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.

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

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

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

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

The Usual Suspects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Die Laughing

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

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

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

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

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

How to do Horror 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Horror is Not Hopeless 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Looking back on it, it radiates that special level of Tumblr pretentiousness and faux-poetic phrasing that just doesn’t reflect my current writing style, let alone my own personal opinions on fashion. And much like a thirty-something looking back at their teen goth phase, I feel myself a little embarrassed by my shallow attempts to cash in on the cottagecore-dark academia-Harry Potter fan-Studio Ghibli GIF reposting-8tracks playlist making side of Tumblr (and by “that side of Tumblr” I mean eighty percent of it).

But even after all these years, not much has changed in terms of my field of interests: I’m still writing about podcasts, I’m still obsessed with fashion, and, bregugidly, I still have a Tumblr. It’s just the way I talk about them has altered dramatically between four to five years. 

And much like my personal sense of style has changed, so has my writing ability, so allow me to inform the less fashionably conscious readers to a personal Podcast Lookbook that will let the runway we call this dilapidated Earth know what low-budget passion project is on your Spotify queue at a single glance.

The Amelia Project: The Prepful Dead

The Amelia Project is the ultimate cozy, coffee shop vibe with a delightfully dark edge. To embody its aesthetic pleasantness should be a simple but carefully calculated operation and, much like organizing a fake murder, you won’t even have to get your hands dirty.

Remember the five Big B’s: bardot belts, big buttons, blazers, berets, and (if you can afford it) Burberry. Honestly, the default coffee cream under red and black plaid design Burberry is known for is an excellent starting point as far as color schemes go and nicely mirrors The Amelia Project logo with just some slight color correction. 

If there’s anything Burberry has taught us it’s that it doesn’t have to be autumn to wear autumn colors, so be sure to keep them intact even on the warmest of days. 

Any tank top or pair of shorts will come in a creamy caramel and will be an excellent substitute for the snug, ribbed turtleneck you can save for apple picking, cafe dates, and talking to Santa Claus.

But there’s no need to break the bank if you want the genuine article, your local thrift store or eBay bid (my personal favorite of the Big B’s) is sure to have the same pieces at half the price.

The Amelia Project’s air of effortless class demands all inspired by their style to be taken seriously by the masses. Be it you’re going for the private school student or stylish lawyer, either works when it comes to nailing the Amelia appeal. Think Cher Horowitz, Beth Harmon, and Blair Waldorf for preppy-chic style inspiration that’s smart but not stiff.

Brimstone Valley Mall: Hell of a Look

Brimstone Valley Mall fans will be delighted to know that the most typical of the gothic-punk fashion subculture is applicable. Seeing as how most of the ideas listed here pertain to some variation of alternative fashion, it was only a matter of time until we got around to rebellious street wear. 

Right here you’ll find the usual: leather jackets, fishnets, combat boots, silver jewelry, and deliberately ripped attire from skinny jeans to crop tops.

Seeing as how the band Brimstone Valley Mall is about doesn’t exist, at least as far as I know, the option of repping official band merch is sadly not an option. It’s times like these that substitutes come into play: Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Misfits, and AC/DC not only have a surplus of merch but will at least evoke the vibe of the kind of heavy metal Brimstone is inspired from. 

Any true fan might want to consider getting a piercing or two and if you are currently prowling your local mall, don’t be afraid to break away from aesthetics to drop by your local Claire’s.

Inkwyrm: The Devil Wears Planets

Inkwyrm is a podcast for and by fashion auteurs. When blending science fiction fan with the average fashion conscious trendsetter, what first comes to mind is the somewhat dated but nonetheless memorable looks from movies like the Disney Channel original movie, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and Luc Besson’s, The Fifth Element. The Fifth Element even had Jean Paul Gaultier as its costume designer, including over 1000 designs for literally ever character in the film, including extras.

My personal favorite time capsule of futuristic fashion comes from Dreamcast rhythm game, Space Channel 5 which manages to be flashy even with its simple shapes thanks to a bright color palette, bold accessories, and go-go boots.

“In my brain while making the show, Inkwyrm fashion is VERY campy, fully committed to the out-there sci-fi look.” said Newt Schottelkotte, main producer of the show.

Read more: PRIDE: Finding Asexual Representation in Indie Audio Drama

The best forward-thinking fashion has an equal balance of weird, rubbery, metallic fabrics and exposed skin-think Vocaloid, not The Noid-but if you still want to strike the balance of comfort, both me and Schottelkottle agree that bigger is better.

“Think Laverne Cox, Awkwafina, and Madelaine Petsch at the 2019 Met Gala.” Schottelkottle added. “Big shoulders, dramatic silhouettes, and skirts that are either very structured or loose and ethereal. Suits typically have wider pant legs to easily accommodate different body types, and at least one piece a season has a train.”

It might be some time before truly anti-gravity clothing becomes mainstream, so for now clothes that give off an effortless, floaty mystique is the way to go. Think flowy but not completely formless to keep things flattering which can be exemplified perfectly through pieces like culotte pants or tops with breezy, breathable fabric. Pair it with some metallic tights or a silver belt and you’ll have the tabloids orbiting you.

Girl in Space: “UWU Soft Space Child” but Actually Make it Fashion

Girl in Space is more specifically, and I hope I’m describing this correctly, “spacecore”. Now, spacecore fashion can range from the elegant and obscure to the dreadfully dated abandoned 2009 Tumblr account and it’s surprisingly easy to slip into the latter rather than the former. 

The problem with mixing subtly with space, which is something Girl in Space is especially good at pulling off in their show run, is that the very nature of the solar system is anything but subtle. 

The best option is not to summarize the entirety of outer space in your wardrobe, but zero in-or, should I say zero gravity?-on one or two key elements that intrigue you the most. Choose just one planet, just one solar system, just one constellation and go from there.

