Podcasts about benefit street

Series 2 of the 2025 podcast was born into a time of tremendous market turbulence. In our ten conversations with a diverse range of guests – sourced globally, we go top down, and bottom up – into the weeds, and take helicopter views. Tune in to hear about the technologies in venture capital and climate tech that excite even the most experienced investors who have seen multiple cycles with podcasts featuring Hunter Somerville and Beverley Gower-Jones, OBE on topics of big swing innovation in venture capital and what is on the cutting edge of climate tech. Erik Hirsch of Hamilton Lane describes private equity's evolution, the essential role of data and what lies ahead, while Peter Wilson of Harbourvest shares his views on the topic as well as the importance of authenticity.Fernando Vinzons, CIO at Chicago Teachers Pension Fund updates us on the fund's growth and in particular the resilience of its emerging manager strategy, while Dan Gore of Darwin Alternative Asset Management describes the opportunity in small and mid-cap UK firms. Rich Byrne seamlessly marries lessons from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (in which he is a decorated champion) with lessons from the private credit world, while Cathy Bevan, also of Benefit Street, walks us through the evolution of structured credit over the past decade. Staying on credit, Sonali Pier of PIMCO describes her own journey from working as a credit trader into her current role, and we dive into the fascinating and emerging area of NAV lending with a discussion with Tom Doyle of Pemberton Asset Management.Please follow us for the launch of the second part of Series 2 next week: You can find all of our podcasts on The Fiftyfaces Hub, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you Eagle Point Credit and Benefit Street Partners for supporting this series! With over $12 billion of AUM, Eagle Point Credit Management is a premier investment firm focused on generating strong returns for its clients through sourcing, evaluating and executing investments in CLOs, Portfolio Debt Securities and other credit investments that it believes shave the potential to outperform their respective markets generally.Benefit Street Partners is a leading global alternative credit asset manager offering clients investment solutions across a broad range of complementary credit strategies, including direct lending, special situations, structured credit, high yield bonds, leveraged loans and commercial real estate debt and equity. As of December 31, 2024, BSP-Alcentra had $76 billion of assets under management.

Rich Byrne is President and CEO of Benefit Street Partners as well as a decorated Brailian Jiu Jitsu champion. In this fascinating podcast we discus his journey from a fine arts major to a leading figure in finance and the many twists and turns in between. We discuss his previous roles such as his internship with Manufacturers Hanover Trust, which is now JP Morgan, and his first job at Wall Street at Merrill Lynch in Chicago to becoming one of founding members of Merrill Lynch's high yield research department.We discuss his interest in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and he emphazises the importance in fostering creativity and innovation in finance, along with the positive impact that a unique background can have in the finance field.We talk about his role at Benefit Street Partners' and their focus on credit and alternative investments, particularly in real estate lending. Rich stresses the importance of leading by example and maintaining a strong company culture.We round up with a few motivational messages from Rich, reflecting on the value of staying in the game for the long term, attributing his success to his perseverance and focus on continuous improvement.Thank you Eagle Point Credit and Benefit Street Partners for supporting this series!With over $12 billion of AUM, Eagle Point Credit Management is a premier investment firm focused on generating strong returns for its clients through sourcing, evaluating and executing investments in CLOs, Portfolio Debt Securities and other credit investments that it believes shave the potential to outperform their respective markets generally.Benefit Street Partners is a leading global alternative credit asset manager offering clients investment solutions across a broad range of complementary credit strategies, including direct lending, special situations, structured credit, high yield bonds, leveraged loans and commercial real estate debt and equity. As of December 31, 2024, BSP-Alcentra had $77 billion of assets under management.

Host Shiloh Bates discusses commercial real estate (CRE) CLOs with Mike Comparato, Head of Real Estate at Benefit Street Partners. CRE CLOs are contrasted with the more common CLOs backed by corporate loans that are Flat Rock's specialty.

As others head for the exit from the commercial real estate (CRE) sector, Benefit Street Partners President Richard Byrne views this as the perfect time to fill the funding void that could arise. Byrne joins hosts Noel Hebert and Sam Geier of Bloomberg Intelligence on Credit Crunch to discuss the budding opportunity in CRE as a result of higher interest rates. The discussion gets into CRE debt vs equity, an impending CRE maturity wall, the multifamily sweet spot, relative value within direct lending and much more. Credit Crunch is part of the FICC Focus podcast.

Season 1, Episode 13: This season finale of No Cap by CRE Daily features a rare conversation with Richard Byrne, President of Benefit Street Partners and CEO of Franklin BSP Capital Corp. Join hosts Jack Stone and Alex Gornik as they explore Richard's incredible career—from his early jobs and rapid rise at Merrill Lynch in the 80s to his transition into real estate lending at Benefit Street Partners.   TOPICS 00:00 – Introduction 00:27 – Richard's Early Life and First Jobs 03:10 – Climbing the Ladder at Merrill Lynch in the 80s 08:29 – From Casinos to Deutsche Bank 12:50 – Transition to Real Estate Lending 20:49 – Early Involvement with RFT 22:28 – Exploring FBRT and Other Service Lines 24:47 – The Role of Opportunistic Debt Funds (ODFs) 31:51 – Optimism in Today's Real Estate Market 34:57 – Who's Still Pursuing Multi-Property Deals 38:38 – Risk Management in Today's Market 41:15 – Standing Out in the Industry 47:13 – A Banker's Path to Jiu-Jitsu 58:32 – Advice for Young Professionals 01:01:27 – Conclusion   For more episodes of No Cap by CRE Daily visit https://www.credaily.com/podcast/   Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NoCapCREDaily     About No Cap Podcast Commercial real estate is a $20 trillion industry and a force that shapes America's economic fabric and culture. No Cap by CRE Daily is the commercial real estate podcast that gives you an unfiltered ”No Cap” look into the industry's biggest trends and the money game behind them. Each week co-hosts Jack Stone and Alex Gornik break down the latest headlines with some of the most influential and entertaining figures in commercial real estate.     About CRE Daily  CRE Daily is a digital media company covering the business of commercial real estate. Our mission is to empower professionals with the knowledge they need to make smarter decisions and do more business. We do this through our flagship newsletter (CRE Daily) which is read by 65,000+ investors, developers, brokers, and business leaders across the country. Our smart brevity format combined with need-to-know trends has made us one of the fastest growing media brands in commercial real estate.

In episode 14 of the Alternative Allocations podcast series, Richard shares reasons why the current disruptive market environment offers a great opportunity for commercial real estate debt, such as better risk adjusted return potential, low to negative correlation to traditional investments, and higher income. Understanding the opportunity, Tony and Richard review the many roles that commercial real estate debt can play in client portfolios. Richard Byrne is President of Benefit Street Partners, a Franklin Templeton Company, and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FBRT), Benefit Street Partners Multifamily Trust, and Franklin BSP Capital Corporation. He is an influential thought leader and frequent speaker on many topics including commercial real estate debt, highlighting investing opportunities and risks in CRE lending.  Prior to joining Benefit Street Partners, Richard was Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc and was the Co-Head of Global Capital Markets at Deutsche Bank as well as a member of their Global Banking Executive Committee and Global Markets Executive Committee. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he was Global Co-Head of the Leveraged Finance Group, and Global Head of Credit Research at Merrill Lynch & Co. Richard earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA from Binghamton University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN), and New York Road Runners. He is also Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KASAI Elite Grappling Championships. Commercial real estate debt is struggling—what a great opportunity Commercial real estate debt: Another way to access real estate Benefit Street Partners Richard Byrne | LinkedIn Alternatives by Franklin Templeton Tony Davidow, CIMA® | LinkedIn

