It took quite a bit of research to uncover a good amount of these as I often try not to merely cater to the Spotify top ten and I’d like to extend some much given thanks to the audio drama subreddit for their excellent recommendations.

With a bit of assistance, I’ve found the new, the obscure, the scary, the silly, and the weird combinations of both. Here we have fifteen audio dramas that have caught my attention as of late all coming in a variety of tones, lengths, and genres spanning meaty, long-form mysteries, science fiction anthologies, or a short and sweet miniseries from the likes of newcomers and experienced vets.

As a note, all of these podcasts should be listened to from the beginning unless otherwise stated. Almost all of these podcasts are serialized stories with continuous narratives.

The Best Audio Drama Podcasts

Audio drama is certainly a subjective subject. What one person likes, another will hate. But we’ve gone to great lengths to ensure our picks for the best audio drama podcasts employ excellent storytelling, character development, and have the requisite plot twists that will keep you hooked.

So let’s look at the best audio drama podcasts the medium has to offer. At the end of the post we’ve included some bonus audio dramas that didn’t quite make the list of “best,” but are still pretty damned good and worth your time.

Without further adieu.

The Fourth Ambit

A slightly newer podcast debuting last spring of 2021, The Fourth Ambit is already a solid few hours in the length of their episodes and has got me hooked like malware on a hard drive. 

The Fourth Ambit is a dark, intelligently written sci-fi that weaves a fascinating futuristic landscape where the merging of advanced technology and the human condition take center stage. You won’t want to miss any of Gilles’ misadventures between virtual reality and reality-both of which seem to be equally dangerous.

Give Me Away

Give Me Away focuses on a crashed spaceship titled “The Ghosthouse” for the constant presence of ghastly screams from doomed extraterrestrial life trapped in its mainframe. The only way to end such eternal torment is to transfer their minds into willing human participants-permanently. 

This audio drama comes from the writers behind such favorites of The Message, Life/After, and Steal the Stars which ensures Give Me Away will be a gripping, methodical mystery built from the ground up on atmosphere and chilling discoveries.

It makes for a piece of amazing science fiction with a psychological core, dabbling into complex themes of identity and self worth. You’ll be deeply enamored with the journey of protagonist Graham Shapiro and an exploration into the value of one’s life, be it his own and those around him.

If you do like science fiction do check out some of the paranormal podcasts we’ve reviewed recently. Are they fact or fiction? Or a blend of audio drama?

The Program Audio Series

Joining my collection of favorite anthology series besides The Long Hallway and Theatre of Tomorrow is The Program Audio Series where we’re transported to a universe where Money, State, and God form into one entity governing over a future society. The Program Audio Series lets us into the lives of multiple strangers-some innocent, some not so much, all of them somehow affected by the might gonglamorith of technology. 

The Program audio series is an unapologetically cruel but undeniably creative collection of short stories about a terrifyingly possible future and a rapidly changing present.

PLEASURE MACHINE

It all starts when African American sound artist H gets a job offer from tech cooperation Librate–a once in a lifetime opportunity that wroughts on a number of personal conflicts. That’s the base plot of Colt Coeur’s PLEASURE MACHINE, a nine episode long thrill ride that’s a blend of Dear White People and Sorry to Bother You.

PLEASURE MACHINE’S writing is deeply provocative and smart yet simple in execution with its neat editing tricks, and atmospheric sound design that packs so much into so little time. Many struggling under the stress of freelance, social constructs, and societal pressures will adore this miniseries, these all being topics that PLEASURE MACHINE provides with a complex, adult perspective.

Margaret’s Garden

The Bloody Disgusting Podcast Network has carefully crafted the quaint American suburb of Everton, a picturesque suburban brimming with all-American charm, modern appliances, and opportunity…seventy years ago, that is. 

The American Dream becomes the American Nightmare in their show Margaret’s Garden, a suspenseful suburban audio drama fresh from the oven as of the fall of 2020. Margaret’s Garden is a nice blend of Greener Grass and 1989’s Parents, setting itself up as a piece of truly memorable and macabre Americana.

Greenhouse

Put your flower shop AU’s to bed because Atypical Artists’ Greenhouse is the kind of blooming romance you won’t want to miss. Cute, cozy, and awkwardly sweet, Greenhouse is To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with deeper roots than your favorite Wattpad fic.

Watch from the shrubs as two wallflowers learn to overcome their fears and open up to each other one letter at a time. Our leads Abigail and Rose are as socially anxious as they are adorable and you’ll be ready for their love story to grow from the first “dear”.

Donald August Versus the Land of Flowers

Babysitting and bad gardening merge in this short audio drama comedy that packs plenty of personality (and pollen) in just under an hour. In this unlikely summer tale in Southern Florida we join twelve-year-old Donnie and his nanny Lex as they investigate the presence of a mysterious palm plant when their game of detective turns into a legitimate investigation.

At a brief five episode length, Donald August Versus the Land of Flowers is a simple, charming story with just the right amount of childhood innocence and the kind of summer fun that will lighten up any dreary day. 

Jack of All Trades

In search of work and a place to live, young and spry Jaclyn Seeglay, often known as Jack, gets hired at Fidus Achates as their new repairwoman, even if her own resume could use some tweaking in the truth department. 

Little to her knowledge, she’s signed up to be the company’s new paranormal hunter who must determine if the creaky floors and leaky faucets are the results of poor house planning or a poltergeist. 

Though I”m sold on the absolute disaster lesbian of a protagonist and her hilarious coworkers, Jack of All Trades comes with some surprisingly strong lore and unique takes on supernatural creatures that give its world immaculate depth.

What Can I Get Started For You?

What Can I Get Started For You? is a slice-of-life comedy mini-series that tells the story of four New York baristas passing by work days with hilarious banter and curating the perfect Spotify cue to survive the next lunch rush. 

Lucky Doll Productions has crafted the ultimate coffee shop story complete with seductive health inspector checkups and talent shows.

What Can I Get Started For You? gets by on the strength of its snappy writing, fun characters, and unique stage play framing that gives it the vibe of watching sitcom misadventures. Don’t even bother adding sugar to your coffee this morning, this show’s good vibes should be enough.

PodCube

No need to adjust your settings, PodCube is just as odd as it seems and the kind of alien experience you might be looking for if you have a taste for a weird workplace comedy. PodCube seems to be a semi-improvisation project though it might be the actors’ natural comedic flow with each other that’s got me recalling the Interdimensional Cable segments from Rick and Morty.

Despite its inherent weirdness, PodCube is a weirdly grounded look into the chaos of mainstream marketing and working under capitalistic restrictions. Between fake movie trailers and awkward press conferences, PodCube never once tries to explain itself. You should have been listening to this yesterday.

The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society

Now this is unfortunately a late arrival as The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society is on its third season as of this writing and as a fan of Barbie and The Three Musketeers I’m honestly a little sad no one told me about this sooner. 

Here we visit an alternate 20th century France in the seaside town of Massalia under the threat of brutal political corruption from a group that calls themselves The Six. It’ll take wits, cunning, and teamwork to fight the forces disturbing the peace and married lesbian couple Saffron and Zinnia are up for the challenge.

The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society is my greatest feminist fantasies come true complete with sword fights, fiery debates, and frilly outfits. It not only makes for some excellent historical fiction but has such contagious charisma and charm, it’ll have you rallying alongside these dashing heroines.

Maxine Miles

The newest brainchild of The Bright Sessions’ Lauren Shippen is Maxine Miles, a Nancy Drew by way of Clue audio drama with a choose your own adventure twist. Taking place in the late nineties of Hastings, New Hampshire in the eve of autumn, we join Maxine’s team in uncovering the mysteries of her town after the disappearance of one of her classmates. 

The uber-intelligent and precocious Maxine definitely has the wits to crack the case but will the secrets that plague her New England home be too much for one girl to handle? 

Maxine Miles proves to be wholesome fun with a twinge of suspense and intrigue that’ll have you nostalgic over tweenage mystery novels. You definitely won’t need a magnifying glass to see why this one is a gem.

Death by Dying

The life of an obituary writer isn’t exactly thrilling but in a world where the most unlikely of deaths come attached to haunted bicycles, evil farmers, and cats with a deadly appetite, it’s just one of few misadventures in the life of a rookie occult investigator.

Death by Dying is darkly entertaining in its bold writing choices and macabre yet hilarious subject matter, making it an excellent blend of Wooden Overcoats and Less is Morgue. You’ll enjoy Death by Dying’s smooth narration, solid comedic timing, and intriguingly insane mysteries. It’s grim yet uplifting, discusses the dead and is yet filled with life in each episode.

Hannahpocalypse

It’s the end of the world as we know it and Hannah is doing weirdly fine. From Red Fathom Entertainment comes Hannahpocalypse, a comedy/horror audio drama from the perspective of the world’s last unliving girl who has (un)survived a zombie apocalypse merged with a Terminator-style apocalypse.

Hannahpocalypse is a smartly written, tongue-in-cheek take on post apocalyptic tropes told from the perspective of the titular monster. Hannahpocalypse has weaved a funny and insanely charming piece of self aware comedy that’s a refreshing take on the usual piece of glum and gritty apocalypse fiction.

Who Killed Avril Lavigne: A Time-Traveling Pop Punk Podcast

Local teen edgelord Derek Walker has his head up in space and himself back in time when his substitute teacher sends him back to Warp Tour to investigate the disappearance of pop punk princess Avril Lavinge. From that premise alone, the best damn thing might be Who Killed Avril Lavigne: A Time-Traveling Pop Punk Podcast, a love letter to rock and the early 2000’s that will resonate with millennials and the average music fan. 

Who Killed Avril Lavigne is a nostalgic yet strangely modern piece of time-travel comedy that blends crackpot conspiracies and punk rock edge seamlessly. No reason to make things so complicated, you won’t find many things this stylistically gorgeous, absurd, and unbelievably original.

Bonus audio drama podcasts

These audio drama podcasts come from versions of this article past. We still recommend them! They remain some of the greats in audio drama podcasting.

Life With LEO(h)

The androids that don’t dream of electric sheep or are probably dreaming of long walks on the beach. From the same studio that brought you podcast darling The Bright Sessions comes Life With LEO(h), a lighthearted sci-fi comedy about the bond between girl and machine. 

In true rom-com fashion, it focuses on strict and serious Jeanine Bell whose active work life as a robotics intelligence lawyer has majorly crippled her chances at an active love life.

Luckily for her, she’s getting a relationship reboot if she wants it or not once she comes across the adorably dysfunctional, and highly illegal android LEO, Loving, Empathetic, Optimistic, and (only sorta) helpful. This show will never have you doubting if robots could ever know love. When Leo is involved, romance is always part of the equation.

