Spanish Sundown

We’ve all heard about people who join cults because it gives them a sense of belonging. But that’s not the only reason. Leandro is an amazing guitarist who has never made it big. Ever since stumbling across a golden antenna in the woods as a young boy, he has heard debilitating static inside his brain. This noise is so intense that it keeps him from developing his talents. The voices trapped inside the golden antenna take Leandro back to 1969, when NASA built a space station in the mountains outside Madrid. He learns how vitally important this station was for putting Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon in a tale of Cold War espionage, secret tape recordings and alien tones. No one understands how hard it is to be Leandro. That is, until he meets Aurora. She knows just what to say. Because Aurora knows the other reason why people join cults. Poor Leandro doesn’t stand a chance. --- 1-The NASA communications station website. 2-The Smithsonian’s explanation of the mysterious Apollo 10 music recording. 3-A digital copy of the recording. r-Read through the crazy conspiracy theories on Reddit. 5-Fresnedillas de la Oliva lunar museum’s website where you can see how a medieval Spanish village made space travel history. 6-Documentary feature Fresnedillas, una historia alunizante on Spain’s role in the moon landing. 7-De Madrid a la Luna: Espacio Fundación Telefónica’s extended documentary on the locals who worked for NASA and helped put man on the moon. 8- Check out our website or follow Spanish Sundown on Facebook and Instagram to see original footage taken while researching and recording on-site outside the NASA station in the Madrid mountains. --- © 2025 Samuel Mattern. All rights reserved.

There's a good reason you aren't hearing your regularly scheduled episode today. Stay tuned! --- © 2025 Samuel Mattern. All rights reserved.

In today’s story, Carlota is partying with her boyfriend Lucas in Madrid’s Plaza Dos de Mayo square. Carlota loves Lucas, but sometimes he does…stuff. Stuff that pisses her off so bad, all she can see are the dark spots of irritation behind her eyes. When she touches the iron fence around the statues of Captains Daoíz and Velarde, Carlota travels back to 1808 Spain and meets Manuela Malasaña, the 17-year-old embroiderer who died in the uprising against Napoleon’s occupying forces. They called her a national hero. But was she really? And is Carlota really guilty of what happens to Lucas if she can’t see through the dark spots behind her eyes? --- 1-Check out the location of Plaza Dos de Mayo here. 2-See Eugenio Álvarez Dumont’s 1887 painting of Manuela fighting alongside her father here. You can visit this painting at the Prado Museum of Madrid. 3-See the sculpture Death of Manuela Malasaña by Antonio Moltó y Lluch here. You can visit it at the History Museum of Madrid. 4-See Goya’s The 3rd of May 1808 painting of executions ordered by Murat (at the Prado Museum) and The 2nd of May 1808 at the Fundación Goya en Aragón (complete with Mamelukes). You can truly feel the terror. 5-Check out our website or follow Spanish Sundown on Facebook and Instagram to see original footage taken while researching and recording on-site at Plaza Dos de Mayo. Join our community! --- © 2025 Samuel Mattern. All rights reserved.

If someone hurt a person you loved, how long would you be willing to wait to make them pay? In today’s story, guest actress Khephra C. White introduces us to a nurse named Helena. She toys with her favorite golden brooch with red rubies while she waits at a lonely hospital. When a new patient named Alfredo arrives, he tries to take her piece of jewelry. The voices inside the brooch take them both back to Granada in 1936, where they meet the poet Federico García Lorca just as Civil War breaks out in Spain. It turns out that Helena and Alfredo go way back. Way, way back. And Alfredo might want her brooch…but Helena wants her revenge even more. --- 1-Don’t forget to vote Spanish Sundown for the Audience Choice Award in the UK International Audio Drama Festival! This kind of recognition would help to put the show on the map and make it last. So, if you’d like to show appreciation for my work, Spanish Sundown stands a real chance of winning and voting only takes a second. I’d be so grateful! Voting form available here. 2-Khephra C. White cowrote this episode and voiced Helena, Carla and narration. Check out her IG account to see her work as writer, actress and comedian (she’s hilarious—if you’re in Madrid, go see her shows): @darqueroast 3-See the location of the abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium here. If you are able to visit in person, swing by the restaurant with the chimney smoke on the other side of the lonely trucker highway—it feels like the only inhabited building in the otherwise abandoned town. 4-Read Federico García Lorca’s biography here, read a bit of his poetry here, and read some of his plays here (they’re all good, but Blood Wedding/Bodas de sangre is one of my personal favorites). 5-Check out Spanish Sundown’s webpage or our Facebook and Instagram accounts for footage of Khephra and me while recording and doing on-site research at the sanatorium. Drop by and leave a comment—hearing from you makes my day! --- © 2025 Samuel Mattern. All rights reserved.  

Every spring in Spain, the pine trees are covered in nests the size of a fist with the texture of a rotten cobweb. Out of these nests come caterpillars, called processionaries. These caterpillars are poisonous. Their hairs provoke a rash that can last for several days. This rash spreads. Like a poison. In today's episode, Estrella is ridding her backyard of these pests. When her shovel strikes an owl skeleton, she travels back to 1970s Robledo de Chavela, when the town was held terrified hostage by a ghost in the medieval church cemetery. A cemetery overrun by processionaries and their poison. Estrella discovers that the poison doesn't just spread; it becomes a part of you. --- 1-See the bio of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, nature expert and journalist, here. 2-Here's a link to Robledo de Chavela on the map, where our story takes place. 3-Check out Spanish Sundown’s webpage or our Facebook or Instagram accounts for footage of Robledo de Chavela, the church where the owl hid, and processionaries in my own backyard (ew). While you're there, join our community; I love hearing from you! --- © 2025 Samuel Mattern. All rights reserved.