominent in Michael's situation, since he holds an important government function while living as an openly transgender man, something that wouldn't have been possible in the real-life 1950s, when his storyline is set.

* WorkingWithTheEx: Indra and Chunhua dated for a while, before Indra met Nan. Occasionally issues between them flare up. Chunhua eventually won awards for a poem she wrote about the relationship, "Rainbow Dust".

* TheMenInBlack: Men in dark suits, with sunglasses and cigarettes, and their unpleasant dogs. The Institute [[spoiler:and its founders, Vishwathi Ramadoss and Karen Roberts]] use them for their SinisterSurveillance.
** [[spoiler: Nan is implied to have been one of these agents in Season 5]]

* OppositesAttract: Indra and Nan, as Indra is a emotional, artistic rebel while Nan, based on Indra's descriptions, is more level headed and straight-laced. Reflected in their careers as well, as Indra was part of a Society critical theater troupe while Nan was a government employee.

* OppositesAttract: Indra and Nan, as Indra is a emotional, artistic rebel while Nan, based on Indra's descriptions, is more level headed and straight-laced. Reflected in their careers as well, as Indra was part of a Society critical theater troupe while Nan was a government employee

A book set in the world of The Society, ''You Feel It Just Below The Ribs'', will be released in November 2021.

Black Box was a special season for Patreon subscribers, including flight-recorder tapes from a cargo pilot (voiced by Cranor) carrying an unregistered passenger. Black Box ran for ten episodes, with new episodes coming out on solstices and equinoxes.

* NoodleIncident: Episode 4 mentions the pilot and his passenger getting into a car chase with the men in suits, who shot at them and (barely) hit the pilot's shoulder. No other information about it is given.

The sixth season tells a ghost story through the treatment journals of an in-home nurse.

* RealityEnsues: Episode 10 states that Roimata's more emotional tapes were never actually used, as they were judged "not up to museum standards".

** In Black Box, the men and their dogs seem to be pursuing [[spoiler:Oleta]].

** The Pilot in Black Box starts out carrying [[spoiler:Oleta]]; we later find out he works for KR Development and ferries Karen Roberts.

Patreon subscribers receive episodes of a series called ''Black Box'', which includes flight-recorder tapes from a cargo pilot (voiced by Cranor) carrying an unregistered passenger. Black Box episodes come out four times a year, on solstices and equinoxes.

The first season takes the form of instructional cassette tapes distributed to an inpatient of a research hospital called "The Institute". Over the course of these tapes, the Institute is revealed to be less than benign, the world [[AlternateUniverse strangely divergent]] from our own, and the cassettes very different from the Institute's standard-issue curriculum, particularly in the increasingly personalized way their {{Narrator}} (voiced by Matthewson) addresses the patient.

The second season includes art museum audio guides for an art exhibition during the 1970s in the same universe. These cassette tapes take place over the course of about 15 years, and are principally narrated by artist Roimata Mangakāhia (Rima Te Wiata) as she discusses the works of her peer, painter Claudia Atieno.

The third season is a political thriller set in Chicago in the 1950s and is told through the dictations of Michael Witten (Lee [=LeBreton=]), a high-ranking Society bureaucrat who becomes the target of a conspiracy by his peers.

The fourth season is a series of tape recordings made over the course of the 1990s sent by a mother (Mona Greene) to her daughter, who is leading a family-oriented commune called "The Cradle", which was previously mentioned in Black Box and Season 3, while she is travelling the world and forging alliances.

The fifth season is a story about the romantic relationship between two women, Indra (Amiera Darwish) and Nan, starting from its cordial aftermath in 2008 and going backwards to its distrustful end to its beginnings in 1997. The story is told through answering machine messages.

The sixth season tells a ghost story through the treatment journals of an in-home nurse.

In addition, Patreon subscribers receive episodes of a series called ''Black Box'', which includes flight-recorder tapes from a cargo pilot (voiced by Cranor) carrying an unregistered passenger. Black Box episodes come out four times a year, on solstices and equinoxes.

