Issue 286 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by NORMANITY.

Normanity is an uplifting new musical with theatrical roots from Jules Kleiser and Nige Reid. Join rockstar wannabe Norm as he navigates love life, work, and play…and a cult…and dastardly plots - with a superb array of memorable songs, this is not to be missed! Find Normanity at Wireless Theatre Company LTD. or on Wireless' feed wherever fine podcasts are.

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• ​Pod the North reports the Indigenous Media Association of Canada formed by five veteran media professionals​, "to unify Indigenous media professionals and advocate for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis storytellers...ensure safe, culturally supported spaces for truth-tellers, create a stronger and more inclusive media ecosystem, and amplify Indigenous voices in national and international dialogues." Personally, I'm taking any/all recommendations for Canadian indigenous audio drama because I haven't heard any yet, and I want to.
• ​BBC Sounds Alarm Over UK Scripted Funding Crisis: "Multiple Productions Are Stuck In Limbo" by Jake Kanter for Deadline. Listen, folks. NPR Playhouse shut down in 2002, and NPR has whittled its drama offerings down to Selected Shorts. Look at what's happened to the US. I know correlation doesn't equal causation, but still.
• The Portland Press Herald reports Audio drama company makes Maine sound scar(ier), even without a camera: ​​Fred Greenhalgh's Dagaz Media creates acclaimed, Maine-based audio tales of terror that go bump in your imagination. This article is paywalled, but you may be able to read it via your local library's website.
• If you needed an angry reason to keep sharing our stories, Podnews reports: "Nine (all male) podcast hosts interviewed Donald Trump last year, helped swing their mostly male audience to a Republican win in November. A group of reporters at Bloomberg, including Soundbite’s Ashley Carman, reviewed nearly 1,300 hours of footage to reveal what they talk about, how the network works together, who they appeal to, and how they’re now building support for Donald Trump’s political agenda. Here’s a gift link to read the whole thing." ​
• New fiction podcast roundups from The End: You Can't Shake A Speare At These Classics and Water Is Wet. ​

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Creator Resources

• Sick of hearing, "Oh, you gotta have video to make a podcast, can't have a podcast without video, nyah nyah nyah-nyah?" I know I am. Fortunately, Multitude Productions proves why you can't just stick a camera on your recording session and call it macaroni. Audio Is Different From Video, So We Filmed Our Audio Recording to Show You, by Eric Silver for Multitude Productions. For the record, Eric Silver looks very cute in a snuggly Duluth Trading Co. winter catalog way.
• ICYMI: Podnews reports, "Tenacity is a fork of the Audacity audio editor, without the Russian analytics data or licence dramas. A number of forks were produced after Audacity was acquired by Muse in 2021; most have now merged into this project."
• ​Catherine van West built a ribbon microphone from scratch.
• ​All Hear for January 2025 (The Everything List for Audio Opportunities) is ready for you.
• ​Podcasting With Impostor Syndrome? 7 Common Self Critiques and how to exorcise the demons.
• Updated for 2025: The Best Podcast Microphones for All Abilities and Budgets, by Colin Gray
• ​(Not) Writing Audio Drama Matt Kelland chronicles the continuing saga of learning to write audio drama, well. Can the obstacles and benefits described help you?
• Maybe Kelland should take Gabriel Urbina's classes.

Opportunities

• Wireless theatre needs YOUR monologues! "Hot on the heels of the Mum and Dad-toed heels of the Mummylogues and Daddylogues comes a request for THE GRANDOLOGUES! Send us your written 2-4 min monologues about being or having a grandparent. Funny, moving, set in the past or willing a future-go wherever writing takes you." Send Grandologues entries to sarah@wireless theatre by 28 Feb.
• ​Minnesotans, take note: Actors and writers needed. Wonderlust Productions is producing Season 2 of our Hidden Herald audio play series about the hidden stories of people and places in St. Paul's Downtown Cultural District. This year, we’ll also be adding stories about the Payne-Phalen neighborhood on the east side of St. Paul. Deadline: 10 Feb.
• Casting call: Hemophobia, season 2, horror anthology
• Casting call: Hal the Hedgehog and the Missing Song​
• ​NASA Audio Storytelling Internship is looking (and listening) for an audio storytelling intern who will help their team craft compelling content for NASA's Curious Universe, the agency’s flagship podcast. Looks like this is open to "educators and high school, undergraduate, and graduate students (age 16 and up)."
• The Extended Deadline for Tribeca Audio is 12 February.

Milestones & Debuts

• ​Alternative Stories presents Wasteland, a sci-fi miniseries from the Dex Legacy universe. Starring Marie-Claire Wood, Sarah Golding and Karim Kronfli, the show follows a group of mech pilots as they battle to rescue the survivors of a man-made catastrophe.
• ​Thin Places Radio Season 2 Finale Listeners finally found out what happened to The Host - the moment she forgot years ago that set her on this path.
• ​Femme Future Perfect is a scripted anthology series that unapologetically dives head-first into the horror, absurdity, and magic of the world as it is and as it might be.
• ​Tales of Harkshire Discover the wonderfully ordinary and delightfully unimportant lives of those who call the idyllic towns and villages of Harkshire home.
• ​The Junie & Jack Show Junie Itis is a rough-and-tumble, no-nonsense private investigator. Her life was quiet and calm now that she'd gotten all her cases closed. Until Jack walked back into her life, begging for help, plunging her into a world of crime, gangsters, and danger! Is he trying to win her back, or will he disappoint her again?​
• ​Happy Medium: the Adventures of Melancholy Helen Polly Psychic Medium Helen Polly chases ghosts across the US, solving their murders with a giant dog and a sassy (dead) drag queen, all while being pursued by a relentless gumshoe.
• debut

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