I don't know if its just me, or the stories Steve has been running, or what, but for nearly two months now, nothing that has aired on Escape Pod has really caught me enough to make it through the first 30 min, let alone the full episode. This story especially was a giant meh. I made it to the conversation in the car, and said "Ok, you know what, I have other things to listen to that are far more interesting" and turned it off. I guess it either stretched the limits to which I can suspend disbelief within a realistic setting, or wasn't fantastic enough for me to ignore the attempted realism.
I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't buy any of the premise of this story on any grounds, and as such it fell totally flat for me.