* AffablyEvil: Michael Witten: loving spouse, supporter of labor rights and free speech, appreciator of the arts, and an occasionally bad-tempered, cutthroat Society loyalist politician.
** According to the final reel [[spoiler: Amy]], the person behind the founding of [[spoiler: The Institute]].
* AllIssuesArePoliticalIssues: {{Zigzagged}} in "Cassette 1: Tate Modern (1971)" when Mangakāhia dismisses art critic Alphra Bond as hypersensitive, imagining political subversiveness and incitement to war in works she reviewed.
-->'''Mangakāhia''': Bond believed all artists benefited from war and strife, as it gave them a more interesting story to tell. ...Of course the idea...is abhorrent and simplistic
** But the painting "The Charcoal Dish," of which Mangakāhia is a fan and Bond the sole detractor, may [[CassandraTruth genuinely]] be a subversive critique of the sinister OneWorldOrder of ''Wires,'' depicting innocent people happily served up from a giant dish-shaped building onto a laden picnic blanket, to be eaten by hidden monsters.
* {{Allegory}}: {{Discussed}} in-universe. Claudia Atieno's painting "Still Life with Orchid" was meant to communicate the unknowable, cyclical nature of existence through LifeDeathJuxtaposition: a living orchid with dead leaves and oranges with subtly rotting undersides. But much to her displeasure, most viewers read it as a [[YouCantFightFate fatalistic]] commentary on death's inevitability.

* AmbiguousEnding: Season 1's "Cassette #10: Horopito" [[spoiler: will be sent to the cottage where Hester has sent Oleta, but we have no way of knowing if Oleta ever receives it (though between Side A and Side B, we hear sounds of the ocean, suggesting that she does), or if she will wait there for Hester. We are unsure if Hester will be able to successfully wipe the Institute's records, or if they will be able to track down Oleta again.]]
** Potentially resolved in Season 2, [[spoiler: Cassette #10: Karikari Contemporary Gallery (1986). Hester is the narrator of this tape, and she has returned to the cottage where Oleta was sent. Hester has a wife she lives with, and that they have Horopito #4, the painting she left for Oleta, but it's not stated if this actually is Oleta (as a successful escape would make her a wanted criminal, Hester's not going to leave evidence on a museum guide).]]
* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: {{ZigZagged}} when "Cassette #1: Stress, Shoulders" Side B has its {{Narrator}} instructing the patient to imagine themself as a dragonfly handled by a little girl. [[spoiler: While the metaphor would initially suggest that the Narrator is the girl grown up, Cassette #2 implies and Cassette #6 confirms that the girl is the patient.]]
* {{Applicability}}: {{Discussed}} and {{Zigzagged}} in-universe, as Mangakāhia ostensibly allows for multiple interpretations of Claudia Atieno's paintings, even while explaining Atieno's intent and blatantly favoring certain readings herself. She frequently asks questions of the listener to underscore this contrast during her analyses:
-->'''Mangakāhia''': Do you agree? Have I implied that you should agree? Do you have free will?
** Tellingly, a painting she gives listeners full leeway to interpret is one she seems mildly embarrassed to talk about: "Woman in Bath (1971)." She is the subject.
-->'''Mangakāhia''': Look at the painting, make your own judgments. I cannot say anything else.

* ArcWords: Or rather, "Arc Sounds"; throughout tapes of season 1, sounds of the ocean, i.e. wind, waves crashing against a shore, are played in the patient's tapes. [[spoiler:In the final episode, the same sounds are heard ''outside'' of a tape]].
* AscendedExtra: Season 1's {{Narrator}} of the Institute's Relaxation Cassettes, in passing asides about her life, talks about a favorite, underappreciated artist whose work she owns. This painter, Roimata Mangakāhia, is the principal narrator of Season 2, where she analyzes the works of her own favorite artist in museum audio guides.
* AsceticAesthetic: The {{Narrator}} of Season 1's Relaxation Cassettes refers to the Institute as "white and sterile."
* BackToFront: Season 5 is a romance drama told this way, beginning with both parties having moved on, building to their turbulent break up, and ending with their romance's beginnings.
* BadLiar: Season 1's Narrator is really bad at hiding just how much she knows about the patient listening to the tapes personally, such as locations of scars and [[spoiler:her childhood]].
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: In Tape 4 of Season 3, Michael reminisces on when he first met his wife and remarks that a moment that particularly caught his attention was when she didn't react strangely when he identified as a man since many people still addressed him by his pre-transition name at the time.
* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: By the time "Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs" is received, the patient, trapped in the Institute and struggling to find a way out, rediscovers a childhood companion who offers further aid in escaping: [[spoiler: the Cassettes' Narrator herself, who reveals that she's offering this aid purely because of remembering their prior relationship.]]