Welcome to New England Legends From the Vault – Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger take a Valentine's Day stroll down Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to the Athenaeum in search of the brokenhearted ghost of Edgar Allan Poe. It was at the Athenaeum that Poe once courted poet Sarah Helen Whitman and it was at this same building that Whitman once tried to summon his spirit. Could the master of horror still be haunting Providence? Had events gone differently would it had been Providence and not Baltimore that claimed Poe as their own? This episode first aired February 14, 2019. The Haunted Heart of Edgar Allan Poe - A True Hauntings Podcast Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends For more episodes join us here each Monday or visit their website to catch up on the hundreds of tales that legends are made of. https://ournewenglandlegends.com/category/podcasts/ Follow Jeff Belanger here: https://jeffbelanger.com/ SUPPORT THE SPONSORS THAT SUPPORT THIS SHOW This Show is Sponsored by BetterHelp - Visit www.BetterHelp.com/P60 for 10% off your first month. Mint Mobile - To get your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, and get the plan shipped to your door for FREE, go to www.MintMobile.com/P60 Rocket Money - Start saving money and reclaim control over your finances with www.RocketMoney.com/P60 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to New England Legends From the Vault – FtV Episode 63 – Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger take a Valentine's Day stroll down Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to the Athenaeum in search of the brokenhearted ghost of Edgar Allan Poe. It was at the Athenaeum that Poe once courted poet Sarah Helen Whitman and it was at this same building that Whitman once tried to summon his spirit. Could the master of horror still be haunting Providence? Had events gone differently would it had been Providence and not Baltimore that claimed Poe as their own? This episode first aired February 14, 2019.   Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends

It's Deconstruct Live! at The Real Deal's New York Forum. Fortress' Steve Stuart, Benefit Street Partners' Mike Comparato and Urban Standard Capital's Seth Weissman talk bank failures, distressed note buying and lending demand in a live taping of Deconstruct.

Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger stroll down Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, searching for a magical and enchanted fountain built in 1873 they say has the ability to transport you. But how did it get here? And does it really work?The historic drinking fountain is engraved with the words, "Come here everyone that thirsteth." The inscription and the sound of gurgling water tempt those who pass into drinking the water. But if you do, will you be spellbound forever?  Jeff and Ray put this legend to the test!The Legendary Fountain - A New England Legends Podcast Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends For more episodes join us here each Monday or visit their website to catch up on the hundreds of tales that legends are made of. https://ournewenglandlegends.com/category/podcasts/Follow Jeff Belanger here: https://jeffbelanger.com/Get Jeff's new book, The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters, Witches, and Ghosts here: https://bit.ly/3uVTRghSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Comparato is Managing Director and Head of Real Estate at Benefit Street Partners, a credit-focused alternative asset management firm owned by Franklin Templeton. In this episode, we cover Mike's views on the turmoil that the commercial real estate market is facing and the impending debt maturity wall that could set off a hurricane. Overview of Podcast with Benefit Street Partners' Mike Comparato 01:00 Our family has been in the real estate sector since 1946 04:00 There is a storm out there [in the CRE sector] and there is no question of its severity. It is just a question of when it is going to hit 05:00 Commercial real estate is a very credit and debt intensive asset class 05:30 The ‘debt maturity wall' and its market impact 06:30 People are just not lending to hold liquidity 08:30 If you just waited in the past 40 years, thing just got better 09:45 “There is a lot of damage that is coming” 14:00 We are making equity-like returns in credit products. It is not often that you get to say that. 14:30 Multi-family real estate credit 16:30 The regional banks were the top credit providers for construction loans in the US 17:00 The banking space is in a much worse place than people think it is. It is very simple: if banks aren't lending, then that means things are bad at the bank 19:30 The COVID-19 pandemic changed the demand for office forever. We are talking about a change that might not be recoverable 21:30 No one is making loans on office buildings right now. 23:00 Who knows how many young professional jobs, such as paralegals, will be replaced by AI 25:30 The data centre space is something that we have always avoided, because I'm always scared that we are going to wake up and someone has discovered a new technology that makes data centres completely obsolete. Whenever you have something in real estate that has a very specific use, it is very scary if it doesn't have some kind of alternative use. 27:00 The retail apocalypse never happened. But why? 32:00 The number I would have to put on writing a loan for an office building would be so high that it basically means the asset is worthless

In Episode 325 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger stroll down Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, searching for a magical and enchanted fountain built in 1873 they say has the ability to transport you. But how did it get here? And does it really work? Jeff and Ray put this legend to the test!   See more here: https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-325-the-legendary-fountain-of-providence/   Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends

This week on The Reorg Primary View, Richard Byrne, president of Benefit Street Partners, talks about how the current high interest rate environment creates both headwinds and tailwinds for private credit with Reorg's Catarina Moura. Amid a boom in private credit, Byrne also discusses how retail investors fit into the asset class.

Check out episode 2 of the Alternative Allocations podcast series, focusing on the opportunities in alternative credit strategies with my guest Rich Byrne. Rich and I explore the current market environment, and the opportunities in direct lending, distressed, and real estate debt.  Rich Byrne is President of Benefit Street Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN), and serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin BSP Lending Corporation, Franklin BSP Capital Corporation, Franklin BSP Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FBRT), and Benefit Street Partners Multifamily Trust. Prior to joining Benefit Street Partners, Rich was Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc and was the Co-Head of Global Capital Markets at Deutsche Bank as well as a member of their Global Banking Executive Committee and Global Markets Executive Committee. Before joining Deutsche Bank, he was Global Co-Head of the Leveraged Finance Group, and Global Head of Credit Research at Merrill Lynch & Co. Rich earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from Binghamton University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN), and New York Road Runners. He is also Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KASAI Elite Grappling Championships.   Benefit Street Partners Why Private Credit? Richard Byrne | LinkedIn Alternatives by Franklin Templeton Tony Davidow, CIMA® | LinkedIn    

Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger stroll historic Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to visit a house built in 1763. Known as the Stephen Harris house, this home was constructed over a former burial ground. Though the graves were relocated, some suspect not all of the human remains made the move. The house was haunted from its earliest days, a run of bad luck plagued the Harris family, and by the late 1800s it fell into disrepair. The legend inspired horror icon H.P. Lovecraft to pen his novella “The Shunned House.” Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends For more episodes join us here each Monday or visit their website to catch up on the hundreds of tales that legends are made of.  https://ournewenglandlegends.com/category/podcasts/Follow Jeff Belanger here: https://jeffbelanger.com/ The Shunned House - A New England Legends PodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 301 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger stroll historic Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to visit a house built in 1763. Known as the Stephen Harris house, this home was constructed over a former burial ground. Though the graves were relocated, some suspect not all of the human remains made the move. The house was haunted from its earliest days, a run of bad luck plagued the Harris family, and by the late 1800s it fell into disrepair. The legend inspired horror icon H.P. Lovecraft to pen his novella “The Shunned House.” See more here: https://ournewenglandlegends.com/podcast-301-the-shunned-house/ Listen ad-free plus get early access and bonus episodes at: https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends

Listen back to an edition from our archives with The Bunker Gold. This week, after Tory leadership hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss went head-to-head in fiery TV debates, we've chosen an episode from December 2021, Harsh Reality – How TV Shaped Modern Britain.  We treat TV as the most disposable art form – but for decades it has shaped our world more than we know. From Big Brother to Shameless to Little Britain and Benefit Street, television chose the winners and losers of consumer capitalism, made it OK to sneer at the underclass, and then allowed that underclass a token comeback or two. Author Phil Harrison explores television's innate cruelty, class dynamics and political subtext in The Age Of Static: How TV Explains Modern Britain. Has TV made our politics worse? And should it just give up on live political interviews altogether?  “A show called Britain's Hardest Worker pitted benefit claimants against one another. You wouldn't have written that in a dystopian fantasy.” “Maybe the BBC needs to be in that permanent state of conflict or it's not doing its job of challenging what we think.” “When Mentorn took over Question Time they promised ‘adrenaline-fuelled Thursday nights'. Is that the purpose of a serious news show?” “Nadine Dorries as a kamikaze Culture Secretary scares the hell out of me.”  Written and presented by Justin Quirk. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charles takes the lead again, recounting the adventures of an unfortunate uncle.   Cast List Herbert - Carl Cubbedge Warren - Glen Hallstrom Charles - Michael Coleman (Tales of the Extraordinary) Richard - Philemon Vanderbeck Edward - Mathias Rebne-Morgan Randolph - Sebastian Orr Elihu, uncle - Charles Austin Miller Ann, servant - Julie Hoverson Music by incompetech.com and a-mclassical.com Editing and Sound:   Julie Hoverson Cover Design:  Julie Hoverson / Brett Coulstock   "What kind of a place is it? Why it's Charles' study again, can't you tell?" ********************************************************************** THE SHUNNED HOUSE (Lovecraft 5, #6) Cast: Edward, a writer Charles, a dilettante Herbert, a scientist Richard, a painter Warren, a professor Randolph, cousin Elihu, uncle Ann, servant   OLIVIA     [opening credits] Did you have any trouble finding it?  What do you mean, what kind of a place is it?  Why, we've returned to Charles' comfortable brownstone, can't you tell?  Scene 1.    MUSIC SOUND     MUSIC PLAYS CHARLES    I should warn you all from the outset that this is a rather more mundane story than most of those brought to this gathering. EDWARD    As long as you feed me this well, Charles, I'd listen to a story about a dog. RICHARD    Oh?  I know this fellow in Andalusia...  A friend of a friend. CHARLES    [cutting in] My story involves... a vampire. EDWARD    And you tell us?  Right up front?  That's poor narrative framing. CHARLES    No, no, there's a perfectly good reason to get it out in the open right away. HERBERT    Vampires?  Haven't they been adequately explained by contemporary science? CHARLES    See?  WARREN    The existence of vampires has been .. debatable... for several centuries. EDWARD    Ah. HERBERT    The vampire myth is almost certainly explainable.  Most simply by common or garden anemia-- WARREN    Or any number of similarly communicable diseases, for example, consumption-- HERBERT    Tuberculosis. WARREN    --which, until very recently, were often attributed to supernatural origin. HERBERT    But now, with our understanding of germs and the vectors of infection, vampires must be relegated to the vast list of creatures that have been debunked. CHARLES    [aside] I'll give Warren and Herbert one more minute. RICHARD    I'm just stunned that they seem to be on the same side.  Science and History are usually at odds. EDWARD    Fiction can go either way.  WARREN    It's fascinating to consider the mindset that created a myth such as that of the vampire.  RICHARD    Created?  You think someone sat down and designed them, like a new model of automobile? WARREN    Created it to account for otherwise inexplicable events.  EDWARD    More like a detective, trying to piece together a crime from the clues. WARREN    Do you know that in historical folklore, vampires were said to always return and prey on members of their own family before passing to others? HERBERT    Again, a simple disease contagion statistic.  With the substandard hygiene of past eras, it was almost inevitable that those in close proximity to a dying person were the most likely-- CHARLES    Enough!  [moment of silence] Scene 2.    CHARLES    Thank you for the erudite exposition.  I'm quite sure we'll come back to this throughout the lecture. EDWARD    [laughing] Please raise your hand if you have any questions. RICHARD    Over here? CHARLES    [chuckling]  The chair recognizes the commissioner for art.  Richard? RICHARD    Thank you.  My question - does the name Stoker come into this story anywhere? CHARLES    No.  Despite the nature of the central creature involved, or supposedly involved, the story has a long and verifiable history, which began well before any of such contemporary novels appeared on bookstands.  EDWARD    I dunno - there have been similar creatures haunting Gothic novels for nearly two centuries. WARREN    Aren't they all explained away by the end of the book?  EDWARD    Only in Radcliffe. RICHARD    You need a gavel, Charles, so you can call us to order. Scene 3.    CHARLES    My story is about a house. EDWARD    A vampire house? [laughs] CHARLES    Well....  A cursed house. WARREN    A curse?  AND a vampire? EDWARD    Do you mean a house in the sense of a family line or a physical house? CHARLES    The latter.  This house happens to be in Providence.  And while I could lie and tell you this was another personal experience, in truth, it happened to a cousin of mine. EDWARD    Your cousin is a vampire house? HERBERT    You forgot to raise your hand, Edward. CHARLES    This particular area of Providence was haunted by Poe in his day.  Sometime in the 1840s, he was wont to pass by this very house on visits to the poetess Mrs. Whitman.  RICHARD    Whitman?  Should we know her? EDWARD    We certainly know Poe. CHARLES    She was an ardent spiritist and something of an early suffragette.  I haven't come across any of her writings myself.  Almost as much a draw as the lady, though, St. John's churchyard was also along Poe's route. EDWARD    Is Poe in this story? CHARLES    He's merely making an appearance for historical perspective.  Setting the time and place. WARREN    Understood. CHARLES    The point - the irony is this - the world's greatest master of the terrible and the bizarre regularly passed a particular house on the eastern side of the street; a dingy, antiquated structure perched on the abruptly rising side hill.  There is no evidence that he even noticed it.  And yet that house, to certain persons, equals or outranks in horror Poe's wildest phantasy. EDWARD    [avid] Now we get into it! CHARLES    The house was - and for that matter still is - of a kind to attract the attention of the curious.  It followed the colonial lines of the middle eighteenth century - the prosperous peaked-roof sort of farm house; two stories; dormerless attic; Georgian doorway and interior paneling. RICHARD    All the best accoutrements of the mid 1700s? CHARLES    Ayup.  Facing south, it's buried to the lower windows in the hillside, and exposed to the foundations on the street. RICHARD    [knowing] I've seen a few of those. CHARLES    Its construction, over a century and a half ago, followed hard upon the rerouting of the nearby road.  Benefit Street - at the time called Back Street - wound through the graveyards of the first settlers.  It was straightened only when the removal of the bodies to the North Burial Ground made it decently possible to cut across the old family plots. EDWARD    Aha! HERBERT    A house built over the miasmatic remains of a graveyard?  Simply begging for some festering disease to seep in through the foundation. Scene 4.    WARREN    Uh... May I? CHARLES    Recognized. WARREN    When you speak of this being a "vampire", do you specifically speak of a walking corpse that drinks blood, or the more classic creature of folklore which is something like a stealer of soul or essence? HERBERT    Warren!  You sounded almost impartial before, and now this? WARREN    Whether or not I believe in such a creature, it's important to uncover what the people involved believe, regardless of the underlying source. HERBERT    Hmph. CHARLES    I may have to leave the ultimate decision up to you as to what particular phylum this entity falls into. HERBERT    Don't try to make taxonomical jokes.  It doesn't suit you. CHARLES    Moving on.  I should point out that while I was not a witness to all the events of my story, I have been to - and in fact, been in - the house in question. EDWARD    Do tell? CHARLES    Boys will be boys, and visits in my youth to my cousin-- EDWARD    The one who witnessed these events? CHARLES    Ayup.  Visits with his family every summer.  And many boyish dares ended with someone venturing into the empty, foreboding edifice. WARREN    Empty?  Providence isn't a place where houses generally stand empty for long. CHARLES    Precisely.  And this one should have been occupied, except for-- EDWARD    The vampire?  Or the Curse?  The Curse of the Vampire? CHARLES    Not precisely.  You see the house wasn't associated with anything like that at the time, it was simply thought... unlucky. HERBERT    [very snide] Oh, yes.  That's much more classifiable. CHARLES    People just kept dying in the house.  Individually, they were generally attributed to something more along the lines you've suggested, Herbert - bad air, foul fungus in the basement, something material and accountable, and yet... EDWARD    Yet? Scene 5.    CHARLES    That's for later.  There's quite a tragic history to the house, which I will touch upon, but let me finish with my own impressions first - the facts, anyway.  HERBERT    Well, I can agree with that. CHARLES    It was the dank, humid cellar which exerted the strongest repulsion on us - even though it was wholly aboveground on the street side, with only a thin door and window-pierced brick wall to separate it from the busy sidewalk.  We scarcely knew whether to haunt it in spectral fascination, or to shun it for the sake of our souls and our sanity. HERBERT    Facts, he says.  Hmph. CHARLES    For one thing, the bad odour of the house was strongest there; and there were white fungous growths which occasionally sprang up in rainy summer weather from the hard earthen floor. HERBERT    What kind of fungi? CHARLES    I'm no expert.  Something between toadstools and Indian pipes?  They rotted and became slightly phosphorescent; so that nocturnal passers-by sometimes spoke of witch-fires glowing behind the broken panes of the foetor-spreading windows. RICHARD    [shudder]  Interesting.  [musing] True phosphorescence is a colour that's so hard to capture...  CHARLES    We never - even in our wildest Hallowe'en moods - visited this cellar by night, but in some of our daytime visits could detect the glowing of the fungi, especially when the day was dark and wet.  And something else... [trails off] WARREN    [sincere] It really bothered you, didn't it? CHARLES    Distressing events have so much more influence when one is impressionable ...and young.  [shaking it off]  Lets have a bit more of vampires while I regain my composure - meaning while I fetch myself something to drink.  