Read more: Life with LEO(h): Atypical’s New Fiction Podcast About Living With a Sexy Robot 

Less is Morgue

Meet your fellow monster in this excellent comedy with a horror twist, Less is Morgue. Taking place in a fantastical Tallahassee, Florida where the supernatural is the norm, a grumpy ghoul named Riley and giddy ghost Evelyn host their own podcast from the comfort of their basement.

But this duo proves that being dead doesn’t make their days any less lively. 

Less is Morgue is smartly written, weird, and wonderfully charming with a great cast of characters, quotable dialogue, and some very solid chemistry from the main undead duo that makes every scene hauntingly hilarious.

Where The Stars Fell

From the creator of Inkwyrm comes a supernatural mystery audio drama written by Newt Schottelkotte of the always experimental Caldera Studios. It follows the not so average life of Dr. Edison Tucker, A.K.A. Ed, whose search for the paranormal might have to start with herself.

Where The Stars Fell is a story of truly biblical proportions twinged with all things existential, violent, and downright weird. Honestly, it might be best to go in blind to truly get the full experience yourself. Be not afraid and check it out. 

When Angels Visit Armadillo

Conspiracies ahoy in Christin Campbell’s When Angels Visit Armadillo. Get to know Magnolia Waters as she tells all through interviews and phone calls about a mysterious disappearance back in ‘88.

When Angels Visit Armadillo is an excellent piece of Americana, a deeply intriguing mystery with Southern flair and a sapphic story at its core. It’s a pleasant mixing pot of Alice Isn’t Dead and the previously mentioned Where The Stars Fell, and despite its short runtime, it’s got a real grit to its presentation that I can’t help but respect.

Spirit Box Radio

Set your stereos to supernatural with Spirit Box Radio, a weekly horror audio drama from Hanging Sloth Studios. When the original host, Madame Marie of Spirit Box Radio‘s Advice and Community Segment goes missing, plucky newcomer Sam Enfield will have to take her place.

But hosting a mystical radio show isn’t exactly a walk in the graveyard when the studio itself is host to terrifying secrets and its own history of hauntings. Spirit Box, with its interesting premise and wiccan vibes, should be a fun listen for anyone seeking out some new, lighthearted horror.

Seen and Not Heard

Our lead in this excellent audio drama is Bet Kline, a woman who is now legally deaf and must navigate herself around such an unexpected curveball. Seen and not Heard is a brutally honest look into living with disability that doesn’t spare a good sense of humor to get its message across.

Those who have struggled with anything be it mental health or hospital stays will find a lot of catharsis in the show’s sincerity and delicate yet bold approach. (Discloure: Caroline Mincks has written for Discover Pods.)

Read more: Seen and Not Heard: On Hearing, On Listening

Ronstadt

Spooky yet weirdly sentimental, mystical yet down to earth, cool as ice and yet hot as hell-that’s one of many ways to describe Ronstadt, a severely undepreciated supernatural noir comedy taking place in an alternative Los Angeles. Meet Rhett McLaughlin, AKA Ronstadt, a snarky, dysfunctional phone jockey thrown headfirst into the dark underbelly of L.A., here known less for its sandy beaches and overpriced coffees and instead it’s otherworldly events.

Combining the aesthetics of The Meat Blockade with the general, effortlessly cool vibe of a Juno Steel adventure, Ronstadt’s strong voice acting, crisp sound editing, and solid storytelling makes a great find for mystery and magic fans looking for that urban twist.

Only Sketches About Podcast

If you’re looking for a less linear podcast experience, you’ll definitely find it with the Only Sketches About Podcast, a grab bag of topics ranging from the mundane like camping trips and gift shops to the more abstract tales of UFO’s and clams. 

Only Sketches is always weird and always funny with a nice twinge of satire to boot. Regardless, Only Sketches is a delightfully unpredictable time with a small but strong cast delivering wonderfully weird stories in this collection of memorable skits.

The Luchador: 1000 Fights of El Fuego Fuerte

Do you ever read the title of something and immediately be sold on its premise? Well, that was the case with picking up The Luchador: 1000 Fights of El Fuego Fuerte, and luckily a pretty solid adventure comedy podcast happened to be attached to it. 

El Fuego Fuerte is a thoroughly original, bombastic joy ride filled to the gills with combat and camp you probably can’t find anywhere else. Creator Daniel Valero Fletcher shows a real love and passion for the art of masked wrestling and the series is pure passion from start to finish.

Mars’ Best Brisket/Midnight Burger

From your local restaurant comes Mars Best Brisket, a short and snacky sitcom by Ponders Productions. Join this eclectic couple as they create the first ever vegan restaurant on Mars, navigating food critics and new hires. Mars Best Brisket is cute, homey, and lovably original with strong writing and the unmistakable wholesome center of visiting a family diner to support its short runtime. 

In fact, why don’t we sandwich a similar recommendation into this with a heaping helping of Midnight Burger, the story of a seemingly normal Phoenix diner that’s actually a time bending, dimension hopping restaurant. Check out either one of these or maybe develop a craving for both. Regardless, you’re bound to leave here smiling and satisfied.

Patient 33

The podcast where the protagonist is in a coma. To be completely honest, that premise alone has sold me on Patient 33, a splice of comedy and medical drama that deconstructs the very nature of podcasts with its clever use of dissecting listener agency with this unorthodox but very creative choice of perspective.

Patient 33 is genuinely engaging with its ongoing plot and dysfunctional cast of characters, making Hope’s Memorial Hospital the hospital that never sleeps.

OBSIDIAN

Ever since checking out Adventures in New America from Night Vale Presents, I’ve been on the prowl for more afrofuturism. Luckily, speculative fiction podcast OBSIDIAN has seriously been scratching that itch for me lately in this truly excellent sci-fi anthology collection. 

OBSIDIAN is delightfully bizarre and insanely smart with inspired settings and one of a kind world building that dabbles into ideas of space travel to simulations, making for an intense, psychological romp that may spark only a minor existential breakdown.

Beautifully constructed from the ground up, OBSIDIAN is an easy yet engaging listen for anyone who wants to get lost for a while.

Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services

Fans of Alba Salix, Royal Physician will probably get a kick out of this ongoing lost gem from 2018, Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services. In this modern take on witches navigating the working world, local witch Kalila Stormfire makes a living as a one-stop shop for fixing magical (magickal?) mishaps. 

You won’t just get tarot card readings and healing crystals here because Economical Magick Services is conjuring up astral projection and speaking to the dead all at an adorable price. And, luckily for you, you can check out this excellent audio drama free of charge. 

We Fix Space Junk

A long time favorite of mine, We Fix Space Junk specifically appeals to my favorite brand of science fiction: the down on their luck, ragtag working class variety like you find in shoes like Wolf 359. 

Here we join repairwoman Kilner and her A.I. partner in crime as they take on any variety of odd jobs while narrowly avoiding being blown into space dust. We Fix Space Junk is a hilariously written, tongue-in-cheek satire that cinches its story with some great acting chops and editing all while being an impassioned love letter to the genre.

If you’re a fan of quirky space comedies like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you’re bound to enjoy this.

Community Cat News

Oh the things you’ll find if you dig just deep enough, and in this case, my journey concludes in the litter box. Community Cat News is exactly what it appears to be on the surface, an adorable glimpse into the minds of neighborhood cats and what makes them tick in their personal cuddly corner of the world. 

Composed entirely of short episodes, Community Cat News will make up only about five minutes or less of your day and with it sponsored by the prestigious Meow Meow Puffytail, Feline Rights Attorney, you know it’s bound to be a pur-fect entertainment for you and your own feline friend.

Brimstone Valley Mall

As a soda-chugging, pizza-munching, Twitter-account-owning degenerate who feels entitled to the kind of liveable wage a part time mall job simply can’t provide, a black comedy podcast about demons in a rock band working at a suburban shopping mall during the late nineties is a little too up my alley. 

Though my Goth phase is long past me, a show that encompasses Goth aesthetics is such a rare and incredibly welcomed facet to the considerably less Goth podcasts lying around. No time for prissy preps here, Brimstone Valley Mall is truly the epitome of what old people think rock music does to the youth-Satan worshipping and a sudden taste for leather included.

The Godshead Incidental

(Disclosure: Cole Burkhardt, who plays Lorem Ipsum, is a Discover Pods contributor.)

It usually doesn’t take much to impress me so The Godshead Incidental passing the test within a mere few seconds of its first episode is actually high praise. In this urban fantasy that’s a nice combination of The Wicked and The Divine and an episode of Parks and Recreation, comes one of the most unique takes on modernized mythology I’ve heard in years.

Get to know advice columnist Em as she tries to find her missing sister after a sudden run in with the God of Memory, throwing her into a risky partnership with the charmingly mysterious Lorem Ipsum. Witty dialogue, fantastic world building, and solid acting chops makes for a one of a kind experience. 

Read more: New Religion: “The Godshead Incidental” Review

The Magnus Archives 

As the kind of person who still gets startled by bread coming out of a toaster, I’m probably not the kind of person who should be getting personally invested in horror shows. Too bad The Magnus Archives has already sunk its teeth into me and hasn’t let go for the better half of last year. 

What starts as a loosely connected compilation of one-off horror stories becomes a densely personal psychological horror peppered with just the right amount of existential dread and body horror galore. If you can stomach what it has to offer, it’ll prove to be as satisfying as it is scary.

The Long Hallway

Perhaps blame my short attention span or growing fondness for Black Mirror, but there’s something I inevitably enjoy about anthologies. There’s definitely an art to be appreciated in the nature of a short story, how quickly we’re introduced to characters and ideas until we’re forced to jump to another one with the fate of our last gallery of heroes left completely abandoned. 

Anthology shows are in no short supply in audio drama but there’s just something about The Long Hallway that really caught my attention. Its methodical pace, its slightly eerie atmosphere, and its love for twists and subtle theming all packed in episodes that never go over eleven minutes makes it an excellent entry level podcast.

The Theatre of Tomorrow 

While still on the topic of anthologies, the first collection I found myself smitten by was easily 2017’s The Theatre of Tomorrow by Midnight Disease Productions. There’s just something so fun about shows that are wacky for wackiness sake and it takes a delicate hand to make these kinds of shows charming instead of obnoxious.

The Theatre of Tomorrow is silly but inspired by its love of retro, old-timey radio plays, granting it a sort of 1950’s aesthetic pleasantness. It’s random but never incoherent which is helped by some positively solid casting and editing, making it as hilarious as it is fabulously put together. Nothing quite tickles my fancy the way a good scripted comedy does and The Theatre of Tomorrow is a severely underappreciated relic.