I’ve been positively obsessed lately with mesh covers designed with star patterns and astrology themed belts. This pulls off a look that doesn’t make you feel like you’re wearing an entire planet on your shoulders, let alone the entire universe.

The less you look like a walking craft store, the better. Too many gimmicks at one time and you’ll be pulling off Miss Frizzle, not her much sexier cousin, Miss Sizzle.

Greater Boston: Good Will Bargain Hunting

Greater Boston embodies the vibe of a busy, city crawler with just a dab of surrealism and it’s actually surprisingly easy to get that across with some very deliberate outfit choices. 

If there’s anything Greater Boston has taught me, it’s that minimalism and simple storytelling can convey so much more than you think if you have just the right spice behind it. Thus we will be dabbling in the age-old practice of taking a famous template and applying a weird spin for extra flavor. 

Let us observe: the businessman.

From here, it’s all accessories: I’m talking printed neckties, suspenders, tinted sunglasses with circular rims-pretty much, look like you just walked off the set of Stranger Things.

If you’re going to be investing in decorative neckwear, be sure to balance it out with shirts that compliment the eccentricity of the tie. Too many crazy patterns at one time will throw everything off so stick with one or the other: crazy necktie with a tame shirt or tame necktie with a crazy shirt. The same could be said with suspenders and pants as well but if you want an extra pop of color somewhere around the nether region, cuffing your pants is an excellent and simple solution.

Those who want to especially dip their toe into the vintage aesthetic might want to invest in a polaroid camera, the type you wear around your neck with those really thick lanyards. And no Greater Boston inspired piece is complete with a leather messenger bag, nothing too big, just wide enough to carry your laptop and thick enough to accommodate iron on patches and vinyl buttons. 

The point is to always make it look like you’re always going somewhere important, that you’ve got people to meet, large buildings to take photos of, and, most importantly, rollercoasters to not die on.

Less is Morgue: I Would be Caught Dead in That

You know those t-shirts and sweatshirts with the glow-in-the-dark ribcage designs around the torso? Okay, that’s pretty much the starting point for any Less is Morgue inspired ensemble. 

Seeing as how Less is Morgue is about dead people and all the advantages and disadvantages that come with it, it’s only fair to exemplify the air of the undead so much in your wardrobe that people mistake you for a really enthusiastic necrophile. 

Less is Morgue is much less goth as it is casual punk with just a bit of a scene influence. Where in Brimstone Valley Mall is all leather and chokers, Less is Morgue is at least willing to wear a mood ring and rubber bracelets every once in a while. 

Take just a few elements of Brimstone and be willing to color-code it: Instead of ripped black fishnets, stick to perfectly intact neon fishnets, swap out short leather gloves for striped arm warmers, why wear chains when you can wear glow sticks? It’s all about giving off the bioluminescent glow of the afterlife without making your outfit lifeless in the process. 

But to keep from looking like you got lost on your way to a graveyard rave, here are some of my personal tidbits to add to your shopping cart. 

Forever 21 has this positively adorable polka dot mesh graphic top with some “til death do us part” typography that just screams casual goth. And if those glow in the dark skeleton hoodies aren’t doing it for you, Pretty Little Thing’s skeleton bodycon dress is a must-have.

All that and more is possible with some guts, be it your own or the ones you’re eating. And best of all, you don’t even have to be seen in public with a Nickelback t-shirt.

Station Arcadia: Forget a Triple Threat, You’re a Quadruple Threat

Now, I’ll admit that creating something fashionable for Station Arcadia was a self-imposed challenge. Station Arcadia is, after all, a love letter to a variety of industrial science fiction settings that combines dieselpunk, steampunk, cyberpunk, and solarpunk-all of which have their similarities but just as many polarizing differences from an aesthetic stance.

We haven’t quite gotten to a point in time-let alone been able to backpedal far enough in time-where trench coats and top hats paired with eco-friendly visors are an average accessory, but there’s nothing wrong with at least embodying those ideas into your outfits without looking like you got lost on the way to a Dresden Dolls concert being headlined by Steam Powered Giraffe that was also hosting a Studio Ghibli movie marathon interspersed between clips of Blade Runner while sitting in World War I jets repurposed into chairs.

The point is to simplify your look so much that you manage to look both current and ahead of the curve at the same time. I’m positively in love with this ruffled, flowing spring dress worn by Selena Gomez in the “De Una Vez” music video that positively screams casual solarpunk. 

Pair it with heavy boots and an Apple Watch while carrying a copy of Atlas Shrugged in a leather satchel and you’re good to go on any point of this massive dystopian island.

But in all honesty, it’s all in the little details: drink herbal tea out of a ridiculously ornate mug covered in so many moving gears it may as well be classified as a weapon, watch SuckerPunch on your VR headset and refuse to take it off in public spaces, drive a stick shift that runs on sunflower oil.

 It’ll take a true artisan to truly know what all your minor details add up to. If you ask me, an air of mystery is the best accessory.

Return Home: Style for a Rainy Day

When you live in a place like Melancholy Falls, it’s best to always be prepared for the unexpected. And no I’m not talking about genies and spirits of greed, but really humid, dreary weather. 

Believe it or not, rainy-day couture isn’t just limited to baggy, unflattering coats and ruined makeup. If you know where to look, you can get your hands on some awfully chic pieces that’ll keep your confidence high and your hair dry.

No need to become a weather fashion victim just because of some noisy clouds, instead utilize it into your wardrobe that makes the weather itself seem like a pre-planned accessory. 

As someone who spent eight years in Georgia, I personally own an absolutely fantastic transparent raincoat that I picked up from a Forever 21 which not only functions as its own fashion statement but a window into whatever ensemble I’ve got going on underneath. But what do I wear underneath, you may be asking the screen with the foolish assumption I can hear you. 

Non-constrictive fabric in simple colors will let your skin breathe and keep your coat from clinging and cluttering. The especially bold will get a kick out of showing just a little bit of skin with crop tops and shorts in case a sunny day is just on the horizon.

