In Podmass, The A.V. Club sifts through the ever-expanding world of podcasts and recommends 10–15 of the previous week’s best episodes. Have your own favorite? Let us know in the comments or at [email protected].
The Flop House
Dracula 3D
As Shocktober rolls on, the Floppers sink their teeth into the crapfest that is Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D. While Argento’s early films like Profondo Rosso and Suspiria are classics of Italian horror, his more recent, late-period films are far more likely to land at a bad movie night than in the arthouse theater. The story of Dracula is universally known at this point, so the hosts dispatch with the normal plot summary. The result is an episode that is more commentary-heavy than usual. A critique of the Italian horror genre raises salient points about Argento’s oeuvre, while a discussion of Dracula’s relationship to Romantic literature is another insightful highlight. In bits that fit in seamlessly with these more sober-minded moments, the Peaches unleash their inner-Pervazoids to decry the film’s lack of nudity before imaging Dracula on a cruise ship. Stick around through the recommendation section to hear “Rocket Crocodile In The World Of Tomorrow,” the listener-contest winning song of the autumn that samples a classic Elliott Kalan fake movie pitch from a 2012 episode. [Dan Fitchette]
The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
Leslie S. Klinger
This wonderfully obsessive podcast is not for everyone. It started as a story-by-story discussion of weird horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s complete literary catalogue, with Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer beginning with exhaustive and engaging commentary of “The Tomb”—the author’s first real story, penned in 1917 and originally published in 1922—and then moved forward chronologically. Three years and more than 100 episodes later, they ran out of actual Lovecraft stories and widened their focus to include Lovecraft-esqe tales and narratives inspired by the Rhode Islanders’ Cthulhu mythos. The full archives of The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast are a beautiful thing to behold for specific subsets of horror fans. But even casual horror fans may find interest in a recent atypical episode, in which the co-hosts interview Leslie S. Klinger, author of The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, as well as annotated versions of both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. The half-hour conversation offers genuinely compelling insight into the creative process behind some of the most seminal concepts of modern storytelling. [Dennis DiClaudio]
Knifepoint Horror
Vision
Knifepoint Horror calls itself an entirely new genre of horror writing. Written and hosted entirely by Soren Narnia, the show steeps itself in an intense first-person prose that cuts away the fat of extravagant spooky stories plagued by backstory and unnecessary details. The minimalist style is meant to resemble old-fashioned campfire stories, but campfire stories were never this unsettling. Narnia is gifted with a direct voice and a mind for terrifying setups. This week’s hour-long episode “vision” tells the tale of a man coping with a recent and inexplicable catatonic episode. The sharp, intense tone of Knifepoint Horror does wonders for creating tension for our hero, a troubled police officer, as he navigates through a host of moody, isolated set pieces. Coursing throughout the story is a sense of helplessness, as the protagonist is just a normal person navigating an increasingly bizarre world. From start to finish (and especially the finish), this is a gripping piece of radio drama with serious forward motion. It flies by, sure to creep out listeners who can make it to the end. [Matt Kodner]
Monster Talk
Fangs That Go Bump In The Night
There comes a moment about halfway through this episode of Monster Talk when the listener will realize something fascinating as the show’s guest, Richard Sugg, discusses historical accounts of poltergeist phenomena. They will listen to him discussing the human psyche and how it can be strongly affected by fear, and then an epiphany will spring forth in their minds and they will think to themselves, “Oh, this guy actually believes in poltergeists.” Or, to be more generous, quasi-scientific explanations for poltergeists. Obviously, there are plenty of shows out there for which such a realization would be too banal to even bear mentioning, but this is an official podcast of The Skeptic magazine. It also comes after about a half-hour of thoughtful, well-researched materialist explanations for why belief in vampires permeated so many cultures for so many centuries. Though Monster Talk’s co-hosts Blake Smith and Karen Stollznow seem a bit nonplussed at the direction in which the the episode suddenly moves, they’re at no point rude, and opt against challenging his claims too harshly. And, odd as they are, Sugg does make a somewhat compelling case for his beliefs. [Dennis DiClaudio]
