After a Month of Thinking, Here I Am, Finally Responding

You know that feeling, where you’re scared of the ending? You know there’s something stalking you, something tragic, a cliff you’re going to be forced to jump but you can’t avoid it, because even if you’re scared, you love it so much you’ll follow it to its end. You’re scared because you love it so much, because you know tragedy might wreck you. The compassion of foresight. 

We walk into a battle of wills knowing we will hate what is to come, from Gloria’s mouth to Zebulon’s ear. The plan is something to fear on the horizon. However, knowing there’s something to fear doesn’t make the episode any less enjoyable. There’s so much to find, so much to mourn, so much to follow. 

This episode we learn almost too much but let’s start with the meat: Krok believes that humans can bend the universe to their will with just thought, because of our power of belief in stories. Which is the most New Age-y, Crystal Healing, Manifestation Journaling shit since someone tried to explain The Secret by Rhonda Byrne to me. Krok is working on what I assume to be an understanding of the law of attraction, but more racist -or perhaps species-ist?- because only humans can do it. Leading to a whole galaxy of test tube babies governed by what I can only describe as a cosmic eugenicist trying to redefine how the universe works. “Grist for the mill,” he says. “Should I not sacrifice one galaxy to save countless others?” He postulates. This is NOT a man who should be leading a cult based on the idea of balance, he has the constitution of Thanos but with schemes that could only be comprised of Einstein’s nightmares. 

Now let’s continue with my meal analogy and go to the sides. The potatoes: David meets Cyborg David! Of COURSE there’s more Davids out there in the multiverse, this one is just a rogue who has a cyborg arm like Even Older Leif. We learn a lot about David’s past as well as who he could have been. And perhaps a peek at who he could be. Meeting yourself is a trip, but it’s not new to us, and it can be a necessary step for your growth as a cosmic adventurer like David is learning to be. Onto the green beans: Muckle-ventures! Small fries detail but the small glowing orb Effie steals that Libuza experiments on is leading to something big for season 5! I’m getting excited just talking about it!

The Bones of the episode: our protagonists, from the main six, to the precious Gaybies, to the Sisters are split up in various ways. Leif, Caspar, Ava and Gloria have been sent across space and time via a gun that somewhat mimics the effect of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. David (aka Gayby #1) is with the Sisters and Effie and Zebulon on board their ship. And Fiona (aka Gayby #2) is on the Diner with Peter to help her. The gang is split but they are no longer trapped by Krok. Some of them ARE trapped, like Caspar by his deranged scientist ex-wife and Leif trekking on a frozen, barren planet. However, none of them are in the palms of planet controlling psychos… I think. Jury’s out on the ex-wife, Philomena. Who knows what’s going on there. 

The dessert! Gloria and Brodie sitting in a tree! Adorable reunion, and the idea that Gloria has a statue on Sigius is striking. And then, Ava at the table of who, and this is speculation between some friends and I, we’re guessing is Tycho Brahe, who did indeed have a moose. 

Listen, there’s so much more that could be discussed. There’s macaroni salads and jello and rice krispie treats and so many dishes we could pass around to talk about. But there’s also only so much I can say before you stop reading. So tell me, what was YOUR favorite part of the episode? What do YOU want to discuss? What was your favorite part of this season? Come message us at our usual places to discuss, we’re out there, lookin’ for ya!

Listicles! Thegronies Come Get Y’all Juice!

• Best monologue of the episode: Gloria on the psychology of waiting tables to the megolomaniac, who monologues about the worst things imaginable.

• Best character: Cyborg David’s Cyborg Arm. Love a good Robot Arm throw back.

• Song of the Episode:

Cat of the Episode: Runty, my nephew!!!! My lil sibling’s cat!!!!

Ethically Sourced Fanart, Free Range

(After a drastic miscommunication with an artist we have taken steps to ask all artists for permission to post their art. If you would like your art featured in the newsletter, please post it to Tumblr and tag Midnight Burger, I will see it and ask for permission, thank you)

Post by @deizer1234 · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 9  ❤️ 29 · completely unrelated but i love blueberries

www.tumblr.com/deizer1234/776056356110221312/completely-unrelated-but-i-love-blueberries?source=share

Post by @weymythical · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 30  ❤️ 105 · I think David should have his grandmother’s nose

www.tumblr.com/weymythical/776610844163358720/i-think-david-should-have-his-grandmothers-nose?source=share

(weymythical is one of my besties, they are so good at art and I’m so proud of them!)

Post by @catwyk · 2 images

💬 1  🔁 3  ❤️ 16 · ava and clementine wips yippee yahoo

www.tumblr.com/catwyk/775587364983767040/ava-and-clementine-wips-yippee-yahoo?source=share

Post by @budgies-with-pencils · 1 image

💬 0  🔁 10  ❤️ 22 · Effie my world

www.tumblr.com/budgies-with-pencils/777030774295789568/effie-my-world?source=share

We would also like to extend our apologies for all who did not get tickets for our first ever BurgerCon! We definitely did not expect it to be this popular or to have such a big response. Sometimes when you’re tucked inside your writing room the whole time, you forget that the world is listening. The hazards of podcasting. Anyways, this definitely WILL NOT be our last BurgerCon, but these take a lot of planning and money so keep an eye out. In the meantime, keep the community going as it is! We see you out there and we love you so so so much!

Of course, we are on hiatus at the moment until season 5 starts up, but until then you can join us exclusively for hiatusfest! That includes getting Shift Notes (you can listen to a free episode here!), which, DUH, the BEST! Join us on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts. Or, you can always buy us a coffee!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

The End Just Happened and the End is Nigh

Hello everyone, Joe here.

Before Alice gets down to business I just wanted to give everyone a big reminder that a week from today is our SEASON 4 FINALE!!! This was our longest and most complicated season yet and it was very taxing on your boy. BUT nobody got hurt and we’re very proud of what you’re going to hear next week.

After that we’ll be taking a break, and by break I of course mean moving into Hiatusfest 2025, where we do some fun stuff on the subscriber feeds until we return later in the year.

Thank you so much for listening to Midnight Burger. Creating it for all of you has been the adventure of a lifetime. We’ll be back in the Fall.

Onward to Season 5!

-Joe

Here Comes Alice

I’m sitting here on a call with some friends as I write, trying not to be too smug. “Why, Alice?” You may say.”You’re so sweet and kind and lovely.” And I humbly thank you. However, my bragging is mostly earned in this, as I, more or less, predicted the ending to Welcome to the Horizon. I find this to be an achievement worthy of recognition on par with predicting the Superbowl. (GO EAGLES!)

Well. I say more or less, my predictions were inaccurate but in the neighborhood:

Joe, the man, the myth, the legend, can never do things in halves. It couldn’t just be the Sheep’s Eye or the Horizon that goes zooming around the cosmos, instead it’s the entire MOUNTAIN. 

I mean, we should've seen it coming, it’s been hinted at over and over through the mini-series that Mt. Hood was odd and out of place. And then Trinkett starts to hallucinate, develop precognition as well as an understanding of the happenings of the mountain after taking a massive dose of immortal space shrooms. Honestly, doesn’t it get tiring doubting her every time? Trinkett is owed so many apologies by Frank. Sure, very, very stupid to do extraterrestrial holistic medicine on a whim, but in the end, she follows what she’s being pulled towards. She knows the ride will not be pleasant, but Trinkett doesn’t need things to always be good, because she knows that’s not how life works, instead she sits with what she gets and follows the path she needs to get to her destination. 

The people of Hood’s Pocket aren’t well-adjusted, normal, sane individuals, but they still worked together to do what they could; from facing fears like Doug, to breaking into churches on command, and even begging to the powers that be in Verge’s case. The mountain saved them in their time of need, and now it’s their turn to go around helping the cosmos. 

I’m Not Egotistical, I Just Love Listicles

Questions of the Episode: Does T.J. Peppercorns have something to do with Arecibo Observatory? Are we ever going to meet Daniel and Willow again?

Favorite Quote: STEVE- If you don’t mind, I’d like to stick with the whole breaking into the church idea. I know it won’t help right now, but breaking the law helps me relax.

Cat of the Episode: Britward’s super shiny cat!

Song of the Episode:

Art de la Fan

Weymythical

Remember that time Caspar and Ava dressed up as ridiculous rich people because I Do

www.tumblr.com/weymythical/776610098329075712/remember-that-time-caspar-and-ava-dressed-up-as?source=share

dusty blog

welcome to the horizon finale (SPOILERS) was SO GOOD! can't wait for the season finale of MB :D i love pnw and i love the setting and the imagery of mt hood ascending had me burning to make this it…

www.tumblr.com/dustykcash/774438320748003328/welcome-to-the-horizon-finale-spoilers-was-so?source=share

Tagh pah tahbe

www.tumblr.com/rosalind-or-ganymede/775156303025864704?source=share

What’s Next?

