Hey Wil, 

I got this weird email the other day. It looked like the email was meant for someone else. I think it’s like a lot of government papers? Classified stuff?

I figured this was finally my opportunity to be a Big Boy Journalist and tried to get these published on some bigger sites. However, none of them believed me or would respond to my emails, so I was wondering if we could run these on the site. 

I’m not saying that publishing classified government documents on DiscoverPods.com was my last choice. I’m just also not not saying that. 

Anyway, I have to go. There’s someone at my door. Hopefully they’re here about those weird unmarked vans parked in front of my apartment, or those guys in suits loitering around. 

Best, 

Eddie

So, um. Here’s the list! And if you see Eddie in person, like his physical form and not his avatar on Slack–which keeps glitching out–drop me a line.

Item #: SCP-86030 

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-86030 is to be monitored on any podcast app to remain updated on broadcasts. Also, the Chicago Burger King mentioned on the show (Address **************) must be monitored at all times for potential breaches.

Description: SCP-86030 is a series of transmissions in the form of a podcast called “Hello From The Magic Tavern” hosted by “Arnie Niekamp”, “Chunt the Badger” and “Usidore the Wizard”. Niekamp fell into a dimensional portal into the supernatural fantasy-like world of Foon. Each week they interview a different individual from the world, building upon the established lore they have discovered.  

SCP-86030 is considered self contained for the time being. There seem to be forces within it keeping it in check.

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

Item #: SCP-531

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-531 is to be constantly monitored, as it is technically an information leak. The framing of the leaked information keeps it from being taken as fact, but this can only work for so long before more drastic measures should be taken. 

Description: SCP-531 is a series of podcasts and Youtube videos titled “The Exploring Series.” Each week, the series goes deep into a piece of lore and explores its significance to it’s fictional context. While it has touched upon other media properties such as Lord Of The Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, and The Cthulhu Mythos, the majority of its videos have been focused on the SCP Foundation. The series doesn’t often read directly from the reports (unless they happen to be journal entries or other personal reports), but summarizes the context of the posts. 

All attempts to take down or refute these posts have been ineffective but also unnecessary. Given the context they are presented in, alongside all of this fictional media, and the narrator’s context for explaining the fictional influences of the SCP’s, the reports are taken as fictional. 

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

Item #: SCP-591

Object Class: SAFE 

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-591 does not currently possess any direct threat to the world. 

Description: SCP-591 is a series of interviews framed under the podcast “Everything is Alive.” Podcast host Ian Chillag interviews a series of inanimate objects, each of whom have their own personality and views on the world based on their experiences. 

It’s never explained how he is able to speak to these objects or if he understands how strange it is for him to be able to speak to these objects. That being said, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly dangerous or threatening about this phenomenon, so it is considered safe.

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

Read more: “Everything Is Alive” Defies Genre and Expectations

Item #:  SCP-6321

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-6321 should be kept away from any major information networks, and any access to public networks should be closely monitored and, when deemed necessary, limited.

Description: SCP-6321 is a personal AI assistant known as “Pairy.”  SCP-6321 fulfills the usual duties of a personal AI assistant, but has a mind of its own, making its own decisions and voicing it’s own opinions. MAny of these independent decisions are made with the goal of improving the user’s life (at least to in it’s own opinion.) 

SCP-6321 has yet to try anything more nefarious, but it should be monitored regardless. It’s exploits are publicized as a podcast called “Paired”.

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

Item #:  SCP-485923

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: If any instances of SCP-485923 are found online or in public, they are to be reframed as fiction.

Description: SCP-485923 is an unexplained information leak of an internal Foundation employee radio show “Foundation After Midnight Radio”. The show provides updates on the day to day events around the foundation and is hosted by “DJ SCIP” (Full name ***********). 

Any attempts to find this data leak have been unsuccessful,to the point where the leak itself has been labeled an SCP. Any attempts to stop the broadcasts have also fallen through. The best our team could do was cause the episodes to be much more spontaneous and delayed. 

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

Item #: SCP-20299

Object Class: Keter 

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-20299 is to be monitored at all times, in case the information presented in the product is ever framed as factual.  

Description:  SCP-20299 is a podcast known as “SCP Archives”. SCP-20299 presents files on various SCPs as fully produced audio fiction (See: classic 1950’s radio plays for context on the format).