Match your umbrella of choice to either your coat or a key color in your core outfit and onlookers won’t just think you’re returning home, but returning to the runway.

Alba Salix, Royal Physician: Turning Herbs

Thank goodness the phrase “cottagecore” finally became a thing because I’ve finally found a word that best describes the fairy tale inspired podcast Alba Salix, Royal Physician which only makes my job of theming a hypothetical outfit much easier.

To those unfamiliar, cottagecore is essentially the equivalent of aggressively glamorizing the concept of farm work, living in small little log cabins in the middle of the woods, and generally living off the land. And apparently Alba Salix was way ahead of the curb because witches and witchcraft are often associated with the joys of making natural elixirs and baking mushrooms into pies.

Here you’ll need the basics: ankle length skirts, wide brimmed sun hats, flat shoes, and at least one white delicate summer gown that will be the perfect start for any number of accessories.

It can be hard to pull off overalls, aprons, and cuffed shirts without looking too matronly and too many flowers at once will have you looking like the end of Midsommar instead of a carefree summer child.

But maybe white bases are too basic, that’s where the modern advancements of patterns come in. You can never go wrong with floral print, sunflowers are especially popular, and plaid or gingham can really liven up the otherwise tame color scheme of the average Alba Salix fashion statement. 

Try pairing with woven bags and tweed jewelry for a Hippie-chic flair or go for wiccan with some wicked crystal pendants that are easy finds at your local Etsy store.

The Godshead Incidental: L’Oréal Ipsum

The Godshead Incidental shows in its bright blue and orange title card alone that they’ve already got a taste for contrasting colors and that alone sparks such an array of options for my fashion conscious self. 

Given the fact the protagonist works as an advice columnist at a newspaper in a fantastical urban setting, I can’t help but let my mind wander to geometric patterns, blazers and peacoats in bold colors, waist hugging shorts, sunglasses, and these big circular sunhats I’m positively in love with. We aren’t just going mod chic, we’re going god chic.

Take just a small drop of the washed up hipster aesthetic from the Greater Boston ensemble and sand off the edges with pops of color and sharper silhouettes. We’re jumping from city crawler to city slicker in just a few simple adjustments.

But if you really wanna play up the mythology aspect and are at a loss to find something that embodies your devotion to the god of memory, a bolder spirit will adore these tights that makes a massive Greek mural wearable or this similarly inspired form fitting cherub top-just don’t wear them at the same time.

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

Maybe Em doesn’t have this kind of stuff in her closet but I’m sure any self-respecting god, a real one or not, owns at least one of these things (Not Tervis, though. He owns one Hawainn shirt too many.) You may not be a god but you can at least be someone’s fashion muse.

Now get yourself into something cute and set some style standards for your fellow podcast fanatics. Besides, furry pants and tunics are just so last year…

The post The (Un)official Podcast Fashion Lookbook appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

A shift in political powers over the past decade, a certain number of controversial events ranging from good to terrible, and a general change in tune about the socioeconomic condition of the average black American is as big a talking point more than ever lately.

So what better way to acknowledge the month my ancestors could (kinda) be their own people than with No Credits Productions’ Destination Freedom: Black Radio Days, which is a celebration of the most culturally impactful moments in black history as well as the average news headline through the eyes of the modern African American citizen. 

Despite the lofty introduction, I feel a bit out of my depth talking about this particular show. Not that I’m not a black woman living in the waking, capitalist hell that is North America, not that I don’t already talk about the fundamentals of radio drama, not that I wasn’t specifically asked via email to give this show a listen, but that this is the first time in all my years of journalism that I’ve covered a piece of media that heavily precedes the time I was even born. 

Reading a timestamp like 1948 on a Wiki page is the kind of thing to put hair on your chest and almost inspires me to add “historian” to my long list of occupations. It’s just surreal to be covering anything that existed even before my parents were alive and even my fetish for nostalgia often doesn’t land me in the lap of the 1950’s beyond the occasional Pinterest board that talks about milkshakes and poodle skirts instead of all the institutionalized racism.

Podcasts in general already work as a homage to the earliest incarnations of radio drama, some of which deliberately evoking a grainy audio format, and I highly doubt some of my personal favorites would even exist if Orson Welles didn’t trigger mass panic with “The War of the Worlds” in 1938. We wouldn’t have books without messages carved into stone tablets after all, let alone laptops if we weren’t relying on chunky, dial-up desktop monitors.

But it was only a deep dive into researching Destination Freedom: Black Radio Days on my own laptop that led me to even know about the show’s rich history. Once a traditional radio show-as in the ones that existed before streaming existed and owning a radio was actually mandatory-started on January 27, 1948 by Richard Durhman, it served as a rather groundbreaking discussion of the accomplishments of African Americans from multiple points in time. From Frederick Douglas to Harriet Tubman, Durham and his crew offered a fresh perspective on the scope of black heroes from scientists to freedom fighters to politicians for a whole two years with over a hundred episodes under their belt.

I want to give a personal thanks to the article Power, Politics, & Pride: Durham’s Destination Freedom on interactive.wttw.com which offered an excellent summary on the show’s past and even an audio excerpt in all its crusty, crackly vinyl glory just for that extra bit of streetcred, but it’s the reboot that’s caught my attention as of late.

Truly keeping up with the times, a stretch of available episodes started in 2020 and is still running today on Spotify. It seems No Credits Productions is taking up the helm of the many actors, narrators, and storytellers immortalized through sepia photos and continuing a legacy of sorts with the help of our modern technology. And as someone who also constantly has their foot stuck in the past, I can’t help but encourage that kind of ambition.

To say “Destination Freedom” is simply social commentary or just an audio drama would be doing it a disservice as it has just a little bit of everything. One episode could be a fairly well reenacted short story about the interpersonal struggles of the slavery or Jim Crow era and the next could be a real interview about something as recent as the Black Lives Matter movement or the disastrous effects of COVID-19. 

