Podcast Palooza 2021

Silver Selections

Vote for your favorite Podcast Palooza submission:

Some Selections May Contain Strong Language

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A Cup Of Coffee

David Grier

A senior congressional aide is citing chapter and verse of the US Code to an angry barista while attempting to pay for coffee with coins. His nemesis intervenes and pays with an app, thereby opening the issues that have been haunting both of them.

Drama

Aberrations

Aaron Eldritch

This full cast audio drama tells the story of four young men experiencing the paranormal as they enter adulthood. A tale of horror at its core, the happenings evolve from subtle bumps in the night to terrors posing real danger – but sometimes the greatest horror lies in the secrets eating away at the bonds of friendship. Based on the novel ‘Tryst’ by Aaron Eldritch.

Horror

Angel of the Morning

David Grier

A CEO has spent part of the night trying to get her organization to adapt a new strategy. She is rewarded with an early morning visit from her lawyer, who wants to know what is happening.

Drama

Brooklyn is Not a Sacrifice Zone

Monica Hunken

In collaboration with the movement against the North Brooklyn pipeline, NYC members of Al Límite, chose to fight back with creative resistance. Each performer lives along National Grid’s fracked gas pipeline path and understand what’s at stake. This is a series of devised pieces set safely and physically distanced outdoors in each neighborhood along the route: The performances are love letters to the communities impacted by this dangerous and unnecessary project. Through Agit-Prop, ritual, music and storytelling, we celebrate the people who have endured years of gentrification and environmental racism, years of being pushed aside for industry and have continually fought back for their homes, health, rights and communities. We share their stories and our own, living in Brooklyn through the pandemic, the recession and now this pipeline battle.

Creative Non-Fiction

Clusterf**k

Andrew Pond

Violet is a psychologist-in-training struggling to navigate young adulthood and a challenging master’s program at a prestigious university. People are the most interesting thing in the world to her, and she wants nothing more than to understand them. If she helps someone along the way, cool. The catch? Violet might be a sociopath. When Violet’s professor diagnoses her with Cluster B Antisocial Personality Disorder and the news spreads throughout campus, the world that she used to sail through with ease and grace turns hostile. Her emotionally stunted, sleep deprived lab partner Penelope and high-strung roommate Keira are the only people who don’t believe that Violet is a monster.

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

Comedy

Codename:Blank

Brandon Greer

Codename: Blank is a parody audio drama podcast about two detectives, Howard Blank, an amnesiac, and Johnny Taco, a dinosaur. Together, they solve crimes, and try to solve the mystery of Howard’s past.

Comedy Mystery Thriller

Covid 38

Margaux Palvini

Covid 38 is a SF audio fiction that immerses the audience in an atmosphere as futuristic as it is dystopian. It features a world that wouldn’t get rid of the pandemic, where AIs replace social relationships and work is delegated by a strange Committee.

Science Fiction

Deep Shadows

Andrew Pond

Joelle Franklin, a senior social worker in Chicago, is fearless, intelligent and totally committed to her job but a mess when it comes to romance. She gets drawn into the investigation surrounding the death in suspicious circumstances of a former client, running headlong into systemic racism, classism and corruption in Cook County. At the same time she’s trying to balance life with Irish émigré girlfriend Siobhan and conflict with both her superiors and her younger brother Michael, a Cook County Sheriff.

Drama

DEN (Denver International)

Mercury Theatre Podcast

Amber visits Colorado on a skiing trip, via Denver International Airport. Little does she know anything about the conspiracy theories surrounding it, or why she should.

Science Fiction

Destination: Earth

Patrick McGinley

A riveting science-fiction audio drama about the search for long-lost planet Earth. Disgraced scientist Professor Anderton and his daughter Jenna hire down-on-his-luck adventurer Spin Braddock and his pilot Garvey to search for planet Earth. It’s a fool’s errand. Everyone knows that the legendary human homeworld is nothing but a myth… Cutting edge audio production, a passionate cast, and a blockbuster soundtrack make this adventure unmissable.

