These Fiction Podcasts Will Become Your New Commute Staple

The Truth

The Truth is an anthology podcast telling different fictional short stories in every episode. Each story has different voices acting out the characters, adding to the immersion and giving each tale a unique feel and tone.

A few of our favourites include “The Decider”, about a device that reveals how satifisfied you’d be with any decision; “Songonauts”, a music-based sci-fi adventure; and “That’s Democracy” involving a class demonstration that turns bad, and many others.

The show has been running since 2012, so there are plenty of episodes to dive into – over 180 so far and counting! – and the format means that it’s very easy to pick and choose ones that look interesting or stop a story you don’t like.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts

From Now

One of many celebrity-voiced fiction pods on this list, From Now is a sci-fi series set in the future, as a famous spaceship lands back on Earth after going missing decades ago. Its occupant (and sole survivor of the voyage) appears exactly the same age as he did when he left, and tracks down his identical twin brother- who is now an old man.

The six-episode podcast stars Bodyguard star Richard Madden as the astronaut (Edward) and Succession’s Brian Cox as his brother Hunter. While the two brothers are overjoyed to see each other again, unfolding events and secrets from the past threaten to upend everything, and endanger humanity itself.

Listen on: Spotify

Alice Isn’t Dead

This podcast is produced in the style of a succession of audio diaries recorded by a lonesome truck driver, who is nameless. She begins a search across the United States for her wife, who she had assumed was dead, but now believes is still alive after seeing her face on TV. Her American journey starts off fairly normally until she starts to encounter strange happenings and odd people. Suddenly, things start to get seriously menacing and disturbing, and the driver begins to discover that her missing wife isn’t the only thing there is to uncover on her journey.

The series spanned 3 different seasons (or Parts) of 10 episodes, plus an extra ten bonus episodes, and even led to a novel being published.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts

Edith!

Rosamund Pike stars in this semi-fictionalised comedic tale of the life of Edith Wilson, who was the First Lady of the United States for the latter half of the 1910s. She began to play an important role in the workings and decisions of the administration of her husband Woodrow Wilson when he fell ill in 1919 with a stroke.

This is where Edith!’s action begins, as the First Lady begins to take on some of the responsibilities and challenges of the presidency, in a world reeling from the First World War. It’s not entirely historically accurate (nor is it meant to be), but it’s a fun look at a story that’s often forgotten, with Edith acting as the President’s closest advisor- and arguably, the chief decision-maker herself.

Listen on: Spotify

Forest 404

Forest 404 comes from BBC Radio 4, and is written by screenwriter Timothy X Atack. An environmental, sci-fi based podcast, Forest 404 takes places in the distant future (the 24th century, to be exact) and centres around Pan (Doctor Who’s Pearl Mackie). Pan has the job of sifting through old historical data files after the world experienced a cataclysm that erased much of our knowledge and recordings. She stumbles across a recording of a soundscape of a forest, and in a world where forests no longer exist, this is an incredible and exciting discovery for the bored Pan. However, her newfound fascination will drive her down a path that will change her life forever.

Listen on: BBC Sounds and Spotify 

Homecoming

Headlined by three famous voices, Homecoming is a fiction podcast you’ll definitely want to check out. Academy Award-nominated actress Catherine Keener stars as Heidi Bergman, a worker at an experimental facility that attempts to help soldiers back into normal life.

Friends’ David Schwimmer plays her impatient and strict boss Colin, who often clashes with her more free-flowing approach to work. Her main case is Walter Cruz, voiced by Star Wars star Oscar Isaac, a soldier who is eager to come back into society and be rehabilitated. Also featuring are David Cross (Arrested Development) and Amy Sedaris (The Mandalorian). Homecoming has received particular acclaim, and became highly influential.

Listen on: Spotify

Blackout

This apocalyptic-thriller podcast stars Oscar winner Rami Malek, who plays a small-town radio DJ. Berlin (New Hampshire, not Germany) resident Simon Itani is determined to keep his family and neighbourhood safe after a nationwide blackout wrecks the country and threatens to be the end of civilisation as we know it. Modern technology has been made pretty much useless, and so life the country over has been turned upside down. While Simon manages to keep his radio station running with the help of a generator, the family soon finds itself fighting for survival, as nefarious forces put their survival at risk.

Listen on: Spotify

Welcome To Night Vale

Welcome to Night Vale is created by the same mind behind Alice Isn’t Dead, Joesph Fink. Much like that podcast, Nightvale focuses on the strange and the creepy: it’s presented as a radio program hosted in the fictional town of Night Vale in the Southwestern US. Night Vale, of course, isn’t an ordinary town, and strange events often occur much to the intrigue of the radio show’s host Cecil Gershwin Palmer. It’s a town where wild conspiracy theories are in fact the truth, and where everything feels eerily paranormal. Nonetheless, it’s still a comedy-drama, with often wacky recurring characters and surreal scenarios.

Listen on: Spotify and Apple Podcasts