It's only the end of the world: In this podcast, aliens destroy the Earth...because of our pop music

On February 14th of next year, the people of our planet will be given an ultimatum from an alien signal: shut down pop music radio, or the Earth will be destroyed. Of course, not enough people will listen.

This is the entry point of No One Receiving, an apocalyptic space dramedy of a podcast that works as a metaphor for the current climate crisis and the burnout folks fighting it are surely feeling. It follows Beth Kane, a self-described music snob who manages to escape Earth on a stolen spaceship just before the aliens blow it up. Along with Bobby — a "needy juvenile AI programmed to help people" who comes with the ship — Beth begins to explore the galaxy to find fellow survivors and figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

The five-episode first season of the podcast is out in its entirety now and is the brainchild of Maggie MacDonald, a Toronto-based author, musician and artist who has spent many years working with environmental NGOs and community organizations. MacDonald originated the podcast's story on stage at the 2014 Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

"The play was a one-act show in which I played Beth Kane," MacDonald tells CBC Arts. "The podcast is much longer and starts before the world blows up, then follows Kane into space."

MacDonald told herself when she was writing No One Receiving that it was "a comedy about the end of the world, for my friends working on campaigns against climate change." But looking back, she realizes now that she wrote it for herself.

"At the time I had been experiencing a lot of artistic rejection for my writing and theatre projects, knocking on closed doors, while supporting myself by working in the environmental movement — which meant daily encounters with a whole other scale of rejection, feelings of hopelessness, and wondering 'what's the point?' There is no worse crisis imaginable to me than the actual end of the entire world. But what if that came and went, and someone survived? What's next for that person? Sometimes life goes on, even when it doesn't."

MacDonald feels that many people today "say that it is naive to fight against climate change because it's 'baked in,' a lost cause."

"But there is room to try things and orient yourself in an effort that will probably fail, if it's the right thing to do in your time," she continues. "You might look naive doing it, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are a delusional day dreamer with a head full of unicorns. With the Kane character, I am creating a picture of someone who resists and puts on a brave face, even though intellectually she knows it's not the most efficient or rational thing to do. And I can think of many real world characters I admire who embody that spirit. "

Speaking of real world characters, MacDonald enlisted many from Toronto's theatre, drag, art and music scenes to collaborate on No One Receiving. Among them: John Southworth (who voices Bobby), Keith Cole, Owen Pallett, Mike Haliechuk of Fucked Up, Bob Wiseman, Laura Barrett, Brian Taylor and Shaun Brodie of the Queen Songbook Orchestra.

"Creating theatre and music and sometimes both at once, over the last 18 years I've collaborated with a circle of artists and activists whom I like to think of as a 'troupe' even though they might not know it," says MacDonald. "In my diary, I call the troupe 'Northern Dreamland.' The name is a homage to John Waters' Dreamlanders — untrained actors taken from his Baltimore neighbourhood, and a reference to a type of magical thinking that is common in Canada."

"With some notable exceptions such as Keith Cole (who has training in acting, dance, even tap dance!), many of the performers and collaborators I work with do not have specialized or academic training in the performing arts. They are members of my community, wearing the costume of fantasy."

Ultimately, MacDonald hopes that what she and her "Northern Dreamland" came together to offer can give folks "a good laugh at some of the graver issues facing humanity today — not to dismiss these concerns, but to sit comfortably with discomfort."

"I also hope the episodes offer food for thought on pop culture, loving music you think is truly bad, exploring our inner contradictions when it comes to politics and personal values. The episodes are also a meditation on themes of homesickness and nostalgia. "

And if it all leaves listeners wanting more, never fear: MacDonald is already working on a second season.

"The next season's storyline will take place on planet Epsilon Geise, the place where the aliens who blew up Earth live. There's been a revolution on the planet, and a hedonistic dictator who actually loves everything trashy and terrible about Earth has taken over, much to our main character's chagrin...There will also be humanoid frogs and fun stuff like that. Hopefully season one doesn't come true before we can make season two!"

Listen to No One Receiving's first season here.