This week, Gabriel Urbina, writer and director of WOLF 359, joins me for a segment we're calling "Going Deep"; together, the two of us investigate one of Gabriel's favorite classic audio dramas, 1948's "The Thing on the Fourble Board" from QUIET, PLEASE. We play the feature, and then Gabriel and I take it apart, piece by piece, trying to unlock precisely what it is that makes "The Thing on the Fourble Board" so damn spooky. Music credits: "Danger DigiDoo" is licensed from DJ Stranger Danger. "De...
Aug 20, 2016•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 440
This week, we play an episode of The Truth, Jonathan Mitchell's collaboration with New York's Magnet Theater; they're dedicated to making audio fiction the likes of which you've never heard. It's intimate, it's internal, and it's cinematic, all at once. Motivated by an improv style and by Mitchell's 15 years as a public radio documentarian, The Truth is produced in a manner halfway between a sketch comedy show and a segment of Radiolab (where Jonathan worked as a producer). Today, you'll hear "T...
Aug 06, 2016•56 min•Ep. 439
Light breaks over Marblehead this week on Radio Drama Revival, as I chat with Alexander Danner and Jeff Van Dreason of the novelistic GREATER BOSTON. We talk about comics, theater, the Brexit referendum, and, of course, Boston. All that and more is here for you on Radio Drama Revival. http://greaterbostonshow.com
Jul 23, 2016•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 438
This week, I'm playing something from Our Fair City, the dystopian sci-fi podcast; it's their entry in the 2014 Chicago Fringe Festival: a slick detective thriller called "All The Life You'll Ever Need". Hey -- if you're feeling beaten down by the events of the past few weeks and months, I've got two websites for you to visit: http://www.joincampaignzero.org and http://everytown.org #BlackLivesMatter. Thanks for listening....
Jul 09, 2016•52 min•Ep. 437
Fred is back, introducing our new occasional mini-series, pulling episodes from RDR's Archives back to the top of the pack! The inaugural episode, celebrating the Ogle Awards, is "Next Year's Girl" - The Willamette Radio Workshop's 2004 Gold Ogle Winning Production about a small town and the strange beast that looms large over it.
Jul 02, 2016•33 min
This week, we're playing ars PARADOXICA, the Cold War time travel drama by Mischa Stanton and Dan Manning of Los Angeles, California. Join me as I play Episode 1 of aP: "Hypothesis", and stick around for a rollicking good time of a conversation with Mischa and Dan. This episode is brought to you in part by Blue Apron! If you sign up using the promotion code DRAMA, you'll get your first three meals free, including shipping. That's http://blueapron.com/drama...
Jun 25, 2016•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 436
I may be on vacation, but the hits just keep on comin'! We're featuring an episode of the fantabulous, trippy RUBY by Tom Lopez and ZBS -- a cyberpunk adventure from the 80s that's sultry, smart, and fun. Ruby's a proud member of the Wondery Network, and so are we! Later, you'll hear an interview Fred did with Ruby's writer/director Tom Lopez in 2012. If you have the chance, I'd be very grateful if you'd give this survey a go: http://Wondery.com/survey...
Jun 18, 2016•1 hr 37 min
Writer, director, actor, and producer Lauren Shippen joins me for a conversation about anxiety, archery, P.G. Wodehouse, the Alexander Technique, and so much more, as we dive into her captivating podcast, The Bright Sessions. Dr. Joan Bright is a therapist who specializes in "therapy for the strange and unusual". Each one of her patients experiences symptoms that aren't in the DSM-V. This show is by turns fascinating, delightful, and heartbreaking, and I can't wait to show it to you.
Jun 11, 2016•56 min•Ep. 435
This week, we're playing episode 1 of Saster & Saster's RADIATION WORLD; later I'll speak with the show's creators, Hari Rai and Sahib Simran Khalsa. In RADIATION WORLD, all that remains of humanity is locked away inside a bunker, deep beneath the earth -- or so they think, until The Visitors arrive. The show is a deeply wacky adventure, equal parts Fallout and Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy. You can support the Khalsas' show at https://www.patreon.com/radiationworld . FUNDRAISIN' NEWS! Th...
May 29, 2016•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 434
This week, we play 2015’s winning piece for Deathscribe, a horror radio play competition put on by Wildclaw Theatre in Chicago -- later in the show, I'll talk with Wildclaw company member, Foley artist, and friend of the show Ele Matelan. She's great, and she wants you to scare the crap out of her with your own Deathscribe play! Check that out here: http://wildclawtheatre.com/deathscribe The feature: "Earwigs". Written by Joseph Zettelmaier, directed by Sara Sevigny, starring Robyn Coffin and Je...
