Bear's Audacious Audio Drama Recommendations for the Discerning Listener

[Dungeon Delver]

Lost in the Blip of 2021 (and not revived because-- reasons) is a recommendation thread from yours truly (the titular Bear) about the ever deepening world of audio dramas. While I don't have the same amount of time to listen to them as I used to (still working on finding ways to listen to more) I've still compiled about 5000+ hours worth of listening and I think I know a good story when I hear one. Every day the list of audio dramas being produced is growing, both from independent creators working out of their closets to huge productions with big named actors attached. I, the Audio Bear, will be your guide through this ever expanding jungle. Each week I'll bring you five or six audio dramas from a varying array of genres that I think you'll enjoy.

1) The Magnus Archives - probably the biggest (and best) horror podcast ever made. What is it you fear? Are you brave enough to tell us? Over 200 episodes and 5 seasons, this will keep your horror bug fed for quite some time
2) The Harrowing - staring Joanne Froggatt (Anna from Downton Abbey), I've only listened to the first episode of this but it's already giving me Midnight Mass vibes with quiet, creeping, horror and isolation
3) Alice Isn't Dead - okay this is turning into a best of horror podcast recommendation to start but I'm okay with that, Alice Isn't Dead is an amazing story, told in 1st person, about a truck driver looking for her missing wife along America's backroads and forgotten highways
4) Archive 81 - you might have seen the tv series adaptation pop up in your Netflix feed recently, check out the original and relive the best found footage horror podcast ever
5) Down - Definitely Human are my favorite producers of podcasts, bar none, this is their foray into full on horror and paranoia, a story about what lies at the bottom of a hole in the Antarctic
6) Old Gods of Appalachia - a midwestern gothic delight, a dozen interwoven stories about the darkness that existed long before we got to the Appalachian mountains

[Dungeon Delver]

For this week's audio drama recommendations, I'm going to look toward a singular production company, The Whisperforge. The Whisperforge was the first audio drama production company I came across (though from from the first production company out there) and it was the first that made me realize that independent audio dramas, i.e. those not produced by major Hollywood studios), could be a part of a huge, interconnected web of writers, producers, actors, and audio wizards. The audio drama community is huge, you just have to know where to start looking; once you do, you will find so much buried treasure you won't know what to do with yourself. You might think I say that in jest, but I will again point you to my 10,000+ hours of listening experience that I didn't have a few years ago. I found the X on the map.

1. The Far Meridian - I owe a lot to this podcast, the story, the ideas, the simple, quiet drama, it's all what makes this hopepunk, magical realism story feel so personal. Peri is an agoraphobe who lives in a lighthouse, but that lighthouse starts to move around, and Peri needs to find her brother.
2. CARAVAN - Definitely on the mature side of things, Caravan tells the story of a group of misfit travelers moving through a canyon beset by monstrous and demonic forces. It blends risqué humor with human connection and heroics.
3. StarTripper!! - Hopepunk meets Star Trek, sorta, join Feston as he travels the galaxy looking to meet new and interesting people. This is a podcast that makes me deliriously happy, without giving too much away, there's a moment at the end of the first season that made me fist pump the air in the middle of a 7 mile run.
4) Remarkable Providences - You might think we've heard enough about the Salem Witch Trials, but I guarantee you, you've never heard it told like this. Remarkable Providences is a mix of historical lecture and fictionalized retelling that gets into the human (and less than human) side of the story.
5) ars PARADOXICA - Toted as a love letter to physics, fiction, and time-travel, this story takes the listener from a future time period were things are more or less rosy, back to the middle of the Second World War where things are not so rosy, add to that a helping of queer romance and you have a dramatic success on your hands.
6) Rogue Runners - If you liked the game Hades or you're a fan of Greek mythology, you will probably like this show, it's different from the rest, being an actual play D&D podcast, but it has many of the same actors and producers from the other shows so there's still some great story telling going on amidst the dice rolling.
7) brimstone valley mall - It's the late 90s, the world is on the edge of great change and progress, unless the demons that work at the mall have anything to say about it.