Here I'm hoping to catalogue audio dramas, podcasts, and video creators that I and recommend. For some podcasts, I may highlight a specific episode that I feel is a highlight or particularly representative as a recommended entry point.
While most people associate podcasts with the two dudes talking format, the podcast medium has allowed for the ressurection of the serial audiodrama. Even better, the microphones, sound mixing, and foley effects have so greatly improved since the days of The Shadow that the experience is more immersive than ever in a dark room with a set of good headphones. The genre that has most taken off in this area is horror, perhaps because the audiodrama has more options to advance the narrative while adhering to the Don't Show the Monster rule of thumb that can heighten the feeling of suspense, though plenty of mystery and comedy audiodramas have seen success in the format as well. Here are a collection.
Because of the serialized nature of these podcasts, all of these should be started at Season 1, Episode 1, so no specific episode recommendations are given.
Travel is not advised in this slow-burn horror sends the listener to a remote artcic outpost as a small team investigates the mystery of a neglected communications station. The story mixes elements of creature feature and folk horror along the way, as the crew finds far more than they expected in the glacial wilderness.
The White Vault is the flagship series for Fool & Scholar Productions, a joint venture headed by couple KA Statz and Travis Vengroff, with the former as writer/creator and the latter as producer and sound designer. The production features a very deep pool of talent in its cast and crew, and the nature of the narrative is deeply satisfying to any polyglots, as actors often begin reading character's personal notes in the characters' first language (to enhance the found-document style framing narrative) before smoothly overlaid with English translation.
A word of caution: this is about as slow-burn as slow-burn gets, and many early episodes are establishing setting and scene with banter amongst the primary characters, often over coffee. (There is so much coffee talk.) If you want something that jumps in to the action in just a couple episodes, this one may not be for you.
The White Vault also features several mini-seasons (Artifact, Imperium, Avrum, and Iluka) not part of the primary season structure, significantly displaced from the main events in place and/or time. While it is possible to enjoy The White Vault without listening to these mini-season interludes, they are highly recommended listening if you do enjoy the main series.
The Appalachian mountains are older than most terrestrial animal life, hostile to new life, and sometimes they sure seem like they'd like to keep it that way, family. Myriad of unknown horrors of the world have attached themselves to this ancient mountain range, hostile to their residents, and often aligning with coal barons in extracting the blood of the earth to the detriment of those around them.
This horror podcast is also a duo-feature, with co-creators Steve Shell and Cam Collins. The former brings his silky southern twang to the table in the style of an intimate campfire tale, offering folk wisdom and telling stories of conflicts between the forces of the Dark and the witches of the Green. It's dark fantasy in the wrapping of folksy familiarity. The stories are told primarily with Steve narrating the action and providing most of the voices, though guest voices are sometimes woven within.
Each season is a contained narrative arc, though the podcast as a whole is a wild ball of yarn following family lines through the region over space and time. As with other podcasts, some mini-arcs are only available to Patreon patrons, and are highly recommended additional listening if you're a fan of the primary podcast.
Followers of a fringe god find their way in a world that has outlawed their worship. The wizened, world weary Carpenter and the youthful, zealous Faulkner embark on a pilgrimage in search of the marks of their river god. But this isn't a simple tale of religious oppression - gods in this world have power through sacrifice. The power to take life and remake it in their own images, as avatars or beasts to their whim. Imagine if the practice of hitobashira could actually fortify a new building, and further, imagine if marketing executives took advantage of this feature of the world to build custom-made pantheons and subsequently sold their gods to the highest bidders to support a bleak capitalist dystopia. Coffee made more potent by a god of coffee, fed sacrifices of the sleep deprived; a god of electricity, whose grid is fortified by sacrifices made at pylons and dams; and more.
The creators here abandon the framing structure of the found footage or fireside tale and instead is told by its narrators, in time with the narrative and interspersed with their dialogue, giving it more of an audiobook feel at times. And those narrators are something amazing. Co-creators Jon Ware and Muna Hussen have assembled an incredibly talented cast list, with Méabh de Brún and B. Narr front and center as Carpenter and Faulkner.
Statement begins. Part anthology horror, part serial drama, The Archives exist to document encounters with aspects of supernatural Fears. The story follows the head archivist, John, and his assistants as they begin cleaning up the mess of records left by the former archivist. What starts as an organizational office task spirals out of control as John and his assistants learn that the statements are maybe more real than they first imagined.
Episodes are mostly the recorded statements being stored at the archives, giving the podcast an anthology feel, but the framing narrative begins to establish itself over season-long arcs. Easily the most popular work over at Rusty Quill, and deservedly so.
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Background: Grayscale Condenser Microphone
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