Warren, if you would?  Scene 6.    WARREN    Oh, well...  Some basic facts, then.  Vampires were originally believed to be a form of revenant - the returning spirit of a recently deceased person, not a physical manifestation at all.  EDWARD    Really?  Not bloated corpses returning to gorge on the gore of gorgeous...um, gamines? RICHARD    [laughs]  Gratuitous.  I believe it was Stoker who started a lot of what most people think of as "vampire traditions?" WARREN    I confess I am not particularly conversant with the novel.  I'm not much for such sensational fiction. EDWARD    I am. RICHARD    I am. HERBERT    Don't look at me. EDWARD    Go on. RICHARD    [prompting] They drink blood? WARREN    Probably attributable to either anemia, as Herbert suggested, or to any number of wasting diseases that plagued people.  EDWARD    But what about the bite marks? HERBERT    Disease sores.  Or the predation of rats.  Which, in turn, spread disease.  WARREN    Very likely.  Rats have lived cheek and jowl with humans since the dawn of civilization. RICHARD    Stoker did make the connection between his vampire and rats - he was supposed to be able to summon and control them. HERBERT    If you consider the "vampire" as symbolic of disease, then its presumed connection to rats is fairly logical. RICHARD    But Dracula also couldn't enter a home without being invited? CHARLES    [drink - ahh] On the other hand, we boys could, and did.  Why don't I take my narrative back up? Scene 7.    WARREN    Go ahead.  CHARLES    I won't be able to adequately describe the place to convey the depth of the horror we felt in its presence.  EDWARD    We promise to laugh quietly. CHARLES    No need.  [deep breath, bracing himself]  There was this sort of cloudy whitish pattern on the dirt floor - a vague, shifting deposit of mould or nitre which we usually seemed to be able to trace out amidst the sparse fungous growths near the huge fireplace of the basement kitchen. EDWARD    Something carved into the floor? CHARLES    Floor was dirt.  No.  This patch... it bore an uncanny resemblance to a doubled-up human figure.  RICHARD    Like some sort of primitive grave-marking? CHARLES    [growing haunted] On one certain rainy afternoon I fancied I glimpsed a thin, yellowish, shimmering exhalation rising from the nitrous pattern toward the yawning fireplace.  [brisk]  Shortly after, my cousin and I broached this to our uncle. WARREN    Perhaps you could put names to these people?  CHARLES    Of course.  My cousin - well, I'll just call him Randolph, and our uncle's name is Elihu Whipple.  Doctor Elihu Whipple. WARREN    Whipple?  I know him - or have met him, but didn't he recently--? CHARLES    [cutting him off]  Yes, yes.  I'll get there. EDWARD    Ooh!  A mystery. CHARLES    Uncle Elihu never pooh-poohed our concerns about the house.  As it turned out he'd done a good deal of research on it, himself. RICHARD    The house is still standing, is it?  Might be worth making a day trip to Providence - or rather a night trip. CHARLES    Probably futile - the house has been cleaned and is once more gainfully employed. EDWARD    A happy ending?  To a vampire story?  Say it isn't so! WARREN    [grim] Not as happy as all that, I warrant. EDWARD    Not fair!  You know something! RICHARD    How do you mean the house has been cleaned? CHARLES    Everything natural around the house used to be ... wrong.  From the aforementioned fungus to the tree roots that grew into the cellar, and the weeds that flourished in the back yard - everything was twisted and flabby and somehow unnatural.  And now-- EDWARD    All better? CHARLES    Yes.  But at a cost. WARREN    [serious] Yes. CHARLES    The history of the house is long-winded, statistical, and drearily genealogical, but there runs through it a continuous thread of brooding, tenacious horror and preternatural malevolence.  My cousin and uncle apparently became obsessed with charting every death possibly attributable to the house. WARREN    [carefully choosing his words to not give anything away] I never fancied Whipple as an historian? CHARLES    A physician and amateur antiquarian.  And yet, he approached the problem much as Herbert might - as a technical one.  Hygiene and germs. HERBERT    Oh.  A realist.  In your family?  CHARLES    Yes.  Well, every herd has its black sheep.  Now, the origin of the house, amidst a maze of dates, revealed no trace of the sinister.  It was built by a merchant, William Harris. Scene 8.    EDWARD    Built on a recently moved graveyard? CHARLES    A recently-straightened part of the street, anyway.  EDWARD    But there must be something? CHARLES    Actually, from what I understand, the land the house stands upon was never marked for graves.  EDWARD    Why bring up the graves, then, if they're not relevant? RICHARD    Setting tone.   WARREN    Of course, vampires were supposed to be buried in unhallowed ground, like suicides, so the LACK of a consecrated churchyard is possibly just as significant. CHARLES    The following spring, sickness occurred among the Harris children, and two of the four died within a month.   HERBERT    Children are particularly susceptible to many kinds of disease. CHARLES    And one of the two servants died of it in the following June.  The remaining servant, Eli, constantly complained of weakness.  WARREN    Servants have traditionally been drawn from the lower classes, who in turn tend to be more superstitious, and therefore more inclined to give credence to, and in turn be affected by, such things. CHARLES    Eli died the next year, as did the master of the house and a third of the four children.  WARREN    Goodness! CHARLES    The widow fell victim to insanity, after such a series of tragedies, and was thereafter confined to the upper part of the house.  This was in 1768. EDWARD    This story is starting to sound oddly familiar.  Was there a meteorite involved? HERBERT    [scoffing] In Providence? CHARLES    The widow's sister, Mercy Dexter, moved in to take charge of the family. Mercy was a plain, raw-boned woman of great strength, but her health visibly declined from the time of her arrival. EDWARD    Now it sounds like Luella Miller. HERBERT    You would think that by this time they would have the sense to move out.  EDWARD    Or get in an exorcist. HERBERT    Nonsense.  It's more likely something toxic in the groundwater - arsenic, perhaps.  Slight traces can cause anemia and wasting as it builds up in the body's vital organs. CHARLES    So many deaths and a case of madness, all within five years, started strange rumours. RICHARD    Rumors?  Nonsense.  This is a definite pattern.  Herbert?  You agree? HERBERT    [definite] Arsenic.  Or one of the other heavy metals.  Perhaps Thallium?  Did anyone suffer from hair loss? CHARLES    There were other symptoms.  The poor widow, in her madness, gave voice to dreams and imaginings of the most hideous sort. HERBERT    Fever rantings. CHARLES    Her terrors periodically necessitated her remaining son's residence with a cousin.  He improved during these visits, and, had Mercy been as wise as she was well-meaning, she would have let him live away permanently. WARREN    What sort of direction did this madness take?  Paranoia? Scene 9.    CHARLES    Now, William, the one remaining child of this unfortunate house, broke away from the place in his teens by enlisting - what with the [ahem] trouble with Great Britain. EDWARD    What trouble? WARREN    [hinting]  Consider the year? EDWARD    I don't know what year we're at.  I haven't been taking notes.  CHARLES    1775. EDWARD    Oh, of course. CHARLES    William was away for the duration, married, and returned to his family home to find tragedy.  RICHARD    No "Mercy"? CHARLES    Mercy was still there, but her once robust frame had undergone curious decay, so that she was now a stooped and pathetic figure with hollow voice and disconcerting pallor.  HERBERT    Did feeblemindedness run in the family as well?  Wasn't this a clear enough hint? CHARLES    William, now an adult witnessing these events, quickly arranged for the building of a new and finer house... across town. HERBERT    Finally! CHARLES    And closed the house on Benefit Street.  WARREN    Probably for the best. EDWARD    Are we nearing 1800 yet? CHARLES    Almost.  William and his wife passed away in the yellow fever epidemic of 1797, leaving their child in the care of a cousin, Rathbone Harris. RICHARD    Now there's a name! CHARLES    Rathbone was a practical man, and rented the Benefit Street house despite dead William's wish that it remain vacant. He did not concern himself with the deaths and illnesses which caused so many changes of tenants, or the steadily growing aversion with which the house was generally regarded. EDWARD    He's lucky no one held him responsible. HERBERT    As if one could sue over poor living conditions! CHARLES    In 1804, the town council ordered the place fumigated with sulphur, tar and gum camphor due to several more deaths - presumably caused by the passing fever epidemic. HERBERT    [dismissive]  Might as well wear pointed masks and wave nosegays. WARREN    I'm sure they did the best they could with the science they had.  CHARLES    Several generations passed, with the house standing empty. HERBERT    And yet, whether operating under rank superstition or sound scientific principals, it never occurred to them to simply tear it down, clear the ground, and begin anew with clean pipes from a municipal water source? CHARLES    No, indeed, but it never rented again after the series of deaths culminating in 1861. EDWARD    So when you braved its depths, it had lain fallow for some ... 50 years? CHARLES    I'm a bit older than that, but that's a good round number to work with.  Fifty years empty - and fifty years hungry. RICHARD    So we are now at the present, and your cousin Randolph enters the stage? CHARLES    Carrington Harris, last of the male line, had meant to tear the place down and build an apartment house on the site-- HERBERT    Finally, another sane one. CHARLES    But Randolph convinced him to allow them to look into it first.  EDWARD    With the history you've given - I'll agree it shows a pattern of misfortune, but what, precisely, made you think of vampires, and not ghosts or curses, or poison, or any of the other various explanations we've found? CHARLES    Well, it was one of the original servants who started talking vampires.  She was a superstitious Exeter woman, and you know how they can be. Scene 10.    ANN    Some remnant must lie nearby, mayhap under this very house!  Doomed to sup off the blood or breath of god-fearing folk!  My own grand-dam told me time and again, Ann, she said, to destroy such a hellion, ye must find its earthly shell, and burn its black and festering heart!  EDWARD    Not a stake through the heart and cutting off its head? RICHARD    Perhaps that was "plan B". CHARLES    As she was sacked and left the house relatively unscathed, this servant Ann's stories spread far and wide. WARREN    So that is one. CHARLES    One what? WARREN    Reason to bring up vampires. HERBERT    Hardly a credible witness. CHARLES    Ah yes.  There was also the raving. EDWARD    The widow? CHARLES    Rhoby Harris.  Hers, and others.  Among the people who died in that house, a large percentage were subject to such ranting. HERBERT    Again, not unnatural in certain kind of fevers. [CHARLES BEGINS TO BUILD FROM HERE] CHARLES    In their more lucid moments, several of the afflicted went on about sharp teethed, glassy-eyes creatures that crouched on their chests and scratched at their necks? RICHARD    Fuseli's "Nightmare" comes to mind.  