7 Fantasy Podcasts Beyond “The Adventure Zone”
In the world of podcasts, some genres tend to dominate: in nonfiction, there’s comedy and politics and culture; in audio drama, there’s sci-fi and horror. In recent years, though, an exciting trend has started to emerge across both sides of the fiction coin. More and more podcasts are concerned with themes of the fantastical. Many listeners might have heard glimpses of fantasy in the McElroys’ The Adventure Zone, a well-loved Dungeons and Dragons actual play podcast (and now graphic novel), but there’s a vast world out there of fantasy podcasts with so many different stories to lose yourself in.
1. The Once and Future Nerd
The Once and Future Nerd is a long-running high fantasy serialized audio drama. While its large number of episodes may be initially daunting, don’t let that keep you away; once you start hitting the thick of the plot, it’ll be impossible not to binge it anyway. The Once and Future Nerd follows a group of modern American teenagers who are transported to a fantastical, magical realm. While initially this plays out like a funny mix somewhere between The Breakfast Club and The Chronicles of Narnia, the plot takes some fascinating and astute turns, discussing issues like institutionalized racism, the perils of power structures, and how people should always question authority. With a large cast of interesting characters and the perfect mix of jokes and drama, The Once and Future Nerd is just as riveting as an episode of Game of Thrones, and worlds more socially aware.
2. Join the Party
Like The Adventure Zone, Join the Party is a group of friends playing a serialized Dungeons and Dragons game; unlike The Adventure Zone, one of Join the Party‘s great assets is its immersive sound design. When the scenes take place in the D&D campaign, they’ve got lovely music and sound effects to help put the listener right in the story. The setting in this podcast is a delightful mix of high fantasy (complete with talking gargoyles, ghost whales, and a royal wedding) and modern day (there’s a recent arc that’s based on The Bachelorette).
3. Words to That Effect
Words to That Effect is a nonfiction podcast all about fiction and what makes it tick. It takes very specific parts of literary phenomena and asks why we tell these stories and what they symbolize on a greater context. Words to That Effect feels a little bit like a literature class, but one anyone in love with fiction would be overjoyed to take. With episodes about utopias, the domestic noir genre, and transhumanism, it’s certain to have episodes that appeal to any fiction fan.
4. Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services
Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services is a serialized audio drama following the eponymous Kalila Stormfire, a freelance witch who records case files on her customer. In each episode, Kalila narrates her transaction with a recent customer, starting from when they request a spell and usually ending with some beautifully literary, profound further understanding of the world and how people work. While each episode is gorgeous by itself, the plot slowly starts to become more linear and less customer-by-customer, revealing more and more about Kalila’s past . . . and why she’s no longer part of her last coven.
5. The End of Time and Other Bothers
We’ve talked before about the lovely audio drama Alba Salix, Royal Physician, but we haven’t yet given its sister podcast, The End of Time and Other Bothers its due yet. The End of Time and Other Bothers is a hilarious actual play podcast–though this podcast uses the Dungeon World system, not Dungeons and Dragons. The End of Time and Other Bothers feels somewhere between Join the Party with its structure and sound design, The Once and Future Nerd with its new-meets-old setup, and genuinely funny improv like classic episodes of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? This serialized actual play features a group of adventurers sent back to a fantastical past and has some of the funniest moments in any podcast I’ve ever heard.
6. Imaginary Worlds
Imaginary Worlds is another nonfiction podcast all about fiction, though this one has a bit more of a variable structure than Words to That Effect. Instead of focusing on specific phenomena, Imaginary Worlds takes apart specific literary works, sometimes interviewing its creators. Especially delightful episodes have gone into the ethics of being a menial labor worker on the Death Star, a look into how the world of Bojack Horseman was designed, and an analysis of the video game Undertale.
7. Jarnsaxa Rising
Jarnsaxa Rising is an epic–almost literally–serialized audio drama that blends the ancient with the futuristic. Set in a futuristic dystopia in which corporations have stripped almost everything from the world, Jarnsaxa Rising follows a scandalized employee of a company as she slowly becomes mixed in with something anything but modern: the dealings of Norse gods and giants. Jarnsaxa Rising feels like a spiritual sibling to both American Gods and the Marvel movies, blending action with drama with the occasional killer comedic performance for a certain trickster. It’s intense, riveting, and takes plenty of twists and turns.
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