The Polybius Conspiracy – Details, episodes & analysis

The Polybius Conspiracy is a seven-part series, originally heard on Radiotopia's Showcase in 2017, which tells the complex story of two men united by a decades-old urban legend. Polybius, a mysterious arcade game from the '80s whose alleged existence in the Pacific Northwest is fueled by myth and an obsessive online fan base, and which may have factored in the abduction of two teenage boys. Told as a hybrid documentary/fictional story, the series is an artful meditation on how urban legends take hold and spread, and an exploration into how we consume and perpetuate information in the internet age.

An investigation into the origins of the Polybius legend leads to Bobby, who claims the game was responsible for his abduction as a teenager. In the thirty-five years since, Bobby has remained steadfast with his story, going so far as to organize a for-profit walking tour while obsessively searching for the one person he believes could corroborate his allegations. Local players from the Portland arcade scene cast doubt on Bobby’s story, as do journalists who refute the game as ever having existed.

Hello! This week we're at Tribeca Festival in New York debuting the pilot episode of our new audio fiction series, The Skies Are Watching starring Caitlin Stasey, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, David Yow, Guinevere Turner, and Caroline Morahan. 

"When Heather Haskins disappeared two years ago, the last place anyone expected her to turn up was aboard a flight without a ticket or identification. But how she managed to get onboard is only the first of several mysteries, as Heather now believes herself to be a woman who vanished in 1938."

The show will premiere in its entirety on July 5th via BBC Radio 4 (BBC Sounds Limelight feed) and will be available wherever you get your podcasts. For now, enjoy a sneak preview of our pilot, and we hope you'll tune in when the full show launches next month.

As a man comes forward to potentially corroborate Bobby's story, the path forward plunges into the darkness of another Oregonian legend: the infamous Shanghai Tunnels.

The search for answers leads the team to a retired journalist with a bizarre connection to Coin Kingdom, and unsettling allegations of abuse at an international youth academy.

Sometimes journalists pursue a mystery; other times, it pursues them. An unexpected phone call from Naomi Halbrook leads to more revelations, while a competing documentary project about Polybius leads to conflict.

New clues about the whereabouts of Rubin's missing partner shed light on secrets Bobby might prefer stay hidden. The team looks into how one might go about vetting the authenticity of a Polybius cabinet.

Questions about Bobby result in a surprising lead, as Rubin comes to believe he's cracked the code on Polybius.

Fact, fabrication, history and hoax converge as the search for Marc comes full circle.

Ong’s Hat is rumored to have once been the site of a gateway to another dimension. After meeting on a forum devoted to the urban legend, yoga instructor Sarah Larsen, and schoolteacher Charlie Brill, go on a road trip to the New Jersey Pine Barrens where a group of renegade Princeton professors had once conducted quantum physics and chaos theory experiments to discover a new theory for dimensional travel. When Sarah disappears, Charlie finds himself at the center of a mystery. Corey Brill (The Walking Dead) stars in this docu-thriller for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds from the makers of The Polybius Conspiracy and Passenger List.