** In Season 5 Indra is convinced that [[spoiler: Nan, an Internal Investigation Division agent, had been spying on her and her theater troupe, and this is the reason they break up]]. Other lines throughout the season also indicate that they were one of the agents with cigarettes and unpleasant dogs as well
* BodyHorror:
** In "Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs," the Narrator uses an autogenic exercise to reveal and explain hidden, standard-issue {{Cybernetic|sEatYourSoul}} implants to the Institute patient. [[spoiler: A hollow between the patient's lower left rib and left hip is supposedly occupied by a mechanical creature with "many legs". It collects their memories.]]
** In "Cassette #9: Loss, Hands" the Narrator explains replacement devices typically issued to patients of the Extensive Studies Lab, and elaborates on the surgical wounds incurred in gory, explicit detail. [[spoiler: The "creature" was a black box that monitored the patient's vitals, now replaced with a transmitter used to track the patient should they try to escape.]]
* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: Season 4 ends with Freya warning Sigrid that the Hedmark Cradle is about to be raided by the IID and that they should stand their ground. The first episode of Season 5 states that no Cradle was found near Oslo, where the Hedmark Cradle is, which means Sigrid either disobeyed her mother's request, or the IID killed them and lied about it.]]
* BookEnds: Season 2, if the donor-only Episode #0 is included. [[spoiler:Both episode #0 and #10 are audio tours of the Karikari Contemporary Gallery, set 17 years apart.]]
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: [[FalseUtopia The Society]] of ''Wires'' ensures the nonviolence of its citizens in the aftermath of a devastating war, the Great Reckoning, through pharmacologic and cybernetic repression of memories, and batteries of psychological programming, introduced when a child turns ten.

* BreedingCult: The need to wrest control of children and family life out of the hands of the Society forms the crux of the Cradle's ideology.
* CallBack: Season 2, Cassette #10 is narrated by [[spoiler:Hester, the narrator of Season 1.]] She asks if the listener is answering her questions out loud, much like Oleta accidentally said "freedom" out loud in season 1, and says not to.
* CallForward: Season 3, Cassette #9 implies that Vivienne's child was [[spoiler:Nell, Oleta's older sister]]. Cassette #10 continues on to indicate that [[spoiler:Vivienne's second child, presumably Oleta, was a difficult child and Vivienne didn't want to let her go.]]

* CausticCritic: In Season 2, Alphra Bond, who is mentioned to have strongly disliked the work of Claudia Atieno.
* ClimbingTheCliffsOfInsanity: {{Invoked}} in "Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs," by the {{Narrator}}, who uses a visualization exercise as a pretext to prepare the patient for a difficult phase once they've eventually EscapedFromTheLab.
-->'''Narrator''': Remember: the cave is high, and it is hidden, and it is difficult to get to. Falling water thunders past you and sprays you as you climb. The slope is slippery and your clothes are wet. It is difficult, but freedom always is.
* ColdBloodedTorture: The Extensive Studies Lab. Before the [[{{Lobotomy}} "Sounds of Carpentry"]], several tests are administered to patients. While we are [[ScreamDiscretionShot spared a clear description of the tests themselves]], we are given hints as the tapes prepare the patient for what is to come, and afterwards talk of the recovery that they will be in the midst of. Cassette #7, for example, guides the patient through rolling their head from side to side, saying that the upcoming test will put them through this motion at speeds beyond what their muscles are capable of, and that they WILL be concussed.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In Season 3, Karen Roberts, another Society bureaucrat of similar rank to Michael, is a supposedly former corporate executive who, as far as Michael has been able to find out, still hasn't sold her shares in her old company, KR Development Inc., despite having a government position where she manages trade. Also, there are rumors that militias in the Central or South American region are still being supplied by weapons from her company.
* CrazyPrepared: At the end of "Cassette #9: Loss, Hands" the Narrator suddenly urges the patient to obey a series of commands which will facilitate escape, [[spoiler:incapacitate the security nurse and allow them to meet again]] but ''only'' if she has timed the duration of the cassette perfectly, and if the tape was turned on to play at exactly the right time.
* CultOfPersonality: Freya, who isn't sure if she believes in religion, but is happy to use the language and techniques of faith to make her own teachings and the ideals of her community synonymous.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: {{Downplayed}}, in "Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs," it's revealed that people are possessed of a standard implant [[spoiler:between ribs and hip that removes and stores memories, and is]] implied to manage instincts that include the impulse to violence. The {{Narrator}} attempts to use autogenic exercises to let the patient control their implant [[spoiler:enough to restore some memories.]]
* DeadlyEuphemism: "[[{{Lobotomy}} Carpentry]]" in "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose." After listing the tools used in the Extensive Studies Lab, the Narrator says that the sounds of carpentry do not always mean carpentry is taking place, and refers to these procedures and noises only as carpentry for the duration of her tapes.
* DissonantSerenity: The tapes in the first season usually have spa music playing in the background of the spoken instructions, which sometimes get into pretty nightmarish territory when describing the workings of the Institute and other things.

