Radio Drama Revival

What a suntabulous bicuspid of a day! It's time for the Sunshine Smile Hour, a dental hygiene-themed children's program! Oh golly, this is a good one, and ain't that the tooth.So this episode is utterly wackadoo: imagine a musical comedy along the lines of Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, or Reefer Madness, with a solid helping of noir pastiche and cosmic horror alongside. The Fall of the House of Sunshine is like if you put all of the above musicals into a high-powered blender along with a collection of H.P. Lovecraft short stories, a pint of ether and a handful of dexedrine. It is hilarious! It is offensive! It is stylistically all over the place! It is RELENTLESS!And I love it? You will too, I reckon.

This week, we're presenting writer, director, and film professor Faith McQuinn's Boom, a story of loss, recovery, secrets, and murder. Porter, the protagonist, must deal with the murder of his best friend—and the police consider him the prime suspect. We get inside Porter's head as he struggles to come to grips with the crime and reassemble his life.Faith gave us episodes 1 and 2 of Boom for you. Listen, follow and subscribe!Find out more about Faith McQuinn!Our sweet sweet PayPal donation button!Content warning: violence, murder

Bronzeville is a story of the Great Migration: it follows Jimmy Tillman (Larenz Tate), a papermill worker from Arkansas who kills a strikebreaker and flees to Chicago to find a new life for himself, tracing the steps of millions of Black Americans who migrated from the rural South to the urban North in the mid-20th century.Jimmy makes his way to Bronzeville, the legendary Black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, where he falls in with the Copeland family, the operators of a policy racket—an underground lottery—that functioned like a bank when white-owned banks wouldn't lend to Black people. Everett Copeland (Wood Harris) is doing a spell in federal prison for tax evasion, so he asks his old lieutenant Curtis "Eyeball" Randolph (Laurence Fishburne) to get back into the game.(Yeah for real this is a star-studded episode! I can scarcely believe it myself.)We play episode 1 of Bronzeville, and then I talk to two of the producers, LaRon and Lahmard Tate, about the show's origins, productions that are too Black

We're celebrating AUDIO DRAMA DAY by featuring some works from 11th Hour Productions, the once-a-year marathon audio drama production festival where dramatists from all the world over come together to create magnificently creepy fiction.We're featuring two pieces this year: Shadows of Halloween, written by Neil Gustin and created by 11th Hour US East, and Ivory Towers, written by Richard Brooks and created by 11th Hour UK.Stick around for the credits for the thrilling conclusion of Radio Drama Revival and the Ham of Mallorca.

New York playwright and audio dramatist Mac Rogers joins me for a discussion about craft, aliens, and influences as we excerpt some of his new thriller, Steal The Stars, a co-production between Tor Books and his own production company, Gideon Media.Steal the Stars is the story of Dakota "Dak" Prentiss, the security chief at Quill Marine, a secretive private military contractor. Quill Marine is built around the biggest secret of all time, and new recruits have to be taken down to see the secret—to see if they can handle it. But a new recruit, Matt Salem, turns out to be more than Dak herself can handle. In the sexy love-type way, I mean.This is a story of forbidden love, aliens, and a big old friggin' heist, baby.#SPOOPTOBER continues!

It wouldn't be a monster episode without MONSTERS, would it?! Awww yeah it's zombie time!American podcast legend KC Wayland joins me for a chat about craft, zombies, and Force Multipliers of Art.We're gonna play an episode of We're Alive: Lockdown, the miniseries that combines a jailbreak with horror-survival adventure. SPOOPTOBER CONTINUES, as we bring you yet another episode to thrill and perturb!

A double-feature this week as we begin our October horror series!First, from Paragon Collective and the makers of Darkest Night, it's Deadly Manners, a new murder mystery show narrated by LeVar Burton (Star Trek, Reading Rainbow) and starring Kristen Bell (Frozen, Veronica Mars) and Anna Chlumsky (Veep).CW: racism, misogyny, and murder!Then, it's a chilling tale of family business in Rites of Autumn, a spooky little tale of tradition, pumpkins, and more murder. That comes to us from John Ballantine of Campfire Radio Theater.CW: more murder, gruesome descriptions

This week, I'm joined by Ellen Winter and Chris Littler of Chamber Band to talk about their new podcast for Two-Up Productions, the production company that brought you Limetown.36 Questions is a fabulous PODCAST MUSICAL starring Jessie Shelton (Hadestown) and Jonathan Groff (Glee, Spring Awakening, Hamilton) and you should go and listen to it right now, before you listen to this interview. Go ahead! I'll wait. You'll love it.Chris, Ellen, and I discuss:The creative process!Snow-shoeing!How J-Groff doesn't know what a duck isLin-Manuel Miranda loving the showIn The Goo with Ellen and Chris...and much more!

Two foul-mouthed Scottish paranormal investigators travel to the misty island of St. Caillic to uncover the secret of a terrible anniversary--it's A Scottish Podcast, the newest creation of former Audio Drama Production Podcast hosts Robert Cudmore and Matthew McLean.Robert and Matthew play Lee and Dougie, two washed-up, cynical castaways from the music biz who decide to strike out as paranormal podcasters. What you'll hear today is multiple episodes stitched together by Robert and Matthew, and sent over with love.

Scholar and dramatist Lance Dann joins me as we play the first episode of his techno-thriller, BLOOD CULTURE.It's a trans-media project, consisting of not just a radio drama, but of an AR game that begins with this in-world website (as well as plenty of goofy easter eggs in the credits page).Blood Culture is the story of A'isha, an employee of an enormous biotech firm called Meta. Meta's interns are falling ill and dying at an alarming rate, and it's up to A'isha, and her childhood friend Livy, to investigate.After the feature, Lance and I discuss tech culture, the research that went into this production, and seeking a diverse set of creative partners.

