Midst and other magical and weird podcasts full of amazing stories

Midst is a podcast that has already aired a pair of seasons, but thanks to the storytellers at Critical Role the Midst podcast is getting a fancy new re-release! Not only will the first two seasons of Midst be remastered with updated music and sound effects, but Critical Role will be releasing “lightly animated” versions of each episode as well. This is the first time that Critical Role has acquired a complete product before instead of creating it from the ground up — Midst is a great place to start though. With an excellent grasp of its own storytelling and world, Midst is ready to take its bow on the main stage.

It’s great to see Critical Role expanding more into the podcast realm. I love getting lost in podcasts. I fall asleep to them, I do dishes while listening to them, and I play video games while listening to them. Audio drama and fiction podcasts are among my favorite ways to pass the time. I love how inventive and fresh the storytelling can be. I love them all, whether it’s podcasts that might send a shiver down your spine or just the story of a Girl who happens to be in space — a well-told podcast is one of my favorite things in the world.

If you enjoy immersive fiction podcasts — like Midst — I have some recommendations. Here are some of the shows that I’ve been spending my time with recently, so put on your comfiest headphones, get cozy, and let’s listen to a story.

Midst

Midst is a podcast about a small frontier town. There is a cabaret and a post office, a religious organization that may or may not be a cult is rolling into town to set up shop, and there’s a strange loner who lives on the edge of town with a dangerous past and a heart of gold. The thing is, that small frontier town is on a moon in space and you’ve got to be careful to keep your place well stocked with light bulbs because the darkness out in space might be a little stranger than your average darkness.

I listened to every episode of Midst in about a weekend. I was hooked almost right from the jump, I just had to keep going as the mysteries of the town and the main characters kept getting teased out. They really nailed the gradual reveal of just how interconnected the three main characters’ stories are.

Midst tells the story of its three characters through a trio of semi-professional narrators. They’re always going to tell you what’s happening, but they might get lost in thought and have a little conversation amongst themselves while they do it. I’ve heard of unreliable narrators before, but this is something completely different. I love how it lends the storytelling a casual feel. It’s almost like you’re just sitting around a campfire with three friends who are going to tell you a story, but they can’t help but bicker just a little.

If you can, take the advice the show gives you to listen with your headphones on. The soundscape created through the foley and the musical backing is phenomenal. Their audio engineer really has knocked it out of the park. It’s quickly become one of my “instant listen” shows whenever a new episode shows up.

I’m very excited to listen to them again as they rerelease their seasons with Critical Role.

Listen: You’ll be able to listen to the first three episodes of Midst on the Critical Role YouTube channel and podcast apps starting on April 11, 12, and 13.  After those first three episodes launch you’ll have to listen along weekly.

Bridgewater

For a show so new Bridgewater has a fantastic focus on the fundamentals of what makes audio storytelling great. That shouldn’t be a surprise though — it’s produced, written, and directed by some heavy hitters in the podcast game. Written and directed by Lauren Shippen and produced by Aaron Mahnke, Bridgewater feels like a collaboration on the same level as Freddy Mercury and David Bowie singing Under Pressure.

Between them, they already have some of the most listened-to podcasts in the world. Mahnke is the man behind the wildly successful Grim and Mild production company. With non-fiction hits such as Lore, The Cabinet of Curiosities, and American Shadows already under his belt, he decided to turn to the world of fiction with Bridgewater. Lauren Shippen meanwhile has written and directed podcasts for Marvel, Stranger Things, and has her own production company called Atypical Artists. Together they have made Bridgewater a delight to listen to, with a frankly unbelievable voice cast.

Bridgewater stars Misha Collins, Melissa Ponzio, Karan Soni, and Nathan Fillion, and tells the story of a university professor looking for his father who went missing in the mysterious Bridgewater Triangle in southern Massachusetts. Misha Collins as Jeremy Bradshaw a professor of Folklore perfectly sells himself as someone who has been stuck in a rut when the supernatural comes along to upend their life. The Bridgewater podcast may be telling a fictional story, but the Bridgewater Triangle is a real-life location and is home to hundreds of supernatural goings-on!

