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
Within the Wires
“Season 4, Cassette 1: Spring 1993”
Release date: 9/10/19 (Episode debuting tomorrow)
Runtime: 18 minutes
See site for transcript
Within the Wires returns this week with a new story for its new season. I was given access to the first three episodes in advance. Set in a strange, semi-post-apocalyptic world, Within the Wires weaves each season together narratively while allowing each to be its own full story. This season is made up of tapes from a rebel leading a commune to her daughter in hopes to keep her safe. As always, this podcast remains fascinating in how it blends high stakes with intimate, usually casual recordings. In these episodes, the recordings are more direct and give more away about the world, answering some questions listeners have been wondering about since the first season.
Updates
International Podcast Month shares 60 episodes plus daily articles throughout September
International Podcast Month occurs every September, bringing listeners special episodes from their favorite podcasts every day, as well as articles, blog posts, and giveaways. You can follow the goings-on with International Podcast Month on Twitter and on their website.
No Such Things Productions announces a new fiction podcast, Primordial Deep
No Such Things Productions, which brought us the magnificent and form-breaking Janus Descending, has announced its upcoming fiction podcast, Primordial Deep:
Primordial Deep is science fiction action/thriller, set in the expanded universe of Janus Descending. When a long extinct sea creature washes up on the shores of Coney Island, marine biologist Dr. Marella Morgan is contacted by a secret organization to investigate the origins of the creature’s sudden and unnatural resurgence. Soon, she and a team of explorers find themselves living on the research station The Tiamat, traveling along the abyssal plains as they search for answers far below the waves. But there are dangers in these ancient waters. Reawakened prehistoric monsters are rising from the deep — jaws wide and waiting, and in the darkness, something is stirring.
Korn–yeah, that Korn–launches a new fiction podcast . . .
No, seriously. The Verge writes about the upcoming podcast–which we know very little about.
. . . And Kobe Bryant is making a fiction podcast for kids
Last year, Kobe Bryant started a fiction podcast for kids with an eye for, unsurprisingly, sports. Now, it’s back for season 2.
The Punies is a weekly Saturday morning scripted audio show about a group of diverse and sports-loving children who gather together each week to play and compete in a different sport. Each athlete has his or her own persona from the: never-quite-succeeding but always trying Puny Pete; overly-competitive B.B.; oddball Gordo; constant prankster Clark; Kimberly who of course “knows it all”; the always bedazzled Lilly; and Season 2 newcomer Viktor who no one quite yet knows what to make of…This season, The Punies will take on a whole new world of sports including BMX racing, go-cart riding, gymnastics, swimming, and more.
Personally conceived of by Bryant – who just welcomed his fourth child and athlete-in-training – The Punies are a hilarious and fun modern take on the children’s classic radio show format, complete with musical sound effects, (fictional) commercial breaks, sports commentators, and family-friendly, positive and inspiring lessons for young listeners.
Cast members include Christoph Sanders (star of Last Man Standing, Ghost Whisperer), Diamond White (Transformers: Rescue Bots, Disney’s The Lion Guard), Suzie McGrath (BBC’s Eastenders, Law and Order: UK, and Star Wars: Resistance) Flula Borg (Tangled, Boss Baby) and more.
A RadioPublic embed for the trailer, which you can also find here.
Lifehacker wants you to listen to audio drama
Nick Douglas talks up the greatness of audio drama via Lifehacker. Disclosure, I’m listed here, as well as Radio Drama Revival, which I work on.
Rose Drive finishes its first season with a three-part, feature film length finale
Mystery-thrilled Rose Drive completed its first season with a three-part finale clocking in at just about 2 hours and 15 minutes. You can read my review of the finale on The AV Club’s Podmass.
Podcast conference Werk It criticized for its consideration of nonbinary creators
https://twitter.com/mollywoodstock/status/1169765519261437952
Reminder that, like Woodstock says here, nonbinary people are not just “basically women.” I’ve had similar complaints about the She Podcasts conference.
The CBC launches lesson plans for podcasts
The CBC has created lesson plans to help teachers bring podcasts The Secret Life of Canada and Tai Asks Why into their classrooms. The CBC has also put out an ask for teachers to tell them what podcasts they’d love to see in lesson plans.
BBC World News and The Sundance Institute collaborate on the new podcast Detours
In partnership with The Sundance Institute, BBC World News has released its new nonfiction podcast, Detours:
Detours take us off the main roads of our lives, and over five episodes we will follow people who didn’t end up where they expected.
We’ll meet Greeks sending dead relatives over the mountains to Bulgaria, wild elephants forced off their feeding paths in Assam, India, people on the move from Africa seeking better lives in the USA, a young Rohingya man stuck on an island in the Pacific, and a student making Fake News in Macedonia.
Campaigns
VALENCE crowdfunding its first season
Upcoming fiction podcast VALENCE (disclosure: this is my upcoming podcast with Hug House) is crowdfunding its first season via IndieGogo. The campaign has a flexible goal of $4000 USD and will be running until September 30th, 2019. VALENCE is an urban fantasy podcast focusing on themes of mental health, found families, and data security. The cast and crew of VALENCE are made up of primarily people of marginalized demographics including queer people, disabled people, people of color, and people who fall under all of those categories. VALENCE‘s funding will go directly to supporting the cast and crew of the podcast.
On Spec crowdfunding its first season
Journalism podcast On Spec is crowdfunding its first season via Kickstarter. The campaign has an all-or-nothing goal of $20,000 USD and will be running until October 4th, 2019. “On Spec is a platform for independently produced long form documentary storytelling in a bi-weekly podcast. We’re a team of eight freelance journalists from diverse backgrounds, living across the globe, who pursue stories because we care about them and know that they deserve a wider audience.”
Wil Williams Writes 