Podcasts are now more popular than ever, and audio fiction podcasts are no exception. What may be surprising to some, though, is the sheer volume of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy podcasts, which dominate the audio fiction podcast landscape. A whole lot of them are queer as hell, too, which may be even more surprising.

Should it be, though?

Think about it: podcasts are one of the last bastions of independent content. While many of them eventually have sponsors and ad breaks, the podcast medium is, by and large, one in which creators are not beholden to any kind of corporate entity. It’s no wonder then that so many creators have gravitated toward podcasts as a way to tell queer stories with the time, love, and attention they deserve. 

Most of us are familiar with Welcome to Night Vale. Launched in 2012 by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, Welcome to Night Vale is a fictional radio show set in a small, desert town in the Southwestern United States. Host Cecil Palmer reports all of the interesting occurrences in the community, many of which are decidedly bizarre and paranormal but treated as mundane. In addition to being charmingly weird and occasionally profound, Night Vale is also known for its adorable love story between host and narrator Cecil and the new scientist in town, Carlos (he of the perfect hair and magnificent teeth).

The success of Welcome to Night Vale, which is still ongoing, ushered in a new era of queer storytelling. While it wasn’t the only audio fiction podcast going at the time, its popularity definitely showed how huge the audience was for spooky, queer content. I am definitely part of the audience. The moment I heard Cecil wax poetic about how beautiful Carlos was without a hint of irony or the ghost of a laugh track, my world changed. And now, almost ten years later, I have more queer horror podcasts to listen to than I have the time for.

It’s a good problem to have.

If you, like me, are swamped with work and find yourself struggling to figure out what to listen to next, then keep on reading for five of my current favorite podcasts to binge. The best part? They all have up-to-date transcripts as well as content warnings in the show notes of each episode!

THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES

Written and performed by Jonathan Sims

Produced, directed, and performed by Alexander J. Newall

Status: Complete

Official Description: The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims* as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team.

Individually, they are unsettling. Together they begin to form a picture that is truly horrifying, because as they look into the depths of the archives, something starts to look back… (via Rusty Quill Network)

Likely the most well-known podcast on the list, The Magnus Archives is a story that sinks its hooks in you from the very first episode and never, ever lets go. What initially seem like straightforward, monster-of-the-week tales soon reveal themselves to be bits and pieces of a much larger, darker story that will have listeners constructing elaborate red-string connection boards and frenzied theories alongside the characters, who quickly find themselves in a race against the clock.

The acting is top-notch, the sound design is incredible, and the characters are unbelievably compelling. The way the delivery mechanism of the podcast - recordings on cassette tapes - is woven directly into the story in a way that makes sense means listeners don’t have to suspend their disbelief as to how and why they’re listening in the first place. It’s clear from the structure that they knew from the beginning how long it was going to be and planned accordingly, which is comforting for those of us who are used to falling in love with a piece of genre media only to be left hanging and bereft when it doesn’t get renewed.

One of my favorite aspects of The Magnus Archives is its queer cast, whose sexual and romantic orientations are relevant, but only in that the relationships between some of the characters act as important tethering elements. Aside from that, whether or not the characters are queer is mentioned in passing if at all, presented entirely as factual information warranting no further comment. 

Elevator Pitch: Are you into cosmic horror and existential dread? Do you enjoy the idea of being asked about the nature of good and evil when terms and restrictions apply? What about characters with collective fandom nicknames such as “canonically the hot one” and “Fuckhands McMike”? If all that sounds great, then you should definitely give this a listen.

*Yes, Jonny named the main character after himself and yes, he absolutely did regret it almost immediately, as fans and co-stars alike have never, ever let him live it down.