99% Invisible
Good Bread
Despite the fact that 99% Invisible carries a “design in our world” theme, this episode approaches the concept of bread from many sides at once. Though the introduction and spine of the episode focus on the commercialization of bread advertising (the monolithic Wonder Bread in particular), it quickly segues into a proper anthropological analysis of bread’s history and how the food industry has over-produced what we eat into wads of chemicals. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, flour was commonly supplemented with sawdust, and bread bakers would use ingredients often full of terrifying diseases. The fact that white bread loaves have become so popular in America is rooted in that era’s particular fear of immigration and darker races infecting the population. This not-so-subtle racism and the way it has worked its way into science and the aforementioned advertising makes for great storytelling. Things get compelling fast, with the signature laser-focused narration the show is known for. Host Roman Mars also does a well-earned victory lap this episode, as his public radio storytelling Kickstarter just met its goal early and is in the stage where it promises big stretch goals. [Dan Telfer]
The NoSleep Podcast
Season 4, Episode 13
David Cummings is the type of host who can make ad copy sound creepy, even menacing. Without skipping a beat, Cummings slips back into his role as spooky emcee, where he sets up and often narrates a variety of scary stories. The tales here are all originals you won’t find outside the darker corners of the Internet. The show was created in a direct response to the popular “No Sleep” forum on Reddit, where users submitted their amateur horror hoping to make insomniacs out of their readers. Three years ago, Cummings and a team of volunteers sought to introduce the world to this bubbling cauldron of new, exciting scary stories through a mix of classic radio drama and audiobook-styled storytelling. Each episode features six original stories, with only the first three available for free. Stories like this week’s “Find Her” benefit from Cummings’ added soundscape, with sound effects straight out of a Lord Chillingsworth album. The writing featured this week isn’t aces, but the intriguing twist behind the second story, “Fresh Luck To Its Owner,” is a perfect example of the show’s ability to spook. The stories might not be scary enough to keep listeners up all night as promised, but are enjoyably creepy and consistently interesting. [Matt Kodner]
Radiolab
Translation
Radiolab has made its name digging into the intersections between science and culture, usually in the form of three or four thematically related radio segments. Sometimes a topic requires the long-form treatment, and those are usually among the best episodes. But it’s not often that an episode is split into eight segments, as is the case in this week’s “Translation.” Despite the overstuffed contents, the episode runs about as long as any other, so the segments fly by as Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich expound on what it means for a text, comedy bit, or even the fundamental biology of life, to be translated. The segments that work the best are the ones that focus on cultural translation, like a phone operator’s struggle to normalize a desperate, upsetting 911 call. These segments are just long enough to get a full picture, pose a question, and really dig into it. But the scientific ones fall flat as they desperately try to rush through the differences between RNA and DNA, or about the buzzing vest designed to create a new sense. [Matt Kodner]
RISK!
Dicks!
There are two types of stories on this week’s dick-themed episode of RISK!: those that feature dicks both real and fake, and those that feature terrible people. Two solid stories—one in which David Crabb befriends a terminal cancer patient, the other a cautionary tale about why curious teens make bad sex shop managers from Tara Clancy—start things off, but it’s the second half that’s notably strong. Danny Hatch’s account of his sexual explorations as a horny and curious teenager is, like so many of RISK!’s most uninhibited pieces, told with an energy that makes it as riotous as it is cringe inducing. But it’s the last story by Rachel Rosenthal that’s the real tour de force. Her piece recounts the many twists, turns, and torments of a years-long battle against an identity thief; it’s a disturbing saga that, without giving too much away, comes to an end with a horrifying revelation. Rosenthal finds moments of humor in bleak circumstances, making her piece one that’s worth skipping ahead for, even in an episode as good as this one. [Dan Fitchette]