Oh no! Season 4 is ending on March 11th with the big bad Midnight Burger finale, Here Be Dragons! Then we have a long hiatus, which you should join us for as a subscriber. Keep an eye on our social media pages for updates! Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out! Or, you can always buy us a coffee!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch! like this:

See you at the bar!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

The 1988 Movie Was Wrong, Earth Girls Are NOT Easy

I’d like to preface this by saying that, yes, I am one of the queerest people to queer. Unapologetically. Welcome to the Horizon really is a love letter for sci-fi loving queer people with anxiety. I mean, it’s already been shown to us that Joe holds an open booth for all those who have been left out by society; the monstrous, the runaways, the angry, the revolutionary, the tired, the scared, all of us. And the only thing he asks of us is to be a good neighbor to one another. (He doesn’t even set us up to be necessarily nice, I don’t think people as grumpy as Frank, Ava, or Caspar could be ‘nice.’ I know that I’m not necessarily a nice person, all things considered.)

In the end, I think that’s what the episode is about, other than Space Lesbians: being a good neighbor. Checking in with people, doing what you can to help, organizing your community in dire times, and making sacrifices. The people of Hood’s Pocket are those that are too stubborn to abandon their roots, are left behind by society, or are too weird to be considered part of the world. But, with Doug, the patron saint of paranoia and anxiety, as their very scared leader, the community gathers to survive the oncoming apocalypse together. And in the end we bear witness to Verge leaving behind their safety net of the Earth Suit to reveal the Ted’s duplicity of a game of comet-based chicken. 

In the past few weeks, I know the Ability to Live anxiety has been ramping up. I dragged myself out of my dissociative self-perpetuated isolation and finally started paying attention to the world again. There’s no point condescending about what’s happening, why, and speculating about the future. But there is a point in gathering those you care about to organize your community, and see what we can all do to prevent the worst of our own imminent comets on the horizon. 

 SAVE MY SOUL, LISTICLES, I’M ON A ROLL

Song of the episode: 

Cat of the episode: Mabel, Bert Bert’s lovely kitten

Best line of the episode:

JUNE- You thought comics were for nerds, but what did you keep under your bed? Your Swamp Thing collection.

FRANK- It wasn’t a collection.

JUNE- There was supposed to be porn under there, Frank.

FRANK- Did it occur to you that I might need some help right now? That I might need some support? Instead I get Swamp Thing.

Midnight Burger Art Museum, Where the Coffee is Free

do u freak w the jorts

who up midnighting they burger.

www.tumblr.com/catwyk/774626629132648448/who-up-midnighting-they-burger?source=share

do u freak w the jorts

caspar hit an epic gamer moment on this one

www.tumblr.com/catwyk/774859544872599552/caspar-hit-an-epic-gamer-moment-on-this-one?source=share

soulkiah

some fanart of Clementine from midnight burger from a while ago!

www.tumblr.com/soulkiah/774442060710346752/some-fanart-of-clementine-from-midnight-burger?source=share

ariartcor

Giving the people what they want . Ted midnight burger I will always love you so much

www.tumblr.com/ariartcor/773365471748702208/giving-the-people-what-they-want-ted-midnight?source=share

What’s Next?

On February 11th (Tomorrow!), we’re strapping on our boots and getting ready to swashbuckle for Chapter 43: Adventure! AND THEN… KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE BIG DAY!!!! The finale for Welcome to the Horizon: Big Day, on February 25th! Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen to both of those right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out! Or, you can always buy us a coffee!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

THEGRONIES?!?! WHAT’S POPPIN’?! (Please not fireworks)

Speedrun, Joe’s Words to the Masses

Telling a story this long and this complicated can be a delicate balancing act. You want the characters to develop at the right pace, for the story to unfold at the right time, and for the themes you're working with to be given the chance to be explored. And then, every once and a while you get to let that all go and just kick out the jams (i.e. "Fangs Out!"). "Speedrun" is definitely one of those episodes. I think the thing I like the most about Speedrun is that it's a bit symbolic of the project of Midnight Burger itself: a small group of weirdos in a hostile environment trying to do some good while staying out of reach of the baddies. - Joe

Wildfires and Schedules

As you may or may not know, Finlay and I live in Los Angeles, and as you probably DO know a little over a week ago a whole lot of Los Angeles caught fire. I've lived here for a long time and I've seen this city catch on fire many times over those years, this time is undoubtedly the worst I've ever seen. Luckily Finlay and I are just fine, but the power outages and fleeing the city until it was safe have put some serious delays in our production schedule. Everything's coming out on time right now but we may see some delays in releasing the Season 4 finale. It won't be anything too drastic, we're basically going to be playing catch-up for the remainder of the season and it may cause a slight delay, but, in the end, nothing stops the diner. We won't keep you waiting too long.
- Also Joe

Lord, I Was Born A Ramblin’ Man

Since THIS is the section of the newsletter written by a FAN… (Or mayhaps… a historian? A THEOLOGIAN?) Let’s dish. There’s so much ground to cover. 

Let’s start off with formatting. Joe, one of my personal writing icons of this century, has the ability to pivot from one focus to another with precision and grace. Therefore, the switching of perspectives and how we observe our intrepid cast marks yet another sign of his writing prowess. Observing how the diner advances through the eyes of Zebulon’s Bram Frampton and Effie’s Kitty Caldwell is a useful device to mark the advance we make through Cryptessia in a comedic style of punditry observed famously in Ted Lasso. 

Simultaneously, since we’re sprinting through this obstacle course, we get fed banger after banger in terms of hilarious lines and situations. So y’all know what that means. It’s time for ANOTHER Alice Listicle. (Al-Listicle?)

And the Medals for Best Speedrun Go To:

• “Also his dad is here,” continuing the Caspar slander.

• Teta punching a horse in the face

• “Demons from the sky!”

• They STOLE THE HORSE 

• Teta trying to win World War I in the name of SPAM

• “Go back to clinging to your mom,” Libuza, babygirl…

• The entirety of Caspar sassing Kazi

• The Pencil Ad. That’s all. 

• The entirety of the restaurant scene, but let’s break it down:

  • The names Baldwin Cottonwood Highsworth IV and Duchess Franketa Von Blugswaag

  • Caspar’s improv skills are gorgeous

  • Our love language. (OUR WHAT?!)

  • BILLY ROSE YOU TOOK ALL MY CORN DOGS

  • Gloria stole a snow leopard, therefore we finally have a cat

• David named his gun Rihanna

• A drag queen named Eden D’Pusseé

• David is totally gay Buck Rogers

• Suffrajistu!

• Fiona having queer awakening at a suffragette’s meeting

• I’d pay to watch Ava participate in an axe-throwing competition

• The last stolen thing being an ice cream truck, with Ava wearing the uniform

Chess Inception. Chess-ception.

Now, keeping in mind that we’ve covered form and comedy, it’s time to cover the concerns. Kazi is pushing towards something that might tear everything apart. She has no idea what the shape of the problem is, but she’s still determined to think she’s right to push people around like chess pieces. But her chessboard is within another game being set by the Benefactor, a trap that we are now zooming into at the end of the episode.

Listicles, You Are My Only Hope

Song:

Cat of the episode: Moscato, the fastest cat this is of the Milky Way

Most Underappreciated Character: Betty. #justiceforBetty

Who’s Ready to Fan Their Art!

PotatoLord

THE MIDNIGHT BURGER POST EVERYONE YAY YIPPEE

www.tumblr.com/potato-lord-but-not/773077414685310976/the-midnight-burger-post-everyone-yay-yippee?source=share

Lass's Art

figuring out my Ava design (click for better quality)

www.tumblr.com/spaceyaceylesbianart/772796900767383552/figuring-out-my-ava-design-click-for-better?source=share

ariartcor

Hi I’ve been gone for a while!!! Film school has been CRAZY but I wanted to share the art I had the opportunity to make for Chapter 40! (As well as some designs!!) Also Rest assured there WILL be m…

www.tumblr.com/ariartcor/772713141259911168/hi-ive-been-gone-for-a-while-film-school-has?source=share

Quisters

Frank every time someone comes to him with a problem despite the fact that he will yell at them if they try to refuse his help

www.tumblr.com/quisters/771867515495333888/frank-every-time-someone-comes-to-him-with-a?source=share

What’s Next?

