I recently ordered the Sony ICD-PX470 Stereo Digital Voice Recorder (with built-in USB). I purchased it from Amazon and received it twenty-nine hours later.

I have been using it to conduct interviews about the end of the world.

Subject describes geese, shortwave radios, a final cigarette.

I love the display. It’s reminiscent of a Gameboy with its black lettering and dull green background. The menus are simple and easy to navigate. I have rarely needed the manual.

The audio quality is in my opinion superb. There is a very soft whine in the background but it’s the kind of thing you have to really listen for or you won’t notice it.

Subject describes warm piss glowing in a 2 liter bottle.

Subject describes the cold tarp you wrap yourself in and how you wait for your body to warm it.

Subject describes the earth’s surface: a bleached egg, its topsoil the strongest hallucinogen, its greedy dust fills your lungs.

I have exact questions but I vary their order with every interview.

The Sony ICD-PX470 comes with 4 GB of built-in memory which affords you approximately 59 hours of recording time.

Subject describes emergency preparedness kits. They have food rations and drinking water, simple LED flashlights, whistles. But what they don’t have is a fucking radio, he says.

Subject describes financial markets backed by shortwave radios. You could work every day of your life and never afford one.

Subject describes the gait of survivors: stooped, slow, pained, intentional. They wear ponchos and dust masks.

The birds get sick first, he says. Dead birds everywhere. You walk on them. You swim through bird disease.

Subject describes a camp bulldozed by order of mayor. Indistinguishable blend of heirlooms and waste, beloved toxic soup, biohazardous pictures of loved ones. Vintage dolls and liquor bottles and needles and a dog collar but no dog.

Customer reviews says, “The supplied external mic will not work with this recorder and will not record audio.” 1 star.

Subject describes the geese at the Riverwalk and how people sit red-faced in their pickup trucks and wait for them to pass. The day the trucks don’t brake for geese. A dog limps and yelps and no one does a thing.

Your life isn’t worth two shortwave radios here, he says.

Customer review says, “This worked better than I had hoped. Had it placed in a room of my house and could hear everything that was said [terrified screams]. It even picked up callers on cell phones [panic, distorted voices, emptiness]. That was unexpected! Battery life is awesome and very easy to use.”

Subject describes the last cigarette you ever smoke, not the last one in your pack. The one you light and wonder if you’ll be alive to finish it.