Circles

Nestled near the edge of the George Washington National Forest in Brandywine, West Virginia, there's a clearing surrounded by a tall chain link fence. At first glance it looks empty, except for what appears to be white field paint, the kind schools use to mark a football field, running off in a long lazy arc. Then you follow it, and the arc closes. It's a circle. A geometrically perfect circle, a hundred yards across, and it's older than the fence around it and older than the trees outside it. Nobody knows who put it there. Everybody in that county knows the rule about it. Content warning: this episode deals with entrapment, prolonged isolation, grief, and a death by choice. Nothing is depicted graphically. Click here to message the pod It’s not just a color out of space; it’s the shape of things to come.