An imp sitting on the chest of a sleeping woman?  Though it always looked a bit more bemused than threatening to me. EDWARD    And then there's cats who steal the breath from babies. WARREN    Some demonic images are universal - at least among the various Christian branches. CHARLES    In the last throes of their disease, many of these afflicted even began to foam and bite and scratch at their caretakers! HERBERT    Hydrophobia?  Perhaps rabid rats lurking in the walls? [CLIMAX OF CHARLES' POINTS] CHARLES    And all of them ranting in guttural French?  A language not ONE of the afflicted was familiar with? [moment of silence] Scene 11.    RICHARD    [hesitant] oh.  Um...  are they quite sure it was French? WARREN    How could they mistake French?  Unless it was, say, Belgian. RICHARD    I've traveled in Europe.  If you speak NO languages but English, all languages are equally incomprehensible - at least, at first. HERBERT    What makes you think that no one around the afflicted spoke French? RICHARD    Charles specified that none of the victims spoke any French.  How many people can live with, or even around, a speaker of another language and not pick up a few words? CHARLES    Bravo, Richard!  RICHARD    And, unlike, say, New Orleans, in New England, French speakers have traditionally been a bit light on the ground.  CHARLES    Oddly, that leads me to the next part of the story. WARREN    The French? CHARLES    Following up on the French connection, Randolph and Elihu uncovered historical references to a French family who settled in the area long before this house was built. EDWARD    And were buried there, right? RICHARD    Shh. CHARLES    A lease from 1697, showed a small tract of ground being let to an Etienne Roulet. WARREN    Roulet?  Why does that sound familiar? CHARLES    And yes, the Roulets had laid out their graveyard behind their cottage, and no record of any transfer of graves existed. EDWARD    Hah!  And why were they in the area?  On the run from witch trials? Scene 12.    CHARLES    The Edict of Nantes, actually. EDWARD    The what? WARREN    Huguenots? CHARLES    Precisely. EDWARD    [louder] What? WARREN    French protestants, driven out of France after the country declared itself definitely Catholic.  And it wouldn't be the Edict that drove them out - that was earlier. EDWARD    Wasn't there something about Huguenots in a moving picture?  RICHARD    Intolerance.  Right next to the Babylonian orgy scenes. CHARLES    Ahem.  The Roulets were unpopular, and had already been not-so-politely asked to leave East Greenwich.  Apparently their sort of Protestantism didn't quite fit with the standards of New England society. EDWARD    I thought all protestants were pretty much the same?  WARREN    [guffaws] RICHARD    To misquote Wilde, they're one church separated by a common religion. HERBERT    Religion is such a futile waste of time. CHARLES    Etienne Roulet wasn't much of a farmer, but he could read and write and figure - the words "drawing queer diagrams" appear in one of the accounts, but without details.  So Roulet was employed in a clerical post at Pardon Tillinghast's wharf. HERBERT    Tillinghast?  Huh. [recalling "from beyond"] RICHARD    Small world. CHARLES    New England, especially.  Everyone's always related to everyone, and knows everyone else.  Everyone important, anyway.  So the Roulets, being so entirely ...other... were never accepted. RICHARD    Roulet!  I have it! CHARLES    Oh? RICHARD    I don't know any of the dates, but I think it was in the reign of Henri the fourth of France.  I don't know why, but I associate it with "Boy bitten by lizard" and a couple of particularly gruesome beheadings of John the Baptist.  [explaining]  Paintings.  There was a Roulet accused of being a ... [falters, not sure]  a werewolf?  WARREN    I knew there was something!  Yes of course -a Jacques Roulet.  An indigent accused of the horrid murder of a young man.  From what little I can recall, he claimed he had changed into a wolf and was therefore condemned to death, but ultimately commuted to life imprisonment in a madhouse. EDWARD    And you just know this, Warren, off the top of your head? WARREN    Well, I was going through a couple of books recently, looking for tales... well... that I might bring HERE. EDWARD    [laughs] RICHARD    Any more salacious details?  I seem to remember hints of cannibalism? WARREN    Without any notes, I cannot be precise, but I think he was found in a wood, covered in blood and flesh, shortly after the killing of a boy by a pair of wolves.   EDWARD    But what would a werewolf in France have to do with a vampire or ghost in Providence? HERBERT    Or disease. WARREN    Actually, werewolves and vampires have often gone hand in hand - the werewolf being generally considered one who has sold his soul in a pact with the devil, and the vampire being the soulless revenant of someone who died either while under such a pact or as the victim of such a fiend. EDWARD    So being a werewolf in life makes one inevitably a vampire after death? CHARLES    Much like going to Boston Latin leads inevitably to Harvard. [general laughter] CHARLES    So. On to my relations and the house on Benefit street. EDWARD    That would make a good title for a story.  [ominous] The House on Benefit Street. CHARLES    They went about the whole thing with an eye to scientific method.  Truly.  Even brought along various mechanical devices. HERBERT    Such as? CHARLES    [sigh] I was really hoping to pass over this.  I don't know.  Just say mechanical devices and leave it at that. HERBERT    Imprecision.  Always imprecision. CHARLES    They brought the devices in during the day - and recall, they can walk directly in from the street into the dreaded basement.  EDWARD    Or directly out, as the case may be. CHARLES    Randolph spent the day poking around, but found only the same depressing mustiness and faint suggestions of noxious odours. RICHARD    Well, if it was daylight, anything phosphorescent would lie unseen. CHARLES    Precisely.  So he tried again, this time by night.  And with somewhat more trepidation. Scene 13.    RANDOLPH    One stormy midnight, I ran the beams of an electric torch over the mouldy floor. The place had dispirited me curiously that evening, and I was almost prepared when I saw a particularly sharp definition of the "huddled form" we recalled from boyhood. CHARLES    Even while he watched, he seemed to see the thin, yellowish, shimmering exhalation which had startled us years before. RANDOLPH    A subtle, sickish, almost luminous vapour rose, which seemed to develop vague and shocking suggestions of form, before passing into the blackness of the great chimney, leaving foetor in its wake.  Refusing to flee, I watched it fade - and as I watched I felt it was in turn watching me greedily with eyes more imagined than visible. CHARLES    The upshot of this palpable manifestation was that they determined to both spend the night in the house.  After papering the windows, to avoid the eyes of possible onlookers, they added camp chairs and cots to their accoutrements and settled in. RANDOLPH    We were not, as I have said, in any sense childishly superstitious, but scientific study and reflection had taught us that the known universe of three dimensions embraces the merest fraction of the whole cosmos of substance and energy. HERBERT    [interested]  Scientific approach, indeed.  I assumed you were exaggerating. CHARLES    I accept your apology. HERBERT    I didn't apologize. RANDOLPH    To say that we actually believed in the supernatural would be carelessly inclusive.  Rather say that we were not prepared to deny the possibility of certain modifications of vital force and matter, of something that might exist only infrequently in three-dimensional space because of a more intimate connection with other spatial units. EDWARD    I'm not even going to ask. HERBERT    They were approaching the matter as if the potential creature was something that exists in an ...adjacent dimension.  Interesting. RANDOLPH    The family of Roulet had likely possessed an abnormal affinity for outer circles of entity.  Could not, then, some force drawn or created by this passion continue to function in the vicinity long after the original participants were dead and gone? HERBERT    Unfortunately, there is no way to prove or disprove such sloppy hypotheses.  [musing] And yet, one might easily imagine an alien nucleus of substance or energy, formless or otherwise, kept alive by imperceptible subtractions from the life-force or bodily tissue and fluids of more traditional "living things". EDWARD    Which, I believe, would make it something called ...a "vampire"? HERBERT    [ignoring him] Such a thing might be actively hostile, or simply motivated by self-preservation.   EDWARD    Back to Luella Miller. Scene 14.    RICHARD    Regardless, in any good social circles, eating people is considered... unacceptable. HERBERT    Well, of course such a creature would have to be eliminated, and yet the concept is fascinating. WARREN    Perhaps such creatures, throughout history, formed the basis for many such myths. CHARLES    But this myth is the only one we're dealing with tonight.  Randolph and Elihu were ready for anything they could be ready for. RANDOLPH    We had devised two weapons to fight it; a large Crookes tube operated by powerful storage batteries and provided with peculiar screens and reflectors, in case it proved intangible and opposable only by vigorously destructive ether radiations-- HERBERT    Is this item available for an examination? CHARLES    I might ask him.  But not for a couple of months.  He's rather busy at the moment. EDWARD    Oh, no - don't tell me he's in a madhouse? CHARLES    [considering, then definite] Mm.  No. RANDOLPH    We also had a pair of military flame-throwers of the sort used in the World War, in case the creature proved material and susceptible of standard destruction.  We were prepared to burn the thing's heart out - if heart existed to burn. HERBERT     This is the sort of preparation sorely lacking in most of these so-called ghost stories.  And nary a religious icon in sight? CHARLES    Um, no. HERBERT    I am impressed. EDWARD    You don't mind that they planned to "burn its heart out", so long as they didn't brandish a crucifix while they did it? HERBERT    Melodramatic, perhaps, but burning the heart out of any living creature is just as likely to be an effective way of destroying it. RANDOLPH    Our cellar vigil began at 10 P.M., daylight saving time.  A weak, filtered glow from the rain-harassed street lamps outside, and a feeble phosphorescence from the detestable fungi within, showed the dripping stone of the walls. CHARLES    They left the street door unlocked, in case of a sudden need to depart.  And they sat, playing stalking goat to a creature as potentially deadly as any man-eating tiger.  They talked far into the night until Uncle Elihu, being the older, grew drowsy. RANDOLPH    Something like fear chilled me as I sat there in the small hours alone - I say alone, for one who sits by a sleeper is indeed alone; perhaps more alone than he can realize.  Once, when the noisome atmosphere of the place seemed about to sicken me, I opened the door and looked up and down the street, feasting my eyes on familiar sights and my nostrils on wholesome air. CHARLES    He returned inside, ready to trade shifts with the elder man.  