* EmptyShell: In "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose." the {{Narrator}} warns of the fate of an intractably violent patient, eventually sent to the Extensive Studies Lab to undergo "[[{{Lobotomy}} carpentry]]."
-->'''Narrator''': No one smelled sawdust. As I record this cassette I am looking at that patient, right now. Looking. Right. At. It.
* EscapedFromTheLab: {{Invoked}} by Season 1's {{Narrator}} of the Relaxation Cassettes, as she gradually drops more explicit hints about the Institute's layout, surroundings, and security flaws to aid the patient.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In an early tape of Season 3, Michael mentions in passing that Amy had some crafty hobby and thinks it's either pottery or woodworking. [[spoiler:Hint: woodworking is a major part of '''carpentry''']].
* ForWantOfANail: Invoked in Season 3, Cassette #10, Michael wonders if his failure to invite Amy to dinner and get to know her is somehow responsible for [[spoiler:her work with Vishwathi Ramadoss and Karen Roberts to found the Institute.]]
* GenreRoulette: As of season 3, each season has leaned towards a different genre from the others.

** Season 5 is a romantic drama told in reverse

* IdiotBall: Season 1's Narrator exploits a trusted position of authority within the Institute to deliver her increasingly-transparent instructions under cover of an existent program, using her status to avoid supervision or review. But it's nothing short of a miracle that she and her off-curriculum tapes evade suspicion or discovery given the patient's mistakes, ''especially'' after the patient has a behavioral episode, [[spoiler: during a botched escape attempt]] she directly intervenes in. Staff may have become ''somewhat'' suspicious by Cassette #9, when the patient is still allowed to listen to the tapes, but is no longer allowed to use headphones.

* IsThisThingStillOn: In Season 2, many of Roimata's later audio tours drift off into deeply personal commentary on Claudia. Cassette #10 mentions that many of the cassettes were never used for this reason.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Vishwathi Ramadoss and Karen Roberts]] get a slap on the wrist, if that.
* {{Lobotomy}}: In "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose," the {{Narrator}} reveals that the rare intractably violent patient will undergo "[[DeadlyEuphemism carpentry]]" in the Extensive Studies Lab, by way of warning her listener to maintain the appearance of compliance.
* LockedUpAndLeftBehind: Done by Rosie to David once she realized he was the reason the men in suits kept finding them. She tied him to a tree, loosely enough that he could free himself but tightly enough that it would take some time. She's not sure if he managed to escape, or if a bear or other wild animal caught him first.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the Institute and The Society of ''Wires''. "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose." reveals that they consider parental and familial affection one of the factors that resulted in a massive, world-destroying war. Because of this, children are separated from their parents and siblings at the age of 10, after which they are raised and educated by caretakers instead.

