That’s Dissect podcast host Cole Cuchna on the strength of his original idea for the show. And it’s him in a nutshell. Geniune surprise that he’s been able to garner such an audience for a show that does such deep dives.

Instead of creating something made for the masses, podcast creators can dive into something niche, self-described as “nerdy”, and still become a hit. Chances are if you’re incredibly interested in a particular subject others likely are as well.

We tend to find our tribe. That’s why everyone should consider having a podcast.

What Makes the Dissect Special?

Essentially, it’s the format coupled with a host that bleeds music. More important to the success of the show is our host bleeds music analysis.

If you’ve ever sat at a bar in college, or gone to a party, the topic of your favorite music is likely going to come up. The discussion will be wide-ranging and dive deeper than you thought possible. At least that’s been my experience.

That’s what makes the Dissect Podcast so important to a devoted audience.

Cuchna grew up loving music. Having seen Jimmi Hendrix light his guitar on fire at the impressionable age of 12, the seeds for what this show would become were planted early.

As a self taught guitarist (a man after my own heart), Cole would spend hours learning by playing music he loved. After spending his formative years playing in rock bands, touring around, and sleeping on dirty floors near dive bars, Cole hit a wall. A creative wall. A musical wall.

So, he did the natural thing. He quit the band and enrolled in at San Jose State University to study music theory. Years of classical music is an eye opening experience for a dirty punk rock kid.

But that experience informs the show’s format. Pairing the love of music with the proper bona fides is what makes the Dissect podcast such a hit.

The Dissect Podcast Format

The Dissect podcast seasons are a breakdown of an entire album. Each song on the album is taken apart in an individual episode that is roughly 45 minutes to an hour long.

That is impressive unto itself. Spending an hour teasing out what makes a particular song is no easy feat, but Cole does a fantastic job. This is also impressive because he was creating part-time when the show started.

“I was binging these Great Courses series. Every episode is a lecture and a full course would be sixteen to twenty of these lectures to download and listen to. I thought, ‘Oh I’ll just do that, but surround it around an album where one song would be an episode.’”

Of course, he doesn’t do it alone. As the years have gone on, and the show has gained more steam, Cuchna has been able to master his craft by bringing on subject matter experts to flesh out the project.

His growth from rock to a genuine appreciation and love of all things musical jumps out at the listener.

As a rock background person myself, it wasn’t until I went on a similar journey into classical and hip-hop that I was able to see the unifying bonds that music provides. Getting out of your silo helps broaden your horizons.

Cole Cuchna’s experience is much the same. And it’s what allows the Dissect Podcast In Rainbow’s season to gel with Season 6’s focus on Beyonce’s album Lemonade. These are two artists that know a thing or two about breaking out of a genre silo.

Our Favorite Dissect Seasons

No discussion of this podcast would make sense if you didn’t know where to start. I mean, you are committing to a season long album dissection. That’s 10 or so hours.

So, we thought we’d get you started with our favorite seasons. Let us know what you think.

Season 1: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

You have to go back to the OG season of Dissection to really understand the project as a whole. It was the first iteration of the show, and it resonated with listeners right off the bat.

“Serial helped inspire the format too. The whole serialized music analysis came from that podcast, and I wanted to do mini cliffhangers at the end of every episode, trying to replicate that feeling you get with Serial. It’s not ever going to be like Serial, but some of the structure came from that podcast.”- Cole Cuchna

The serialized nature allowed Cuchna to add the historical context that helped shape the respective albums, including the history of Compton for To Pimp a Butterfly and the ostracism of Kanye West after his interruption of Taylor Swift that led to MBDTF.

And this album certainly has some history behind it. After Lauryn left the Fugees, this album was her debut. It was controversial and sparked a ton of discussion among music nerds. Cole was no exception.

Season 11: Dissect Podcast Tackles In Rainbows

Radiohead is one of the best bands of this generation. From the raw early alternative rock to the electronic work, they are a dynamic, genre hopping band.

It’s hard to pick a favorite Radiohead song simply because they are so eclectic.

In Rainbows was ahead of its time in how it was released and distributed. It was a “pay what you want” model that was certainly a gamble, but one that I think ultimately paid off.

Episode 1 is naturally where to start. Cole covers the history of the band and what makes them special. In later episodes, he has Dr. Brad Olson, who is a legitimate Radiohead scholar to discuss the album and all things Radiohead.

This later episode caps off the season. This was a fun season from beginning to end.

The Lyrical Masters Mixtape Season

Remember mix tapes?

They were a staple of listening to music for most Gen X and Millennials. Music nerds could spend hours working on the perfect mix to share with friends. So this season is a fun departure into that most important of projects.

Sadly mix tapes are a relic of the past now that streaming has taken over. Now the main place to discuss music seems to be reddit.

The nice thing about this lyrical masters run of episodes is the ability to skip around. Jay Z, MF Doom, Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne are all featured on this ode to hip hop.

I also like that Cole didn’t simply feature all the big names. The songs themselves had to be the best. If you’re a hip hop fan, this season does not disappoint. If you’re a fan of pure lyrical analysis, you will not be disappointed.

Last Song Standing (Both Seasons)

This is another slight departure from the standard format of the show. In fact, it might be classified as another show altogether. That said, I think it belongs on this list.

Charles Holmes of The Midnight Boys joins Cole Cuchna on Last Song Standing which changes the dynamic completely.

The first season had the guys figuring out which Kendrick Lamar song is his best. Since it’s debate and competition of sorts, I won’t spoil the winning track.

Season 2 has Charles and Cole come together to deconstruct Frank Ocean’s catalog to determine which song is the artist’s best.

The back and forth banter is fun and enjoyable. It feels somewhat looser, and a nice change of pace.

Bo Burnham’s Inside

Deconstructing a comedy album?

Released in 2021, this is more an art project than a pure comedy album. There are songs and sketches, sure, but shot, completely alone during the pandemic lockdown, it has a lot of drama as well.

And that’s why it’s titled “Inside.” Just about everyone was stuck inside during the pandemic, and this was how he expressed some deteriorating mental health issues. It’s a wonderful concept film that tackles some deep topics.

Start with the introductory episode. Hasan Minhaj talks with Cole about how creative people express themselves no matter the medium. Bonus points for a Kanye West reference getting in there are Hasan’s favorite album.

Season 9: Mac Miller – Circles

This is another tragic story of the expression of pain and suffering. The album was released after Miller’s passing.

The album covers some heady themes and motifs. It’s the perfect album to listen to with headphones on. Cole’s breaking it down and exploring the concept that pain can be expressed so beautifully was a welcome interpretation.

This season is chronological and worth a listen from start to finish. I’d listen with headphones on though. Just as I would the album.

There You Have It – The Dissection Podcast in a Nutshell

As of this writing, Cole is still at it full time. We cover so many defunct podcasts here on the site that were wonderful expressions but ran out of steam. It is nice to see Cole succeeding.

Currently, in season 12, he’s breaking down the “life and legacy” of MF Doom. Another rough story and tough subject. Episode 1 covers Villain’s Mask, and Episode 2 tackles Operation Doomsday’s themes that would set the stage for the entire character universe Doom developed.

You don’t always have to stay in your lane.

As time has passed, Cole has been covering some heavy topics, but that has produced some of his best work. The Dissect podcast is simply a great show and a 4.9 rating on Spotify with 15,000 reviews supports that conclusion.

—

Editors Note: This podcast covers several artists who struggled with mental health. If you’re having trouble, reach out. There are resources available.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, offers 24/7 call, text and chat access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing suicidal, substance use, and/or mental health crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress. People can also call, text or chat 988 if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support.

https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988/faqs

The post The Dissect Podcast Is My New Unexpected Obsession appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Again, it’s super easy to do. Just click the button below, and it will take you to the nomination form.

If, for some reason (looking at you Internet Explorer), the button does not work, click this link to the nominations page.

We all know the value Podcasts bring to our lives, and that hard work should not go unrecognized.

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However, “how to start a podcast” seems to be the question most new entrants have. We hope to walk you through how to start a podcast with this comprehensive guide. We’ve talked about why everyone should start a podcast before. We’ve told you that you can set up a podcast recording studio for less than $100.

In several ways, podcasting is a relatively easy medium to dive into with ubiquitous pitches of low barriers of entry, affordable equipment, and the possibility to be up and running within just a few weeks. However, anyone who has ventured into podcasting knows that releasing your first episode is really just the start, and it is truly an uphill climb from there. 

Throughout this guide, we hope to provide you with a basic step-by-step on how to launch a show that can be syndicated and discovered on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more, as well as provide you with tips that will help make continuing your podcast an easier process. 

What is a podcast, actually?

What a podcast is, actually, an audio or visual serial much like a radio program, except you can listen on demand through your favorite podcast player.

Before you even begin podcasting, understanding what a podcast is, how it’s formatted, the history and background and how new listeners discover podcasts can be helpful. 

You are probably well aware that a podcast is a portmanteau of the words “pod,” taken from the word iPod, and “broadcast”, however, today podcasts are hardly limited to iPods. Both audio and video podcasts exist, however, we will largely be focusing on audio since it is the more popular format, and the growth of platforms like YouTube and Twitch have made video podcasts less common.

When a podcast episode is ready to be shared, the file is typically uploaded to a podcast host that stores the audio files and then creates an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed that can be distributed and synced with various online directories such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. 

While you can certainly download a podcast episode directly and listen as an MP3, it is the ability to share a feed with consumers through various online directories that makes podcasts so appealing. Rather than having to share files directly with listeners, the ability to subscribe and automatically be fed new episodes when they are released makes the process easier for both creators and audiences.

Unlike radio, you do not have to “tune in” at a certain time to find a podcast and because of the use of RSS feeds, distributors can share their episodes on as many platforms as they like and reach increasingly large new audiences. It’s scalable, on-demand audio.

Start Podcasting by Planning and Thinking Like a Podcast Listener

The biggest misconception of podcasting is that the average person can simply set up a microphone, share their thoughts on the news of the day or pop culture, and instantly find an audience. Really, starting a successful podcast starts right here. In the planning stage.

With the growth of podcasting, it has become increasingly hard to “break out” and much like YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter, lots of content is created and only ever seen or heard by a few followers. If you want to make a podcast for the fun of it, this may not be a concern, but for creators looking to build or grow a brand, share insight on a field of expertise or grow a large following, this step is by far the most important. 

If you decide to start a podcast, you’re going to be overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed at the start is perfectly natural.

To start a podcast takes hard work, and more work, and more work, and mo—

Why did you decide to start a podcast?

At the core, a podcast needs to have information that cannot be found elsewhere, in the form of research, opinions, stories, entertainment, or something else, presented by someone that the audience thinks is the best person to be presenting that information. You need to come across as a smart cookie.

If you want to start an interview show, you’ll need compelling guests, a unique angle in your questioning, and proven expertise on both sides. If you want to discuss pop culture or the news, the same applies.

For comedy, investigative, or any other form of podcasts you will want to determine if you are putting out content that has not already been done before, or at least not as well as you can do it. Essentially, ask yourself the question “Why me?” Why should a listener choose your show over the numerous other podcasts available? 

A podcast presented from scratch in a saturated market means you really need to drill down into your niche.

Thinking of these differentiators before you even begin is a foundational step to creating a successful podcast.

Why this topic to start a podcast?

This topic is perfect to start a podcast because it allows me to explore my opinion on the matter and share what I have learned. You may be thinking.

The perfect podcast exists somewhere between broad and niche, with enough content to return week after week with new information and enough specificity that it does not get lost in the mix of dozens of other similar shows. 

Often, it can be helpful to lean a bit more on the niche side for the sake of building a small but loyal audience dedicated to the exact topic you are planning to discuss. The old adage applies here: if you try to build something for everyone it won’t work for anyone.

Shows focused on specific pop culture or exact moments in history are proof that this can work. There are countless massively successful podcasts based on a seeming niche subject, here are a couple of my favorite examples:

• 99% Invisible is essentially a podcast about how design impacts our life
• The Adventure Zone started as a Dungeons & Dragons podcast
• Revisionist History explores and analyzes individual events in history

If you spend any time on the iTunes/Apple Podcast charts or read any other list of popular podcasts, it can be overwhelming how many popular shows either are hosted by celebrities or other personas with established audiences, as well as how many are created or distributed by big-name studios, networks or platforms.

It is no surprise that these shows can get an initial head start because they have a pre-established audience, but don’t be scared off or intimidated. Plenty of newbie podcasters make it too, and lots of big shows that are now tied to major networks began in bedrooms or basements. 

Ultimately, you’re going to be technically inclined to create the show you want. Sometimes it’s an art and that goes beyond podcast listing information.

Pros and cons of different podcast formats and what they look like

Some people may disagree with me here, however, here are the different formats of podcasts. Admittedly, it’s difficult to bucket some of these because there are always exceptions. 

Talking head and interview-style podcasts:

• Solo — one-person monologues 
• Solo with a guest — interviewing a special guest or personality such as Joe Rogan interviewing Dr. Jordan Peterson.
• Co-host(s) — you and at least one other co-host discuss topics

Narrative and serialized podcasts:

• Episodic documentary podcasts — each episode dives into a new theme, case, or idea
• Serialized documentary podcasts — a full season dedicated to one concept
• Fiction (both episodic and serialized) — fiction podcasts or audio dramas use creative writing and often sound effects for an immersive podcast

While there are pros and cons with every format, typically co-hosted and interview podcasts are easier to produce, but take effort to book guests, deciding on a topic, and are hugely dependent on the host(s) personality, rapport, and interview technique.

Narrative and serialized podcasts usually require more production effort including research, writing, editing, and sometimes travel. 

Create a plan to start a podcast

A common mistake is recording a single episode, setting up podcast hosting and RSS, publishing the episode, and then not having a plan for the episodes that will follow. We strongly encourage new podcasters to develop a plan for at least two months of episodes, which could be as few as two or three episodes or as many as ten or fifteen depending on the length and release frequency. 

There are a few reasons to do this. First and foremost, you will test if your concept holds weight. If you cannot record or even plan out this much content, chances are your concept is not developed enough to warrant a podcast.

Second, because regular publishing is so important, this lead time will hopefully prevent you from ever having to rush to create a new episode just to keep listeners on a regular schedule. Finally, you’ll get a chance to see if you enjoy the work behind podcasting and if it is worth investing more time and money in. 

Ideally, in building this two-month plan you will have a plan for several episodes on deck that can be released in consistent succession. Alternatively, you can calendar out when you will plan, pre-produce, and record different episodes if your topic is based on current events and cannot be recorded in advance. 

Oh, and what’s your budget? Do you find yourself asking…

How to start a podcast for free?

To start a podcast for free, you’ll need to find a host. Once set up with the hosting service and your microphone or phone/computer, it’s time to start recording. You should get a good microphone asap that you’re comfortable using since the quality of your voice is important for podcasting.

Naming your podcast – eg Choosing a Podcast Title

Arguably, the most important part of your planning. You might think you have a great name picked out already, but there are several factors you should consider in ultimately deciding your name. 

• Make sure there’s not an existing podcast with the same (or very similar) name
• Don’t restrain yourself. If you name your podcast after Star Wars, but then ultimately want to pivot to movies in general, you’ll face a difficult decision down the road
• Consider SEO. Though maybe not as sexy, you want your podcast name to be clear and intuitive to what it’s about. Think about how people will discover your podcast by searching. If you have a podcast about football, you’ll likely want the words “football” or “NFL” to be included in your title.
• Own your domains. As a podcasting best practice, you should have a website, Twitter, and Facebook pages at a bare minimum. Consider the availability of these handles and domains when choosing a name. 
• Make it easy to spell and say aloud. This will help in the future with sharing. 
• That clever pun you like right now? It’ll get old after multiple years and hundreds of episodes.

Podcast Artwork

Podcasting is an audio format, why do we care so much about the artwork associated with your pod? Well, you know people still judge books by their cover and that’s a visual format or a movie by its poster. So, ask yourself

How to start a podcast and make money?

There are two ways to start a podcast and make money. First is creating a that needs to be discussed. That makes it more likely that you are going to have a large following. Second,if your product has such high demand it makes sense to start podcasting in order to gain exposure. It’s all marketing.

Importance of Podcast Cover Art

In conjunction with your podcast name, think about how your thumbnail icon will draw new listeners in and be iconic and easily recognizable. Leverage your designer friends to help you create an idea, and if you have the budget, consult a professional graphic designer or logo maker. This thumbnail image can also serve multiple purposes as a logo on your website and Twitter and Facebook avatars. In short, it’s a worthwhile investment. 

The important thing to think about here is to stay simple and always keep reminding yourself how small this will appear to most consumers. For most potential listeners, this thumbnail will about an inch long and wide. Don’t go overboard with the design, keep the font to a large size, and stay simple on the design and color scheme. 

For Apple Podcasts, cover art needs to be at least 1400 x 1400 pixels and can go up to 3000 x 3000 pixels. 

Here are a few examples of podcast cover art done right.

How to record your podcast

Ok, whew. You’ve planned your podcast, settled on a format, named it, and bought the necessary domains so you have a digital presence. Now the fun stuff! Recording your podcast will require a learning curve and you’ll get much, much better with every subsequent episode.

Don’t be surprised if the first one takes way longer than expected and you end up trashing it anyways, these things take patience.

Podcasting Equipment

This (hopefully) shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, but you do need some podcast equipment to record a successful show. You don’t want to simply lay your iPhone down and record a 30-minute voice memo and call it a podcast. 

At the basic level, here are the three things you need:

• A podcast microphone
• A podcast mixer
• Podcast software — editing and recording

Podcast microphones

A consequence of the massive amounts of podcasts available at everyone’s fingertips is increased competition, listener expectations, and lowered patience.

Listeners only have a finite amount of time to listen to podcasts, they don’t want to bother with some crummy sounding show where they have to always have a hand on the volume button because the levels are all over the place. As a result choosing microphone equipment becomes paramount for a professional sounding production.

That said, every podcaster has a unique budget when it comes to podcast equipment. Here are our picks for podcast microphones at different budget levels:

• Blue Yeti
• Audio-Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone
• Rode Procaster

Related reading: detailed breakdown and reviews of podcast microphones, and podcast headphones.

USB mixers

Mixers are sometimes neglected by first-time podcasters …. and it shows in their work. A mixer is essential for podcasters to create a nice leveled show where the audience can hear a crisp voice that’s not muddied by other noises.

Similar to podcast mics, USB mixers typically run the price spectrum. Here are our picks:

• Behringer Q1202USB 12-Channel Mixer
• Yamaha Mg10Xu 10-Input Stereo Mixer
• Mackie ProFXv2, 8 A-B Box

Related reading: a comprehensive guide to the best USB mixers

Podcast Audio Editing Software And Podcast Recording Software for New Podcasters

Podcast recording software allows you to easily record your podcast, export the audio files, and cut and edit your episodes. As with most things in life, the higher-end tools give you more features. Let’s take a quick look.

For recording and editing: 

• Squadcast

Squadcast is a revolutionary follow-up to Skype, designed as podcasting software from the ground up. It offers a great interface for both listeners and podcast hosts. Squadcast supports high-definition audio and turns any desktop or laptop computer into a podcast studio. 

The editing suite included with Squadcast is simple but strong enough that you can create the whole show in the software without much issue. Each voice has its own audio track, so you can balance out your guests into one smooth experience.

Major companies like ESPN have jumped all over Squadcast as their preferred mobile software platform, so it is worth taking a look.

You can get started with Squadcast for $10 a month for 2 hours of audio, though you’ll probably want to step that up pretty early on.

• Alitu – The Podcast Maker

Alitu is a great tool to level up your podcast creation stack. As a complete podcast software, Alitu streamlines your creation process, and rather than bog you down with any stress-inducing tech, it gives users the tools to get the job done, quickly and smoothly. 

The ease of Alitu is obvious from Day 1 of your 7 Day Trial

The core features of Alitu are simply explained and similarly simple to use:

• Record your podcast episodes – the built-in call recording tool allows you to record solo into the platform or invite a contact via direct link.
• Intuitive podcast editing – easily select, cut, and rearrange clips while also incorporating set and forget intros and outros for consistency across your episodes.  
• Automated post-production – no need to worry about mastering your own podcast, Alitu will automatically standardize your volume and leveling and remove background noise. 
• Direct publishing to favorite hosts – you can connect Alitu directly to most main hosting platforms in order to get your podcast live as quickly and smoothly as possible. 
• In House Hosting – We’ve been tipped off that Alitu is on the verge of launching its own hosting tool, this means that it will be the first all-inclusive A-Z podcast software on the market. Ps, you heard it here first!  

Existing Alitu users have shared their experiences of having taken their production time from anywhere between 2-5 hours down to 10 minutes per episode. Other users are just happy to have a platform where they can produce professional content without the technical know-how.

*Editors Note* New users can get a 7 Day Free Trial with this link.

• Audacity
• Pro Tools First
• Adobe Audition
• Hindenberg Journalist
• Zencastr
• TapeACall Pro 

For planning and workflows:

• Asana 
• Airtable
• Trello 
• Basecamp 

Book a Podcast Studio Instead

If buying equipment and the steep learning curve isn’t for you, then we highly recommend finding a podcast studio in your area. Podcast recording studios have been popping up across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia for years, and can offer you easy access to professional recording equipment for minimal expense. 

Most studios can offer expertise from professional sound engineers, podcast producers, and audio editors, so all you have to do is show up and record. Plus, if you seek video recording on top of your audio recording needs, many podcast studios are beautifully designed to ensure your podcast brand is represented well on video platforms.

To find a podcast studio near you, start by searching on podcastrental.com, the web’s only podcast studio booking site. With hundreds of studios available at a wide range of hourly price points, you’ll find the right recording experience for your production needs.

Podcast recording tips

As with most things in life, getting the right tools can only take you so far. The real power is using these tools the right way to get the most out of your investment. Here are some easy tips to record your podcast.

1. Microphone Choice

In the modern recording industry, there are endless amounts of microphones on the market to choose from. Some specialize in vocal recording, while others specialize in specific instruments and applications. Similar to most industries, a higher-priced microphone typically means higher quality audio produced.

For a podcast, a microphone specifically tailored to vocal recordings will be preferred, such as the Shure SM7B. It’s a durable, and reliable mic that produces fantastic audio quality for the price, and can even be seen on the ever-popular Joe Rogan podcast. If that wasn’t enough to convince you, it was even used to record Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. How’s that for quality?

2. Microphone Placement

A simple adjustment can make all the difference. Having your microphone too far from the mouths of those speaking on the podcast will capture a much lower signal volume while having it too close will most likely produce a distorted signal.

The optimal distance between the person speaking, and the microphone is about three inches from their mouth. This will allow you to capture their audio at a healthy volume, without it distorting.

3. Use a Pop Filter

A pop filter is used to shield the microphone from fast-moving air generated by plosives during speech. Words such as “pop”, or “planet” that have a strong “p” sound at their beginnings, can cause spikes in the audio due to the strength of the plosives that those words create.

Another benefit of using a pop filter is to shield the microphone from any saliva that may be dispersed from the speaker’s mouth. This prevents the saliva from corroding the microphone, as well as keeping it cleaner for sanitary reasons. 

4. Proper Speaking

Having the correct microphone and placement won’t mean much if the person participating isn’t speaking properly. To ensure the first two points aren’t wasted, make sure that each participant is speaking slowly and clearly. Each person should be speaking at a comfortable room level, without any huge jumps or dips in their speaking volume.

Any kind of jumps or dips will only make things more difficult for you later on when processing your audio. Any random yelling or screaming of an overly active individual will likely incur distortion, while any sort of whispering or low-level talking will require additional volume adjustments. 

5. Setting Levels

After you have properly set up your microphone, it is time to test and set your audio levels. While proper mic placement will help with avoiding distortion, it is not enough. You need to set proper gain levels to ensure that the microphone’s signal is strong enough to be sent to your audio interface or mixer.

To keep things simple, gain is the amount of input signal. Too much gain will result in a distorted signal, while not enough will result in too quiet of a signal. Your gain level will be set within your audio interface or live mixer that you are recording into.

To set the optimal level, have those who are talking on the podcast speak into the microphones, and set the levels so that they are within the green, and just under yellow on the signal meters. Avoid any audio being in the red, as this means you are clipping and thus distorting.

While setting levels, people tend to test or speak at quieter volumes than when they perform. To account for this, set your levels slightly lower than what’s recommended, and see how much louder they are once the recording starts.

This is also when you want to use your mixer to configure the headphone playback, which using a quality noise canceling headphone will help this. They’re a bit pricey, but they let you hear everything the mics are picking up.

6. EQ Signal Processing

The next step in ensuring the cleanest audio possible is processing the signal as it comes in from the microphone to the audio interface. If you have any outboard signal processors such as an EQ, or a compressor, you’ll want to run your signal from the microphone to these processors first, and then into your audio interface.

EQ or Equalization is the process of boosting or reducing certain frequencies in an audio signal to make it more pleasing to the ear. For example, if someone has a very low voice, you can reduce some of the low-end frequencies to account for their heavier or boomier sounding voice.

7. Compression Signal Processing

After EQing your audio, you can compress it for added control and overall balance. Simply put, compression sets a threshold that when an audio signal passes through it, the strength of that audio signal is reduced by a set amount, in order to bring down any sharp peaks in the audio.

Similar to the pop filter, it’s another way to eliminate any sharp peaks in the audio, making things much more pleasing for the listener. Both eq and compression can be done after the recording process, however, it does help to clean up the original audio signal as it is being recorded.

