ooooh any other podcast recs? thank u! <3
These are the ones I have listened to. I'm not really a big podcast person- don't have the necessary attention span for audio-only content, but well:
Mabel podcast is my favourite and it's consistently brilliant, atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful. It's got sapphic goddesses, faeries, folklore and mythology based horror, a witchy, earthy aesthetic and amazing sound design. Lead characters are voiced by- and also depicted as- mixed Mexican wlw. Written in the vein of Pan's Labyrinth (eerie+ poetic), it mixes fantasy with social commentary. There are excerpts from this podcast which are pure lyricism, especially the mini episode, Letter from Juniper. Cannot recommend it enough.
The Magnus Archives is hyped a lot, and I can see why. It's a dark academia dream- focusing on a paranormal institute and research-intensive, set in London, constant references to themes of death, isolation, self awareness and eldritch entities as manifestations of fears. Kind of prefer the earlier seasons where there were isolated, unsettlingly creepy statements per episode. I began to lose interest around S4 when it got a a little...unsubtle I guess?? with all the chosen one and apocalypse imagery. also personally this user can't stand daisy tonner.
36 Questions is a musical, romantic comedy-ish drama, 3 episodes long, about an estranged couple trying to reconnect through answering this questionnaire together....and yes I'm aware that sounds like the whitest, mopiest, straightest thing ever but it's genuinely funny, sweet, well written and incredibly acted (Mr. Jonathan r u free) and despite the fact that I absolutely despised the female lead character, her VA was still brilliant. Also there's a cute duck called henry who I would, could and should die for. Ending is kinda unsatisfying and overall the relationship isn't the best or healthiest imo but it's still entertaining enough. Great character development, for better and for worse. Feels like a good angst/comfort fanfic.
Alice Isn't Dead is about a trucker going on a road trip, searching for her (dead?) wife. It's horror and social commentary, kinda reminds me of Sharp Objects meets Stranger Things. I LOVE the atmosphere it creates, the sense of exhaustion as the mc scales yet another gas station flecked, dirty diner spotted, old American, hideously artifical urban landscape. Just like ST, the horror is in the dread, in the hunt and chase. Lots of anti capitalism themes too. VA is not always the best, and sometimes having a singular narrator really takes away from the suspense and makes it tedious but it's overall a good, solid show, though I think mabel >>>>>>> especially because the main wlw relationship in this story is imho not developed well?
Nightlight is an anthology of horror shorts written and acted out entirely by Black content creators. It's varied and covers a wide range of genres, zombie dystopia and mermaids, intergenerational trauma and werewolves. I just started this yesterday and it's really good, and I love just how many different kinds of horror are explored. The format is also good for people like me, who cannot sit through one long narrative like TMA.
Forest 404 is a sci-fi podcast about a world bereft of forests, where a young woman named Pan (Pearl Mackie!!! aka Bill Potts!!), working at a boring desk job, discovers a set of old sound files: recordings of rainforests, an ecology that doesn't exist anymore in her world. The podcast is about Pan trying to reconnect with the extinct forest system. Episodes are accompanied by conversations with environmentalists, anthropologists etc. This is a corporate podcast as others have pointed out and normally if I see a BBC, I run in the other direction, but I promise it's confusing and good and the soundscapes are v. pretty.
I'm next planning to listen to Point Mystic, The Penumbra Podcast, Welcome to Night Vale and The Bright Sessions. Here is a list of lgbtqa+ podcasts that you might want to check out!
