Suggestions for podcast serials?
June 4, 2013 7:49 AM   Subscribe

I listen to audiobooks and podcasts a lot, both in my shop and on the road. I'm a big fan of zombie-themed stuff, but I also like things like Radiolab. I'm aware of the "We're Alive" series, but what OTHER serial / series podcasts are out there that I'm not aware of? Theme doesn't really matter, I just want hours and hours of the same characters or at least of a continuing adventure.
posted by TomMelee to Media & Arts (13 answers total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: It's concluded now, but The History of Rome is just what it says - a couple of hundred episodes that start with the founding of the city and its legendary kings, and runs up through the last Western emperor. It's really, really good, and it'll provide a long time full of narrative goodness.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:54 AM on June 4, 2013


Best answer: Though I can't vouch for it myself, friends of mine have enthusiastically recommended the three-season podcast Wormwood: a Serialized Mystery. One of them quoted from someone on Twitter: "Imagine Rex Harrison as Dr. House working for the X-Files investigating Mayberry built on a Hellmouth & you have Wormwood."
posted by theatro at 7:57 AM on June 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I sincerely hope you've already enjoyed Max Brooks' book "World War Z" in Audiobook form. It has a big cast of actors for the numerous first-person accounts and interviews from the zombie war it covers.
posted by Sunburnt at 8:01 AM on June 4, 2013


Best answer: Thrilling Adventure Hour is old timey radio serials with new timey humorisms.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:16 AM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: If you can tolerate zany, Improvised Star Trek is long (very long) form improv. The characters are consistent though there isn't any long narrative to keep you happy.

It's been over for years but the Failed Cities Monologues was pretty damn amazing.

Scott Sigler writes intelligent horror/sci fi and his Infected might be right up your alley. He podcasts most of his books but I don't know if Infected is still available for free.
posted by chairface at 8:26 AM on June 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I have been adoring The Pinkwater Podcast - Daniel Pinkwater reading his out of print YA and childrens books. It was a sad day when I finally caught up to the present date and now I have wait to see what happens next - how will Eugene Winkleman get off the Flying Piggie!???
posted by Mchelly at 8:30 AM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: To expand on the Thrilling Adventure Hour suggestion about, specifically check out the Beyond Belief episodes (with Paul F. Tompkins and Padget Brewster). I have listened to them multiple times because they are so funny and so charming! Lots of through-jokes if you listen to multiple episodes. Some examples:
Vampire Weekend, with guests Dave Foley and Bruce McCulloch (Kids in the Hall)
Djinn and Tonic, with Joe Mantegna and James Urbaniak.
The Haunting of Howard Schroeder, with James Urbaniak.
(and available on iTunes)

(The other serials on TAH are also good.)
posted by Glinn at 9:25 AM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: If gender bending fantasy speculative fiction is your bent, you might try Metamor City. And when you've listened through there, I know that there are a few episodes of Nobilis Erotica set in that universe, too.

J. Daniel Sawyer has a couple of podcast serialized stories, his political thrillers tend to be a little dark and violent and don't necessarily match my views and experiences of how people really behave under such circumstances, but I still listened to 'em all the way through, and then bought the ebook of the next one in the series that he hasn't podcast serialized yet, and am still waiting on the final installment.

They can be a little goofy, but I also found Christiana Ellis's tales Space Casey and Nina Kimberly The Merciless entertaining.
posted by straw at 10:02 AM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: My guilty pleasure is The Archers. (You did say theme doesn't really matter.) “Contemporary drama in a rural setting from the world's longest running soap opera. Follow the residents of the fictional farming community of Ambridge.”

I use TuneIn Radio Pro’s sleep timer to fall asleep to BBC Radio 4 dramas and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater (not the same characters, but the same voice actors).
posted by editorgrrl at 12:20 PM on June 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Awesome everyone! Thanks so much! I'll get on all of these.

I consider myself a zombie junkie, I've read almost everything worth reading in the genre that I've been able to find. FWIW, I really can't stand World War Z, although I appreciate the suggestion, it diverges from realism when it talks about them surviving underwater, and that just turns me off. I know, right, unrealistic zombies? Whodathunkit.

Siegler's whole infected series was pretty nifty, a weird take on the genre, and definitely some of the most graphically disturbing books I've ever read. Definitely worse then The Wasp Factory, which gets a lot of cred for being super disturbing. It's funny because "We're Alive" is sooooo camp and silly, but I think I like it because it gets into the guts and bolts of day-to-day life after the apocalypse. (Whereas Day by Day Armageddon is just...horrible.)

If anyone else wants zombie recommendations, hit me up and I'll give you a list :)
posted by TomMelee at 12:30 PM on June 4, 2013


Best answer: Lately I've been deep into Welcome to Night Vale (previously).

chairface: "Scott Sigler writes intelligent horror/sci fi and his Infected might be right up your alley."

Yeah, if you want to feel itchy for days afterwards. *shudder*

posted by Lexica at 7:57 PM on June 4, 2013


Response by poster: In case anyone is still reading, another user sent me a message with his project, which I think is also pretty nifty. He was concerned about self promotion, but I think it deserves mention---here's the link:

It's set in a Welsh village where a new supermarket opens, interesting humor and diverging plot lines.


http://www.inearentertainment.com/production/supermarket-matters

posted by TomMelee at 6:41 AM on June 6, 2013


Hey, here's another one I've listened to: Nathan Lowell's Tales of the Solar Clipper is available as a podcast, if you like your Horatio Alger stories mashed up with Two Years Before The Mast in space. And as with my previous suggestions, if you start poking through the links to friends you'll find yourself inundated in awesome podcasts and similar labors of love.
posted by straw at 9:04 AM on June 7, 2013


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