Fiction Podcast Debuts: March Roundup
March beckons us to witness the brilliant radiance of these collected audio fiction gems.
Taking a look back at March’s debuts shows a lovely final goodbye to winter and the beckoning of spring, with cold post-apocalyptic landscapes, like in Still Lives, and brilliant warm relationships, like in Fangirls. It was a month full of superb gems that have gotten a lot of attention for many good reasons, like the above and beyond performances of Centered, the subtle and immersive sound design of The 12:37, and the stark and attractive atmosphere of Dreamland. Take a little walk into the early spring sunlight and experience a new audio fiction; there are fifteen to choose from here, so we’re all spoiled for choice.
Still Lives
Colton Flick, James Currie, Ríoghnach Robinson, and Sarah Schnebly
The two ways you can read this title — “lives” as a noun, or as a verb — indicates the gorgeous duality present in this podcast, a pastoral look at the world thirteen years after the end of civilization. Five people living on a farm, with no names other than the roles they play (like Kid or Archivist), go about their lives like they’re the last ones on Earth, until there’s a knock at their door one night. The Traveler brings with them the past and the history that the farm dwellers never speak of by rule, and unknown dangers. This podcast develops at a quiet, tense pace, brimming with secrets.
Fangirls
During a rather disastrous date, Ally realizes how poorly the “Fanboys” movie holds up to time — “Fanboys” being a 2009 film about old school friends who are racing to see Episode I of Star Wars before one of their number dies of cancer. After watching it, she and her own friends, all Star Wars fangirls, set out on a road trip to find out about a secret screening of Episode IX occurring in three days. This eight-part miniseries, which releases monthly, celebrates the voices of women in a space where they have long been gatekept and told they aren’t “real fans”.
Centered
Selah Copeland feels trapped. She’s working as an accountant for her overbearing mother’s business, which she’s being groomed to take over. But when she has a life-changing experience at a yoga retreat, she finds herself in conflict with her mother’s plans. Centered, a show created by and featuring Black women, follows Selah as she “finds herself on and off the yoga mat.” Between dysfunctional family dynamics and Selah’s own need to grow in the directions she wants, this is a story that will tap you on the heart.
The 12:37
Science-fiction stories often leave behind the practicalities of being human, especially when it comes to including disabled characters or characters with mental illness. The 12:37 targets this gap with a lesbian scientist who boards a time-traveling train by accident and, at the very first, must figure out a solution to being separated from her depression medication. This is a speculative story with subtle, iconic sound design, enviable representation, and a plot that goes from zero to sixty.
Masala Jones
Samar Rajamouli is embarking on a new path: to become a popular Asian-American porn star. Masala Jones’ first season uses humorous situations to highlight familiar conversations about racism, sexism, and the treatment of sex workers. It is a total riot of a ride. The wit here is as fast-paced as the plot, which tangles Samar’s new career with his family and friends finding out about the changes he’s made and with his own strident attempts to change the industry.
Mission: Rejected
Pete Barry, J. Michael DeAngelis, and John P. Dowgin
What would happen if James Bond decided to answer “no thank you” to the phrase “your mission, should you choose to accept it”? This is the premise of Mission: Rejected. A spy agency that unfortunately relied on their number one way too often has to activate a team that isn’t really even fourth string, starting with a man who’s never been in the field before. Amusing hijinks are front and center, but a slightly more ominous B-plot can’t go ignored.
The Deca Tapes
The Deca tapes are being leaked. On them are the recordings of ten amnesiacs trapped in the same indeterminate space together, each of whom has received instructions as to what their role is going to be — The Leader, The Teacher, The Cleaner, etc. As each group member’s tape is released to the public, more and more snippets of news reports, police recordings, and phone calls are revealed to the listener. The Deca Tapes is a beautifully produced show that relies on interconnected limited perspectives and the slow filtering in of the outside world to create mystery and shock.
SCP Archives
Pacific Obadiah, Tom Owens, and Tom Rory Parsons
The SCP Foundation is a crowd-sourced collaborative fiction project about an organization that is responsible for securing and containing objects and creatures that violate natural law. This podcast brings some of those creepy stories to life, narrated by Jon Grilz (Small Town Horror). It’s strangely spine-chilling to listen to these recordings while being led, in a dark deadpan, to the inevitable conclusion.
When Angels Visit Armadillo
This binaural audio fiction, made up of interview recordings and phone calls, tells the story of Magnolia Waters, a woman who lives in the small town of Armadillo, Florida. In 1988, Maggie witnessed the inexplicable disappearance of her love interest Cassidy — a disappearance that led to mass hysteria fueled by rumor and religious conspiracy. This beautiful sound design shifts in the background, gently and smoothly, from Maggie’s retelling of that day to the sounds of the day itself. Along with the mysterious disappearance, WAVA explores Maggie Waters as an unapologetic, fierce lesbian living in the South, and Sam Byrd, the interviewer, who is discovering what exactly it is she believes in.
Smoke & Mirrors
Four young stage magicians accidentally end up in a realm torn asunder by the advances of an evil magician. Using their talents at deception, they aid the royal family in warding off and defeating the magician’s advances, hopefully for good. Smoke & Mirrors is an interesting tilt at audio trickery, stripping magic tricks down to their mechanics and shaping a new world that doesn’t make sense.
The Continuing Adventures of John Blade: Super Spy
John Blade, super spy, is certainly the only man that can prevent Doctor Professor Tantamount from taking over the world! This James Bond parody centers a young Asian-American man named Jeff, who has gotten a job as a guard in what ends up being the Bond villain’s company. The sharp contrast between the exaggerated satirical super-spy aesthetic and Jeff’s realistic, overwhelmed character, as well as the primary focus of giving center stage to underrepresented Asian-American voices, makes for an entertaining and transformative look at espionage tropes.
Copperheart
After a global nuclear mishap, Americans went underground into massive facilities to work towards one day returning to the surface. Copperheart focuses on the story of the facility underneath Area 51, dealing with strange occurrences and inter-facility dynamics that threaten stability and unity. This debut is a thriller right from the start, chock full of conspiracy and a well-rounded cast that bring quick, explosive reactions at the right moments.
TENDRIL: The Banshee Chronicles
Pitched as Futurama meets the X-Files,TENDRIL is a science-fiction epic adventure that follows three soldiers who belong to a paranormal-defense division of Earth’s military. The podcast is based on a homebrewed tabletop campaign for Monster of the Week, and the extensive reach of the world-building is impressive, but most endearing are the characters of Cade, Switch, and Kronist. A quickly-budding comradeship in the face of the unknown helps propel this story into the very weird edges of space.
Dreamland
Chance Muehleck, Melanie S. Armer
Inspired by the real-life events of a phone-based con artist in Hollywood, this Los Angeles neo-noir follows the parallel stories of a private detective and a stuntman who intersect with a woman pretending to be a famous movie producer. Lorien, the detective, is hired to track the woman down; Derrick, the stuntman, is hired to be the director for her new big-budget action thriller. The darkness lingers underneath the California heat in this atmospheric, lightly satiric podcast.
By the Billabong
This Australian anthology of unusual, magical stories is introduced by the figure of the swagman — an Australian transient laborer who in the 19th century became a folk hero with the growth of the swagman’s centralization in bush poetry. Some of the stories are distant science fiction — a greedy real estate agent on an asteroid, for instance — but some of them are much closer to home, historical fantasy featuring people like mountaineer Emmeline Freda Du Faur and aviatrix Nancy Bird Walton.
This playlist was sponsored by Podchaser. Check out Podchaser’s Creator Profiles to find your favorite podcast hosts, producers, editors, guests, voice actors, and more!
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