#the penumbra podcast is my love it ruined my life also.

[wiretism]

whenever i see you on my dash youre talking about characters that ive never heard of like ¨fuuucckk i wish smipple dee defeated the Great Binbus but whateverr" WHAT are you talking about -sneeb

HGRELPPPPP SMIPPLE DEE...

I fear this is because I hate maintagging things i switch fandoms without warning and just Start Yapping and i seem to be more and more interested in side characters every month... not to mention my fucking army of ocs...

[junonomenon]

been getting back into ace attorney and im realizing how many extremely specific similarities it has with my other current hyperfixation, the penumbra podcast

main character gets fired from job in the legal system over a piece of forged evidence

main characters best friend SLASH ASSISTANT but we all know he wouldnt have hired her if they werent bffs who loves snacks and watching tv and is so silly and the best character <3 and they meet eachother shortly after one of their siblings is murdered when theyre a teenager

main character can read minds. sort of

main character eats something that might have poison in it in order to stop anyone else from having it. and then he goes to the hopsital

character with a secret comatose boyfriend who was poisoned by a malicious third party

character feels a deep and unending obligation to someone who “saved” him when he was younger and changes the course of his entire adult life in order to repay him

character with a dead father who was adopted under false pretenses and then manipulated and betrayed by his adopted father who has a warped sense of justice. also the character commits assault with a deadly weapon against his adoptive father at some point

antagonist who manipulates a child into helping him ruin the career of a professional rival by using forgeries to make them seem dishonest while also setting up the child to take the blame for him. and then the antagonist is weirdly invested in being besties with a person whos life he ruined so he can manipulate and control them.

main characters childhood best friend who is goofy as fuck and a lil stupid and the main character has to constantly bail out of trouble. he is also the only straight guy to ever exist and cant seem to keep down a job until he finally decides to pursue his passion of making books

second childhood bestfriend who serves as the narrative foil for the main character. was pursuing a career in the legal system and then indoctrinated into a much more corrupt and less accountable path partially motivated by the loss of a family member

main characters boss is the hottest woman youve ever seen who watches the main character almost kill himself in a really stupid way after experiencing an emotionally devastating betrayal by someone he trusted and is like. well. i guess youre my little brother daughter employee now

woman with an unnatural hair colour and a weapon has deep seated emotional issues and a chronic aversion to vulnerability

ladies who pretend to be named dahlia in order to prevent someone from killing one or more people

main character canonically has a mom and no dad mentioned and also his love interest has two dads (the dead one and the adoptive one) and no mom mentioned

main character has a strong distaste for a cartoon franchise he enjoyed as a child

main character either cannot or will not use modern technology

series is a romcom disguised as a mystery story

[dustcollectingbones]

Intro post time!

General stuff:

Hi I’m Dust Collecting Bones a.k.a. Thomas! I’m like a court jester except I’m also attracted a little too much by bones.

I also now have a sideblog for my manic rants and ramblings, she’s called @manicassandra!

Please block this person, they are a horrible person and have ruined my life and will likely ruin yours.

You will often see me reblogging cool stuff, ranting about strange things, or getting much too invested in random posts. I don’t like to participate in many controversies or extreme beliefs and even if I did I will likely not post about it.

Fun facts:

I am Bisexual/Pan-questioning and Grey-Ace

I am okay with all pronouns, but female ones are preferred (very small preference)!

I speak English and Mongolian, am learning Japanese and Korean, and know a small amount of Russian and Spanish

I play the piano (quite badly mind you)

Despite spending the majority of my life in none of these countries, I speak with a mix of Californian, British, and Irish accents

I have audhd, and probably other undiagnosed stuff

Warnings/non-fun facts:

I am extremely queer and proud about it

I (though you likely won’t see much posting about it) sh and have an ed

I have an ed, sh, and several anxiety issues so please tag gore/sh/ed/su1c1d3 related content and use tone indicators!!!

I don’t have OSDD, but function in a similar manner (if you really must know dm and I can explain)

I am very defensive of my moots and will not tolerate any hate towards them

Dni:

Nsfw and porn accounts (though I can forgive posting about it I won’t interact with accounts solely centred around it)

Transphobes, homophobes, TERFs, racists, queerphobes, and any other uncool people

Adults in dms

Interests:

I dibble and dabble I’m several fields of study, such as physics, both quantum and applied, engineering (though one could argue that’s just really applied physics), chemistry, medicine, psychology, biology, and many more.

I love learning about new strange things so feel free to send me just cool stuff you find out about. I also have an extensive collection of useless or obscure information you’ll likely never need.

Music taste:

I love almost any genre, but my favourite musicians are as follows in no particular order:

Will Wood, IDKHBTFM, Waitress, Liability Luke, Changeline, Machinery of the Human Heart, Issbrokie/Shteppie, Lightnin’ Luke, Crispin de Sade (a.k.a. @outlying-hyppocrate), Kendrick Lamar, Femtanyl, That Handsome Devil, Shayfer James, Isiah Rashad, Dib Dooley, Teddy Hyde, Bear Ghost, and Aaron May.

There are much more mind you these are just my most prominent listens (pls feel free to dm me for music recommendations).

Hobbies:

Music writing

Piano & singing

Reading

Cooking

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Writing

Drawing

Coding

Fandoms:

I consume podcast dramas at a voracious pace but if I could name my favourites it would be TMA/TMagP, The Penumbra, The Silt Verses, Hymns for the Road, Midnight Burger, Malevolent, We Fix Space Junk, and Ch&T especially

Other fandoms include: Rick Riordan books, Good Omens, Doctor Who, Arcane, Pokemon, Devil May Cry, Fear and Hunger, Mouthwashing, etc

Why Dust Collecting Bones?:

It's both (at the risk of sounding self-absorbed) clever wordplay and a vague description of my hobbies. It can mean bones that collect dust (i.e. old bones), or dust (as in myself) that collects bones (my Vulture-esque habits), and bones (as in myself) that collects old things (also my strange habits).

It's mainly because I have a fascination with all things old, dead, or in various stages of decay. From collecting antiques, to preserving specimens, if it's old, I like it!

User boxes under the cut!

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 3, Poll 8

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Blade-Honkai Star Rail

Qualifications:

He used to be a craftsman, but his hands are no longer dexterous enough to create anything, and he covers them. It's confirmed they're damaged, just not how it happened or in what way. His mental health isn't great either, and affects him greatly. He has to have his memories erased or else.

As for the lgbt part: he's heavily implied to be or to have been in love with another man. His character revolves around him a lot. They shared a pair of telepathic bracers - that they both still have. Blade is stated to hold his and try to feel the other. He's also fixated on following the other man and having him pay for past sins, but has moments that suggest he still cares. In the original Chinese text there is a line implying they were married, people thought it might be a typo, but it still hasn't been changed so,

Propaganda:

The devastating effects of old man/dragon yaoi. Life ruining, in that you have to live forever as a scarred shell of your former self. Yay Immortality.

Anything Else?:

I think he and his partner created life. I don't think he's aware. Literal deadbeat parent.

Juno Steel-The Penumbra Podcast

Qualifications:

He has lost an eye. And he is canonically bi and nb

Propaganda:

*Spoilers* He is my favourite lady. He's a private detective on mars. He has the best assistant. He has a very sweet, but very up and down romance with a homme fatale master thief. He lost his eye due to some alien shit. Got a prosthetic one that sucked. Got rid of that one with a trauma-memory procedure. Joined a space pirate crew crime family. Leaned sharpshooting again without depth perception. Had amazing character growth. Fucking rocks a dress