Fuck Humans

Audio-fiction erotica is in itself quite a rare genre. Not that podcasts can’t talk about or include sex or sexually active charaters, but many of which can hardly call themselves legitimate smut. And for the lonely adults in the world in need of some more sizzly soundbytes comes Fuck Humans, a fantasy romance for the eighteen and older audience.

Fuck Humans manages the art of combining both smut and story and doing so with expert consistency. All around, it’s the kind of show you can enjoy with a bit of privacy…or out in the open if you’re into that sort of thing. What could have been a mere monster mash is a rather simple tale about overcoming prejudices with a sexy twist.

The Penumbra Podcast

Be it you’re tuning in for the suspenseful cyber noir of private eye Juno Steel or the medieval misadventures of many a dreamy knight at The Second Citadel, The Penumbra Podcast is one of the more popular selections to have come out in years but has certainly earned its position among the greats. Excellently crafted with great characters and even greater mysteries to uncover, any path you choose guarantees hours of wit, whimsy, and wonderful angst.

Read more: Plug in, Press Play: Reimagining Podcasts as Games

Dark Dice

I personally feel like I’m still barely toddling into the realm of DnD podcasts which is a shame given how incredibly popular they are. An easy format thanks to the improvised storytelling aspects and the wholesome company of good friends with wild imaginations, but it takes far more than just setting up some sound equipment in your mother’s basement to make a session podcast worthy.

That’s why I highly recommend Dark Dice, a grim fantasy adventure following a lovably flawed party banding together to find the missing children of a nearby village while being pursued by a shapeshifting monster. Fool and Scholar Productions creates a solid atmosphere with the kind of interesting creatures, mysterious lands, and high stakes you find in the likes of Thrilling Adventure Zone and Critical Role. So roll for initiative and check it out.

Rover Red: Alone in the Apocalypse 

As someone so hung up on their own nostalgia that they still have Adobe Flash installed on their computer purely out of spite, it’s no wonder I’m still not over Rover Red: Alone in the Apocalypse, a gloriously short-lived science fiction thriller that debuted in 2017 and, much like a sentient implant drilled into my ear canal, hasn’t left my mind since. 

In this rather intense show we follow the adventures of Leah as she navigates the ruined remains of a post-apocalyptic world with only an artificial intelligence and the motivation to find her brother pushing her through increasingly difficult trials that a mysterious council, i.e. listeners, were able to vote on.

Even if there’s only so few episodes to spare, it’s worth a peak regardless for its iron hard tension, excellent world building, and blend of psychological horror and science fiction adventure that makes Ender’s Game look like Little Einsteins.

THE INFINITE NOW

As far as non-linear, artsy shows go, THE INFINITE NOW  is a short and sweet but certainly fun little detour. To describe the show’s premise is a bit of a tall order as it’s more or less a random selection of spacy monologues narrated by the show’s creator Richard Penner. But if you have a taste for surrealism, existential horror, and some atmospheric music, it’s an excellent selection to backtrack your next blunt rotation with some close friends.

The Meat Blockade

High-brow surrealist comedy with singing pirate frogs and lamb scrotum isn’t the kind of thing you’d be bragging about in your next book club but somebody’s gotta break the ice, especially if you’re in the similar company of Kafka enthusiasts. 

The Meat Blockade by the Hennesy brothers is a thrillingly absurd look into the unlucky life of Karl Berenger as he desperately tries to crawl his way back home after one single choice lands him in the gaping maw of Nighttown. Gorgeously edited, fabulously acted, and never slacking in surprises, it’s a wonderfully bizarre romp that wears its inspiration on its sleeves.

SAYER

A favorite, always going to be a favorite, and is still a favorite to this day. SAYER is the science fiction horror audio drama debut of Adam Bash who has weaved a positively fascinating if terrifying futuristic dystopia. And it’s through the eyes of the titular SAYER, as well as a number of other equally dysfunctional artificial intelligences, that we learn about the dark secrets and darker tragedies befalling the citizens of Typhon.

Hadron Gospel Hour

Hadron Gospel Hour is the kind of show your dad would like, maybe even my dad would like, but that hasn’t stopped teenage me or adult me from being insanely fond of easily one of my favorite audio drama sci-fi comedies.

With its wacky dimension hopping, reality bending mishaps, and chaotic duo of a mad scientist and average joe, Hadron Gospel Hour was Rick and Morty before Rick and Morty was cool, so it’s worth a listen simply for that level of hipster street cred.

Return Home

Small towns with big secrets is common ground to tread for many fiction series with varying levels of success. There’s something just so oddly humble about the hidden secrets of an average community being brought to the forefront and it’s things like Return Home that reminds me of the potential they have to be fun, wonderfully bizarre experiences. 

Though it may not be for everyone, Return Home is one of those shows that has a little bit of everything: comedy, strange supernatural forces, and romance all wrapped up in a package that’s so unashamedly authentic.

With a loveable trio as the leads and an interesting slew of monsters to pick from, this long trip to Melancholy Falls is a nice blend of creative and campy.

Adventures in New America

Night Vale Presents is nothing short of a seal of quality around these parts so it’s no wonder that shows like Within the Wires and Alice Isn’t Dead are such beloved audio drama favorites that still have just the slightest DNA of our favorite desert town in its veins. And though those shows are darling to me, Adventures in New America feels like a truly unique entity.

Branching off from the more Americana-esque vibes of Night Vale Presents other works, this show decides to walk in the pond of political satire with a cyberpunk twist. In this “Afrofuturistic buddy comedy”, tag along with best friends IA and Simon Carr as they wind up in increasingly more absurd heist missions on the dangerous streets of New New York City for the deliberate goal of landing in jail for the benefit of free health insurance. 

Be it you’re in the mood for social commentary or foul mouthed and funny exchanges, you’re bound to be seeing things in neon after one listen.

Steal the Stars

Written by Mac Rogers, Steal the Stars is the story of Dakota “Dak” Prentiss, a government worker on a secret test site. She and her team are tasked with looking after Moss, the comatose body of an alien named for the moss-like substance growing on its body, and its baffling ship that emits deadly waves.

The project is so dangerous that Dak’s higher-ups have completely forbidden the team from becoming attached to each other. No friends. No confidants. And definitely no hookups–which becomes more difficult when the painfully attractive Matt Salem is hired. What starts as a pulpy romance slowly turns into a political intrigue thriller, a heist, and one of the most memorable final episodes in audio drama to date.

Harlem Queen

Audio drama is known for being heavy on the sci-fi and horror, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t great realistic fiction. Based on the true story of “Numbers Queen” Madame Stephanie St. Clair, mobster and gambler, Harlem Queen is a historical fiction podcast set during the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem Queen is jazzy, glamorous, and exciting–but it also doesn’t shy away from the realities of being black, and especially being a black woman, in the American 1920’s.

Wolf 359

Wolf 359 was an audio drama space opera, set in a massive space station orbiting the eponymous red dwarf star. What starts out as a lighthearted story about the lackadaisical protagonist Doug Eiffel being bored in space eventually becomes an action-packed, dramatic, heart-wrenching story about the cost of the greater good, the path to redemption, what it means to be human, and overcoming trauma. Wolf 359 concluded its four-season run at the end of 2017, making it a perfect completed story to listen to without worrying about staying current.

The Big Loop

The Big Loop is a somewhat sci-fi, somewhat magical realism anthology series created by Paul Bae of the well-known horror fiction podcast The Black Tapes. Each episode of The Big Loop is a different story, meaning you can skip around and jump in whenever you’d like. Each episode also feels like a different genre: “The Studio” is a sort of ghost story, “YOU” is about an astronaut and her AI, and “All God’s Children” is somewhere between comedy and Lovecraftian horror. If you’re in for a supernatural story with some heavy emotional punches, though, “Goodbye Mr. Adams” is a great place to start.

CARAVAN

A product of audio drama cornerstone The Whisperforge, CARAVAN is a buckwild journey into a story about demons, vampires, banshees, and the caravans that slay them. Protagonist Samir is a play on a typical nerdy everyman genre fiction hero, with the important differences that he’s queer, Desi, and explicitly not thin. As Samir falls into an otherworldly, weird west canyon, he teams up with a traveling group of demon hunters but winds up seeing how he can change their ways to be more ethical. CARAVAN plays with genre, the hero’s journey, and eroticism in one big, unabashed, thrilling bundle.

36 Questions

If you’re looking for a realistic fiction story you can get through in an afternoon and you’re not against the idea of musicals, 36 Questions is a great first foray into audio drama podcasts. This 3-part limited series is a full musical about a husband and wife who are recently separated and their attempts to rekindle their romance–or snuff it out for good. The songs are gorgeous and catchy with lyrics that balance profoundness with authenticity. It’s a fiction podcast you won’t be able to get out of your head, whether because of the songs or the incredible characters singing them.

Alba Salix, Royal Physician

Alba Salix is a comedy audio drama about a royal physician in a fantastical realm, trying her hardest to make her patients understand common sense. It’s one part Scrubs, one part Monty Python, one part Robin Hood: Men in Tights. It’s an easy listen even with an overarching plot that delivers fast-paced jokes and ridiculous characters. If you want to get an introduction to audio drama podcasts but maybe without so much drama, Alba Salix is delightfully whimsical, light-hearted, and hilarious.

The Amelia Project

The Amelia Project is a comedy audio drama about a company that helps clients fake their deaths and start anew, complete with faked identities. Each episode is a consultation with the prospective client to find out why they want their death faked, how they want it do be faked, and how they want to come back. The comedy is absurd and twisted without ever being to gritty or macabre. The level of creativity in The Amelia Project is already enough to make it a great listen, but the acting and sound design are both just as impressive.

For more on The Amelia Project, make sure to read Morgan Hines’s interview with its creators.

Greater Boston

Greater Boston feels like the Mike Schur equivalent in the podcast world. Like Brooklyn 99 or Parks and Recreation, Greater Boston takes place in a hyperbolic version of a real place. Like The Good Place, that level of hyperbole is sometimes brought to bizarre high-concept episodes with an almost supernatural feel. Greater Boston takes place after the world’s most boring man dies on a roller coaster, and the podcast only gets more surprising, hilarious, and intriguing from there.

Fan Wars: The Empire Claps Back

Rom-coms are finally returning to popular culture, including in podcasts. Fan Wars: The Empire Claps Back is a romantic dramedy about two fans on the opposite sides of many debates in the Star Wars discourse. It’s a classic setup: two hot-headed opponents make assumptions about each other, expect the worst from each other, and then consistently surprise themselves when they find common ground and maybe even common attraction. Wrap the premise up in some cosplay and give it a lightsaber and you’re in for a great listen.

