#pod rec

It's been too long since I've made a themed audio drama rec list. Let's fight the fates.

In The Cards

This absurdist comedy follows Gil, an extremely unlucky man who has never seen a piece of unburnt toast in his life. He discovers not only has he been a loser historically, he is fated to always be one. He decides to fight fate tooth and claw. He defies the course of his arrow! Completed with 8 episodes. Full cast.

The Antique Shop

This urban fantasy podcast heavily focused on Scottish folklore follows Maya, a uni student who finds a job at a strange antique shop. The items sold have magic elements that will steer the course of their customers lives, and the shop owner, Madam Norna, helps people with problems. This becomes a story about working with, against, and alongside Fate. Completed with 50 episodes. Single narrator.

Ethics Town

Listen, I cannot give this podcast high enough praise. It's simply amazing!

✅ The plot, the mystery and writing are simply chef's kiss

✅ Incredible voice acting and characters you become obsessed with instantly (*cough*Wayne Sawyer*cough*)

✅ Absolutely superb sound effects and soundscaping

✅ It's QUEER ♥️

-Gorgeous, gorgeous sound design

-An extremely talented, powerhouse cast with both emerging and established voice actors

-Speculative horror about repression, isolation, grief, and misogyny

-Queer writers telling queer stories

WABOOM

Podcast recommendation!

Inspector Duo Cate and Ned must investigate how they died and the murders that's been happening in town before it's too late!

Cate and Ned are platonic best partners, Oliver is the best support character, I just ended on a cliffhanger before going to bed and I have to wait a while before listening to the next episode because I have to work for 5 hours and my bluetooth headphones are CUTTING OUT frick you headphones let me listen to my ghost podcast!

Both leads get equal screen time, one character has a dumb moment but isn't treated as dumb, me and my homies hate adam, Rodger you suck but is fun to hate, Ned is a silly little guy just needs to be slapped back into reality if anything happens to him im killing adam from Sk8 the Infinity

Anyway this podcast needs more love and all the fanart.

Rodger you son of a bitch

The White Vault still holds the title for the only show to ever make me yelp in terror. I fell asleep in the middle of an episode and woke up at the worst possible moment. This show has spectacular writing and performance and is definitely one for those people who find the vast expanse of nothingness at the poles of our planet equally fascinating and terrifying. This show has some queer rep but it's very quiet; everyone is too busy shitting their pants to talk much about their personal lives most of the time. There are five seasons, each with something unique to offer, and it reached it's spectacular conclusion earlier this year. It's available across platforms.

Limetown begins as a sort of fake true-crime documentary about the titular Limetown. If you like your horror with a side of conspiracy, this is the show for you. It's short at just two seasons, and fun fact: I accidentally listened to season two before I listened to season one and had a very wild time. I have since listened to it beginning to end and yes it did make more sense in order. I cannot recall whether it had any queer rep. It also had a facebook visual adaptation, but I have never watched it so I cannot comment on its quality. This show has been around for some time, but it's still a gem, and you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.

Welcome to Night Vale, a true titan of the audio fiction space, Night Vale has had an influence on so many newer shows that you can feel its echoes everywhere. Queer at heart, and offering a soft, mundane sort of horror, for me what makes Night Vale special is the way that it highlights one of the most terrifying traits of the human race; our capacity to get used to pretty much anything and accept it as ordinary. After ten years, the show is still going, and has over two hundred episodes. You can listen beginning to where the story has reached so far, or take a more eclectic approach and dip in and out as you please. Both listening methods have something to offer. I've listened to Night Vale on and off since about six months after it originally started airing, and it's available in all the places you might expect to find it.

The Magnus Archives, another giant of the audio fiction space, much beloved by many listeners and inspiration for countless fanworks still despite the fact the show has now finished. The show begins as an anthology of horror stories told as reports of sinister happenings to the Magnus Institute, but quickly it becomes much more. The show is a shining example of what can be done with the framing device of a character sitting down and recording himself in semi-private. By the end of its run, the show accumulates a fair amount of queer representation, and all five seasons of the show are available across platforms, ending at the spectacular MAG 200.

I Am In Eskew. I love a story about a world just out of sight. This show has an abundance of subtle weird horror done right, shot through with more straight-forward horrors. It moves slowly, the horrors at hand growing and changing as you listen. There's a quiet calm to the delivery throughout this show which really emphasises the strangeness of the story. The folks who made this show went on to create the Silt Verses, which is another absolutely spectacular ride. It's a fun, unsettling time, and a complete story you can find wherever you listen to podcasts.