On January 28th will be Welcome to the Horizon Chapter 10: Phoenix, where we debate on the possibility of comets and going to the moon. THEN, on February 11th, we’re strapping on our boots and getting ready to swashbuckle for Chapter 43: Adventure! Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen to both of those right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out! Or, you can always buy us a coffee!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

What’s Poppin’ Thegronis?!

Yesterday, as is our wont, we released Welcome to the Horizon Part 9: The Mountain:

As you may have caught on by now, Welcome to the Horizon is about community and learning to take care of each other despite our differences. Epitomizing that is our glorious Frank. Frank is a walking  poetic ode to the Standard American Curmudgeonly Dude. He eats oatmeal in the morning, he complains about the Portland Trailblazers, he’s never happy to see anyone but he doesn’t like it when someone’s not okay. There are all sorts of mind-bending and mysterious things going on in Hood’s Pocket and I have a lot of fun with Frank’s desire for all of them to just go away so he can get back to his boring oatmeal and books about Japanese furniture joinery.

Hood’s Pocket constantly tries to up the ante on Frank, but despite the introduction of something like a secret military base, Frank refuses to abandon his “Normal Dude” status, and manages to shake “Sergeant Major Joos” to her core by simply bothering her about boring neighbor shit.

And that’s also Hood’s Pocket in general. Weird things keep happening, and those weird things are handled and defeated not by complicated plans or strange inventions, but by people being true to themselves and doing so together.

-Joe

Alice's Art History Corner of Community: Prelude to the Usual Snark

I am someone who has spent a lot of time loitering within the community of Midnight Burger. From August 2022 to the present day, I've taken the time to build myself a small home amongst the words that Joe has written. Now, my degree is in art history, but my capstone took a focus on community creation as a form of art. The idea was inspired by Midnight Burger, and in the final nights of my degree I could be found in the discord server voice chat writing my final paper and practicing my presentation.

This is all to say that community is at the forefront of Welcome to the Horizon, and to Midnight Burger as a whole. Midnight Burger instilled in me the idea that the best way forward was to find my people and do what I can, where I can. There's not a lot within our control, so when you have the choice to be with the people of your community, you take it.

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Despite having been a slightly wild college student, I can say with extreme authority that June has got me beat. How many people can say they got drunk and successfully found a secret military base? The most I can talk about is stealing alcohol from fraternity parties for fun. But June? June is living the dream. And poor Deidre is living the nightmare. I'd say Frank is also living the nightmare but he's a homunculus that doesn't require sleep any longer it seems, so he's just… living the best way he knows how: being the snarky neighbor without the added benefits of being charming.

There's something about the way Joe writes these characters that makes me think, “Ah yes, this person is very important to me.” And he manages to do that with every single character. Every interaction we hear makes me ache a bit. Frank speaks and I think about my stepsister, sarcastic but well-meaning. I listen to the great bond between Trinkett and Doug and I get homesick for my faraway friends. June provides comfort and hilarity, and I remember times when I needed someone like her, or times I was her. Where I was the one leading the weird adventure in the middle of nowhere, picking up the best stories to giggle about with friends.

QUESTION TIME:

• Is the Mungo still around or did Lucian Thunderstruck meld back into the ether?

• I'm sorry, does everyone just casually know Sesame Street lore? Am I missing something? 

• What's gonna hit first, the comet or the volcano? It's comet-cano season y'all.  

LISTICLES, BALMS FOR THE SOUL:

Song of the Episode:

Best line:

PRIVATE KENNEDY- Excuse me. Your full name?

JUNE- I’m sorry. C.R. Iptid.

PRIVATE KENNEDY- ... You’re clearly just spelling the word “Cryptid.”

JUNE- Well God forbid somebody have a funny name around here.

Most badass character of the episode: It’s a tie. On one hand, Verge on a rescue mission? Chef’s Kiss. On the otherhand, I still believe it would take a lot of theoretical skill to find a secret military base whilst drunk.

Cat(s) of the episode: My nieflings Goose and Otter

FANART, THE ONLY ART THAT’S COOL (PUN INTENDED)

Coffee-Fueled-Art.

So I got new gouache for Christmas and had to paint my boy in lazer colors again

www.tumblr.com/coffee-fueled-art/771416122233864192/so-i-got-new-gouache-for-christmas-and-had-to?source=share

Podcasts? Yes

WIP Ava appreciation day

www.tumblr.com/tados/770817637212110848/wip-ava-appreciation-day?source=share

hi ted hi ted hi ted hi ted hi t

www.tumblr.com/bricrowave/770417341778558976/hi-ted-hi-ted-hi-ted-hi-ted-hi-t?source=share

Finally, Announcements

Young Leif, Issue #1 coming in 2025!!!!!!!!

1. Young Leif Comic

   • That’s. Right. Written by Tom Moorman, the voice of Leif, and drawn by Awnrii, another one of the best Midnight Burger artists… You just KNOW this comic is going to be phenomenal. You can feel it in your bones. Young Leif, Issue #1 will arrive this year! Stay tuned to this newsletter for more previews and release dates!

2. Voicemail

   • We’re starting a public voicemail! Go to our public website, linked down below, and tell us about yourself. We’re in the business of meeting people, that’s the point of the diner. So sit, drink a cup of coffee and tell us what you’re up to.

3. Fangs Out merch

   • Designed by one of our favorite community artists, Ramsey Hong, WE’VE GOT NEW MERCH! AND IT’S SO GREAT!

Fangs. Out.

What’s Next?

Keep an eye out for January 14th and the release of “Chapter 42: Speedrun!” when the diner goes on a mad shopping spree for lost refugees. Then on January 31st will be Welcome to the Horizon Chapter 10: Phoenix, where we debate on the possibility of comets and going to the moon. Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen to both of those right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

What’s Poppin’ Thegronis?

I hope you enjoy/have enjoyed/are currently enjoying our newest episode “Chapter 41: The Malthusian Trap.” Here’s a link for you if you need it:

Spoilers ahead!!

Looks Like we Made It.

Y'know that feeling when all your carefully laid story threads finally come together and you're like "WAIT, IT ACTUALLY WORKED.” Well, that's exactly what happened in this episode. We've been juggling two major storylines all season - the sisters doing their sister things (rebelling/shooting things/telling the future), and our beloved diner being stuck on Earth (I USED TO LIVE IN SPACE). This episode is where everything finally comes together, and let me tell you, it's a relief! I submit into evidence, this page from my notebook:

A lot of the time in making the show I know what the big moments are, but the connective tissue between those moments I have to, sometimes, just trust is going to be there. It’s always a relief when I reach one of these moments, it’s like a rest stop on a very long trip.

Now that everyone is together in the same “boat” we’re going to start feeling a very quick capitulation towards the end of the season. We are in hostile territory now, and it’s going to take everyone working together to make it happen. Not to spoil things but, some fangs are going to have to come out.

We Stole a Barista.

As you recall from Chapter 40, Gloria went full-gloria and stole a barista. Fiona is her name and she is going through it, to put things lightly. There's something magical about throwing a completely normal person into the world of the show. She serves as our "fresh eyes" - someone experiencing everything for the first time. What's great with characters like Fiona is that they were just normal people (or at least they thought they were) until the diner came along, so we get to witness a very normal person put into very extraordinary circumstances. And I believe that when you put normal people in extraordinary circumstances, they then can become extraordinary people, and we're starting to see that now with Fiona. And speaking of new people…

Meet Alice!

Guess what? We've hit 1,500 subscribers to this newsletter! I honestly didn't see that coming, and while it's AMAZING, it's also made me realize I need some help keeping up with everything while making the show.

Enter: Alice.

Alice has been part of the Midnight Burger community since forever, and when they heard I was struggling to keep up with the newsletter, they appeared like a magical unicorn. From now on, you'll be getting a double feature: I'll chat about the episode and show stuff, then Alice will take it from there!

Alice is basically the best (ask them about their playlists, they seem to have one for every occasion), and we're super lucky to have them on board. SO, that’s enough from me, I'll hand the mic over to Alice...

Testing, Testing… 1, 2, 3…

Howdy folks,

This is your new favorite jack-of-all-trades, Alice Malice, here to make some color commentary, show off the best that fanart has to offer, and chat with my favorite fans in the multiverse.

So! Have you ever found yourself, as a weird test tube child, kidnapped by a diner and stranded on a planet where it is perpetually pre-Industrial Revolution? [If you or your test tube manufactured loved ones have been affected by a diner, you are probably entitled to a free Monte Cristo at best. Or a job waitressing.]

In this new episode we’re catching up with the diner on a strange new Cryptessian planet designated Malthusian Trap as they follow the trail of refugees. And guess what? IT’S A WHOLE GALAXY OF BRAINWASHED PODLINGS, WELCOME TO THE PARTY! Sci-fi cloning and podbabies are back in season kids!