Limetown

Limetown is an audio drama that straddles the line between science fiction and horror. Framed like an investigated journalism podcast a la Serial, Limetown follows a reporter trying to find out what happened to a town where everyone suddenly went missing ten years ago. Limetown packs so much character development into its first season, with most episodes following a specific interviewee, but it balances character with one of the most riveting plots I’ve ever heard. After several years, Limetown is returning with its second season on October 31st–yes, Halloween–2018, as well as releasing a prequel novel set when Limetown was founded.

The Bright Sessions

The Bright Sessions is a character-driven audio drama about people with superpowers going to therapy. Don’t shy away if you’re not a fan of big superhero blockbusters, though–The Bright Sessions is much more Friday Night Lights than The Avengers. It’s a gorgeous character study, but it also has a plot that focuses on government conspiracies, well-researched discussions of mental health, and some beautiful love stories. The Bright Sessions is also being adapted as a TV show and three spinoff novels, so make sure to catch up first.

Marsfall

Marsfall is a newer addition to the audio drama world, but it’s already being regarded as one of the best in the scene. This science fiction audio drama follows a different character’s perspective each episode as they land on Mars for an expedition. The changing point of view adds depth to each part of its somewhat large cast while also complicating the ethics so often discussed in the plot. Marsfall also proves that large-scale action sequences are not only possible in audio, but can also be beautiful.

Station to Station

Station to Station is a horror audio drama that turns the audio medium on its head. Plenty of audio drama podcasts give a reason for their story to take place in audio, but Station to Station subverts this with internal monolgues and changing perspectives. This fiction podcast follows a researcher on a massive ship whose research partner never showed up for the voyage–but did leave the protagonist some audio recordings. Station to Station is an audio drama that you could listen to casually, but it’s best when given the time and attention one might give Lost or Westworld, and it merits just as much theorizing.

The post 15 Audio Drama Podcasts to Get You Hooked on Fiction appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Well you’ve come to the right place.

Science fiction podcasts encapsulate a broad and diverse section in the audio drama and fiction world. Some listeners I’ve spoken with have even said it pretty much dominates the field of audio drama. And while I’m not sure about all that, I do know science fiction podcasts are fantastic. Due to genre conventions, science fiction audio dramas can go to places other nonspeculative fiction podcasts can’t. 

Like The Bright Sessions! It’s a typical story wrapped in science fiction trappings, giving us something to relate to, think about, and imagine. Or you can follow a kid around the galaxy as they get into wacky and wild adventures involving sentient ships, aliens, and more. The best science fiction podcasts give us the space to dream and think about our own lives simultaneously! To seek out new life and new… well, you get the idea.

It’s pretty incredible. So, for all my other science fiction audio drama stans out there, here are 35 science fiction podcasts to dive into.

As with all our lists, this article will be updated frequently to give you doses of the best sci fi podcasts. Unless stated otherwise, they should all be listened to in order.

What Makes Up The Best Sci Fi Podcasts?

We all know that the best sci fi podcasts, films, books, series, franchises, world, galaxies, and indeed, universes suck you into them. And if you’re wondering if that was a black hole joke, it most certainly was. I’m not appologizing.

So what makes a good sci-fi story? Well, first of all, there’s universe building: creating a reality that audiences can believe in, even if it’s not our own reality. Then there are characters: characters who are fully fleshed-out people with real emotions and motivations that drive them through the story.

And finally there’s twists: surprises that keep audiences guessing until the very end of the story (or sometimes well beyond).

Solutions to Problems

Solutions to Problems is a science fiction audio drama in the style of Dear Prudence advice columns. While the show is set on a spaceship traveling through the galaxy, the questions and advice they get into sometimes borders on relatable. It doesn’t just end there, though, Solutions to Problems crafts a whole world and universe across the 30+ episodes.

I will note that there hasn’t been a new season since the end of 2020. But! They announced over the winter that another season is still in the works, so now is the perfect time for new listeners to jump on one of the great science fiction podcasts. And if you’ve already listened to the show, why not refamiliarize yourself with the world, characters, and humor of Solutions to Problems before the new season airs?

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

The Bright Sessions

The Bright Sessions follows a doctor who provides therapy to those experiencing strange and unusual events. This landmark in science fiction podcasts deals with trauma in interesting and sometimes healing ways, providing a unique experience for the listener.

While The Bright Sessions is an old favorite among many science fiction audio drama listeners, during 2021, they did something a little different. A new spinoff series, the AM Archives, started to run for a few episodes before switching over to another new spinoff of The Bright Sessions, The College Tapes.

Listeners still get to spend time with the doctor, but new characters and troubles are introduced to keep the story raging on. All the series have wrapped up, so new listeners can check out all seven full seasons of The Bright Sessions universe. 

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

Covid39

Year three (or is two? Three? Four?) of the pandemic. New variations are cropping up like bad pop hits, and we are all still processing the impacts of Covid on ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us. That’s why I wanted to recommend Covid39 again.

The science fiction audio drama is set 39 years in the future but looking back on current times in a way that calls into question our existing relationships and circumstances. Are we choosing our friends and lovers based on the pandemic and our forced closeness? Covid39 follows a couple who are curious if their love stems from the fact that their families lived together during the pandemic.

Through audio recordings, letters, emails, and more, the two unearth the locked away memories of their time during the pandemic, the time happening right now for all of us. It’s a sci fi podcast that feels all too real.

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Carrier

I’ve reviewed Carrier a few times in other articles because it’s a bit of a crossover and genre-bending hit from QCODE. In the science fiction horror, follow a truck driver as she takes one last job to be able to afford to make it home, but the job may end up costing her life.

Another great thing about Carrier is that it’s a completed show, though the ending feels a bit lackluster to me. Since QCODE produced Carrier, listeners can expect big-budget production, sound effects, and acting.

Those factors don’t always create a great audio drama, but that is not the case with Carrier. Listeners are in for a wild ride and experience when strapping into the science fiction audio drama.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

Mission to Zyxx

Mission to Zyxx is an improvised science fiction audio drama about a team of space ambassadors traveling to various planets to create diplomatic relationships. Due to its adlib and free-style form, some listeners may be turned off by the unscripted show.

But let me assure you, Mission to Zyxx is hilarious! Not only is the full-cast science fiction podcast audio drama funny and imaginative, but there are TONS of queer characters and relationships all mixing in with the aliens, space travel, and talking ships. Mission to Zyxx is great for listeners who love comedy space science fiction like We Fix Space Junk and The Strange Case of Starship Iris.

There are five seasons going back to 2018, so it’s a great show to dive into from the beginning and catch up before the next episode drops. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS | Transcripts
(Transcripts available on each episodes’ page)

Stories from Among the Stars

I like to suggest serializations or books turned into podcasts for people completely new to audio dramas. The transition from audiobooks to audio dramas is sometimes easier. If you’re new to the whole realm of science fiction audio dramas, Stories from Among the Stars is a science fiction novel serialization podcast from Macmillan Podcasts is a perfect introduction to the style.

Each season, Stories from Among the Stars takes a science fiction book and releases it in audio format. Past books include The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Initially, Steal the Stars, one of creator Mac Rogers’s science fiction podcasts, Stories from Among the Stars still holds to the original’s production and storytelling.

Take note, the episodes of Stories from Among the Stars aren’t available forever. After the season’s run, the episodes are taken down. Steal the Stars is still available, though.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS 

Silva Lining’s Care Plan

Silva Lining’s Care Plan is a touching and honest look at what it’s like to care for someone during a time when they need it the most. Silva Lining’s Care Plan focuses on relationships and end-of-life issues following a caregiver and their dementia client as the two try to create life in a petri dish.

To be honest, I’ve thought about this science fiction audio drama since the first time I heard it. The science-fiction element of having a petri dish of a small life form as a character adds a lot of tension, heart, and humor around a subject that isn’t often discussed or used in the audio drama world.

Even though the science fiction audio drama ended in September 2021, I still think Silva Lining’s Care Plan is a must-listen for all fans of heartwarming science fiction podcasts. 

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

Dark Tides

Like Mission to Zyxx earlier on the list, Dark Tides is an improvised comedy audio drama. But unlike Mission to Zyxx, which is set in space and on various planets, Dark Tides follows two characters in a science fantasy archipelago setting as they investigate mysteries surrounding the strange location.

So, not only is there comedy and science fiction and fantasy elements, but there’s a pretty compelling mystery pushing the story forward.

Season three is currently airing with a prequel series of shorter episodes while the creators prep season four and a return to the original storyline. So, now is the perfect time to catch up on all the seasons before the new season airs!

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

Science Fiction – Daily Short Stories

Science Fiction – Daily Short Stories is a science fiction anthology podcast. Listeners are treated to vintage science fiction stories of a wide variety throughout the genre. Some of the stories are a bit too vintage for me, though I am a fan of those older science fiction stories—I just have to sometimes wade through sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic ideologies and rhetoric.

There were only some of those aspects in the few episodes I listened to from the recent episodes. Since all the stories are creative commons science fiction stories, listeners can find classic science fiction short stories from authors like Robert Silverberg, Frank Herbert, and so many more.

If you’re a fan of classic science fiction, Science Fiction – Daily Short Stories will probably be your new favorite science fiction podcast.

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Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories

Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories is a science fiction anthology audio fiction podcast featuring imaginative science fiction and other speculative fiction stories. For fans of science fiction audios like Lightspeed Magazine Podcast and Science Fiction – Daily Short Stories, Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories is another you should add to your queue.

The main distinction and what makes Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories unique is that there are sometimes repeat characters, adventures, and locations building a loosely connected storyline. While I thought some of the stories were overly written to create a packed story, I think Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories is a great science fiction podcast for long-time fans of sci-fi.

There are stories featuring genre favorite tropes and conventions with a blend of more imaginative and genre-bending stories. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS

The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: Science Fiction Podcasts for Kids

For younger science fiction fans, The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: Science Fiction for Kids is a great science fiction audio drama. It’s also great sci-fi! So, it’s a solid show for adults who love sci-fi and want a show to share with the younger members of their families.

The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian: Science Fiction for Kids follows a young child exploring the galaxy, having wild and imaginative adventures with aliens, robots, and more. While it’s not a full-cast science fiction audio drama, it’s still a fun listen with the blend of energetic voice acting and audio effects.

I had moments while listening where I wanted to compare it to classic science fiction like John Carter of Mars but for modern-day children.

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | RSS 

Asimov’s Science Fiction

Asimov’s Science Fiction is a great pick for fans of classic science fiction storytelling who want more modernized tales from diverse and contemporary science fiction authors. Asimov’s Science Fiction is the podcast branch of the long-running magazine of the same.