May 14, 2016•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 433
This week, we get SILLY with a little Starlight Radio Dreams – a live variety show recorded in Chicago by veterans of Chicago's theater scene. Starlight Radio Dreams is hosted by Devin Showtime (Anna Gaetke), a media-savvy Millenial, and her old-timey uncle Burlington Showtime (Ansel Burch), a film star of days gone by. It's all oh so very goofy; mouth foley and bad puns abound. This week, you'll hear a little snippet of SRD, including not just the show's frame narrative of Burlington and Devin ...
Apr 30, 2016•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 432
This week, we take a dip into the chilly methane seas of Titan with "Kraken Mare", an atmospheric sci-fi horror thriller from friends of the show Matthew McLean and Robert Cudmore of the Audio Production Podcast. When plucky British astronauts descend into Kraken Mare, the largest sea of Saturn's strangest moon, they don't know just what they'll find. And they certainly aren't expecting what's about to find THEM. Enjoy! The post Episode 433 – Yap Audio’s KRAKEN MARE appeared first on Radio Drama...
Apr 16, 2016•29 min•Ep. 431
This week on Radio Drama Revival, it’s the comic sci-fi thriller Wolf 359. This genre-bending show, by turns endearing, intense, terrifying, and hilarious, is a delight to listen to - and its stars are a delight to talk to! Wolf 359 is the story of a lonely little space station orbiting a red dwarf star, and the four personalities aboard it: Commander Renée Minkowski, a badass astronaut who has literally memorized the book on deep-space survival; Alexander Hilbert, a scientist who may or may not...
Apr 01, 2016•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 430
This week, we take a trip to the drizzly English village of Piffling Vale, where undertaker Rudyard Funn discovers he's no longer the only mortician in town in Episode 1 of the fabulous indie sitcom WOODEN OVERCOATS. Later in the show, I talk with David K. Barnes and Andy Goddard, the head writer and co-producer of WOODEN OVERCOATS. Fun is had, velvet is worn, and we all learn a valuable lesson about Sitcom Theory. The post Episode 431 – Wooden Overcoats – David K. Barnes and Andy Goddard appear...
Mar 18, 2016•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 429
This week: It's a non-stop carnival of freaky tiki madness as I chat with Rich Wentworth, the co-creator of Hadron Gospel Hour. Rich and I talk about glam rock, how he and co-creator Michael McQuilkin got started in audio drama, and whether or not everything is going to be okay (spoiler alert: it is going to be okay). Our feature this week is Season 1, Episode 8 of Hadron Gospel Hour: "HeadHatz and Horror Hosts". Mike brings a stylish new hat into the Hadron Bunker, but Oppenheimer is far too bu...
Mar 04, 2016•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 428
This week: Liquor! Gods! A drunk lady rattling off the names of animals! I talk to Ben Acker of the Thrilling Adventure Hour, and play one of my favorite episodes of Beyond Belief: "White Hunter, Drunk Heart". Those wacky married mediums, Sadie and Frank Doyle (Paget Brewster and Paul F. Tompkins) are on an adventure in the Serengeti -- but when they kill a god's favorite lion, have they taken it a step too safari? -David The post Episode 429 – Ben Acker and the Thrilling Adventure Hour appeared...
Feb 19, 2016•53 min•Ep. 427
This week: Witchcraft! Charlatans! A Canadian plot to annex the United States?(!) David begins with a brief bit of history on John R. Brinkley, the notorious Goat Gland Doctor of Milford, Kansas. A bit of quackery seemed relevant given today's episode, which features an episode of Alba Salix, Royal Physician, a fantasy hospital comedy. The episode we're playing features an ethically dubious patent medicine. After the feature, David has a chat with Alba Salix show creator Eli McIlveen. Enjoy! Dow...
Feb 06, 2016•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 426
Well, how to say this. After 9 years, long-time RDR host Fred Greenhalgh passes the torch to incoming host David Rheinstrom. We take a moment to reflect on the amazing journey - 450 hours of entertainment! - in RDR's first nine years, and focus on the great state of current audio drama, and the future ahead of it. Why David? Well, David is a writer and game maker who was living in Chicago before the cool salt air of the Pacific was too alluring and he came out to Mountain View, CA, home of Googl...
Jan 16, 2016•29 min•Ep. 425
