Skip to content

The Strange Case of the Vanishing Visionary

Jack Prescott's Podcast — Complete Episode Guide

The opening of every episode

"Semper curiosus. Semper creatrix. Always curious, always creative."

About the Podcast

The Strange Case of the Vanishing Visionary: Unraveling the Lost Legacy of a Pulp Sci-Fi Pioneer is the podcast Jack Prescott launched after discovering his great-grandfather's trunk. Part biography, part memoir, part unfolding mystery, it follows two stories at once: the life of J.B. Prescott, and Jack's own transformation from a defeated film-school grad into a man on the trail of something impossible.

It blends historical fiction, science fiction, mystery, and a coming-of-age arc with meta-commentary on the power of narrative—in the spirit of Welcome to Night Vale and The Magnus Archives. Across its run, an idle family-history project becomes an investigation into J.B.'s 1961 disappearance, the recurring Triquetra, a strange ticking device, and a secret government program.

A note on the episodes

The surviving recordings preserve nine episodes plus a bonus. Jack's numbering wandered as the series grew—what was billed as the "final" episode became a pivot point instead. The guide below presents the journey in narrative order.

Season One

Episode 1 — The Trunk in the Attic

The debut. Jack introduces himself, his great-grandfather, and the mystery that will consume him.

Fresh off his father's death, Jack finds the leather trunk and meets J.B. on the page for the first time: the pulp writer of "The Ghosts of Mars" and "The Clockwork Pharaoh," the adventurer who "lived his stories." He resolves to tell that story—and reveals the kicker. J.B. vanished in 1961.

Clue planted

As Jack packs up the trunk, a small triangular slip falls from a journal: a circle with three interlocking triangles. He's been seeing it everywhere since.

Episode 2 — From Cutting Horses to Cosmic Horror

J.B.'s childhood on the Santa Barbara ranch, and the imagination it forged.

Born March 15, 1888, J.B. grows up between cattle work and his father's library of Verne and Wells. Jack draws uneasy parallels to his own life—and recruits his skeptical journalist friend Maria and quantum physicist Dr. Emily Chen to help make sense of the materials.

Clue planted

A cryptic line in a childhood journal, in a different, rushed hand: "The Tree stands where three become one. Follow the roots to uncover the sun." That night, Jack receives an anonymous email: "Stop digging. Some secrets are best left buried."

Episode 3 — Wings of War and Wonder

From cutting horses to the skies over France.

J.B. trades the ranch for the Army Air Corps, flies reconnaissance against Pancho Villa, and survives the brutal aerial war of WWI—processing the trauma by sketching impossible aircraft in the margins of his journals.

Clue planted

Maria finds coded strings throughout the war journals that match no known WWI cipher. A heavily redacted 1950s document surfaces, referencing J.B. and something called "Project Clockwork." And a stranger named Alex reaches out, claiming to belong to the Modern Order of Ink & Flame.

Episode 4 — The Roaring Twenties and Rising Stars

J.B. moves to New York, breaks into the pulps, and finds his tribe.

"The Ghosts of Mars" launches his career; "The Clockwork Pharaoh" cements it. Then comes The Futurians—Asimov, Pohl, Knight—and J.B. begins outlining the work that will define him.

Clue planted

A hidden compartment in J.B.'s old writing desk yields a device the size of a pocket watch—gears, dials, and the Triquetra etched on the back. The note with it, in J.B.'s hand: "The key to the Tree. Use with caution."

Bonus — The Adventuring Years

The expeditions of the Curious Order of Adventuring Explorers.

A detour into J.B.'s real-life adventures with Asimov, Pohl, Judith Merril, Cyril Kornbluth, and Hannes Bok—Machu Picchu, the Amazon, the Gobi, Tibet, Angkor Wat, Easter Island. Jack notes that each expedition maps directly onto a storyline in Challengers of the Secret Tree.

Clue planted

If J.B. drew his fiction this directly from life, Jack wonders—what real discovery inspired the Secret Tree itself?

Episode 5 — The Secret Tree Takes Root

The making of the magnum opus.

J.B. pours his ranch, his war, and his expeditions into Challengers of the Secret Tree. Dr. Chen flags scientific ideas in the drafts that are "decades ahead of their time."

Clue planted

The device begins to hum—with no mechanism that should make a sound. A hand-delivered invitation arrives on ancient-feeling paper: "The Order convenes at the new moon. The Tree awaits its Challengers." Signed with the Triquetra.

Episode 6 — Echoes Across Time

"Challengers" hits the world—and the world starts behaving strangely.

Published in 1940, the book divides critics and transfixes readers, some of whom report shared dreams and impossible foreknowledge. Jack attends the Modern Order's gathering, where the device's hum crescendos and, for one instant, reality ripples—and he sees a vast tree, and J.B. standing beneath it, looking back.

Clue planted

Maria surfaces the Project Clockwork files: references to "narrative-driven reality manipulation" and "interdimensional communication." J.B.'s final, unfinished work gets its first mention—The Quantum Codex.

Episode 7 — The Quantum Codex Conundrum

Inside the last manuscript.

Jack dives into the partial Quantum Codex and its eye-warping equations. Dr. Chen's interpretation: J.B. was building a mathematical model for reshaping reality through narrative resonance. Jack nicknames the device the "Resonator."

Clue planted

The watchers turn real: the same car for three days, calls of pure static at exactly 3:33 AM. A recording off the Resonator yields one clear sentence: "The Tree grows. The stories branch. Be careful where you climb."

Episode 8 — The Vanishing Visionary

Billed as the finale. It's really a threshold.

Jack assembles J.B.'s last days from journals and government files. The final entry, three days before the vanishing, describes climbing the Tree and fearing he can't find his way back. Jack lands on his theory: J.B. didn't disappear—he transcended. Jack signs off "for now," changed beyond recognition, promising to keep digging.

Clue planted

Through the Resonator, Jack glimpses branching versions of his own life—one accepting an Oscar, one still failing, one he refuses to describe.

Bonus Episode — The Department of Narrative Integrity

The break lasts three days.

A man in a forgettable suit appears at Jack's door: Agent Simmons, of a government office Jack has never heard of. The agent's parting line reframes everything:

Agent Simmons

"Because, Mr. Prescott, your great-grandfather's theories were correct. Stories don't just describe reality. They shape it. And in the wrong hands, that knowledge could be... catastrophic."

Recurring Threads

  • The Triquetra — the symbol that ties the journals, the device, and the Order together. Read more
  • The Resonator — J.B.'s pocket-watch device; the "key to the Tree."
  • Project Clockwork — the classified program built on J.B.'s ideas.
  • The Modern Order — still convening, still "working to finish what he started." Read more

Connected Pages

"Keep your minds open and your stories strong."
Semper curiosus, semper creator.