Monthly Archives: September 2025

TBM-Mirror Mirror: Day Zero

by

Mirror-Mirror-Logo

Description:

Before the stories begin, here’s a short introduction to Mirror, Mirror — a cycle of thirty-one monologues. Each one is a self-contained tale, but together they create a larger arc. Some are strange, some unsettling, some surprisingly tender, all centered around the ways we see ourselves… and what looks back.

Day Zero sets the stage. Think of it as a prologue, a quick welcome before we step into the glass.

✨ Mirror, Mirror runs throughout October on Tales from the Tub. Subscribe so you don’t miss a reflection.

Other Voices:

N/A

Links and References

Transcript

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid blog header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57 — 2.1MB)

TBM-2509.26 – Mermaid Minute: Pearls and Pressure

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

Hello and Ciao, my awesome abalones 🐚💎
Today, MeMe del Mare dives into how pearls are really made—not from perfection, but from grit, irritation, and transformation. Just like us.

💬 “Every time someone calls you too much, too loud, too strange—that’s just the grain of sand. What you build around it? That’s your shine.”

🎧 Listen now to hear how mermaids turn trouble into treasure.

#MermaidMinute #KeepSwimmingAndResist #PearlsOfWisdom #PodcastClip #MermaidLife

 

Links and References:

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub and Mermaid Minutes are written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • BathtubMermaid.com header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music clip for this episode is Jolly Roger from Studio Kolumna via Uppbeat (License code: TJPGJXYBWHI7FCUG)

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:47 — 3.0MB)

TBM-2509.22 – Mermaid Minute – Ice Cream Cone Day

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

But the best part about ice cream isn’t the cone—it’s the flavors. Landwalkers, you’ve got everything from vanilla bean to rocky road, cotton candy swirl to that weird pickle flavor some hipster dreamed up.

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute #memedelmare #icecream #icecreamcones #nationalicecreamconeday

Links and References:

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub and Mermaid Minutes are written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • BathtubMermaid.com header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music clip for this episode is Jolly Roger from Studio Kolumna via Uppbeat (License code: TJPGJXYBWHI7FCUG)

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:22 — 2.5MB)

Phantom Ship

TBM-2509.19-Sea-and-Stars

by

Phantom Ship

Description:

Tonight I have not just one story, but three—threads of salt and myth, memory and resistance—woven from sea and sky.

We’ll begin with a queen on the waves and a lieutenant among the stars.

We’ll slip next into the Bay that pretends to bless but always demands her price.

And finally, we’ll meet the Phantom of the Anclote, bound to a mermaid’s bargain, forever turning storms aside.

#audio #talesfromthetub #essays #shortstories #flashfiction #pirates #ghosts #mermaids #storms #startrek

Links and References

Free Women of Sea And Stars
The Bay that Storms Forget
The Anclote Phantom and the Mermaid’s Debt 

 

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music for this episode is by StudioKolumna 

Contact:

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:16 — 31.0MB)

TBM-2509.19 – Mermaid Minute – Talk Like a Pirate Day

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

So it’s Talk Like a Pirate Day. Which means every landwalker with a striped shirt and a “yarrr” thinks they’ve unlocked the mysteries of the seven seas. Cute. But let’s not forget: the most fearsome pirates weren’t just swaggering men with parrots on their shoulders. Oh no. Some of the sharpest swords, fiercest tempers, and cleverest strategies belonged to women.

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute #memedelmare #talklikeapirateday #talklikeapirate #annebonny #maryread #femalepiratesruledthewaves

Links and References:

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub and Mermaid Minutes are written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • BathtubMermaid.com header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.
  • Music clip for this episode is Jolly Roger from Studio Kolumna via Uppbeat (License code: TJPGJXYBWHI7FCUG)

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:12 — 2.5MB)

TBM-2509.15 – Mermaid Minute: Tide Travel

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

Landwalkers love to dream about time travel. DeLoreans, phone booths, police boxes. All that fuss about machines to visit the past or peek into the future. But mermaids? Honey, we’ve been at it for centuries — only we don’t call it time travel, we call it tide travel.

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute #memedelmare #tidetravel #timetravel

Links and References:

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:22 — 2.5MB)

TBM-2509.12 – MermaidMinute: Cloud Appreciation Day

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

Today is International Cloud Appreciation Day — the one day landwalkers agree that lying on your back and staring at the sky counts as culture.

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute #memedelmare #cloudapprecationday

Links and References

The Cloud Appreciation Society

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45 — 1.9MB)

TBM-2509.08 – Mermaid Minute: Star Trek Day and Ampersand Day

by

MeMe Orange Swimming

Description:

September 8th is a double holiday: Star Trek Day and World Ampersand Day. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Sure, Star Trek makes sense — but what’s an ampersand?”

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute #startrek #startrekday #worldampersandday #ampersand

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:14 — 3.4MB)

TBM-2509.01 – Mermaid Minute – Happy Labor Day

by

Meme-Podcast-Square

Description:

You think mermaids just sit on rocks all day looking glamorous? Please. This ocean doesn’t run itself.

#audio #short #humor #mermaidminute

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid header art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:03 — 2.2MB)