The Best Scripted Podcasts
After the invention of podcasts in 2004, they never really saw much change in the years shortly after. While podcasts certainly grew in popularity and listenership, the aim of podcasts remained essentially the same for the following decade - until sometime around 2012, at least. It was then the scripted (or fiction) podcasts came to rise. In the time since, scripted podcasts have become a wonderful thing, and the latest podcasts even giving audio books a run for their money.
You see, before television, Americans and the rest of the world had audio dramas when radio was still our main outlet for entertainment. Then TV came in and ruined everything for radio. A half-century later, however, the idea of audio dramas returned in the form of scripted podcasts. So the question is: which of the most popular scripted podcasts are best? Featuring Gimlet podcast series Homecoming, starring Oscar Isaac and David Schwimmer, and Sandra, starring Kristen Wiig and Ethan Hawke, this list of fiction podcasts has comedy, mystery, and horror.
Check out the list of scripted podcasts and be sure to vote up your favorites, and vote down any podcast stories you're not a fan of.
- 1
Digital Sky Podcast
A scripted podcast and visual podcast series in the tradition of anthology series like Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone, season one of Digital Sky told independent stories about impossible apps, artificial intelligence, dangers hackers, and crazy stalkers.
Cast: Anna Brisbin, Zeno Robinson, Eric Martsolf, Georgina Storm Waite, Chris Guerra, David Wallace, Sydney Heller, Stephanie Wong, Eric Artell, Erica Rhodes, Olivia DeLaurentis, Cooper Johnson, Dylan Saunders, Jenna Larson, Joe Basile, Tim Street, Donna D'Errico, George Aivaliotis, Jonathan Freeman, Susan Segal, Tessa Netting, Bridget Phetasy, Maz Siam, Ryan Leslie Fisher, Sam Lucas Smith, Chris O'Brien, Denise Hoey, Mark Prendergast, Chelsea Javier, Robert Van Guelpen, Christine Barger, Morgan Harvill, Nick Antonyan, Zeno Robinson, Katarina Otter, Noah Baron, Hannah Pilkes, Harry Holmes, Joshua James, Rachael O'Brien, Caitlin Thorburn, Hannah Forcier.
- 2
Wolverine: The Long Night
Following a string of mysterious deaths in Burns, AK, Special Agents Sally Pierce and Tad Marshall arrive to investigate. They soon find there’s more going on than meets the eye.
Cast: Celia Keenan-Bolger, Ato Essandoh, Richard Armitage, Scott Adsit, Bob Balaban, Zoe Chao, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Brian Stokes Mitchell
- 3
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.
Cast: Jonathan Sims, Alexander J. Newall, Lottie Broomhall, Mike LeBeau, Bene Meredith, Evelyn Hewitt, Sue Sims, Frank Voss, Fay Roberts, Lydia Nicholas, Sasha Sienna, Alasdair Stuart
- 4
Limetown
Ten years ago, over 300 men, women, and children disappeared from a small town in Tennessee, and no one ever heard from again. American Public Radio reporter Lia Haddock asks the question once more, "What happened to the people of Limetown?"
- 5
Homecoming
Homecoming centers on a caseworker at an experimental facility, her ambitious supervisor, and a soldier eager to rejoin civilian life - presented in an enigmatic collage of telephone calls, therapy sessions, and overheard conversations. The result is an innovative, immersive audio experience - a mystery unfolding across the 12 episodes of Seasons 1 and 2.
Cast: Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, Amy Sedaris, and David Cross
- 6
Wolf 359
WOLF 359 is a radio drama in the tradition of Golden Age of Radio shows. Set onboard the USS Hephaestus space station, the dysfunctional crew deals with daily life-or-death emergencies, while searching for signs of alien life and discovering there might be more to their mission than they thought.
Cast: Emma Sherr-Ziarko, Michaela Swee, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs, Zach Libresco, Noah Masur, Michelle Agresti, Scotty Shoemaker, Ariela Rotenberg