But seriously, how darling is is our newly adopted Fiona? Threatening Gloria with cheese in the midst of leaving her 2012 themed pseudoclone-cult set up by a godlike entity from before the universe supposedly existed. You know, everyday activities. The youth are so varied and spritely these days, I can’t keep up.

Important Questions of the Episode:

• Is Leif the Keanu Reeves in this podperson-freedomfighter scenario? Or is this up for debate? Personally I vote Gloria. I can totally see her fistfighting Agent Smith.

• How does Joe Fisher know so much? As someone who consumes knowledge-based gameshows for fun, I need answers. I need to hoard more random facts.

• Who else would someday in the future like a detailed list of the bird sounds Joe uses and their accuracy?

• If the Benefactor is from before the universe, are there others like him? What is the point of saving the universe into a standstill, or back to what it was? Does he just think atoms are icky?

• Who else wants to be David with a gun, taking a selfie? Simultaneously, y’all are also worried about this man’s mental health now too right? I want to hug him.

• Lastly, did Caspar finish his crossword?

Listcles, the Most Fun Since I Was Banned From Playing Pursuit At Christmas For Arguing:

Best lines of the episode: “Well excuse the shit out of me tiny Gandalf” - Caspar

Song for the Episode: Wrung Out and Hanging (On West Coast Time) by the Distrcits

Panic level: 6 ½

Best performance: All of them, they’re all such great voice talents.

Cat of the episode: Callie, the cat who lives fulltime at my local wildlife bird store. She is 13. Also very grumpy with me for interrupting her nap and smelling like dog.

AND NOW… To Those Who Have Art-ed, We Salute You!

Captain_Knuckleduster

I started Welcome to the Horizon the other day and I am thriving off the amount of Eldin content so I gave him a body!

www.tumblr.com/captain-knuckleduster/767983020993052672/i-started-welcome-to-the-horizon-the-other-day-and?source=share

i ❤️ women in STEM

Regained my ability to draw after like almost a month and the first thing I had to do was nail down a Trinkett design. I loved the last episode of wtth her and Frank are actually so cute I will not l…

www.tumblr.com/lesbian-jack-barnabas/768347705474990080/regained-my-ability-to-draw-after-like-almost-a?source=share

OmniNaut

The best scene from the best episode of the best sci-fi podcast

www.tumblr.com/thepresentomni/769390015122964480/the-best-scene-from-the-best-episode-of-the-best?source=share

20.000 Bees in a Trenchcoat

We open at 6!!!

www.tumblr.com/mishoru/754341255362805760/we-open-at-6?source=share

What’s Next?

Mark your calendars for December 31st, when “Welcome to the Horizon Part 9: The Mountain” drops. June and Deidre decided to go on a bender and it goes… poorly. And then on January 14th please enjoy “Chapter 42: Speedrun!” when the diner goes on a mad shopping spree for lost refugees. Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen to both of those right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out!

Your support means the world to us. Be sure and stop by our website sometime to send us a message, leave us a voicemail, or shop for some merch!

We'll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe and Alice

What’s Poppin’ Thegronies?

First off, I want to acknowledge this is my third recommitment to maintaining a more regular newsletter schedule. Third time's the charm, right?

Today, “Welcome to the Horizon Part 8:The Green Man." was sent out to all of your feeds. This was one of those episodes I've been especially looking forward to writing, alongside "The Recluse" and "Back to the Black." It gave me a chance to really explore Frank and Trinket's relationship, which has become one of my favorite dynamics in the show.

Their relationship is fun to explore because it defies easy categorization. When we first meet them, you might call them enemies, but they've known each other for so long that their relationship has almost defaulted to friendship. They're part of each other's lives, whether they like it or not. Getting to dedicate an entire episode to exploring this weird dynamic was a lot of fun.

One of the great opportunities "Welcome to the Horizon" presents is the chance to blend a little magic and fantasy with science fiction. Trinket's character, in particular, has been instrumental in this. Just as Effie and Zebulon Mucklewain view sci-fi elements through their specific version of Christianity, Trinket interprets everything through her pagan lens.

This speaks to something central to all of Midnight Burger: our focus on primordial forces. Whether we're dealing with quantum physics, cooking for people, or religious beliefs, we're always trying to get back to the fundamental aspects of human experience. Trinket's paganism, being one of humanity's oldest traditions, fits perfectly into all of that.

(Here's a funny story about Trinket's morning mantra from Part 4: "As the earth holds me, as the sky sees me, as the sun rises within me, I step out to greet the day." I found this on a pagan subreddit and assumed it was some ancient traditional saying written on a goatskin a thousand years ago. To my surprise, I received an email from one of our subscribers who had written those very words on Reddit ten years ago! It was an incredible moment of synchronicity, and we've since added proper credit in the show notes. Wild, right?)

The End??

Many of you have asked about the future of "Welcome to the Horizon" as we approach the end of the mini-series. I understand the desire for more because I want more, please know that in the Midnight Burger universe, no story truly ends. But it’s only me out here writing Midnight Burger stories, and sadly until the Space Gods give me a room full of amazing writers, I can only focus on certain parts of our universe at any given time, but that doesn't mean we're abandoning anything.

You can see this in how we revisited Young Leif's world in "Welcome to the Triad," spending time with Verge, Bert Bert, and Dez. Our to-do list keeps growing: people want more of Bert Bert's journalism in the Triad, adventures with Christina the teleporting lawyer, and lots of other stories. I like to joke with Finlay that each new character we introduce ends up being the pilot episode for a new series. Each new story we tell deepens and broadens the entire Midnight Burger experience.

So while we might step away from Hood's Pocket for a minute, it's only to tend to other parts of our expanding universe, and I truly believe that expanding one story deepens your connection to all of them. Rest assured, I have no intention of permanently abandoning any of our characters. (Except Jane. Jane sucks, and we all agree on that.)

Who wants art?

The amazing Midnight Burger fan artists never rest! Let’s see what they’ve been up to…

Tiny Local Cryptid

Another piece I forgot to post, whoops! I've been crawling my way out of a really low spot, and podcasts have been a great help in keeping me out of my own head right now. One of my current favorites...

kelly-clickspring.tumblr.com/post/768007269846843392/another-piece-i-forgot-to-post-whoops-ive-been

_crow_

My verge design!! Save me midnight burger save me

www.tumblr.com/crowholdingaknife/767923409582702592/my-verge-design-save-me-midnight-burger-save-me

no idea

www.tumblr.com/why-the-hell-no/767601351982252032

welcome!

zebulon mucklewain, here with his wife effie

binarybitex.tumblr.com/post/767459963144634368/zebulon-mucklewain-here-with-his-wife-effie

local fauna

midnight burger hiiii

lananis.tumblr.com/post/767056319215697920/midnight-burger-hiiii

Midnight Burger where everything is the same but Caspar and Gloria have guns

www.tumblr.com/captain-knuckleduster/766905338919288832/midnight-burger-where-everything-is-the-same-but

under the deep blue sea

i seldom post any art on my tumblr since i mainly use it for reading fanfic and keep up with my more niche interests. But hey I made this fan animation for MB and thought it be cool to show you all!…

www.tumblr.com/unhingen/765067725566574592/i-seldom-post-any-art-on-my-tumblr-since-i-mainly

just a lil art blog

welcome to the triad!!!! (bertbert and verge designs heavily inspired by awnrii-)

cringe-but-freee.tumblr.com/post/762949244537667584/welcome-to-the-triad-bertbert-and-verge

daniel

what a day, huh? hi. redraw of this. alt vers below! no text and squares specially edited for my playlist cover I won’t even lie. I redrew it so I could update my bertleif spotify playlist. I do not...

awnrii.tumblr.com/post/762427082265575424/what-a-day-huh-hi-redraw-of-this-alt-vers

What’s Next?

Mark your calendars for December 17th, when Chapter 41: "The Malthusian Trap" drops. You'll finally get to see the diner crew and the sisters come together. Of course, our subscribers on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts can listen to it right now, along with other exclusive benefits, you should check it out!

Thank you all for continuing to support this weird little show of ours. We love and appreciate every single damn one of you.

We'll be out there somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe

---

Greetings, Party People.

Settle into your booth, grab a mug of coffee (but only if Gloria made it), and make yourself ready. As the kids like to say: we are so fucking back.

The Most Season Four in the History of Season Fours.

Mark your calendars (also, get a calendar) – Season 4 of Midnight Burger premieres on April 16th!

