The world of 'Glass Shard Eden' is one in which marginalized voices thrive and absurdist humor drives tough conversations, all the while exploring themes of prejudice, resilience, and family through vibrant, relatable, and, in some cases, wildly bizarre characters.

How it began:

Glass Shard Eden began as an exploration of the two opposite ends of my bipolar 1 diagnosis via the character creation of the jaded defeatist Claudia Mills and the flirtatious, vibrant Athena Anagnos. Somehow, their banter took on a life of its own and made me scrap my original plans. Claudia and Athena became two of the five protagonists in a wild, unhinged, trippy sci-fi podcast about prejudice, chosen realities, and the dog-eat-dog mindset of human civilization.

It started as a private project meant to encourage tough conversations with myself. It laid the foundation for a complex, hilarious world fostering the strength and growth of characters with backgrounds and experiences nothing like my own. These characters have become near and dear friends to me over the course of writing season 1, and I can’t wait to introduce them to a wider audience in the hope that you’ll befriend them too.

To do that properly, I need the generosity and support of people like you.

Why does Glass Shard Eden matter?

Let’s not mince words: times for those of us living on the fringes of society are exhausting. We try to stay informed. We try to keep faith through the fight. We try to find connection and understanding in an environment determined to divide and misrepresent us. The old media we used to turn to for escape and comfort can now serve as reminders for how far we as a society seem to be regressing, and the new media often either draws truth that pains us or distracts us in ways that entertain and soothe but offers little in the way of real representation.

Glass Shard Eden is a fiction podcast that offers representation through diverse, three-dimensional characters while touching upon relevant sociopolitical topics that will somehow leave you laughing through it all.

Each protagonist is someone who has faced opposition in their lives. Davonte and Waylon are two brothers whose once inseparable connection has been torn asunder by racially motivated violence. Claudia is a lesbian suffering from clinical depression stemming from a lifetime of being overlooked and can’t seem to shake the patriarchal notion that a woman should accomplish everything she can in the throes of youth. Riley is the gender nonconforming former heir to a fortune who chose homelessness when faced with their family’s ultimatum to become the docile, conventionally palatable face of the company or be disinherited.

And it isn’t just the core characters who’ve been shaped by the irrational prejudices of society. Every single person in the other-world in which they now reside comes from a similarly disadvantaged life, and the family they manage to find within each other shines as a beacon of hope and love.

We cannot shy away from these difficult themes, one of the central being, fittingly, the choice between informed but potentially miserable reality versus the appeal of comfortable but ignorant bliss.

That’s why it’s vital to our collective mission of keeping the flames within us lit to have access to content that understands and encourages introspection all while making sure we remember how to smile.

Glass Shard Eden is a rare podcast that can do all of that against a wonderfully eccentric, absurdly creative background.

Every contribution helps!

Our goal for season 1 is $4,000. Our goal for the entire series is $14,000. Our anti-generative AI stance means that adequate payment to our original collaborative artists- like our musicians and SFX engineers- means we cannot cut corners.

We understand that things are hard right now. We’re all feeling financial stress. We appreciate anything you can give- whether that’s $5 or $500 or anything in between- and cannot thank all our donors enough for their generosity in these trying times. Even the sharing of this fundraiser link and simple word of mouth will go a long way in achieving our goals.

What your donation will go toward:

• Copywriting of the scripts, recordings, and original music

• The hiring of a producer to record, mix, and master each episode of season 1

• The funding for sound effect layering, including the creation and professional recording of some that need to be created from scratch

• The hiring of musicians to write an original score

• The hiring of a producer to record, mix, and master that musical score

• Podcast distribution to all major streaming and hosting services

• Marketing, including a professional trailer

If we exceed our season 1 goal, every excess dollar will go toward production for subsequent seasons. Glass Shard Eden will consist of four ten-episode seasons. Each episode will run about 30 minutes.

Official show synopsis:

After an uncharacteristically bold life choice by the cynical, timid Claudia Mills, she and her persistently charming best friend Athena Anagnos head out on the open road to find their trip cut short by a car accident that neither can remember. They awaken in a world that’s something like our own and are welcomed by brothers Davonte and Waylon Ward, who arrived there by similar means a… well, they’ve lost track of how long ago. Joined by universally respected voice-of-reason and existing resident Riley Dodd, the newcomers find their footing in this mysterious world that provides for their every need.

Eventually, they realize that their new home is exclusively populated by two groups of beings: Earth-dwelling humans who were abused, oppressed, or from marginalized communities in their previous lives, and bizarre, neurotic, non-human creatures who tend to keep their otherwise comfortable existence unpredictable and oftentimes hilarious, to say the least. None of the residents know exactly why that is the case or how it came to be, but each of them prioritizes their curiosity wildly differently.

While the lives of Claudia, Athena, Davonte, Waylon, and Riley intertwine, this other-world changes, shapes, and inspires them in ways that the crueler and less accepting environment of their previous world would have ever allowed. Claudia becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind their current location while Athena relishes in an unconfined world free of responsibility, introducing new challenges to their intense and unspoken love; strong and silent Waylon pursues renewed purpose outside of his traumatic past, which strains the already turbulent relationship with his less-than emotionally courageous younger brother; Davonte and Riley rekindle an old flame while trying to keep their found-family together in conflicting ways.

While these individuals grow and their connections evolve, they’re forced to wrestle with uncomfortable questions about division, the foundations of humanity, and whether it’s better to thrive in ignorance or suffer in truth. Join our central quintet and a host of vibrant supporting characters in this darkly comedic and witty sci-fi podcast for a wild philosophical ride like no other.

GoFundMe disclaimer:

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