(really vivid cast of characters & fascinating world w incredible retro scifi aesthetics)
A murder mystery in neon utopia. An audio drama, by Lux Radium.
While ace reporter Nan Kanally and the rest of the world struggle through post-war poverty, Metropolis has assembled a neon utopia on an icy, distant island. It's an electronic heaven made possible by a fleet of astonishing autonomous robots.
But Metropolis holds its secrets tightly. The only word that gets out is from the few reporters they invite. One of them is Nan's best friend, the sportswriter Stanley Bronfels.
But when Stanley disappears, it falls to Nan to discover the secrets of Metropolis… or find oblivion herself.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
[but this podcast also has some of the most incredibly detailed sound design i have ever encountered in my whole life. it's awesome]
(dangling evil science in front of your nose like a yummy slice of cheese)
Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359.
He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski, insane science officer Hilbert, and Hephaestus Station's sentient, often malfunctioning operating system Hera.
He doesn't have much to do for his job other than monitoring static and intercepting the occasional decades-old radio broadcast from Earth, so he spends most of his time creating extensive audio logs about the ordinary, day-to-day happenings within the station.
But the Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that.
Wolf 359 is a radio drama in the tradition of Golden Age of Radio shows. Take one part space-faring adventure, add one part character drama, and mix in one part absurdist sitcom, and you get Wolf 359.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
How do we hold onto hope amidst disaster? How do we maintain connection in isolation? And what do we owe each other at the end of the world?
Hey There, Mr. Moon is a sci-fi retrofuture story that takes place in the not-so-distant future.
The Earth is burned and uninhabitable. A company called Happy Pod sells tiny spaceships to humans across the globe, promising to deliver them to a new habitable planet within one year.
Capable of holding only a handful of passengers each and containing everything needed for a safe journey into the stars, Happy Pods blast off around the planet.
Now, one year later, we meet the inhabitants of each Pod as they drift through space, eagerly awaiting the announcement of their arrival.
Will Happy Pod's promises deliver everything they imagined? And how will they face the uncertainty of their future after a year in isolation?
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
(mystery/conspiracy at a magic university, still v new but really intriguing style & worldbuilding & Vibes so far)
Cyan Goodman does not belong at twelvelms and everyone knows it. Especially him. The university has trained the finest mages in magedom for centuries, but Cyan only found out it existed two weeks ago.
Out of his depth, with nowhere else to go, Cyan is allowed to enroll at Twelvelms under one condition; that he keeps the circumstances under which he was admitted completely secret.
To make things more complicated, the only reason he was given a space at the school at all is because another boy has gone missing, under extremely mysterious circumstances. It seems like there's a much bigger problem lurking just out of sight at Twelvelms, one which reaches far beyond Cyan's secrets and into the foundations of magedom itself.
Cyan narrates his story years after these events, and his circumstances have become even stranger...
(Set in a magical world hidden just out of sight, it's a story fraught with social and class tension, exploring ideas about what it means to belong, and what it means to live with the legacy of terrible decisions made generations ago whose consequences have shaped everything around you.)
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
(?idk theres a few diff ones on the site etc)
After his sister's betrayal forced him into exile, Lord Valentin Tellari must now face the deadly ocean that rages against the Drumming Isles.
But neither storms nor leviathans will smother the vengeful fire that burns within Valentin. He will not know rest until he has reclaimed what is rightfully his.
Levian is an award-winning high fantasy audio drama by the creator of Desperado and Hug House Productions and is intended for mature audiences.
Please check the content warnings in the episode notes before listening.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
(really REALLY good mythological[ish] fantasy, stunningly beautiful music & sound design, really well-built characters)
Camlann is a post-apocalyptic fantasy by Ella Watts from Tin Can Audio. It's a serialised fiction podcast inspired by folklore and Arthurian legends.
Alternatively - it's about three idiots and a dog in Wales, fighting for their lives.
This series was funded by Creative Scotland and the Inevitable Foundation.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
a podcast about ghosts, family secrets, strange houses, and missed connections.
A lot of Mabel is told through voicemails, which is a framing device that leaves a lot of room for monologuing.
These monologues are poetic and entrancing, in a style that you can really get swept up in - I've described this podcast many times as a little like if "This Is How You Lose the Time War" was about a haunted house.
It's one that demands a lot of focus to really keep careful track of, but when you do give it the time it needs, it really delivers.
If you would like a story about lesbians that is weird and strange and scary then Mabel has you covered !
(a mysterious and poignant purgatory, with secret codes and messages even woven into the podcast itself)
When we die, the remnants of us return to the First and Last Place... Remnants is a dark fantasy thriller audio drama following the Apprentice as he learns how to read remnants under the frustrating supervision of Sir.
