The Countdown of Monte Cristo

Welcome to The Countdown of Monte Cristo, the daily podcast where we break down one of literature’s greatest adventures, bite by bite. For the next four years—yes, you heard that right—host Landen Celano will be reading a passage from Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo every single day. Each episode offers a short escape into this timeless tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption, paired with Landen’s reflections, insights, and occasional forays into 19th-century oddities. Never read The Count of Monte Cristo? Perfect—you’re not alone. This show is for first-timers, seasoned fans, or anyone who’s curious about exploring a literary masterpiece one small morsel at a time. Along the way, we’ll dig into historical tidbits, unpack the story’s twists and turns, and maybe even stumble over a French pronunciation or two. (Phonetics are hard, okay?) Whether you’re a lover of classics, a casual listener looking for a daily dose of culture, or just someone who needs a momentary escape from the noise of the modern world, this podcast has something for you. So grab your metaphorical ticket to Marseille, and let’s set sail on this absurdly ambitious journey together. Subscribe now on your favorite podcatcher or find us on YouTube. And don’t forget to support the show at https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod. Join us as we count down The Count!

Listen on:

  • Apple Podcasts
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  • Spotify
  • Amazon Music
  • iHeartRadio
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Episodes

2 hours ago

Just as Dantès teeters on the edge of despair, a voice answers his plea. It isn’t divine—it’s human, and it’s coming from the other side of the wall. For the first time in years, Dantès holds a conversation not bound by duty or cruelty. A buried soul replies from beneath the stone, and the miracle is not escape—but connection.
Two prisoners, strangers in every way, begin to map the distance between them.
 
🎙️ Topics Covered:
•First contact after years of isolation
•The shock of hearing a human voice
•Shared captivity as a bond
•What Dantès reveals about himself
•Hope emerging in the dark
 
📚 Perfect for fans of psychological depth, high-stakes dialogue, and quiet revelations.
 
🎧 Subscribe for daily readings and reflections.
Support bonus episodes and full-length story-only audio on Patreon.

2 days ago

With the iron handle finally in hand, Dantès digs toward his neighbor with renewed hope—but freedom is not so easily won. As days pass in grueling silence, he begins to wonder if the prisoner next door has given up, or worse, given up on him. And just as progress begins to feel possible, Dantès strikes a new obstacle: a beam.
 
The promise of connection is once again delayed by unseen structures—and unseen doubts.
 
🎙️ Topics Covered:
•Silent labor as a test of faith
•The shift from gratitude to desperation
•Dantès’ spiritual reckoning
•The beam as literal and symbolic blockade
•Prison as a space of both agency and abandonment
 
📚 Perfect for fans of internal drama, spiritual endurance, and the slow pressure of suspense.
 
🎧 Subscribe for daily readings and reflections.
Support bonus episodes and full-length story-only audio on Patreon

3 days ago

In this episode, Dantès seizes a long-awaited opportunity. When his jailer unwittingly leaves behind the iron-handled soup saucepan, Dantès finally acquires the tool he’s been desperate for. With strategic patience and focused effort, he levers out the hewn stone that has blocked his passage for days.
The wall begins to give way—hope now has form, weight, and momentum.
 
🎙️ Topics Covered:
•The cunning improvisation of prison tools
•Dantès’ transformation from despair to ingenuity
•Prison labor, silence, and hidden resistance
•Symbolism of the iron handle as power regained
•The psychological shift from passive to active
 
Perfect for fans of suspenseful classics, emotional resilience, and the slow burn of a genius escape.
 
Subscribe for daily readings and reflections.
 
Support bonus episodes and full-length story-only audio on Patreon.

3 days ago

No weapons. No tools. Just wit.
Dantès is halted by the rough stone of his prison wall—until he seizes on a new idea. He needs an iron tool. His jug is broken, his nails are useless—but the soup comes in a shared iron saucepan. If he can only separate the handle…
 
This is where escape begins to resemble invention: every item is repurposed, every motion calculated. In this passage, Dantès stops being a victim of fate and becomes an engineer of it.
 