Currently, Bridgewater is most of the way through their second season and still going strong. They’ve added a pair of big names to their cast in Alan Tudyk and Tricia Helfer and have built and expanded on the mystery in a fantastic way that has me eagerly clicking play on each new episode.

Listen: You can listen to Bridgewater on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and iHeartradio.

LeVar Burton Reads

So many people in the world are familiar with LeVar Burton’s work with the show Reading Rainbow. It helped to instill in millions of children a love of reading and storytelling. So when I found out that there was also a podcast where LeVar Burton would read short stories to me? I was sold, it’s like Reading Rainbow for adults!

LeVar Burton Reads has just over a hundred episodes of LeVar reading some of the best short fiction I’ve ever heard. This isn’t a long-form narrative so don’t let the back catalog of a hundred episodes feel daunting. You can pick and choose any episode and get a full experience — try skimming the list of episodes and finding an author’s name that you recognize.

The stories that LeVar personally chooses range from funny, heartbreaking, introspective, to thought-provoking. You never know what you’re in for until the new episode comes out. He’s read stories by Neil Gaiman, N.K. Jemisin, Kurt Vonnegut, and so many more amazing authors. Not only are the stories wonderful, but so is his reading of them. LeVar’s voice is perfectly suited to narrating. One minute he’s smoothly setting the scene, while the next he’s doing different voices for the characters.

My personal favorites that he’s read are:

• N.K. Jemisin’s “Cuisine des Mémories” — a beautiful story about a restaurant that can serve you any meal that’s ever existed.
• Ken Liu’s “The Paper Menagerie“ — about a mother connecting with her son through magical origami.
• Karen Osborne’s “An Equal Share of the Bone” — a sci-fi tale of love and space whaling.

I will warn you that The Paper Menagerie is one of the most heart-wrenching stories that I’ve ever heard, and I highly recommend having an entire box of tissues nearby if you decide to listen to it. So if you’re looking for something a bit more light-hearted you could always start with Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry,” or Robert Olen Butler’s “Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot.“  But as LeVar himself says “you don’t have to take my word for it.”

Listen: You can listen to LeVar Burton Reads on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Unseen

Are you watching closely?

What if I told you that there was a world of magic and legendary creatures just on the edge of our vision. That all you had to do to be a part of it is just look hard enough and really see the world for what it is. That’s the premise behind the fiction anthology podcast Unseen. Magic is real, and while it can make your day-to-day a little weirder, your problems are still there no matter if they’re magical in nature or not.

Each episode is a different story of magic in this world, read to you by a different narrator. There are sad stories, stories of casino heists, learning magic or trying to, and even just a fairy tale. That’s probably one of my favorites because of course a fairy tale in a world where you know magic exists — feels just a tiny bit more real. While each episode is a fully standalone experience, there are some interesting narrative threads that will pay off the more episodes you listen to.

Unseen comes from the creative team of Gabriel Urbina, Sarah Shachat, and Zack Valenti who were behind another amazing podcast — Wolf 359. In order to make Unseen, they raised over $40,000 dollars(!) through Kickstarter to produce its first season. Because they were able to raise so much money they were able to produce additional holiday specials that take place around Valentine’s Day, April Fools, Christmas, New Year, and Midsummer. The April Fool’s episode was written by another of my favorite writers, Jordan Cobb, who is the brains behind the phenomenal Janus Descending, and Primordial Deep podcasts — and it’s probably my favorite of all of their episodes.

While there hasn’t been a second season announced yet, I’m crossing my fingers super hard that they’re working on one, and that they’ll do a Halloween episode. Believing in magic might help too…

Listen: You can listen to Unseen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

I hope that you’ll give these shows a listen, maybe one of them will become your new favorite! Also, let me know in the comments if there are any shows you think I’d like — I always need more to listen to! And who knows, maybe Critical Role will be partnering with one of these other shows next!

Originally published August 20, 2021; updated April 6, 2023