PocketCasts' transcripts,💰Leeway, NAISA, & Interlochen 🧳, casting for Brass Eagle and After The Gloaming, and more

Issue 299 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by ADWIT, The Audio Drama Writer’s Independent Toolkit’s guide to Mastering Character Dialogue for Audio Drama: Beyond the Words.

When your dialogue reveals too much or not enough, your audio drama lacks drama. Don’t panic! We’re here to help. In Mastering Character Dialogue for Audio Drama, we explore how effective dialogue communicates information while entertaining the audience and avoiding the pitfalls of unnecessary exposition. Find it now at adwit.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• PocketCasts announced that “in version 7.85, we’ve introduced Generated Transcripts, available on both Android and iOS for our Plus and Patron members.”

• Podnews reports, “Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast, made a YouTube video about his e-ink notetaker. John Spurlock freeze-framed it when he briefly showed his Overcast to-do list. So, now we know that coming up is a rewrite of the Apple Watch app and some CarPlay work, but also a new “you might also like” feature, and a “nicer directory.” Now THAT is investigative journalism I treasure. #overcast4life

• Podcasting Neurogenesis: Perhaps We Need Two Words To Describe Podcasting Eric Nuzum’s latest post in The Audio Insurgent resonated with me, and it may very well with you, too.

• Cate Blanchett’s Radio 4 drama is superb, but she shouldn’t be banking on any awards Chris Bennion covers the BBC Radio 4 drama awards and shares some intel on celebrity casting vs. the audio drama hierarchy.

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Creator Resources

• Updated for 2025: Is Podcasting Worth It? (& Why it Might Not Be!), about managing expectations and setting sustainable workflows.

• PocketCasts has published A Guide to Fiction Podcasts for Nonfiction Listeners, in case you meet a Persuadeable.

• CUNY TV presents Audio Maverick, “a 9-part documentary about one of the most visionary figures in radio, Himan Brown. Explore the Golden Age of radio through Brown’s life, as we travel from the birth of audio drama to the programs that brought millions of families into their living rooms every night.”

• Should you consolidate your podcasts? Kattie Laur talked with Jonas Woost of Bumper in Pod the North about “umbrella feeds” and audience responses.

• How to Optimize Libsyn for Your Fiction Podcast by Evo Terra for The End. I’m late to the game on this one, but if it’s news I can use, I’m sure someone else can too.

• Grow Your Podcast with Promo Swaps Did you miss our live training with Lauren Passell of Tink Media? Don’t worry. You can catch the replay in our Indiepod Community.

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Opportunities

• Canadian artists: New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) invites artists of all ages and nationalities to submit works on the theme ”Sound Culture” for consideration in New Adventures in Sound Art’s 2026 programming. Deadline: May 31st.

• Philly and environs: The Leeway Transformation Award provides unrestricted annual awards of $15,000 to women-identified and gender nonconforming artists and cultural producers living in Greater Philadelphia who create art for social change and have done so for the past five years or more, demonstrating a long-term commitment to social change work. Deadline: 15 May.

• Transom Traveling Workshop in audio storytelling, in partnership with Interlochen Public Radio at Interlochen Center for the Arts: Ten beginning and early-career students will get a week of intensive training at Interlochen’s campus in northwest Michigan, nestled between two pristine lakes and surrounded by quiet pines. (Oh no, that sounds awful, please, no don’t, stop, please). Application deadline: 30 May.

• Casting Call: Welcome to the Brass Eagle. Deadline: May 30.

• Casting Call: Dissonance Media’s After The Gloaming. Deadline: 15 May.

Milestones & Debuts

• The End of the World published its final episode on the 1st of May. When Valentine, accustomed to a life of seclusion, is finally pushed from the nest by his parents, he ventures into the world beyond. He finds shelter at a bed and breakfast establishment named, rather ominously, The End of the World.

• Aaron Blanton writes, “What Happened in Skinner is the first audio drama to cinch the Ambie Award for Best Indie Podcast!” Congratulations!

• Mage With a Mic Doughball, an under-qualified mage with a penchant for poor decisions, has been sentenced to become the Head of Tourism for Thither, an isolated realm full of cursed landmarks, eccentric creatures, and suspiciously vanishing warehouses.

Keep sharing good stories.

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