Podcasts or digital programs are a new way of consuming media which is becoming increasingly popular.
They are a means of infotainment, with most people finding them entertaining, apart from being informative.
It is a flexible form of engagement as the listener can choose to play them at a time as per their convenience. More so, one can listen them any time, while performing other tasks.
Off late, podcasts have emerged as a key way of intellectual discussions on important topics by a number of speakers.
Below we feature audio dramas which you can tune into in your free time
Alice Isn’t Dead
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.
Asking for It
A queer contemporary take of the Goldilocks tale: about love, music, and breaking the cycle of abuse.
Goldie escapes a chaotic childhood only to go from a partner who starves her of love to a partner who nearly drowns her in it, before learning to be just right on her own.
From CBC Podcasts and Mermaid Palace.
Blackout
Academy Award winner Rami Malek stars in this apocalyptic thriller as a small-town radio DJ fighting to protect his family and community after the power grid goes down nationwide, upending modern civilization.
LifeAfter/The Message
The Message and its sequel, LifeAfter, take listeners on journeys to the limits of technology.
The Message, an alien transmission from decades ago becomes an urgent puzzle with life or death consequences.
In LifeAfter, Ross, a low level employee at the FBI, spends his days conversing online with his wife Charlie – who died eight months ago.
But the technology behind this digital resurrection leads Ross down a dangerous path that threatens his job, his own life, and maybe even the world.
Winner of the Cannes Gold Lion.
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.
Starring Catherine Keener, Oscar Isaac, David Schwimmer, David Cross, Amy Sedaris, Michael Cera, Mercedes Ruehl, Alia Shawkat, Chris Gethard, and Spike Jonze.
Limetown
The premise: 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?”
Motherhacker
The plot: Bridget’s life is a series of dropped calls.
With a gift for gab, an ex-husband in rehab, and down to her last dollar, Bridget’s life takes a desperate turn when she starts vishing over the phone for a shady identity theft ring in order to support her family.
Passenger List
Atlantic Flight 702 has disappeared mid-flight between London and New York with 256 passengers on board. Kaitlin Le (Kelly Marie Tran), a college student whose twin brother vanished with the flight, is determined to uncover the truth.
Sandra
Co-stars Kristen Wiig, Alia Shawkat, and Ethan Hawke. Here’s the plot: Helen’s always dreamed of ditching her hometown, so when she lands a job at the company that makes Sandra, everyone’s favorite A.I., she figures it’s the next-best thing.
But working behind the curtain isn’t quite the escape from reality that Helen expected.
The Angel of Vine
A present day journalist uncovers the audio tapes of a 1950s private eye who cracked the greatest unsolved murder mystery Hollywood has ever known… and didn’t tell a soul. Starring Joe Manganiello, Alfred Molina, Constance Zimmer, Alan Tudyk, Camilla Luddington, and more.
The Bright Sessions
A science fiction podcast 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 Orbiting Human Circus
Discover a wondrously surreal world of magic, music, and mystery.
This immersive, cinematic audio spectacle follows the adventures of a lonely, stage-struck janitor who is drawn into the larger-than-life universe of the Orbiting Human Circus, a fantastical, wildly popular radio show broadcast from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
WNYC Studios presents a special director’s cut of this joyous, moving break from reality.
Starring John Cameron Mitchell, Julian Koster, Tim Robbins, Drew Callander, Susannah Flood, and featuring Mandy Patinkin and Charlie Day.
The Truth
The Truth makes movies for your ears. They’re short stories that are sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always intriguing.
Every story is different, but they all take you to unexpected places using only sound. If you’re new, some good starting places are: Silvia’s Blood, That’s Democracy, Moon Graffiti, Tape Delay, or whatever’s most recent. Listening with headphones is encouraged!
The Walk
“Dystopian thriller, The Walk, is a tale of mistaken identity, terrorism, and a life-or-death mission to walk across Scotland. But the format of this story is — unusual. The Walk is an immersive fiction podcast, and the creators want you to listen to it while walking.
It begins with a terrorist attack at a train station; you are the protagonist, known only as Walker, and the police think you’re a member of a shadowy terror group called The Burn.”
“Author Naomi Alderman, whose latest novel was a bestseller called The Power, is the creator of The Walk.”
We’re Alive
An award-wining audio drama, originally released in podcast form.
Its story follows a large group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse in downtown Los Angeles, California.
Welcome to Night Vale
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.
Wolf 359
A science fiction podcast created by Gabriel Urbina.
Following in the tradition of Golden Age radio dramas, Wolf 359 tells the story of a dysfunctional space station crew orbiting the star Wolf 359 on a deep space survey mission.
Hope you have a good time listening to any of these podcasts:)
After you do, do tell me in the comments your thoughts on it.