[andromerot]

what fiction podcasts would you recommend? ^_^

man. being dragged into the cringezone. its ok... so from ages fifteen to seventeen i listened to a LOT of audiodramas and honestly a lot of them are not very good. but some are! and some are fun :) im making a list

mabel podcast: if you've followed me for over two hours you've probably heard of it is one of my favorite things in the whole world...i cant even begin to describe the plot but i recommend it to all of you because a lot of people on tumblr are like, into haunted houses, or into fairy folklore, or into fucked up codependent lesbians, or all of the above. so it truly has something for everyone. but its beautiful, it really is. will ruin all romance for you though. honestly its not even a podcast to me its more like a girl best friend. i can talk about it forever so if you have more specific questions about it feel very welcome to send them

i am in eskew: another favorite! this one is about very terrible city that loves a man very much and will not let him go #relatable. this one is a proper horror podcast though so i do not recommend it to anyone squeamish - but i really like it.

the silt verses: done by the same people as eskew, horror as well. i haven't finished it yet but its amazing. it's about gods. gods that are Weird.

welcome to night vale: this one is a classic (arguably, The Classic) and i think is a fundamental part of what is now considered cringe 2014 tumblr culture but honestly it is very funny and silly. its been going steady for like ten years, has over 200 episodes, which means it has some very bad seasons and some pretty good ones. i think its best era was like 2014-2016 or so but yeah it's very long and has some gems. it dares ask the question "what if a town was very fucked up?" which was then asked by four hundred other podcasts, all done badly. but wtnv is fun

wolf 359: yet another classic. fucked me up bad. its about a spaceship with some guys inside it. it predicted among us. the best character is hera the artificial intelligence with severe mental problems

the far meridian: this one is very sweet and tiny but i think its underrated. soft and surreal. a girl who lives in a lighthouse that moves every night searches for her missing brother and Encounters Situations

ars paradoxica: one of the few time travel stories i like in this whole world. i remember almost nothing about the plot itself but i remember it broke my heart a lot. a scientist accidentally timetravels to the middle of wwii and shes hired to do some war shit, which sucks for her but she has nothing better to do. that sounds boring but i swear its not. maybe it was i dont remember.

neighbourly: anthology based on a long street of fucked up houses or fucked up people living in houses. it has some pretty good episodes and some banger episodes. im friends in law with the guy who makes it. its cool

alice isnt dead: theres a woman called alice and she is dead. but, spoilers, she isn't dead. her wife starts working as a trucker trying to find her and goes all around the us trying to find her and things happen to her.

within the wires: its an anthology but each season is a story. the first one is really really good, the others are a mixed bag. its an alternate history thing but the genre changes

the penumbra podcast: this one has been added to the list with a huge sigh because like i cant lie it has been extremely influential to my life but also i hate it. it was very important to me. its bad. don't listen to it. unless you're a mentally ill teenager or you like old women a lot maybe try it out then. the old women are not the main characters

anyway yeah like getting into indie podcasting like this really altered the way i saw media from a young age and even if some of these are not as good as i remember them being i do recommend the experience. the only ones i really listen to now are the first three and every once in a while i catch up with the last but im angry about that one. hope at least one of these is to your liking. listen to mabel

[comas-are-for-sleeping]

i want to get into podcasts but have no clue where to start, do you have any recommendations? 👉👈

Ohmygoodnessyouwillregrethis 

1. The Magnus Archives is my favorite of all the podcasts I’ve listened to. It’s horror, but actually good. The perfect combination between mystery and shivers. It starts out with random statements, but then gets super deep and plotty, but if I explain any of it, all will be ruined. But, the premiss is that Jonathon Sims is the new head archivist as the Magnus Institute because his predecessor died. 

2. The Two Princes was the first podcast I listened to, and you’ll definitely like it if you like the gay. Prince Rupert wants answers, and so he runs into the forest, only to meet a (dashing) prince name Prince Amir. With a nice prophecy/curse to tie it all together, it’s really great.

3. Welcome To Night Vale is strange in all the best ways. The host of Night Vale’s community radio, Cecil Palmer, is the strangest of them all. He talks about everything ranging from bloodstone circles to the (possibly dangerous) cat floating in the men’s restroom. This is a lovely podcast with a hint of spook.

