Jo

🥃 Love and Luck Ep 4-5: It's lovely to listen to a love story that's not about the will-or-won't-they, that's about the feeling of finally being seen and the safety of being understood. It's a kind of magic. And here, maybe literally.

🐺 Me and AU Ep 1-3: There's nothing quite like the fandom for a small Canadian supernatural show with a dubious budget (hello Lost Girl) to instill in you a disproportionate about of devotion. And truly, writing fanfiction for someone is high on the hierarchy of love languages.

☔ Mabel Ep 3-4: Even though Anna, for all intents and purposes, is around at least another person every day, her loneliness is palpable. The oddities and mysteries almost feel like symptoms of that loneliness. The way your mind plays tricks on you, the more time you spend inside your own thoughts.

🚦 Alice Isn't Dead, Ch 2 - Alice: We all deserve a little toxic yuri, as a treat. And a strange ghostly town (or relationship) that you leave, but you can't escape, like an immovable object/unstoppable force way of living. What is the result of that collision? Confusion, chaos, then it's gone.

It's the last #audiodramasunday before the Hearthbound finale, so in honor of Odessa and Penelope, I'm featuring some other shows featuring queer love stories (some more romantic than others…):

Yes!! 10/10 good trees no notes.

A digital illustration by Dominique Ramsey for Hearthbound, Episode 9: Penelope. An elk with shedding antlers stares out over a rugged peninsula.

Buckle up friends it's Penelope loving hours!! Listen to Hearthbound, Episode 9 now! pod.link/1807519201/e...

🍼 @hinaypod.bsky.social E2: What a fun combination of haunted house, creepy baby, vengeful spirit. It's a pattern for my listens this week, but this is just another beautiful meditation on grief. You can count on Mari to charge in fearlessly. And when all that fails, at least Donner's got her back.

🏍️ @utes-podcast.bsky.social S1E00: Filling the void left when I finished Citizen Sleeper 2, UTES really scratches that itch. I love a down-on-their luck scrapper hustling to make ends meet in the neon & chrome. @mxeliramos.bsky.social built a buzzing and lived-in world. Can't wait to explore it.

🩰 The Big Loop S1E1: Lofi, pensive, slow burn, this falls into my favorite genre of ghost story, where the spookiness is actually just grief. It brings me back to early years of moving to a big city, the feeling of being a small part of an immense, breathing whole, & the wondrous enormity of that.

⚰️ MERCY S1Ep3-5: I've been plowing through this phantasmagoria of a show and am moved by Sawyer's losses, a child torn from him long ago & a beloved taken so recently. Both tragedies feed into each other, despite the time between them. Give the man a hug. cc: @strangekindstudio.bsky.social

🌲 Residents of Proserpina Park Ep43: A nature god w/ blue+orange morality is such a fun trope-- the strange/dangerous made sense thru beings like the Leshy. Of course, Juni and Jessica, lost and unanchored in their own ways, seek to create a mythology of their own. cc: @girlmadeofjade.bsky.social

This #audiodramasunday, I wanted to feature some shows by my fellow Asian creators out here. As we are not a monolith, everyone brings such an array of specific cultural experiences to the work. Here's to telling more stories, our way.

Thanks for letting us keep you company! We highly recommend our listeners go out and about and look at some good trees while listening to Hearthbound! 🌲

A digitally illustrated poster for HEARTHBOUND Episode 8: Antigone. Two people in post-apocalyptic gear and getup sit on a bridge made of flying magpies. Behind them is a full yellow moon, a pink night sky, and an alpine lake.

New episode! Check out Hearthbound, Episode 8: Antigone for an iconic punk rock mandolin moment. This one holds a very special place in my heart. 🤘🏼 pod.link/1807519201/e...

🖌️ Generation Crossing Track 5, Track 6, Track 7: @dead-signals.bsky.social offers little windows into a world we can only imagine. It's not about what if our world is gone or what if we live in a spaceship? Under the strangeness, it's how do we continue to love? And create? Because we always do.

🥧 @noadventurespod.bsky.social Ep1.1: You had me at decolonizing murder quests! Charming yet deeply subversive, Sig's stubbornness in the face of the Call is a refreshing rejection of the inherent violence in fantasy. This show says Be Ungovernable. Question Everything. And eat more pie.

🩲 Love and Luck Ep1, Ep 2: I adore stories rooted in place. And this show's mentions of real queer spaces in St. Kilda offer a beautiful specificity. I'm reminded of the careful dance, the hopeful eagerness of early courtship. It's lovely to revisit those feelings, past now, but not forgotten.

🐺 World Gone Wrong Ep101: Gotta ask the real questions. Like what happens when your lapdog is a werewolf? This show captures the absurdity and humor we need to get through a frightening world. And it's the people-- our Maliks and Jamies who keep us grounded and laughing in the face of chaos.

Next up, since our show Hearthbound takes a slice-of-life approach to the post-apocalypse, let's talk about some other shows that focus on the quotidian, the rooted, the little things:

💰 {Queer} Pride and Prejudice Ep1: This is a wondrous reimagining of P&P where characters are cast to embrace the wide gender spectrum that does exist. Also Mrs. Darcy much belongs in the halls of Mean Dykes to Watch Out For. What would Jane Austen have thought about a yo mama lesbian I wonder?

🧛‍♂️ @theholmwoodfnd.bsky.social S1E1: I'm a sucker for narratives where two people share a body and so must cope with the loss of agency and the desperate need for trust. Then there's the Dracula of it all. That's the fun of playing with the classics— unveiling new textures in old stories.

🤌 @thepeekwithpepys.bsky.social Ep1: The Peek is a brand-spanking-new show that feels very much in the tradition of Fawx & Stallion. Brash, nerdy, and camp to the bone, there are references to beloved figures (s/o to my girl Aphra Behn), but even deep literary cuts stay afloat with breezy quips.

🥊 @224bbaker.bsky.social Ch1: Incorrigible trio Fawx, Stallion, and Madge have easily stolen my heart, aorta, and all. What's better than rooting for underdogs, except rooting for underdogs with whatever is the opposite of imposter syndrome?

It's #audiodramasunday, but make it a double, because I forgot to share my previous write-up here too! First category: literature, classics-style!

that's our show! thank you so much for listening! it's always a treat to see Hearthbound mentioned in the wild!

A digitally illustrated poster of a mirror image of a crescent moon, a mountain road, and old, wizened hands pouring coffee out of a cup. Below, on a license plate for a beatup yellow van, reads HEARTHBOUND EP 7. CASSANDRA.

Hearthbound episode 7 is here!! Here's wishing a good day to a Cassandra who gets to live to a ripe old age. pod.link/1807519201

Thanks Gregg for giving our lil folk musical a shot!

A digitally illustrated poster for Hearthbound Episode 6: Aeaea. A strange house sits beside a lake with enormous plants growing all around it The poster is bordered by objects— a pig's head, mushrooms, a knife...

Hearthbound episode 6 is out! Welcome to Circe's Lodge. Behave. pod.link/1807519201

The Strange Case of Starship Iris title over a lo-fi photo of people surrounding a campfire.

While Team Hearthbound is taking a mid-season break, meet (or revisit) the motliest crew in the 'verse, created by @jesserbest.bsky.social. We've dropped TSCOSI's very first episode on our feed: episodes.fm/1807519201/e...