Science Fiction

Every Year on My Half Birthday

Megan Seely

Starting at age 15 ½, an unusual young woman records at least one private minute of her life every year… no matter what.

Comedy

HEDDA GABLER: A Sonic Melodrama

Steve Balderson

Dikenga Audio presents HEDDA GABLER: a sonic melodrama. Hedda (Jennifer Grace) is a beautiful, manipulative and scheming woman newly married to the dimwitted academic George Tesman (L.B. Deyo). When an old flame, Eilert Lovborg (Daniel Van Thomas), returns, Hedda decides to destroy his life, jealous of his love affair with another. Trapped but determined, Hedda tries to control everyone around her, only to see her own world unravel in tragedy. Directed by Steve Balderson. Written by Steve Balderson and Joseph Suglia. Based on the play by Henrik Ibsen.

adaptation / melodrama

I Am Who I Am, Free or Not

Just Press Playhouse

Just Press Playhouse has been creating Audio Drama since 2016 beginning with Flushed With Love. In 2017 Just Press Playhouse returned with their first serial Time Trip! which was selected as a participant of the NATF Playhouse at the 2018 HearNow Festival and Episode 10 was listed as one of the “Top 100 Episodes of 2018”. Their stand alone series Just Press Playhouse Presents has produced other well received episodes such as “Fool’s Gold” and “Lights On in Puerto Rico”.

Poem

Jigsaw Puzzle

Suzanne LaGrande

An accountant’s orderly life is overturned when he finds the jigsaw puzzle he is working on contains an extra piece.

Comedy

Legitimately Mallie

Mahalia Butler

Legitimately Mallie is a funny and engaging teen/family episodic podcast about Mallie, the “Know-It-All” teenager who doesn’t quite “Know-It-All.” Mallie, the classic girl next door, and her two best friends, Ernie and Sophie, hilariously take on real life issues with the finesse of a bull in a China cabinet. There is something for everyone in each episode; an entertaining dilemma and a meaningful lesson. Follow our show for loads of laughter, fun and a little bit of teenage and family friendly DRAMA!

Comedy

Monocyte

Andrew Pond

Both a parody of, and homage to, classic series such as Star Trek, Buck Rogers, and Space:1999, Monocyte tells the stories of the intrepid crew of the GMC (Galactic Medical Cruiser) Monocyte as they travel the universe, doing good and aiding the needy. Except their Captain is narcissistic, ignorant, overly-confident, and just possibly clinically depressed. Touching on topics such as toxic masculinity, colonization, and mental health, Monocyte will have you laughing even while you think.

Science Fiction

Mother

George Kuch

A girl’s worst nightmare is her mother…. Priscilla Martin. She’s the diva of Morning Glory Circle, and a driving force in the quaint California town of Snapdragon. Overseer of garage sales and neighborhood Christmas decorations, she is widely admired. But few people know the real woman behind the perfectly coiffed hair and Opium perfume.

Horror

Pygmalion

Prometheus Theatre of the Air

George Bernard Shaw’s classic comedy, “Pygmalion,” is brought to life by Prometheus Theatre of the Air in a live streaming adaptation of the play. Incorrigible phonetics professor Henry Higgins transforms Covent Garden flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a well-spoken lady who proves to be more than a match for him.

Comedy

School Spirits

Will Anderson

These historic vignettes dramatize events taking place during the respective year that each of five Central Michigan University campus landmarks were built. These vignettes are encoded via QR codes into artistic photo compositions, which are installed within the respective buildings for visitors and campus tours to scan with their phones to learn about the building’s history and CMU campus culture.

History

Sign In Here

David Grier

A CEO of a tech company meets with the head of a trade association in order to get some help for her dealings with Washington. In the course of her visit, she discovers that the trade association has problems of its own.