8. Cable Management

Often overlooked, cable management ensures that your workspace is clean, and organized and prevents any unnecessary accidents. Keep your cables wound around your microphone stands, and neatly organized towards your audio interface. The last thing you want is to accidentally trip on a cable, and have it rip out of your microphone, thus damaging your microphone or worse. 

9. Mixing

When recording multiple audio sources at once, it helps to have a mixer. Using a mixer will allow you to better control the audio levels of each microphone being used to ensure a more balanced mix between each individual speaking.

Each microphone will be plugged into a separate channel, from which you can control their respective volumes. From there you can run your signal from the output of the mixer to your audio interface for proper recording.

10. Room Acoustic Treatment

Lastly, you want to treat your room acoustically. Every room has a sound to it, which is determined by the room’s size, the materials used to make it, and any other objects within it. Whenever a sound is generated, its sound waves bounce off every surface within the room, creating what we call reverb.

Reverb (or echo as some people mistakenly call it) is the sound you hear after you clap in an open room, or those flutter sounds you hear in a hallway. Too much reverb can become an issue, and muddy up your audio quality. To ensure your audio is as clean as possible, you need to treat your room by dampening it with acoustic panels in order to minimize the amount of reverb hitting your microphone.

Setting up large acoustic panels on your walls, and ceiling if possible will absorb much of the sound’s energy, and reduce sound reflections on these surfaces, thus creating a cleaner sounding room for your podcast.

The thicker the panel, the better the sound absorption, and the more frequencies will be affected. Panels that are two to four inches thick will be your best bet here and provide you with the best quality sound absorption.

Producing your podcast

How to edit your podcast and podcast editing tips

Editing, like producing and recording, will take new podcasters some time to get the hang of. Unfortunately, it’s often one of the most time-consuming aspects of podcasting as well. Mastering your editing is crucial to a polished podcast that’s free of bloopers, long silences, and forcing your listeners to constantly adjust their volume knob. 

Here are our best podcast editing tips for beginners:

1. Adobe is your friend

Look, if you’re looking at little-to-no-budget for your podcast and you don’t want to get into other multimedia creative fields, ignore this tip and use Audacity. That being said, if you’re already doing a podcast, I’d be surprised if learning Adobe Audition wouldn’t benefit you.

The awesome thing about Adobe is that it’s not any harder to learn the basics than any of the free products, and your capabilities are endless. Once you learn how to use Audition for your podcast, it will be way easier to learn how to use programs like Premiere Pro, InDesign, and Photoshop for other projects that could grow your brand.

2. Learn keyboard shortcuts

While the time you take to learn shortcuts will slow you down a little at the very beginning, you’ll find that once you’ve used them for an episode or two they become natural and save a ton of time.

In Audition, while the quick select tool is turned on, you can right-click and hold to use the move tool, hold command+k to use the razor tool, and of course command+z to undo (if you’re anything like me, you’ll use this more than anything).

3. Eliminate “ums” and “uhs”

This is the simplest, easiest thing you can do to make your podcast, hosts, and guests all sound more professional. You can work with your host to be recorded and have the speech repeated if they stumble during editing so you don’t miss anything.

4. Record separately

If you want your show to be mistake-free, using video chat and headphones to talk while you record on different mics in different places can help. This gives you a different channel for each person, and you can just cut a cough or a sentence trailing off when someone else is talking. Having multiple tracks also gives you clear visual cues for transitions while you edit.

5. Make a template

In Audition, you can create a template of your own, and in Audacity, you can save a file that operates functionally as your template for future projects. Getting everything you use consistently (intro and outro music, transition sound effects, start and end markers) preset and in one place will save you 5-10 minutes on every single episode and won’t take any longer than that to set up.

A pod is something like a business and one insight we can draw from product development is starting planning your shows with a checklist early on. It’s a good habit to get into. That said…

6. Be creative!

Something as simple as intro music, transition sound effects, or how you end the show can connect your listeners to the specific show they’re listening to and subconsciously keep them coming to your show, and not just shows like it.

7. Use room noise often

One goal in editing is to make your show sound “unedited.” Jarring transitions or significant change in response time take distract listeners and take them out of the show for just a moment. To avoid these, record a 15-second track of “room noise” when you record the show and use that to fill in gaps when needed. 

8. Zoom in on your waveform

You’ll always want to make sure your audio sounds right first and foremost, but being able to see where people start and stop talking and the space between words is invaluable when it comes to saving you time. In Audition or Audacity, use “-” to zoom out and “=” to zoom in.

9. Keep consistent pacing

The first edit of the pilot of the 22-minute sitcom Arrested Development came out to around 45 minutes, but director Mitchell Hurwitz simply told them to eliminate all of the “white space” and it would come out the 22 minutes it was supposed to be.

This resulted in maybe the fastest-paced sitcom ever, and it made everyone from the writers to the actors seem extraordinarily clever—even brilliant—with jokes, you can’t even keep up with on your first watch. My advice in the way of pacing is mostly to stay consistent so the audience knows what they are getting into. Just know that a fast-paced edit can make hosts seem brilliant, but it can also sacrifice some of the thoughtfulness that comes with the podcasts we generally respect the most.

And don’t be afraid to rehearse. Walkthrough your podcast setting ahead of time so you’re prepared. It’s rare anyone gets it in one take or with their first draft.

10. Playback at a high speed

While you’re listening through your podcast for edits, the best way to save time is simply through quick playback speed. You’ll find that often five or ten minutes will go by with little to no issues, and sitting through that burns up the valuable time you have to edit.

By simply double- or triple-tapping “L” in Adobe’s signature “JKL” shortcut when you restart the playback is invaluable. Just make sure it’s at a slow enough speed where you can understand it and catch errors that need attention.

Can you use music in your podcast?

There are a lot of myths about using copyrighted songs within podcasts. Let’s dispel some of them here. You CAN NOT use copyrighted music if:

• It’s under 30 seconds
• You give credit
• You’re a non-profit

Another misconception is about fair use. Yes, you can use copyrighted music if it’s part of your discussion (i.e. you’re criticizing or commenting on it), but you can’t use music for no purposeful reason (i.e. as your podcast intro).

There are ways you can use music in your podcast, however. Here are a few free and paid resources we’ve compiled to keep your music for podcasts free of any royalty problems.

Publishing your podcast

So how exactly does the audio you record go from your computer all the way to Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, and the rest of the podcast directories? 

To put it as simply as I can, you need to create an RSS feed that points to respective audio files for the podcast and then submit this feed to the main directories.

Though it may sound complicated, it’s a pretty turnkey process if you find the right solution to partner up with.

Podcast hosting primer

Most podcast hosts do much of the heavy lifting for you, they store (or host) your audio files, generate the RSS feed, structure the metadata, and submit on your behalf to the directories of your choice. Still, you want to make sure the distribution hosting service they’re providing is up to modern standards for 2022. Every host we recommend has the widest distribution available and will distribute podcasts everywhere.

The key here in your decision making is finding a podcast host that’s right for you based on the features you need, your budget, the structure of your podcast, and the estimated popularity of the show. Podcast hosts typically price their services based on two things: storage and bandwidth. These terms may seem familiar to you, but here’s what they mean in the podcast world:

Storage — how many episodes are you recording and how long will they be?

Bandwidth — how many people will be downloading your podcast? Remember, when you’re just starting out you can sacrifice unlimited bandwidth and space for a partner that will help push your podcast out to the masses.

Ultimately, we’ve found Buzzsprout seems to be the podcast host that meets the needs of most new podcasters. Their starter plan comes with unlimited storage and a monthly bandwidth of 250GB — more than enough for new podcasters. Their analytics are also easy to use and provide comprehensive coverage. 

Best Podcast Hosting Services

Here’s a breakdown of other podcast hosts we’ve tried and tested, and if you’re looking for a more comprehensive breakdown of podcast hosts and their features, read this article about the best podcast hosting services.

Submitting your podcast to directories

You want people to listen to your podcast, right? Well, where do you listen to podcasts? List every possible place you listen — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Radiopublic, etc. — and that’s where you want to be. 

Fortunately, if you have a sound podcast host, most do this for you with a click or two with an API connection. Since we recommend Buzzsprout, here’s an example showing how easy it is from their dashboard. And really, Buzzsprout is just about the perfect place to start a podcast. A Buzzsprout presented podcast, even one presented by Buzzsprout from scratch is a lot different than going it alone.

For the directories without a one-click solution from your podcast host, you can typically go to the directory, create an account, and paste your RSS feed to submit. 

How to submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes)

For the third time, if you have a good marketing podcast host they should do this for you. If you’re going a more bespoke route, here’s what you need to do: 

1. Test your RSS feed

Apple recommends new podcasters use Podbase to validate their RSS feeds. Simply paste your RSS feed URL and it’ll automatically verify if your feed is compliant with Apple’s standards.

2. Validate your podcast feed has the right metadata fields

Apple requires you to have the following fields:

• Podcast Title
• Description
• Podcast Artwork

You should have already finalized these three fields before reaching this point, but if you haven’t you need to now. 

3. Submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts

Go to iTunes Connect when you’re ready to submit. If you have an existing Apple ID use it here, if not create a new one. You’ll be asked to validate your RSS feed once again — use the same URL you used in the first step. 

Finalize which podcasting categories you’d like to show up in (up to three), the language of your podcast (use the two-letter language code) and if there’s any explicit material. When you pick a main category, there are a dozen subcategories to choose from, so be consistent when you find something that clicks.

4. When you’re done, click Submit. 

Apple claims the review process can take up to two weeks, but we’ve seen most are approved within a couple of days. You can check the status of your podcast review from within iTunes Connect. Previewing a podcast on iTunes is pretty straightforward and it should automatically be sent to your device when ready.

How to submit your podcast to Spotify

In a similar submission process to Apple Podcasts, Spotify requires the following to submit a podcast to their directory:

• Podcast Title
• Podcast Description
• Podcast Cover Art
• Podcast Category
• Language Selection
• At least one live episode

The episode requirement is the sole difference from the Apple process. If you don’t have an episode recorded yet, we recommend creating a 30- to a 60-second trailer to generate buzz and get your podcast on Spotify prior to the show officially launching.

When you’re ready to submit, go to the Spotify For Podcasters portal and click Get Started. You’ll again validate your RSS feed, enter the requirements listed above, review the generated feed preview, and click through the final prompts. 

Spotify typically approves podcasts faster than Apple, so you should see your podcast in their app in less than a day.

Content Measurement Audience Insight Engagement

At a certain point, if you want a successful podcast, you need to ensure that people are actually downloading, listening, and engaging with your show. If you’re putting all this work into recording then you need to be living, loving, and lusting after your metrics. The better, and more granular the metrics about your show are, the better off you’ll be.

It’s one of the most important factors in choosing a podcast host. Even if they submit your podcast everywhere automatically, if you can’t see the end result of those episodes, then you can’t tailor your show and grow your audience.

Really good hosting with detailed analytics can tell you a lot about your audience beyond downloads. They can tell you information like what device had access and what content platform or app the podcasts were downloaded to.

Growing Your Podcast by Promoting

There is no get-rich-quick scheme for podcasts, nor is there a silver bullet to getting tons of listeners. Like any small business, growing your audience takes savvy marketing fundamentals but most importantly a good product. All marketing does is provide a magnifying glass to your podcast. If listeners don’t like what they hear, they won’t stick around. Focus on making great content first. 

After that, your marketing preferences are going to bear a similar relation to your exercise preference. Just don’t skip leg day.

Here are some basic digital marketing fundamentals you should be doing at a bare minimum:

Build a Website With Your Host or With WordPress

Build a website for your podcast if your podcast host doesn’t already provide one. You should have a streamable player for your podcast embedded within the site, an “about us” section, and ways to get in touch with you through email and/or social media. You can use your site to confirm the email subscription of listeners and build your distribution list. You can send out a newsletter telling interested podcast subscribers what you’re up to.

Basic search engine optimization will help new audiences find your show. What does an established podcaster want? Just that, passive traffic from SEO. Publishing a podcast on WordPress can help older audiences find your show.

The best podcast websites I’ve seen also provide complimentary material to the podcast acting as companion material. Here’s 99% Invisible’s social media website with blog posts providing more info on each episode. 

Have listeners submitting a subscription for paywall content? Yes, please. Even if there’s an error in the subscription confirmation, that’s just another opportunity for a touch point. Remember, a podcast that makes money is a business. You’re a brand unto yourself.

“When I’m out in public, I can tell which media channel is the catalyst for someone approaching me. The bro-approach (i.e., “Yo Dawg”) is made by fans of our videos. Someone who wants to engage in a sober, analytical discussion about the dynamics of streaming or the harms of social media reads the newsletter or my books. But someone who approaches me as if we’re good friends listens to the podcast. It’s similar to running into an old acquaintance you really liked, and who really liked you … but you never had the chance to become good friends. The goodwill is evident. This now happens several times a week.”

