Happy #AudioDramaSunday friends!

This week has been another weird one, now that the end of my time at the New York Botanical Garden has officially come to pass. As much as this whole situation has been a frustrating one, and one that there’s a part of me wishes never happened, there’s another part of me that’s more excited for the future than ever. And yet? I spent more time than I expected, grieving that version of my life’s routine. I know that I will find a new job, sooner or later, and while I definitely don’t tie my personal self worth into how I generate capital, it was still weird to say good bye to so many people who have been fixtures of my life for six years now.

More tears were shed than I care to admit on Wednesday, after I dropped my computer off to I.T. and got in my car to leave for the very last time. BUT! The day essentially did an entire 180 after that. I went from work to see the new Ava Duvernay film Origin which was breathtakingly beautiful, and then made my way in to Manhattan to the Breaking the Audio Fiction Form, the first of a new bi-monthly salon curated by James Scully (Burning Gotham), Jenny Turner Hall (Marvel’s Wastelanders: Wolverine, Mars Patel), Jocelyn Kuritsky (A Simple Herstory), Brittany Inman Cooke of The Coffee House Club, and the Salmagundi Club. The venue was gorgeous, the conversation with their co-panelists including Davy Gardner (The Truth, Tribeca Audio), Arielle Nissenblatt (EarBuds Podcast Collective, Trailer Park: The Podcast Trailer Podcast) and moderator Kirsten Nelson was illuminating, and dinner with other audience members afterward was fantastic. I even got to finally meet my beloved Yhane Washington (Harlem Queen, The Courtship of Mona Mae) Richard Seneque (Visionaries), as well as spend some quality time with my pal Gabriel Urbina (Wolf 359, Unseen).

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to an in-person audio fiction event like this, and man did it remind me how much life they give me. It is a distinct passion of mine (it should come as no surprise to any of you), to bring this medium more critical attention. Not only because I believe that creators deserve to hear what others think of their work (both the good and the less so), but because I know the enormous amount of time and energy that goes into bringing it to life. I applaud James and the rest of his panelists for putting on the first of what I know will be an incredible series, and I can’t wait to see who they bring along to speak in March! And who knows, maybe I’ll have my own announcements about audio fiction events in New York City later this year…

Oh! And one last thing before we get into the rest of it: I have recently joined the team over at Podbam as a fiction podcast critic. You can find my first list, 10 Fantastic Fiction Podcasts for First Time Listeners here, which may be old hat to some of you folks, but would be great to share with friends and family who are still new to the medium! Check back soon for more coverage about other great shows I love.

Now, on to the Queue!

Hannahpocalypse

How a comedy show about a 150 year old zombie, ambling across the wasteland with her human best friend could bring me to tears is beyond me. And yet? This week, that’s exactly what Hannahpocalypse did. Sitting there with Hannah, as one of the deepest sources of her trauma is re-revealed to her after over a century was an incredibly affecting moment. It was wild to go that far back in time to discover more about her first kill, and the way in which it helped her to find us ~the listener~, who provide her with a blissful escape from her horrifying new reality. Gosh, there’s nothing I love quite as much as a sneak attack tragic backstory.

Beef & Dairy Network Podcast

There isn’t a show that’s filled with more unhinged, stupid glee than Beef and Dairy Network Podcast. The Wyoming Cattle College of the Internet was a real place where you could receive a real degree. Now, whether or not that place was anywhere near Wyoming? That’s a completely different question. This hard hitting documentary about educational beef fraud was fantastic and left me in stitches, as always.

Academy

Wondery’s YA dramedy Academy released it’s premiere episode sometime last year, with the rest of the season behind a paywall, but now they’ve finally begun to release the rest! Briggon Snow (The Bright Sessions, Look Up) helped produce this series, and guest starred alongside a fantastic cast, anchored by Myha'la Herrold (Bodies Bodies Bodies, HBO’s Industry) and Benjamin Norris (Never Have I Ever). When transfer scholarship student Ava first finds herself at Bishop Grey Academy, a cutthroat school full of rich kids failing upwards, she’s unmoored. But after a chance encounter with a secret society changes the trajectory of her first year by paying her student activities fee, she realizes that entry into this club has its own strings attached. It’s a great show and I’m stoked to finally be able to follow along with the full thing!

A Prophecy of Incense and Snow

Last year I did an interview with the folks over at MeetCute about their 2023 Valentine’s Day series Dump Him! starring Minnie Mills (The Summer I Turned Pretty) for the Simplecast Blog. Their newest series A Prophecy of Incense and Snow was their first forray outside of my beloved space of slice-of-life fiction and into the world of fantasy. The trappings of sword and sorcery are perfect for a rom com, and this series proves that in droves. The series follows Atla, a sorceress raised in seclusion in order to save her realm, who discovers that the man she was destined to marry is in fact, quite evil, and the man who will actually help her fix her world has no interest in her supposed prophetic quest. It’s a fun series with great performances and a satisfying conclusion that I think you’d love!