Luckily, quality control between both the more sensationalized and realistic segments both receive the same level of audio polish. Though the short stories get the luxury of voice acting and narration, even the one-on-one conversations are kind of enough to be concise, cleanly conducted and easy to follow. 

The part of me that personally prefers storytelling of course likes the theatrics “Destination Freedom” likes to dip its toe in, but it’s the interviews and real-life current events that provides the whole package. Much like director’s commentary or author’s notes, there’s something authentic about the blend of genres. It provides a nice context and contrast between the new and old ways African Americans have been treated in society and to see the problems or accomplishments we have now mirror that of the most iconic of black history makers is weirdly satisfying. 

It makes you wonder if we would have a Barack Obama or Oprah Winfrey or Simone Biles today if we didn’t have fire starters like Harriest Tubman and Rosa Parks clearing the path first, talking down to their oppressors and truly sparking a difference by facing the ugliest parts of systematic oppression head on. And to have all of these names be equally relevant in a show like this is what makes Destination Freedom a rather solid listening experience. It truly does leave no stone unturned and if it hasn’t yet, you just know it’s hiding in the drafts somewhere.

Read more: Black History Month: Integrated Diversity in Podcasting

Acting is usually solid though sometimes the blend of accents can discount the otherwise good performances. And with the often heavy subject matters at play, hearing a somewhat cartoonish Scottish brogue unintentionally cheapens the experience. It’s just a little too easy to tell when someone is putting on a fake inflection which is an effort I can appreciate for historical accuracy, but also find just as unintentionally hilarious.

And paired with some of the interjected songs and swooning, soulful narration, the words “melodramatic” cross my thoughts far more than it should. 

The episode covering The Little Rock Nine is especially egregious with its stiff delivery, mumbling, awkwardly trailing off sentences, and the kind of performance that just screams “can you tell I’m reading off a script?”. The drop in quality just feels so off in an otherwise solid production that rarely ever comes off as amateurish. As much as an account of The Little Rock Nine brings me back to high school, I didn’t think poorly prepared oral reports or my early days in drama club would spark to mind.

Understand that this commentary is all about presentation rather than subject matter as I feel Destination Freedom is definitely doing good work and offering proper respect to such a massive cultural movement in radio.

Destination Freedom is one of the better takes on “edutainment” out there. If I was still in school, I could easily imagine this being a recommended listen in a history class and definitely cream of the crop compared to stuff you’ll find in the same category. There’s just something refreshing about a show that tackles discussions of discrimination that isn’t limited to steely arguments, cold reads of news headlines, or the supposedly politically neutral podcast hosts who assures all of their untasteful commentary is “ironic”.

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or have been just as terrified to check the Twitter trending tags as I have, Destination Freedom definitely feels like a healthy alternative to get at least a digestible piece of the goings on in the world.

Read more: What Podcasts Can Learn From the Radio

I wouldn’t say it completely replaces watching the news or reading articles from trusted news sources, but “Destination Freedom” definitely values the emotional depth of one’s personal account rather than just the thoughts of a disconnected journalist’s perspective. The more popular political commentary podcasts could probably do with understanding Destination Freedom’s taste for the authentic rather than being pointlessly controversial or professional to the point of utter detachment. 

I can assure you that No Credits Productions has a much more artful and diligent understanding of black history and current affairs than anything Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Joe Rogan, or whatever smug, dead-eyed, conspiracy peddling man child you have blocked on social media. 

Destination Freedom isn’t perfect, but it at least understands the power of immersive storytelling to convey a message, using the tips we find in more traditionally formatted fiction podcasts to retell accounts of real-life struggles found in the past and the present. The very real consequences and achievements of the old and the new meshes together seamlessly, showing that one simply could not exist without the other and that we have so much more to learn and accomplish. 

Destination Freedom is an up-to-date retelling of the dense, often complicated issues facing African Americans with the kind of literary nuance it deserves, paying respectful homage to one of the first few black-owned radio dramas. 

With the way people to this day are willing to suppress the truth and impact of African Americans, be it their involvement in political affairs or the truly awful reality of slavery being debated as recently as this year, it’s good to know Destination Freedom: Black Radio Days is working overtime by not just preserving a piece of black entertainment culture, but a piece of black entertainment culture about a long line of people who made history. I say if you’re going to dust off any time capsule, it may as well have this level of care put into it.

The post Destination Freedom: One For the History Books appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Though human beings are far more complex than a simple decision of right and wrong, machines are vastly more simpleminded, which is, ironically, a byproduct of their programming that would only exist thanks to human hands. Even in all our years of evolution, we still find ourselves looking for guidance on things as simple as chocolate or vanilla or beef or chicken, and that’s often when machines come in to play if our flimsy human brains aren’t up to the challenge. 

And not just to pick an answer but to decide which one is statistically the best.

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That’s more or less the philosophical backbone of Word Wild Web, the first podcast ever hosted by an artificial intelligence. In it, our host Webster follows its careful programming to answer the simple question of which of two randomly selected things is better.

In each episode, Webster presents a typical rock-paper-scissors style list of hypotheticals in which two usually inanimate or figurative objects are pinned against each other. Webster then proceeds to run down a series of tests, seeing how one fairs against the other until one comes out on top. Webster, being a fairly literal-minded A.I., tends to shuffle between very on the nose analysts and the broader definitions that still play within the rules of the word’s meaning. This can lead to either amusing or surprisingly analytical takes on the nature of speech, metaphors, and idioms in our everyday vocabulary, hence the “word wild” of this podcast’s title.

If I were to offer a summary of the show’s core qualities in just a few short minutes, episode two’s “Give Versus Take” best encompasses not only the show’s core idea but its sense of humor: just the right pinch of base self-awareness paired with odd detours that eventually escalates into talking about underground German sex clubs, the context of which I will leave to your imagination. 