– Professor Scott Galloway, NYU | Host of the Prof G Show

Popular podcast hosts know that the interest in a show is intensely personalised. The audience is telling you they are intimately interested in your podcast when you build that rapport.

Stay active on social media and Comment Soon

Social media remains a key discoverability route for new listeners. It remains the most effective audience building strategy beyond having great content.

Post new episodes, engage with fans, solicit feedback, give behind-the-scenes info, give away swag, and more. Many a newbie podcaster established themselves by being guests on slightly more established podcasts because it helps build rapport and camaraderie. Almost like having a mentor.

That’s the power networking has in podcasting.

Foster a community You Love

There are several ways to build the foundation of a community — Reddit, Facebook Page, Slack, and Discord. A strong community will encourage word of mouth engagement and grow your audience in organic ways. 

Ask for feedback from Everyone

Your listeners are your customers, ask for feedback whenever you can. You want to continually improve your show and the best way to do that is to constructively listen to what your fans say about your podcast. 

More than that, ask, repeatedly and consistently for reviews. In a conversation with Mark Timberlake on the Udemy podcast, he explained how important reviews are to the algorithm of every podcast directory boosting your show organically. So make it happen.

Rinse, repeat, and keep at it by Creating Engaging Content

Remember at the top of this guide when I said: “Starting a podcast is hard and takes work, and more work, and more work, and mo—”? Don’t get frustrated by a slow start, tireless nights, or a lack of feedback, and definitely don’t get hung up on download numbers. 

Advertise

Thousands of people come to Discover Pods every day looking for podcasts just like yours. Take advantage of the existing community and grow your podcast today. Learn more here

The post How To Start A Podcast The Right Way (The Definitive Complete Guide for 2022) appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

The approach true crime aficionados and researchers often take with these crimes that affect real people and communities is insensitive, amoral, and downright disrespectful.

But I also understand that is a part of the true crime podcasts community: making heinous crimes laughable or seem like a bad late-night T.V. drama. It takes a bit of wind out of the sails of these events.

When I created this list, I wanted to find a middle ground. I wanted to offer long-time true crime listeners something new and shine a light on different approaches to talking about true crime podcasts. So below, you’ll find a blend of your typical true crime podcasts. But even more so, you’ll find a thoughtful and caring approach that reminds listeners of the real ramifications, victims, and societal involvements that led to these events. 

I also want to place a blanket content warning on all these true crime podcasts. Each show gets into brutal crimes, abuse, and other extremely sensitive topics. Keep this in mind and take care of yourself while listening.

Missing and Murdered

Missing and Murdered has appeared on previous Discover Pods’ true crime podcast lists, but I wanted to feature it again. Not only does the podcast cover indigenous crimes, but they do true crime coverage in the most informed and respectful way. Missing and Murdered is the perfect blend of dramatic coverage and true crime cases for true crime fans who love and prefer investigative reporting and interviews. The host creates a complete and comprehensive experience by using voiceovers, music, and sound effects to bring Missing and Murdered to life for listeners. Missing and Murdered is like a blend of Wounded and Welcome to Your Fantasy, both further down on the list because of its storytelling and cinematic elements and focus on cases involving indigenous people. Each season does a deep dive into a different case involving indigenous people who have been murdered or gone missing. Across the true crime podcast’s two seasons, two cases are covered.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts

Darknet Diaries

Darknet Diaries is one of my favorite true crime podcasts on this list, with a particular focus on cybercrimes. It instantly reminded me of Marc Goodman’s informative and terrifying book Future Crimes: Inside the Digital Underground and the Battle for Our Connected World. I will give a bit of a warning; Darknet Diaries is not great for listeners who tend to fall down rabbit holes related to personal privacy. Darknet Diaries is going to inform you of all the ways people, governments, and businesses can hack, own, and sell your personal data, money, and even life. It’s a thought-provoking true crime podcast that helps listeners figure out how to better live and function in the modern connected age where crime can happen right before your eyes from thousands of miles away. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts

Read more: Why Your Podcast Sucks: My Favorite Murder’s Real Favorite Is the Cops

RedHanded

With a blend of true crime and the supernatural, RedHanded uses a unique combination of true crime and the paranormal to give listeners true crime of a sometimes bizarre nature. RedHanded is a paranormal podcast for true crime fans, a true crime podcast for people who believe supernatural elements play a hand in all strange and unfortunate occurrences. While not diving deep into crimes, listeners can still find new crimes discussed, dissected, and joked about each episode. I’ve written about RedHanded previously and thought true crime listeners would find it just as entertaining as paranormal listeners. There are many true crime podcasts on this list like RedHanded that try and keep things light while talking about dark topics and being respectful, like Sinisterhood and What Did You Do?! below. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Sinisterhood

Sinisterhood brings together two comedian friends who explore creepy and strange true crime cases they researched. Though it bears comedic similarities to RedHanded, Sinisterhood leans a little more toward the paranormal true crime vibes than the former. Think cults, strange disappearances, and even Santa Claus bank robberies. The banter between the hosts reminded me a lot of My Favorite Murder with tons of tangents and inside jokes and fan engagement. Sinisterhood is great for fans of true crime podcasts who want a bit of spooky without getting too far into the horror realm. And though I couldn’t get into the podcast too much, I thought it was worth recommending because they have a terrific following and community of paranormal true crime buffs. Also, there are over 150 episodes for new listeners to catch up on, with new ones releasing every week! 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Ripped from the Headlines

Ripped from the Headlines is a Law and Order true crime podcast. You may be wondering what that means, and to be honest, it’s a pretty original and unique concept. Each episode looks at a case that inspired a Law and Order episode retelling. If you’re curious what era of Law and Order they choose, the show sticks to the original early seasons. That means their cases are often older ones, but the issues are still present and important. I’ve written about Ripped from the Headlines before in a full review of the true crime and T.V. podcast. Like most of this true crime podcast list, Ripped from the Headlines uses humor to add levity to the dark and sensitive subject matter. The setup also lends itself to some laughs. Each episode has one host recapping the episode while the other tells the true case that inspired it. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Ear Hustle

Ear Hustle is my favorite new find. And it’s not your average true crime podcast. Instead of focusing on the gritty and mysterious, Ear Hustle gives the mic to people incarnated to tell their stories and give listeners an unflinching look at what it’s like to be imprisoned all across the world. Ear Hustle is deeply refreshing, educating, and emotional. All the episodes offer listeners a way to connect and understand the current state of the prison industrial complex and the people it affects. Ear Hustle is an excellent podcast for activists, community members, and true crime fans—essentially, Ear Hustle is a must listen to for everyone. The hosts and guests get into topics related to getting released and re-entering society, along with how prison has affected their lives and their loved ones.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts

Read more: I Am Tired of True Crime

Murder’s a Drag

I hope you’ve picked up on a theme in these true crime podcasts. They focus on the victims, the systems that lead to these crimes, and how we can help other survivors and prevent these crimes. Murder’s a Drag is no different. With a particular focus on crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, Murder’s a Drag, hosted by a drag queen, features deep dives into crimes, the people who were impacted, and how to see these crimes as more than statistics but real people with lives that were lost. Old, new, famous, and not-so-famous crimes and murders against the queer community are discussed and given the voice of someone from within the community. There is not a lot of humor on the true crime podcast, but Murder’s a Drag is a respectful podcast worth a listen. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS 

Web Crawlers

Like RedHanded and Sinisterhood, Web Crawlers is a humorous, slightly paranormal true crime podcast. And if you’re a fan of holiday-themed crimes, there are a few each season! And the paranormal aspect is extremely slight in Web Crawlers, so if that’s not your thing, don’t worry. The mystical or supernatural parts of the show are things like scary clowns, mysterious deaths, and spooky highways with haunting pasts. What I liked about Web Crawlers is the banter and fun the hosts have despite talking about all manner of crime, murder, and mystery. That humor might be helpful for listeners who want to delve into the world of true crime without getting scared, sad, or, in general, too affected by the content matter. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

What Did You Do?!

What Did You Do?! is closer to a traditional true crime podcast with the caveat still being on taking a humane look at crimes throughout the last few decades. What makes What Did You Do?! is the hosts’ background in both mental health and social work, giving an often unlooked at portrait of what leads some people to commit such heinous acts. What Did You Do?! is the first true crime podcast that I was sucked into. The hosts use humor a lot to keep themselves from breaking down while talking about cases, and it helps. There was a note in one of their recent episodes that the earlier episodes aren’t always so sensitive to the subject matter. The last episode aired back in August and was the only 2021 episode. There is a sporadic episode release history, so I hope the hosts come back and release more.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Google Podcasts | Website | RSS

So Violento, So Macabro

So Violento, So Macabro is a new true crime podcast that started in September 2021. I wish I could recommend So Violento, So Macabro based more on what I heard, but this is a predominately Spanish-speaking true crime podcast, though the crimes happen all around the world. I did understand some of it because the hosts switch back and forth between Spanish and English. When I found So Violento, So Macabro, I knew I wanted to recommend it on this true crime podcasts roundup list, even if I couldn’t understand it. What I could understand showed that the hosts research deeply into the people involved in the true crime cases. I even fell into listening to the podcast, catching snippets of what was discussed. For non-Spanish-speaking listeners, some of the English sections go on for several minutes before slipping back into Spanish.

Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Website | RSS

Dreams of Black Wall Street

Dreams of Black Wall Street is the most historical true crime podcast on this list. Instead of covering new cases or singular cases, in general, Dreams of Black Wall Street investigates the history, society, and times that led to one of the most heinous domestic terrorist attacks. For people who aren’t aware of the history or events surrounding the Tulsa Race Massacre, Dreams of Black Wall Street offers listeners a historical account of the events from a historian and investigative journalist perspective. It’s a historical investigation into a society and the people who needed to destroy it. There are interviews, reports, and more, making Dreams of Black Wall Street a perfect true crime podcast for listeners who want to hear from more than just the hosts. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts

Welcome to Your Fantasy

Despite my dislike of most true crime media, I have a soft spot for Goodfellas and Casino-style true crime adaptations of money, drugs, and sex stories. Welcome to Your Fantasy tells the story of Chippendales’s sex and greed-fueled history. The structure of interviews, storytelling, and recapping made Welcome to Your Fantasy give me the same feelings and vibes of those classic films. I thought the story of Chippendales ended with scanty tuxedos and muscle dancers. Welcome to Your Fantasy opened my eyes to the deep history of desire, mayhem, and debauchery that went on behind the scenes. Hosted by a historian, Welcome to Your Fantasy looks at the roots that led to the rise and fall of Chippendales told from the people involved in the scandals, dances, and orgies. The final episode aired in August 2021, so there’s no waiting for the next part in the story. Listeners can jump in and listen to the full 11-episode true crime podcast!

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast

Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast is similar to Missing and Murdered and focuses on crimes against indigenous communities. The main difference is that instead of spending a season on one case, Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast goes over many cases in each episode. I recommend “Missing and Murdered: Two-Spirit,” an episode that focuses on crimes against indigenous trans and two-spirit communities. I will also note that Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast is the only true crime podcast I listened to that used content warnings to keep their listeners aware. Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast is an eye-opening true crime podcast for true crime fans who don’t know the issues indigenous populations face today, right now. There are no jokes on Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast because nothing about these cases is funny. Touching, informing, and handled with care, Wounded: A Native True Crime Podcast is a required listen for any true crime fan.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Scam Goddess

If you’re like me and always on the lookout for scams to protect yourself and your loved ones, Scam Goddess is the true crime podcast for you. Each week the host gives listeners an informative heads up on current or past scams to look out for and their ramifications on communities. What I love most about Scam Goddess is the in-depth take on each scam. It’s not just a warning, but an education on how not to be fooled, how to operate safely in our modern world, and more. It’s exciting and entertaining because the host really brings the energy. And I mean Scam Goddess is hilarious. I laughed so hard during every episode I listened to; I couldn’t stop listening. It also reminded me of a humorous Darknet Diaries.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Crime in Sports

My least favorite of the true crime podcasts I came across was Crime in Sports. Crime in Sports is a true crime podcast that blends humor and sports to fill listeners in on crimes involving players. If you want some sensitivity and thought behind your true crime, Crime in Sports is not the show. Crime in Sports is meant to entertain true crime listeners who wish to avoid the dark side of crimes and focus on stories involving sports players, fans, and coaches in the spotlight. There are almost 300 episodes, with a new one releasing every week for new listeners. What threw me off Crime in Sports was that it seemed to be insensitivity was the point. Make fun of these people, the victims, and the events surrounding the crimes in the cruelest ways possible. But I know they have a lot of fans and community, so that type of take is obviously welcomed. Just not by me.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

That’s Spooky

For fans of odd-true crime podcasts like Web Crawlers and Redhanded, That’s Spooky is a gay, funny, and unusual true crime podcast just for you. So, it’s a true crime but featuring animal stories, weird happenings, and more from around the world. While That’s Spooky is funny, I didn’t die laughing like I did with Scam Goddess, but it is more amusing and a bit more sensitive than Crime in Sports. I love the segments like Spooky Gay Bullshit and Outterwatch. But what stuck out to me about That’s Spooky is the community surrounding the podcast. People are involved in finding cases for the hosts to research and talk about, check-in on past cases, and more. Listening to That’s Spooky makes it feel like you’re part of the podcast and the true crime spookyville the hosts create.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

O.C. Swingers

For true crime podcast listeners who enjoy the cinematic and reporting experience, O.C. Swingers follows the recent case against Dr. Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley. The ten-episode series is over—or at least the first season is—so if you’re unaware of the case, this is the perfect place to start. I didn’t think I’d have a favorite theme song, but O.C. Swingers had great musical production. The theme song and undertones played during the show are all really good and rather catchy. Like many true crime podcasts on this list, O.C. Swingers features interviews, recordings of broadcasts about the cases, and more. I enjoyed how the host works to paint the picture for some of the recordings so that the listener has a clear image of the scene.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts
Transcripts available on each episode’s page

Up Against the Mob

Up Against the Mob is another true crime podcast for fans of Goodfellas and Casino. From a retired attorney who prosecuted several mob members, Up Against the Mob recounts stories from the host’s past trying the mob in court. That means all the stories featured on Up Against the Mob are told from the perspective of someone who was involved in the cases. There’s humor and storytelling, so don’t think you’re just going to get the boring parts of court retellings. The host aims to give a complete look at the mobsters he has tried. It’s very dramatic and honestly does feel like listening to an audio of Casino. There’s even an episode about the real people behind Goodfellas! Since Up Against the Mob is hosted by a former federal and state prosecutor, the episodes and stories have a closer and more personal feel. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts
Transcripts available on each episode’s page

I hope you can find at least one new true crime podcast to your list of favorites. If you did, consider subscribing, reviewing, pledging to their Patreon, donating, or sharing. Your support always goes a long way.

Bonus true crime podcasts

These podcasts and blurbs come from previous versions of this list. We still recommend them! This article is routinely updated to bring you the new best of the best true crime podcasts.

Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo

From the same CBC team that brought us Who Killed Alberta Williams? comes Finding Cleo, once again shedding light on the unsolved cases of Indigenous women in Canada, in this case that of Cleopatra Semaganis, who was taken from her family by the Canadian government’s initiative to re-home Indigenous children with white families. This is a skillfully designed podcast, from the sound to the script to the interviews, and sensitively structured. Reporter Connie Walker, an Indigenous woman as well, is a conscientious investigator who never lets the work become exploitative or sensationalist as Walker tries to help the family find closure in their missing person’s case. (Editor’s note: This blurb appeared on a previous edition of this article, written by Elena Fernández Collins.)

The Doorstep Murder

From the BBC Scotland, comes this look into Scotland’s most infamous unsolved murder: Alistair Wilson’s shooting on his doorstep in 2004. Host Fiona Walker makes it very clear up front that she is not out to solve this case, and the materials she’s collected in the podcast is restricted to what she could obtain both legally and ethically. The Doorstep Murder’s episodes are broken down into the different aspects, like an episode fully dedicated to the gun, and one on the impact the crime had on the family and the town.

Death in Ice Valley

This cooperative investigation between the BBC World Service and the Norwegian NRK is a this serialized podcast looking into the Isdal Woman, an unidentified woman who was found in the icy wilds of Norway in the 70s. The weaving of the story and the slim pickings for interviews mean they need to blend in personal stories and outside resources (such as a Norwegian crime writer who’s done a lot of research about the Isdal Woman), in ways that are sharply reminiscent of parts of S-Town.

Bundyville

OPB and Longread’s investigation into the Bundy family and the Bundy standoff is hallmarked by reporter Leah Sottile’s lengthy, in-depth interviews, sharp observations, and in-person experience of both people and place. If you don’t know about the Bundys, the super brief rundown is that Cliven Bundy, a rancher in Bunkerville, Nevada, initiated an armed standoff against the federal government due to cattle-grazing and raising livestock laws. Sottile’s approach to the Bundys is tone-perfect: factual, but empathetic; empathetic, but without approval for their actions.

Pretend Radio

Pretend Radio is not fiction; these are people’s real lives about pretending to be people they are not, fictionalizing their own existence. True crime and psychology interlock with some of the strangest interviews and audio clips I’ve heard in a while from a podcast. The anthology opens with the three-part investigation into the Word of Faith Fellowship and an interview with an escapee from an environment involving things like mass beatings and abusive discipline. Pretend Radio is one of the most innovative approaches to this realm of true crime podcast, a respectful host who builds a story from the ground up with no doubts as to what the reality is.

Bear Brook

In 2015, new forensic techniques were applied to the Bear Brook murders, a cold case surrounding the discovery of four bodies inside of two barrels, discovered in 1985 and in 2000. They went unidentified until DNA profiling determined they were all maternally related, and advanced forensic testing determined the areas in which they lived the longest. Host Jason Moon, along with the NHPR team, dive into the history, the break this case had with the advances of the twenty-first century, and the ripple effects throughout the community.

Alibi

Alibi is an award-winning radio story and true crime podcast from South Africa, a response to a desperate plea of innocence from Anthony deVries, a man incarcerated for double murder and robbery under apartheid. Follow journalist Paul McNally and co-presenter Freddy Mabitsela through these old secrets as they try to uncover what really happened at a supermarket in 1994, only a few weeks before their first democratic election. This a story about racism and skewed justice systems, about how politics touches everyone’s lives.

Undisclosed

At a time when justice runs rampant over civil rights, digging into wrongful convictions in the U.S. justice system is a necessary part of uncovering the flaws, failures, and biases in the actors participating in that system. Originally created as a spin-off of Serial and following the continuing story of Adnan Syed, Undisclosed presents cases of wrongful conviction with the careful consideration afforded by people dedicated to advocacy for marginalized peoples. They present legal matter, like court recordings and interviews, and journalistic items, like press conferences and news reports.

Darknet Diaries

Living in the digital era that we live in now, tales of cyber crimes run rampant, sensationalized and overblown or underrated and underreported. Indie true crime podcast, Darknet Diaries, dives deep into the types of crimes that hit very close to home right now. The technological aspect is explored in depth and in an accessible fashion for all listeners with stellar production values. Jack Rhysider is an incredible host with both a flair for the dramatic and a conscientious mind for fact-checking and narrative building. (Editor’s note: This blurb appeared on a previous edition of this article, written by Elena Fernández Collins.)

The Dream

Hailed as one of the best investigative podcasts of 2018, The Dream goes deep into what it means to be involved in MLMs, multi-level marketing companies. Jane Marie is the host of a podcast that dives into pyramid schemes that often target women, who invest large amounts of sums and never make any of that investment back. The research, investigation, and undercover work involved in this podcast is breathtaking, especially considering the dangerously litigious nature of several of these companies.

The Lost

This five-part miniseries from Radio New Zealand is a cautiously intimate exploration of five missing people cases in by Canadian-Peruvian reporter Paloma Migone. This is a sensitive podcast, built up from interviews with witnesses and remaining family members, that hopes to both re-examine the evidence and bring out the beating heart of these lives left bereft so they are more than just the paperwork.

The Dropout

The story of Elizabeth Holmes has attracted attention since 2015, when a journalist first questioned the validity of their revolutionary blood-testing methods. The Dropout is one of the must-listen investigative podcasts of 2019, which goes deep into Holmes’ conspiracy and the Theranos company. This podcast contains edited testimony from the Holmes trials, a fascinating look into the con artistry involved in science and business, and how the word genius leverages trust.

Curtain

Out of Australia comes Curtain, an independent podcast about the racism faced by Indigenous Australians in the justice system, hosted by Amy McQuire, an Indigenous Darumbal reporter, and Martin Hodgson, an advocate for Indigenous prisoners. This serialized investigation is about Kevin “Curtain” Henry, accused of murder in 1992, but takes as its big picture the rampant issue of wrongful convictions of Indigenous people. It’s a smartly designed podcast, with descriptive, clear storytelling on the part of the hosts, spine-tingling musical choices, and an extremely respectful approach to talking about the murder and the victim.

Sound Africa: They Killed Dulcie

The newest season of this radio documentary podcast out of South Africa deals with the unresolved assassination of Dulcie September, an anti-Apartheid activist. Sound Africa, in conjunction with Open Secrets, calls out the systematic forces that exiled her, from her work, her country, and her history. This is a heart-wrenching, incisive look into the life of an erased activist, who deserves justice and respect for the struggles she endured to help end Apartheid, and the power of government-enforced espionage over political activists.

74 Seconds

A Peabody-winning podcast from Minnesota Public Radio, this is the story of the 74 seconds of Philando Castile’s death and every painful second afterward. They are straightforward coverage of the trial of Jeronimo Yanez with a second-by-second narrative of Castile’s death and deep coverage into the cultural and societal context surrounding both Castile and Yanez. Even knowing how this ends, 74 Seconds is a must-listen for anyone who wants an in-depth understanding of the current face of racism in policing and the courts.

Sick Sad World

Sick Sad World is a podcast hosted by two Black hosts, Jasmine and Mari, look at both true crime and paranormal, bringing many much-needed perspectives, including actively participating in creating a non-ableist space within the true crime community. I highly encourage listening to the episode “Marginalized in True Crime”, between Mari and guest speaker Kitty, where they discuss how privileged lenses approach true crime stories and investigations and why there’s a need to support marginalized voices.

The Fall Line

The Fall Line focuses on the missing people of marginalized communities in the Southeast, on uncovering information and presenting their family’s stories so that anyone who may have information can come forward. The first season, about missing twins Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook in 1990, is an experience in frustration and despair as law enforcement appears uninterested in helping the family and, when the girls turn 17, remove them from the missing children’s database. It’s infuriating and depressing, but necessary work, and the people behind this podcast execute it with passion and tenderness.

Fruit Loops

This energetic, high-powered podcast covers the subject of serial killers of color, which are often either ignored or totally skewed in media coverage. Hosts Wendy and Beth have such magnetic chemistry and infectious laughter on mic that it’s hard to not get swept up into their ventures. Their racial and gender analysis is crucial to their breakdowns, especially when tackling cases where certain angles are overlooked due to systemic racist barriers.

Uncover: The Village

The third season of the CBC’s Uncover tackles the serial killer lurking in Toronto’s Gay Village, where for eight years, men disappeared and no murderer was sought until the arrest of Bruce McArthur in 2018. The police are now looking into cases going back to 1975. Justin Ling covered the story at the time, and is now here to investigate deeply into the case that went ignored due to sexuality, skin color, and systematic oppression. Ling’s treatment of this case falls in line with the CBC’s classic honest and respectful handling of true crime, while creating a riveting experience.

The Unseen

Out of the UK comes this calm, clear podcast covering missing people and unsolved cases. Host Caprice has a very precise and structured manner of speaking, partly using a script that has been carefully written to have a strong narrative arc. Caprice has ensured a solid presentation of facts without lingering on gory details, a small amount of speculation, and overall, a very respectful and kind discussion of cases that deserve to be heard and known.

The post The 20 Best True Crime Podcasts (Beyond Serial and S-Town) appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

The year is 2009. It’s a weeknight, maybe one or two in the morning, and I’m sitting at the family computer in my pajamas. The computer is just off the kitchen, which is just off all of the bedrooms in the house, so I’m sitting in the dark out of a worry that lights would wake my mom up.

(I am, technically, supposed to be asleep right now. Oops.)

I have maybe six or seven tabs open. There are several Wikipedia pages for different creatures in folklore and urban legend, which are always fun to read. But the thing that’s really holding my interest are these strange little websites I’ve found that collect horror stories and urban legends. They’re hosted on Angelfire or something similar, lovingly designed by some horror aficionado somewhere in the world. The background is black or dark brown, sometimes with patterns of bats or skulls; the buttons are shaped like tombstones or look like they’re dripping with blood.

I read about a hook-handed man murdering a young man walking to get help for his broken car.

A strange creature that looks like a human but contorted in ways that humans cannot, rushing through a cornfield towards a horrified college student.

A teenage girl whose house is broken into when her parents go out for the night.

I’m autistic with a special interest in horror, and I’m having the time of my life.

The year is 2014. I’ve dealt with hallucinations, paranoia, and delusions for as long as I can remember. As a child, when I lacked the words to fully describe what I was experiencing, my experiences were dismissed as insomnia, as anxiety. Nothing serious. Nothing anyone needs to help me with. I just need to stop bothering my parents so they can get a good night’s sleep. So for as long as I’ve been dealing with these issues, I deal with them on my own. I have my systems and they work for me. It’s fine. I’m fine.