The Asimov’s Science Fiction podcast is one of my favorite new finds. And I’m pretty embarrassed that I didn’t know about it before. Asimov’s Science Fiction, the magazine, has been a science fiction print magazine since 1977.

With each print issue, a story is selected from the magazine and read on the podcast by the authors. The podcast has been releasing episodes since 2015, so there are a fair number of stories to catch new listeners up on what type of pieces Asimov’s Science Fiction airs. 

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Best Sci Fi Podcasts – The Excellent Bonuses from the Past

These science fiction podcasts come from versions of this article past. We still recommend them! They remain some of the greats in science fiction podcasts.

Clarkesworld Magazine Podcast

The Clarkesworld Magazine Podcast is similar to a few other podcasts on this list. It is a magazine’s audio fiction department where they record and produce stories from their issues. Clarkesworld Podcast delivers literary science fiction and fantasy and has won countless awards. Their audio fiction pushes the boundaries of literary speculative fiction to show readers the wide breadth of what contemporary writers have to offer. 

Escape Pod

Escape Pod is the science fiction branch of the Escape Artists podcast family. Operating since 2005, Escape Pod has published a wide range of authors and sci-fi subgenres. Sometimes the science fiction podcast can be literary, but some episodes are extremely commercial and accessible. With over a half-decade worth of stories, there is a lot to choose from in Escape Pods’ back catalog. 

Moonbase Theta, Out

Moonbase Theta, Out is great science fiction featuring queer stories and characters. The science fiction audio drama follows the shutting down of the Moonbase programs of the future. There’s one left, Theta. The stories and characters explore topics surrounding politics, science, and more. The third season wrapped up at the beginning of May, but several bonus episodes dropped this summer, so now is a perfect time to start the series from the beginning and catch the finale.

We Fix Space Junk

A science fiction comedy sitcom set in space in the future, We Fix Space Junk is a hilarious audio drama filled with adventures and AI and good ol’ sci-fi fun. Started back in 2018, We Fix Space Junk is currently in its mini-season run of Marilyn’s Diary. The most recent episode dropped July 11^th and finds a couple of the characters dealing with pirates. 

StarTripper!!

A road trip through space, a talking spaceship, and the whole universe unfolding before him, StarTripper!! is about Feston Pyxis’s search for adventure among the stars. Season 2 is just starting with the prologue released back in May. There are space races, cooking shows, and, yes, space pirates. It’s a wild ride with a wild guy. 

Read more: Upcoming Whisperforge audio drama, StarTripper!!, aims to lighten up fiction

Civilized

From the creators behind Alba Salix, Civilized is an improvised dark comedy science fiction audio drama podcast. Following the crew of a marooned terraforming spaceship crashed on an alien planet, Civilized delivers thematic storytelling dealing with cloning terraforming and more. With over 50 episodes and season 4 happening now, Civilized is the perfect podcast for first-time science fiction audio drama listeners. 

Oz 9

Colony ships are well-tread territory in science fiction. But every new creator, if they’re good and daring enough, makes each one unique. What’s different about the science fiction audio drama podcast Oz 9 is the diverse cast and stories that crop up over the 60 episodes. The very first episode feels a bit topical with all the news of billionaire wannabe space boys. But overall, the show is pretty funny and satirical. 

Twilight Histories

Twilight Histories is a science fiction audio fiction podcast where sci-fi stories are dramatized using music and voice acting. It’s all done in the second-person point of view where you are the character. It feels a bit Twilight Zoney and has a darkness to its science fiction. For science fiction podcast listeners who like stories that are darker and weirder than anything, Twilight Histories is a great podcast to check out. The stories featured on the show harken back to classic science fiction stories often featured in periodicals like Startling Stories and Planet Stories with a contemporary twist. 

Dispatch from the Desert Planet

Dispatch from the Desert Planet is a fictional news and music broadcast to over 200 planets, space stations, and terraformed meteors. But it’s more than that. More than fiction or an audio drama. In a way, it’s political and hopeful, inspiring. “Tech Talks/Space Serenade” was the first episode that I listened to and was instantly hooked by using fictional radio broadcasts to build and create a world, universe, and diverse set of cultures. That was their last episode back in February, so I hope they’ll be back soon. Until then, there are over 20 episodes to listen to and support.

Strange Horizons Podcast

Strange Horizons is a hub for fantastic, thought-provoking science fiction, fantasy, horror, and stories of the weird. It is a weekly magazine with an audio fiction podcast where they select stories and poems from their issues to offer them a second life in your ears. 

Lightspeed Magazine Podcast

Lightspeed Magazine Podcast is a science fiction and fantasy audio fiction podcast, similar to Strange Horizons, that publishes some of the stories from its issues on its show. Listeners can find a broad and diverse range of stories and characters on the show. It also is a great place to see what’s being published currently in the short science fiction field. 

Dirt: An Audio Drama

Most of the work on Dirt: An Audio Drama is done by Kristopher Kaiyala, who plays the main character, a man in his 30s who embarks on a fun and imaginative journey after receiving a strange letter. Season 2 is in production currently, but there are six episodes available for new listeners looking for a science fiction audio drama podcast about the things we find when we begin digging into the mysteries around us. 

Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Website | Transcripts

Read more: 15 Audio Drama Podcasts to Get You Hooked on Fiction

CTRL-ALT-DESTROY

CTRL-ALT-DESTROY is a science fiction audio drama podcast about a video game designer who uncovers a plot that spans nations and involves the game she created. Put out by Realm, formerly Serial Box, CTRL-ALT-DESTROY has that big-budget feel and features Summer Glau. As a gamer who also loves science fiction, I loved how the show blended gameplay with the story’s action. CTRL-ALT-DESTROY wrapped up in June, so all ten episodes are out and available for listeners.

Marsfall

Marsfall is stunningly emotional, cinematic, and immersive. It’s the story of the first colonists on Mars, and each episode is told from a different character’s perspective. As you learn more about the crew, you also learn more about Mars–and about their journey. The podcast ask questions about the objective truth and what it means to be human, about what happens when we try to start anew when our planet falls apart. It’s got the best action scene audio fiction has ever done, and one of the most beautiful soundtracks in any medium.

ars PARADOXICA

ars PARADOXICA is one of the best time-travel stories ever written. Following Sally Grissom, a scientist who accidentally discovers time travel, this podcast has some of the tightest timeline plotting out there without sacrificing great character and plot writing. Its meticulous timeline isn’t a gimmick; instead, it works to help create commentary that relates to identity, memory, isolation, and plenty of political intrigue. As a product of The Whisperforge, it’s also one of the best sounding podcasts to date, with an incredible cast the keep everything grounded.

Arca-45672

Arca-45672 has some overlap with Marsfall: they’re both space operas with fascinating AI systems, but where Marsfall focuses on that intersection between humanity and technology, Arca-45672 focuses intently on the human. It asks questions about what humans will do when they need to survive, and how humans will react to a situation they’ve created, like climate change.

Adventures in New America

If you’re looking for goofy but still steeped in cutting, scathing, rapidfire social commentary, you’re going to love Night Vale Presents’s Adventures in New America. Following IA, a man with terminal cancer desperately seeking the funds to pay for his medical treatments despite his deep depression, Adventures in New America takes place in a surreal version of New York called New New York, where the black citizens are being preyed upon by white zombie vampires from outer space.

A World Where

A World Where is an unsettling anthology podcast where the sci-fi setups seem both hyperbolic and a little too close to home. Sound designed with binaural audio–easier heard than explained, so just know that headphones are mandatory–it’s easy to slip not just into the sounds themselves, but also each episode’s plot. For episodes that are short, there’s a slow burn feeling to how intense A World Where can get. Erasing traumatic memories goes to as unexpected places as a cooking competition show do, but with completely different trajectories.

The Big Loop

The Big Loop is like if you took the concept of Black Mirror but made it a series of monologues and subtracted most of the cynicism. A deeply intimate anthology series, The Big Loop covers a wide range of genres but usually ends up in some form of sci-fi. From a ghost stories to superhero (villain?) origin stories to stories about Lovecraftian horrors and mermaids, you’ll come away from each questioning some part of the world while also being deeply moved.

Janus Descending

Starring audio fiction gems Jordan Cobb and Anthony Olivieri, Janus Descending is a story told in two alternating, opposite chronologies: one protagonist, Chel, is followed chronologically, while the other protagonist, Peter, is followed in reverse. It’s a story that begs being put together with theories as it goes, wondering how everyone got from the start to the end, what chaos happened between. The writing changes tone completely while still remaining cohesive, and the sound design is truly chilling.

The Deca Tapes

The Deca Tapes is a found audio podcast of leaked audio from a strange experiment in which people were locked in confinement together for unknown reasons. The story unfolds in a strange mystery over eight episodes, hitting unnerving and dark moments that show the perils of prison systems that thrive on capitalism.

Directive

Stuck in a life of corporate mediocrity due to crippling debt, when protagonist Frank Torrez finds himself unemployed, he has no choice but to start working for a secretive operation: the Caretaker Directive. They need people to help test a method of bodily preservation for longer space travel, and plan to send him–and a few others–deep into space with no way of being hurt, but kept completely alone, separated from the others. Each episode’s dialogue is edited to be listened to with headphones and interwoven with an inner monologue that feels just as sci-fi as it feels noir.

Moonbase Theta, Out

With short-form episodes and a sweet narrative, Moonbase Theta, Out is a series from a–you guessed it–moon base from an astronaut to his husband. While the podcast does eventually up its stakes and dive into plot, it always has a sense of kindness, sincerity, and tenderness to each episode. If you’re looking for sci-fi but not necessarily horror or a dramatic space opera, Moonbase Theta, Out is a great place to start.

The Infinite Now

Written by the person behind one of the best Twitter accounts, Richard Penner, The Infinite Now is a surreal time/space travel podcast in which the host, The TIMESCANNER, slips between different realities. It’s a bit like if Welcome to Night Vale leaned even more into absurdity and, sometimes, even more into direct scathing takedowns of current societal ills. All of those features surround strangely realistic performances, including Penner’s own hypnotically smooth voice.

Ostium

Inspired by the classic games Myst and Riven, Ostium is a podcast about a man who stumbles into information about a strange town called Ostium while looking around maps online. When he finds Ostium, he comes across a complex world of doors and mysteries. A story of exploration, escapism, and trust, Ostium is largely told through single-narrator perspectives, giving it a diary-like feel.