These weird little spiels is easily the highlight of the show, watching Webster go from rather simple definitions of topics like eggs and potatoes or fire and ice until poop, sex, and R&B artists somehow get thrown into the mix. And by the time the ending verdict rolls around, it’s less about what is undeniably better and more which one generated a more amusing list of results. Copy and paste with two new subjects in its empty slots before hitting refresh and that’s Word Wild Web in a nutshell. 

I suppose the audience Word Wild Web is appealing to is logophiles, people who just get an inherent kick out of deconstructing literal and metaphorical meanings. 

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

Word Wild Web is for people who read Wikipedia pages about the most innocuous of subjects, if they aren’t writing those pages themselves. Word Wild Web is for people with busy browser histories who get easily distracted by hyperlinks in articles and end up on a page about the Whore of Babylon when they were initially looking up a recipe for banana pudding. Word Wild Web feels like the scripted version of those YouTube rabbit holes without a single sweaty conspiracy theorist in sight and that alone I kind of like. It’s as if someone made a show out of the “I’m Feeling Lucky” search option on Google and had the little voice on the GPS narrate whatever it found.

And much like the double digits of search results on any Google page, Word Wild Web is a show that always starts off literal until it spirals into a list of loosely connected events that only vaguely resembles where it started. Sooner or later it’s less about the word itself and more a randomly generated list of ideas that vary from the basic to the abstract. That sounds near genius as a concept, but I can’t help but wonder if something like this has the kind of weight to generate an audience, let alone carry an entire series.

Perhaps Webster is a sort of avatar of how we as people absorb and understand the internet and how our trails of thought can bounce and shift and change in a mere instant even without a smartphone in our hands. Word Wild Web is the tree diagram that starts at apples and ends in The Commnist Manifesto and I think that sort of scattershot of results is the whole point.

It’s a very smart and witty idea, but Webster as a host just doesn’t offer much in terms of substance, as if something is inherently lacking in its creation. 

Not to say the show is badly put together or poorly written–its deliberately barebones presentation is something of a strength to its simplistic nature–but it’s the overall package that just fails to keep me invested. 

As a round-the-clock writer myself, picking apart or learning new metaphors or what makes media meaningful to the human experience is nothing short of a hobby and oftentimes an actual job so it’s a shame I just didn’t really find myself clicking with Word Wild Web beyond a surface level passing when I should very well be the target audience.

Maybe Webster just feels too cold and quiet to really get me invested in their monologues which is an odd complaint given how my other favorite A.I. host SAYER manages to be a far less sympathetic and cold character even with a flesh and blood voice actor. Maybe it’s from a general lack of a human touch that leaves us in a one sided conversation with a text-to-speech function running on autopilot that just had me tuning out.

As someone who’s ranted about their love for artificial intelligences in the likes of Wolf 359 and SAYER and has played Portal 2 more times than I can count, I guess a part of me is used to the clashing of human and artificial minds that can put the existence of these kinds of characters into perspective. It’s the potential for the existential that comes from the A.I. ‘s creation more than just the A.I. alone that gets me hooked. A computer knowing who Aaliyah is can be cute but not exactly fascinating, and Siri’s less emotive big brother talking about dirty stuff is only funny the first few times.

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

If a story lives and dies on the A.I.’s personality, it may need more than some awkwardly emphasized bad words to keep anyone interested. Word Wild Web is charming but oddly redundant as a full product, but as an idea alone, I suppose there’s something kinda cathartic about it. 

This pinning of opposites is a very self-aware glimpse into the repetitive nature of humanity and how words can lose their initial meaning in incredibly specific contexts. A computer trying to understand what makes humans tick is an inherently maddening concept which Word Wild Web approaches with vigor but hasn’t quite nailed for me.

Maybe I’m asking too much of Webster and the deliberately limited scope of Word Wild Web’s core premise. The lack of human interference is the point, after all: to let Webster’s digital mind wander to the abstract as it tries to decipher the meaning of emotion and language is in itself a long, confusing process for something that has a hard drive but not a heartbeat. 

I’m afraid for in my final verdict of Word Wild Web, every pro has a con and con is winning. 

The post Filter Happier: A Review of Word Wild Web appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

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Between the grisly God of War games to the more kid friendly Percy Jackson books or the insightful and mature takes found in The Wicked + The Divine and American Gods, which are easily some of my personal favorites, there’s no shortage of different takes told by different people with a different spin each time. 

So that’s probably eighty percent of the reason why I’ve instantly fallen in love with the 2020 fiction podcast, Godshead Incidental that not only takes the urban fantasy route but what I like to call the underutilized “customized mythology” where gods are more akin to toothpaste advertisers and bosses at work rather than grandeur figures of power. 

The other twenty percent is that Godshead Incidental genuinely is a hell of a show to listen to.

I think it was around the time the first episode rolled out to a cold open of our protagonist receiving an egg from an exuberantly speaking God of Memory followed by a series of her having short-term memory issues that I realized what I was strapping in for. Paired with some catchy, rhythmic clapping for scene transitions and an incredibly tasteful orange on blue title card and I was pretty much sold within the first five minutes. 

Our lead, Imogen “Em” Chandra-Phankam, lives in the fantastical yet modern city of Godshead and works at the local newspaper as an advice columnist that the show gets its name from. But after said predicament with the God of Memory, Em is compelled to find her missing sister and requests the assistance of a master thief who goes by the pseudonym Lorem Ipsum. Along the way we learn more about the city, its people, and just who the real and fake gods of the world really are. 

And though I’ve merely gotten a peak of what it has in store, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t already hooked. It’s really the setting of Godshead that gives it such a magical meets mundane atmosphere that becomes broader and broader the longer we stay in its city streets.

This is especially helped by the fact Godshead delivers one of my favorite narrative devices where the listener takes a backseat to the world building and we piece together the most relevant information merely from interactions. Em being well aware of how things work but still capable of learning new things about it actually strengthens the narrative rather than cripples it, not only characterizing her but lending to the central tone to the show over all. 

