Audio Drama Debuts: Upward into the Stars
August was a month of exploration and adventure in audio fiction.
August was a month filled with great news for the world of audio fiction. We had news about fall releases that are gaining the hype, like Adventures in New America, The Shadows, Passenger List, and 1994, and new seasons for amazing shows like Greater Boston, Palimpsest, Limetown, and Point Mystic. I think that’s why it’s appropriate that August’s line-up felt all about adventure and exploration: in the Land of Oz, at an alien galactic peace conference, across the galaxy in search of a relic, feeling safe at home in a world of immortality. There are so many stars in the sky of audio fiction to choose from, so I hope this list finds you ready to rocket off into them.
In our continued dedication to the world of audio drama podcasts, this monthly series brings you notable new debuts. Catch up on July’s list here.
Hit the Bricks
Recommended in a recent Bello newsletter, Hit the Bricks has presented its pilot episode of a young girl named Jessie who travels through Frank L. Baum’s Land of Oz 100 years after Dorothy’s time. This episode captures the whimsy, the nostalgia, and the odd foreboding like you’d expect from the Forest of Oz. The music is lovingly curated, and Michelle Agresti of Wolf 359 shines in the lead role alongside her skilled co-stars.
Hembra Writing Podcast
This monthly podcast showcases work by women and non-binary identifying writers, starting with an episode containing three separate short works, two written by current authors and one a sci-fi work in the public domain. The two-person black comedy “Facilitating the Creative Process” by Beth Crane of We Fix Space Junk induces surprised chuckles, and “Selkie” by Cat is a gently spoken, haunting fairy tale. This is a podcast directly addressing the need for a platform for women and non-binary writers, and bringing their work to life — I am heartened by the care they have taken in audio and music in this first episode.
Mythos
I have been impatiently waiting for the start of this sci-fi/fantasy blended podcast, of mages and elves traveling across galaxies for a stolen relic with some talented women of color I’m excited to see in the main cast, like Jordan Cobb of Here Be Dragons. Archaeology and magic have fused together in the compelling and curious main character of Abigail d’wa. With evocative audio design and vivid musical scoring, Mythos has stuck the landing on their opening episode as a podcast to watch out for.
Legacy
Legacy blasts off with specially-trained and selected cadets blasting into space ahead of schedule for reasons that aren’t clear to them, abandoned by their peers on Earth. It’s fully produced by teenagers, and I’m enchanted by the entries of young artists into the audio scene. There’s a wonderful focus on the tense relationships between characters trapped on the Legacy spaceship, already blooming into life, and they don’t shirk from making an abrupt entry into space about as disastrous as it should be.
Project Ozma
The opening episode put me in mind of the classic young adult literature I grew up with, where Our Hero is chosen against their will to complete some kind of task, usually something they are extremely skeptical about. Here, Persephone suddenly finds herself whisked into a galactic relations adventure by her best friend who disappeared five years ago. Its comedy plays heavily on tropes on this style of science-fiction and space politics, in a way reminiscent of how Kingsman plays on the spy thriller tropes.
Project Nova
I got some Portal vibes from this podcast that opens with four people as the amnesiac subjects of a strange, scientific experiment guided by a computer. It’s hard to not become a scientist yourself as a listener, observing their interactions in this locked room with nothing but robes and cryo-pods, piecing together what’s happening to them and what sort of elements they’re demonstrating. This plot is just cryptic enough to be a puzzle, but not so much as to be totally obtuse, and it makes me want to find out exactly what Project Nova is.
Yowie
This Australian suspense thriller follows a man trying to prove his innocence and find his family after they disappeared in Grampians National Park. A yowie is an Australian legendary creature, reputed to live in the Outback, rooted in Aboriginal legends particularly in eastern Australia — and that probably gives you what you need to know. This is astonishingly scored and designed, like hearing the audio from a Hollywood action movie, and stacked with believable and engaging voice actors.
The Enoch Saga
Midnight Disease is an indie production group with a focus on horror, like the Lake Clarity podcast, and their newest work is an adaptation of the dystopian horror novel series The Enoch Saga. In a world where a pill has granted humanity with immortality, one teenage girl is found to be immune to the pill. In contrast to many other in medias res horrors, this builds up from episodes that lay the groundwork for what society looks like, what families act like, and a feeling of settlement that promises to be shaken up later.
The Neon Noir
For those among you looking for anthologies, The Neon Noir is a collection of hardboiled noir in the classic tradition of Raymond Chandler or Chinatown. Corruption and cigarettes run rampant as the backdrop to perspectives of people trying to be heroes, with smoky-voiced narrators and sharp sound effects. Whether or not they are heroes remains to be seen, but this has been a rollicking good ride so far, with the kinds of twists I expect from noir detective fiction.
Aural Sex
If you want something a little more risqué and definitely not safe for work, this is a queer sex anthology podcast with a focus on inclusivity and ethics and with episodes of varying intensities in erotic content. Every single episode includes resources on the website on safe sex practices, consent, gender, sexuality, and whatever else the creators felt needed to be referenced. The episode Kali is a cute, cozy, warm story about Black lesbians anxiously but conscientiously navigating their first intimate encounter.
Note: The title of this article is from the poem “August 12 in the Nebraska Sand Hills Watching the Perseids Meteor Shower” by Twyla Hansen
The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.
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