What's The Frequency?

to me? not native even to the language less so to culture. What defying british humor is ability to show The Worst most pathetic people ever and then make me laugh about it.

Multiple requests for this one! The question is:

3. What are some audio dramas that inspire you? Both in general and for your podcast.

This is such a massive question. I've previously talked about Limetown being a massive influence, and frankly Season 1 is still the absolute peak of the 'fake true crime' subgenre. They caught lightning in a bottle with this one.

I always have to shout out @roguemaker for being an incredible production to be involved with - that show regularly inspires me to do better as a producer, and to experiment more with form and character dynamics as a writer!

Similarly, @sditepod has been an inspiration for me since day 1 of making my own stuff, just in terms of "here's how you completely commit to one idea and stick with it." One of my big pet peeves across media is anything that gives up on its framing device or central 'gimmick', and Someone Dies In This Elevator shows how you can do 10,000 variations on a very simple theme.

I of course have to mention my two first obsessions in podcasting, Pseudopod and Knifepoint Horror, which are both very much going strong. These are shows that really inspire me to approach my writing as literature, and to keep my craft going regardless of the chaos of life. These shows are like sharks, in an evolutionary sense: perfectly suited to exactly what they do and damn near as old as the water they swim in.

I always shout out In Strange Woods for making me cry repeatedly and often. This one is also one of the only things I listened to while hiking the 200 miles of Camino Primativo with my wife last summer, as a "break in case of emergencies" motivational rally.

In terms of more recent productions, @whatsthefrequencypodcast, @what-happened-in-skinner, and @thegospelofhaven are some of my favorites that I've devoured in the last year or so!

I haven't done a great job of hyping my newest show, Exercises in Sound, lately. Partly that's because it's summer, which means I've been traveling, and visiting family, and spending more time at home on family activities. Partly it's because I've really wanted to focus on hyping The Perfect Sentence, by @vandreasonable, which I truly believe is a tremendous work of personal art that I want all of you to go check out. (And it's only 90 minutes start to finish--shorter than a Marvel movie!) Partly it's because I've been dedicating more and more time to official @greaterblogston projects, including continuing work on scripts for Season 5! But Exercises in Sound has continued releasing episodes weekly all this time (well...I missed one week), and we have two new additions to the cast! (And these won't be the last new cast members to come!)

In the role of narrators, I'm very excited to welcome Julia Morizawa (of The Bright Sessions! As well as Omi Ogawa on Greater Boston.) and Richard Penner (of The Infinite Now! As well as Thomas Thomas on Greater Boston.). These performances were recorded remotely (the Jordans were recorded together in a local studio), but in a live session with James Oliva directing. These are two actors I always love working with, and it was such a treat to work with them in a live session!

Just as Jordan Higgs and Jordan Stillman both alternately play both roles of Character A and Character B, Julia and Richard are taking turns in the role of Narrator, exploring how their particular approaches to narration impact the tone of the story and the sympathies of the audience.

Additionally, the introduction of narration has added variations to the script itself, exploring how stylistic differences in narration script can alter the story, looking especially at differences in close versus distant narration, removed vs biased narration, and simply the impact of having more or less detailed narration.

Julia and Richard have appeared in three episodes each so far, with more to come! You can find them in: Narrated A Narrated B

Over-Narrated A Over-Narrated B

A couple of silly, fun episodes that I don't think I've highlighted:

EiS: Too Many Cats

"Too Many Cats" was an episode I had planned from very early on, so I was able to ask James to direct Jordans Higgs and Stillman to perform a take of the scene specifically as if inundated with cats. I hadn't expected him to jump in as a cat himself, but it really helped make the performance work! This version features more improvisation by the actors than most others, which I think can really help a performance feel more natural.

The best part here, though, is how the actors made the cats a proxy for their argument--Jordan Stillman especially directs several of her lines to the cats, in tones intended for the cats, while the words and insinuations remain clearly pointed at B. I think there's a real lesson here in how a scene can become more interesting when characters have some physical complication or activity demanding a portion of their attention, rather than just needing to say their lines in a vacuum. This can be introduced at any stage in the process--the writer can account for it in the script, the directing can introduce complications during the performance, and sometimes the sound designer can even introduce physical activity for the characters themselves. (I do this often.) But I find it pretty consistently makes for a richer experience.

EiS: Character A is a Small Dog

This one uses one of the standard template performances, with Jordan Higgs in the role of Character B, while Character A--the one who wakes up alone--is actually a small dog, anxious about its owner's absence. I'd had this in mind for a while, but a visit to James earlier in the summer bumped it up in my priorities--I was amused to learn that he is one of those people who leaves the television on to keep his dogs calm when he goes out. It's a detail that works perfectly with the established structure of the scene, but not one I'd thought consciously about until I saw his dogs watching television.

Narratively, what I love about this version is how much it changes B's character and the central conflict. It becomes much more internal, more about B wrestling with feeling bad about leaving A alone.

Just as collector culture has applied a new coat of varnish to antiquated formats like the cassette tape, the ease and ubiquity of podcasts have revived that old-timey format of the radio drama. Modern technology, a wider embrace of genre fiction, and post-streaming binge culture have allowed a wealth of programs such as Limetown or Homecoming to achieve popular success, some even attracting mainstream talent. Writer and voice actor James Oliva caught the bug, himself, when he jumped onboard the cast of his longtime friend Alexander Danner’s show Greater Boston, a tragicomic magic-realist anthology series previously covered on this site.

Wonderful, yes, imagine: the world's stupidest academics. Imagine they are being killed off one by one. Imagine they are so so bad at solving mysteries and they're trying anyway. And now imagine this is all taking place in a ridiculous rendition of Gilded Age New York City. Also Teddy Roosevelt is there.

What's The Frequency?

A psychedelic noir audio drama podcast set in 1940s Los Angeles.

Recently, radio broadcasts in the city have been reduced to static, leaving a popular radio serial as the only remaining show on the air. Even then the show finds itself continuously interrupted by a mysterious broadcast. A lone distorted voice reaching out for help.

Follow Walter “Troubles” Mix and his partner Whitney as they search for a missing writer and navigate through a city quickly falling into madness. Could the mysterious voice be the culprit? Will anyone be able to stop the madness from spreading?

I started listening to podcasts late December and have been tracking the time I spend listening ever since. In honour of reaching 420 hours and over a thousand episodes (if you include bonus content), I drew this commemorative piece. Drawn on Procreate Pocket, total time: 11 hrs.

The Fiction Podcasts represented here (in order of when I listened):

Caravan

Two Princes

Gay Future

Dreamboy

The London Necropolis Railway

Crossing Wires

What’s the Frequency?

Death by Dying

The Magnus Archives

The Fall of the House of Sunshine

Within the Wires

Alice Isn’t Dead

Welcome to Night Vale

The Penumbra Podcast

Our Fair City

The Angel of Vine

Greater Boston

1994

The Lost Cat Podcast

King Falls AM

Harlem Queen

Moonface

Minefire

All’s Fair

Five Years

Anticipated Q&A: