#im incapable of speaking concisely about podcasts i apologize

[theradioghost]

Can you pick your top 5 podcasts atm I need to know what to listen too lol

I’m gonna put my answer under a cut because in my wisdom I decided to provide short summaries, lol.

it is HARDER THAN I THOUGHT to narrow it to just five. There’s a definite perpetual top two,

The Penumbra Podcast, your one-stop-shop for genre-bending “queer AF” absolute wonderfulness and the thing that has taken over my life in the past six months. Centers on the misadventures of depressive nonbinary bisexual noir private eye Juno Steel on far future Mars and his interstellar master thief “homme fatale” paramour. Brief stops for oneshot horror stories, a fantasy series, and the greatest lesbian western ever. I cannot put into words how much I love this podcast. You should be listening to it already, probably.

Wolf 359, the podcast that got me into this mess, still one of the very best. Take four assholes and stick them in a steadily disintegrating tin can orbiting a really weird star 8 lightyears from earth. add some mysterious space messages, one plant monster, an incredible sense of humor, and some of the best-written plot escalation I’ve ever seen. be prepared to cry. a lot. best described by Ron Weasley in Prisoner of Azkaban: “You’re gonna suffer, but you’re gonna be happy about it.”

as for what I’m enjoying most right now,

Greater Boston is experimental fiction set in an ever so slightly weirder version of Boston. Episodes are usually ~3 vignettes or monologues by/about this group of around 15 characters whose lives are intersecting and colliding because of two things: a petition for the Red Line of Boston’s subway to secede and form its own city, and a man named Leon, who dies as soon as he is introduced, but continues to inexplicably influence those who knew him and those who didn’t after death. The definite absolute highlight is the characters, who are so funny and heartfelt and wonderful, but the plot picking up in season two is also blowing my mind and in general it’s just incredibly well written.

The Bridge does atmosphere so well. it’s set in an alternate present where a traffic bridge was built across the atlantic but has now fallen into disuse and is about the crew of a watchtower along the bridge. it is also about people telling the urban legends and folk tales and ghost stories that have gathered around the bridge. and it is about ghosts, and cults, and abandoned places, and sea monsters, and reluctant immortals, and missing people, and the cold depths of the atlantic ocean, and chocolate fountains. and it is about Kate Burnham, who is my wife. it’s Spooky but not really Scary.

The Bright Sessions is about Dr. Joan Bright, therapist for “atypicals,” aka basically X-Men style mutants, and her patients – like Caleb, who has to deal with feeling the emotions of his fellow high schoolers; and Chloe, who can hear thoughts; and Sam, whose panic attacks result in time travel. I want to describe it as very chill and sweet most of the time? but to be fair it may not be for you if you have trouble with manipulation or rlly intense mental illness stuff (Sam is one of my favorite characters in the world but I personally often have to break up listening to her episodes because it fucks with my anxiety), bc that stuff is pretty central to the plot.

Bonus, since it only has three episodes: The Strange Case of Starship Iris is a brand new and really amazing space scifi about what happens to biologist Violet Liu after an accident (or was it?????) kills everyone else on her research ship. also, space wlw within three minutes, if that appeals to you.

Other podcasts I listen to and love: Wooden Overcoats, literally everything by the Night Vale Presents Network, The Bright Sessions, Inkwyrm, Wooden Overcoats, EOS 10, and so far I am loving Ars Paradoxica. I also made this thoroughly overcomplete list of podcasts.