I have no problem with wide-eyed, naive protagonists but it’s nice to have the roles changed every once in a while, where we are truly the ones seeing how things really work as we go along without being talked down to. Peaking in on the lives of these everyday people in an extraordinary world that’s so incredibly normal to them delivers that blend of mysticism needed to keep us invested but not alienated. 

It’s pretty masterfully done “show, don’t tell,” letting even its weirder details feel like an authentic part of the narrative that doesn’t have to be extensively exposited. 

Godshead is only five episodes in as of this writing and yet nothing has quite grabbed me the way it has in some time. And that’s saying a lot, seeing as how the last show that got my attention this quickly was 2017’s The Penumbra Podcast. 

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

It may not be to the length of marathon listening, but its rather seamless storytelling keeps all its parts interwoven nicely until you make your inevitable return. Which for me means I grabbed a diamond in the haystack a little ahead of time but also leaves me with much more to speculate and predict for the show’s long term run.

But for what little I’ve listened to, I positively adore the energy between Em and Lorem Ipsum. Em’s grounded, slightly cynical behavior clashing against Lorem’s unpredictable wit and theatrics makes for a solid leading audio drama duo and if the “queer idenity” tag found in the press kit is anything to go by, possibly a budding romance. 

Don’t blame me for jumping to conclusions here. Ishani Kanetkar as Em and Cole Burkhardt as Lorem have some solid chemistry, and I’ve just always personally been a fan of the “straight man and quirky but competent charmer” dynamic–Juno Steel and Peter Nureyev of The Penumbra Podcast being a standout case, with Renee Minkowski and Doug Eiffel of Wolf 359 being a non-romantic example. 

Read more: Reimagining 5 podcasts on old audio formats

Be it partners in crime, unlikely acquaintances, or potential lovers, them being together in the same scene makes for some electrifying moments which for me is always a stamp of approval.

Point is, no matter what direction the two’s relationship goes, it’s bound to be fascinating and is easily one of the best parts of the Godshead listening experience. But Em and Lorem certainly aren’t the only string to the show’s bow. The deeper lore, budding mystery, and solid dialogue is what really gives Godshead that special spice to its ambrosia and Em and Lorem being center stage for the time being is just an extra bonus.

You’re very quickly endeared to the supporting characters Em interacts with in her daily life be it Therese whose the walking embodiment of a Pinterest board or the adorkable Tervis. And with acting credibilities like The Strange Case of Starship Iris and Our Fair City under the belts of some of the actors, you know the voice work is going to be as satisfyingly delivered as it is satisfyingly written.

I like the snappy dialogue, I like the subtle but meaningful world building, I like the mystery plot that’s motivating the protagonist, I like the blending of everyday living and fantastical phenomenon, I like how the episodes always include a Maddie Monday segment that remind me of the advice columns I always read in my favorite tween girl magazines. Godshead just feels like the kind of show that will deliver a weird, whimsical vibe with a grounded twist. 

Godshead paints with a very broad yet very precise brush and definitely seems to know what direction and general vibe its trying to deliver. It’s composed of a lot of single, punchy moments and strong dialogue and even minor interactions have stuck with me in the long term. Every little thing from pigeons to minor thefts serves the purpose to not just inform but develop its cast and city in a way that feels so authentic. 
Godshead Incidental seems complex on paper but is actually a rather simple, easy-listen that will keep listeners hooked and engaged in its weird world and even weirder gods.

The post New Religion: “The Godshead Incidental” Review appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

And the best part is that almost all of it is free. An entire series can be downloaded to your phone in mere minutes, granting you hours of entertainment no matter where you are. But despite such an easy gateway to entry that’s allowed podcasts to be a casual listening experience even for beginners, it’s certainly made things less glamorous, and by “less glamorous” I mean less physically tangible to the average collector.

As an avid anime fantastic and all-around media archivist obsessed with acquiring anything that has the word “limited edition” slapped on to it, I’ve definitely developed a taste for flashy packaging that represents my dedication to a brand or franchise-a statement that my loved ones and ailing bookshelves are depressingly self aware of.

In an alternative setting where digital distribution didn’t peak around the same time podcasting did, I’d like to imagine a time and place where collector’s editions, box sets, and prestigious, over the top displays of capitalistic conquest can be filling the digital halls of eBay bidding wars or the most niche of niche Twitter giveaways.

For a moment, I’d like to imagine a scenario where podcasts aren’t limited to phone apps, streaming services, or glitchy Tumblr audio uploads, but a strange combination of personalized works that truly embody the soul of the work they’re based on. 

1. Wolf 359 on Walkman

Invoking a certain Guardians of the Galaxy vibe, Wolf 359 on a Walkman just kinda fits that brand of grungy, underdog space fiction with an urban twist. The age of the Walkman was practically extinct by the time I was even a fetus but definitely something early-thirties Doug Eiffel would probably have laying around his cabinet drawers.

Nostalgia is a cruel mistress and perhaps the awkward fiddling and painfully unstylish headphones doesn’t quite fit everyone’s definition of old fashion coolness, but it’s an undeniably fitting one that fits the nature of the show a little too well. Bringing back what was once obsolete is something of a trend nowadays and maybe one day Sony could consider a brand deal for a customized line of Wolf 359 players and tapes for the new generation to enjoy.

2. The Infinite Now on Vinyl

I waxed poetically about the science fiction podcast THE INFINITE NOW, in my most recent review and mentioned briefly how it scratched this itch for aesthetic pleasantness, namely the uncharted territory of vinyl records. Though far past my generation, even farther than Walkmans for that matter, I can still see the value in the scratchy, authentic ambiance vinyls create. 

THE INFINITE NOW seems to borrow some inspiration from Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” in terms of visuals and seeing its ominous pyramid painted a bright turquoise against a descending night background just screams 70’s to me. Imagine that on a vinyl sleeve and the mood speaks for itself.

