SURFACE AREA | Part 1: The Ascent and the Void

A devastating pandemic is in the rearview, but for shoe shiner Jack, a new—and world-altering—crisis is just beginning.

In this opening installment of the SURFACE AREA podcast deep dive, we meet Jack, a man who's found a new, quiet rhythm to life after global upheaval. But a frantic encounter with a regular customer, the mysterious Silas, shatters his routine, thrusting a heart-shaped locket into his hand with a terrifying warning: "it means the future of this planet."

This episode plunges you into Jack's immediate aftermath: the bewildering loss of the locket, a sudden blackout, and a desperate, terrifying ascent up a dark metal shaft. Experience the raw shock as Jack breaks through to the "surface," only to find an existence of absolute barrenness a ...