2298

Told in 9-minute episodes (later compiled into one whole, two-hour piece), 2298 is a classic dystopian sci-fi that feels at home with works like 1984, Brave New World, and Black Mirror. The podcast centers on 24, a man living in a universe completely dictated by social media and government surveillance. 24 doesn’t question this life, always going to work exactly as and when he’s told, until he’s visited by a strange bird–and suddenly, everything starts to change.

Within the Wires

Also from Night Vale Presents, Within the Wires is a strange, unnerving podcast with a different format each season. The first season is a set of relaxation tapes with a dark twist; the second is made up of guides listening for museums; and the third is a bureaucrat’s dictation tapes for his secretary. Ostensibly, none of these stories are sci-fi . . . until you pay attention. All three take place in the same universe, and that universe is one of strange government offices, medical facilities, and strange applications of art.

Wolf 359

Wolf 359 is one of the most beloved pieces of audio fiction, and for good reason. It’s the story of a small crew on a massive space station, and while it starts off silly, it becomes something absolutely heartbreaking and stunningly beautiful. Wolf 359 has science fiction features galore and plenty of twists, turns, suspense, and character development. It’s a true space opera, rooted in increasingly incredible writing and a phenomenal cast.

Steal the Stars

Written in partnership with Tor labs, Steal the Stars is a blockbuster audio fiction that blends a romance, a heist, a political thriller, action, and aliens. Protagonist Dakota “Dak” Prentiss works at a secret government operation to study a massive alien they call “Moss” (named for the moss that covers its body) and the deadly harp-like device found with it. In the facility, all emotional and psychical contact between employees is forbidden–which is made difficult when the gorgeous Matt Salem is hired.

Girl in Space

Voted our readers’ favorite audio drama of 2018, Girl in Space by Sarah Rhea Werner follows X, a girl . . . in space. Initially, X is isolated in her station, but as she finds other travelers in the cosmos, she finds herself pulled into a space drama and being completely disinterested in falling into the genre’s trappings. X is a captivating protagonist. She’s charismatic, jovial, astute, and so relatable (her love of cheese is so many of us). Slowly, more of her mysterious past an family are revealed, making each episode another step into a fascinating mystery.

Tides

Tides is an audio fiction that blends space travel, biology, and a great unreliable narrator. Julia Schifini plays Dr. Winifred “Fred” Eurus, xenobiologist stranded alone on an earth-like planet with tremendous tidal waves. As Fred explores, she encounters alien life, but she also talks about the humans who abandoned her here: her crew, all of whom are doing their best to save her. Fred is aggressively self-sufficient–or, at least, she thinks she is–but finds she may need help more than she wants to admit. You can read our full review of Tides‘s first season here.

The post 35 of the Best Sci Fi Podcasts to Listen to Right Now appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Today, when a writer sits down to draft the audio fiction festering inside of them, they have an essential decision to make: to narrate or not to narrate. Now, that is a creative decision that nonfiction podcasts can’t question: someone’s sultry voice has to guide the audience through the labyrinth of information and spellbinding conversations with guests while delivering a killer ending. 

But fiction audio writers can opt-out. Not having a narrator is unquestionably the harder route to venture down. There are a myriad of successful audio fiction shows that preserve the narratorial conceit like Tanis, Limetown, and every radio audio drama from the 1950s. So, what happens when a show does choose to not have a narrator? What does it gain and what does it lose? Let’s look at a case study of a recent hit, Bridgewater, produced by Arron Mahnke and written by Lauran Shippen. Manke and Shippen take the route that forgoes the narrator. The characters will be guiding the audience from start to finish. It is an interesting artistic challenge; however, does Bridgewater excel at this decision, or do the listeners get lost in the woods? Regardless, I promise to be a reliable narrator through all this.

Narration in audio drama

When audio fiction writers choose to abstain from having a narrator, they embark on the creative path less taken. That path can easily become as dense and confusing as the woods in which Bridgewater is set. Narrators are usually an essential, unquestioned aspect of storytelling. When the writer wants to explore a world at large, the narrator is the guide through the story, providing perspective, showing us where to look from the inciting incident to the falling action. 

Podcasting is surprisingly visual and relies on the narrator/host showing us what to see by giving us pointed descriptions. Regardless of genre, in podcasting, we rely heavily on narrators to help fill in the blanks because we are exclusively using our ears to move through the world. The listener goes into the experience blindfolded and needs someone in their ear to describe the scene and tell us what to listen for. The narrator/host can explain something quickly, fill in the blanks, without making it sound forced.

In this new dawn of audio fiction, narrators aren’t necessary. The Bright Sessions, also written by Lauren Shippen, is an excellent example of a pure dialogue fiction show. The Bright Sessions is set in a therapist’s office and is a conversation between Dr. Bright and her unique patients. Shippen does an excellent job of providing depth to the characters and creating a larger world outside the room the two characters sit in. The show is contained. All the action and world-building happens through conversation. The world can get big because they are only speaking from their perspectives.

However, Bridgewater is exclusively dialogue and has the characters explore multiple areas in the world with some light soundscaping. If that is all the writer is giving the listener, that better be some of the steamiest, jaw-dropping, propulsive conversations and plot twists we have ever heard. Where do Bridgewater’s conversations land on the scale from bonanza to borning? Closer to banal. 

Narration in Bridgewater

Bridgewater is a show about an obstinate, objective folklore professor Jeremy Bradshaw, who is writing a book about the Bridgewater Triangle in southern Massachusetts. Bradshaw’s late father, Thomas was a cop who went missing 40 years prior and suddenly his badge turns up in the woods in perfect condition. Confused, Jeremy reaches out to his father’s ex-cop partner, Anne Beker, a hermit-like woman who everyone thinks is crazy because she insists that there are monsters in the woods. Anne is a bulldog of a woman who won’t take people’s bullshit while Jeremy is a rational objectivist who wants to know what happened to his father. Once strange occurrences start happening again in the woods, the skeptic and the believer go on an adventure in the woods. Adventure attempts to ensue. 

Since Bridgewater relies exclusively on dialogue, every detail has to be explicitly stated by the characters, from action to scenic description to feelings and new information. When everything has to be explained, the dialogue falls like lead balloons instead of becoming captivating conversations. Each conversation has to pull almost all the weight like a single horse dragging an entire freight train forward. The dialogue becomes expository and is a lot of telling. 

Show, don’t tell

In Bridgewater, the characters have to tell us what they are seeing, feeling, experiencing, going, what the weather is like, and big reveals, on top of talking to each other. Having characters describe everything they are thinking/sensing doesn’t mirror normal conversations and ends up sounding clunky and unnatural. 

If there was a narrator, they could peek inside the characters’ brains and explain to the listener what they are feeling. Or, the narrator can infer a character’s feelings from the outside by describing body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, etc. Without a narrator, the listener doesn’t know how each character stands, what their aura is, or have any other visual cues as to what is happening other than what is pointed out by other characters. When there is no one to tell us what is happening but the characters themselves, the show becomes heavy and the characters are sacrificed. 

Shows that attempt to explore vast swaths of their world need a narrator. What works in shows like The Bright Sessions is that they keep the world relatively small. The small conversation between two people makes the world feel large because it is contained. It seems that when characters step out of a room and begin to explore the larger world, there needs to be a narrator there to guide us and them. 

TANIS is an excellent example of narration in an ever-expanding fabricated universe. The fictional host, Nic Silver, cuts us back and forth between his discoveries, his feelings, his conversations, and his moving through the world. Miles never lets us get lost in the woods, even when they are upside down and filled with eccentric and supernatural surprises. 

Characterization in Bridgewater

It may seem like axing the narrator allows the characters more room to breathe, but in practice, it weighs them down more. We don’t get as much depth about the main characters when we don’t have one-on-one time with them. In plays, we get monologues or breaking of the fourth wall. In novels, authors can dedicate entire chapters to just one character. In Bridgewater, we get no quality time with any of the characters. When everything hinges on the conversation, it inflates the economy of the script and each word becomes far more expensive. The dialogue becomes superficial and laborious. 

Read more: How to Audio Drama: Your Characters

Bridgewater‘s quality control 

When there is no narrator, the writer must rely heavily, if not exclusively, on dialogue. 

The dialogue in Bridgwater just isn’t that captivating. The conversations sound like they were copied/pasted into each script. In every episode, Anne and Jeremy get into the same argument on whether or not there is something in the woods. It is constantly explaining everything and without a narrator to jump in and clear up any confusion, the characters themselves get lost and lack depth. 

I would argue that the creators relied too heavily on dialogue because there wasn’t any clear delineation between scenes. There was no music cue or twinkle of knowing that the characters were in a different time and space until one of the characters started speaking and explaining where they were. 

However, that could be redeemable if the voice actors were excellent, the sound design was original and spine-tingling, and the plot was propulsive. But it was all average. There wasn’t anything remarkably terrible about it, it was listenable, but it wasn’t bewitching either. The sound design was a little lackluster, the audio equivalent of drawing with Crayola crayons. The creators also snagged some bigger-name movie and television actors, but unfortunately, it sounded like they were instructed to sound like they were telling a children’s story. Ultimately, if the writing is poor, no famous actor or sound designer can cover it up. 

Final rant: the plot was remarkably similar to Faerie, Terry Miles’s newest show: cults in the forest, demons that are human-like and sometimes malicious, getting lost in the woods, and skeptical, rational protagonists. However, what Miles does that Shippen did not is that Faerie is centered around the protagonist, Ryan Bailey, who narrates her feelings, behind the scenes, and general explanations to keep the show going. 

Conclusion 

Did Mankhe and Shippen succeed with their original intention to create an immersive, enrapturing plot that made you believe in something more beyond the veil? Kind of. Narrators are useful guides in audio fiction. Without it, it feels like we are groping in the back of a cave, in the middle of the night, in the dead of an Icelandic winter: It’s dark, and we don’t know where we are going.  

The post Bridgewater: To Narrate or Not to Narrate 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.

The next year, I came out to all my friends as asexual (often shortened to “ace”).

This is probably not a coincidence. 

In the same way it hides in the back of the LGTBTQIA+ acronym, asexuality is not an obvious orientation. It’s frequently disregarded by those who aren’t queer, often overlooked by the community it’s a part of, and even purposefully excluded on occasion. Aces joke about needing a PowerPoint to come out because so many people don’t know about Asexuality, even the well meaning.

Mainstream media is not well known for its queer representation in general, but the count of canonically ace characters across TV shows is low. Across movies it is, as far as I can tell, zero. Even when the source material has an asexual-identifying character, the adaptation is likely to ignore that (I’m looking at you, Riverdale). While novels are almost certainly the best form of mainstream media if you’re looking for ace rep, the count is also not high. In 2016, it was small enough that despite being an avid reader, I had yet to come across asexuality in fiction.

