Fiction Stories - Timber.fm

Netflix and Thrill

How an affinity for sound and storytelling led to Archive 81's success

First released in 2016, Archive 81 is a found footage horror podcast co-created by Dan Powell and Marc Sollinger. The plot follows Dan Turner, an archivist who restores damaged videotapes. The job pulls him into a peculiar, cultish world where […]

Film, Literature, and Podcasts Fiction

January 13, 2022 by Michael Seidlinger

How to Make a Podcast About the Future When It’s Coming So Quickly

Sometimes, it feels like a terrifying future awaits. Rose Eveleth’s Flash Forward podcast (and book and other projects) offers a different perspective.

Everything is bad. There was a Biblical-style swarm of locusts in East Africa last year. The pandemic is still going. Big Tech could be tracking our faces at every moment. Every day seems to bring a new headline about how […]

Career Podcasters News and Politics Fiction Science

April 20, 2021 by Angela Chen

Shannon Cason Gets Honest

You'll hang on his every word when you start your guaranteed binge listen

For new listeners to Shannon Cason’s Homemade Stories, it might be worth going as far back as 2014’s “Bath House” episode. In that story Cason, a straight man, explains why he went to a bathhouse with a gay friend: he […]

Fiction Entertainment Comedy

November 23, 2020 by Jesse Staniforth

Why It Pays to Be Nice in Podcasting

How quirky British audio sitcom Wooden Overcoats built a global fan base

This was supposed to be Wooden Overcoats’ year. The team behind this British independent audio sitcom had successfully crowdfunded their fourth and final season and planned to launch it on September 24, 2020, the show’s fifth anniversary. There were going […]

Fiction Comedy

November 16, 2020 by Caroline Crampton

There’s Something about <i>RomComPods</i>

There’s Something about RomComPods

How a writing duo found a gap in the podcast landscape and made a hit

Until early 2018, Becca Freeman listened to podcasts (an early favorite was The Great Debates), but never thought she would someday launch two of her own. The Brooklyn-based marketing consultant is the co-creator of Bad on Paper with blogger Grace […]

Fiction

October 26, 2020 by Abigail Koffler

A Close Look at a Podcast Kickstarter Campaign

The team behind the upcoming Unseen shares their tips, their worries, and the gamified marketing that led to their success.

When Long Story Short Productions launched the Kickstarter for their upcoming urban fantasy fiction podcast, Unseen, they prepared for the worst. Founders Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat, and Zach Valenti knew they’d have some fans who were likely to support them: […]

Fiction

September 24, 2020 by Wil Williams

Audiences Clamor for Fiction Podcasts

How Jude Brewer's Storybound podcast snowballed from thousands to millions of downloads

Take an author, have them read their story, add music and sound effects to create a narrative soundscape, and presto, you’ve got Storybound. If it sounds simple, that’s because it is. And yet, this simple podcast began netting a million […]

Fiction

August 18, 2020 by Brent Rose

This Show is Drugs for Your Ears

Why Ross Sutherland's Imaginary Advice podcast is so good it should probably be illegal

A robot, force-fed Jerry Seinfeld routines, performs a stand-up set that starts out unfunny, veers into the meta, then becomes wistful and deeply melancholic. A chain-smoking exorcist named Dave Stewart takes on a challenging case of demonic possession, armed with […]

Fiction Art

August 11, 2020 by Shruti Ravindran

In the Adventure Zone

How one RPG podcast went from paternity leave filler to its own blockbuster franchise

Prefer to listen instead? We add new stories regularly to the podcast Timber—Stories for Podcasters. To the average podcast listener, the process of finding a role-playing game (RPG) podcast is not like landing on whatever the new Serial is. For […]

Comedy Fiction Podcast 🎧

July 16, 2020 by Shruti Ravindran