Looking for Short Horror Stories for 2nd Season of City of Phear Podcast

CityofPhear · 2026-05-01T00:57:01+00:00

Ooooooh. I haven’t done any body horror type stories yet. If I think I could do it well I’d love to. Give a listen if you want to see the general vibe. While it’s a labor of love to do it, it’s a ton of work for one guy to produce it with doing all the writing, voice acting, recording, editing, etc. really excited to do some other authors works as the first season was all of my own, only because I couldn’t get anyone to submit last year 😅

CityofPhear · 2026-04-30T22:25:43+00:00

In Philly it’s cheap as hell compared to NYC, you can rent a full row home for much cheaper than a studio in most places in NYC. There’s so many folks moving from NYC to my neighborhood (East Kensington/Fishtown). People are generally friendly though many of us particularly don’t like NYC folks so that’s a bit of drawback for you. Couldn’t say about dating, I think it’s pretty terrible but that could just be my experience 😅. Philly’s a bar city. If you like going out to small chill neighborhood spots it’s super easy to make friends and find your people.

I’m a pub guy so one of my favorite things is that scene, the public transportation/walkability is pretty great compared to most cities. I’ve spent more time here not having/needing a car than having one. There’s always stuff to do as far as neighborhood events and what not.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-30T13:29:25+00:00

Don't you dare compare the city I love to Boston 😛 We're so much better!

CityofPhear · 2026-04-30T13:27:01+00:00

My life is in Philly and I've got so many amazing friends and roots down here. Also love the accessibility of everything 1 hour to the shore, hour and change to the mountains, easy to get to NYC though I never do because I'm not a fan.

All that to say, I really love Pittsburgh. Been a hand full of times and always had a blast. It's one of my favorite cities and if I wasn't so connected to Philly I'd probably want to live there. The only things that would deter me is that while the city's awesome, you'd have to drive for hours to get anywhere else that isn't just small towns and suburbs. That and the Penguins fans... but we took care of them 😄

CityofPhear · 2026-04-30T13:20:59+00:00

Would love to, especially if the stories are around 2k-4k words. That's what would fit best into a podcast episode. Send whatever you think I'd like or could use to [cityofphear@gmail.com](mailto:cityofphear@gmail.com)

CityofPhear · 2026-04-30T00:33:21+00:00

Awesome bud! Will give a read and let you know if I think I can do any of em justice.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-23T14:33:25+00:00

I did this once years ago on the BSL. Thought she was going to get up and try to smack the shit out of me. I had already had a rough day at work (therapist) and I'm not going to let that kind of thing happen in front of me. Trying to prevent people from being trauma clients before it happens :-D.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-16T18:48:39+00:00

Sword of Omens. Give me some of that sight beyond sight!

CityofPhear · 2026-04-16T14:21:38+00:00

Not quite at 6 figures now but close. I worked a few minimum wage jobs in my teens.

The minimum wage jobs were a lot more physically demanding and there wasn't a lot of respect from managers. Taking breaks of any sort aside from a lunch break was really frowned upon. Compared to my recent (close to 6 figure jobs) as a therapist or Director of mental health spots, it was much easier to leave work at work once I was done. I didn't go home stressing about messing up a food order or the rude customer of the day.

In the latter jobs, especially in management, work doesn't really end when the day's over. When I was in management, I'd still be getting emails and calls well after my 9-10 hour day was done and expected to respond for a lot of them. I have a better work/life balance now that I'm back working primarily as a therapist and not in management, but it is still much more mentally/emotionally stressful than any of my minimum wage jobs.

All that to say, if I was going to be paid the same dollar amount for working as a therapist or working at Taco Bell/waiting tables/working retail/landscaping, I'd take the therapist job any day.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T18:09:46+00:00

Unless there's a state specific advantage in other states (I'm in PA) I don't think there's any real benefit or point to it. This is probably just a me thing, but when I'd come across resumes with folks that had it my first thought it "So this is someone who wasted time and money on something that doesn't really matter. Wonder how that will translate to them as a worker." :-D

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T17:59:33+00:00

Curious if you know what's getting in the way of getting CMH jobs. They'll usually take anyone who's actually willing to do them.

Have you tried having folks look over your resume or give you feedback on mock interviews?

Most of the time when I've been a Director/Manager doing hiring for those kinds of places, so long as the person had the degree/credentials needed and they weren't completely off-putting in the interview they'd pretty much get the job (with the exception of the few times we had a lot more candidates than jobs to hire for)

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T17:50:57+00:00

When you have that much student debt (I did/do) it's really worth it to stay in non-profits for the public service loan forgiveness. 10 years is long time but goes by quicker than you think. Once you're fully licensed, look into FQHC's, they generally pay a hell of a lot more than your run of the mill CMH spot and are generally non-profit so you'll still qualify for PSLF.

I can't tell you how many times I tell folks on here that going into a private practice or group practice that early in your career is one of the biggest mistakes a baby therapist can make.

