Tuesday, April 06, 2021

The World of Fiction Podcasts - Another Great Alternative


Because so many avid readers already regularly enjoy audiobooks, here's something a little different today.

Via a Times of London article of a couple of weeks ago, I discovered the world of fiction podcasting. The article mentioned several of the best productions from the last 5-6 years, and I can already vouch for one called Passenger List. According to the article - and it's certainly true for the one I'm listening to now - these are new productions that sound a little like some of the old radio dramas of yesterday...only better. 

Passenger List is about the loss of Atlantic Flight 702 which disappeared somewhere over the ocean between London and New York with 256 passengers and crew on board. One young woman, an American, refuses to believe that the plane that claimed her twin brother's life was knocked out of the sky by a flight of birds. She starts asking questions on both sides of the ocean, and not all the answers make sense, so she keeps digging. The story is pushed along by a series of recorded interviews, phone messages, and phone calls that the the skeptical woman persists in until, finally, she finds a helpful ally or two to help her pursue the truth.  The first season of Passenger List consists of eight episodes, each about thirty minutes in length. I'm listening to the seventh episode today, and starting to wonder if the mystery will be resolved in the current season, or if I'll have to wait for answers until the second season begins in a few weeks. (The photo, above, is of two of the podcast actors.)

Other fiction podcasts on my radar now include these - none of which I've more than briefly sampled at this point:


"Academy Award® winner Rami Malek stars in this apocalyptic thriller as a small-town radio DJ fighting to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization. BLACKOUT stars and is executive produced by Rami Malek."


"Limetown is a podcast fiction series created by Two-Up Productions that debuted on July 29, 2015 and became the number one US podcast on iTunes less than two months later. The show has drawn comparisons to the popular podcast Serial and the 1990s television show The X-Files. The series was written and directed by Zack Akers and produced by Skip Bronkie."


"WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events. Turn on your radio and hide."


"Wooden Overcoats - Drama Podcast and Sitcom Best of iTunes | British Podcast Awards Winner RUDYARD FUNN runs a funeral home on the island of piffling. It used to be the only one."

These are just the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure that some of you have been aware of the genre for a few years but, as usual, I'm a little late to discover the latest thing. Access is available via most of the usual podcast apps, so depending on your operating system, go to one of the apps to see what you think. As for me, I'm hooked, so please let me know about any good ones you find.

11 comments:

  1. This all sounds wonderful, the only problem being - finding time to do it all as well as read books. But I shall investigate as I feel I'm behind rather in my knowledge of podcasts and how they work. What do you listen/watch them on?

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    1. They are gret fun, Cath, but finding the time to squeeze them in really can be a problem. No doubt.

      I just use a podcast app that's available in my iphone app store. There are some for the other operating system too...Samsung phones and the like. Then it's simply the matter of a search within the app, by title, to find the particular podcasts I'm interested in. All rather painless once you have the app installed on your phone or tablet.

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    2. Well, somebody on a blog I follow left a link to a podcast interview she was in, I clicked on the link on my KF and listened to it no problem. I shall investigate further at some point but was very pleased to discover that it's not complicated when I thought it was. :-)

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    3. Cath, podcasts have become quite important in recent years. You might be surprised to see some of the people who do regular podcasting now in lieu of being controlled by big meda. There is literally something there for everyone. My main problem now is finding the time to listen to all the superb podcasts that grab my attention. I have 40 "favorites" linked now even though I probably don't listen to more than five or six of them in a given week. And the list evolves over time because I refuse to add one to the list without removing one.

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  2. I haven't really entered into the world of podcasts yet, but these do sound like fun! I might just have to check them out.

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    1. I've been listening to podcasts for several years, Susan, but never stumbled upon the fiction ones like those I've featured here. They seem to be mostly produced in the UK - because they still do that kind of thing there, supposedly, long after radio drama died for good in this country. The writing and the acting in the season I finished yesterday is really very good.

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  3. Interesting! I have only listened to a few podcasts, but these sound good.

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    1. Have you done the fiction ones before, Jen? I subscribe to near 40 of the things, many of them of a bookish nature, but never stumbled upon dramatizations like these.

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  4. I haven't heard of this genre of podcast, although I did see that AudioFile had started a podcast that was essentially broadcasting a serialized audiobook like some public radio stations used to do in the old days.

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    1. I was surprised, Laurie, to learn that this kind of podcast really started to take off around 2015. It was certainly a well kept secret from me. I'm most impressed by the quality of the productions, the acting, the writing, and the sound effects. Some of them come across as very real, reminding me of what Orson Wells tried to do with his production of War of the Worlds on radio. I can just imagine what he would have done with today's technology.

      I remember when the public radio stations were doing similar things...and I wish they'd do that today.

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