Don't Get Me Wrong, I Love October But There Is Something So Beautiful About November In North America.

WHERE DO I START?!

@eelerschoice has an incredible world to explore and dives head long into generational trauma and environmental destruction. Amazing character interactions, well paced, and reaaaaally fun sound design. They are also doing their funds drive for SEASON FRICKEN 2! @lawofnamesmedia's At the Bottom of the Garden uses fairies as a means to explore stories about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves (and others) and the writing is exquisite so far. I am only a few episodes into this but it has me in a chokehold.

@strangekindstudio Mercy: A Queer Eldritch Western. Set during the Wild West, full of super rich characters (like I am envious of how well they are written), and kicks it off with a monster that is SUPER fun and unique. I literally check each day to see if the next episode has dropped. @thegospelofhaven Give this one a go. You will like it, trust me from there. Just know the sound design is very very very... wet.

@goodmorningevildoers just wrapped their first season and I am so happy I stumbled on this one. It takes the "radio personality" and flips it on it's head a bit. It is super fun and quick, I swear the longer episodes flew by.

Hey Cuties! It’s ya girl, Faustina! Every audio drama Sunday, I make a little video called Faustina’s Faves for shouting out audio dramas I love. And I wanna hear about your show, or a show you love!!

If you want to be featured on Faustina’s Faves, tell me about an audio drama and why you think I might enjoy it! Self promos super welcome!

Love ya, mean it!

-Faustina, xx

A recommendation to all the audio drama creators out there:

Always listen to your show in the way your audience is listening to your show.

We tend to edit using nice gear. Good over-the-ear headphones. Quiet rooms. But most of your audience will not listen to your show this way. A recent poll indicated that almost 20% of AD listeners listen with a *single* earbud in. Almost 10% listen on their phone speaker. That's a significant part of your audience that is listening in a mono environment or with tiny speakers (or both). You also likely have listeners with hearing loss in one of their ears*, and you want your show to be accessible to them. Before you release your show, make sure to listen to it at least once on a single earbud in a noisy environment. Is your show still legible this way? Can a listener still enjoy it like this, and understand all the plot beats and character moments? If not, it's a good idea to spend some more time on your edit so that they can. (And it's still definitely OK to make your show sound *great* for those who have a great audio setup! Just make sure the show still works for those who don't.) *You likely also have audience members with hearing loss in *both* ears. Transcripts are important. I'm behind in getting them posted for Metropolis, I need to get on that. (Episode 3 of Metropolis is live, BTW. Just waiting for Spotify to pick up the RSS feed before the big announcement. 😅)

The number of times I do this per episode is frankly amusing and concerning.

[In the middle of audio editing, frustratedly scouring a timeline]

"Why the heck does everything sound panned to the left all of a sudden? What did I screw up!?!?"

(Pushes earbud slightly further into right ear.)

"Oh."

Frankenstein Audio Drama

Hello! We are Rhapsody Of The Exiled, an audio drama adaptation and retelling of Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley!

We are trans and neurodivergent written and directed, with a largely queer cast and crew, queer romantic, and neurodiverse storylines, and music! We can promise you a lot from our story, including a romantic Clervalstein subplot, non-binary Professor Waldman, non-binary blind hermit, Autistic William Frankenstein, neurodivergent Justine Moritz, lesbian Elizabeth and Justine, transfem voice actress for a non-binary creature, and a Professor Waldman x Professor Krempe consensual workplace relationship.

We want to use this beloved story and all its characters to explore ways in which we find ourselves isolated from the world, be it by no fault of our own, or somehow by our own hand. If that sounds like it would be of interest to you, do give us a follow! We are most active over on BlueSky, but you can follow us here, or over on TikTok @rhapsodyoftheexiled

Hope to see you around!

A very happy audio drama sunday to y'all. I listened to so much good fiction in the last few days, but this week, we really have to give a shoutout to the period pieces.

🧨 I know the creators of @224bbaker have talked about this before, but I absolutely love how, in the form of Fawx, Madge, James, and Archie, they've somehow managed to nail every possible interpretation of the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Watson. And that's not even considering how they're doing Sherlock Holmes and Watson! The ways in which this show explores relationships is masterful, and kind, while all the while the stakes are sky-high even if you ignore the murders. Amazing. Can't wait for this next ep.

🪼 I was so glad to see the return of Mercy: A Queer Eldritch Western, which is also setting up a supremely good character dynamic between Sawyer and Gray. They are both so bad at people skills in their own special way, and it is a riot. Combined with the extremely good worldbuilding and some very scary jellyfish, I cannot recommend this show enough.

👻 Talk about being haunted by the narrative! If you're not listening to @dead-west-podcast, what are you WAITING for? Like imagine you are a guy trying to use his gifts to help people, but your gifts involve having to see your racist, probably abusive dad's ghost all the time. I'm going to be honest, this last episode had me considering a very important question: Is Dead West just Supernatural, but good? What if Supernatural was good? Yeah, go check out Dead West.