MABEL

Written, produced, and performed by Becca De La Rosa and Mabel Martin

Status: Ongoing

Official Description: A podcast about ghosts, family secrets, strange houses, and missed connections. (via Mabel Podcast)

Told primarily through voicemail messages, Mabel follows Anna Limon, a young, live-in nurse for the elderly Sally Martin. Though initially they get along fairly well, Anna has some questions about Sally and the house itself, as well as Sally’s granddaughter, Mabel Martin, who is officially a missing person. Anna leaves voicemail messages for Mabel as she explores the house and has strange interactions with Sally - messages that become increasingly desperate, hopeful, and confessional. Eventually, Mabel begins leaving voicemails of her own.

When I pitch Mabel to new listeners, the first word that comes to mind is lush. Even before the overall plot starts to take shape, the writing is beautifully lyrical — almost hypnotizing — from the very first episode. Your main protagonist, Anna Limon, has a soft, gentle voice that belies a spine made of solid steel, and your investment in her life and wellbeing will be immediate and eternal. You’ll love the titular and initially elusive Mabel, too, though she is a trickier character to explore. The plot is best described as a dark, intergenerational fairy tale, and to say more would run the risk of revealing too much.

Elevator Pitch: Do you like fairy tales? What about difficult family dynamics? Are you into super atmospheric stories layered in gorgeously rendered metaphor, or perhaps two women falling in love and clawing their way through hell to get back to one another? Try Mabel! 

THE SHERIDAN TAPES

Written, produced, and performed by Trevor Van Winkle

Written, produced, and performed by Virginia Potts

Status: Ongoing

Official Description: In 2018, famed horror writer Anna Sheridan disappeared, leaving behind only a box of mysterious cassette tapes. Detective Sam Bailey is tasked with piecing together what happened to Anna Sheridan from the seemingly impossible encounters she recorded, but as the scattered pieces of the puzzle come together, Bailey discovers that the picture is even stranger – and more dangerous – than it seemed. (via Homestead on the Corner)

I have to say, The Sheridan Tapes kind of snuck up on me. I’d had it on my list for a long time, but I wasn’t able to start it until it was already well into season two. I was coming off of the series finale of The Magnus Archives and decided to go ahead and start The Sheridan Tapes. At first, I was worried that it was going to feel too much like Magnus to be able to stick with it.

I was wrong.

There’s a lot to love about The Sheridan Tapes. It’s got messy women, complex relationships, entertaining villains, a killer soundtrack, and fantastic voice acting. There is a lot of queer representation that runs the full gamut of trauma and joy in incredibly realistic ways, especially when it comes to Sam and Anna. Anna’s relationship with her sister Kate feels remarkably authentic in its constant flux between affectionate and antagonistic. Sam Bailey is a particularly interesting character to me, as I became absolutely ride-or-die for him before I’d even realized it, as evidenced by this tweet from yours truly:

The podcast may at first seem like a fairly standard procedural mystery, but take it from me: Wherever you think it’s going? You’re wrong.

Elevator Pitch: Do you like mysteries and government conspiracies a la The X-Files? What about awe-inspiring, terrifying physics? Does the idea of a shitty, sarcastic tar monster appeal to you? Because it should! Go listen to The Sheridan Tapes, y’all.

UNWELL: A MIDWESTERN GOTHIC MYSTERY

Written by Jim McDoniel, Jessica Best, Jessica Wright Buha, and Bilal Dardai

Produced by Jeffrey Nils Gardner and Eleanor Hyde

Directed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner

Status: Ongoing

Official Description: 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. (via Unwell Podcast)

Unwell is a unique entrant on this list in that it is a much slower burn than any of the others. Don’t let that fool you, though - the creators know exactly what they’re doing. If you’ve ever lived in a small town, especially one out in the midwest of the United States, the atmosphere in Unwell feels all too true to life. Through fabulous sound design and subtle worldbuilding, the quirky, folksy vibe of Mt. Absalom is slowly but steadily pervaded by a creeping sense of dread that can never quite be shaken away.

What I love about Unwell is that it takes its time and, in doing so, gives its characters room to breathe. The relationship between Lily and her mother, Dot, feels painfully realistic in its ups and downs, as does Lily’s complicated relationship with Mt. Absalom itself. Dot’s slowly declining health is one of the scariest and most tragic elements of the entire show, and it’s beautifully rendered and absolutely heartbreaking to witness.