In fact, I was 21 when I first came across a canonically ace character. Not in a book, movie, or tv show, though. In a podcast.

I nearly dropped my phone listening to “Patient #13 (Chloe) + Friend” when Dr. Bright said, “Some people find asexuality a difficult concept to grasp.” It was the first time I’d heard the term said outside of certain corners of the internet or my school’s Safe Space training, and it meant so much to me. 

This was the first time I considered that possibly, my ace-ness was a part of me I wouldn’t have to hide. I’m not exaggerating when I say I was prepared to have everyone except my closest friends assume I was straight until the end of time. But it was at this moment – sitting at my desk, listening to an audio drama – where I started to see that maybe, just maybe, I could be proud of who I was. 

Read more: The Bright Sessions Wraps Up While Birthing New Projects

This is what representation does for us. It reminds us that we’re not alone in the world. It reassures us that we’re allowed to exist. Out of a whole world of media, it was this tiny corner of indie audio drama that looked me in the eyes and told me I was allowed to exist. Because while I found representation in The Bright Sessions first, I’ve been finding it again and again across independent audio drama.

I maintain a list of audio fiction shows with ace characters, and at the time of writing, it’s at 43 different shows, 25 of which have in-episode confirmation by characters in the show. There is quite possibly more ace representation in indie audio drama than every other form of media combined.

There is The Beacon, a fantasy audio drama about magic powers, giant monsters, and the importance of making friends. In the first episode of season two, main character Bee mentions not understanding why her friend is interested in someone, attributing it by saying, “Maybe it’s just me being asexual.” As someone who’s been in that exact situation, I found the scene incredibly relatable. 

There is Love & Luck, a slice of life queer romance story with a touch of magic, told via voicemails. In episode 55, CJ mentions “bonding over asexuality stuff” with Ricardo. I love that their ace identity is not a disruption to possible romance, but actually helps it form. This episode was really inspirational for me, and in a way that is entirely too difficult to explain, it also gave me hope. 

There is Inkwyrm, a sci-fi podcast about fashion, aliens, and the indeterminately fabulous future. Robert so boldly states in episode 7, “I’m aromantic asexual. You know that.” He says this like it’s no big deal, channeling the precise confidence I wanted to have myself some day.

Read more: Reimagining 5 podcasts on old audio formats

And more recently:

There’s season 2, episode 7 of Arden, “Rosalind and Pamela are Dead,” where Rosalind gives an extraordinarily relatable rant about her friendship being viewed as a compromise. This is something I’ve personally encountered, and her monologue about the situation hit close to home. Never has this particular sensation been so thoroughly captured in a piece of media for me.

There is Less is Morgue, where Riley brings up being Asexual a number of times, often to fairly unpleasant guests on the show. I love that even the most evil of guests don’t give them a hard time about it, and if any of them come close, Riley shuts them down swiftly. I need to start taking notes.

There is episode 5 of The Godshed Incidental, “In the Dark,” in which protagonist Em questions, “You know I’m ace, right? Ace and aro and undateable?” and is met with a simple “Yes, it’s in your file.” This right here is the ideal response I want to receive when coming out to someone. It’s the dream, and it was so refreshing to hear.

Again and again and again, these shows tell me that it’s okay to be me. They tell others that it’s okay for me to be me. Bee can be at college and trying to fight a monster and also be asexual. CJ and Ricardo can be falling in love and be Asexual. Robert can have an adorable kid and be a doctor and also be asexual. 

Maybe I can be a podcaster and engineer and whatever else it is that I am – and also be asexual? Maybe that’s okay? 

When society as a whole says the opposite, the message these shows give is incredibly meaningful. Through the simple inclusion of asexual characters, they make me feel that I don’t need to prove I have a right to exist as ace. 

Here in 2021, I’m both confident in and proud of my identity. I don’t need this message – but, that wasn’t the case in 2016. Would I have gotten here without these shows? Yes. Am I extremely grateful for the push they gave me to accept who I am? Also yes.

Perhaps it would be slightly more accurate to say this in broader terms:

In 2016, I started listening to indie audio dramas.

The next year, I came out to the world as asexual.

This is, definitely, not a coincidence. 

The post PRIDE: Finding Asexual Representation in Indie Audio Drama appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Escapism comes in many forms and seeing as how video games and podcasts are some of my personal favorite time-killers, it’s no wonder I found myself contemplating what a merging of formats would like.

Call it a tall order, but with the off and on success of translating beloved books into movies or television series, I’d definitely imagine audio drama getting the same treatment if someone was willing to put in the effort. 

Wolf 359: Sci-Fi Survival

Less Mass Effect and more Alien Isolation, but Wolf 359 does have the merits for a very intuitive and narratively rich science fiction game. With its interesting cast of characters and claustrophobic environment, any number of scenarios the heroes end up wrapped up in could make for a great series of levels. 

But an idea that comes to mind is a style inspired by the indie darling Observation, wherein you take on the role of a failing ship’s artificial intelligence and try to keep track of a lone survivor after the rest of the crew ends up missing. Keep the original Hephaestus crew in the cast, switch the main role over the Hera, and that would provide a challenging and very personalized look into what it’s like to be in her hardware.

After episodes like “Memoria”, Hera has more than earned a chance to flex her abilities first hand and that extra gut punch of emotional trauma the player would have to experience would just make the experience all the better. Maybe a gameplay style vaguely akin to the Bioshock pipe hacking minigame you’d have something very visceral that lets you be a slightly less sadistic version of Portal’s GLaDOS.

The Penumbra: Mystery and Crime Drama

The adventures of Juno Steel would make for some cool, science fiction exploration where you hop from case to case, helping random clients and uncovering a bigger, much more meaty mystery overtime. As far as a template goes, The Wolf Among Us comes to mind with maybe a sort of Dangan Ronpa style of fast pace, mini-game investigation.

In-between, maybe the occasional shoot out or stealth mission with the help of Juno’s handy laser gun, giving this particular game just a touch more hands-on action in between all the deductive reasoning.

Archive 81: Psychological Horror 

Horror podcasts aren’t exactly a dime a dozen and horror games even less so. That’s why an execution of a video game that encompasses Archive 81’s unique take on found-footage supernatural horror would be a welcome challenge.

Personal favorites like the sadly canceled Silent Hill PT with just a pinch of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard would be the ideal starting point, favoring atmosphere and tough decision making with often grizzly consequences, something Archive 81 is more than familiar with.

Dark Dice: Dark Fantasy Role Play

Okay, this is an awful redundant description for what’s already a dark fantasy themed dungeons and dragons podcasts, but in practice, I imagine Dark Dice would be wonderfully different with a controller in hand.

A game like this might be akin to Dark Souls or Skyrim where you take on a character in the party, or perhaps integrate an online multiplayer to fully utilize the whole group, and pursue the quest to find the missing children. 

Decision making is already an essential part of role play be it tabletop or digitally, and seeing Dark Dice’s taste for morbid yet strangely beautiful world building fleshed out with art would really succeed in setting the mood and stakes. 

Alternatively, taking a sort of omniscient role in the gameplay as the dungeon master would grant full control of the story while still letting certain consequences, deaths, and mistakes fall on the shoulders of the player, probably a dream come true for veteran DnD fans.

The Bright Sessions: Visual Novel

Combine complicated emotional intimacy with superpowers and you get The Bright Sessions podcast by Lauren Shippen, and in my opinion, the same formula translates nicely to an interactive, branching path visual novel. 

Now, I’m certainly showing my anime fan side with this entry, but visual novels are an interactive fiction video game that originated in Japan. 

The subversive psychological horror, Doki Doki Literature Club! might be more familiar to western audiences and shows like Clannad, Steins;Gate, and Fate/Stay Night got their start this way before becoming full blown franchises. 

I feel this sort of emotion driven, text heavy game would befit The Bright Sessions’ general appeal, even strengthening parts of the narrative with the help of beautiful art and emotive character sprites. 

Ideally, I’d imagine taking on the role of Dr. Bright, picking and choosing dialogue options for each of the clients and ultimately setting them on different paths depending on your decision making. With the cast of characters, it be easy to separate them into individual routes or even seeing them clash with only yourself to blame or congratulate depending on if anyone gets a happy ending. 

The post Plug in, Press Play: Reimagining Podcasts as Games appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Adam Hayes seems like a whiz kid in the way you expect: a natural talent for debate and public speaking, placed in the super-special math class, and, unsurprisingly, bullied. Adam’s biggest problem is his depression, and how it impacts every aspect of his life, until his biggest problem becomes Caleb Michaels. Caleb’s cute and Adam definitely has a crush, but worst of all, he’s incredibly perceptive and Adam can’t seem to hide around him. And maybe the reason Adam can’t lie about what he’s feeling isn’t because he’s gotten bad at hiding his emotions.

Lauren Shippen’s The Infinite Noise is a heart-warming story of young love, a story that lingers on allowing two teenage boys to feel their feelings and grow to love one another in a thoughtfully rendered fashion. The story takes place during the events of Shippen’s award-winning, critically-acclaimed audio drama podcast The Bright Sessions, but focuses solely on the dual perspectives of Caleb and Adam. This book is a gem for the long-time fans who followed Caleb and Adam in the podcast, but does not leave adrift readers who haven’t listened, which makes The Infinite Noise another wonderful entry point to the world of Atypicals.

No matter what genre Shippen’s writing, she doesn’t lose sight of what’s most important for the story at hand. In The Infinite Noise, it’s a story about teenagers falling in love and learning how to communicate and process their emotions. The supernatural is there too: learning how to process is both aided and hampered by Caleb being an empath, but the mysterious supernatural conspiracies take a backseat to their blossoming relationship. The conspiracies in question don’t even show up in full force until the final chapters, and even then, it’s entirely through the lens of what it could mean for Caleb and Adam.

There is something precious about having a teenage, queer relationship in a space where they’re able to explore that openly and with a support network. Shippen doesn’t gloss over the reality of being openly queer, but she does give Caleb and Adam loving families, each in their own way, and school companions who grow to be friends. This is the kind of story I want to cradle in my hands and protect, because too often, queer kids have to put their feelings into a box and close the lid to keep themselves safe. Too often, they keep their secrets so deeply buried it eats them from the inside. I know, because I was that queer kid; maybe you, too, are that queer kid.