Except it’s getting worse.

I have trouble being at home alone at night. I convinced my dad to get a pit bull so that I’d have someone at home with me when he’s away on business trips and my siblings are at our mom’s house, and having her helps, but not completely. I’m jumping at the voices of people passing outside, nearly crying at the sights of shadows that I’m convinced are moving. I try to find refuge in my favorite genres of media. But after watching a horror movie on Netflix leads to another week of sleepless nights, I come to a horrible conclusion:

Whatever is going on in my brain, horror is making it worse.

So I set horror aside. I try very hard to forget my old love, to pretend that I don’t miss it at all. I still have fantasy, still have sci-fi. I can read those. It’s fine. It’s fine.

The year is 2018. I talk to professionals about everything I’ve been experiencing and get a diagnosis, get medication, get coping techniques that make it manageable. I tell my therapist that I’m going to start trying to watch horror movies again, and I do try, but I get too freaked out by the visuals. I don’t want to prompt more issues, so I stay away from horror.

I am furious with myself for this decision. Horror has been one of my greatest loves since I was a small child; I have a distinct memory of being maybe seven or eight and telling my mom everything I had just read about the history of vampires. I’m angry at my brain—angry at myself, by extension—for not being able to handle horror anymore. The meds and therapy are helping me heal, but I still feel fundamentally broken.  

The year is 2020. I’ve been slowly dipping my toes back into horror—reading an occasional short story here, a blog post there—but I haven’t fully dived back into it. Now, everyone I follow on Tumblr is talking about a horror podcast called The Magnus Archives. The Magnus Archives is a podcast made by creator Jonathan Sims about a man (also named Jonathan Sims, otherwise known as The Archivist) who discovers something sinister lurking beneath the polished academic facade of the paranormal research institute he works at. One night, as I’m relaxing in bed with my partner, I open Spotify and start playing the first episode.

Eerie string music plays, raising the hairs on my arms. A voice begins to speak.

“Rusty Quill presents: The Magnus Archives.”

The music is unsettling, setting me on edge in a familiar way that I’ve missed like a fish missing water.

“Episode One: Angler Fish.”

My heart is racing already—not from fear (yet) but from excitement.

“Test, test, test. One-two-three. Right. My name is Jonathan Sims. I work for the Magnus Institute, London: an organization dedicated to academic research into the esoteric and the paranormal.”

Read more: The Magnus Effect: how Tumblr contributed to the success of The Magnus Archives

The episode terrifies me. It unnerves and unsettles me in a way that I find, strangely, comforting and familiar. This first episode of The Magnus Archives features a monster (the eponymous Angler Fish) that dangles a humanoid lure in the shadow of a back alley and asks drunk passersby for a cigarette. When the hapless victim approaches and holds the cigarette out, the Angler Fish strikes. 

That night, when the lights are off and I’m waiting for my meds to knock me out, that familiar paranoia comes creeping back in: my mind says, the Angler Fish is in your doorway. If you look up, it will be there, and it will kill you.

I tell my mind Shut the fuck up, I’m going to bed, and I fall asleep.

In the morning, I turn over the events of the previous night. I was scared, yeah, but I got past it. I realize that Magnus is exactly what I’ve been needing: it’s more immersive than written horror, but doesn’t freak me out the way that visual horror does. I eagerly devour the rest of the season.

In season two, The Archivist is—to put it gently—having a really fucking bad time. He’s discovered that his predecessor was murdered and her body left in the tunnels beneath the Magnus Institute (the reason for the title of The Magnus Archives), implying that her murder had something to do with her work. As The Archivist spirals down paranoia and delusions, I’m blindsided by how much I relate to him. I mean, I’ve never stalked my coworkers to their house, but the paranoia? Being convinced that someone wants to harm you? Knowing with total certainty that if you make one wrong move, someone will kill you? I’ve been there.

I feel really, really bad for The Archivist! He makes bad decisions and harms the people around him, for sure, and I’m not excusing that. But I understand where he’s coming from. I don’t know if the creator intended for him to be read this way or not, but I start to see myself in The Archivist: someone dealing with a mental illness that makes you predisposed to thinking that everyone is out to get you. For The Archivist, that’s greatly exacerbated because he has actual proof that somebody really is.

I come up with a lengthy headcanon for The Archivist, giving him my own backstory: delusions and paranoia from a young age, finally getting a diagnosis and meds as a young adult. I try viewing his actions in season two through the lens of someone who stops taking his meds, and suddenly everything clicks into place. I don’t excuse the harm he does to his coworkers, but I sympathize with him.

And that makes me realize something: if I can sympathize with The Archivist, why can’t I sympathize with myself? If I can give him my exact history and treat him gently, why can’t I treat myself gently, too? 

Maybe The Archivist and I aren’t that dissimilar. Maybe we’re both just people trying to get through life even though our brains are against us. Maybe it’s not his fault that his brain makes things hard for him. Maybe it’s not my fault, either.

In 2009, I open a page on a horror story website and start reading a story about vampires.

In 2020, I start playing The Magnus Archives episode “MAG 56 Children of the Night” and listen to a vampire hunter talk about his life.

I love horror.

I am happy.

I am at peace. 

The post How The Magnus Archives Helped Me Love Horror Again appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Don’t show the shark

There’s a golden rule in film horror of “don’t show the monster.” One can find dozens of variations of the phrase depending on who you’re talking to or in what context it’s being talked about. My personal favorite variation is “don’t show the shark,” referencing Steven Spielberg’s happy little accidents on set that changed what kind of movie Jaws (1975) became. The movie’s about a big-ass shark terrorizing a town full of pasty white New Englanders. Loosely based off a novel (so loosely Spielberg asked star Richard Dreyfuss not to read it during casting), Jaws on paper was effectively a gore-fest American kaiju flick but with a somewhat realistically-sized shark instead of a dude in a suit stomping toy buildings. Were it made, this version of the movie would’ve been a cheesy 70s creature feature with a particularly skilled cast, director, and composer. Nothing more.

Fortunately for the moviegoing public and unfortunately for Spielberg, the shark robots built for the movie sucked. Incredibly expensive, requiring 14 people to operate, and simply inoperable for vast stretches of time during filming, the Jaws shark puppets forced Spielberg to reframe the movie around the notion that the mere suggesting the presence of the shark could be horrifying. Instead of masturbatory hero shots of the entire shark swimming underwater, he had to use implied POV (point-of-view) shots from an underwater camera to give the shark’s perspective. Fleeting glances of a dorsal fin or barrels attached to a harpoon the audience knows is embedded in the shark got people squirming in their seats. 

Read more: Why Audio Is Great for Scary Stories

By not showing the shark often Jaws took full advantage of each audience member’s own personal fears in regards to open water. Simply knowing the shark existed and is near the characters is enough for the audience’s own personal fears of sharks to fill in the blanks and make it far scarier than any rubber robot could live up to. “The film went from a Japanese Saturday matinee horror flick to more of a Hitchcock, the less-you-see-the-more-you-get thriller,” said Spielberg in a 2005 Jaws retrospective for The Roanoke Times.

Jaws in script form was a horror movie in which you, the audience, are supposed to be afraid of the shark doing harm to characters. Big scary thing with lots of teeth eating people? No good, no thank you. Jaws in its finished form is a horror movie in which you, the audience, are afraid of the idea of a shark. Only having vague hints about where it is at any given time can start to play into some ancient primal fear deep in one’s guts. The same fear of the unknown one would feel when hearing something rustling just outside the light of a campfire. Moments when the shark finally kills the dead meat human in the water are actually moments of relief. A pressure is released. They’re dead, we know where the shark is, things are normal again. Thanks to Spielberg’s broken shark robots, overblown shooting schedule, and actors who disliked each other, the Jaws object of fear was shifted from a caricature of a real-world thing to a fear of having no control over one’s current situation.

Mundane versus Mars

The more basic and relatable the thing being made scary is, the easier it is for a storyteller to make it creepy. Of course, there are effective horror properties with wholly un-mundane premises. Event Horizon is effectively about a spaceship that went to hell for a few seconds and made Australian national treasure Sam Neil evil. The common thread with these more outlandish horror plots is playing to the advantages of the medium. Being a movie, things like Event Horizon or Mission to Mars can do big goofy sci-fi things and still squeeze some scares out of the proceedings with jumpscares and visual effects. 

Human minds are capable of so much when left alone with a few pieces of existing information and time to put them together. HBO’s award-bait prestige drama series Chernobyl gleefully doles out horrible events with only the faintest hints of exposition at first to catch the younger viewers off-guard, even if all they have to operate on is context clues and the idea “radiation is bad.” Chernobyl remains a fascinating case study of a piece of media that, while not explicitly horror, plays to both the average viewer and a smaller second audience for whom it’s absolutely a horror show. The latter are treated to occasional seemingly-innocent lingering shots of very specific seemingly-innocent objects and places. Things people who grew up in the 80s (and history buffs) understand the significance of. The creators know you know the significance of that one hospital room full of firefighter masks, and they know it’ll creep you out. 

Horror podcasts don’t have the luxury of Stan Winston-level effects or real-world events to crib from (often). There’s only so many times foley of someone squishing ground beef in their hands for gore can be used before it loses efficacy. But you, a horror producer, can easily meet an audience on an even playing field by, you guessed it, embracing the mundane. 

Sure, an extra-dimensional monster or two can be scary, but so can otherwise normal background foley Hartlife NPF’s gothic horror Unwell opens with Dorothy “Dot” Harper walking home from a grocery store in, as Dot establishes with a barb of sarcasm, the quiet town of Mount Absalom. The audience is swept into a warm summer in the south, crickets chirping in the darkness as Dot’s feet crunch on a gravel road. Passing greetings from what one assumes are people in town she’s walking past begin to multiply and change, warping into something disorienting and unnerving until it reaches a fever pitch with Dot barely avoiding a passing truck. Within the first minute of the series Unwell makes explicitly clear this is not a calm, idyllic place pulled from Glen Campbell’s Southern Nights. They’ve dropped a shark in the narrative waters and you immediately lost track of it. 

Generally, these kinds of op-eds are written as reactionary knee-jerk responses to trends in an industry. Given the relative balance of content in horror audio fiction over the past year or so, I’m of the opinion now is the perfect time to talk about something like this without stepping on too many toes. This piece is less motivated by a perceived glut of poorly-crafted horror and more an appreciation of those who make phenomenal horror using a particularly fascinating and efficient tool. And, to sweeten the pot beyond narrative reasons this can rock an audience’s socks off, let’s talk budget.

Less sound design can be more

Horror in audio fiction, not held down by the need for physical sets or massive server farms to produce CG environs, can easily take flight into the fantastical, the extremes. With sound design one can do anything, and frequently audio fiction does just that: anything. The trick is “anything” comes with an inherent labor and financial price tag. Even relatively simple soundscapes like Harlife NFP’s aforementioned Mount Absalom summer evening take skill and resources to craft well. The less difficult one can make the process of delivering scares on themselves, the more time can be put into making those scares effective. 

Consider Paranormal Activity (2007). One of the most profitable movies ever produced, the viral found-footage hit that spawned a franchise (with woefully diminishing returns) cost just over $100,000 to produce. A guy finds out his girlfriend is haunted, rents a film-grade camera, and starts filming the house while they sleep. Unsurprisingly, things don’t turn out great for them. The majority of scares in the first Paranormal Activity are entirely from sound design and the acting chops of the microscopic cast list. In the entire film there’s maybe three shots that have any post-production visual effects magic done, one of which is literally just moving a crop to reveal footprints on the floor. Nowadays just about anyone could take the raw footage and use a copy of DaVinci Resolve 17 to do the VFX work for Paranormal Activity in a weekend. 

There’s an efficacy to using mundane scenarios and locations that can distill pure fear out of something somebody sees every day. And, by virtue of being something mundane, is economically easier to replicate in a podcast. Cult classic The Evil Dead (1981), at the end of the day, is the result of a group of underpaid and overworked 20-somethings making a horror movie about an isolated cabin in the woods… while living in an isolated cabin in the woods. Albeit the result of Sam Raimi being an abusive dick to his cast and crew, there’s a brutal honesty to Evil Dead as a result of them basically making a movie about the conditions the crew was in while making the movie. A horror movie ouroboros (horrouroboros?), if you will. 

Creaky floorboards, ominous air conditioner hums, flickering fluorescent lights, a second set of footsteps slightly out of sync with the character supposedly alone in a room. These things are somewhat commonplace in the real world and easy to capture on a recorder so that, in the right horrorhound’s hands, they can be deployed at just the right time to scare the pants off someone who made the mistake of listening in the middle of the night. 