👞 What's uuuup Kingmaker Histories! This show is so good at keeping you on your toes. Sometimes it's Fat Tuesday and the gang is having a bad drug trip, and sometimes your friend is forced to explain his actions from decades ago because if he doesn't, he dies. I love the political complexity this story presents to the listener, which meshes so nicely with its fantastical worldbuilding. If Kingmaker is steampunk, it elevates the whole genre. It's beautiful.

That's it for me! See y'all soon!

I HAVE A GOD DAMN PLAN, to listen to this for the rest of the day! Honestly between this new beauty and the Port Sulphur Band record I am in hog heaven while I finish up some writing and planning for the next podcast episodes.

Weekend Podcast Binge Update (12/16)

So, over the weekends is when I do a bulk of my podcast listening. This weekend I was BLESSED with a failed hard drive. Thankfully nothing was lost but it meant I had ample time to listen to some new-to-me shows as I am caught up on most of my usuals. Hi Nay @hinaypod Episodes 1, 2, 2.5, and 3: FINALLY! I have been meaning to dive into Hi Nay by Motzie Dapaul and Reg Geli for a long while now but something always takes my headspace away from it but I finally got the space to really give it a go. I love how this show just gets right into the thick of the world and really dives into the folksy nature and background of the character. I can not express how cool it is to FEEL the expertise of the writers in their casts' actions, thoughts, and reactions to their real world. This isn't just a writing team who did a lot of research, this is a well informed writer and it comes through. You could tell me it was a record of real life events and I would 1000% believe you. Also, I love that the found footage framing device is a call to loved one, that is super unique and endearing. No tapes. No journal. Just a kid in the shit calling their ma to process what happened. Amazing use of risers in the show and superb writing set my skin on edge a couple times. My only gripe, and it comes off pedantic even as I write it, is that I didn't love some of the sound design of the door hits in the first episode. They translated as someone hitting the microphone and it did pull me out of the scene a tiny bit. They are also in middle of a Fundraiser for the continued production of the show. If you have the space and funds to do so please consider checking it out and helping as you can! Share, listen, donate! Woe.Begone @woebegonepod Episodes 1 & 2. This has been recommended by a lot of folks in the Audiodrama Community but has been one that I have given a couple chances and didn't jive with it out the gate. I do want to note that it is a ME thing and not the show, there is a lot of greatness in this even in the first episode. I love the way the plot is introduced, I love aspects of the trickle out we are given on the lead up to Mike seeking access to the game, I love the pacing. It honestly might be that I am too close to real life examples of people like the character of Mike, willing to do anything to get "the next big videogame" so it feels less Fiction and more real life. I'll explore that train of thought before commenting further! Gunsmoke OTR This is a classic and really birthed a lot of my love for the Western Genre. I remember listening to this in the little room above my grandparents garage because my Gpa had a bunch of these on self recorded cassette. I randomly grab an episode and give it a go just to dive back into the vibes. Malevolent @malevolentcast, re-listen. Episode 1. I find myself occasionally going back to Episode 1-3 of Malevolent. There is something so unique about how the show starts and the strides Harlan takes from these first few steps that really dictates larger shifts in the later series and I love it. Also a great reminder that you have to start somewhere and build on the magic as you go. Old Gods of Appalachia Episode 71. @oldgodspod Now, this is one of my all time faves. It is a large reason I even wrote my show, I constantly go back to the first few seasons. Yet, I find that I am super hesitant to explore this next season. The last arc, Jack's Trial, has some of the better singular moments in the show but overall it felt less OGoA and more like a crossover event for all the characters to be in the same space. I get the feeling that we are getting towards the end of the show as intended but not where the showrunners are wanting it to end so some things are starting to feel a little over explored. Again, this is probably a ME thing and I will still follow along with the season, but probably not on drop days.

Inspired by our friends @theholmwoodfoundation who posted theirs here as well. Be sure to check out their show! If you do, leave them a rating/review and let them know the team from Dead West sent ya!

So here is our presentation on why YOU should listen and support The Dead West Podcast!

Spotify

Apple

Youtube Music

Podlink (Links to all the apps) Spotify playlist as mentioned above Also, honorable inspiration mentions for Hunt Showdown 1896, Wild Wild West, Rango, Alex Grecian's Red Rabbit, Hayley Stone's Make Me No Grave, the Never Whistle At Night Anthology, Bone Tomahawk, the 1973 WESTWORLD, The Wickerman, Weird West from WolfEye Studios, and Inscription by Daniel Mullins.

Parts 0-3 are available now on all podcast platforms! If you find one where we are not there please let us know and we will give you credit in the next episode for helping us out!

This clip features Devin Steffens as Conrad.