Fiction Podcast Weekly 293: Intel from Radiodays and SXSW, grants from Bemis Center and Deutsche Bank, and an International Women's Day panel

Issue 293 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by A Podcaster’s Guide to Bluesky and Mastodon: Reaching Listeners in a Post-X World.

How do you re-establish your audience and find new collaborators when the platform you’ve relied on feels like a dumpster fire? Kristina Bartold-Sorgota, co-founder and CEO of The Social Snippet, will dive into Bluesky and Mastodon with you to explore how you can keep your podcast thriving in a post-X era. A Podcaster’s Guide to Bluesky and Mastodon

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• Radio drama is a powerful medium. To endanger its future is tragic Gordon House, former head BBC Radio’s drama department, has written a powerful opinion piece for The Stage. “Audio drama is an art form in itself; …challenges writers, directors and actors to create absorbing original narratives using only words, music, sound effects and silence. Many plays fail that test; but the very best original audio dramas burn into your mind and leave images that are as powerful – and sometimes more powerful – than any seen in a visual medium.”

• 3 countries, 3 cases Radiodays Europe shared some case studies about the power of audio drama. Learn how Finnish audio drama challenges the political status quo, how Greek Gen Z students are the media, and how a fictional Danish town became an empire.

• 2025 Audio Drama Debuts A Sky Full of Pods shared a roundup of “fiction podcasts due to launch in 2025 that folks have very kindly told me about or that I’ve found information on,” which gives me hope.

• Transistor surveyed Gen Z podcast fans to learn about their listening preferences and habits. When asked what their “favorite” podcasts were, respondents most frequently mentioned the following podcasts: Welcome to Night Vale, The Magnus Archives, Malevolent, and The Magnus Protocol. And, for the digital advertising people, “Gen Z strongly prefers Spotify (56%) and overwhelmingly chooses audio-only formats (76%) over video.”

• Nick Hilton shares Audio vs Video: 2025's fiercest fight is its most pointless one.

• Zoom is taking preorders for the Podtrak P2 USB Recorder, which has 2 USB inputs, stays powered for 4 hours on 4 AA batteries, and is roughly the size of a smartphone.

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Creator Resources

• Sarah Rhea Werner’s Write Now is back with helpful strategies for creative writers and artists. Cynicism about Goals (163), Is “Good Enough” Good Enough? (164) and How to Start Writing (165) are ready to cheer you and gear you as you make your next masterpiece.

• Indie AF celebrates International Women’s Day 2025 with Allison Cossit, Stephanie Elie, Daisy McNamara, Francesca Mylod-Ford, and Helen Quigley, who discuss audio fiction, cross-promotion, and other strategies for helping podcasters succeed in a weary world.

• Recording Spaces for Creating Ambience in Radio Drama Voice Over Histories shares this video walkthrough of the recording spaces for The Archers, showing how different spaces and surfaces can be arranged to help create the right recording environment for different scenes.

• Podcasting @SXSW 2025 Once upon a time, South by Southwest was a music festival for independent artists. Now, few can afford to attend, let alone share their skills and talents there. Fortunately for independent podcasters, Sounds Profitable has posted a YouTube playlist of recordings of panels at the official Podcast Stage of SXSW 2025, recorded and edited by Nomono and marketed by OpusClip. Get the latest intelligence on how to make your podcast stand out.

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Opportunities

• Jar Audio’s 2025 Emerging Women In Podcasting Pilot Competition is open for applications. Deadline: 1 May 2025.

• Casting Call: Insta Empire, a Pocket FM production. The audition notice says the roles pay up to $30K for “an estimated 60 days of work.” Does this sound scammy to you? Gee whiz, what a mystery.

• Casting Call: Blood Rock Springs. Deadline: 28 March.

• DBACE or The Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurs is “a programme which aims to enable and celebrate U.K. based entrepreneurs to make a positive social impact through their creative ventures. They offer five winners up to £20,000, a 3-day business and leadership development training course and 12 months of tailored business support.” Deadline: 31st March.

• 2026 Sound Art + Experimental Music Artists-in-Residence Open Call: Spring, Summer, Fall Sessions “A unique experience for two artists working in sound, composition, voice, and experimental genres and tools. National and international artists participating in the program receive financial, technical, and administrative support, along with dedicated facilities for rehearsing, recording, and performing new works that expand the field of sound art and music.” Deadline: 14 April.

Milestones & Debuts

• The Gospel of Haven. A cult has thrived inside the living body of the god they worship, But as their shelter starts to crumble, devotion won’t be enough to keep them safe. Learn more: Why Bloody FM’s Upcoming ‘The Gospel of Haven’ Podcast Is Perfect for Our Times, at Bloody Disgusting

• ICYMI: Bayou’s Wrath. Leah and Michelle, New York appraisers who inherit a mysterious estate in Natchez, Mississippi. As they delve into their family's haunted past, they confront spirits from the past and uncover dark family secrets buried deep in the Southern soil.

• Burnout. A new sci-fi audio drama series from Alternative Stories.

• Congratulations to Tales of Fists & Fireballs, nominated for the 2025 Ambies in the Best Fiction Podcast category.

• Broken Veil. Two writers investigate weird, unsettling, possibly supernatural stories that have affected their friends, and explore the places where they might have happened.

• Istoria. A group of people on a spaceship wake from cryo-sleep over 100 years from their destination. They navigate hunger, paranoia, and power struggles to figure out what's happened, and to survive.

Keep sharing good stories.

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