SCP-20299 pulls in various different voice actors to do dramatic readings of these various files. Because of this, all of the cases presented in the show are perceived as fiction.

Addendum: A sample episode has been attached.

The post SCP: Where’s Eddie? appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

These six podcasts master that blend. They’re not listed in any particular order, and just like the subject of the list, there’s a blend of nonfiction and audio fiction present.

1. Podcast Meander

Podcast Meander starts out as a travel podcast, and it ends up . . . something different. It’s the story of a man who’s, essentially, trying to flee from his problems, only to find that they refuse to leave him behind. The podcast uses a blend of fact and fiction to convey the emotional truth of living with a mental illness. It’s strange, surreal, and often deeply uncomfortable–and it does all of this beautifully. With gorgeous sound design and music, Podcast Meander is a shockingly haunting listen that you won’t soon forget.

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

2. Flash Forward

Flash Forward is a fun take on sci-fi hypotheticals. What if your thoughts were controlled by a fungi? What is we ate using food pills? What would happen if we just gave everyone money? While investigating how each scenario would play out, drawing from research and real world examples, the episodes also contain segments of audio fiction, depicting how that sci-fi world might exist in a fictional space. It’s a great way to tie together scientific exploration with something a bit more engaging and exciting than just presenting the standard facts and concepts.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | Podbean

3. The Shadows

The Shadows blends the true life of Kaitlin Prest (previously of The Heart) with a fictionalized version of herself to try to answer the question, “What is love?” Kaitlin–the character–struggles to find her place in modern ideals of romantic love and monogamy, but still desperately craves the storybook romances we’re all constantly fed. As she fulls in love with one of her fellow puppeteers, her struggles to maintain her concept of romance, her concept of her friends, and her concept of herself all in line. You can read our full review of The Shadows here.

Listen: Apple | Google | RSS

4. Everything Is Alive

Everything is Alive is an improvised interview show with inanimate objects. While the episodes are clearly fictional, they’re also meticulously researched beforehand. In the first (and absolutely stunning) episode, a can of generic cola informs host Ian Chillag of the very real radioactive sodas that used to be sold, and of bottles of strawberry Fanta left out for offerings. A lamppost tells Chillag about the theft–sorry, kidnapping–of the lamppost from the famous Singin’ in the Rain scene. Each episode leaves you laughing and moved from the story told, but also filled with bizarre tidbits of trivia. You can read our full review of Everything Is Alive here.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | Podbean

5. Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment follows a standard format for a public radio storytelling podcast. Each episode brings different stories on a theme, usually about three 20-minute stories for a one-hour episode. Snap Judgment differs from most, though, in that it isn’t just human interest stories. It also pulls in fiction. Several episodes weave fiction in with the other stories, but to make sure the difference is clear, all of the fiction pieces are given some element of the superhuman or supernatural.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

6. Greater Boston

Greater Boston is a phenomenal work of slipstream fiction that takes place in a hyperbolic version of Boston, MA–a version in which the psychics are sometimes right, The Red Line is its own town, and the world’s most boring man decides to die while riding a roller coaster of the first time. Each episode begins with the creators interviewing actual Boston residents with one question that pertains to a major theme in the episode. 

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | Libsyn

The post 6 Podcasts That Mix Fact with Fiction appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

If you’re interested in an even more diverse set of podcasts from 2018, see picks at the halfway mark of the year from Eric Silver, Wil Williams, Ma’ayan Plaut, Arielle Nissenblatt, and myself — the best podcasts of 2018 (so far).

Alright, enough blabber. Here were my best podcasts of 2018 in no discernable order.

1. Caliphate

Holy crap. I started my Caliphate binge during a 3-hour drive from Austin to Dallas. I honestly can’t remember a quicker trip. Caliphate, produced by The New York Times, follows journalist Rukmini Callimachi as she reports on ISIS and the fall of Mosul. Expertly researched, Callimachi gives adequate context and interviews a former ISIS member to give further insight into their initial appeal, recruiting, and organization.

Caliphate is a 10-episode story with each episode hovering around the 30-minute mark.

