Dodge Podge: Gunsmoke (June 9, 1957)

“Dodge Podge” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast June 9, 1957. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Marshal Dillon intervenes when he finds rancher Sutter brutally beating his young son Packy over the boy's friendship with Jason Roel, a sheepherder and book lover whom Sutter despises. As tensions escalate and Sutter declares he will start wearing a gun, Dillon must navigate the delicate balance between a father's right to discipline and his duty to protect a frightened boy from escalating violence.

Dodge City and the surrounding prairie ranching country

Characters: Matt Dillon, Chester, Packy Sutter, Sutter, Jason Roel

Listen for: The philosophical exchange between Dillon and Roel about fear and how a scared man becomes the most dangerous enemy; Sutter's threats to wear a gun as the situation spirals toward violence.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.