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.

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.

The half-joking headline of this was originally “podcasts did a gender on me,” but–twee millennialisms aside–that’s a fair summation of what happened. When not doing podcast-related things for an internet job, I spend an obscene amount of time driving a big van through long, lonely overnight shifts. For whatever reason the summer of 2019 coalesced into me spending those multi-state drives in starlit introspective funks with only podcasts and vibes to keep me company. My identity was challenged in a van-shaped pressure cooker of my own creation until I asked the dangerous question:

“Am I… y’know?”

Turns out, a lifetime of saying “I’m a mostly straight guy” in conversations about sexuality and gender feelings was foreshadowing! I write to you now, a nearly two-year queer person in podcasting who has podcasts to thank for both coming out and continuing to feel pride in that decision. 

Fair warning, it gets horny in the middle.

Trans Questioning

When not falling down a rabbit hole of becoming a Homestuck fan fiction author (with over 200,000 words penned since April 2019, which isn’t relevant here but still an impressive achievement), video essayist Sarah Zedig has a podcast about the trans experience. The original scope of the show was distinctly personal, functioning as effectively an audio vlog of her own transition. As time passed, however, the sheer amount of ground covered by both Zedig in her own life and the experiences shared by the show’s many guests causes Trans Questioning to evolve into being about transness in a more holistic sense. 

While not its stated purpose, Zedig has crafted a fine-tuned egg-cracking machine (Editor’s note: if you know you know). Every podcast on this list has a fair bit of overlap when it comes to my big gay journey, Trans Questioning is without a doubt the hammer that dealt the final blow. The statement “if you ever question if you’re trans, you’re trans” might seem self-evident but her delivery and regular responses to audience members worried they’re not trans enough were invaluable. You don’t know what you don’t know, Trans Questioning helps alleviate some of that in a frank and caring manner.

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

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Caravan

Samir has a problem: he’s in love with his best friend who’s blissfully unaware and about to get hitched. Oh, and Samir also has fallen into a canyon that serves as a liminal space between Earth and Hell, populated with lost souls and supernatural creatures. That’s pretty high up on the list too. Sporting a cast packed with a who’s-who of audio fiction character actors, Caravan is an excellent entry in the underserved weird west corner of audio fiction (love you too, Desperado). 

Caravan swept me into a mindset where having a broader sexuality wasn’t just a possibility, I felt confident in owning it. The show may not be as on-stage explicit as full erotica, but you wouldn’t know that if you just went off the Twitter presence and word-of-mouth mentions of the show. Caravan thrives in living in that aether of anticipation for an act actually happens (which is to say: incredibly horny). Things which might induce horniness don’t simply happen in Caravan, horny is baked into the very DNA of those scenes. You don’t need to have a vampire kink to get what monsterfuckers like when encountering the earnestness of a later episode’s feeding scene.

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Dreamboy

A flagship Night Vale Presents outing. One could barely move for coverage and advertisements for Dreamboy back in late 2018. Musician Dane Terry wears many hats in adapting a play of his into a fantastical story about a burned-out musician (also named Dane) waiting out winter in a small Ohio town. There’s songs, there’s bonkers characters, there’s gorgeous music, there’s dream sequences that come unstuck from reality, there’s hardcore sex. It’s very much a creative mind taking a story limited by its original format and giving it life in podcast form. Terry plays with themes of not belonging, of ennui. 

Read more: A History of Night Vale Presents

Which is to say: themes that might burrow into the brain of someone going through a bit of an identity crisis and ever-so-kindly opens the door to shout, “Welcome to the gay spectrum, kid.”

It was August. I was on my way back home from Podcast Movement, trying out Dreamboy as I walked between gates at ATL, a pair of cheap wired earbuds transporting me to Pepper Heights. I was passing an Auntie Annes when the first sex scene hit. Dane looks out a window to discover some guy getting absolutely railed. The next day I’d hit the (literally) climactic finale featuring a scene that necessitated, as creator Dane Terry joked in a behind-the-scenes episode, “butt foley.”

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Fuck Humans

In the fantastical world of Fuck Humans, the superpowers live in an uneasy peace. A massive wall divides a city of monsters from a city of humans, with strict laws forbidding any intermingling between the two. Given the show’s artwork is a humanoid dragon hand clutching a human one with cartoon hearts and sex-onomatopoeia floating in the air, I’m guessing you can see where this is going. An uptight human ends up over the wall at the house of a government employee dragon? And they’ve a history of being angry-horny for each other? Sublime!

