Can you hear it? There’s an audio counter-revolution underway. Maybe you are already a card-holding member of the vanguard. If not, there’s a whole new aural world to discover.
Good old radio has reinvented itself as podcasts – audio files that can be listened to in various ways, such as on iPods (hence the name) and phones. There is a lot of science fiction and fantasy available on podcasts, from stories to roundtable discussions to reviews to interviews and more. There will be even more in the future.
The reasons for the success of podcasts are fairly simple. Like radio, they allow people to listen to something of interest while doing other things at the same time, such as driving a car. Podcasts have the advantage of portability (something that radio explored long ago in the transistor age), as the necessary devices can be very small. Also, because a podcast is a pre-recorded audio file, it can be listened to more than once and the listener can choose exactly when to start and stop. The files can be saved on devices such as an mp3, allowing the creation over time of a collection of audio programmes chosen by the listener.
If you are not already a regular podcast user, I hope you will try them out. I am finding new ones all the time. Set out below are some of the best science fiction and fantasy podcasts I have found so far. Click on one or more of them, look for something that interests you and have a listen and see whether this is something you could get used to.
For those who like to listen to SFF but can’t abandon good old radio, I have added at the end a few radio programmes and resources that offer lots of genre content.
Enjoy!
Podcasts
- Adventures in SciFi Publishing
- SFF Audio
- Functional Nerds
- Galactic Suburbia
- Geek Planet Online
- Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
- Coode Street Podcast
- SFF Marketing Podcast
- Revolution SF
- Rocket Talk
- Roundtable
- SciFiction podcast
- SF Book Review Podcast
- SF Site podcast
- SF Signal podcast
- SF Squeecast
- Skiffy and Fanty
- Slice of SciFi
- Sword and Laser
- The Incomparable
- The Writer and the Critic
- Writing Excuses
Radio programmes
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S.C. Flynn 
I discovered podcasts in 2006! Wow – that’s a long time ago! The first podcasts I listened to regularly were EscapePod and StarShipSofa. Now, as you know, I do my own segment on SF poetry for StarShipSofa. I don’t have as much time as I used to to listen. I used to walk around by myself a lot and also listen while doing mindless tasks at home. Now, my son is often with me when I’m walking and the state of the house will testify that I don’t do as much housework anymore!
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You were really in the vanguard of podcasting, Diane!
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Great list! I’d also recommend searching around for audio dramas, as there a lot of sci-fi productions in that space (no pun intended). We have one which is a time travel comedy called It’s About Time (http://itsabouttimetravelagency.com), but there are plenty of great ones to choose from!
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Thanks, Steve. As you noted, my list was more about casts that concentrate on discussion and reviews rather than on presenting drama. If and when I do another kind of list, I will keep your show in mind!
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