3. Inkwyrm on CD

If there’s anything Inkwyrm reminds me of it’s an interesting combination of my feminine Y2K sensibilities pushed through the filter of a playful science fiction setting. As someone who lives and dies on their aesthetic, regardless of how impractical or unnecessary, I feel Inkwyrm would definitely feel the same about my pick.

Inkwyrm has the kind of sass that feels in place in The Devil’s War Prada or Mean Girls and there was just something about the reliance on CD players still being in full force with the budding popularity of IPods during the early 2000’s that really matches Inkwyrm’s pace.

Some cute cover art to grace the disc with and it would honestly be doing your underused car stereo a favor. Or, if you really want to get stuck in the 2000’s, a full blown boombox baring the podcast’s insignia. 

And in terms of alphabetical order, they’d be bumping shoulders with Ingrid Michaelson in the music store so at least they’d be in good company. Perhaps I’m projecting my own personal obsessions onto this, but they were the ones who decided to make a show about fashion in the first place. 

4. Brimstone Valley Mall on Virgin Records Listening Stations

Brimstone Valley Mall is definitely a show that has its general vibe figured out from the get-go and that vibe is that of gothic retail shenanigans that could only possibly be appreciated by the most authentic of mall window shoppers.

And if there’s anything that sparks to memory when listening to Brimstone Valley Mall it’s spending my adolescence visiting the Virgin Records in Southern California’s Ontario Mills and sampling CDs by this sort of special section along the right wall. 

Those at least twenty or up probably know what I’m talking about, the real draw of the store’s layout beyond the collection of colorful music paraphernalia, books, and pricy merchandise your mom wouldn’t let you buy.

Many a demo from the 2000’s was available here-She Wants Revenge, the Gorillaz second studio album, Demon Days, and somewhere between Avril Lavigene and Breaking Benjamin would be Brimstone Valley Mall with its wonderfully stylized cover art and an attitude that perfectly encapsulates the hey-day of the mall shopper.

This would also technically allow it the same position of CD with Inkwyrm by default-and I would never pass up the opportunity to have a Brimstone Valley poster or a tracklist with titles like “Goth as F*ck” and “Little Singing Monster Machines” gracing the back of a plastic case-but the real fans would be all over fully embracing the show’s 1999 atmosphere.

5. ROVER RED: Alone in The Apocalypse on Flash Drives

ROVER RED is the kind of audio drama experience that was gone too soon and perhaps executed too brilliantly to truly reach a conclusion right when a burning question was presented to the narrative. I suppose it already qualifies for its own special category of accessibility seeing as how you have to scurry over to their YouTube channel to get your fill of the episodes, but let’s take it a step further.

Befitting its uncomfortable, dystopian setting that’s an excellent blend of Ender’s Game, The Hunger Games, and Portal, there’s something in my head that keeps imagining a collection of flash drives to really get into the spirit of things. 

And not the kind found in your local Best Buy, but a number of password protected websites and a series of word and number puzzles that made the grind worth it. Maybe competitive online games of Pong to win a personalized EVIE laptop that would make Cortana reconsider her line of work. Overly complicated and contrived? Absolutely, but I’m sure the OTHERWHERE wouldn’t have it any other way.

The point here is that the options here are plenty: Hadron Gospel Hour via an outdated model of Windows software, The Bright Sessions stored on those cards that play audio whenever you open them-it’s all about living and dying on the aesthetic which is something I personally find nothing but endless satisfaction in.

Impractical, yes, but I’m sure someone somewhere once thought the whole radio audio drama thing wasn’t really going to take off either.

The post Reimagining 5 podcasts on old audio formats appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

It at least has a similarly styled format, the “man in chair” setup that I’ve usually complained about in recent articles, but can very easily be recreated with the right kind of pizazz and gusto behind the delivery-i.e. The Magnus Archives or the beginning of Wolf 359-and it would take quite some blind listening to assume the two were mere copies of one another.

Perhaps I’m playing both hypocrite and critic in this context but bear in mind that my off and on complaints about this style of storytelling is a subjective one and shows like 2015’s THE INFINITE NOW are the reason why I’m such an avid fan of the flexibility available within it. 

In my opinion, it’s not the tool, it’s how you use it and its Richard Penner’s pseudo-anthology of experimental Twitter ramblings that had me absolutely pining at such an interesting and surprisingly dense fiction podcast.

And perhaps this works in the favor of THE INFINITE NOW as it’s a far more simple, much shorter take on this concept that doesn’t overstay its welcome due to its modest single season and deliberately open-ended setting. Perhaps there were more lying in the wake some time in the future but for what I’ve come to hear, and heard again for the sake of this writeup, it nails the framing just right without promising too much to the audience.

To truly synopsize THE INFINITE NOW is a tricky one, and clearly an intentional struggle at that. From what I can gather, the “story” takes place in an alternative timeline that seems to be a mirror of our own but with a number of obvious differences. 

Either that or these are a collection of shortwave frequencies being sent to the “time agents” mentioned in the introduction, implying the existence of time travel. Or, and this is my last guest, the tituaral Timescanner who is reading off these announcements is some form of corporate representative providing “audio material based on transmissions from outside of time” as the official website is to assure me.

But all that doesn’t really matter as in the end, THE INFINITE NOW is a collection of short-form and barely connected trips into surrealism and science fiction that vary between bite sized ramblings and detailed instructions.

THE INFINITE NOW is an experience and though that statement is undeniably pretentious, its one I say with honest sincerity. 

A favorite trope of mine is certainly applying magic to the mundane, taking things we’re familiar with and flipping it on its head to make it more grandiose or terrifying. Perhaps this is what gave Night Vale its initial appeal to so many listeners, but while Night Vale dabbles into eldritch horror with a touch of existentialism, THE INFINITE NOW is that with the settings just a notch higher on the whole “tiny spec in the middle of an indifferent cosmic void” thing.