But remember…

By subscribing to Midnight Burger on Patreon, Supporting Cast, or Apple Podcasts, you can get the Season 4 premiere delivered straight into your existence tonight! That's right, a whole month before anyone else! Not only will you get early access to every episode this season (as well as other perks), but you'll also be directly supporting this indie audio drama and the crew who bring it to life. Every subscription counts, and helps us keep the doors open on this joint.

We’d Like to Thank the (Podcast) Academy!

We're ker-ploding with pride to announce that Midnight Burger has been nominated for an Ambie Award! The Ambies are the "Academy Awards" of podcasting (remember the rule: everything is the Academy Awards of something), recognizing excellence in audio storytelling.

Want to join us in celebrating this momentous occasion? Tune in to the livestream ceremony on March 26th at 6pm Pacific Time! Head over to The Podcast Academy YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@thepodcastacademy to witness the magic unfold AKA watch me make an idiot of myself on the red carpet. None of this would be possible without your unwavering support, by the way – a heartfelt thank you from the entire Midnight Burger crew!

Season 4: Rise of the Fan Artists!

Art cometh! This season, we're thrilled to showcase the incredible talent of our amazing fan artists. Each episode of Season 4 will be adorned with stunning artwork created by some of the most dedicated Midnight Burger supporters. This is our way of saying thank you for the countless illustrations, character designs, and other works of creative genius you've shared with us on Tumblr, Instagram or any of the five hundred twitters.

Here are some of the brilliant artists you can look forward to seeing:

Whisperdan:

Existentially Exhausted Bean:

Tomix:

Danny:

Ramsey Hong:

Dominik Frantisak:

And more!! We can't wait to introduce you to their work if you haven't encountered it yet!

Are YOU an artist of the “fan” variety? If you dream of seeing your work featured on an episode of Midnight Burger, we want to hear from you! Reach out on social media or send an email to weopenatsix@gmail.com with links to your “stuff”. We pay actual real money and everything.

And don’t forget about Hood’s Pocket!

Never forget that in addition to our main show we will also be bringing you back up the mountain! Get ready to revisit the charming (it is not charming) town (it is a town) of Hood's Pocket, Oregon! Alongside the main Season 4 arc, we'll be rolling out "Welcome to the Horizon." This will see us reconnect with special favorites Frank and June as their tiny town on Mt. Hood starts to get real real weird, and who knows who else might blow into town (EYES EMOJI)? We’ll see you at the Sheep’s Eye Roadhouse! Do not order the lobster!

A Heartfelt Thank You

Okay but seriously, from the bottom of our supermassive black hole hearts, thank you for being a part of the Midnight Burger family. Your willingness to get weird with it fuel our passion for creating these adventures. We can't wait to embark on this journey of Season 4 together.

LET’S GO!

We're out there, somewhere, lookin' for ya'.

-Joe

A megalink for all of our things.

Hello there!

How’s the New Year coming along? Ours is very busy. Though we’re currently on hiatus we are also knee deep in Hiatusfest and having a grand old time on our subscriber feeds. I’m not sure who created the idea that a hiatus meant you got to relax, but I would definitely like a word with them.

In the midst of all our hiatus-ing, I wanted to send everyone a quick note to announce something new! As you all know, last season we had a fantastic time bringing you “Young Leif”, our first mini-series within the Midnight Burger universe. It was a great experience to be able to expand the world of the diner, and it we wanted to keep that idea going in Season 4, so I’m happy to announce to you today, our new mini-series coming this spring!

In Season 3 we met Frank and June, two cousins running a small motel on Mt. Hood in the weird old town of Hood’s Pocket. When Frank and June encountered Clementine, things got very very weird, and now that Clementine and the diner have moved on… the weirdness has not stopped.

We’re very excited to expand on this weird little town we touched on in Season 3, and we are THRILLED to bring back Ben and Melody to the show, two actors that we simply did not have enough time with in Season 3. We also can’t wait for you to meet the other residents of Hood’s Pocket: Edgy Steve, Flat Doug, Weird Celeste, and more! And who knows? Maybe a familiar face will blow through town sometime (EYES EMOJI).

We’re even going to have some original music. Last season, we were thrilled to bring you the music of our dear friends Freescha and this season we’ve got new music composed by our very own Ian Ferguson (Terric of York?!?). Have a listen to the theme music:

It’s so great, right?

Okay, that’s all from me. Back to writing and hiatus-ing!

We’ll see you in the Spring!

-Joe

The Midnight Burger Uber-link of All the Things!

On November 14th in the year 1680, German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovered the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope. This year on November 14th something much more important will happen: the Season 3 finale of Midnight Burger.

Before we go any further, here is your two step guide to surviving the Midnight Burger Season 3 Finale:

Step 1:

Are you caught up on Young Leif? Well… You’re a free human being and you can do what you like with your life BUT we HIGHLY recommend that you be fully caught up on Young Leif before going in to the Season 3 finale. But that’s just us, what do we know?

Step 2:

The season finale is three hours long, y’all. It’s a doozy. So do whatever you need to do to make it to the end. Make sure you have snacks, hydrate, maybe go with a buddy, and don’t forget that Space Jesus gave you a pause button for a reason.

And then it’s onward to Season 4!

But Before Next Season Feel Free and Join us For:

If you’re subscribed on Apple Podcasts or at the five dollar level on either Supporting Cast or on Patreon you will be getting the full effect of Hiatusfest ‘23-’24, with all sorts of fun events as you can see above. The hiatus is when the party starts here at Midnight Burger (mainly because we are so thrilled that we somehow made it through another season), so if you’d like even more Burgertime after you enjoy the finale, please join us!

Fan Art Roundup!

Check your watch, it’s art o’clock.

Kintmeapainting is back and has returned to their tiny painting excellence:

Sillystringedrat brings us an homage to the moms:

Quisters brings us a delightful Chapter 31 comic:

Another Smol Ava from Tados!

Spacetravels gives us a sort of Saturday-morning-cartoon-for-adults-vibe:

Everything-on-planet-Earth takes us all the way back to Brownie’s Creek:

And finally Whisperdan has returned with Clementine and Terric and… (checks notes)… sex.

Midnight Playlist: Tamara Oliver, Mall Cop

Let’s hear some music! If you’re on our subscriber discord you have definitely met Alice Malice. Alice is the greatest, and their body consists of 90% playlists. Today we bring you their homage to Mall Cop turned Billionaire Tamara!

We’re Almost There!

You’ve come a long way with us this season and you’re almost there. We can’t thank you enough for joining us on this wild ride and we hope you’ll join us again next season for more antics.

Here is your uberlink for all of the things.

We love you!

See you at the finale!

-Joe

(Hey! We’ve got about 300 subscribers to this newsletter! It wasn’t a stupid idea!)

Welcome back everyone! This month we were treated to what was, apparently, the most truck-like of Midnight Burger episodes:

This club had everything: Jailbreaks, standoffs, pranks, Music Man jokes, helicopters, immortality. It was a joy to make this episode and it was so much fun to see the chaos hit everyone in real time.

It's so gratifying to know that y’all are up for both slow character study episodes like Stella Splendens and rollicking, farcical capers like the nonsense we just put out. We love being able to play in different genres and tell different kinds of stories, and it's so rewarding to know that our listeners are with us for the ride.

If you’ll excuse the writer-y, process-y bullshit for a minute, we wouldn’t be able to do one without the other. The character study episodes allow us to explore the inner lives of our characters and develop their relationships with each other. The farcical caper episodes allow us to have fun and let loose. But both types of episodes are essential to what makes Midnight Burger what it is. We couldn’t do an entire season of episodes like Stella Splendens, nor could we do ten “Fangs Out” in a row. You have to always be playing salt/fat/acid/heat with your story or you end up with a big ball of nothing.

We're so grateful to y’all for being open to both types of episodes. It means that we can be more creative and tell the stories that we want to tell. We're also grateful for the opportunity to explore different genres and tell different kinds of stories. It’s always a gift.

Fan Art Round-Up!

Art? In this economy?

Tumblr user Wall-e-gorl treated us to a crossover between the diner and RPG podcast Unprepared Casters:

Todos gave us this Ava:

And then THIS Ava:

Eleri Celery went full body horror with this portrait of Terric and Clementine:

Blucroc29 gave us some nice Caspar vs. Ted art:

Spacetravels really broke our hearts with their take on Terric/Clementine:

And, of course Whisperdann came in and turned all the dials to “sexy.’

If I posted them all this would be an email longer than a roll of toilet paper, so be sure and stay updated on our fan art pinterest board.