3. The Penumbra Podcast is very, very queer. It also has two story lines, so that’s fun. The first is a sort of film noir/sci fi esc thing. The main character is Juno Steel, private eye, and he lives on Mars! The second story line takes place in the Second Citadel, a place where knights fight monsters, and monsters fall in love with humans (and vice versa, it’s great). Both storylines are packed with drama and adventure, so get ready. One warning though, auditory kissing is not fun.

4. Wooden Overcoats is a comedy about a sibling-run funeral parlor. But there’s soon to be a competitor in town! This show is really funny, and is narrated by a mouse (she wants to be a bestselling author). 

5. Limetown is also sort of horror-ish. This is a news series about the history behind a tragedy town kept in the shadows with lots of twists and turns on the way.

6. Like Limetown, The Left Right Game is shrouded in mystery. A reporter sets out to Pheonix, AZ to find out what the horror junkies whisper about on online forums, the left right game. The premise of the game is to alternate left and right turns for as long as possible. Strange and scary things happen along the way (and I finished this in three days).

7. (Wow, more? Yup) Wolf 359 is about a crew aboard the U.S.S. Hephaestus orbiting around the star Wolf 359 in search of alien life. Drama? Mystery? So many plot twists? Betrayal? All can be found here.

8. Less is Morgue is a podcast hosted by a nonbinary ghoul and the ghost that is forever tied to them, Evelyn. This is their attempt (a very entertaining one) at making a podcast about various things, but every episode usually takes some turns that neither of them expect (or particularly want).

9. How could I forget about The Bright Sessions? Told mostly with recordings of therapy sessions for “atypicals”, this story unfolds into so much more than you might expect. It’s got wholesome and tension and all the things you could hope for. 

10. A dnd podcast too? Yeah, there’s one that I listen too. I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but it’s really good even if you don’t know much about the game (and while I play, I definitely don’t know a lot). It’s called The Last Refuge, and everything about it makes me smile.

Now, I’m sure I’m missing some, but these are the best, I think. (Though, this may be an ongoing list, who knows!) Good luck podcasting. 

[manuscript-or]

The humans in The Penumbra Podcast (Junoverse) are not humans

an essay by me

Tl;dr: Juno and everyone else who lives on mars are not actually humans. They are evolved from Ancient Martians which are not actually aliens but are instead humans from Earth initially sent to colonize Mars.

Disclaimers: First of all, suspension of disbelief is 100% a thing, and suspending your disbelief in order to enjoy media is valid. I am directly choosing not to suspend my disbelief in this case because much more interesting conclusions could be drawn. Second of all, the writers of tpp are also valid, but they also chose a planet right next door to us (earth) that we know a lot about**, and then included ‘aliens.’ This is not a critique of their skills or a personal attack of them, however, there are millions of galaxies and even more planets to choose from that we know nothing about where including aliens would make more sense. 

For clarification: when I reference humans from this point onward, I am referring to homo sapiens from Earth. For the sake of this theory, I am posing that Juno and the other citizens of Mars are not strictly homo sapiens, so I will not refer to them as human. 

In Juno Steel and the Angel of Brahma (part 2), the Ancient Martians are described a creatures with multiple limbs similar to “large germs” further described on their wiki page as “. . .a race of sentient, telepathic beings who inhabited Mars long before humanity ever set foot on it. Their species went extinct, leaving behind their ruins and technology.” (x) Tpp says that there are ancient ruins that contain hieroglyphics which prove Martian existence which is how xenoanthropology professors such as Miasma know about them. Ancient Martians are also said to reproduce asexually and are therefore genetic copies of each other and are theorized to have committed mass suicide, leaving Mars vacant for humans to inhabit. Their size is not specified but considering that their structures and technology are able to be handled by relative ease by Juno and others, I would say they are roughly the size of a human, maybe slightly bigger or slightly smaller. We are not given a timeline of how long ago they existed and they seem to be based off octopi.  

This is the information given to us and supplied on the wikipedia pages of Juno Steel. 