* MissingEpisode: In-universe. In Season 2, Cassette #10, it is stated that Roimata made 11 audio tours, 9 of which were for museums still in existence. The narrator of Cassette #10 was only able to obtain 5 of the cassettes, which means the podcast listeners have heard cassettes that the narrator has not. [[spoiler:In particular, it seems highly unlikely that Hester, the narrator, got a copy of Cassette #9, as it clarifies information about cliff diving that she claims not to know.]]
** There is also a missing episode for the podcast listeners, however. Including the donor-only episode #0, only 10 recordings of Roimata's have been released.
* NamelessNarrative: In Season 1, no character featured, not even the patient or the narrator, gets a proper name until Cassette #6, [[spoiler:which identifies the patient as Oleta and the narrator as Hester]].
* OneWorldOrder: "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose" talks about how, after a massive war, all nationalism, flags, and soldiers were "done away with," and replaced with the Society. Given the later description of what happens in the Extensive Studies Lab, there's the question of ''how'' said soldiers were "done away with." It may have gone beyond just disbanding their units...
* OppositesAttract: Indra and Nan in Season 5, as Indra is a emotional, artistic rebel while Nan, based on Indra's descriptions, is more level headed and straight-laced. Reflected in their careers as well, as Indra was part of a Society critical theater troupe while Nan was a government employee
* PartingWordsRegret: In Season 2, Cassette #9, Roimata discusses her last conversation with Claudia. [[spoiler:Claudia was finally willing to go through with the cliff-diving that Roimata has been attempting to convince her to try; Roimata seems to deeply regret failing to warn her friend that the tide was out, and it was not safe to dive at that time. It is evident but unstated that she feels responsible for her friend's death.]]
* PlagiarismInFiction: In Season 2, Roimata's tapes eventually start revealing that Claudia had a habit of taking concepts and outlines of paintings or drawings that other artists, Roimata included, had tinkered with in private and stealing the ideas and creating fully fledged artworks based on those ideas and claiming to have come up with them herself. Of particular note is a painting whose composition and imagery Claudia ripped off from a friend she deliberately let take the fall and be accused of plagiarizing her work.
* RealityEnsues: Season 2, Episode 10 states that Roimata's more emotional tapes were never actually used, as they were judged "not up to museum standards". (Although this is a bit of FridgeLogic, because apparently, as seen above, nobody at the secure government facility was quality-testing ''Hester's'' tapes.)
* Room101: The Extensive Studies Lab.

* SecondPersonNarration: {{Subverted}}. Season 1's Narrator of the Relaxation Cassettes addresses the Institute's patient as "you" and feigns impartiality as a purely instructional, pseudo-omniscient figure in those exercises that mimic a typical guided meditation, but as her instructions deviate to become peculiarly specific, she eventually drops the façade to refer to herself as "I" at the end of the first cassette, and addresses the patient with increasing directness in subsequent installments.

* StalkerWithACrush:
** "Cassette #8: Awareness, Eyes" as part of its visualization exercise, has the Narrator explain how the patient attracted the attention of the institute via a jealous romantic admirer reporting deviant behavior. [[spoiler:Hester spent months [[ContrivedCoincidence just happening]] to meet Oleta in the park as she was running, and then at the coffee shop, where she determined that Oleta did not remember her. It is implied that this lack of recognition led Hester to turn Oleta in to the Institute.]]
*** [[AmbiguousSituation It is far from being the only interpretation, though]]. [[spoiler: The spies who followed and caught Oleta were already waiting for her outside the restaurant at the end of the meeting during which she rejected Hester, meaning she didn't tip them off, though she might have testified later. She definitely went to Oleta's sister and advised her to throw Oleta under the bus, [[NotWhatItLooksLike but it was after she learnt that Oleta and Nell were sisters]], and she had no reason to be jealous by this point. [[BigBrotherInstinct She justifies her actions by saying she thought that Oleta wouldn't like her sister to be caught]]. She also seems to believe that Oleta's sister remembered their relationship, but [[FreakOut her reaction]] to their meeting puts that into question. [[FourthDateMarriage Imagine if you were planning to move in with that handsome stranger]], [[AdultFear and a dystopian government's official]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom came to see you and inadvertently revealed that they've been leading you on]], [[{{Squick}}and that acting on your crush would be]] SurpriseIncest.]]
** In Season 2, ambiguously, Claudia Atieno's lover, Pavel. It is mentioned in Cassette #2 that someone anonymous started sending her pieces of dead animals after Claudia had thrown him out for the third and seemingly final time. Claudia supposedly didn't read anything threatening into it, telling Roimata that Pavel often sent her studies he made for sculptures and figured the animal parts were just that.
* StartingANewLife: Crossed with GoingNative. The members of the Cradle and its similar groups do this when they leave the New Society to go into the wilderness.