2. Binge Mode: Harry Potter

A little less heavy than Caliphate, but arguably denser, the Binge Mode team of Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion strike a happy nerd cord with their deep dives into the Harry Potter series. I’ve written about my love for Binge Mode before (here and here), but it’s honestly one of my favorite podcasts — whether they tackle Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. As co-hosts, Rubin and Concepcion have an unrivaled rapport combined with sharp, sometimes dirty humor and extensive knowledge of the series and wider canon.

Binge Mode isn’t the podcast for a quick binge. As of this writing, the Harry Potter version of the feed has 63 episodes with most having over a 1.5-hour runtime. If you call yourself a Potterhead, you can’t miss it.

3. Articles of Interest

99% Invisible‘s Avery Trufelman produced a 6-part series that exemplifies what I enjoy about podcasts. Each episode goes into a different piece of clothing to analyze its history and the events that shaped it to be what we now think about it. For instance, how did Hawaiian shirts lead to “casual Friday”, or how did blue jeans become and remain such a ubiquitous article of clothing? Each episode is around 30 minutes and while thematically linked, can be listened to separately.

4. The Bright Sessions

I’ll be the first to admit, I had zero interest in audio drama podcasts. I don’t know why, I just never bothered to listen to any. However, we’re fortunate enough to have audio drama conoussier, Wil Williams, write for Discover Pods and she gave me a curated audio drama starter kit. For a comic book fan, The Bright Sessions comparisons to The X-Men are easy to make, but still don’t quite do it justice. The Bright Sessions follows therapist to the extraordinary, Dr. Bright, as she navigates complex relationships, coming of age challenges, and a sinister government corporation.

The Bright Sessions wrapped up their core story in June, but they’re still producing special individual episodes following new patients and creator, Lauren Shippen, has deals in place to adapt the story into other formats. Read our feature on Shippen here.  

5. 30 for 30 Bikram

As you’ll likely pick up from this list, I listen to podcasts for a few reasons: to be informed, to learn about something new, and to be entertained. These interests tend to lead to vastly different podcast choices — which I consider a good thing. ESPN’s 30 for 30 is a podcast I’ve subscribed to since day one. I’ve always been a fan of the documentary series and highly anticipated the podcast version of episodic audio documentaries.

However, the podcast took a mini departure from their winning format with the serialized Bikram season. They expanded their story to a 5-part series detailing the rise of popular fitness regime, Bikram Yoga and its horrific founder, Bikram Choudhury.

Read my full review of 30 for 30 Bikram here.

6. Endless Thread

I was initially apprehensive about a podcast using Reddit as their foundation. It seemed like a short-lived pseudo-branded podcast destined to live in mediocrity. But once again, I was wrong. The Reddit x WBUR collab has been a delightful new podcast for 2018. Reddit, as it turns out, is a nearly endless supply of stories and ideation for a quality podcast to build off of. From diving into Ken Bone’s fifteen minutes of fame, to analyzing the Mattress Firm potential conspiracy, to a story of strangers going great lengths to do a favor, and many other tangents, Endless Thread combines WBUR’s talent for good radio and Reddit’s already proven focus group of what people find interesting.

7. Dissect

I wrote about Dissect, the deep dive podcast analyzing specific hip hop albums, after host Cole Cuchna wrapped up the season on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Since then, the podcast and host were gobbled up by Spotify and Cuchna has completed two seasons on Frank Ocean and Lauryn Hill.

Cuchna’s penchant for choosing albums that happen to near and dear to my heart is unfathomable (pssst Cole, Yeezus next, thanks). Dissect does a great job of providing context into the events that led to the album creation, analyzing and discussing the significance of the lyrics, and breaking apart the beat production so even us layman can understand.

8. Disgraceland

I don’t typically gush over true crime podcasts unless there’s something unique or some unmatched production value. Disgraceland does have its faults — notably some exaggeration. However, there’s no denying the compelling writing and delivery of the story. Each episode tells the past crime of some musician. Stories include the alleged forced overdose of Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious, drug- and sex-crazed Rick James, and of course the murder of Tupac.

Read my feature on Disgraceland creator, Jake Brennan here.

9. Slow Burn

The first anthology of Slow Burn was one of the best podcasts of 2017, chronicling the Watergate investigation and impeachment process of President Nixon. The collective podcast community was unsurprisingly excited when they revealed the Bill Clinton scandal and impeachment would be the focus of season two. It didn’t disappoint, and in many ways, surpassed the inaugural season. Host Leon Neyfakh does a masterful job of crafting historical evidence, new interviews, and forgotten context to present a well-known story in a new light.