However, we as humans right now have no record of such creatures on Mars and since we had relatively good surveillance of our next door planet, we would know if creatures like this existed.** This is me not suspending my belief. And since Juno and other characters seem to have a mixture of both modern new technology and old technology (ie they have blasters that shoot lasers/some other form of energy bolt but still use intercoms instead of phones and also tune into radios) it is safe to place the events of the podcast in the future of our own but not so far in the future that it is out of our reach.

Instead of being “aliens” or another race of creatures, I think that Ancient Martians are humans from Earth, the first colonizers sent to set up livable conditions on Mars before passing away. The tentacled description that is thought to be their form is simply the space suits that humans used while they didn’t have any dome or station to live freely in. Seeing pictures or files of these suits could have confused xenoanthropologists who drew the incorrect conclusion that “Ancient Martians” simply looked like that. Their technology is simply technology from Earth, and is not “alien technology” at all. 

These first humans came to Mars for whatever original reason to set up the bases of stations and other livable shelters. They used tentacled suits as a way to maximize movement and productivity in a zero gravity space. At some point, something happened that cut these humans off from Earth, either a station exploding, their rockets malfunctioning, the station on earth loosing contact with them, or a solar flare destroyed communications (this option is very, very likely considering that it would have effected humans on earth as well and possibly wiped out a lot of that life). This geographical split and new conditions cause these humans to evolve until they became significantly genetically different from homo sapiens to the point where they became a new species. This is the species that we see inhabiting Mars in tpp. 

At some point, history wasn’t recorded or the stories got convoluted so that the idea of earth and homo sapiens were lost to time. Since earth is not often referenced in the series very often, it has either been destroyed to the point where it is uninhabitable (which could be the reason humans left to colonize Mars in the first place), it does not exist anymore, or it is still perfectly fine, they just do not interact (unlikely). This would make the odd mix of new and old technology make more sense when you consider that the humans probably had to rebuild society from the ground up with limited resources. 

So while Juno and other citizens on Mars are described as humans, act similar to humans, and by all intents and purposes are supposed to be humans, they are not. They are a genetically distinct new species that, if they ever did encounter humans, would not be able to breed or produce offspring with them--they have undergone allopatric speciation (x). 

So what did Miasma inject into herself? That “ancient martian DNA” that made her grow tentacles and become super-powered? 

It was actual octopus DNA. The humans from Earth would have brought gene banks of both plants and animals with them if they were going to attempt to make Mars habitable. The DNA was found in the Death Mask of Grimpotheuthis, which might not be a mask at all but possible a storage container for DNA samples or something similar. Miasma’s science was possibly faulty and while the transformation was “successful,” it was simply because of the octopus DNA and not because it was “Ancient Martian.” 

What are the other artifacts that are highly sought after in the series? 

Probably just human technology that is being misused or misunderstood. The actual function has been lost to time and they are probably not mysterious pills or death masks or eggs or keys or thrones. Just how we misinterpret tools and artifacts of other cultures right now, none of these items are what they are described as. It is xenoanthropologists doing their job the best they can but making common mistakes. 

In my opinion, having Ancient Martians be humans is a much more interesting conclusion that simply ~~aliens uwu~~~~ I love aliens, don't get me wrong and I would love for more aliens to be included in tpp. But the writers could have chosen a million other planets and said that there were aliens without any way to disprove them, rather than choose a planet next door to us that we know about.**

Now, I love science fiction and am more than willing to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy something. However, when a media misses such a great opportunity for world building, I am less motivated to suspend my disbelief. 

Conclusion: Juno and everyone else who lives on Mars aren’t actually human and are instead a genetically distinct species that evolved from humans.

**Okay, I know that we don't know a lot about Mars, not as much as I'm making it sound. Truthfully, we would not know about the existence of anything below the surface of Mars since the rovers that we had up there are not able to dig and are only able to study the surface of Mars. I argue that if creatures the size of humans existed, we would have seen evidence of them by now, especially if they are sentient. However, it is a very valid argument to say that if Ancient Martians lived underground for all of their lives, then we may not see evidence of them.

