science

Within the Wires

Within the Wires is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Within the Wires rather than just read about it. In short: Within the Wires is a science fiction anthology podcast created by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson. Set in a dystopian society in an alternate history, it is presented as in-universe audio files such as relaxation cassette tapes or museum audio guides.

Key takeaways

Within the Wires belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Within the Wires to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Within the Wires from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Within the Wires is a science fiction anthology podcast created by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson. Set in a dystopian society in an alternate history, it is presented as in-universe audio files such as relaxation cassette tapes or museum audio guides. Each season follows a new storyline and characters, all set in the same world. The series has been produced by Night Vale Presents since 2016. For its first five seasons, the podcast aired bi-weekly, but changed to a weekly release starting with Season 6. Cranor and Matthewson have written every episode, as well as the novel You Feel It Just Below the Ribs (2021), which is set in the podcast's universe.

Production In an interview with CBC Radio's Podcast Playlist, Jeffrey Cranor explained that the initial idea behind the podcast was to use pre-existing audio guides as a template for storytelling, with the first season taking the form of a relaxation cassette program. Cranor had read and enjoyed Janina Matthewson's book Of Things Gone Astray, and they first met when he messaged her on Twitter in Autumn 2015 to invite her to a Welcome to Night Vale live show when it was touring through London. Cranor later pitched the initial idea to Matthewson and they began brainstorming story ideas together. Each episode is outlined by Cranor and Matthewson, before being written by one of them and then edited by the other. Every season is written by Cranor and Matthewson, with music by Mary Epworth. From season 4 onwards, Cranor and Matthewson also became the producer and director, respectively. The first season was partially funded through sponsored advertising. With the release of the final episode of the first season, it was announced that those who donate $50 or more to the podcast would receive an exclusive prologue episode for the second season, which was released on August 22, 2017. After the launch of the podcast's Patreon, the prologue episode was included in the same tier as the bonus Black Box episodes.

Episodes Every episode is written by podcast creators Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson.

Season 1: "Relaxation Cassettes" In the first season, the listener, a medical inmate at a place called the Institute, receives guidance from the mysterious narrator of instructional relaxation cassettes.

Season 2: "Museum Audio Tours" In the second season, an artist named Roimata Mangakāhia communicates with the listener through a series of museum audio guides. Every episode in this season features a guest star voicing the curator of the museum. Prior to the season premiere, three trailers composed of preview segments from the season itself were released, on August 15, August 22, and August 29, 2017. Donors of $50 or more to the production of the second season received a special prologue episode, "Cassette 0: Karikari Contemporary (1969)", on August 22, 2017, with the release of the second trailer.

Season 3: "Dictation" The third season, "a political thriller set in 1950s Chicago," is narrated by the bureaucrat Michael Witten; listeners access letters and notes dictated to his secretary.

Season 4: "The Cradle" Season Four, "The Cradle," is a story about a mother and daughter as they attempt to lead a family-centric commune surviving on the fringes of society. The leader of The Cradle — an anti-government commune hidden deep in a Scandinavian forest — escapes arrest and travels the globe to build her following. This 10-episode season is told via tape recorded letters home to her daughter and sermons to the commune.

Season 5: "Voicemail" As well as the main narrator voiced by Amiera Darwish, this season featured a secondary narrator voiced by Norma Butikofer at the end of every episode.

Season 6: "Caregiver"

Season 7: "Scavenger Hunt"

Season 8: "Leadership Seminar"

Season 9: "Audiobook"

Season 10: "Research Island"

Bonus: "Black Box" Within the Wires' Patreon includes an exclusive season called "Black Box", released four times a year, on solstices and equinoxes. The season tells the story of an unnamed pilot (narrated by Cranor) through his black box recordings.

Live Within the Wires' first live show was performed by Janina Matthewson at the London Podcast Festival on September 13, 2018. They did two live shows starring Lee LeBreton, one at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles on April 27, 2019 and one at PodX in Nashville, Tennessee on June 2, 2019.

Book In 2021, Cranor and Matthewson published You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, a novel set in the universe of Within the Wires. A fictional work written in the style of an annotated autobiography, it details the events of the "Great Reckoning" and the formation of the Society from the point of view of one of the survivors. The book was released on November 16, 2021. The audiobook was narrated by Kirsten Potter and Adepero Oduye.

Reception Marc Hershon of The Huffington Post positively reviewed the second episode, stating that it "has a distinctive flavor all its own" and that the show is "every bit as warped as [Welcome to Night Vale]." Nathan Dorer of The Rensselaer Polytechnic positively reviewed the first season, finding that "the evolution of the podcast throughout the first season was borderline artful" and praising Matthewson's narration and the "effective" atmosphere of the podcast. Steve Greene of IndieWire praised the podcast as "an off-kilter delight" and observed that it was "something that can only exist in this medium." Devon Taylor of The Sarahs observed that because the story is "parceled out slowly" it could "frustrate listeners accustomed to a more linear plot," while also drawing positive comparisons to Lost and the works of David Lynch.

References

External links Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Within the Wires

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Within the Wires claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Within the Wires before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Within the Wires ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Within the Wires

In research: Within the Wires appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Within the Wires in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Within the Wires is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2016 podcast debuts, American alternate history works, American fiction podcasts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Within the Wires outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Within the Wires in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Within the Wires means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Within the Wires out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Within the Wires in simple terms?

Why does Within the Wires matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Within the Wires?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Within the Wires.