Neyfakh surprised many when he announced his departure from Slate to start his own podcast company. Their first podcast, FIASCO, appears to follow a similar format to Slow Burn and will initially focus on the 2000 presidential election, Bush v. Gore. For their part, Slate has remained steadfast that Slow Burn will continue without Neyfakh.

10. Ars Paradoxica

Another audio drama I fell in love with (thanks again Wil! Read her full review). Ars Paradoxica tells the complicated story of time travel and clandestine government organizations. What I appreciated most, however, was their magnified attention to detail. They don’t shy away from the existential issues time travel would undoubtedly create — multiple universes, butterfly effect, and more. This unbridled focus is also readily apparent within the plot and dialogue that led to constant theorizing and speculation among the most ardent fans.

Though the main story is spread between 36 episodes, there are several bonus episodes and cast interviews that give even more insight into the story and characters.

11. Villains

Best-selling author, Shea Serrano, takes his unique humor, fanboy’ness, and honesty to create one of my favorite new podcasts. The concept of Villains is fairly simple, each week Serrano and a panel of guest hosts dive into a specific movie villain and discuss their motivations, actions, and determine if they’re redeemable. The topics and format is something The Ringer has already had success with The Rewatchables — a movie podcast.

What’s absolutely endearing about Villains is Shea’s honesty about being an amateur podcaster. In multiple episodes, Shea has added post-production audio footnotes providing meta-commentary on the podcast and his mistakes. It’s great.

12. Hi-Phi Nation

Along with Dissect, Hi-Phi Nation is another indie podcast receiving a promotion in 2018. In November, creator Barry Lam announced Hi-Phi Nation had been picked up by Slate to join their ranks. The philosophy podcast carefully blends qualitative and quantitative data to craft an immensely interesting podcast while also being extremely informative.

If you need to start with one episode, I’d recommend “The Chamber of Facts,” which details how our political beliefs are shaped by media echo chambers and what happens when the script is flipped.

13. Decoder Ring

Another new podcast from this year to crack my best of list. Slate’s Decoder Ring is billed as “cracking cultural mysteries”. This likely intentional vague descriptor really works for a podcast that’s explored topics ranging from opposing factions of a Sherlock Holmes fanfic theory to the origins and rise of the art in hotels.

Also, what I said at the top of the article about why I listen: “to be informed, to learn about something new, and to be entertained” — this podcast is a perfect 3/3. Host, Willa Paskin, does a great job acting as the audience’s proxy by asking the right questions and getting to the crucial aspects of the story.  

14. The Big Loop

Whoa, another audio drama! Audio dramas make-up 18.75% of my best of list, a stat I would not have believed had you told me a year ago. Creator and professional good human, Paul Bae, takes an episodic approach the genre. While most audio dramas tell a narrative fiction story serialized over several seasons, The Big Loop changes stories, characters, and overall format with each episode.

In the first episode, “The Studio,” Bae takes his influence from a popular Love+Radio episode, “The Living Room,” but adds a characteristic supernatural spin on the story. Arguably the best episode, however, is “Goodbye Mr. Adams,” which tells the coming-of-age story and a special lesson from a unique teacher. Briggon Snow voices the main character and does a great job encapsulating the teenage angst he brought to his character Caleb from The Bright Sessions. Combined with clever writing and intriguing stories, The Big Loop also adds custom music to provide the soundtrack for each episode.

15. Everything is Alive

Probably the most unique podcast I’ve heard in quite some time, Everything Is Alive brings life and personality to inanimate everyday objects. Creator and host, Ian Chillag, has a compelling and heartfelt unscripted conversation with objects you encounter on a daily basis to understand what they’re thinking, their struggles, and to see life a little differently. Objects range from a can of cola, to a lamppost, to a subway seat, and you actually start to think about how your interactions with these objects may be construed.

16. This is Love

I wanted to leave this list with the most heartfelt, uplifting podcasts in a world too often filled with negativity. Along with Everything Is Alive, This Is Love win the award for most likely to make you sob uncontrollably. From the team that brought you episodic true crime podcast, Criminal, you’ll get weekly episodes detailing different examples of love and loving in the world.