* TemptingFate: Michael hopes he never meets a child who has to spend time in the Institute. [[spoiler:It is strongly implied that Oleta, from Season 1, is Vivienne's daughter.]]
* TestedOnHumans:
** {{Implied}} in Season 1, when people are sent to the Institute's "Extensive Studies Lab," but the {{Narrator}} tells the patient not to think about what's happening there.

* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: [[spoiler: Gwen Nettles, the secondary narrator for Season 5, is revealed to be the same person as Nan, the listener for the season and Indra's ex-girlfriend, having taken the name as an alias when spying on Indra's theatre troupe]]
* UnfortunateImplications: In-universe. Michael points out that, given Britain has only just given up its control of Ireland (season 3 is set in the 50s), a London office shutting down a Society-critical play in Dublin on flimsy grounds doesn’t exactly look great.
* WhamLine: In Season 1, all the Cassettes had been about preparing the patient for escape from The Institute. Cassette #6 ends on an announcement of a sudden acceleration in their timetable. [[spoiler:''"This is taking too long. I didn’t want this to take this long!... 2:05am. I want you to grab whatever you can and run. I want to get you out!"'']]
** Season 2, Cassette 9 has an extremely spoiler-y one that only makes sense in context: [[spoiler: I didn't tell her it was low tide.]]
** Season 3, Episode 10 which features a call forward revealing [[spoiler:a surprise connection to Season 1: “a child is not a carpentry project you can keep carving and sanding”]]

** Season 3, Reel 10: June 21, 1961, which reveals [[spoiler: Michael’s secretary Amy Castillo is the founder of the Institute with the backing of Vishwathi Ramadoss and Karen Roberts, thus making them the GreaterScopeVillain of Season 1]]

* WorldHalfEmpty: The Great Reckoning was ''exponentially'' worse than any war in our timeline--in the "Museum Audio Guide #6: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts", Roimata says that there are only ''two hundred million'' people on the entire planet as of the 1970s. For comparison, the population of our world in the '70s is estimated to have been a little over 4 billion. No wonder the Society took hold so easily.

The fifth season is a story about the romantic relationship between two women, Indra (Amiera Darwish) and Nan, starting from its cordial aftermath in 2008 and going backwards to its distrustful end to its beginnings in 1997.

** {{Discussed}} in Cassette #3: Insomnia, Feet," as TheNarrator details the effort {{Big Brother| Is Watching}} takes in maintaining select freedoms in a civilization that engages in top-down social engineering.

* EmptyShell: In "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose." TheNarrator warns of the fate of an intractably violent patient, eventually sent to the Extensive Studies Lab to undergo "[[{{Lobotomy}} carpentry]]."

* {{Lobotomy}}: In "Cassette #5: Focus, Nose," TheNarrator reveals that the rare intractably violent patient will undergo "[[DeadlyEuphemism carpentry]]" in the Extensive Studies Lab, by way of warning her listener to maintain the appearance of compliance.

* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: PlayedWith in "Cassette #9: Loss, Hands," when TheNarrator attempts to account for the presence and potential reactions of a security nurse when the patient can no longer use headphones or listen unsupervised. [[spoiler: While Oleta is being treated after time in the Extensive Studies Lab, Hester walks Oleta through the nurse's procedure and, eventually, provides an escape plan ''accounting for'' the nurse being distracted by the tape's instructions, giving Oleta a window of opportunity to break free. However, as Hester points out, she can't know if the recording was properly timed for the plan to work.]]

* AsceticAesthetic: TheNarrator of Season 1's Relaxation Cassettes refers to the Institute as "white and sterile."

* InSpiteOfANail: In one of the tapes of Season 1, it's mentioned that the main character had a Music/SiouxsieAndTheBanshees cassette on her when she was admitted to the Institute, meaning the band came to exist despite the AlternateHistory setting of the podcast.
** In Season 5 Indra mentions having read ComicBook/VForVendetta after having gotten it off the black market

** A raid on the a group with weapons mentioned by Michael in Season 3 is revealed in Season 4 to have been against [[spoiler: the original Cradle, and was the incident that killed Freya's father]]