A New Way to Subscribe With Supporting Cast

Supporting a podcast with a premium subscription is way more of a pain in the ass than it should be. Will it ever be perfect? Will anything? In our search for something simpler than Patreon and less restrictive that Apple Podcasts, we’ve started up a partnership with Supporting Cast, a company that we think has created the dead-simplest process for subscribing to a podcast. If you’d like to subscribe to the show but don’t feel like dealing with the complications of Patreon and don’t want to be forced to use the Apple Podcasts app, you can now go to our Supporting Cast page and you should be able to subscribe to the show in just a few clicks. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes on any of the links on our Linktree page.

Cue the Music!

Today’s exhaustive playlist comes from supporter Aaron, who attempted to make our usually-analog soundtrack as digital as possible. So many bangers within…

The End is Not Near, Just More Near than Yesterday

We are careening toward the end of the season at this point, with only two episodes to go before we begin “Hiatus-Fest 2023/24”. All the scripts have been written and our final recording sessions are beginning to happen in every time zone in America as well as one overseas. Thank you all so much for reading this newsletter and for listening to the show. We feel like we’ve lived ten lifetimes in one season and every one of those lifetimes was a life well lived. I’ll see you again after Chapter 31 where things get… weird.

We’re out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe

Hello Everyone,

Hitting your feed on Tuesday will be the last episode of Young Leif. We're a bit sad, honestly. It was that all-too-familiar feeling of something ending right when you really figured out how to do it. This was our first (though probably not our last) attempt at telling a story in the world of Midnight Burger without the diner being the focus and, for me at least, it was a wonderful experience.

It was also our first time reaching entirely outside our core group of actors. Midnight Burger began with me reaching out to old friends of mine and Young Leif was much more about reaching out to this new community of audio drama creators that we had become a part of. A lot of the cast members of Young Leif are actually audio drama creators themselves. Evan Gulock (Leif) is the co-creator of Death by Dying, Lauren Grace Thompson (BertBert) is the co-creator of Faux & Stallion, Cat Blackard (Verge) is the creator of The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program, and Mark Healy (Darren) is the creator of The Strata. The casts’ contribution to Young Leif, from Evan’s vibe to Lauren’s comic timing, to Cat’s alluring and dangerous “Themme Fatale”, to Neal Starbird’s hilarious take on “Dez”, to Finlay’s trash talking Alice, the show truly became greater than the sum of its parts and I can’t thank them all enough.

Danny

One of the distinct joys of making Midnight Burger has been the ocean of fan art that is being created by the community. Creating fan art is not just a fun thing for us to see as we work hard on the show, it’s a tool for building community. Sharing fan art fosters connections with like-minded people and builds a sense of belonging within a community. It's a way to celebrate fandom, interpret characters and settings the way you see them, and find escape in creation. Fan art is a channel for personal expression, inspiration, and the joy of contributing to a shared love for that weird thing that you’re weirdly into. A great example of this during Young Leif has been Danny, whose art you’ve been seeing in many of these newsletters, including this one. Danny found infinite inspiration in Leif and I think we all benefitted from it.

We’re blessed to have so many people making so much amazing art, but here at the end of Young Leif we wanted to send out a special thank you to Danny, who brought so much color to the world of Leif. Here’s a fun animatic Danny delighted our subscriber Discord with the other day:

Our Dear Friends Freescha

A big part of the feel of Young Leif was the music of our dear friends Freescha. I’ve always considered myself a misanthropic person, and yet a big part of the success of Young Leif and Midnight Burger has been the fact that I somehow know a lot of very talented people. Freescha just happens to be Nick and Mike, two people I went to high school with, and when I began putting Young Leif together I knew I was going to have to write that begging email trying to get them to let me use their music, because it was just too damn perfect. If you haven’t checked them out yet and are in need of some weird space feels, do check them out. Embedded below is the album of theirs that I used throughout Young Leif, but there’s much more to explore from Freescha.

The Non-Goodbye Goodbye.

So, what happens next? We’ve met a lot of interesting supporting characters through our three seasons of Midnight Burger, which ones would you like to see us build a mini-series around? Let me know by commenting on this email, yelling at us on some sort of social media platform or emailing us directly at weopenatsix@gmail.com. Every time the diner touches down it finds itself in a potential mini-series, so there a LOT to choose from.

Calling this a "goodbye" feels a bit too final to me. We're certainly not done with the character of Leif in the twisting and turning story of Midnight Burger, and I would be surprised if we didn't see BertBert, Verge, and the rest again somehow. But for now, this is goodbye. Thanks for being supportive of this new direction in the world that we're creating, and as always, thank you all for your amazing support.

Final episode tomorrow! We hope you like it.

We're out there, somewhere, lookin' for ya'.

-Joe

Try the mega-link for subscriptions, merchandise, social links, and more!

In our most recent episode, we took a bit of a detour. In the aftermath of Leif vs. Clementine, we slammed on the brakes of the forward action of the story and we suddenly found ourselves in medieval Jerusalem. Clementine, our mysterious, chaotic, sometimes demonic antagonist, was revealed to be not much different from you or I. In the beginning at least, she was just a confused person trying to figure things out, grabbing on to anything that feels good. Aren’t we all?

Even though this was an important step in the development of Clementine’s character, it was a considerable departure from what we normally do in the show, and I was worried that people just weren’t going to go for it. It’s really warmed our hearts over the past week to hear back from so many of you that you enjoyed this little detour we took.

When you’re creating something, assigning it to a genre can sometimes be frustrating and limiting. We’re currently sitting somewhere in the top ten of Apple Podcasts “Comedy Fiction” chart, but if you had never listened to the show before and had only heard this past episode, it would be a head-scratching moment for you. When you’re branded a comedy, it creates expectations, and expectations are (ask any Buddhist) a form of suffering. This is another one of the joys of creating something independently. If I had to approach some sort of “boss” and pitch to them that I wanted our next episode to be a dramatic, three-person, no core characters, tragic love story in medieval Jerusalem, it may have raised alarm bells and you may have never heard the episode and I would have spent the rest of my life wondering what it would’ve been like to write it. Being able to do whatever we want with the show has made all the pain and suffering involved in independent producing completely bearable.

The Non-Speaking Supporting Cast

In addition to Clementine, Terric, and Yosef, there were a couple of other characters at work in this episode. The first is the city of Jerusalem itself. I suppose I felt that Clementine, a confused and powerful person, deserves a city that is also powerful and confused.

Since its founding, Jerusalem has seen a wide array of forces try and exert control over its destiny. It served as the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and Judah before experiencing rule under the Babylonian and Persian empires. Then came Alexander the Great and then the Romans. It alternated between Christian Crusader states and Islamic powers during the Crusades, followed by a stretch of Ottoman rule lasting for centuries. British control arrived with the mandate era, only to give way to the establishment of modern Israel in 1948. Jerusalem's division between Israel and Jordan ended with Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in 1967. Few cities in the world have been tossed around like Jerusalem, with each group that controlled it changing it just a little bit and also changing themselves in the process. That culturally chaotic place seemed to be the perfect place for Clementine to touch down in and get in touch with her own chaos.

Another, maybe more subtle, character in the episode was this dude:

I went a little crazy in this episode when it came to bird sounds. Every bird you hear in the episode I made sure was a native of the area in and around Jerusalem, not the least of which was the Eurasian Hoopoe. You can hear its odd and ghostly “triple hoot” song in key moments of the episode, and became a way of signaling Clementine’s knowledge of who she truly is growing closer and closer wether she likes it or not.

The Hoopoe is the national bird of Israel and can be spotted throughout all kinds of religious iconography in the city. King Solomon apparently would speak to Hoopoes and give them messages to deliver to far off lands. When the Queen of Sheba was invited by King Solomon to Jerusalem, the message was delivered by a talking Hoopoe.

Thank you again for listening and supporting the show, even when we do things that are a bit outside of the norm. It was a wonderful experience making this episode and thank you to Ian Ferguson, Tomi Zanshtein, and Lauren LeBlanc for turning in such great performances.

(Psst. This email may get cut off by your email client. At the bottom click “view full message” to make sure you get the whole thing.)

Fan Art Roundup!

The fans, they are arting. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Over on Tumblr we have tiny things! Tiny Joyful Art has been making some very tiny paintings inspired by the show. See if you can tell which episode each of them are from.

We would say Whisperdann is back but Whisperdann has never left! Here is Leif having a good old fashioned phone-gab.

Here is Fan Art Roundup newcomer Quisters with fantastic takes on Gloria, Ava, Ted, and Caspar.

And finally: Ramsey is back! (Ramseyprojekt on Insta.) Continuing his Diner Polaroid series with this one from Chapter 22.

Up Next: We Say Goodbye to the Young Man.