But all was not well. RANDOLPH    As I turned my electric flashlight on him, all at once he commenced to mutter.  The words were at first indistinguishable, and then, with a tremendous start, I recognized something about them which filled me with icy fear! RICHARD    Francais? CHARLES    Oui.  Now, Uncle Elihu could read and write in a passable Gallic hand, and presumably COULD speak the tongue as well.  So it might ... possibly be ... coincidence. RANDOLPH    Suddenly a perspiration broke out on the sleeper's forehead, and he leapt abruptly up, half awake.  The jumble of French changed to a cry in English! Scene 15.    ELIHU    My breath, my breath! EDWARD    Wait!  You just used the past tense!  [mimicking] "Uncle could read and write!"  Did the vampire get him? CHARLES    As a matter of fact, he woke at this point, and recounted a dreadful dream he had been having.  WARREN    A sort of race-memory?  CHARLES    All the while, he said he felt a sensation of choking, as if some pervasive presence had spread itself through his body. RANDOLPH    I reflected that dreams are only dreams, and that these visions could be, at most, no more than my uncle's reaction to the investigations which had lately filled our minds to the exclusion of all else. HERBERT    Plausible. EDWARD    Plausible denial. RANDOLPH    My uncle seemed now very wakeful, and welcomed his period of watching even though the nightmare had aroused him far ahead of his allotted two hours. EDWARD    He still went to sleep?  After all that? RANDOLPH    It was not a pleasant sleep, and for a second I was not sorry for the echoing shriek which clove through the barriers of dream and flung me to a sharp and startled awakeness. RICHARD    Who was shrieking?  EDWARD    His uncle?  Your uncle, I mean? CHARLES    [grim] Yes. RANDOLPH    As I turned, I dreaded what I was to see; for the scream had been in my uncle's voice, and I knew not against what menace I should have to defend him and myself. HERBERT    Did he at least have the sense to arm himself with the flamethrower? CHARLES    I believe so. EDWARD    Not the BEST idea, considering his uncle might be in the line of ... um... fire. RANDOLPH    Yet after all, the sight was worse than I had dreaded.  Out of the fungous-ridden earth steamed up a vaporous corpse-light, yellow and diseased, which bubbled and lapped to a gigantic height in vague outlines half human and half monstrous. RICHARD    A yellow blot upon the dark palette of the tenebrous cellar. RANDOLPH    I say that I saw this thing, but at the time it was to me only a seething dim cloud of fungous loathsomeness, enveloping the one object to which all my attention was focused.  That object was my uncle! EDWARD    Why did it wait so long? WARREN    Maybe the apparition only appears at certain times of night. HERBERT    Maybe the dimensions only overlap at certain times. CHARLES    Maybe you should let me finish the tale. RANDOLPH    And then, my uncle, features somehow blackening and decaying, leered and gibbered and reached out dripping claws to rend me! RICHARD    All the more terrible for being a relative. RANDOLPH    Only a sense of routine kept me from going mad.  Recognizing the bubbling evil as no substance reachable by matter or material chemistry, I threw on the current of the Crookes tube apparatus, and focused the strongest ether radiations. HERBERT    [eager] Yes?  RANDOLPH    There was a frenzied sputtering, and the yellowish phosphorescence grew dimmer to my eyes. But I saw that the waves from the machine had no effect whatsoever. CHARLES    Then, in the midst of that daemoniac spectacle, he saw a fresh horror which sent him fumbling and staggering towards that unlocked door to the quiet street, careless of what terrors he might loose upon the world. RANDOLPH    In that dim blend of blue and yellow light, the form of my uncle commenced a nauseous liquefaction whose essence eludes all description, and in which there played across his vanishing face such changes of identity as only madness can conceive. He was at once a devil and a multitude, a charnel-house and a pageant. CHARLES    He said that dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of faces played briefly across the countenance of our dear uncle - showing, perhaps, all those whose lives had been tainted by the shadowy intruder. RANDOLPH    Toward the last, it seemed as though the shifting features strove to form contours like those of my uncle's kindly face. I like to think that he existed at that moment, and that he tried to bid me farewell before the final dissolution. Scene 16.    HERBERT    [disbelieving] He... melted? EDWARD    Seems a bit extreme for an entity that took years and years to kill sister Mercy. WARREN    Consider that the thing had been starved for half a century.  Where it might have been satisfied with a slow drain in the past, now it was forced to gorge. RICHARD    And poor Randolph fled into the night? CHARLES    Yes.  He wandered aimlessly for a time, unsure of whom he might confide in. EDWARD    Naturally he thought of you. CHARLES    My taste in the ... unusual isn't much of a secret.  He woke me early that morning and together we approached that evil dwelling. RANDOLPH    All residue was gone, for the mouldy floor was porous. CHARLES    I saw the cot, the chairs, the instruments, and even the yellowed straw hat of my uncle. But no sign of the figure in the floor. RANDOLPH    I tried to conjecture as nearly as sanity would let me just what had happened, and how I might end the horror, if indeed it had been real.  It did not seem to be matter, nor ether, nor anything else conceivable. What, then, but some exotic emanation; some vampirish vapour such as those that rustics claim lurk over certain church yards? CHARLES    Randolph has always been a bit of a dreamer.  Between us we quickly concocted a plan, and went to fetch digging implements, military gas-masks, and six carboys of sulphuric acid. EDWARD    That you just happened to have lying around? HERBERT    That's what those were for. RICHARD    Herbert?  Why on earth do you have sulphuric acid handy? HERBERT    It serves many purposes.  But getting rid of organic ... remains... is a primary one. CHARLES    It took nearly an entire day to get everything organized.  Randolph spent most of that time trying to take his mind off the horrors he had witnessed.  RANDOLPH    I passed the hours in reading and in the composition of inane verses to counteract my mood. EDWARD    "inane verses"? RICHARD    [limerick] There once was an old man from Arkham... Scene 17.    CHARLES    Just before noon the next day, we commenced digging - right where that stain had always been seen, though there was no trace of it there in the strong morning sunshine. RANDOLPH    As I turned up the stinking black earth in front of the fireplace, a viscous yellow ichor oozed from the white fungi it severed. CHARLES    With the deepening of the hole, which was about six feet square, the evil smell increased.  We had arranged the great carboys of acid around and near two sides, so that when necessary they could be emptied down the aperture in quick succession. EDWARD    And the gas masks? CHARLES    originally to keep out the vapor itself, but we used them as much for the dreadful stench. RANDOLPH    Suddenly my spade struck something softer than earth. I shuddered and made a motion as if to climb out of the hole, which was now as deep as my neck. CHARLES    I was above at the time, taking some much-needed fresh air, but returned when he called out in horror. RANDOLPH    The thing I had uncovered was fishy and glassy - a kind of semi-putrid congealed jelly with suggestions of translucency. I scraped further, and saw that it had form -huge and roughly cylindrical; like a mammoth soft blue-white stovepipe doubled in two, its largest part some two feet in diameter. CHARLES    Abruptly, he leaped out of the hole, then began frantically unstopping and tilting the heavy carboys, and precipitating their corrosive contents one after another down that charnel gulf.    EDWARD    Before you could even see it? CHARLES    I saw enough. RICHARD    A cylinder?  So it was some sort of giant worm? EDWARD    A folded worm? CHARLES    Randolph had his own explanation for it, though I don't know how much credit to give him, there in his abject terror. HERBERT    What did he think it was? CHARLES    All I saw was a blinding maelstrom of greenish-yellow vapour which surged tempestuously up from that hole as the floods of acid descended.  People outside, seeing the hideous yellow fumes that soared up the chimney, attributed it to a dumping of waste in the river by some factory, but I know how mistaken they are as to the source. HERBERT    But you had apparently only uncovered part of the thing?  EDWARD    I guess the acid found its way back to the rest of it. Scene 18.    CHARLES    People also talk about the hideous noise which came at roughly the same time from some disordered water-pipe or gas main underground - but again I could correct them if I dared. RANDOLPH    It was unspeakably shocking, and I do not see how I lived through it. I did faint after emptying the fourth carboy; but when I recovered I saw that the hole was emitting no fresh vapours. CHARLES    I dragged him away and we waited until the fumes cleared.  We still emptied the rest of the acid down the hole, just to be on the safe side. RANDOLPH    The dampness was less foetid, and all the strange fungi had withered to a kind of harmless greyish powder which blew ashlike along the floor. HERBERT    Probably from the fumes. RANDOLPH    One of earth's nethermost terrors had perished forever; and if there be a hell, it had received at last the daemon soul of an unhallowed thing. And as I patted down the last spadeful of mould, I shed the first of many tears with which I have paid unaffected tribute to my beloved uncle's memory. EDWARD    But what was it?  What did he say he saw? CHARLES    Keep in mind that at two feet diameter, this cylinder would have made a very stocky man indeed. RICHARD    Portly, even. HERBERT    And difficult to double up that way, once obesity set in. EDWARD    What was it? CHARLES    Again, I never saw it, and only have Randolph's rather addled ideas to go by.  And he insisted that if it had lain there all those centuries, eating and growing, it could be any sort of size. EDWARD    And? CHARLES    He said this thing - this huge bent thing- was ... the creature's ...elbow. [moment of silence] EDWARD    [snickering] what? CHARLES    His words, not mine. EDWARD    But if it grew when fed, wouldn't it have shrunk when starved?  It should have been tiny. WARREN    Unless by devouring Charles's uncle - Oh, I say, I'm sorry - but perhaps that would have returned it to its... ahem ... former glory? HERBERT    It's ridiculous.  I was perfectly willing to consider the possible existence of some such thing, but quite apart form the inanity of a thing which grows so large that it COULD achieve such stature - there's a simple issue of displacement of earth! CHARLES    I expect it happened very very slowly. RICHARD    Not to mention that if something that size were its elbow, its entire body would have been underneath most of the neighborhood.  Why then, would it restrict itself to harming only those in that single house? WARREN    True. If it were going to have a single area to draw sustenance from, you might think it would be centered on, say, the mouth.  EDWARD    Yeah.  No one who's anyone eats with their elbow. CHARLES    [annoyed sigh] I'll make a point of telling Randolph the next time I see him. END