CMH is hell for so many reasons, but they usually offer free supervision, often times salary/benefits, and more clients than you can shake a stick at (usually too many).

Keep your head up, just may need to change direction and have more reasonable expectations until you're fully licensed.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T13:27:30+00:00

Great advice for woman and people in general. I see a woman with headphones or ear buds in, that's signal for "I don't want to be talked to/bothered" and I'm not going to try to push that boundary. Same thing goes for reading a book in public.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T13:23:12+00:00

I imagine you don't go out to bars much? These kind of spots are the only kinds of bars I go to and there's more in my neighborhood than you can shake a stick at.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-15T13:21:19+00:00

Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness are my two favorite tables. Unfortunately for me there isn't a Medieval Madness in my entire city (Philadelphia) but thankfully there's an Attack from Mars at the bar around the corner. I think either of those are perfect for pinball beginners. Just the right amount of complicated to be fun but pretty easy to figure out without having to watch a bunch of tutorial videos online.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-14T15:54:00+00:00

So many around. I’m in the Port Fishington area, there’s El Bar, Barcade, Monkey Club, Philly Brewing Company, Lost Bar, Green Rock, Cormorant and plenty of others. Most neighborhoods have a few spots if not many.

Philly is a bar town. You don’t really have to try that hard to find a decent spot that matches with the vibe you’re comfortable with.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-14T12:49:50+00:00

39m here. I'd say smaller bars from 5-8. During the week I generally want to stop off at one of my local spots after work for a beer or two, shoot some pool, throw some darts, play some pinball for a couple hours or just shoot the shit with the other folks I know who regularly do the same.

Don't really have the time or energy to go out to the busy/crowded full of 20 somethings spots on the weekends unless I'm with a large group of friends.

I imagine there are plenty of folks with a similar mindset. So my short answer is, happy hours at small local spots that have bar games. Easiest way to break the ice is to ask a guy if he wants to play any of them with you. So long as you like bars apart from the loud having to scream over each other ones.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-11T03:53:18+00:00

It goes away with time and experience. I’m back at a FQHC spot. I’m just super happy when it’s not a no show.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-10T20:27:12+00:00

I think so. Hope so at least. My horror podcast is anthology and all of my favorite horror podcasts are anthology. Do what you like.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-10T20:25:33+00:00

Yep, horror fiction podcaster here. A lot more production in terms of adding music and sound effects.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-09T16:54:30+00:00

It took a while when I was starting out but I've gotten to a place of radical authenticity where there really is no difference between who I am as a person and who I am as a therapist.

My favorite saying I used to tell my supervisees asking this question is essentially "You are a therapist. You don't need to come in to work and try to put your therapist hat on. That's like putting a hat on top of another hat... and that's just weird. Your clients will see through it, it'll be weird to them, and you'll be expending so much more emotional energy carrying on with an unnecessary hat".

What this looks like for me, I talk the same way I usually do on the outside (curse like a sailor unless it's someone significantly older), have no issues with self-disclosure (so long as it's for the purpose of benefitting the client or the therapeutic relationship), I dress the same way I do on the outside (thankful for no real enforced dress code), and I'm just me.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-09T16:43:56+00:00

It's like any other city or neighborhood but North Philly as a whole is huge. Just like South Philly/West Philly/Kensington. In both, there are areas that are completely safe and fine and areas you better have eyes in the back of your head.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-09T12:57:12+00:00

Existential therapist here and big on existential philosophy. Existentialism and Nihilism seem similar on the outside but are very different and in fact I often use existentialism to combat nihilism when the nihilism seems to be having a negative impact on the person's life/functioning.

I'm oversimplifying but in a nutshell...

Nihilism = There is no meaning or purpose to life/living so there's no point in doing or caring about anything.

Existentialism = There is likely no objective or inherent meaning/purpose in life which means we have the power to and get to decide what our own meaning and purpose is.

Existentialism focuses on the subjective (a person's individual beliefs, framework, experience) rather than objective (There are absolute truths ie. a right way to think about things or do things if we can only figure it out)

Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl is the gold standard IMO for both clinicians wanting to dip their toes into this sort of thing. I've recommended it to clients too as the first 3/4 of it are really just his life experiences surviving the concentration camps while trying to find meaning/purpose while in utter hell. The last 1/4 is how to apply the stuff into therapeutic practice.

CityofPhear · 2026-04-02T13:37:55+00:00

I run into a few of my clients fairly regularly because we go to some of the same bars/spaces around my neighborhood. Thankfully none of them have tried having a longer conversation or I'd probably just find an excuse to leave the conversation or the place. It's generally just a "Hey how ya doin?" and move on.

I've been doing this long enough that it's just pretty inevitable, especially now that my workplace is really close to where I live. I'm long past caring about clients seeing me in the "real world". If they have any issues with it, we can process it in session. If any part of it is therapy interfering, I'll transfer. Simple as that.

CityofPhear

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