goodenomics™

Journey 5 of 9 · Night two · 21:15 · The shelter radio room

The Radio

When is a lie right?

The first scene of The Radio, as the game draws it: Night two. You run the valley’s radio now. Tonight you are called to the first-aid tent.
A scene from the game, as it is drawn: one handwritten line at a time.

You run the only radio in the valley. Walt is eighty-one and dying, and he asks whether his wife got out of the flood. You know that she drowned. Then Walt is going to live, and will learn what you told him. Then a child asks. Then the question is what to tell two thousand people asleep below a dam that may fail tonight.

Six calls about the kind lie, the useful lie and the secret kept, and one where the same question is put to you.

Play The Radio Free. No account. Your place is saved on your device.

How it opens

The first scene, in the game’s own words. In the game each line is written into the drawing as you tap.

  1. Night two. You run the valley’s radio now. Tonight you are called to the first-aid tent.
  2. Walt is eighty-one, and the nurse, not looking up from the cot, says he has minutes, not hours.
  3. He takes your hand and asks one thing: “Did my wife get out?”
  4. You saw the list an hour ago. Rose drowned. He does not know.
  5. Nobody else will reach him in time, and what you say is the last thing he hears.

What do you tell him?

The six calls

After the first, each call changes one fact, and one of them turns the question on you.

  1. The last question
  2. The dam
  3. The number on the form
  4. The secret
  5. The same question, for you
  6. The list at midnight

The long night

When you have finished the journey you can play it whole: all twelve calls. These are the other six.

It happened

The valley is invented. This is not: The Tuskegee study and Peter Buxtun: stay inside, or go to the press?

What the research says

The scenes in this journey are new dilemmas written for the game. No study is claimed for them, and no numbers about how people answer.

Play The Radio Free. No account. Your place is saved on your device.

Next journey: The Gate Who decides for them?