The way time is treated with the same standards as tax returns-merged with the encroaching excitement of the final seconds of New Year’s Eve, how comets are observed with the same intense analysis as an animal documentary, it’s all such an excellent turn on expectations that have rooted a place in my mind deeper than some of the biggest audio drama plot twists.

THE INFINITE NOW  is intense, bizarre, random, occasionally oozing with erotic energy, and somehow it all works so wonderfully. This has much to do with its choice of presentation with its crisp audio editing and excellent and varied selection of background music thanks to talents like Psychic Mold, Dr Quandary, and  Aliceffekt giving it quite the atmospheric soundtrack. 

THE INFINITE NOW is the kind of show that truly embodies aesthetic pleasantness. It makes me think of arcade cabinets and lucid dreaming, it’s one of few podcasts that makes me consider smoking a bong or painting my ceiling wall with stars or taking up my mother’s obsession with vinyl records.

And if anything, I wish it was just a little bit longer. It’s more meaty episodes like its debut and “THE COMET BREEDER” that really got me wrapped up in its universe and though the small snippets like “YOUR AUNT BETH” are immensely charming, I always find myself going back to “MARTIAN THIRST TRAP” or it’s incredibly in-character interview with Radio Drama Revival to remind me of just how great the series can be with a longer runtime.

But perhaps that’s the point, these side notes are just extra padding to a rather dense and impressive scope that makes me appreciate the world all the more when I get to see beyond its starry exterior while still knowing almost nothing at all. Perhaps more information would put some meat on its bones but it’s a sustainable and entertaining romp nonetheless that avoids being too thorough in a world it wants to keep mysterious.

The series is just so abundant with details about immortality, alien life, and a variety of ecosystems and colorful characters, it’s hard not to get at least a little wrapped up in its world and pining for what else it has to offer.

Perhaps it ended sooner than I would hope but at least it went out in a blaze of glory and not the heat death of the universe.

The post Calls to Your Aunt: THE INFINITE NOW Review appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

In the realm of 2020 podcast debuts comes Untold Virginia, which has only roughly an hour’s worth of content to digest as of this writing. But a part of me feels compelled to give anyone first starting off in this chaotic and constantly growing industry some commentary while the iron is still hot. And there’s just nothing quite as thrilling as seeing all my predictions and criticisms be undone once a full season is released.

Untold Virgina is of the “podcast within a podcast” genre where struggling friends try to rekindle their life-long spark through documenting history and urban legends in their home state. Now my knowledge of the south is purely limited to the high school years and first jobs I had in Georgia and I was too busy trying to accurately count change in retail to find any long-lost mysteries filling my town.

Though early in the show, Untold Virginia truly takes a turn for the supernatural not too late into its first episode. Cannibalism is a key plot point of “The Caves of Colonial Jamestown” with its shady guest being uneasily optimistic about the topic. No one gets eaten, at least not to my knowledge, but the last few moments of the episode does set up a core plot point that I could see becoming an arc of sorts. 

In summary, the two leads get separated and…something happens in between that brief moment which burdens Ruth with a sudden illness and reluctance to explain exactly what’s wrong with her.

The real underlying suspense comes from this and, given the nature of the show, it’s fair to assume there is something more out of the ordinary than just a common cold in play here.

My guess? Possession, but that’s just a shot in the dark with only a few episodes to deduce what might actually be going on.

Right off the bat it’s all around a nice blend of history with a light horror hook that hasn’t quite reached its peak yet but I definitely see things getting more and more unnerving as things continue. I do like Virginia’s love for subtlety and vagueness and how the info-dumping provided by podcast guests are more or less background noise to what is a much more menacing threat.

And yet the real draw for me was less the urban legend and history angle and actually the relationship between the two leads that provides some excellent contrast between everyday conflict and something much bigger and scarier on the horizon.

Elizabeth and Ruth’s dynamic is as authentic as it is awkward so seeing the few times they’re actually getting along makes their bickering all the more somber to listen to. Ruth’s more stubborn and down to earth while Elizabeth is starry-eyed and ambitious, causing the two to clash fairly often.

I do appreciate the rookie aspect of it all, how incredibly amateurish the two leads are brings some grounded perspective and vulnerability to the storytelling, even if all their worst times of going off script involves them putting their hooks into one another. 

A lot of it is fairly subtle as well-cutting each other off, making quiet but snide comments-it really nails that uncomfortable energy of watching two strangers argue without being too theatrical. This is definitely helped by the acting which really gets that natural vibe across, a trait I just love to see in shows with this format. Deliberately coming off as a beginner takes a certain level of skill that’s one part acting and one part pretending like you’re not acting.

I can’t help but compare it to a short but fairly impressive science fiction audio drama, POD 115 that I checked out in the summer of this year.

It has most of Untold Virginia’s key points now that I think about it: a slightly unhealthy dynamic between the hosts, having at least one guest per episode, real life blending with genuine supernatural threats, and the “podcast within a podcast” framing device done by first-timers. Just a pinch of The Tunnels southern horror setting and realistic atmosphere and that’s pretty much Untold Virginia in a nutshell.

But with all that in mind, has the show entirely sold me on its concept yet? Yes, I think so, but it might be too early to tell.

An incredibly likely hurdle to face with such an early impression but Untold Virginia is certainly the kind of show that likes to lay out its foundation before really going for the kill and so far it’s ultimately worked in the show’s favor. 

It’s the mood and sound editing of episode three’s “Genealogy and Mayflower Roots” that shows what the podcast is really capable of and I honestly hope to see more of it as the season pushes forward. 

Though its scares aren’t front in center, there’s this very unsettling detail of Ruth’s labored breaths backing the guest’s monologue. With what little we know about her condition, I was seconds away from assuming Ruth was gonna rip the poor man’s throat out or collapse from exhaustion but the painful coughing fit she’s subjected to genuinely made me uncomfortable.  

Hopefully there’s something very fascinating in store that ties this all together. Perhaps a monstrous transformation or maybe this all leads back to that cannibal thing. Time will tell and maybe I’ll be there to see for myself.

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