Topics Covered:
•The transformation of despair into ingenuity
•Iron as a symbol of prison and progress
•The logic of tool acquisition in escape literature
•The pivot from emotional paralysis to tactical focus
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod
 

5 days ago

No chisel. No knife. Just a broken jug—and the will to escape.
In this chapter, Dantès makes a decision that changes his fate: he shatters his water jug and hides the sharpest shards. That fragment of pottery becomes his only tool. It’s not the great escape—yet. But it’s the moment where Edmond begins carving possibility out of impossibility. By trial, error, and sheer desperation, he begins to dig.
 
Topics Covered:
•Resourcefulness as rebellion
•The realism of escape planning in Dumas’ fiction
•How Dantès’ work mirrors that of the unknown prisoner
•Institutional blindness: the jailer’s indifference as opportunity
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

6 days ago

Three knocks. Silence. Three days. And then—a sound returns.
In this episode, Edmond Dantès crosses from hope into action. He tests the mysterious noise in the wall with three deliberate strikes—and the sound immediately stops. Silence follows for days. But when the noise resumes, Dantès no longer hesitates: he is no longer dying. He is preparing. This marks the beginning of one of literature’s most memorable alliances.
 
Topics Covered:
•Dumas’ use of silence and pacing to build suspense
•Dantès’ transformation from prisoner to strategist
•The psychology of hope delayed but not extinguished
•Early hints of connection and the return of will
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

7 days ago

Edmond Dantès hears the noise again—and now, he dares to believe.
In this chapter, Dantès’ hope returns not in a rush, but through strategy. Though physically weak, his mind regains clarity, and he begins to think not like a victim, but like a participant again. Is the noise in the wall made by a prisoner or a worker? Could it be hope—or a trap? Dantès chooses a careful path forward. And with one deliberate sip of soup, he chooses not to die. Not yet.
 
Topics Covered:
•How Dumas shows the return of willpower through intellect
•The calculated risk of hope: Dantès doesn’t blindly believe
•Prison noise as metaphor for awakening perception
•The story’s tonal shift from passive suffering to active strategy
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

Wednesday Jul 02, 2025

In the silence of slow death, Edmond Dantès hears something impossible.
As Dantès lies on the edge of starvation, a sound begins—scratching, scraping, chipping at the wall behind him. In a place where time has died and hope has dissolved, this sound is electric. Is it a rat? Is it death? Or is it… someone? Dumas masterfully captures the hallucinatory hope of the condemned. For the first time in days, Dantès speaks. Not because he wants to live—but because he might not be alone.
 
Topics Covered:
•Dantès’ physical weakness vs. sudden mental alertness
•Dumas’ portrayal of hope as an intrusive, resurrecting force
•Prison as a world where any anomaly is revolutionary
•Strategy: how Dantès masks his interest in order to protect it
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

Tuesday Jul 01, 2025

Edmond Dantès has stopped counting the days. Now he stops eating.
In this excruciating chapter, Dantès follows through on his plan to die. He doesn’t leap into it—he starves with full awareness, slowly and deliberately. At first defiant, then mournful, his hunger becomes a battle between his oath and his instinct to survive. Dumas crafts a haunting portrait of the body’s betrayal and the mind’s desperation: the meat begins to look appealing, the prison less grim. But Dantès clings to the only control he has left—refusal. And as his senses dim and lights dance behind his eyes, we enter with him into what Dumas calls “the twilight of that mysterious country called Death.”
 
Topics Covered:
•Starvation as willful protest and final autonomy
•The psychological seesaw between despair and hope
•Dumas’ metaphorical use of will-o’-the-wisps and Tantalus
•How time dissolves under extreme mental duress
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

Monday Jun 30, 2025

When hope dies, choice begins.
Edmond Dantès doesn’t lash out—he lets go. Death no longer frightens him; it comforts him. He reflects on past storms at sea, when fear made him fight to survive. But now, nothing ties him to life. He chooses not despair, but detachment. Suicide becomes a methodical, almost peaceful plan. Dumas carefully draws this not as a moment of weakness, but of eerie clarity. It’s not the end of Dantès—but it is the end of who he was. And with that death, something else waits to be born.
 
Topics Covered:
•Dantès’ calm shift from spiritual crisis to existential detachment
•Storms at sea as metaphor for lost vitality and fight
•The logic of suicide framed not as violence but control
•The psychological realism of choosing starvation over hanging
 
Support the show and access bonus episodes + full-length story-only audio:
👉 https://patreon.com/gruntworkpod

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