Remnants are seemingly innocuous objects - a broken pocket watch; a steel thimble; a silk scarf - but when the Apprentice looks closely, he sees how each one holds the remnants of someone's life story.
Each week the Apprentice reads a new remnant, following that person's journey beginning to end. When he's done, he must make a judgement; shelve or discard. But he doesn't know what the criteria is or what the consequences of such a judgement might be.
The more remnants the Apprentice reads, the more we begin to understand the magnitude of the task he has been set. And the more both we, and the Apprentice himself, wonder why it is him who has been chosen to do it.
With every week, a new mystery. With every new mystery, a terrible choice.
(starts crying before i can even get a word out)
ok. sorry about that. anyway.
Remnants is an incredibly beautiful series that feels both surreal and deeply human.
It is written with such care and love and detail that it fully immerses you in each remnant's individual life as well as hooking you into the wider mystery that unfolds as the series continues.
It's had a profound effect on me which I will not describe in detail for fear of getting far too vulnerable here on podcards dot neocities dot org :)
Alfie is not quite dead, and he's going through some… changes.
As an A&E nurse, Alfie deals with horror everyday, but almost being killed by a walking corpse and being saved by a vampire takes things a bit far, even for him.
The vampire is Casper. He's hundreds of years old, and hell-bent on finding out what's causing walking corpses to wander the streets of Alfie's hometown.
Now they've met, Alfie and Casper can't seem to leave each other alone, despite their best efforts.
Alfie learns that the relationship between vampires and humans is more complicated than just predator and prey.
Whatever Casper's misgivings about his own kind, and himself, Alfie is inexorably drawn closer and closer, in a heady, carnal blend of horror, hunger, love and lust.
Not Quite Dead is a (mostly) single narrator gory horror romance audio drama exploring themes of identity, sexuality and death.
"horny gay vampires" is the quickest way to describe this & it's convinced several people i know to listen so i see no particular reason to amend this. it's horny gay vampires.
it is ALSO however a really interesting partially nonlinear narrative (in the first season at least) & has the absoute coolest in-universe explanation for/version of vampirism that i have ever seen (or heard).
(this one is fucked up. but like . really good. but fucked uppppp)
In this supernatural thriller series, listeners will follow Lockie, a charismatic con man who escapes to St Kilda with the promise that this time he'll change his ways.
Unfortunately, the island and its unusual inhabitants have other ideas.
He seeks redemption and they seek a saviour, but you know what they say - no change without sacrifice.
I listened to most of this when it came out but missed the end somehow so when i went back to it more recently there was a lot that was very familiar but still so shocking & so so well executed.
this is maybe one of the most intense/confronting shows i've listened to just like psychologically. So watch out for that !! but it's good:)
(cool and weird and gives you lots of food for thought)
Ethics Town is a cosmic horror podcast about philosophical conundrums in a weird small town!
Using an emergency broadcast system he stumbles across, January Johnson, accompanied by his uninvited guest, reports on the misdeeds of his town's new mayor.
We're not going to answer the big questions for you, but we are going to dance around them in a fun and theatrical manner!
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
"A secretive organisation. Two antagonistic work colleagues. Dracula's severed head..."
The Holmwood Foundation is a Found Footage Horror-Fiction Podcast created by Fio Trethewey (Big Finish: Gallifrey War Room, 18th Wall Productions) and Georgia Cook (Big Finish: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, Gallifrey War Room, BBC Books, The Dracula Daily Sketch Collection).
A modern day sequel to the gothic novel Dracula, we follow Maddie Townsend (Rebecca Root) and Jeremy Larkin (Seán Carlsen), two co-workers at the Holmwood Foundation: a secret organisation that has been maintaining and studying the remains of Count Dracula over the last 130 years,
as they are possessed by the ghosts of Jonathan and Mina Harker, and embark on a road trip across the country in an effort to achieve their ghost's wishes: stop Dracula once and for all.
This is a story about identity and self discovery, family loyalty and devotion, all wrapped around a nightmare of a road trip with a rejuvenating severed head, incredibly sincere Victorian ghosts and an analogue recorder.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
(more excellent audio fiction. +was instrumental for me personally actually getting into audio drama as a medium)
A very normal podcast about data restoration, wireless neural interfacing, and why you really shouldn't bring your tapes anywhere near the Hole. SINKHOLE is a short-form audio fiction podcast presented as a collection of audio posts from a member of a community of data restoration hobbyists in a sometimes-unfamiliar future. Season three in production.