There are several queer characters but, like with The Magnus Archives, those elements are almost inconsequential. An interesting choice for a horror podcast set in a small, midwestern town, but one that I find myself appreciating the more I listen. There are plenty of secrets in Mt. Absalom, and plenty of dirty deeds to hide, but queerness isn’t one of them. How great is that?

Elevator Pitch: Do you like diverse casts and creators who recognize the Indigenous peoples on whose land they’re recording and writing about? Are you into secret libraries, ancient rituals, and generational trauma? Do you, too, want to write your very own jingle for the Celery Festival? Of course you do. Go settle in and give Unwell a listen. 

HELLO FROM THE HALLOWOODS

Written, produced, and performed by William A. Wellman

Status: Ongoing

Official Description: Come walk between the black pines! Your nightmarish host Nikignik presents a heartfelt horror show from the beautiful (and deadly) Northern Hallowoods. Tune in for weekly updates as a cast of LGBTQ+ survivors face twisted wildlife, the Instrumentalist, and other terrors in the forest at the end of the world. (via Hello From the Hallowoods)

Where do I start with Hello From the Hallowoods?

In some ways, it feels like the spiritual successor to Welcome to Night Vale; creator William A. Wellman has said they were deeply inspired by it, and there are some very similar elements upon first glance - jump-cut style storytelling and a Pratchett-esque narrative tone that catalogs bizarre occurrences with a sense of dismissive acceptance, for starters, all delivered via the deep, melodic vocals of an affectionate narrator.

However, where Welcome to Night Vale’s story is, at heart, an ongoing exploration of the titular desert community, Hello From the Hallowoods clearly has an end goal in mind. The story is tightly-written and expertly woven, following seemingly disparate journeys that slowly begin to align. The characters, too, are spectacular. Many are complicated, most are loveable, and a few are some of the most despicable villains I’ve ever had the (dis)pleasure to hear about. Just about all of them are queer, too, in some aspect or another, and those identities are both explored and accepted by the narrative while also acting as a catalyst for some of the characters’ journeys. 

You can always tell when queer stories are being told by queer creators, because there’s an authenticity present that is often missing in other stories. There are characters in Hello From the Hallowoods who go through some serious trauma as a result of bigotry, but in ways that feel remarkably realistic considering the story itself takes place in such a fantastical setting. Despite that, though, and despite the fact that this all takes place at what is being touted as the end of the world, Hello From the Hallowoods is one of the most hopeful stories I’ve ever heard.

The world of Hallowoods is supremely creepy and outright hostile, but it is also strangely welcoming, too, like an eldritch-style Island of Misfit Toys. The villains may be mystical and monstrous, but their motivations feel very grounded in our reality. The weird and surreal elements, in contrast, almost act as a mechanism to teach a lesson of radical self-acceptance. The Hallowoods are a terrifying place to exist, but it is a place in which the right to love and be loved is fiercely defended by those to whom those rights are often denied in our own world, and it’s beautiful to hear.

Elevator Pitch: Do you like hearing separate narratives converge while combing through previous parts to catch clues you may have missed? What about intersectional queer rep and a not-even-subtle blast against capitalistic greed and religious fundamentalists? Perhaps some cheerful existentialism mixed with messages of profound hope from a friendly cosmic watcher? Please, I am begging y’all, listen to Hello From the Hallowoods!

This is not in any way an exhaustive list and there are new queer horror podcasts being created all the time (which is a sentence I am delighted to be able to write). These are just a few of my favorites, but there are plenty more where these came from. Happy listening!

Kayla Martin-Gant (she/her) is a queer disability advocate, full-time librarian, and lover of all things spooky. She wrote her first story, called The Haunted Dollhouse, when she was six years old and received rave reviews from the playground crew. You can find her yelling about various and sundry things on Twitter at @poultryofperil.