Best fiction Podcasts

“Make your statement, face your fear.” A weekly horror fiction podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… New episodes every Thursday produced by Rusty Quill, featuring guest actors, short stories, serial plots and more. The long awaited continutation The Magnus Protocol launched in January 2024. Season 2 of TMP coming February 27th 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski, insane science officer Hilbert, and Hephaestus Station's sentient, often malfunctioning operating system Hera. He doesn't have much to do for his job other than monitoring static and intercepting the occasional decades-old radio broadcast from Earth, so he spends most of his time creating extensive audio logs about the ordinary, day-to-day happenings within the station. But the Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that. Wolf 359 is a radio drama in the tradition of Golden Age of Radio shows. Take one part space-faring adventure, add one part character drama, and mix in one part absurdist sitcom, and you get Wolf 359.

Award Winning Sitcom - Start with Season 1 Episode 1Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family's failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor - the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in the business…

Do not fear the dark, fear what darkness brings... Arkham Private Investigator Arthur Lester wakes up with no memory of who he is or what has happened, only a nameless, eerie voice guiding him through the darkness.Blind, terrified, and confused, his journey will lead him towards a series of mysteries in the hopes of understanding the truth of what has transpired.As cosmic horrors seep into the world around, Arthur must ask himself whether this entity truly seeks to help him, or are its intentions more…MalevolentMalevolent is produced, written, edited, performed, scored & created by Harlan Guthrie. This podcast contains mature themes, explicit language, bodily horror, violence, otherworldly terror and death. Listener discretion is advised. Full transcripts of every episode are available here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"A must-listen indie podcast." - The Guardian"A beautiful, kind, wonderful story." - BBC RadioWhen Gloria took a waitressing job at a diner outside of Phoenix, she didn't realize she was now an employee of Midnight Burger, a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with it's staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar. No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there's always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee.At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. We open at 6.

Nothing fancy here — just the simple audio diary of a girl in space. Also, there’s this weird and potentially ominous light in the distance that seems to be growing steadily closer. Listen for science, guns, trust, anti-matter, truth, beauty, inner turmoil, and delicious cheeses. It’s all here. In space.

Twice-monthly community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, where every conspiracy theory is true. Turn on your radio and hide. Never listened before? It's an ongoing radio show. Start with the current episode, and you'll catch on in no time. Or, go right to Episode 1 if you wanna binge-listen.

The Bright Sessions is a science fiction audio drama that follows a group of therapy patients. But these are not your typical patients - each has a unique supernatural ability. The show documents their struggles and discoveries as well as the motivations of their mysterious therapist, Dr. Bright. The show was created by Lauren Shippen and is a production of Atypical Artists. The show has seven seasons, including the previously paywalled Seasons 6 and 7, The AM Archives and The College Tapes. The Bright Sessions has been downloaded tens of millions of times and cemented itself as a classic of audio fiction. Three spin-off novels were published through Tor Teen: The Infinite Noise, A Neon Darkness, and Some Faraway Place. If you enjoy this show, check out the rest of Atypical Artists' shows!

Doctors in space, a deposed alien prince, a super gay space pirate and a fiery nurse who’ll help you win your bar fight.

A mystery drama about the limits of experimental science, confronting your own past, present & future, & trying to remember the level select cheat from Sonic 2. 

At the Penumbra, you might follow Juno Steel, a brooding, sharp-witted private eye on Mars, as he tangles with an elusive homme fatale, tracks dangerous artifacts of an ancient alien civilization, and faces his three greatest fears: heights, blood, and relationships. Or you might enter the world of the Second Citadel, where the merciless Sir Caroline must corral a team of emotionally distraught all-male knights to defend their city against mind-manipulating monsters...even the ones they’ve fallen in love with. These audio dramas and more await you in the Penumbra, dear traveler. We hope you enjoy your stay. (Start with "1.01: Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask" or "1.09: Second Citadel - The Head of the Janus Beast.")The Penumbra is created and produced by Harley Takagi Kaner and Kevin Vibert. Follow us on Twitter (@thepenumbrapod), Tumblr (@thepenumbrapodcast), TikTok (@thepenumbrapodcast), Instagram (@thepenumbrapodcast), or Facebook (The Penumbra Podcast). For early and ad-free episodes, production scripts, commentary tracks, blooper reels, livestreams with the creators, and much more, you can find The Penumbra Podcast: SPECIAL EDITION at: https://thepenumbrapodcast.supercast.comYou can find all of our transcripts here. If you would like to view trigger warnings or SFX attributions, you can scroll to the end of the appropriate episode transcript: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1bnWLw5dTW4l9A0bmOMzEiy6XqqsXHHi_

In 2189, Earth narrowly won a war against extraterrestrials. The Strange Case of Starship Iris is about what comes after. It's a story of outer space, survival, espionage, resistance, identity, friendship, found family, romance, and secrets. (Also, there’s jokes.) For more info, visit http://procyonpodcasts.com/starship-iris

Arnie Niekamp fell through a dimensional portal behind a Burger King into the fantastical land of Foon. He's still getting a slight wifi signal, so he uploads a weekly podcast from the tavern the Vermilion Minotaur where he interviews wizards, monsters and adventurers. It's a major discovery!

Ten years ago, over three hundred men, women and children disappeared from a small town in Tennessee, never to be heard from again. In this podcast, American Public Radio reporter Lia Haddock asks the question once more, "What happened to the people of Limetown?" Limetown is produced by Two-Up, the producers of 36 Questions, The Wilderness and Shipworm.

In this horror/fantasy serial drama, Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories.Next episode drops 3rd June. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Unwell, a Midwestern Gothic Mystery is a new audio drama from Audacious Machine Creative.Unwell is complete- listen to all five seasons now!Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town's boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house's strange assortment of residents.

It's Spring 2142 (a Tuesday), and Gated Galaxies has launched its 400 Oz-8000 ships, each carrying 50,000 "resting guests" to, hopefully, a new home on a shiny, brand-new planet. Except this whole "terraform and take over" idea isn't actually the plan; the real plan is far more nefarious and involves a great deal of cackling. But those aboard the ships don't know that, so off they toodle (those that make it out of Earth's atmosphere, at least), all shiny and optimistic. This is the story of one of those ships – the Oz 9 – and its tiny crew of hopeless incompetents. So far, they've been in space half an hour and several hundred people are dead. So... bright future, clearly.

An improvised science fiction sitcom following a team of ambassadors as they attempt to establish diplomatic relations with planets in the remote and chaotic Zyxx Quadrant… better known as the "ass end of space."

The NoSleep Podcast is a multi-award winning anthology series of original horror stories, with rich atmospheric music to enhance the frightening tales.

King Falls AM centers on a lonely little mountain town's late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants.New shows available the 1st and 15th of every month! Be sure to start from Sammy's first show (May 1st, 2015) to stay up to date with all your King Falls favorites.

Now a Prime Original TV series. From Gimlet, 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. Starring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, David Cross, Amy Sedaris, Michael Cera, Mercedes Ruehl, Alia Shawkat, Chris Gethard, and Spike Jonze.

The award-winning fantasy-comedy! In Alba Salix, overworked, cynical witch Alba tends to the health of the King, Queen and citizens of the kingdom of Farloria, with the help of her obnoxious apprentice Magnus and an absent-minded fairy named Holly. The spinoff The Axe & Crown follows the misadventures of Gubbin the troll tavernkeeper, his clueless landlord Stan and his shady niece Betula.Support us here!

A truck driver searches across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead. In the course of her search, she will encounter not-quite-human serial murderers, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.

When a night watchman finishes his shift at work, he is terrified to discover that everyone in the world who went to sleep the previous night has died. Now he and a band of survivors must stay awake and uncover the secret of this global epidemic, before they fall asleep.Starring and produced by Markiplier. Created by Jake Emanuel & Willie Block.