
ESC is a work of experimental audio-based scholarship combining sound studies, radio history, and environmental criticism. This unique project is a fully open access, fully digital suite of audiographic essays, presented as a ten-part podcast series, combining spoken commentary, clips from classic radio dramas, excerpts from films and television shows, news reports, and the work of contemporary sound artists. A brief written essay on the ESC website provides a helpful introduction and context for this project. ESC takes as its point of departure the CBS Radio adventure series Escape (1947–54). The postwar years saw both a decline in popularity for American radio drama, and the dawn of the Anthropocene era, with human beings emerging as the primary force affecting the earth's systems. Jacob Smith considers Escape's adventure stories from an ecocritical perspective, analyzing the geographic, sociopolitical, and ecological details of the stories to reveal how they are steeped in social an