Audio drama that dares to try and make things we encounter in our everyday lives horrifying is a special thing and should be celebrated. Perhaps it’s a bit entry-level to discuss something as basic as “make do with what you have” mentality, a cornerstone of low-budget horror, but it feels necessary to stop and discuss why things are good on occasion. In an industry flooded with capitalist brain-worm infested corporate suits who regurgitate the same tired lies about the “low barrier to entry” producers who fought hard to get through that supposedly low barrier can achieve a hell of a lot with simple, familiar concepts.

The post A Case for the Mundane appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

My relationship with horror is an odd one. I’m the kind of person who can recall the events of Harlan Ellison short stories and will pass a compliment to any cute girl I see in a Junji Ito sweatshirt while in the same breath admitting I couldn’t sit through SAW. 

One of my favorite books is House of Leaves and I’ve got a massive soft spot for Perfect Blue, Black Swan, and the 2018 remake of Susperia but even I still need to use my phone flashlight to walk to the bathroom at night. And it’s just not Halloween until I’ve had a back to back marathon of The Love Witch, The Craft, and Jennifer’s Body but throw Tusk in the mix and the night is ruined.

Horror is such a subjective topic with audiences often leaning one direction or the other on what they consider good, let alone scary so confronting someone with the question of what scares them can vary from the inevitability of death and the possible bleakness of the afterlife or being rampaged by skeleton pirates. 

As a fan of consuming multiple pieces of fictional media I can say I’ve never seen more ups and downs than I have with the horror genre and I can confirm the same goes for podcasts. 

The Usual Suspects

We’ve all heard it at least once: A crackly found audio occult study done by an ambitious twenty-something exploring some sort of mysterious rural area. Along the way they come across a batch of eclectic strangers, some foes but mostly friends who either encourage or discourage our protagonist’s belief in the supernatural. 

Because this abandoned town could be host to a multitude of demons/ghosts/cults/serial killers/monsters or possibly all five because a town with multiple secrets is always better than one.

This is the setup of the typical horror docudrama, something of a stalemate in the podcasting world. And my, how stale it truly is.

It’s Small Town Horror, it’s The Black Tapes, it’s The Last Movie, it’s TANIS, it’s Diary of a Madman, it’s Limetown and Rabbits and it’s making me very bored.

The Public Radio Alliance podcasts (Rabbits, TANIS, The Last Movie) pretty much cornered the market on these types of shows and though I’m always a fan of a juicy mystery, something about their content, as well as those who try to emulate their style, just fails to be scary–which I imagine is a major thorn in the side of something in the horror category. No matter how polished, no matter how expertly produced, the horror docudrama setup has always been such a slog to experience. 

Not to be a snob about these things, but something about the formula just reeks of a sort of Blair Witch Project level of predictability, even if you want to liberally call it a homage to the found footage genre. 

Trends are inevitable in art no matter the medium and even audio drama is no stranger to piggybacking off established success.

Do you remember that time when all horror video games were about zombies and then after PT (the playable trailer for a since-canceled Silent Hill game to be titled Silent Hills) made a splash before getting erased from play stores worldwide, indie developers were renting out one endlessly looping childhood home after the next? And don’t even get me started on horror movies by directors who have only seen Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity in the last ten years and still think the next big thing is haunted houses and creepy kids possessed by demons. 

Horror podcasts don’t have many zombies but they certainly have the mysterious identity/mysterious town/mysterious mystery routine down pact. I just feel like horror can be more than just amnesiac discoveries of oneself, of waking up in abandoned rooms with blood under your your fingernails, or creepy strangers and fuzzy, mic interference. 

Why is it almost always places heavy with fog and rain and big lumbering trees that have all the ghosts and ghouls? Ever been to a suburb? Wouldn’t the contrast of an idyllic picnic spot or luxurious golf course be all the more interesting if there was a gory murder mystery hidden beneath the surface? A bit of narrative contrast can go a long way and frankly one show taking place in Oregon and the other in Nowhere, Washington is a road trip certainly not worth my gas money. 

Give me details about the corpse floating in a fountain at a California strip mall then we’ll talk.

Die Laughing

While still on the topic, I can’t help but mention shows that are still nestled into the horror genre but are defined more as comedies inspired by the aesthetics of slasher films and ghost stories. Combine gore with good laughs and you can produce some interesting results.

Why do you think things like Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Addams Family, and Scooby Doo still thrive even in this climate? If you can’t be the next new scary movie, you can always try to be the next Scary Movie.

Horror is scary, but horror can also be stupid, campy fun, just ask anyone whose seen a Christopher Landon movie. We wear rubber masks and eat our fill of candy not because it freaks us out but because it’s a good time and honestly it’s the shows with spooky hosts rather than spooky circumstances that’s really caught my attention as of late. 

Kind of like the second coming of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, it feels like a commentary on horror tropes while still embracing why exactly we even like this kind of stuff in the first place. (Editor’s note: I simply cannot see an Elvira reference in 2021 without taking time to say congratulations to Elvira for coming out and sharing 12 years with her girlfriend. We queers have always loved you and we love you all the more now.)

Less is Morgue has a kitchen sink of undead and otherworldly beings, Haunted House Flippers combines Extreme Home Makeover with Ghost Hunters, and Death by Dying and Brimstone Valley Mall places a lot of the perspective on the titular monsters. If anything, I’ve found I’ve been deeply enamored with horror shows that take the perspective off of the usual human everyman and works to humanize the beasts we’d normally be avoiding all together. And the results are often just so hilarious that you wouldn’t have it any other way. 

How to do Horror 

Long time readers might know about a past article of mine where I discussed scary moments in otherwise non-horror based audio dramas. 

Even podcasts that don’t specifically focus on horror can utilize common fears to generate more authentic stakes. Wolf 359 deals with the psychological effects of isolation and paranoia, I honestly really enjoyed the bite-sized thrillers done by The Long Hallway and the ways the tension just absolutely grabs you in stuff like The Penumbra or Girl in Space is unbeatable.

Then there are more traditional horror shows like I Am in Eskew and The Magnus Archives that approach their concepts from an angle of existential dread with a nice sprinkling of body horror to keep things interesting. 

I feel found audio horror podcasts have tried and tried again to zero in on the horror of discovery, of man knowing things man simply shouldn’t know, but it always falls flat as it’s dragged from lab to home to empty town to recording booth over and over again instead letting the impact of the reveal do the talking for them.

And with the primary usually being some sort of monster or event that the whole series is building up to, it often runs into the problem of over-explaining and ruining any potential for a gray area for our imagination to wander. 

This breaks such a big rule in audio storytelling where the lack of visual input is entirely the point. Nothing is scarier than nothing, after all.

Read more: The Parapod: The Haunted House Investigation That Lied

For example, one of my favorite minimalist horror shows to this day is SAYER which is nothing like a docudrama but a sci-fi story characterized by its dense, oppressive atmosphere and told from the perspective of an A.I. And though it starts off as this self-contained glimpse into the future, it’s growing cast of characters and world building serves to develop a conflict of conflicting powers, devising a sort of mechanical Cold War.

There are so many ways to create authentic tension and fear that you may not even need the horror label to sink your narrative claws into listeners. After all, not all horror media needs a big scary monster pushed into the forefront, there are already plenty of human fears lurking around our everyday lives.

Horror is Not Hopeless 

I’m not implying horror shows can’t accomplish what they set out to do, it’s just that the avenues horror podcast writers take can feel so trodden and overdone to the point it all starts to blend together. 

Serial killers and cults and memory loss-those are inherently freaky concepts, but when one show after the other is playing that same tune we’ve heard a million times before it’s not even worth dimming the lights for. 

Pacific Northwest Stories makes good, high quality work but it’s reliance on comfort zones has created a template too many people are eager to fill. Horror is hard to pull off but people aspiring to be the next Stephen King need to stop borrowing overused tropes and start looking deep into the kind of scary ideas that will leave listeners speechless, not asleep. 

And besides, a lack of originality? Well, that’s simply terrifying.

(Editor’s note 10/15/21: Edits have been made to distinguish the differences between Pacific Northwest Stories, or PNWS, and the Public Radio Alliance, or PRA.)

The post The Stale State of Horror Podcasts appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

You can find all of our Halloween articles linked here as they drop if you want to make sure you’re not missing any. And, of course, you can follow us on Twitter to keep up with new posts as well. Just want our ongoing list of the best horror podcasts out there? You can find our recommendations on our frequently updated Best Horror Audio Drama list.

Here’s the list of of our Halloween releases you can look forward to this month:

• “Why Audio is Great for Scary Stories,” by Adrien Behn
• “The Haunted House Investigation That Lied,” by Gavin Gaddis
• “The Podcasts To Listen If Fall Is Not Your Thing,” by Lydia Wilkins
• “The Stale State of Scary Podcasts,” by Podcake
• “A Case for the Mundane,” by Gavin Gaddis
• “How The Magnus Archives Helped Me Love Horror Again,” by Cassie Josephs
• “Audio Drama 202: How to Write Mentally Ill Characters in Horror (Without Ableism),” by Cassie Josephs
• “SCP Podcasts Recommendations,” by Eddie Feeley
• “Hi Nay: Filipino Horror Meets Scooby-Doo,” by Stephanie Fuccio

Join us for Halloween fun and deep thoughts on horror all month long. Check back here for links, or check the #Halloween tag linked at the bottom of this article. Let us know your thoughts as you follow along on Twitter, and stay spooky out there!

The post It’s Halloween at Discover Pods! appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

First things first: what’s a Renaissance? 

For something to be deemed a renaissance era, it must deploy an air of new discovery, new philosophies explored in every angle possible and, above all, introduce us to new art and the new artists that made it. The era of the first Renaissance in Europe covered the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, which gave us the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo–and maybe some other ones the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles weren’t named after.

If you know basic art history, you know The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, fantastical and yet distinctly human perspectives of religion, beauty, creation, and strife. The Renaissance aimed to understand the very core and purpose not just behind art but why we make it in the first place, and I can’t help the feeling that podcasts had a very similar era between 2014 and 2016. In fact, a major help for this article, Newton Schottelkotte of Inkwyrm and Where The Stars Fell, neatly categorized this as the second phase of the audio drama era.

I’ll admit I’m using very flamboyant terminology here. The quality of art is a very subjective topic, so throwing out the word “renaissance” so loosely beyond the aesthetic appeal further paints me as the pretentious enthusiast. I already know I am. But if Disney gets to call the years from 1989 to 1999 their “renaissance” then why can’t I employ the term?

To put it simply, a renaissance is simply a time when great artists made great art, and during those two years I’d be lying to myself if I said that exact thing didn’t happen in the audio drama community.

Okay, what’s the Audio Drama Renaissance?

I personally like to call this period a “renaissance” because I feel like the shows published around this time set some sort of standard of quality for years to come while never trying too hard to emulate a preexisting style. There’s nothing wrong with a template, but it’s breaking out of that “Night Vale but with a twist” spectrum that let these shows go from good to great.

Read more: A History of Night Vale Presents

You could say that the existence of Titian’s Venus of Urbino coupled with Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus justifies the existence of the other, and there are similar depictions of masculine nudity in both Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and Michelangelo’s David. 

Mark Twain put it best when he wrote in his autobiography, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope.” And the same could be said for audio drama that shifts between the most outlandish of concepts to repackaged versions of things we’re already familiar with.

Kind of like how Half Life inspired a league of innovative first person games, Welcome to Night Vale and Thrilling Adventure Hour are undeniably our Medici Family. Beating on about Night Vale’s influence on audio drama is a dead horse that I don’t even poke into, but going through a whole article without mentioning the impact the show had on the existence of podcasting as a whole would be a major disservice to the podcast community or whoever reads this far.

And besides, it’s the power of having multiple muses that makes any Renaissance really matter.

“Of course, what’s interesting about making something like this show is that you don’t just bring in your influences from one genre into something like this – inevitably your writing gets filtered through all the pieces of fiction you love and carry with you,” Wolf 359 writer Gabriel Urbina told me during an interview I had with him in February of 2015.

“So I’d say that Wolf 359’s primary influence is Farscape, but there’s also a lot of, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stephen Sondheim musicals, and Catch-22 kicking around in there. Heck, if you know where to look, there’s a lot of My So-Called Life in Wolf 359. So you’re always bringing in outside perspectives to your favorite genre. That’s half the fun.”

Let’s take a moment to discuss science fiction, a genre that has birthed the likes of giant sandworms and lightsabers and even after all this time still has a massive hold on audio drama fiction.

2014 to 2016 had an absolute plethora of sci-fi audio dramas, but each one cultivated to a variety of tastes. EOS 10, Ars Paradoxica, SAYER, and Wolf 359 are all under the same umbrella, but they each have polarizing differences that appeal to a variety of people. 

EOS 10 is a quaint hospital drama, Ars Paradoxica is intelligent and complex time travel narrative, SAYER is an unapologetically terrifying glimpse into a sterile dystopia, and Wolf 359 is an excellent blend of comedy and tragedy with a down-to-earth cast of misfits.

