The Best Fiction Podcasts I Listened to in 2017

I spend a lot of time with sound coming out of my phone, earbuds in or not. My Spotify year in review came out as 122.7 days of listening to music because I listen to it while I sleep and study and do just about anything. But that doesn't even begin to hit on the podcasts I listened to on the Apple Podcast app. Working all summer with people I didn't share a whole lot in common with, or doing a lot of work on my own meant I needed something to keep me from going insane. So to podcasts I turned. I had listened to Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn't Dead, and a few episodes of Serial, but beyond that, I really didn't know what to listen to.

Most of the "Best Podcasts" lists you'll see have maybe Welcome to Night Vale, but that's as far into the fiction podcasts as they go. So for those who are interested in finding more podcasts to be your favorites, here are some ideas, in no particular order:

1. Wolf 359

This podcast is a masterpiece and also about to upload their final episode on Christmas and I'm not really emotionally prepared for it. Doug Eiffel is the communications officer aboard the space ship the Hephestus, and things just never work out for poor Eiffel.

2. ars PARADOXICA

This podcast does a beautiful job of incorporating the science of time travel into a narrative without being overbearing. Dr. Sally Grissom is entertaining and stuck in the past with no way back, but that's never going to stop her.

3. Return Home

This show just came back for Season Two not too long ago and the mystery surrounding all the pieces of it are wonderfully intriguing and give off a bit of that WTNV small town weirdness brought over to the East Coast. Jonathan Barker received a mysterious message telling him to come home, and it just gets weirder from there.

4. King Falls AM

I am in love with this show; if these were ranked, it would easily be in my top three. Sammy Stevens and Ben Arnold are the late night hosts on the King Falls radio station and the rainbow lights REALLY mucked everything up. And the science institute is pretty sketchy. Also screw you, Frickard.

5. SAYER

This show can be the perfect amount of creepy without being a podcast that focuses on the creepiness. SAYER is the AI in charge of Houseon tower and honestly, I just put on episode 51 because I realized I was behind and I wanna up the level of the creepiness oh wow. It's also very weirdly relaxing. Trust me.

6. Kakos Industries

Doing evil better has never been so great. Not always the best podcast to play out loud at work or around children (please not around child) but absolutely wonderfully crafted. Corin Deeth III is the CEO of Kakos Industries and these are the shareholder announcements. Oh, you're not a shareholder? You're wrong.

7. The Black Tapes

Okay, it may sound silly, but I'm genuinely not sure if this podcast is fiction or not, along with the next two that will be mentioned. Like, they should be, right? But what if they aren't? There are a lot of disturbing things: ouija boards, things that go bump in the night, things that go bump and scream in the forest, small town legends, the works. Dr Strand tries to come up with explanations for all of these sorts of things, but the black tapes seem... elusive. And poor Alex has to put up with him.

8. TANIS

Nic Silver and MK basically... Good question. It's got a cult, a book that doesn't really exist, creepy messages, the works.

9. RABBITS

Very similar to TANIS, but... very different. There are some games you don't want to play.

10. Hello From the Magic Tavern

Figured I'd end the list on a lighter note than those three. Arnie Niekamp fell through a portal in a Burger King drive through into the magical land of Foon. He hosts a talk show in the tavern the Vermillion Minotaur with his buddies Usidore... and Chunt. I really hope he figures out how to get back to Sarah at some point...

Podcasts I'm Excited For

Twitter is a magical place full of recommendations. A few of these were recommended when I followed some of the above shows on Apple Podcasts, some on Twitter, all of them I'm excited to listen to. (Not all of these are necessarily still coming out, but perhaps I only just found them. I'm still excited no matter what.)

1. Tunnels
2. S-Town
3. Transmissions from Colony One
4. Radio People
5. The Bridge
6. The Far Meridian
7. The Deep Vault
8. The Bright Sessions
9. SPINES
10. The Leviathan Chronicles
11. Our Fair City
12. The Penumbra Podcast (Super excited to listen to this one!!!!)
13. Girl in Space
14. Within the Wires
15. The Orbiting Human Circus of the Air
16. It Makes a Sound

Also, who else heard about a season two of Limewire coming out?!?!