Drama

Sixty-Six Trips to Lansing

Will Anderson

Sixty-Six Trips to Lansing is a more-truth-than-fiction short comedy script about a professor’s attempt to finance a rock musical about Herbert Hoover, pensive examination of the nature of art, and a peek at the low-boil insanity roiling beneath the surface of the bucolic university life at my Midwest compass point university. This piece was produced during the 2020 pandemic lockdown with actors recoding their lines in isolation using whatever tech they had at their disposal and assembled in post.

Comedy

The BahnBurner

Mara Purl

Charlie went to Germany to visit family and enjoy a vacation. But he witnesses a vicious old Nazi commit murder on the Autobahn. Though it’s not possible for the police to discover who committed the crime, Charlie encounters the perpetrator accidentally and challenges him to a racing dual. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Can a 50-year-old American car take on the powerful Mercedes and find justice in a deadly high-speed race? Hold onto your seat and your ear drums, and prepare for an adventure that’ll burn up your imagination in… The Bahnburner!

Drama Adventure

The Bank Note in 5 Acts

Rozanne Devine

This was first aired in episodes during the 2019-2020 seasons on KKFI 90.1 FM radio. We combined it into one five-act file for this submission. Bungling bank robbers attempt to rob the same bank several times.

Comedy

The Conversation

David Grier

She has the connections. He has data. A lot of data about business. A lot of data about her. She knows that and worries about what it may mean. They need to have a conversation. This is it.

Drama

The Fabulous Dr. Tweedy: A Friend in Need

Quarantine Radio Theater

Dr. Thaddeus Q. Tweedy is the Dean of Men at Potts College. In this episode, he tries to help raise funds to finance the college. Meanwhile, some of the students ask for Dr. Tweedy’s help rewriting the school song, “Gentle Maidens,” which was originally written when Potts College was an all-girls school.

Comedy

The Gathering Storm In America

Mara Purl

A prelude to the Founding Documents Trilogy, featuring the chronology of events preceding American Independence. This fascinating series of personal manifestos marches the listener through events and decision that amassed as collective forces that gathered over the Colonies like storm clouds heavy with menace, sparking heated debate and deluging the citizenry with such intolerable burdens that this portentous period could only be described as The Gathering Storm in America!

History

The Last Magician

Christina Castaneda

A mischievous, petty thief in search of her last surviving family, joins a band of fake prophets and ex-soldiers to save their city under siege and avenge her brother’s death. Together they try to lure out a legendary iconic person in hiding to help reclaim the city, using everything from stage tricks to magic tricks to regain hope and influence to stop an evil regime from taking over.

Drama

The Leviathan Chronicles

Christof Laputka

The Leviathan Chronicles is a full, cast audio drama about a secret group of immortals living in a hidden city in the deepest part of Earth’s ocean. A civil war erupts when a faction of immortals wants to rejoin humanity on the surface, leaving the fate of the world in the balance.

Science Fiction

The Raven

Poe Theatre On the Air

An audio drama adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe poem “The Raven,” this production from the anthology series “Poe Theatre on the Air” is a reimagining of the peom as a conversation between an asylum inmate and the doctor supervising the facility. The catalog of Poe Theatre on the Air works are being archived by the Library of Congress for their importance to the historical and culture record of the United States.

Horror

The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman

Russ McGee

The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman go boating in the Scarecrow’s corncob-shaped boat. When the boat hits a rock, the Tin Woodman plunges to the bottom of a stream. The Scarecrow tries to fish him out, with the advice of a flock of crows; but the crows are malicious pranksters, and the two friends end up suspended in a tree.

Children/Family

The Story of Heidelberg

Hunter Klein

“The Story of Heidelberg” is an 8-part investigative series that tells the untold story of how two Allied Spies infiltrated a theater, drama, and entertainment-based POW Camp and took down the Nazi Party. The report was spearheaded by PPR Senior Producer Elmer Ullengaard, whose grandmother, Mrs. Anna Ullengaard, was the primary Allied spy and hero in the camp. Through Mrs. Ullengaard’s diligent notes and audio recordings, Elmer is able to play the role of narrator and finally make her story known.