[theradioghost]

mobile hates faq’s, but can you make a list of what fandoms all your tags mean? im sure its obvs but im a dumbass lmao thx

I’ve got a tag page! I never figured out how the hell to make stuff work in mobile themes so I imagine the sidebar links I have aren’t very useful lmao. but this is entirely fair, I have a tendency to mix up my own tags (but having the unique stupid tags does make me feel more confident about having a sorted, blockable blog while also being able to shitpost at my discretion without clogging up main tags.) but the most frequent ones are probably gonna be

tragic space office sitcom >> wolf 259the grandest hotel this side of nowhere >> the penumbra podcastspace scrubs >> eos 10traffic reports from watchtower 10 >> the bridgedead people jokes podcast >> wooden overcoatsit came from beyond the arbys >> welcome to night valeohcota >> the orbiting human circus (of the air)drunk time science >> ars PARADOXICAthe podcast that never returned >> greater bostonsuffering eldritch librarians >> the magnus archivesattention all residents >> SAYERgoat cheese and jurassic park >> girl in spaceand somehow tom bodett >> the adventure zone balance arcpotential bigfoot romcom >> the adventure zone amnesty archagiographic gardening advice >> the hidden almanacgrumpy robot adventures podcast >> jim robbie and the wandererssomeone save boombox fuckboy >> archive 81starship found family >> the strange case of starship irisall ghost stories are love stories >> my podcast midnight radio

some other podcasts like the bright sessions or within the wires are generally just tagged by their name, which generally means I don’t post about them a whole lot. or that inspiration for a stupid tag hasn’t struck yet. and also there are things that aren’t podcasts,

apocalyptic duck feeding >> good omens

plastic wrap kisses >> pushing daisies

dead french people ruined my life >> les miserables

i dont have a clever discworld tag is uhhhh my discworld tag

there’s also a whole bunch of musicals tags, but those are probably not quite as important these days. & I also have tags like podcast recs, bobbie recommends things, talks about audio drama, and stories and media tag.

[alivingfire]

Ohmygod I love podcasts!!! Can you rec me some? It's hard to find good ones sometimes.

YES! I CAN! 

i’ve been knee deep in podcasts for about three months now, and i have, apparently, wide and varying interests, so i’ll put a little descriptor of each. also, i listen to podcasts on the Stitcher app, but i think all of these are on itunes if you prefer that, and i linked the websites if you want more info. 

DARK STUFF

my favorite murder - this is 100% my favorite podcast now, but the first time i listened to it, i had to switch it off. start from the newest episodes, get a feel for it, and then you can go back and start at episode one, which is still interesting but before the hosts really find their footing. basically, karen and georgia are two friends who love true crime, so they talk about their favorite weird murders and mysteries. it’s dark, but it’s also really funny (they’re both comedians) and i think they learned to really strike a balance between jokes and the serious stuff. they’re also super feminist – their sign-off at the end of each episode is “stay sexy, don’t get murdered.” 

someone knows something - canadian investigative journalist david ridgen tackles unsolved mysteries, one story per season. if you like documentaries, you’ll like how this podcast is set up. ridgen interviews witnesses, friends, families, police officers – basically everyone around the cases he’s looking into. it unfolds like a story and you really feel like you’re right in the middle of it. you don’t have to start at season one, but definitely start at episode one of whichever season you pick, because these are episodic and won’t make sense if you go backwards. 

lore - this podcast is SO GOOD, and it’s actually just been turned into a short miniseries on amazon prime that is incredibly creepy and well done. lore is written by a horror author, aaron mahnke, who takes you through the scariest stories and legends, and how they came to be part of our world. the first episode is about vampires, and it legitimately has such a twist ending that i screamed. if you like spooky, mythology and legend and history-based stuff, this is the best. 

