Wil Williams Writes

This Week in Podcasts is a weekly roundup of the goings-on in podcasting, from highlights to pitfalls to updates and more. Have updates or crowdfunding campaigns you want listed? Check here for directions on how to get in touch.

Highlights

The Two Princes
Full first season
Release date: 6/4/19
No transcript available

New Gimlet fiction production The Two Princes is a surprisingly delightful, family-friendly fantastical adventure. Released in full, it makes for great marathon-listening, and could promote some important conversations between parents and their LGBTQ+ kids. You can read my full review of The Two Princes here.

Updates

Spotify Announces Podcast Partnership with the Obamas

Barack and Michelle Obama have signed a deal with Spotify to produce a new slate of podcasts for their media company, Higher Grounds Productions.

Hug House Productions Drops a Trailer for Scoring Magic

Hug House Productions, a podcast production collective of myself, Anne Baird, and Katie Youmans, has released the trailer for our first podcast, Scoring Magic: a documentary about the making of an audio drama, and that audio drama itself. Scoring Magic‘s first episode will be released on June 22nd, 2019.

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

Fool and Scholar Launches VAST Horizon

Fool and Scholar has launched VAST Horizon: “VAST Horizon is the newest release by Fool and Scholar Productions (The White Vault, Dark Dice, Liberty). Nolira is an agronomist tasked with establishing agriculture in a new solar system, but when she wakes up on a now- empty colony ship, the whole of her plan disappears. The ship has been set adrift, with numerous mission-critical problems requiring immediate attendance outside of her area of expertise. Nolira is aided by the ship’s malfunctioning AI, which acts as her confidant and companion during the fight for survival.”

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

Castbox Releases Season 2 of This Sounds Serious

Castbox has released the second season of This Sounds Serious, a fiction true crime satire: “In season two, Missing Melissa, listeners once again follow host Gwen Radford, voiced by Arrow and Suits actress Carly Pope, as she tries to get the bottom of yet another peculiar unsolved crime. This time Gwen is searching for Melissa Turner, the country’s most missing person, who has disappeared under extremely strange circumstances. Meanwhile, 400 miles away, Jimmy Kline is staging the longest bank robbery in Oregon history. Gwen spots a connection between these two isolated incidents, uncovering a mystery that appears to end in murder.”

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

National Geographic Launches Overheard at National Geographic Tomorrow

National Geographic will launch Overheard at National Geographic on June 11th, 2019: “Hosted by charismatic National Geographic photo editor and notable Twitter
presence Vaughn Wallace, the short-form, fact-based podcast will gives listeners an inside look into the inner-workings of Nat Geo, while tapping into the unique experiences of their esteemed Explorers, scientists, and reporters.”

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

American Public Media to Launch Spectacular Failures Hosted By Lauren Ober

American Public Media will launch Spectacular Failures on June 17th, 2019: “Lauren tackles some of the most spectacular business failures of all time, and what could have been done to avoid them. Some of these stories are shocking, some funny. There is something so universal in failing that you can’t help but connect to it. Essentially, Lauren will cover big businesses that have gone bad. From the mishandled launch of MoviePass to the tax fraud and sexual assault allegations of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Heritage USA amusement park, just to name a few.”

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

Fable and Folly to Launch Civilized

Fable and Folly will launch Civilized on June 12th, 2019: “Civilized is an improvised dark comedy sci-fi podcast recorded in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It’s a full-cast audio fiction series with 12 episodes planned per season. Each episode will be approximately 12-15 minutes in duration. Season 1 will begin on June 12, 2019. Synopsis: Humanity’s final hope lies in terraforming a new world. A fleet of engineering ships are sent in advance of the colony ships sure to follow in their wake. But one lone ship becomes separated from the fleet and crash lands on an alien planet.

A RadioPublic embed of the episode, which can also be found here

Campaigns

ENDING TODAY!: Art history podcast Accession crowdfunding its second season

Accession‘s second season will be a road trip themed around the concept of “home,” travelling across the United States to examine different works of art that give commentary on what home means. The IndieGogo campaign has a flexible goal of $2500 USD and will be running until June 10th, 2019.

Childish: A Podcast Musical crowdfunding its first season

Podcast production house Whale Bus (The Van, Story Blocks, Looking Back at Tomorrow) is crowdfunding the first season of their upcoming musical audio drama, Childish: A Podcast Musical via IndieGogo. The campaign has a flexible goal of $2000 USD and will be running until June 28th, 2019. The podcast will be about “A college student wants to be the world’s most famous rapper [Childish Gambino], so he becomes an RA.”