Fiction Podcast Debuts: November Roundup
Head towards the brilliant lights.
As the year winds down to a close, we can wind down the path towards the lights that glimmer near the end. November often bears the brunt of October’s mood, the haunted mysteries drizzling down. This month, we heard a large quantity of dark and brooding stories: gothic, horrifying, grey, and savage. Though, by the end of the month, they had given way in part to more light-hearted fare, to adventures around a table and the spirit of the oncoming holiday season.
Black Friday
Acute Spontaneous Melanization is the “phenomenon that turns white people into black people”, starting with Sam Gregor, who wakes up on the Friday after Thanksgiving to discover he doesn’t look the way he remembers. Black Friday is a series of ongoing examinations into the phenomenon and the people who change, and the resultant violence, panic, and hysteria that ensues in America. Tycho Newman’s limited series, incredibly timely, is a fascinating consideration of race and society’s tremulous understanding of what it means.
Tales from a Hollow World
Hollow Tale, Jessica Osborne, Pruitt, Lindy
Hollow World is set in the original dark fantasy world of Aria, cold and dangerous lands of the north, with three characters whose journeys mysteriously converge together. Sorcha the winter elf scouts for her mentor in frustration; Ailfryd the half-elf finds portent tidings in the forest; Xarria the executioner leaves home and hearth to fulfill a mission. Led by the smooth-voiced narrator and game master, Hollow Tale, Tales from a Hollow World perfectly captures the tone and mood of a windy, isolated atmosphere and secretive magics that reach deep into the earth.
Turbulence
Nick Koyama’s world of the Remnants is lush in its ruptured greyness, a cyberpunk dystopia that arises after the satellites fall from the skies and disrupt both environment and society. Valentine Reneer and his personalized partner, SAM, are pulled into the murder of the lead of a secret, massive project within the Cybernetics Division. Original, moody compositions wrap around Reneer’s exhausted, brooding inner monologue, laying down the foundation for an endless foggy universe arisen from the ashes.
Gaslight
QCODE Media’s (Carrier, Blackout) newest venture features the return of Danny to her hometown, years after her disappearance, showing up on the doorstep of her best friend Becca’s house. Gaslight sets up the creeping oddity of Danny’s reappearance with a bout of crying on the couch and a phone call that shows nothing is as it appears. Even with only the title, listeners are already tense for the truth.
X-Detective Shorts
These gothic vignettes explore the criminal world of London through narrator Pooley, a detective wrestling with her conscience. They’re dreamlike and nightmarish, and everyone is slightly jagged at the edges. London is suitably labyrinthine in each episode, leading each of these stories down twisted tunnels with uncertain endings.
Circé
From the Ostium Podcast Network comes the story of Thyra, a lesbian sorceress who ends up far away from her home planet of Albion, depleted of her magic. In order to regain her powers, Thyra tells the story of her past life as a member of the Circe, an order of powerful sorceresses. Circe is poetic and feels ancient in its conceit; Arden Rachel fills the voice of Thyra with a youthful agedness, and Emma Sherr-Zianko (Wolf 359) is every inch the powerful sage who takes care of Thyra from babehood.
With Caulk and Candles
Garrett Lochlan is a walking disaster. So it stands to reason that when he does a spell out of a fake spell book, it works; in fact, every fake and ridiculous spell he tries becomes real for him. Naturally, it draws the attention of the local coven, and Garrett’s life gets to be a little bit more of a disaster. With Caulk and Candles is a delightful supernatural dramedy, firmly tongue-in-cheek about living in interesting times.
The Thursday Night Club
Steven Manchester, Lou Aronica
If you’re looking for the Christmas spirit, look no further than the friendly competition between the members of the Thursday Night Club, friends who share meals and stories. Inspired by their loving friend Jesse Cabral, they compete to perform the best good deed by Christmas without spending a single penny. Featuring original songs, The Thursday Night Club shows how hard it is sometimes to live up to the idea of what it means to be good, and the minor miracles in all our lives.
The Voyage Forevermore
Colton Flick, Abby Armato, Alex Kirshy, Gwen Williams
This actual play uses Tavern Tales, a Creative Commons-licensed system, to follow Pip, Bruce, and Fizzwig after they are placed in quarantine in the coastal town of Thornpaw, under the watchful eye of dungeon master Colton Flick. They’re setting out for the furthest reaches of the world with blank maps and compasses. The Voyage Forevermore is immediately endearing, full of oddball characters and a delightful rapport around the table.
The Shadow Dispatch
Suzanna Bornn, Patrick Flood, Vince Marcellino
The Shadow Dispatch is WTCH’s late night radio show in Salem, MA, that guides you through the nonhuman lifestyles, politics, news, and technologies with humor and humility. Cheryl White, David Lewis, and Ewan Taylor host call-in guests and experts, make skeptical decisions, and engage in current events with vigor. Their banter is comfortable, their disagreements sometimes reluctant but always kind, and their airing of old history occasionally stirs up weird callers.
The Tale of Hunter’s Bay
An audio fiction inspired by a folklore fantasy RPG, The Tale of Hunter’s Bay is the story of a desperate village and the errants, wandering heroes of song and legend, that help it come back to life. Lean in over rough camaraderie and storytelling over ale to discover what happened to Orlando Bluewater and Sister Grizzle after they end up in a boar trap outside Hunter’s Bay. Become exasperated with Orlando’s obsession with his boat, Gertrude, and puzzle out who’s telling the truth and who’s telling tall tales.
The Program
In the distant future, today’s way of life seems almost impossible. In that future, money, politics, and religion all fuse into an entity called The Program, and each human now only has to follow the code; they are all equals. Each episode of The Program examines our present like an antiquated curiosity, through the voices of those who once lived among us. Through their eyes, we examine all the horrors we are currently living through and allowing to live with us.
The Perfectly Circular Rock
Alisa Ledyard, Chiquita Melvin, Denise Stewart, Doug Grissom, Joel Chroscinski, Kevin Minor, Maille-Rose Smith, Lewis Reining, Marianne Kubik, Michael Miranda, Randy Rishner, Sam Reeder, Samantha Shannon
This quirky comedy is the odd and fantastical story of what happens in a town after a mountainous, perfectly spherical rock appears in the middle of the night. The town of Elkisbourne is struck by every emotion you can imagine, taking over the radio airwaves and every conversation. Produced by the University of Virginia Department of Drama, The Perfectly Circular Rock is sure to make you cackle as the audio winds through the lives of some seriously colorful characters.
Elaine’s Cooking for the Soul
Elaine Martínez is the host of a brand new cooking podcast, recorded live in her dentistry office — uh, studio. And the world outside is definitely not overrun by famine, death, android patrolmen, and the apocalypse, because there’s no such thing as the biblical apocalypse. Tune in for government-approved rice and beans, the rise of the new feudal system, and the gratitude of being alive.
Old Gods of Appalachia
Steve Shell, Cam Collins, Allison Mullins, Veronica Limeberry
The stories in this horror anthology pay tribute to the shadows that linger in real-life Appalachian region in this upside-down, alternate Appalachia that winds deep and dark into the forest and mountains. The Appalachia of Old Gods slides back and forth through history, though it’s occasionally rooted in real disasters that occurred in our history. The unmooring from time and geography lends these stories their eerie quality, heightened by the soulful folk blues and the gruff, measured tones of the narrator.
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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