Coming up on the 29th of this month we will, oh so sadly, be saying goodbye to our beloved miniseries Young Leif with our final episode “Exit Interview”. Young Leif was our first attempt at telling a story in the Midnight Burger world that did not center around the diner itself. The characters were different, the music was different, the “viiiiiibe” was different. Not unlike our most recent episode, we weren’t really sure what the reaction would be to something like this, but everyone has been really loving it and we are very proud of what we put together. We hope you enjoy the final episode and we are so grateful to our amazing cast that brought the story to life in such an indelible way.

New Newsletter Feature: Playlists and Songs!

Over on our subscriber discord we have an entire section devoted to songs and playlists so I thought I would start including them in the Burger Letter. We’ll kick it off with Alice Malice and their Clementine-inspired playlist:

And Speaking of Subscribers…

You can subscribe, buy us a coffee, buy some merch, or find us on all the socials at this one monster mega link!

(More ways to subscribe coming soon if you’re not a Patreon or Apple person.)

And Finally: YouTube?

We’re not sure how YouTube is going to factor into the world of Midnight Burger but we do know that the more people who subscribe to our YouTube channel, the more useful the channel could be for us, so if you wouldn’t mind, please head over to our channel and subscribe, if nothing else you can hear Ava playing Poisoning Pigeons in the Park without having to fire up the whole episode. Thanks!

Thanks once again for subscribing to our newsletter! Just remember we’re out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya!

-Joe

Hello and welcome once again to the Midnight Burger Newsletter. How are things? We just posted “Chapter 28: Pockets”, AKA the episode that nearly killed me and now, since it didn’t kill me, I feel invincible. This is a temporary feeling, I’m sure. But for now, I am impervious. Hurl sharp objects at me.

The Scientist vs. The Mad God

In our most recent episode we saw Leif, the slayer of John Wilkes Booth, go up against the pure chaos of Clementine. It was a doozy. When I say this episode almost killed me, what I mean to say is, it was the first time I had written a bunch of things into a script that I had absolutely no idea how to pull of in the sound design. It was a leap into the darkness for me, and perhaps something I won’t make a habit of, but at least this time it all worked out fine.

In the midst of all the nonsense of any episode there is usually an “actual science thing”. This time around it was the irresistibly named Maxwell’s Demon.

As Ava describes, Maxwell's Demon is a thought experiment in physics that was proposed by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. The experiment challenges the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase over time. In the thought experiment, a "demon" is envisioned that has the ability to sort fast-moving and slow-moving molecules in a gas. By opening and closing a tiny door, the demon selectively allows only fast-moving molecules to pass into one chamber and slow-moving ones into another, creating a temperature difference without expending energy. This seemingly violates the second law of thermodynamics, as it suggests the creation of a temperature gradient without any work being done. The paradox highlights the deep relationship between information, entropy, and energy in physical systems.

That’s a lot. When you’re talking about the sciences to an audience of (mostly) non-scientists, the challenge is always to talk about them in a way that doesn’t alienate or outright bore anyone listening. The key for me is always in the relationship between “the thing” and “the spirit of the thing”. “The thing” is the complicated thought experiment of Maxwell’s Demon and “the spirit of the thing” is what the thought experiment implies: the question of wether or not we can, with our considerable intellect, somehow outsmart the laws of physics. And after about 150 years of doing battle with Maxwell’s Demon, the answer seems to be no. No matter how powerful you think you are, you can never overpower the world that created you, even if you’re Clementine.

We’ve got a ways to go with Clementine, and we’ll see if she can come to terms with the harsh reality that we are all, despite all we can do and all we can achieve, powerless in the end.

Fan Art Round Up!

Who’s arting it up out there? It’s Whisperdan! Let’s see…

Whisperdan was on a tear this last month, continuing their quest to make everyone on the show sexy. Here’s Leif and Caspar at the Orange Julius in Chapter 22.

Here are Caspar and Leif again in Chapter 24 pondering the “Orgy Question”.

A tender moment between Leif and Gloria.

A raspberry across space and time from Chapter 27.

And then this epic “the girls” moment really nailed me.

I know not why Whisperdan has become obsessed with the show, but I will definitely not be looking the gift-artist in the mouth anytime soon. Keep them coming!

Up Next: Home for the Holidays

Keep your eyes on your feed on the 1st of August when Leif goes to worst spot in three galaxies: home. Leif is about to begin his life as a pirate and it’s time to wrap up some old family business.

or…

You can always subscribe! If you’d like to hear the next episode of Midnight Burger or the final TWO episodes of Young Leif, you can now for only two dollars a month over at patreon.com/midnightburger. In addition to early access and ad free shows you can also mess around on our subscriber discord and in the upper tiers of membership get free merch, listen to our “show about our show” Shift Notes, or join the irresponsibly long list of names you hear at the end of every episode. If you’d like a perk or two and would like to digitally hang out with people who will get your Midnight Burger inside jokes, please join us.

A reminder!

Remember that Season 3 will be two episodes longer than our previous seasons with the final episode being chapter 32. (32?!?!? That’s so many?!?!?)

That’s all for now. Making this show for you all is a dream. We have no plans on waking up from it.

We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe

What’s poppin’ Thegronis!?

We have some crazy bananas news to share with you all. Our podcast has surpassed a crazy bananas milestone:

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering support, for tuning in, and for being a vital part of our journey. Your enthusiasm and dedication have played an instrumental role in bringing us to this crazy bananas number. We can’t believe it!

Into the Woods

We hope you're enjoying/weirded out by our latest episode, "Chapter 27: Weird Night at the Sheep's Eye." It was a lot of fun for us to check back in with Frank and June and delve a little further into the weird little town of Hood’s Pocket, Oregon.

Oregon holds a special place in my heart, as it is where the majority of the Midnight Burger cast members first came together back when we were teeny tiny babies. Having lived there in the past, we all experienced firsthand the uniqueness of rural Oregon. It's an unusual blend of deeply conservative people, societal dropouts, back-to-the-land farmers, and rich people pretending that they’re roughing it. Oregon gets weird in a way that other states just don’t and that made it a fitting backdrop for our perennially bizarre narrative.

Fan Art Roundup!

Who arted??

Over on our subscriber discord it’s always fun when a new artist shows up and dumps out their kit bag in the art channel. This time around it’s our patron Trick Wants Treats:

Bluecroc29 on Tumblr give us a scene from The Ex confronting Caspar as a lionfish as referenced in Chapter 13:

Cloverjester on tumblr gave us a fun interpretation of the Young Leif Cast:

Whisperdandraws on Tumblr continued to keep it sexy with both Leif:

And Clementine:

And finally, for pride month, the always-leif-obsessed Danny (awnrii on Tumblr) gives us Leif Pride Icons:

Such amazing stuff!

Up Next: Consequences?!

Mark your calendars for the 27th of June! We will be releasing the next installment of "Young Leif," where our beloved protagonist finds himself in a world of trouble AKA a casino. Leif may have to go toe to toe with his oldest enemy: consequences. You won't want to miss it!

A Reminder:

If you didn’t hear the news, this season will be extended to 12 episodes instead of our usual ten. Why did we do this? Because we do what we want! This season will conclude with "Chapter 32.”

Another Reminder:

If you are simply dying to know what happens next in the story, Chapter 28 is available RIGHT NOW for subscribers. You can get early access, ad free episodes on our Patreon and in the upper tiers can get free merch, access to our other hit show Shift Notes, and even get your name read at the end of each episode or even get name-dropped IN an episode. All tiers also get access to the nicest place on the internet, The Midnight Server discord server. Come on by!

Subscriber or not, thank you once again for your incredible support, and we can't wait to continue this wild journey with you.

We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’,

-Joe

What’s Poppin’ Thegronis?!

We hope you enjoyed our latest episode, "Chapter 26: Brunch." It was (once again!) our biggest first-day downloads in our whole damn history. So, for those of you who posted “So great that I listened to it again!”, you did it! It was so great for us to delve back into the deep freeze and reconnect with Gloria's wolves. We miss them so much all the time.

In this episode, we took our time exploring the concept of brunch. I wanted to dip our toe in the brunch world because Brunch is terrible, and it is also wonderful. As a former bartender who has worked many a Brunch shift, it’s terrible. As a fan of breakfast who loves to see breakfast, in all it’s glory, splayed out across several steamer trays, it’s wonderful. Anthony Bourdain once said Brunch was a "horrible, cynical way of unloading leftovers and charging three times as much as you ordinarily charge for breakfast”, and that hollandaise was “a veritable petri-dish of biohazards”. But what I think Anthony didn’t realize is that we all know this about Brunch, we all accept this about Brunch. In America we Brunch fervently, we Brunch hard, we embrace Brunch despite it’s many flaws, as we do with most things. But it cannot be denied that there are two separate groups of feelings about Brunch divided between those who have to work Brunch and those who like to “werk” Brunch.