We treat TV as the most disposable art form – but for decades it has shaped our world more than we know. From Big Brother to Shameless to Little Britain and Benefit Street, television chose the winners and losers of consumer capitalism, made it OK to sneer at the underclass, and then allowed that underclass a token comeback or two. Author Phil Harrison explores television's innate cruelty, class dynamics and political subtext in The Age Of Static: How TV Explains Modern Britain. Has TV made our politics worse? And should it just give up on live political interviews altogether? “A show called Britain's Hardest Worker pitted benefit claimants against one another. You wouldn't have written that in a dystopian fantasy.” “Maybe the BBC needs to be in that permanent state of conflict or it's not doing its job of challenging what we think.” “When Mentorn took over Question Time they promised ‘adrenaline-fuelled Thursday nights'. Is that the purpose of a serious news show?” “Nadine Dorries as a kamikaze Culture Secretary scares the hell out of me.” Written and presented by Justin Quirk. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's bubbly, raw, honest and passionate guest was thrust into the media spotlight in 2014 -2015 when she appeared in Benefit Street and then later celebrity big brother. Her life changed overnight after starring in Benefit Street, and she has experienced the highs and lows of being in the tabloids, part of which we discussed during the interview.

As our characters deal with the spreading disease, they are led to the Shunned House on 135 Benefit Street. What will they find there? What is causing this sickness? And where is Angele?  Cast:  Fei as the Game Master @captainfakeeye | Twitter Nathan as Raymond @natescottjones | Twitter/IG Matt as Butch @Longfellow_Matt | Twitter  Felicity as Angele @radmissfliss | Twitter  Tyler as Walter @TScowcro | Twitter Norma as Aaron @normanlambert45 | Twitter  All songs from Table Top Audio  1920s Speakeasy  Alchemists Lab  Antiquraian Study Arabesque Barovian Castle Castle Jail   Cavern of Lost Souls  Nephilim Lab  Vault of Terror 