We're premiering INHALE, the latest miniseries by Rick Coste, the unstoppable, unbelievably prolific audio drama producer from New England.Tracy Tanner is an unassuming librarian in the small town of Hemlock, Massachusetts—but Tracy isn't her real name, and she isn't just a librarian. Tracy is a superhero—and she's not supering anymore.Join me as we dive into Tracy's secrets in this exciting new miniseries!Rick Coste Productions

This week, we explore EOS 10, a medical comedy in space. Dr Ryan Dalias is a young doctor, recently assigned to a posting on EOS 10, a station in deep space. Dalias's job, ostensibly, is to manage his alcoholic superior, Dr. Horace Urvidian—a brilliant but curmudgeonly xenobiologist. Together with Nurse Johns and Levi, a disgraced prince-turned-chef, the four of them have numerous wacky hijinks.This episode, "Up, Up, Up," contains adult situations and themes of, well, boners.Links:EOS 10's websiteEOS 10 on TwitterNeil Verma's article that mentions this episode of EOS 10

It's a spine-tingler this week, as we dive into the twisted world of Darkest Night with a little story called "Horns Limo Service".Darkest Night is a horror anthology series from the Paragon Collective, and what makes it special is its binaural recording setup. It's similar to what Campfire Radio does: it puts you inside the action. Not a lot of audio drama companies do this, and it's really neat!After the feature, I have a chat with Alex Aldea, the director and producer of Darkest Night. We talk origins, horror, sound design, and all kinds of spoopy junk.Enjoy!

Why do we climb? Why do people look at the tallest mountains in the world -- vast, inhospitable places -- and say, "I want to climb to its summit"? When you're up there, what do you become? What do you give up?We're exploring those questions today in a new drama by JJ Wang from Netizen Playhouse:The Embrace: Nights on Killer MountainThe story follows an Australian mountaineer, Zoe, who wants to be the first woman to summit Nanga Parbat, one of the deadliest mountains in the world, in winter.Follow JJ Wang and Netizen Playhouse on twitterOr check out their Bandcamp page!

This week, it's the Stories of Mahabharata, retold by Sudipta Bhawmik, a multitalented playwright, storyteller, and engineer. With music and immersive sound design by Avi Ziv, Bhawmik animates this ancient Indian epic, rendering it in English to delight those that have never heard it before as well as those who were raised on the stories.The Mahabharata is thousands of years old, and originally in Sanskrit. It tells the story of two groups of warring cousins -- the Pandava brothers and the Kaurava brothers -- who fight over the throne. But it's more than just a war story; it's a story of love and curses, righteousness and evil, tricksters, poisons, and monkeys.We're featuring episodes 30 and 31 of Bhawmik's retold Mahabharata: first, Bheema (a Pandava brother with enormous strength) encounters Hanuman. Then, a story of Arjuna (another Pandava, and the greatest archer in the world).Stories of Mahabharata@MahabharatAudio

This week, we dive into the fabulous world of The Axe and Crown -- (our very own) Eli McIlveen's spinoff miniseries from Alba Salix, Royal Physician. It's a fantasy world where the most immediate dangers aren't dragons or wizards, but yuppies threatening to gentrify your neighborhood.Gubbin is a salty old troll who runs a tavern called The Axe and Crown. It's a dive bar on the bad side of the river. Stan is a human, and the naive new landlord who thinks he can renovate the place.What we've got today is a little sampler that Eli threw together of episodes 2, 3, and 4: it'll be enough to whet your appetite, I reckon!The Axe and CrownAlba SalixCheck out the interview I did with Eli when we first ran Alba Salix on RDR.

Writer/director/producer Jessica Best joins me to talk about her new science-fiction mystery adventure, THE STRANGE CASE OF STARSHIP IRIS.Best is part of the recently-formed Procyon Network, a podcast network whose mission is to create inclusive fiction. All of them are fabulous people.We're going to play Episode 2 of Starship Iris, which is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-tragic, deeply thoughtful adventure in space. Imagine FIREFLY with a mostly-female cast and a badass Hufflepuff for a ship's captain and you're, like, halfway there.Starship Iris on Tumblr: https://iriscasefiles.tumblr.comStarship Iris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StarshipIrisUs: https://twitter.com/RadioDramaSubmit! at http://www.radiodramarevival.com/

This week, we play an episode of an experimental podcast called PODCAST MEANDER, which kind of skirts the border between autobiography and fiction. Dan Leone plays/is a character, also named Dan, who has thrown away his old life (or attempted to). After secretly saving for years, Dan quits his job in Connecticut and heads west, unsure of what he wants to do with his life.In the episode you'll hear today, Dan comes to suddenly on a train, unaware of where it's going, why he's aboard, or where he left his car.It's an intriguing mix of documentary, interview, and fiction, and I think you'll like it.CW: mental illness, substance abuse, politicshttp://www.podcastmeander.com/episodes-1/

This week, line producer Matthew Boudreau hooks us up with some binaural horror from the Wireless Theatre Company with The Autopsy.For more great audio from the Wireless Theatre Company, including the stunning Springheel'd Jack Saga, visit their website at http://www.wirelesstheatre.co.ukA couple of notes:Binaural sound attempts to authentically recreate how we hear. Listening to this episode with headphones is highly recommended.The Autopsy contains some visceral and graphic audio material. If you’re squeamish, we advise using your own discretion before listening.

This week Matthew continues hosting for David as we feature B.I.L.I. from London's own O'Neill and Freeman.For more O'Neill and Freemanhttps://soundcloud.com/oneillandfreemanCheck out James O'Neill's terrific sculpture work:http://aplaceforclay.wixsite.com/sculptor