But this episode was not just about the trauma of having to clean out the steamer trays at the end of the shift, it was also about good old fashioned have-you-read-my-memoir-trauma. But this time, in contrast to season 2 where we had several revelations of characters living in their trauma, we attempted to do something else. It was time to move past it. A while back I read Parul Sehgal's New Yorker article "The Case Against the Trauma Plot." and it really stuck with me. In her essay she argues a for broader range of narratives that move beyond trauma, encouraging authors to delve into the complexities of human experiences and emotions. She advocates for a shift towards stories that embrace joy, love, and the ordinary moments of life, arguing that these aspects are equally important for understanding the human condition. This idea encouraged me to explore alternative narratives and delve deeper into the complexities of the characters. It’s important to talk about the things we’ve been through, but let’s never forget the important next step of moving past it, and experiencing joy despite it.

Fan Art Round Up

I have completely lost the ability to keep up on all the amazing fan art that’s out there on so many platforms but I’ll give it a shot anyway.

Whisperdan will not rest until he has made every character in the show hot-lava-sexy. Here’s Ava:

Despite Clementine being our villain this season, spacetravels is doing their best to find her humanity:

The Illustrative Interloper opens up their notebook to give us some strong Don Bluth vibes:

But let’s talk about Danny. He is obsessed with Leif. Just can’t get enough of him. It’s all Leif all the time in his head:

That is until he draws the diner staff as ponies…

Here’s his take on Verge:

But this recasting of Blade Runner 2049 with Leif in BertBert might be my personal favorite…

Chef’s kiss.

A Show About our Show

For those of you out there wandering in the non-subscriber wilderness, you may not know about Shift Notes. It’s a show about our show! Shift Notes is available for everyone on the 5 dollar level on our Patreon and it basically consists of Finlay and Myself and the occasional guest doing a deep dive on every episode… or at least we try to. Here’s a trailer:

We have a grand old time on Shift Notes and hope you can join us if you haven’t already. As you can tell from the trailer, the true stars of the show are the tangents…Oh, so many tangents.

Up Next: Young Leif vs. The Science Priests!

On May 30th, be sure and check your feed because there’s trouble on Moog!

What kind of trouble will our young weirdo get into THIS time, I wonder?

Thank you for reading this newsletter, and thank you for listening to the show. We couldn’t do this without you.

We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe

Hello there!

Chapter 16 “Polaroid” by @ramseyprojekt on Insta.

Our deepest apologies for falling down on the job with the newslettering. Things kept happening. Things like:

• Co-producer Finlay had to move to Los Angeles to finally live with me. Midnight Burger is now under one roof (if you overlook all the cast members who are under several roofs across America, the U.K., and Israel) !

• Producing the show and a whole damn miniseries side-by-side.

• And also…

Season Three is now 12 Episodes Long.

If you haven’t caught the news then now you have. Season 3 will now be our biggest, baddest season ever with 12 episodes instead of the 10 episode norm we established with season 1 and 2.

Why?

Short answer: because we wanted to.

Long answer:

Some (most?) audio dramas will take a long hiatus, plan everything out, produce their episodes and then roll the episodes out over a period of a few short weeks. Some would call this a “responsible” or “professional” way of doing things. Sadly, those people are right. We, however, do not do things that way. While I am editing a show, I am also recording the next show and while I am recording the next show I am writing the one that comes after that. It’s a lot of spinning plates in the air at once. It’s a constantly evolving process that, over the course of three seasons, has gone from “hot mess” to “more organized hot mess”. Because we do things this way, seasons and storylines have an opportunity to change and grow organically, and even though we are always running the risk of things going off the rails completely, I’ve come to like it this way. Like the diner, we are always moving and changing, and always a little bit chaotic.

In this constantly evolving process, things change. And after freaking out for about 48 hours and Finlay constantly assuring me that things were going to be okay, we decided that the only way to do everything we wanted to do this season was to make it bigger. In this case the structure shouldn’t dictate the story. In this case, we tell the story until the story is done being told. So, with that, Season 3 of Midnight Burger will now end with Chapter 32 instead of Chapter 30. We hope you are as excited about these new episodes as we are.

And Speaking of People Being Excited…

Chapter 25: Your Mom, premiered on the public feed on Tuesday and it was the biggest single-day download number in the history of the show. We are thrilled so many of you are out there enjoying it. We had a blast making it. I wish you could’ve all been on the zoom call with us the very first time Neal launched into his characterization of The Disco Funkslinger. The amount of laughter left on the cutting room floor was about as long as the episode itself.

The big numbers you all gave us for Chapter 25 was a very potent reminder of what a gift it is to have the opportunity to make this show. Sometimes we can’t believe it’s real, and we’re so glad you’re all here with us on the journey.

Up Next: Our Young Dude Takes a Trip to Sigius.

If you’re on the public feed, check back with us on May 2nd for Young Leif Part 5, where Leif takes a little trip to BertBert’s home planet, Sigius. Leif, young agent of chaos that he is, comes face to face with a prosperous and organized society, and has to confront his own personal Kryptonite: responsibility.

Of Course You Don’t HAVE to Wait Until Then…

You can always SUBSCRIBE. Over on our Patreon you can listen to Part 5 AND 6 of Young Leif right now OR see what happens in Chapter 26! And at the 5 dollar level and above there are 2 seasons of our hiatus show “Shift Notes” sitting there waiting just for you. And if that’s still not enough show for you, you can head to our subscriber-only discord server and hang out with a fun group of people who will all understand your Midnight Burger inside jokes. If you haven’t joined us already, we’d love to see you there.

And Finally, NEW LOGO!

Our new logo is here courtesy of the amazing Jan Ma! You can see Jan’s work on our website as well as our gift shop and now we have completed the circle by having her design our logo. Isn’t it great??

Okay, back to work for me. Thank you, once again, for joining us on this crazy journey. We love making the show, and we love that you love it too.

We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-joe

Damn.

I have to admit, if I had known these milestone were going to come at us so fast I maybe would’ve waited for the bigger ones, but it’s too late now, I am a slave to the announcements.

About two years ago I drew this in a blank notebook:

That one page took over my entire life.

I used to say I only made three good decisions in my life: my son, my girlfriend, and gardening. Now that list is up to four. I can’t thank all of you enough for all the support and love that you’ve brought to the show. It’s been a dream come true and every day becomes more surreal than the last.

And now here we are careening toward the end of Season two, bringing all of you along with us. As it should be.

New Official Artwork!

If you’ve been to our website or socials you’ve probably noticed that the joint has been classed up by new art work. For a while now Jan Ma has been making incredible audiodrama-inspired artwork and when she created THIS amazing stuff we just had to get Instagram Official with her. If you would like to purchase some (or way too much like we did) merch with Jan’s amazing art, it’s now up in the Midnight Merch store and it is looking fabulous.

The TikTokers Have Arrived

I suppose it’s inevitable for anything that’s popular for it to arrive on TikTok in one form or another. Some intrepid cosplayers have begun to do a sort-of performance art inspired by the characters of the diner and it is really weird and great. Here are some highlights:

First up is townes.or.something with their rendition of Zebulon:

Here’s r_c0splay who has grabbed onto Ava’s vibe and will not be shook off:

Then wanderlustraven likes to move past playing a character and use random clips to comment on the show at large:

It’s very fun stuff and we love them all.

Fan Art Round Up

One of our beloved patrons and tattoo artist Existentially Exhausted Bean made some really great show-inspired stickers that we’re loving and an adorable take on a young Effie and Zebulon:

Twitter tweet

Twitter tweet

Here’s fin once again with a hilarious take on Chapter 17 and 18:

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Twitter tweet

Robyn gave life to Caspar and The Ex again:

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Here’s whisperdann bringing WAY more sexy to the show than we deserve:

Twitter tweet

Twitter tweet

Twitter tweet

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And then whisperdann decided to blow up the internet with THIS:

Twitter tweet

WE THINK YES!

AMAZING.

One Last Push to the End (of Season Two)

For me it seems like a 10 years ago that I wrote Dru’s opening monologue in Chapter 11. Since then the show has exploded, we joined a network, and we got to meet all of our wonderful subscribers. You never know how things are going to play out when you launch yourself into a project like this. The last thing I expected was for it to go exactly the way I wanted it to: telling the story I want to tell, however I want to tell it, and telling it to wonderful people like all of you.

I hope everyone enjoys the Season Finale on Monday. Stay tuned to this newsletter and our socials for things to look out for during the hiatus and for announcements on our new season coming this Fall.

We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.

-Joe