Tune in to hear Aaron Derby.

Join Bridget & Molly on their first episode of Legends, Folklore, & History.  In this episode they explore the tales of Benefit Street, from a house that inspired Avi to write Something Upstairs to the residents that have never left.

On this episode of the TBG Real Estate Podcast, we welcome Rob Levy. We discuss his journey from tennis court to real estate and how being the CEO of a company led his to feel the entrepreneurial bug.Rob is one of the Managing Partners of LBX Investments. Prior to launching LBX in February, 2018, Rob co-founded Big V Capital (“BVC”). While at BVC he oversaw and underwrote the partnership’s 11 Southeastern U.S. shopping center acquisitions and managed all capital raising (both debt and equity) and asset management efforts.EPISODE NOTES:12:30 - From Affordable to buying retail14:45 - Building trust with partners17:00 - From tennis to real estate18:30 - How has the real estate changed?24:15 - Why start your own company?26:50 - What makes a good partner?29:00 - Building a company when its remote30:55 - The future of LBX34:52 - The Hot Seat presented by KK ResetPrior to BVC, Rob was the Chief Operating Officer of the Real Estate Group at Benefit Street Partners, a multi-strategy credit manager with over $11.0 billion in assets under management.Prior to Benefit Street, Rob held various positions at Centerline Capital Group, including Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and was a member of the Board of Trustees of Centerline’s parent company, Centerline Holding Company. Centerline was a multifamily finance and asset management company with a national scope mortgage banking platform and over $13 billion in equity and debt under management. Rob joined Centerline in 2001 as the Director of Capital Markets.From 1998 to 2001, he was a Vice President in the Real Estate Equity Research and Investment Banking departments at Robertson Stephens, an investment banking firm. Prior to 1998, Rob worked at Prudential Securities in the real estate equity research group and at the Prudential Realty Group, the real estate investment arm of the Prudential Insurance Company.Rob received his MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University and his BA from Northwestern University.

This week we’re bringing you the story that took place in a house on 135 Benefit Street, in Providence, Rhode Island. The possibly “cursed” Stephen Harris House may have inspired H.P. Lovecraft to come up with “The Shunned House” and reportedly, Edgar Allen Poe walked by it daily. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/KillerBabesPodcast/message

In Episode 78, Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger take a Valentine's Day stroll down Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, to the Athenaeum in search of the brokenhearted ghost of Edgar Allan Poe. It was at the Athenaeum that Poe once courted poet Sarah Helen Whitman and it was at this same building that Whitman once tried to summon his spirit. Could the master of horror still be haunting Providence? Had events gone differently would it had been Providence and not Baltimore that claimed Poe as their own?

Charlie Hewitt has had a long, impressive career in I.T. culminating in a position as Chief Information Officer for the City of Providence RI (2003-2010) and as Director of the Health Information Exchange, Program Management (2010-2015). He is now involved in the Mile of History Association (MoHA) which aims to restore and preserve the historically significant Benefit Street in Providence, RI. They chat from history to how A.I. is going to change health care and the use of electronic health records in a big way.

The red carpet seems to make more of an impression than the awards at the Oscars. Shaun reveals the greatness of James Franco's poetry while reviewing time travel to JFK land in 22.11.63. More Nordic Noir from Iceland with Trapped. Spies in London do spy things and kissing in London Spy. The Witch puts vulnerable children in a dark forest where evil dwells, what could possibly go wrong? Sacha Baron Cohen gives us another dose of the squirms in Grimsby as James Bond meets Benefit Street.

This is the very first Podcast by Aaron Smith and Fred Stockdale, in this first episode we find out more about Fred than we really need to know, Aaron's new app addiction, they also discus stuff thats in the news, including Benefit Street, the new Robocop film and Justin Bieber Lizard Boy.

This week we start off with thoughts on the SuperBowl movie trailers. Our first movie is Lone Survivor, an offbeat sequel to Team America, but can it live up to the poignancy of the original? Matthew McConaughey's mournful eyes plead for a burger in Dallas Buyers Club and generates a great deal of good will, but there's always one. Mark has a crisis of conscience in reviewing Benefit Street, a documentary about life on social welfare. Mike also has a crisis this one of the mid-life kind as he sees Greg Kinnear having way too much fun in Rake.