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Can a song be so beautiful that it destroys your life?
Season 9, episode 6, October 16, 2026
What if a melody followed you home from the far side of the world, moved into your head, and refused to leave?
That is where Earworm begins.
I wrote Earworm about a man who cannot stop hearing a song. Not a song from the radio. Not a song anyone else can hear. It plays while he works. It plays while he sleeps. And it plays while he sits across the table from women he is trying to build a life with, quietly paralysing every relationship before it has a chance to begin. How do you tell someone on a first date that there is already another presence living inside your head?
On one of those dates, he finally tells the truth. Years earlier, he travelled deep into the Sahara Desert with a team of explorers and descended into mystery caves that appear on no map. Something was waiting down there in the dark. Not a creature. Not a machine. A melody.
Where did it come from? Why did it choose him? And what does a song want, once it finds a mind it likes?
Earworm is mesmerising, captivating, and disturbing. I will not tell you how it ends. I will only say this: after you listen, notice the next song that gets stuck in your head, and ask yourself where it really came from.
Listen and subscribe at https://welcometoearthstories.com
Welcome to Earth Stories is listener supported, and it stays alive because of people like you. If Earworm stays with you, and trust me, it will, please give back to the show at Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/earthstories. Every coffee helps me keep writing and producing the stories you love.
Leave me a voice message and tell me what the song in your head is playing: https://www.speakpipe.com/WelcomeToEarthStories
Watch my writing channel, The Writer’s Compass, where I break down how stories like this are built: https://www.youtube.com/@TheWritersCompass
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Questions listeners ask:
What is Earworm about?
A man haunted by a beautiful melody he discovered in hidden caves beneath the Sahara Desert, and what that melody does to every relationship he tries to build.
Where can I listen to Earworm?
At welcometoearthstories.com, and on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
How can I support Welcome to Earth Stories?
Buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/earthstories, leave a five star review, and share Earworm with one friend who loves a mystery.
Written and produced by York Campbell.
One more thing, and you will thank me for it. COVENANT CITY, the game I created, is live right now. You are the Masked Guardian, defending Jerusalem from the skies. Go to welcometoearthstories.com, hit the COVENANT CITY button, and play free in your browser, or install it on your phone like an app: https://welcometoearthstories.com/covenant-city/
Want the story behind the game first? Read it here: https://welcometoearthstories.com/covenant-city-story/