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Torah Obscura Radio Hour

Torah Obscura Radio Hour

Written by: Michael Diamond
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Season 1, Chapters 1 to 8, presents ”A Mobster’s Midrash” read by the author, Michael Diamond. A gangster version of the Bible set in the 1970s/80s worlds of music and mobsters, A Mobster’s Midrash is a surreal fusion of mob‑family saga, retold mythologies, and cosmic satire. The shamus narrator tangles with crime syndicates, resurrected deities, musicians and misfits. Across its chapters, it reframes biblical and mythological archetypes—Isis, Osiris, pillars of fire and cloud—inside a comic‑noir world of clubs, Jersey highways, Union shakedowns, and psychedelic concert caravans. It’s an epic exploration of the art of the story—sacred, profane, and personal—imagined, broken, and recast.

Season 2, chapters 9 to 16, presents "The Proceedings of the Academy of the Dream Society read by the author, Michael Diamond. The narrator, Boss Joey, or is it Jakey, picks up the narrative from the first book of the trilogy and takes it to the next plane, the world of dreams, the Interworld, the Bardo, though some would call it Purgatory. It is a sprawling, surreal, and metafictional autobiographical narrative that blends personal history with mythic symbolism, mystical lore, dream logic, and humorous reimaginings of religious and cultural traditions. The narrator moves between memory, fantasy, and metaphor as he encounters figures from the “Dream Society,” revisits key moments in his life, and reflects on identity, spirituality, suffering, and transformation. It a visionary epic—part memoir, part dream‑journal, part satire—with recurring motifs of initiation, wandering, healing, and the search for sovereignty.

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Episodes
  • Chapter 13: Morpheus Deferred
    Jan 29 2026

    Chapter 13, "Morpheus Deferred," follows Jacob's teenage journey from high-school wrestling and drug-fueled misadventures to uneasy commerce with the Dream Society. As he travels to Herefordshire College and confronts inner voices and a lingering sense of derealization, the narrative traces his loss of identity and the haunting pull of the Ghost Fortress. Interspersed is an interlude of the older Jake's most recent purgation.

    The episode blends memories of friendships, adolescent rites, and encounters with mentors, highlighting themes of choice, agency, and the maps — literal and figurative — that guide and unmoor him.

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    41 mins
  • Chapter 12: Dream Society Detours
    Jan 27 2026

    An off-kilter memoir episode about a summer in the ‘Ghost Palace’ where young Jake Isakson drifts into the Dream Society’s underworld—initiation rituals, petty crime, and the slow creep of possession reshape his life.

    Set against family fractures and reckless strategies, the chapter maps a purgatorial detour that reveals how choices, karma, and lost bearings steer a life away from the beaten path.

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    55 mins
  • Chapter 11: Nonsense and Insensibilia
    Jan 22 2026

    A surreal, darkly comic episode following a narrator through dreamlike assassinations, Dream Society rites, and strange encounters—blending ritual, humor, and haunting imagery as the Academy’s proceedings unfold.

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    45 mins
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