LEARN STUFF

literature and history - think about your favorite dorky teacher who makes ridiculous jokes and is so. genuine about learning and teaching that you get interested in the subject because he’s so interested in the subject. now imagine that guy was a harvard professor who totally knows his shit and he starts a podcast. starting from the beginning of history, this guy takes you through the pieces of writing that have changed the world. he’s super soothing and i’ve already read a couple of books he recommended. definitely start at episode one for this one, chronology is important and he builds on each episode. 

no such thing as a fish - if you like dry british humor and trivia, this is the one you’ll want. the writers of the super famous british panel show QI (the show stephen fry hosted) talk about their favorite random facts that they discovered and researched that week. super funny, and you’re still learning. 

good night stories for rebel girls - if you are a strong woman or love strong women or want to someday be a strong woman, listen to this podcast. this is still relatively new, but the format is amazing: the writers and hosts turned the stories of real women throughout history into fairytales. incredibly inspiring, and you get to learn about awesome women you might have only vaguely heard of. 

nancy - the best lgbtq podcast you could ask for. lgbtq people, stories, histories, pop culture, and interviews that will absolutely have you bawling. this is an NPR podcast, so it’s interview-heavy, but the subjects are handled well and there’s no queer tragedy here, it’s all very hopeful and realistic without being pessimistic. 

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF

ID10T - this used to be called nerdist, and it’s hosted by chris hardwick, the guy who used to host @midnight on comedy central. basically, hardwick and either his cohosts or a famous person – as of this post, the last guest was antonio banderas – talk about ~~nerd things of the week: movies, comics, video games, tv shows, etc. etc. it’s basically just pop culture, at this point (because video games aren’t just for nerds anymore, kiddos), but what’s fun about it is that hardwick is incredibly unapologetic about absolutely loving the things he loves. it’s more fun to listen to this guy geek out about stuff than listening to other people find ways to criticize the things you love, i promise.  

gilmore guys - pretty much what it says on the tin - two guys watch gilmore girls and talk about each episode. you’re probably wondering why you would want to listen to some random guys talking about a show you (presumably) love, but they’re really careful to stay away from anything mansplain-y or judgmental. one of the guys, kevin, is a huge gilmore girls fan, and the other host, demi, is watching for the first time, so it’s interesting to hear their discussions, especially regarding race, homophobia, and a lot of other issues that the the show writers tiptoe around. definitely don’t start at season one for this show – it’s super rough and there’s even a little minute-long intro on the very first episode that says so. start at about season three, there’s not a lot you’ll miss and they’ve got a rhythm down by that point. 

STRAIGHT UP STORIES 

welcome to night vale - if you’ve been anywhere near podcasts or, tbh, tumblr, for the last few years, you’re probably at least slightly aware of WTNV. in all honesty, it lives up to the hype. it’s not scary so much as unsettling, very southwest gothic and supernatural. WNTV is the story of a strange town in the middle of the desert, told to you by cecil, the town’s local radio broadcaster. cecil tells you all about what’s going on in night vale, from the shadowy city council who sends monsters after people they disagree with, to the radio station’s cat floating in the bathroom, to old woman josie’s angels that hang out in her house. it’s interesting because, underneath all the unsettling creepiness, it’s super feminist, super pro-lgbtq rights, and super anti-authority/anti-establishment. if nothing else, cecil’s voice is one of the most soothing of all the podcast voices, and the quality of the writing and acting is superb from episode one. 

wooden overcoats - hands down one of the funniest dramedies i’ve ever seen or listened to. wooden overcoats is the story of a tiny british island, where brother and sister rudyard and antigone funn run the island’s only funeral home, at least until a guy named eric chapman moves his own funeral home in right across the street and ruins everything for them. everyone, from the mayor down to antigone herself, falls head over heels for chapman, and rudyard has to find a way to keep the family business running even though he’s not very good at his job and would prefer to do as little as possible. the voice acting is SUPERB, and i genuinely mean it’s hilarious, with lots of gallows humor and funny timing. 

the penumbra podcast - the penumbra is a hotel in the middle of nowhere, and every person staying there has a story. some of the stories are one-offs, and some of them, like the story of juno steel, space private eye, are recurring. it’s very old-timey radio style, lots of noir monologues and humphrey bogart-esque one-liners. some of the early episodes are rough, but they’ve actually gone back and re-recorded the juno steel ones, so they’ll be the best to start with. 

