The Next 5 Minutes

Ear Candy Media | Echidna Audio | Spineless Wonders•shows.acast.com

It’s 2035… and things aren’t great Downunder. Mass homelessness, pollution ruining beaches, teenagers facing slave labour and everything, including euthanasing the elderly, has been privatised by a corrupt libertarian government in cahoots with Empyrean Industries, a shadowy corporation busy mining the moon.

An underground terrorist movement called Swag Sting is mobilising but wracked by infighting. Crowd control measures include giant, deadly robot kangaroos. As our protagonists battle for humanity's essence, we uncover an alarming future that lurks uncomfortably close.

THE NEXT 5 MINUTES is not just a podcast—it's a movement, a deep, dark, truthful mirror reflecting a future we must avoid. Every. Second. Counts.

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Episodes

The Last Bloom

With Coral’s beloved Azaleas in full bloom, Helen contemplates if it's a good day to meet her maker. Meanwhile, news of Zilch's arrest sends shockwaves through the Swag Sting hideout, pushing Pronto to the brink of a daring rescue mission. As Space unveils the sting of a double-cross, involving the elusive Rufas and a property trade that releases Byrone Ellis' family, the team faces the prospect of a new subterranean base. Pronto's desperate attempt to 'path' Zilch results in a tantalisingly bri...

Feb 13, 2024•16 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Helen

With a buzzing Zeppelin-style airship disturbing her tranquility and A-list nursing home brochures piling up, life teems with uneasy choices for widowed “Grey Boomer” Helen. She finds companionship in her pet raven, Rabindranath, and solace in gardening and reading the secret journals of her dead wife Coral. Helen daydreams of underwater escapes, an LSD-fuelled respite from reality, as the couple’s past activism comes back to haunt them. There are regular, unwelcome visits from the Bureau of Una...

Feb 06, 2024•28 min•Season 1Ep. 4

Byrone

Byrone H. Ellis is a politician to match the rottenness of the times. A junior minister in the Free Futures government, he is a self-proclaimed future world dominator who finds himself in a perpetual state of chaos. Amid scandals of elder abuse, a sleepless Byrone juggles media duties and a fresh assignment from his boss Amanda, handling a nuclear waste cover-up and a mass tranquilization program. Past embarrassments, like his infamous brothel scandal, could be offset if only he can keep his shi...

Jan 30, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Pronto

Zilch and Pronto regularly connect via telepathy, bonding over gossip and sharing hardships of their past - from being raised by a hippie mom in a self-destructive cult to losing their parents in a murderous arson. Escaping the city, they join the underground resistance, led by the notorious Rufas, targeting wealthy symbols and politicians. Despite infighting and Pronto's protests, Zilch embarks on a risky intel-gathering mission in Canberra using a "pendant cam" and a fake identity. Her cover i...

Jan 30, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Zilch

Orphaned teenage sisters make it to the city to find work as indentured “Pigironers”, carrying beach tourists on their backs so they avoid the acid surf. Zilch is connected to her older sister Pronto via telepathy. Everything is set to change after they meet a charismatic stranger at a waterhole who turns out to be a recruiter for the underground resistance group Swag Sting. The encounter with Space will change their lives forever. CREDITS THE NEXT 5 MINUTES is written and directed by Ian Walker...

Jan 30, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 1

INTRODUCING: The Next 5 Minutes

Welcome to THE NEXT 5 MINUTES , a five-episode series which follows the fortunes of four memorable characters whose dark and sometimes comical stories connect in strange ways in the dystopian Gondwanaland (the nation formerly known as Australia) of the near future. The series launches Wednesday, January 24, 2024. Follow us on Instagram @earcandypresents Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Nov 15, 2023•1 min

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