Connie, Maybe is the best story Escape Pod has ever done. Why? Because it showcases everything that's right and unique about Podcasting.
First, it has a tremendously excellent narrator who is perfectly suited to the story. His reading is dynamic and engaging. It really goes beyond just narration to true voice acting. Why on earth would I want to listen to a story instead of reading it? It takes longer to listen than to read, and by listening I lose the ability to "random access" the story (going back and rereading something is trivial with text, harder with audio), or focus more on a particular passage than another. Listening has to bring some added value, and Witchita's outstanding reading does this by giving each character additional depth and feeling. Would Witchita's voice be suited to every Escape Pod story? Certainly not! For many stories it might actually detract from them. But it's spot-on here.
Second, the audio quality is excellent. Escape Pod suffers from uneven audio quality, with some of its narrators using awful equipment that can distort the reading into the realm of unlistenableness. Clear audio is especially important when dealing with accents that might be unfamiliar to a large swath of the audience. Compare this story with "Other People's Money," that combined bad audio and a heavy accent to make some of the sentences positively indecipherable.
Third, it's an excellent, polished, tight story. It uses humor well. Too often in sci-fi, humor can be overdone and comes off as just cheesy. This story nicely balances the silly with the unnerving. It raises some interesting questions about what it means to be "you." It leaves the reader wondering about the reliability of the narrator. It's not a story to just listen passively to, you do need to think a bit about what's being said. On the other hand, it's not overly pretentious (far from it!) or self-consciously obtuse. If this story were a meal, it would come from a Michelin-starred restaurant, with all flavors perfectly balanced.
Everything is right about this story and its Escape Pod production. I've given copies of it to many people, and probably gotten some hooked on EP as a result. I always warn them, though, not to expect everything to be this good. I think if the EP editors take a hard look at what made Connie, Maybe so successful, they'd really be able to ratchet up the quality of EP.