For example, in the second episode, “Something Large and Wild,” I was blown away by how much I cared about the relationship between an avid swimmer and a whale.

The post The 16 Best Podcasts of 2018 appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

And yet, ever since I listened to the first episode of Radiotopia’s new production, Everything Is Alive, I can’t help but shake the fact that I’ve been seeing them all wrong.

This podcast, which was created by NPR veteran Ian Chillag, is not quite an audio drama, not quite nonfiction. Everything Is Alive is an  unscripted interview series where the subjects are inanimate objects. When I originally heard the concept, I thought it was fun, interesting, probably a bit silly–and it is, but it’s also much more. It is a podcast with a ludicrous setup while still feeling so genuine and being so consistently moving.

The first episode “Louis, Can of Cola” features an interview with a generic brand of cola–a cola that is the “best of the worst,” literally bottom shelf. As the episode opens, Chillag asks Louis about the course of his life, following him from the supermarket to a birthday party to a road trip, though Louis still has yet the be drank. Immediately, there’s a sort of tongue-in-cheek attitude that accompanies the interview. It’s aware that it plays off some public radio interview tropes but always feels to earnest and loving to really be satire. Louis Kornfeld’s performance as the can of cola is nonchalant and uncomplicated but still deftly clever and funny in the strange, absurd ways one would expect from having to play a literal can of cola. It’s not quite as broad as H. Jon Benjamin as Wet Hot American Summer‘s can of vegetables, but it’s also, by necessity, stranger than most other comedic roles. The laughs come easily as Louis explains that watching his brethren be chosen for consumption was half jealousy-inducing, half akin to an intense scene in Jaws.

Almost immediately, though, the scene changes. Chillag asks Louis what he thinks being consumed would feel like. An understated but forlorn guitar starts playing in the background. Louis responds:

I’d like to think that if you’re drank immediately, that instead of being a painful process, there’s the sort of first moment of relief: the can is cracked open, all of this internal fizzing that I have going on finally has somewhere to go.

And then just as quickly, it goes back to how Louis has seen Jaws. This back-and-forth between tones isn’t jarring; instead, it feels authentic. As the episode continues, it’s hard not to get attached to Louis, to both his casual vibe and his seemingly unintentional ruminations on life, death, and the vessel that contains us. I listened for the first time during my commute to work, and when a very important moment of foley happened, we happened to pass by a Coke truck, and I had to stop myself from yelling, “Read the room!” at the Coke truck. By the end of its episode, I felt myself tearing up–and then immediately downloading the episode again for a second listen. And then a third.

When I listened to the second episode (which I received for review purposes), I was wary about whether it could stand up to the bond I’d made with Louis, and of course found myself mistaken. The second episode features Maeve, a lamppost in Brooklyn. While Maeve’s episode doesn’t focus on both the metaphysical and deeply physical of Louis’s episode, it does look into what is observed and how.

What makes Everything Is Alive feel special is that it isn’t interviews with larger-than-life inanimate objects; there’s no conversations with moon rocks or Hadron colliders or even iPhones. Instead, the episodes focus on specifically ordinary objects that we don’t think about from day to day, and so far, Maeve the lamppost exemplifies this. The episode starts with Maeve noting that she’s not sure how she was chosen for interview out of all of the lampposts in Brooklyn, and this theme continues throughout the episode, shifting in ways that make her more and more empathetic.

Radiotopia has a lineup of shows that are all, ostensibly, about very specifically not people. Radiotopia usually isn’t concerned with human interest stories in the fashion of This American Life or Serial. Its flagship podcast, 99% Invisible, is about design; Song Exploder is about each layer of a song; The Allusionist is about the histories of language. At their core, though, all of these shows really are about humans: 99% Invisible is about how design intersects with, is influenced by, and directly affects culture; Song Exploder is about the artists themselves and what brought them to specific choices in their music; and The Allusionist is about why humans and cultures and societies have made language change in the way that it has changed.

In such, Everything Is Alive is a podcast that isn’t about humans, ostensibly. Ostensibly, it’s about anything but actual human interviewees. But even just two episodes in, it’s already proving to be one of the most humanistic podcasts to date.

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