What happens
Dr. Max Bradford, a scientist on a California ranch, has created a race of flying mutants he calls volplas, which he has taught to feed, play and speak. He tells his daughter Jane and his wife that he is planning a joke on the world, leaving the volplas to be found and studied as proof of a legendary origin among the stars. When the creatures learn to read from newspapers, the family must confront a growing problem. This is the X Minus One episode Volpla, a 1957 science fiction story by Wyman Guin, first broadcast on NBC on August 29, 1957.
A California ranch and laboratory, with the surrounding hills and a nearby valley where the volplas glide.
Characters: Max, Jane, Susie, Chief
Listen for: The volplas' first glides and the scene where Jane reads to them.
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.