This is why Caleb’s empathy powers are so important. Through them, Caleb’s able to overcome the pull of toxic masculinity that Shippen refers to via side characters like the school bully, Tyler, and another creepy superpowered patient, Damien, and even via his own relationship with anger. He’s able to identify Adam’s “black sludge” of depression, and describe an exhausting all-consuming fog that puts Caleb to sleep. Shippen’s dual perspective is crucial in her presentation of depression. Through Caleb’s powers, she depicts emotion and sensation through gorgeous metaphor, in a way that those who haven’t experienced it could relate to and in a way that never blames Adam for what he’s feeling. In Adam’s voice, Shippen gets right to the heart of the matter, and depicts a teenager trying his best to claw his way out of a hole that leads, sometimes, to self-harm.

Adam’s depression is multifaceted, and self-harm is not the only way it manifests, but most importantly, the power of love is not a cure-all. Shippen’s approach to Adam’s mental illness is refreshing, an honest and realistic portrayal of all of the caveats and reasons people with depression give ourselves to make it to the next day, or feel safe to stay in bed and not move for hours. He refrains from giving in to the desire to harm himself not because it would cause him pain, but because it would cause his parents pain and that, as he notes, is unacceptable. It’s these small and big reasons–like looking forward to debate prep or to a text message from Caleb–that mirror what it’s like to live with depression, and that drove home for me how tasteful and gentle Shippen is with Adam.

The Infinite Noise is the first book of a trilogy set in The Bright Sessions‘ universe, a supernaturally-tinged fantastic young adult novel where superpowers are not a solution to life’s problems. In fact, Caleb’s superpowers tend to make his life more difficult, to the point where he regrets how he’s changed his family’s life and forgets that he has his own emotions, and that those have value, too. This has all of the best parts of The Bright Sessions embedded within: a story that’s more about the characters and their growth rather than about conspiracies. The Infinite Noise is warm and tender, with little melodrama and a lot of care for teenagers finding purpose and love all while learning how to stake their claim in the world.

Buy the Book: IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon

Subscribe to The Bright Sessions: Apple | Google | RadioPublic | Spotify | RSS

The post An Atypical Love Story: Lauren Shippen’s “The Infinite Noise” appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

1. Love and Luck

Love and Luck is the story of two queer men in Austalia who fall in love, start a cafe, and realize they have magical abilities. Told through voicemail, this story is sweet and tender, making sure that even when there’s drama and turmoil, the plot always returns to being delicate. As the cast expands, more love stories manifest, but the love of the two main characters stays central to the show’s focus.

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | RadioPublic | Pocket Casts | RSS

2. 36 Questions

36 Questions is a musical audio fiction about a wife who aims to reunite with her estranged husband by using the “36 questions to fall in love”–the same way they fell in love on their first date. Shrouded in mystery and turmoil, explored through beautiful songs, this melancholic will-they-won’t-they story packs a shocking amount of chemistry into just three episodes.

Listen:Apple | Google | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS

3. This Is Love

Created by the team behind CRIMINAL, This Is Love is a look into love in all its iterations. What does love mean to two closeted gay men, to a woman dealing with the loss of a child, or to an incredibly rare snail? Each true story is told with such a sincere level of interest and respect, no matter the story being told. It’s a reminder that even in real life, love is something beautiful, strange, and magical.

Listen: Apple | Google | RadioPublic | Spotify | Stitcher

4. Deck the Halls (with Matrimony!)

While Deck the Halls (with Matromony!) is Christmas-themed, it’s sweet and fun enough for a year-round listen. Told in movie-length episodes, Deck the Halls (with Matromony!) starts out as a classic romantic comedy that only gets zanier and more fun. If you’re a fan of Hallmark Christmas movies, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, or even off-the-wall romances like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Deck the Halls (with Matromony!) is a great fit for you.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | PlayerFM | RadioPublic

5. Kaleidotrope

Kaleidotrope is an audio fiction about two opposites hosting a radio show on a magical college campus. This podcast is filled with classic romcom tropes; in fact, it’s baked right into the name and the plot of the show. As these hosts try to help fulfill the tropes of love stories around campus, they find themselves falling into one of their own.

Listen: Apple | Google | Stitcher

6. Wonderful!

Wonderful! isn’t necessarily about love, but love permeates everything about it. It’s a podcast hosted by a husband and wife in which each week, both discuss two things they love. It’s a simple premise, but what makes the podcast stand out is how much these two love each other. Their dynamic is so sweet and goofy, it’s hard not to come away from each episode with something new to check out, but also swooning at what absolute marriage goals the hosts are.

Listen: Apple | PlayerFM | Spotify

7. The Bright Sessions

The Bright Sessions is an audio fiction about Dr. Bright, a therapist for the “strange and unusual”–people who not only have psychological troubles, but also superhuman abilities. There are two love stories in the plot: that of a time traveler and someone stuck in time, and that of an empath and the only person who doesn’t disrupt their emotional state. Each love story develops slowly over each character’s individual arc, giving the listener plenty of time to really feel the impact of each story.

Listen:Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

8. The Shadows

The Shadows is both a love story and an anti-love story; it’s a listen that might be best for people who don’t see Valentine’s Day as a celebration as much as a time to brood. The Shadows follows the fictionalized Kaitlin Prest (producer of The Heart) as she falls in love–or what she thinks might be love–with a fellow actor, only to realize she might not know what romantic love is at all.

Listen:Apple | Google | RSS

9. Steal the Stars

If you like your love stories with aliens, political intrigue, and suspense, Steal the Stars is a must. This audio fiction is about the workers in a secret government facility built to study a deadly alien. Because the stakes of the job are so high, no intimacy–even close friendship–is allowed between employees. This becomes almost impossible, though, when a new worker is brought on to the project, and he’s problematically gorgeous.

Listen: Apple | Google | Stitcher | Spotify

10. Pounded in the Butt by My Own Podcast

Or maybe what you need is something so ridiculous you’ll be laughing so hard you cry. Look no further than Pounded in the Butt by My Own Podcast, a Night Vale Presents show in which guests read hilarious, absurdist erotica by Chuck Tingle (known as “tinglers”), usually to some kind of audience. Some of the tinglers read on the podcast include Slammed in the Butt by My Handsome Laundry Detergent Pod, Unicorn Butt Cops: Beach Patrol, and Monday Pounds Me in the Butt.

Listen: Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher

The post 10 Romantic Podcasts for Valentine’s Day appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Sometimes, what you need to feel better is a great comedy podcast. Sometimes, though, let’s be real: you just gotta look dead in the eyes of your sorrows and cry a little.

Here’s a collection of 7 tear-jerking podcasts that will help you do just that. They’re not in any particular order. I was too busy feeling my feelings to rank them (and besides, they’re all great).

1. Terrible, Thanks for Asking

Terrible, Thanks for Asking is the most accurate imagined response to the question, “How are you doing?” From American Public Media, this podcast in an unabashed look into stories of things that have gone truly, fundamentally wrong–and reminding the listener that sometimes, when your life feels like it’s falling apart, you’re not alone. Its brazen, unapologetic look at mental health completely subverts the trend of sensationalizing depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc., instead deciding to tell peoples’ stories with a deep empathetic core.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | Google

2. The Bright Sessions

The Bright Sessions is an audio fiction about a therapist to the strange and unusual: people whose mental health intersects with their superhuman abilities. The concept sounds X-Men, but it’s much more along the lines of a beautifully-told character study, similar to Friday Night Lights or The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The listener gets to hear each character grow and change through their arc, and each of those characters’ stories is complicated and messy in the way that everyone’s story is complicated and messy. It’s a piece of fiction that will leave you in tears both in empathetic agony for the characters, and in absolute pride–and it’s being adapted not just for TV, but also as a trilogy of novels.

Listen: Apple | Spotify | Stitcher

3. Wolf 359

Wolf 359 might start out silly and fun, but it slowly becomes one of the most dramatic, emotional pieces of audio fiction to date. Wolf 359 follows Doug Eiffel, a crew member aboard the U.S.S. Hephaestus, orbiting just outside of the sun Wolf 359. The more the listener learns about Eiffel and his crew, the stranger and more dire their situation seems, until everything starts going awry. Wolf 359 allows no character to feel too precious and pulls no punches. It takes sharp twists and turns, often leaving you gasping several times an episode. It might not seem like it hits those emotions hard in the early episodes, but trust me, it gets there.

Listen: Apple | Google | RSS

4. 36 Questions

36 Questions is a musical mini-series by Two-Up, the same team that produces Limetown. The story follows a wife trying to reconnect with her estranged husband using the tool that made them fall so completely in love on their first date: the New York Times‘s 36 questions to fall in love. With stunning songs each episodes and phenomenal performances, it’s hard not to fall in love with these characters as they try (and resist trying) to fall back in love with each other. The details about why the two are separated and the wife’s history are tear-inducing enough, but pair that with the question of whether or not they will, or even should, get back together heightens everything.

Listen: Apple | Google | Stitcher | Pocket Casts | RSS

5. The Hyacinth Disaster

The Hyacinth Disaster is an aptly-named audio fiction set aboard the MRS Hyacinth, a mining vessel with a crew stuck in the middle of corporate rivalries for resources–which is made more dangerous and dire when a ship’s captain is kidnapped by a rivaling corporation. In this mini-series, you get to know each crew member before everything goes horribly, horribly wrong. It’s a story that prepares you for the worst, but you still won’t be ready for how hard so much of the plot hits.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher

6. The Adventure Zone

Looking at this recommendation on this list might seem strange. “Isn’t The Adventure Zone a podcast on the comedy network Maximum Fun? Isn’t it hosted by those good good McElroy boys?” Yes. Both of these things are true. It’s also one of the podcast that has made me cry the hardest.

The Adventure Zone is an actual play podcast in which three brothers and their dad play Dungeons & Dragons (or, in more recent episodes, a tabletop platform called Monster of the Week). It’s a hilarious podcast with goofs aplenty, but then suddenly in its third arc, it starts hitting some devastating story. By the time the first campaign ends, it’s hard to get through an entire episode without sobbing, and it becomes something stunningly beautiful. Start it for the jokes, stay for the tears.

Listen: Apple | Stitcher | Spotify

7. The Shadows

The Shadows is Kaitlin Prest’s first project after ending The Heart. In partnership with CBC, this podcast that blurs the lines between fiction and nonfiction is a harsh inquiry about the modern idea of romantic love. Every facet of how we discuss love is called into question, and while the podcast asserts it exists to prove love doesn’t exist (somewhat jokingly), it does something much more complicated, gripping, and heartbreaking along the way. The story follows a fictionalized version of Kaitlin, a puppeteer who falls in love with another puppeteer who she has little in common with other than an incredible chemistry. You can read our full review of The Shadows here.

Listen: Apple | Google | RSS

The post 7 Tear-Jerking Podcasts To Pull at Your Heartstrings 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.