Live events in London and Chicago, new Dex Legacy and The Peek with Samuel Pepys, plus grant and fellowship money, casting calls and more

Issue 311 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by The Indie Podcasters’ Survey.

Just who is Lewitt, the company sponsoring our Indie Podcasters’ survey? Lewitt believes that great sound is for everyone and strives toward an inclusive workplace and a sustainable future. When you share your podcasting experiences in the Indie Podcasters’ Survey, not only can you enter to win gear from Lewitt, you can also get a copy of our Podcast Growth book, with tons of strategies to share your story with the people who want it most. Take the Indie Podcasters’ Survey so we can bring you more strategies to share your story with the world.

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• Is this suitable for an audio drama with multi-track audio? Podnews reports, “The next version of Apple Podcasts will include ‘enhance dialogue,’ Apple announced at WWDC. But how does it sound, and what does it do? Here’s a little demo using the Podnews Daily podcast, which has music underneath it. Unlike other apps with similar features, this feature essentially removes all background noise (even music), as well as normalizes voices with different volumes.” I’m really curious about how this affects audio drama. If anyone has a link to the public beta, please let me know.

• Why Triton Digital Exec Sharon Taylor Thinks Podcasting Is Losing Sight of Its Audio Origins by Garrett Searight for Barrett Media. “…my message to the industry is, ‘Hey, don’t forget that you’ve got a ton of people who love audio.'”

• Congratulations to the Beef & Dairy Network on ten years of raising the bar for audio agri-comedy!

• Congratulations to Hugo Pierre Martin and the team who bring The Diaries of Netovicius the Vampire to life, for receiving a grant to hire local artists from The Awesome Foundation!

• Chicago! Audio Flux will present a live show on July 31st at Sleeping Village.

• London! Camlann will perform live at King's Place with a brand new original prequel episode on Sunday, 7th September at 2 pm, before Wooden Overcoats celebrate their 10th anniversary that evening with a brand new episode at 7 pm.

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Creator Resources

• Indie Podcaster Grants and Funding Opportunities 2025 (UK & USA) compiled by Katie Paterson

• Making Waves All about the Transom Science Storytelling Workshop and Live Story Slam. “We believe that a good story can change the world, and that it’s the only thing that ever really has. We believe that there is tremendous power in learning the craft of storytelling, and a special power in sharing stories in community. And, at any rate, storytelling is the thing we know how to do. And it felt imperative to bring our skills to bear on this moment in time.”

• How to Improve Your Mixes in 7 Steps, by Lewitt

• With Dynamic Insertions, Your Archive Never Gets Old. Updated for 2025!

• Colin says you should ignore these 15 podcasting tips.

• The podcast marketing tool everyone forgets breaks down the character count displayed for titles and descriptions in Apple podcasts and Spotify, and demonstrates why “in this episode” or “this is an immersive audio drama about” and other stock introductions are a bad idea and YOU SHOULD GET TO THE POINT, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. /rant

• Got screen fatigue? I know I do. Fortunately, you can get the highlights of The Fiction Podcast Weekly in audio form. Check out The Fiction Podcast Weekly wherever you get your podcasts.

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Opportunities

• Casting call: 'Who the F**k Killed My Sister' Season 2. Listing expires 22nd of August.

• Casting Call: 'Mythos Anthology’ Podcast, VO of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Listing expires 24th of August.

• The Behear Audio Awards “celebrate everything that is good and wholesome about the Audio industry.” Deadline: 31st of September.

• ICYMI: The MØRNING People Fund is a quarterly £4000 grant for international artists, creatives, dreamers and innovators, designed to fuel the boundary-pushing work that keeps culture alive. MØRNING is a creative strategy studio “on a mission to make the world a bit less shit than it was yesterday.” Deadline: 1st August.

• Get your hand-cranked egg beaters ready. Sound Season Call Out - a call out to international artists, musicians, technologists, and experimental makers to submit existing works that explore the repurposing of old or obsolete technology for sound-based practice. This opportunity looks like it’s more interesting than fiscally fruitful, but hey, isn’t everything? Deadline: 11 August.

• Incite Assembling Voices Fellowship - a $25,000 fellowship for international artists, writers, scholars, journalists, performers, activists, workers, and others with compelling ideas for public initiatives that bring people together around issues of democracy, equity, and trust. Incite awards fellows with $15,000 in income support, $5000 in initiative support, and $5000 for travel to meetings in New York City. Deadline: 15th of August.

Milestones & Debuts

• The Dex Legacy’s third season begins on Friday, 25th July, exploring themes of overly powerful corporations, global political machinations, and the struggle against tyrannical rule. You know, in case that’s not happening in your day-to-day life.

• The Peek with Samuel Pepys premieres on the 1st of August. A jaded celebrity gossip podcaster accidentally time-travels to the Restoration Era. Oopsie. Luckily, he lands in the home of Samuel Pepys, famed diarist and theatre-obsessed freak. The men strike a deal: Pepys will teach the Podcaster all about the Restoration theatre scene and the budding pop culture scene around actors and playwrights, and the Podcaster will share Pepys’ diaries far and wide in the modern day…if he manages to make it back, that is.

• Ace Johnson: Mysteries with Heart Ace Johnson, a retired detective and widower, spends his days watching TV and feeding ducks at the park until a chance encounter with troubled teen Lily Ricotta.

• Sounds Right Improv Theatre Theatre sport meets radio plays, with a new guest thrown under the bus each episode to navigate a scene.

Keep sharing good stories.

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