SINKHOLE is probably one of the shows I've relistened to the most & also one of the shows I most often recommend to ppl in conversation, because 1) it is pretty short, 2) the transcripts are excellent & easy to follow, and 3) it is Weird! Both in format/framing and in the subject & world of the story itself. It's an example of how great the medium of audio drama can be for telling stories that might not work as well elsewhere.
+ there's a big scary hole in the ground and it makes cool noises:)
(for a glimpse of a world into which you were not invited and are maybe not supposed to fully understand)
A role playing game hums within a global network of power lines, fiber optic cables and obsolete satellites.
Players who gain access to this mysterious phenomenon create a projection and are guided by the Dictator to realms not yet known to the conscious mind.
The Goblet Wire is about 2 hours of essentially eavesdropping, hearing small sections of different people's personal campaigns in this cool, surreal world of a mysterious & solitary role-playing game played by phone.
Each little vignette gives you more incredible details and bizarre experiences, leaving you full of questions but also strangely satisfied. Incredible sound design/synthscaping all throughout.
It has a very specific aesthetic goal that I think it hits perfectly. Really really tasty stuff.
(idk how best to describe the genre here .but it is really lovely . literaure as one maybe ?)
The CryptoNaturalist is a scripted fiction podcast all about real love for imaginary nature.
It's about cryptids and other weird and wild topics. Featuring poetry and field reports to make our world a richer, stranger place.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
The Vesta Clinic's newest doctor knows what she's doing. We promise.
The Vesta Clinic is a science fiction audio drama which tells hopeful and compassionate tales of sentient life from the Asteroid Belt and Beyond.
Follow Dr Underwood as she pieces together the patients' complaints into something like a convincing diagnosis.
[my very cool and convincing review/recommendation][which i have not yet written]
"Multi-season comedy-mystery about the best detective team on Baker Street! (Not that one.)" (more descroption from meee:3yay)
London, 1889...
Behind the doors of 221B Baker Street, the greatest detective of all time and his loyal doctor friend solve some of the most befuddling, prestigious, glamorous, and exciting cases the public has ever seen, turning themselves into legends in the process.
Across the street and slightly to the left, behind the doors of 224B, lives another pair of detectives, waiting for their chance in the spotlight. And when Holmes and Watson leave town on a case, and a woman shows up at their doorstep in dire straits, that very chance appears...
(for fake-true-crime horror with twisting, breathing architecture)
Shelterwood is a Docu-horror podcast delving into the depths of Suburban terror.
One part found footage, one part Gothic, and one hundred percent horrifying, Shelterwood follows Nicholas DeRoso on his quest to find his long-lost sister and the impossible neighborhood beyond reality he discovers in her wake.
(our protag is pulled headfirst into a conspiracy about secret human experimentation & it only gets bigger from there)
A mystery drama about the limits of experimental science, confronting your own past, present & future, & trying to remember the level select cheat from Sonic 2.
Unprescribed Journeys is a series of guided meditations by someone who really doesn't have his act together.
You might be on a lovely walk in the woods, on a serene cruise, or even travelling back in time to your childhood bedroom, but something will always go wrong.
A soothing, disastrous comedy awaits!
The atmosphere, the time and the theme may change, but all episodes are linked by the fact that your relaxing trip will, at some point, be totally derailed.
Meet Faustina Fetamine.
She kills people on TV for a living.
Meet Bellamy Pink. He'll sell his body parts for some quick cash.
When a scandal ruins Faustina's career as the star of the world's most popular death game, she and Bellamy team up against the nightmare world that's trying to kill them.
KILLJAM XXX is a Queer, Cyberpunk Death Game Audio Drama from the creators of The Kingmaker Histories and Less Is Morgue.
(archaeology. magic. divorce(?). a story & world so compelling it had me making spreadsheets by episode 3)
Adam Blackwell and Amy Stirling met as graduate students in anthropology, both obsessed with studying the same dead language and long-lost culture. Their relationship was always... complicated. They were bitter rivals, ideological opposites, and even went out on a date once - though they'd really prefer if everyone forgot about that last thing, thank you very much.
Then, they became the first two people in thousands of years capable of doing magic.
Over the next five years, they became global superstars, both revered and feared. Their powers led to a tragedy unlike any the world had seen before. Now, the world's first two magicians of the modern age must figure out the truth of their power, its consequences, and their relationship with one another before they do more damage to the world.
The Harbingers is a new fiction podcast created by Gabriel Urbina, directed and sound designed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner.
From Audacious Machine Creative.
Generation Crossing is a concept album from the creators of Archive 81.
It's about an 800 year journey to a distant planet, and the society that forms during that voyage.