All audio dramas, all under the space/science fiction genre, all with distinctly different DNA that make their identities clear from the first episode.

Though dramatically different in terms of humor, style, and plot, these shows do have quite a few similarities in a meta sense.

All of these shows at some point shared the following: successful crowdfunding, a surge of audience creations ranging from art to fan blogs, and the liberty of at least one or two live shows. I can’t help the feeling that this time frame showed that there was not only a creative outlet for smaller artists to pursue, but a (somewhat) profitable one at that.

In fact, my interest in audio drama wouldn’t even exist if I hadn’t been sneaking peeks of my podcast app feed in between my high school classes, completely captured by this new world of art I’d been oblivious to for so long.

A feeling stirred in me right then that this was what the community was capable of: art that was both a technical feat and had real depth to their stories. I felt I had a duty to discuss it in more detail the same way philosophers would dissect William Shakespeare and Picasso.

Though it certainly happens now, I do know that podcast fandoms were becoming much more of a common occurrence. So much so that I could attend a convention gathering with the Wolf 359 crew at 2015’s DragonCon where I got to talk to the writers and actors myself in a giant patch of grass outside the building with fellow fans.

If I had the confidence I would have asked Doug Eiffel’s voice actor Zach Valenti to autograph my forehead instead of my notebook.

When can we call a podcast successful?

The question remains for a few people: why a podcast instead of a proper TV series or movie? And is choosing audio drama as the format of choice considered settling for the easiest, most affordable option instead of choosing the platform you truly want? Well, yes and no.

During my talks with podcast producers, I’ve seen that plenty of them view their works as something that functions best as audio dramas first and foremost. Not that dialogue heavy shows like these can’t be converted into comics or books, but to assume podcasting is just a last resort for storytelling feels like such an insult to what the medium can provide.

Not to mention that building off inspiration from the likes of big time movie franchises and television is all part of the inspiration process.

I remember gossip going around about podcasts being adapted into films or TV shows, clearly a byproduct of all the hype, but I think Urbina said it best when describing the duality between audio based entertainment versus more traditional formats like live action TV:

“. . . it’s very important to us that we’re not just making Wolf 359: The TV Show and then hatcheting that into a radio format. We want to feel like the stories are consciously made to fit with radio, not like you’re just listening to a TV show someone is watching in the next room. And a big part of that is the stories you go to . . . audio dramas are very dependent on the fact that you’re being denied a lot of information about what’s happening in a situation . . . You’re constantly behind, then you’re catching up, then elements you didn’t know were there are pointed out, etc.”

Gabriel Urbina

Urbina cited iconic season one episodes like episode nine’s “The Empty Man Cometh” and episode eleven’s “Am I Alone Now?” as standout examples. “Your entire understanding of what’s happening is constantly being adjusted and revised as the scenes go forward,” he added. “And you want stories that revolve around that.”

This comment sticks out to me specifically because I think it squashes the assumption that television adaptations are the definitive way of “making it.” In reality, some art forms work best how they currently exist. Podcasts rely so heavily on the product of imagination in ways that television doesn’t accommodate.

The Bright Sessions producer Lauren Shippen had a similar sentiment when I interviewed her in February of 2017. “The reason for making The Bright Sessions an audio drama was two-fold,” Shippen said. “First, there was the practical reason: making an audio drama is far less expensive than making something for film. I needed to be able to do every step myself – the writing, the recording, the post-production – on a tight budget.”

And even with limitations on the physical appearances of the characters, art interpretations were at an all time high. Trying to guess the base physical descriptions of main characters had become a game of sorts and certain headcanons became popular among fandom spaces.

There’s definitely something to be said about the relationships between creator and audience that’s been bred from the innovation of social media and purely fandom based spaces like Tumblr and Twitter. After all, with no real marketing budgets or traditional ads, so interesting fanart was the next best thing when it came to getting the word out about an interesting new show. 

For audio drama creators, a fandom contributor with a decent following is the equivalent of a commercial–if not far better than any old ad. These shows weren’t made by the biggest studios, seldom ever going beyond recordings in a friends padded sound room with the AC off, creating this sort of closeness that unknown artists like myself found incredibly endearing. 

These were small actors, low budgets, closely knit creative groups of roughly five or so friends working together to make the ultimate passion project with maybe a slight chance they might get some revenue out of it.

Is there a Renaissance happening right now?

I feel that entirely depends on who you ask. With podcasting becoming such an accessible art form, it did inspire a bit of an overabundance problem. I’ve studied audio drama trends for years now and I’m barely up to date on all the new shows debuting every month. 

Every week it’s a new horror show, in the next two days some sort of improv comedy, and the years after that we always see someone’s take on the cryptid/paranormal hunting genre . . . or maybe something in space. The barrier to entry on podcasting is a whole other ballgame. In the traditional entertainment industry, it’s all about who you know; in podcasting it’s usually who finds your casting call first.

There’s naturally something to be admired about art that deliberately tries to step outside a mold that’s already been proven to work. Yes, we’ve seen that Lovecraftian horror towns are a shoe-in for a roaring fanbase, but who’s to say a slipstream interpretation of Boston won’t work?

At the time, no one had pitched dystopian A.I.’s running worker bee cities, a secret organization that fakes deaths, or dysfunctional superpower therapy, the latter of which not only turned out amazing but had such overwhelming support creator Lauren Shippen has continued and expanded the world of The Bright Sessions as novels.

I have a very fond but distant memory of when Shippen contacted me when I started up the first ever edition of Podcake, pitching me her audio drama idea back when The Bright Sessions was only barely a season long, looking for my input as a “podcast virtuoso” (her words, not mine). And to think I can see her name now, gracing the sides of a Barnes and Noble bookshelf is the kind of surreal experience I never thought I’d get to have.

The point is, audio drama could easily be the first step to even bigger and better things. I think it was that two year Renaissance that triggered a spark in everyone. Though it might be personal tastes, it’s that strike between style and substance appearing in such a period of time that made it feel like this bold artistic movement that had potential to grow–and grow it did.

There may not always be enough room for the best podcast but a considerably good one isn’t too far off from starting the trend all over again. Enough breakout artists make their debut today or tomorrow, and we might have a second Renaissance on our hands.

(Editor’s note 10/15/21: Edits have been made to correctly attribute the research on audio drama errors to Ella Watts via the BBC.)

The post The Audio Drama Renaissance appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

But I never thought I’d be the kind of writer I am now, that freighted C-word that, spoken by some, sounds like ripping through wet wool. A critic. I didn’t train as a journalist. I’m a director who went to the theater one day and got really mad about what I saw. So mad that I wrote about it — and, as a result, found writing reemerging in my life in a way I hadn’t imagined. As a teenager in the first throes of my love affair with theater, I had thought my days of filling floppy disks with winding Word Docs were over. I never really wanted to write plays. I wanted, in the etymological sense of the word, to be a play-wright. To work not only with words but with space, time, imagery, physical objects, sights, sounds, and — best and hardest of all — human beings. For a long time I thought I only wanted to make the thing, not talk about the thing. Like a lot of young aspiring artists, I harbored an adolescent disdain for analysis, which felt grown up because Wordsworth once said “We murder to dissect.”

Sara Holdren

In celebration of the work our writers do, here’s a list of some of the podcasts we work on.

–Wil Williams, managing editor

Wil Williams

VALENCE

VALENCE is a serialized fiction podcast by Hug House Productions featuring a full cast and full sound design. VALENCE is an urban fantasy audio drama that deals with themes of abuse, trauma, queer identity, marginalization, rebellion, found family, breaking cycles, and hope. Thematically, VALENCE is a realistic drama with the energy of an espionage-heavy political thriller, an 80’s John Hughes romance, and character-heavy Noah Baumbach indies. Think The Magicians handled with realism, or Mr. Robot handled with whimsy.

For those familiar with the How To Audio Drama series here on Discover Pods, this is the podcast I reference in regards to my audio drama creation experiences.

Scoring Magic

There are so many guides out there for how to start a podcast, and for how to make an audio drama. But there’s a difference between reading an article and hearing the reality behind the process.

Scoring Magic is a podcast by Hug House Productions documenting every step of their process. Seasons 1 and 2 of Scoring Magic follow Anne Baird, Katie Youmans, and Wil Williams as they make their first fiction podcast, VALENCE. They share tips, tricks, and resources, but also what it’s like to work on a massive creative project with friends.

There’s going to be exciting highs, like the moment they decided to work together – but there’s also going to be some very honest lows along the way, all of it leading to the creation of a show they hope you’ll to love!

HEXADEC

HEXADEC is an anthology podcast by Hug House Productions. Made up of stand-alone stories, each episode of HEXADEC is themed after a hexadecimal color code and its matching Pantone name.

Episodes of HEXADEC can be any genre, ranging from fiction to sound design experiments to documentary-style investigations.

The first episode of HEXADEC, “#ED7A9E – Pink Carnation”, was written as a part of the Open World anthology series created by Keisha “TK” Dutes and Rose Eveleth.

Tuned In, Dialed Up

Join podcast journalists Wil Williams and Gavin twice a month as they come together to discuss shining moments in their pod-fan lives, discuss topics relevant to podcasting, share new shows they’ve found, and make at least two horrible puns per episode.

Radio Drama Revival

Radio Drama Revival is one of the internet’s longest-running anthology modern audio drama shows (dedicated mostly to programming created after the “Golden Age” of US Radio Drama). We also occasionally dabble in exploring earlier audio works from a cultural/historical perspective.

Broadcasting since 2007, we have over 500 hours of original, contemporary audio fiction here for your listening pleasure.

Empty the Queues

A very silly podcast in which Wil convinces their friends to watch media they love. They show Elena Fernández Collins and Gavin Gaddis The Good Place, Caroline Mincks Avatar: The Last Airbender, Josh Rubino Community, and David Rheinstrom Beastars. It’s a laid back conversational podcast with a shocking amount of discussion on therapy and fascism.

Ryan Stevens

Nation of Animation

Nation of Animation is a cartoon book club podcast for all ages! Join lifelong cartoon fans Ryan Stevens and Brooke-Erin Smith every other week as they discuss classic cartoons through a modern lens and celebrate everything cartoons have to offer!

Blank City, Nowhere

Blank City, Nowhere is an actual play anthology series about exploring the dark and storied past of an entire city, one RPG at a time. From paranormal high schoolers to pirate sailing the high seas, from haunted hotels to larger-than-life wrestlers, we’ll create and explore a city with rich and engrossing history. Every day is a strange new day in Blank City, and who knows what the citizens will discover next!

Evan Crean

Spoilerpiece Theatre

We’re a weekly film podcast hosted by three Boston-based critics. Each week we help listeners decide what to films watch by reviewing new releases without letting spoilers get in the way of our discussion. We believe that if a film is really good, it doesn’t matter whether we spoil its plot. We “spoilerpiece” listeners into wanting to see the movies we enjoy, so they can experience them with an even deeper appreciation, knowing what they’re in for. But we always put the timecodes for each movie we talk about in our episode notes so if listeners prefer, they can always jump to hear about movies they’ve already seen.

Stephanie Fuccio

Podcast Matchmakers

Podcast Matchmakers is a podcast where we match a podcast listener with podcasts in the category via Twitter profiles, audio clips and videos from the Creators.

Simple Podcast Editing

Simple Podcast Editing is a practical podcast where we focus on quick tips to make your podcast editing faster, more efficient and dare I say, fun!

Both podcasts have a YouTube version and a newsletter.

Adrien Behn

Strangers Abroad

Intrepid solo female traveler host Adrien Behn asks deep and provocative questions with strangers she meets while traveling. Her show explores the inner journey that happens to us when we explore the outside world. From being attacked by monkeys, falling in love with people who don’t speak your language, or making new friends on a 16 hour bus trip, Strangers Abroad aims to touch on every aspect of traveling from the wild to the mundane. Travel isn’t always glamorous, but it is always rewarding.

Caroline Mincks

Seen and Not Heard

After the sudden loss of over half her hearing, Bet Kline has to figure out how to navigate her new life. This slice-of-life audio drama explores disability, family dynamics, grief, trauma, and the vital importance of being able to find a decent bagel in this town.

Writer Bob Raymonda reviewed Seen and Not Heard before Caroline Mincks became a Discover Pods contributor. You can read their review here.

Tal Minear

Sidequesting

Sidequesting is a fantasy podcast about avoiding the main plot! It’s a cute, lighthearted, and queer audio drama following an adventurer who’s willing to help anyone out as long as they don’t have to fight the big scary wizard. This show was made partially as an experiment to see if I could write a fun show without a plot (spoilers: yes!) and also made because I wanted more low-stakes audio dramas to exist. If you want to take a break from the real world and relax with some sidequests, this is the show for you!

The post The Podcasts Our Team Makes appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.