Six Sermons

There are several reasons why popping on Asa Merritt’s Audible Original,  Six Sermons was an absolute no brainer for me, but chief among them was star Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once, Marsfall). But beyond that? The fact that this series gives me a blistering exploration of church leadership in the wake of a pastor’s suicide is extraordinarily beautiful. I’m only a third of the way through so far, and while this is an original that feels a bit more like an audiobook than a true episodic fiction podcast, I’m still savoring every single minute of it. It’s no surprise to me, why the church’s council leadership would want to hide the true cause of their pastor’s death, but Hsu’s character’s dogged insistence to tell the truth to her congregation is admirable. People are messy, and we’ll never be able to fully understand them, unless we open ourselves up to their nuanced existence. I cannot wait to catch up with the rest of the series.

Visionaries

I mentioned above that I had a chance to connect with Richard Seneque of Visionaries Audio Drama at the Breaking the Audio Fiction Form event, which reminded me that their second season had begun airing just before the holiday season! I listened to the premiere last month, but hadn’t gone back until this week, and while I’m still three episodes away from the end of the season, I’m reminded again why this is one of my favorite shows out there. Richard’s entire cast is brilliant, deftly weaving their way through action, drama, and thrilling intrigue at the drop of a pin. If you’re not listening to this series, you’ve got two full seasons to go catch up with, and trust me when I say you’ll thank me once you’ve taken the journey.

Breaker Whiskey

We’re another week down in Breaker Whiskey’s solo journey across the wastes, and we’re no closer to finding out the cause of their weird phenomenon she experienced back in Denver. Nor are we any closer to finding the dog companion that she promised she wouldn’t get her own hopes up for. She uses this continued time alone to continue to reflect on her previous relationship with Harry, and getting upset with herself for how loyal she used to be to her, always ready to minimize her own contributions toward their survival, in order to keep her erstwhile partner’s mood up. It’s a sobering realization, and perfectly meshes with everything else we’ve learned about the two already.

Give Me Away

I mentioned last week how I had begun another relisten of Give Me Away in time for an interview recording session I’ll be having with their team tomorrow, but I have officially finished marathoning everything that’s been released so far. It’s so rare that I give myself the opportunity to consume a show twice, let along three times, and lord have I found something new to cherry pick from Mac Rogers’ magnificent scripts, Jordana Williams’ unreal directing, or Sean Williams’ simultaneously empathetic and horrifying performance as Graham/Joshua. This show is so special, and I’m thrilled that it is the one where this team finally decided to return to for a second season, because there’s an enormous amount of gas left in the tank here and I can’t wait to be able to talk more about season 2 in depth as it officially releases!

Forgive Me!

This week, we went back in the studio with one of Adam and I’s oldest childhood friends, Nick Stag, to produce our upcoming St. Patrick’s Day Special, Oops! All Snakes! This script is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever written, and the performances from both Nick and Casey Callaghan are truly top tier. I’m really proud of the kind of emotional nuance that we were able to bring out in the story across our recently completed third season, but it’s nice to be able to go back to our roots and just try to make people laugh. I also took my first stab at writing our Arbor Day Special, It’s Turtles All The Way Down, and damn… there’s something about this show and reptiles in 2024, isn’t there?

Seen and Not Heard

Last, but very much not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the upcoming second season of Seen and Not Heard. I have written at length about my undying love for this series already for DiscoverPods, but creator Caroline Mincks (This Planet Needs a Name, Silly Old Bear) invited me on as a script consultant this year (after I spent the last two telling them that it wasn’t, no, couldn’t be a miniseries) and WOW have they done it again. They also let me write a bonus episode featuring two of my favorite characters played by actors I adore. You can support us in making it now on Indiegogo if you’ve got a few bucks to spare. We know our goal is high, but this show operates on a whole other level, and Caro deserves every single cent.

BONUS SNACKS!

I am the first one to tell you that I was predisposed with falling in love with Amazon’s new Mr. & Mrs Smith starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. As a noted Community obsessive, who has never felt more seen than when watching this episode of PEN15, there was no world in which I wouldn’t be in love with the series. What I really loved, though, was how it took the cameo-filled case of the week vibes of Poker Face and mashed it up with the trappings of a classic action rom-com. It was a rainy, cold enough day yesterday that Sam and I marathoned the whole thing, and I already can’t wait to watch it again.

That’s all for now, friends, I’ll be back next week having finished both Visionaries and Six Sermons, along with catching up to plenty more that’s still burning a hole in my queue!