Historical Musical

The TEMP: Detour

Michael Wilhelm

Bernie Pfelger (The TEMP) finds himself on the lam in a runaway hearse. With a body in the back and GPS on the fritz will he ever get the funeral on time. This is the forth episode of the on going saga of one man trying to find his place in corporate America.

Comedy

Throwing Shade

Andrew Pond

In a city rife with crime and corruption, a hero emerges. The Shade, who rushes in where fools fear to tread…with predictable results. Luckily for Chicago, there’s the Vamp, female crimefighter replete with all the skill and talent the Shade lacks. Can the Shade save Chicago from crime? Can the Vamp save The Shade from himself?

Comedy

Time Enough for Money

Russ McGee

Lawrence, a student, had been named one of two jackpot winners the evening before but he celebrated a little too hard and he hadn’t time enough to return to the lab. Lawrence hastily flited away his winnings in an attempt to traverse the distance by train, bike, and cab. He had to make it back to the lab by 3:52 p.m. or lose the money, lose the winnings before he had ever won it.

Science Fiction

Visionaries Audio Drama

Richard Seneque

In the year 2185, the world is distinguished by two races – the Visionaries and the Dead-eye slaves. The Visionary race is the next step in human evolution. They have unique eyes which endows them with special abilities. Humans unable to evolve are slaves to the Visionaries because of their powerless eyes. These Dead-eye slaves open rebellion against the Visionaries.

Drama

We Let You Decide

David Grier

Chad Dockerly, thought leader, commentator and podcaster, interviews congressional expert Rebecca Vogelson about anti-porn EARNIT Bill in front of Congress. As the conversation veers across topics, Ms. Vogelson reveals that she has an embarrassing relationship.

Drama

What Goes Around Comes Around, Ep 14

Tal Minear

Tal is a SoCal based podcaster who cannot be stopped from making things. A Mechanical Engineer by day, they can be found working on audio fiction by night. Tal is the producer of Sidequesting, What Will Be Here?, Light Hearts, and Someone Dies In This Elevator, and is working on several upcoming projects for Parazonium Podcasts and The Shadow Network.

Fantasy

What the Soul Suspects

Mara Purl

Journalist Christine Christian has been missing for several months. But since she frequently travels for long periods while researching, no one is truly concerned. With no evidence of foul play, and no body, Deputy Delmar Johnson can’t officially open a case. But on his own time, he begins to follow clues. When he has a conversation with the missing woman in a lucid dream, he fears for his own sanity, and fears more than ever that the missing woman has been slain, and that she may have met her demise in Milford-Haven.

Paranormal

Where An Angel's On A Rope

Mara Purl

Can an intuition save a man’s life? Astronomer and competent mountain climber Cornelius Smith depends upon his intelligence for both his career and his hobby. Never before has he faced a situation where logical steps couldn’t be followed to an inevitable conclusion. Yet even he couldn’t possibly have imagined or predicted his experience in the Angeles Crest National Forest high above Los Angeles. Out for a pleasant hike on a warm Southern California day with a bare minimum of equipment he isn’t prepared physically or mentally for his sudden challenge, nor for the intuition that seems to insist he make an illogical choice — or die clinging to a rock face. Can a man with apparently no way back up, and no way down – find an unexpected means of his own rescue seems to have been placed there for him ahead of time? How can he explain the persistent image of a tiny angel that seems to hover over him on the mountain? And what will he do with the illogical intuition that won’t leave him alone?

Drama

Y2K Redux: The Darkening of the Fifth Sun

Eduardo Soto-Falcon

“Y2K Redux” is a series about an alternate Year 2000, where things did go as wrong as they could, ultimately creating an illusory world. In this episode, reminiscent of disaster films, the New Age reporter ROXY GIBSON narrates the events in Mexico on January 1st, especially of people fainting all around her, causing havoc. Roxie and ELIGIO MELGAR, an expert in Aztec mythology, go on a journey through Mexico to reach its northern border. Back in Canada, Roxie’s colleagues LUKE MARLOWE and MONIQUE TOUSSAINT try to understand the looming and mysterious pandemic.

Mystery Thriller