Radio Drama Revival

I sat down with Matt Roi Berger, Jonathan Goldberg, and Marcus Bagala of The Fall of the House of Sunshine to discuss craft, prog rock albums, President Harding fighting a walrus, and, of course, teeth.

A struggle between flesh and fuzz. A mad emperor, cackling atop a grand pyramid of his own creation. A band of fleshy rebels with moxie, verve, and puffy-paint! It's an ass-kicking, name-taking space-age rock musical, back for more: this time it's even weirder.


YUP oh man oh man it's The Fall of the House of Sunshine, Season II: DAYS OF FUTURE FUZZ.
If you loved the previous utterly wackadoo sampling from this show, I think you're going to love Season 2 even more.


You don't need to have listened to the first season to make sense of the second. Suffice it to say that there was a sinister plot to detonate the fuzzatronic bomb—an arcane weapon that turned everything into fuzzy puppets and stuffed animals. Well. Almost everything.

There's a very fun guest star in this episode, to boot!

ENJOY, and stick around for next week's show, an interview with some of the creative dynamos behind this project!

Sunny Moraine joins me to discuss their horror podcast, Gone, their stream-of-consciousness writing/performing style, their terrifying-but-fascinating doctoral dissertation, and so much more!

We discuss:

Sunny's origins in podcasting
LARPing?
The balance between mystery-box plots and Explaining Everything
Foucault's heterotopia, and spaces outside of normal rules
Mental illness and apocalypse (where did they all go?!)
Poetry!
Sunny's other fiction, particularly eyes I dare not meet in dreams

It's morning, and something's different. Everything's different. Everyone's gone. No commotion, no explanation. Suddenly the world is emptied of people.


Except for you.


This is Sunny Moraine's GONE, a taut, claustrophobic horror podcast about waking up and realizing you're entirely alone in the world. It's kind of the horror-counterpart to Michelle Nickolaisen's UNPLACED, at least superficially -- but while those two shows twine around similar themes, their execution couldn't be more different.

We play episode 1 of Gone, "Awakening". Stay tuned for next week's show, when show creator Sunny and I sit down for a chat about their creative process, their dissertation in sociology, and makin' scary fiction.

This week, I sit down with Faith McQuinn, the director and creator of Boom: A Serial Drama Podcast.

And what a delight she is! We talk about Faith's history with radio drama, her filmmaker's background, Rovee the cleaning robot, and the long road to making Boom.

Boom is a show about denial and fury, masculinity and repression. It's perpetually relevant, and very smart—and Faith herself is no different! I'm excited to see what else this creator has up her sleeves.

IT'S OUR 500TH EPISODE!

And to ring it in, we're celebrating by playing a new old favorite, Faith McQuinn's BOOM.

I talk about the I Love Lucy Show Syndrome, and how it plays into the way I feel about this excellent show.

Hey: This episode contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Boom, so if you don't wanna get spoiled, head on back to the website and listen from the beginning before starting this episode.

This is the first episode of Season Two, "Everything I Could".

Stay tuned for next week, when you'll hear me interview Faith McQuinn, the director and creator of Boom.

CW: murder, a loud explosion, trauma throughout

Hey folks!  Check out the Bombs Always Beep sound design competition.  Winners will get some great prizes, including Kc Wayland's book, Bombs Always Beep, an excellent resource on creating audio fiction from the creator of We're Alive!

We're playing Michelle Nickolaisen's Unplaced, a show about a woman who finds herself suddenly invisible. It's skilfully written and acted, and it's got a fantastic soundtrack. We play the first three episodes, and wonder—what's it like to be slowly but surely erased from your own life?

Have a wonderful Passover and Easter, y'all!

This week on, we're playing The Bright Sessions, episode 50: "Rose", a surprise musical episode! Later, show creator Lauren Shippen joins me for a chat about the creative work that went into making this special episode -- it's a can't-miss for musical fans!