🪁 Thank you for being here. Let's make some Fiction Podcast Magic.🪄✨

Issue 326 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by Placeholder.

Gabriela wanted to write plays that would stun London’s West End and change the world, but she’s got rent to pay, a sick mother to care for, and Mr. Crabapple’s got her stuck on the “weddings, christenings, and funerals” desk. Can she defy the patriarchy and share her vision with the world? Find out in Placeholder, wherever you get your podcasts. (Psst… your podcast’s artwork, description, and link could be right up there in front of over 2400 fiction podcast fans. Read on to find out how. I’m just saying.)

It’s Thanksgiving week in the US, and I’m hosting, so please forgive any inaccuracies or weirdness in this week's newsletter. I’m a little burnt out. That being said:

Thank you for being here. It’s my pleasure to edit and publish this newsletter, but you open it, read it, use the information, and respond to it, and that’s why I keep coming back to the desk and doing the work. I want there to be more good audio drama and fiction podcasts in the world, and I want you to have the resources to make better podcasts in the way you want to produce them.

A handful of companies own all the entertainment media in the world, which means that, ultimately, fewer than a dozen people decide whose stories are told and whose aren’t. Let’s keep sharing the stories that resonate most with us. Thanks again.

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• Overcast has released Version 2025.11.1, including a new Promos & Reruns filter, available as a global setting that can be customized per podcast, per-episode artwork support, season/episode numbers are now displayed in metadata, and Podcast screens now show a bit more text for each episode. Rumor has it that transcripts are coming to Overcast as well.

• Podnews reports that FOX News announced a star-studded podcast called The Life of Jesus, “starring, among others, Kristen Bell, Malcolm McDowell, Brian Cox, Julia Ormond, and John Rhys-Davies. “Except - none of those actors knew anything about the podcast, reports Entertainment Weekly. FOX News says it was licensed from the original “with full cooperation and participation from all actors involved.” YIKES. If you need a Jesus story, listen to Almelem.

• In a recent interview with Podnews, Riverside’s social media and community expert Kendall Brightman said, “I believe we’re the only platform now that you can record, edit, and host your podcast on,” despite the fact that Alitu’s been doing this for three years. Did you know that Riverside is backed by Zeev Ventures, who, in turn, are backed by Peter Thiel? (Article may require completing a CAPTCHA.) I guess Thiel believes in the power of creativity. 🙄 

• Patreon has launched public RSS feeds for creators. Is the juice worth the squeeze?

• Congratulations to the winners of the New Zealand Podcast Awards, especially Fury of the Small, Did Titanic Sink, and Alpha 8!

• Crowdfunding now: Highgate Wood, A rock and roll ghost story audio drama and a full album of songs. The Black Tapes meets Daisy Jones and the Six with a dash of Faust. If you like the concept for Phantom Pulse, you should support this one, too.

• More Than Fiction is the latest collection curated for Evo Terra for The End, “filled with shows that, while fiction, have non-fiction elements in their episodes.”

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​Do you have audio drama or fiction podcast news to share with us? Let us know!

Creator Resources

• Innovation in Podcast Advertising: When Hosts Turn Ads Into Experiences, by Audacy Insights Team. Sounds like someone at Audacy’s been listening to Wovercoats’ Bruno Mattress segments.

• Do not put all of your chickens in one basket. Let me explain the three-chicken, multiple-basket method for paying off your podcasting costs. Podcast Monetization Guide by me, Lindsay, and no, I didn’t write that headline, you can probably tell.

• Solo Podcasting Workflow: From Voice Dictation to Final Script by Jen deHaan for StereoForest

• Finding creator resources is the biggest challenge in editing the Fiction Podcast Weekly. Quite frankly, it makes me imagine conspiracy theories. But, sharing “how we did it” blog posts and videos is a terrific way to promote your podcast while also showing what the medium’s labor is really like. Please consider sending your tips n’ tricks, strategies, and insider knowledge to the FPW so that we can collectively improve fiction podcasting for all of us.

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Opportunities

• Casting Call: A Backstage listing says Company Confidential seeks voice actors from the US & Canada to record monologues. Listing expires 12 December.

• Call for Speakers: Podcast Movement Evolutions at SXSW 2026 What do you want the Powers That Be of Podcasting to know? Now’s your chance to pitch your talk to Sounds Profitable. One theme is “The Undervaluing of Creative: In an industry built on storytelling, creative work often gets treated as an afterthought—underbudgeted, underappreciated, and rarely part of the business conversation. What would change if we centered creative? What are we losing by not doing so?” Podnews reports, “All speakers will get a $500 honorarium in addition to entry into the event.” GO GET ‘EM, TIGER.

• All The Best 24-Hour Radio Race - a timed challenge for international audio storytellers to create a 5-8 minute story from scratch in 24 hours. The competition will take place on Sunday, 30th November, starting at 10 am AEDT. You can work individually or as a team.

• Transom Traveling Workshop: Bombay Beach, California - a week-long audio storytelling workshop for international beginning and early-career makers on the shores of SoCal’s Salton Sea. The workshop runs 1st - 8th February and scholarships are available (for only U.S. applicants). Deadline: 30th November, 11:59 pm ET.

• Writers Guild Awards - ​​a free-to-enter competition held by The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), their awards do have a radio and audio section for Episodic Drama and Episodic Comedy. Work must have been produced under WGA jurisdiction. Deadline: 5th December.

• Nebraska Arts Council Micro Grants - up to $500 of funding available for Nebraska-based artists, within any discipline. Rolling deadline.

Launches and Milestones

• Season 12 of Am I Old Yet? will begin to drop on 28th November. This season marks a change in format: it is a 6-episode serial following our intrepid (but seriously old) heroine as she finds herself in a formidable predicament, while her family frantically attempts to find and support her.

• The Bad Articles: A Supernatural Comedy Podcast Set In 90s Ireland by Frank Racioppi for Ear Worthy

• The Diaries of Netovicius The Vampire has a new season, Season 8: "Orphans!" Featuring new voice actors David Menkin (Final Fantasy) and Alejandro Antonio Ruiz (Tokyo Revengers).

• Home for the Holidays. From a twisted Thanksgiving tale to a Christmas Day disaster to a New Year’s Eve nightmare, holiday cheer takes a terrifying turn in suspense inspired by the season's obligations, chaos, and stress.

• Dustwalker. A teenage mercenary and a deceptively powerful politician form an uneasy alliance to bring down the leader of an authoritarian theocracy.

Keep sharing good stories.

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