Fuck Humans is the erotica embodiment of the old meme “while you were partying, I was studying the blade.” Except swap out the blade for erotica. As a former erotica reviewer I’ve waded through the oddly-sanitized swamps of the Kindle marketplace, the porn version of exclusively reading novels from Dollar Tree. Unlike what I saw in that accursed place, showrunner Chelsea Chelsey has taken a handful of LGBTQIA+ erotica tropes and honed them to a razor’s edge. The energy radiating off her characters is enough to make one giddy with excitement as they bounce from scene to scene, alternating between dealing with their various problems and having… just the gayest sex. So much boning. 

(Editor’s note: Because some podcatchers are cowards, you may have to search for this podcast as “Screw Humans.”)

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Null/Void

Speaking of being eternally tired: Null/Void. Protagonist Piper Lee (Winona Wyatt) is going through one hell of a funk. She works a dead-end corporate job, she lives in an uncaring city, nothing’s going right for her. Then a mysterious figured named Adelaide (Danyelle Ellett) convinces Piper not to get on her usual bus, saving her life. What follows is an anti-capitalist sci-fi adventure with a hefty helping of found family goodness on the side.

Showrunner Cole Burkhardt created a protagonist who hurts in all the right ways (Disclosure: Burkhardt is a Discover Pods contributor). In the first episode his writing and Wyatt’s performance deliver a monologue from Piper about the restless and depressive fog that hangs over her life: “I forget a lot these days. It might be the weed. It

might be the depression, maybe it’s just boredom.” I may not be qualified to speak to the state of audio fiction involving depression/garbage mental states in general, but I can point to Null/Void as an example of something that absolutely speaks to personal experience.

Also Adelaide rocks, but that’s besides the point.

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Less is Morgue

In an alternate version of Tallahassee, Florida where monsters and the supernatural are a part of everyday life, a ghoul runs a podcast out of their mom’s basement with a ghost. Riley (Alexis Bristowe) finds life less-quiet after eating the corpse of Evelyn (Meg Molloy Tuten), an eternally-chipper alt rock fan who died unexpectedly during a Nickelback concert in 2004. Whenever her ghostliness isn’t disturbing the electronics, the two co-host a podcast interviewing anyone who’ll venture into the basement.

It feels reductive to just say “Riley is gender goals” but damn if they’re not a role model for those of us who’re eternally tired. They do have a propensity for unhinging their jaw and eating people, but who among us is without our vices? 

What brings Less is Morgue to this list in particular is more of a vibe generated by the sum of its parts, rather than something printed on the tin I can point at and say, “There’s the gay.” The cast and crew are smattered with LGBTQIA+ people, sure, but it exists more as a podcast that is queer rather than A Queer Podcast, and that gives me the warm fuzzies. In addition, the crew are tireless in shutting down bozos on Twitter who misgender Riley, the official show account tweets in-character as if Riley and Evelyn, and they even do occasional AU fanart. LIM is a full package deal of a feel-good (if occasionally unnerving) show. 

Also before anyone asks: no, I haven’t gotten to the horny episode yet.

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Conclusion

Thus ends our Innerspace trip through parts of my brain and the podcasts firmly lodged therein. They might not have made me a newly-minted queer with a side of trans, but they sure as hell opened some doors that’d been firmly shut my entire life. 

Given the distance of a decade or so I’m sure I would write this with more literary flair to dissuade folks from reading this as a public admission shows like Caravan and Dreamboy were horny in just the right ways they unlocked my queerness. Future-me is a coward.

Here in my second Pride I’ve come to the understanding we’re all hot messes. Everybody is at different levels of understanding themselves and getting their shit together. It’s through intimate, relatively un-gatekept mediums like podcasts where we can express that messiness in a way that brings a sense of belonging. 

I never felt a connection with a character in fiction as a kid. I used to think that was just how fiction worked. These podcasts (and tons more) gave me the gift of getting even a fleeting moment of seeing myself in something. That flash of understanding that there’s someone else out there who has felt these weird things that I’ve never seen discussed before. Expressing raw emotions and thoughts is not easy and I can never fully express my gratitude for these artists for putting themselves out there for all to see. 

Happy Pride, y’all.

The post PRIDE: The Podcasts That Queered Me appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

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

This is probably not a coincidence. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read more: Reimagining 5 podcasts on old audio formats

And more recently:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 2016, I started listening to indie audio dramas.

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

This is, definitely, not a coincidence. 

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