> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.earwaxmag.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Audio Drama Sunday: The Bird Roads review - URL: https://www.earwaxmag.com/audio-drama-sunday-the-bird-roads-review/ - Published: 2026-09-20T18:52:30.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-20T20:43:21.000Z - Author: EAR•WAX Magazine by Gavin Gaddis *The Bird Roads* is a new audio drama miniseries from Tin Can Audio, written by Ella Watts and starring Ferah Ahmet as pilot Noor Latif. The story kicks off with Noor flying her plane *Blackbird* across an infinite ocean, an off-screen apocalypse having flooded the world and sparked a supersized hurricane dubbed the “giga-storm.” Noor’s trying to find her two lovers, Finn and Aster. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/71/a3/71a388b3-754c-48b9-a4ac-39fd038eff37/content/images/2026/09/birdroads.jpg) The series is currently available in both episodic free podcast format, as well as the classic Tin Can Audio methodology of putting the entire series up for direct purchase on Bandcamp. This particular Bandcamp version comes with the added incentive of lightly re-editing episodes to flow directly into each other without credit sequences, allowing for the entire story to be consumed in one sitting without stopping for intros and outros every five-ish minutes. Given the short length of the episodes, I highly recommend the Bandcamp edit over the podcast edit. While not a problem *exclusive* to *The Bird Roads*, I find bite-sized audio drama pacing suffers quite a bit from intro/outro segments when consumed too close together. It’s an issue we all put up with for the sake of the medium, but when given the opportunity to consume a text as a text and not small tracts, I take it. It’s been six years since I’ve checked in on Tin Can Audio with the podcast *The Dungeon Economic* Model. It’s heartening to see Amber Devereux is still out there delivering incredible sound design and music. The beating heart of *The Bird Roads* is Devereux’s deft hand at keeping a sense of place to Noor wherever she is. As your local autistic audio drama critic, I’m going to say two things back to back that might sound contradictory, but I genuinely mean: *1\. The Bird Roads* is a sincere, eager miniseries full of passionate acting and deft sound design. It is absolutely worth your time and money to buy the Bandcamp version and experience as fully intended. 2\. *The Bird Roads* feels like it yearns to be a full-length podcast, or a script for a visual medium. In making the sacrifices needed to be produced, the final product feels more about the vibes than the actual content. As we learn in later arcs, Noor is a Kara “Starbuck” Thrace-style pilot. She flies test planes with a devil-may-care attitude and is one of the few polyamorous characters in audio fiction to not give a Queer Terminology 101 lecture about how polyamory works for the audience’s sake. I much enjoy both of these concepts. However, those concepts come with a big airbrake attached: *The Bird Roads* has a decided lack of payoff for Noor and her story overall. The plot takes a circuitous route, explaining very little about the apocalypse or how long it has been since said apocalypse until it’s too late to be of any intrigue. At the end of the first act we’re presented with a cliffhanger that could be the instant death of Noor, or her learning something invaluable about the giga-storm that has swallowed the world. In a world where act one is meant to be a Kickstarter pilot for a longer show, it makes perfect sense as an end point. Gentle spoilers from here on out. You have been warned. Then one finds out the actual path of the show: acts two and three are a flashback to before the apocalypse that establishes Noor’s relationships (or, one of them at least) and leads her right up into the opening moments of act one. Having seen this plot device my fair share of times, I spent the majority of the series patiently waiting for payoff. For what would ostensibly be episode four of act one that further explains what happens with Noor. It’s a miniseries about overcoming the odds, of pursuing love for the sake of love. If Noor is insta-killed by something in the eye of the storm, at the very least one would expect another character to take over and give some closure. Barring that, an *epilogue*. I feel I should dedicate a section of this review to airplanes, as I come from the world of vehicle neurodivergencies. While I’m a card-carrying reverend and train autist, I have a minor in plane hyperfixation. The concept of a plane-based world is a fun one. From the soaring heights of *Porco Rosso* to the B-movie cheesy depths of *Slipstream* (or, if you want to apply a very Reddit-coded theory to a kid’s cartoon: *TaleSpin).* Heck, even this year we had a flooded-world apocalypse with *Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead*. [The Bird Roads - Complete Series by Tin Can Audio](https://tincanaudio.bandcamp.com/album/the-bird-roads-complete-series?ref=earwaxmag.com) The trick is, all of those previous stories have the planes baked into their very existence. *Slipstream* explains fuel post-apocalypse with a combination of everybody using lightweight gliders to traverse jetstreams, and settlements that carefully dole out fuel. Perhaps it’s my background in consuming sci-fi and vehicle-based stories in the past, but I hate walking away from *The Bird Roads* not even knowing what *Blackbird* even vaguely… *is*. I know it can land in water, is powered by props, and has a nondescript pseudo-magic claw machine grabby thing that Jamal’s plane *also* has. But that’s pure speculation from someone who has seen too many movies and listened to too many podcasts. In practice my suggestion is simple: this show is about the journey, not the destination. If you’re in it for a thrilling ending or some big sum-up about the nature of true love, look elsewhere. If you come to the table ready for a tone piece about a character refusing to give up when everything else tells them to, you’re going to have a grand time. Also, once you’re done, go watch Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson’s short movie[ *Enigma*](https://youtu.be/QHQHvkUTAM0?list=PLLkmfC6FnUygRW8TXgK8tz-j-iVTAoSgT&ref=earwaxmag.com)for a 20 minute reflection on depression and hope that’s oddly in the same wheelhouse as *The Bird Roads*. Apocalypse fiction generally acts as a mirror for the times and the person creating it. Zombies, disease, global floods, they all carry implications. Noor has lost literally everything. The real world is gone beneath her. In our current world where love is in very short supply, Watts and Devereux have crafted a story of someone steadfastly refusing to give up hope. Of pursuing love at any cost. That is something worth holding on to.