the bright sessions - do you like superheroes? do you like the dark side of superhero stories, where people with powers have to deal with being different and strange and emotional all while trying not to accidentally time travel or read someone else’s mind? this one’s for you. the bright sessions are therapy sessions between dr. bright and her patients, who are atypicals, or, basically, superheroes without the spandex. dr. bright helps her patients work on controlling their powers, all while a shady secret government organization watches overhead. you’ll want to start from episode one on this story, but you’ll probably immediately have a favorite patient. 

the bridge - another not so creepy, but more unsettling podcast. set in a slightly-different alternate universe where there’s a hundreds-of-miles-long bridge that stretches across the atlantic ocean from the united states to europe, you join a bored traffic reporter as she tells stories from other watch towers and stations along the bridge, which, after decades of use, is mostly abandoned. all the while, creepy stuff starts happening on her watch, and she and the other bridge employees have to figure out if they’re really in danger, or if they’ve been at sea too long. 

the truth - a lot like the penumbra podcast, the truth is a collection of short stories, acted out like actual movies. the first one caught and hooked me – what would’ve happened if apollo 11 didn’t land on the moon, and instead became the first space tragedy? the stories are (again, i have a pattern) dark but funny, and they’re incredibly creative. 

PODCASTS I HAVEN’T STARTED, BUT THAT ARE ON MY LIST: 

you must remember this - classic stories from the classic hollywood era, from marilyn monroe to charles manson and a lot more early stars we’ve completely forgotten about. 

wolf 359 - stories set in a space station floating out in the middle of nowhere, the crew of wolf 359 search for alien life and try not to die lightyears away from home. 

alice isn’t dead - made by the creators of welcome to night vale, so i’m sure this is good. alice is a truck driver who has to road trip around the country (and beyond) to find her missing wife.

the podcast history of our world - a lot like literature & history, this guy is just so excited to teach that he makes you excited to learn. he’s also really good about covering underrepresented people, which is more interesting than learning yet again about history from the side of colonizers.

EOS 10 - i have at least listed to the first episode of this, so i can confirm what everyone says: this is basically the show scrubs, set in space. a lot of doctors who think they know what they’re doing but are really on their own with no clue what to do.

heaven’s gate - more true crime! heaven’s gate was a cult that committed mass suicide in 1997. the host dives into the lives of the cult members to prove that anyone could’ve been caught up in the story.

if anyone has any recs, i’m happy to add to my list!

[historyy]

DUDE I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO PENUMBRA (largely bc you post about it sometimes) AND I'VE LISTENED TO ALL EXCEPT THE MOST RECENT EP (so probably I'll be back after my class to scream about that) BUT IT'S SO????? FRICKEN GOOD???? I LOVE IT I LOVE JUNO I LOVE PETER AND RITA AND ALL THE MINOR CHARACTERS ESPECIALLY THE KANAGAWA SIBLINGS (I hope they come back I love them) AND IT'S REALLY FRICKEN GOOD so thanks for making me aware of it. sorry to be so extra I just love this podcast????

OH MY GOD EVERY TIME I GET SKMEONE INTO THIS LIFE RUINING THING I GET SO HAPPY 😭😭😭😭 look I love them all with my entire soul??? and the whole aesthetic of the js story line too,,,,so güd.

ALSO the second citadel characters are so good and unique I sob esp talfryn my sweet boy my child my love

[raimijenner]

The penumbra podcast : o (for the fandom question meme thing)

5 favorite characters: juno, rita, chance, mary anne, the consierge

3 OTPs: juno/peter, chance/mary anne, rita/sasha

Funniest character: im gonna go with juno on this one

Prettiest character: like based on the official art either chance or ingrid lake but i feel like sasha would also be super pretty

Most badass character: everyone??? this is queer ppl being badass the podcast but like chance and sasha are the ones that come to mind

Character I’d like as my BFF: probably juno honestly or rita i love them both

Character that’s ruined my life: peter.............