Fiction podcasts for new listeners
The database contains thousands of podcasts. That can be a bit overwhelming - where on earth do you start? This page is intended to give you something of an overview of some of the bigger/more popular/impactful podcasts, that might be considered a "starter pack". Something here should tickle your interest, and then you can start looking for similar things. It's been somewhat crowdsourced from other interested parties, but you can always Contact me if you think there are things that should be on the list.
Note - these aren't always "the best", meaning fully professional voice actors, high budget soundscaping, or pristine recording. But they're all interesting for different reasons.
36 Questions
Possibly the most famous podcast musical, and one I go back to relatively frequently.
Official synopsis: 36 Questions, a three-part podcast musical starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton. 36 Questions is produced by Two-Up, the producers of Limetown and The Wilderness. Thank you for listening.
Archive 81
Another one that transferred to Netflix, but was not well received due to character changes.
Official synopsis: Archive 81 is a fiction podcast about horror, cities, and the subconscious. New episodes will be released every other Wednesday. Start from "01 - A Body In A New Place".
Critical Role
One of the most popular actual play podcasts, helped along by being primarily staffed by famous voice actors, enough to make turning up at conventions they're at a little bit annoying. "Critters".
Official synopsis: Each week, our collection of deeply nerdy storytellers take you on epic journeys across the multiverse in our critically acclaimed actual play podcasts that use tabletop role-playing games to tell ever-evolving, improvised stories, including the complete collection of Critical Role’s Campaign 1.
Cryptic Canticles presents Dracula
An interesting adaptation of Dracula, releasing each episode on the associated date of "chapter" entry, akin to Dracula Daily, but with dialogue spoken by individual actors. Repeated every year.
Official synopsis: Cryptic Canticles brings you Bram Stoker's Dracula presented as a Radio Play, released on the days of the journal entries in podcast format. The text is taken from Bram Stoker's classic novel, but presented in character with enhanced audio and music effects.
Darkest Night
Wins the prize for the most "what is this show I can't remember the name of" questions on r/AudioDrama.
Official synopsis: A binaural audio drama that places you, the listener, at the center of a recovered memory that sounds as though it’s happening around you in real time. Each chapter delves into the last memories of the recently deceased, slowly revealing a horrifying master plan.
Escape Pod
One of the earliest podcasts, and a very longrunner, presenting readings of (often new) science fiction. Podcastle and Pseudopod are related podcasts of fantasy and horror stories respectively.
Girl In Space
As it sounds. A female-driven show, with a very strong fanbase and a creator who went on to do educactional resources.
Official synopsis: Nothing fancy here — just the simple audio diary of a girl in space. Also, there’s this weird and potentially ominous light in the distance that seems to be growing steadily closer. Listen for science, guns, trust, anti-matter, truth, beauty, inner turmoil, and delicious cheeses. It’s all here. In space.
A long-running improv show, sitting between actual play and scripted drama, set in a magical fantasy world.
Official synopsis: Arnie Niekamp fell through a dimensional portal behind a Burger King into the fantastical land of Foon. He's still getting a slight wifi signal, so he uploads a weekly podcast from the tavern the Vermilion Minotaur where he interviews wizards, monsters and adventurers. It's a major discovery!
Homecoming
(I think) the first fiction podcast to be transferred to a TV show (the main aim of many of the bigger production companies now). Unfortunately no longer available as a podcast, as it was made by Gimlet, who were bought by spotify. You'll have to go there to listen to it.
King Falls AM
A show similar to Welcome to Night Vale, with a spooky radio show. Famous for its early episodes which did a lot of impressive character work and a Twin Peaks style weird build. Also famously fell apart.
Official synopsis: King Falls AM centers on a lonely little mountain town's late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants. New shows available the 1st and 15th of every month! Be sure to start from Sammy's first show (May 1st, 2015) to stay up to date with all your King Falls favorites.
Knifepoint Horror
Often pointed at as containing some of spookiest single voiced horror stories.
Official synopsis: Tales of supernatural suspense written and produced by Soren Narnia.
LifeAfter/The Message
A very old company getting into the new things, specifically the GE Theater having a go at science fiction.
Official synopsis: The Message and its sequel, LifeAfter, take listeners on journeys to the limits of technology. In The Message, an alien transmission from decades ago becomes an urgent puzzle with life or death consequences. In LifeAfter, Ross, a low level employee at the FBI, spends his days conversing online with his wife Charlie – who died eight months ago. But the technology behind this digital resurrection leads Ross down a dangerous path that threatens his job, his own life, and maybe even the world.
Limetown
One of the more famous horror shows, short and impactful, but with a poorly regarded second season. Worth listening to the first season to get a real sense of what can be done though.
Official synopsis: Ten years ago, over three hundred men, women and children disappeared from a small town in Tennessee, never to be heard from again. In this podcast, American Public Radio reporter Lia Haddock asks the question once more, "What happened to the people of Limetown?"
Marvel's Wolverine: The Long Night
One of the biggest media entrances to podcasts, with Marvel having a go at getting the short angry man into your earholes.
Official synopsis: Special Agents Sally Pierce and Tad Marshall investigate a series of mysterious deaths in the seaside town of Burns, Alaska, following the arrival of a strange newcomer - a loner by the name Logan.
Midst
Uses a very unusual presentation - it's all narration, but it's three people, bouncing off each other, telling a story from different viewpoints and in different styles. Unique, in how it does it I think.
Official synopsis: Three mischievous narrators spin a surreal, reality-bending, sci-fantasy space western about a crotchety outlaw, a struggling cultist, and a diabolical bastard making awful decisions in a world on the edge of disaster.
RPGMP3
Possibly the first actual play podcast? Started out as just hosted as MP3 files on a website, but transitioned to an RSS feed very early. I certainly remember World's Largest Dungeon from back in the day.
The Adventure Zone
A "spin-off" of the McElroy Brothers, which naturally equates to quite a large audience.
Official synopsis: Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy from My Brother, My Brother and Me have recruited their dad Clint for a campaign of high adventure. Join the McElroys as they find their fortune and slay an unconscionable number of ... you know, kobolds or whatever in ... The Adventure Zone.
The Black Tapes
Helped popularise the "fake true crime" genre. In this show, a Mulder and Scully style pair investigate spooky cases, and happen to find some of the supernatural things that they think are debunked actually aren't.
Official synopsis: The Black Tapes is a weekly podcast from the creators of Pacific Northwest Stories, and is hosted by Alex Reagan. The Black Tapes Podcast is a serialized docudrama about one journalist's search for truth, her subject's mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both. Do you believe?
The Bright Sessions
A slow-burner which launched the career of Lauren Shippen, who has become one of the more successful female creators in the field (having been commissioned by Luminary to produce a show exclusively for their initial app release and also worked on other major features). About a psychiatrist helping teens who are essentially the X-Men.
Official synopsis: Start with episode 101. Dr. Bright provides therapy for the strange and unusual; their sessions have been recorded for research purposes.
The Edge of Sleep
An example of the attempt to get popularity to shows through celebrity involvement - QCode famously do "pilot" series, aiming to sell the IP as TV. This show used Markiplier, a popular youtube to try and attract an additional audience.
Official synopsis: When a night watchman finishes his shift at work, he is terrified to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died. Now he and a band of survivors must stay awake and uncover the secret of this global epidemic, before they fall asleep.
The Fourth Ambit
Existed before podcasts, as a standalone audio drama, but brought back to a second life as a podcast. An example of how things can be seen again, yet still be as good as anything new, due to the nature of audio compared to video, which can look outdated very easily. Compare lots of old time radio.
Official synopsis: Murder, blackmail, conspiracy - and it may all be orchestrated by an Artificial Intelligence. Years ahead of its time, The Fourth Ambit is still an exciting and thoughtful exploration of the future of technology.
The Lovecraft Investigations
The, at this point, relatively cliché approach of fake investigation and "show within a show" framing horror is given something of an elevation by the BBC production values. They have a lot more budget than others, and this is a good demonstration of that.
Official synopsis: An investigation into witchcraft, the occult and secret government operations. From H.P. Lovecraft.
The Magnus Archives
A very popular show featuring an archivist reading "statements" which equate to short horror stories that slowly connect together. Ran for 200 episodes, built a massive fanbase (partly due to the fun of building red string boards), and resulted in the Rusty Quill Network.
Official synopsis: “Make your statement, face your fear.” A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back…
The NoSleep Podcast
Many podcasts try to exist solely by reading stories from reddit, and other creepypasta, but this is the biggest, and most importantly actually offers credit and pay to writers, whereas many others simply ignore ownership.
Official synopsis: The NoSleep Podcast is a multi-award winning anthology series of original horror stories, with rich atmospheric music to enhance the frightening tales.
The Once and Future Nerd
Interesting example of an "Isekai" (or more accurately a portal fantasy), a genre which used to be popular in Western literature, but has now appeared as a strong favourite of anime.
Official synopsis: When three high school students from modern-day Pennsylvania find themselves trapped in a world of wizards, elves, and feudal intrigue, they must learn to survive in their new surroundings, and undertake an epic quest to save the world from the encroaching forces of chaos.
The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Somewhat unusual, being primarily recorded in front of a live audience, harking back to early radio days. Another very long runner, starting in 2010.
Official synopsis: The world's favorite new time podcast in the style of old-time radio. The Thrilling Adventure Hour anthologizes the thrilling adventures of space cowboy Sparks Nevada (Marc Evan Jackson), married mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle (Paul F. Tompkins and Paget Brewster), all-American hero Jefferson Reid (Nathan Fillion), and more.
The Truth
Very long running anthology show, one of the earliest to be funded by a large network, specifically Radiotopia.
Official synopsis: THE TRUTH makes movies for your ears. They're short stories that are sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always intriguing. Every story is different, but they all take you to unexpected places using only sound. If you're new, some good starting places are: Silvia's Blood, That's Democracy, Moon Graffiti, Tape Delay, or whatever's most recent.
The White Vault
A horror show following groups of people investigating strange parts of the world and the things that still lurk in them. Notable for its very international cast and multiple language characters.
Official synopsis: Explore the far reaches of the world’s horrors in the audio drama podcast The White Vault. Follow the collected records of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed in the vast white wastes of Svalbard and unravel what lies waiting in the ice below.
Tumanbay
Notable for being a show that was started as a BBC radio drama and then expanded into a podcast. The BBC have started running things only through their own app "Sounds" now, or at least for an initial exclusive period.
Official synopsis: A vast empire threatened by rebellion. A fiction podcast on an epic scale set in the most powerful city on earth...
We're Alive
Probably the biggest fiction podcast of all time, with the highest number of downloads (feel free to correct me!), this is a Zombie apocalypse show akin to The Walking Dead, although the zombies here tend to be a bit more novel. Set some of the standards for audio production.
Official synopsis: Listen to the entire epic series, which follows Survivors in Los Angeles after the world has been turned upside down. It begins with “A Story of Survival” which spans from Chapters 1-48. Our survivors band together, fortify a safe haven known as the Tower, and discover that the Infected are far from the biggest threat they will have to face.
Welcome to Night Vale
One of the most popular podcasts using the "show within a show" format, presented as a local radio show in Night Vale, a spooky town in which lots of weird things happen. Managed to get to the point where it ran multiple live shows, and has a very well-liked "host".
Official synopsis: Twice-monthly community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, where every conspiracy theory is true. Turn on your radio and hide. Never listened before? It's an ongoing radio show. Start with the current episode, and you'll catch on in no time.
Wolf 359
Very long-running science fiction dramedy, which did an excellent version of the "growing the beard" trope, as it started very silly and then built a complex and impactful plot. A good example of "acting for two" in the early days.
Official synopsis: Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski, insane science officer Hilbert, and Hephaestus Station's sentient, often malfunctioning operating system Hera.
Wooden Overcoats
Perhaps the best sitcom podcast (surely the most popular), about two rival funeral homes.
Official synopsis: Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family’s failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor – the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in business…
Some information on this page inspired by Ella Watts' podcast research study.