I have been having a very draining week but I saw a couple of really cool posts by @vosling who has so far made two calendar pages to celebrate audio fiction with disabled characters in them for disability pride month (with a third on the way) and they inspired me.
I put together a calendar page of my own full of works I have listened to that have portrayals of people with disabilities in them. 10/10 highly recommend that everyone try making one of their own, whether it be for audio fiction, written fiction, video games, or movies, especially if you're feeling kind of shitty. It was fun, low stakes task of make a list, and in the process of making the list you remember a bunch of things that entertained you and brought you joy as you do it.
I set myself the goal of listing audio dramas I have listened to that I recall depicting disability, so its not completely unique to Vos' list, but it does have some they haven't included yet (and hopefully even one or two that aren't on their list for their 3rd calendar page).
A quick list of the most prominent characters with disabilities is under the cut and each entry is followed by a brief description/summary of the podcast those characters are in to help you decide if there are any worth your time.
Happy Pride everyone.
The Penumbra Podcast: Juno Steel - Juno has depression, alcoholism and PTSD and also loses an eye. Multiple character deal with the long-term effects of surviving radiation poisoning, and multiple characters deal with addiction. Sci fi detective noir crime drama.
EOS 10 – Levi is a hypochondriac, Ryan and Urvidian are drug addicts in different phases of recovery. This one is a sci-fi medical dramedy set on a space station, like if you put Deep Space Nine and Scrubs in a blender.
This Planet Needs a Name – Kolian is blind. A sci-fi story of small crew terraforming a planet in preparation for the ark-ship following behind them. Listen as the crew build the foundation of a civilisation they won't live to see take full form.
Second Star to the Left – Gwen has a prosthetic leg, later in the story a character develops a condition that appears to be an analogue for Parkinsons after being exposed to an alien compound. A sci-fi drama with buddy comedy vibes about a terraformer scout and their off-world handler developing a long-distance relationship after a rocky start.
The Pasithea Powder – Multiple main characters experience PTSD and the show itself is basically an exploration of the experience, mistreatment and recovery process of people with PTSD.
The Strange Case of Starship Iris – Violet has an anxiety, Arkady has PTSD, Brian has extensive lung damage that progresses as the series goes to the point that he permanently requires oxygen and Park loses an eye. Outer space story of espionage, resistance, and found family.
Love and Luck – One of the leads Kane has anxiety and there are other disabled characters seen throughout. Soft urban fantasy set in Melbourne Australia about two men falling in love and opening a gay dry bar to help uplift and protect their community. Also, their love for each other produces magic.
We Fix Space Junk – Kilner has many prosthetics due to work-place accidents. A comedic space faring sci-fi set in a capitalist dystopia, that follows a seasoned smuggler and mechanic and the reluctant fugitive she met along the way.
Midst Podcast – Many characters live with fantastical physical and mental effects from being exposed to a substance called the fold, though some have more ordinary ailments, some of these characters require assistance such as mobility aids, medication manage. The character Moc Weepe for instance suffers from acute chronic pain if he doesn’t regularly let blood. It is a semi-improvised science fantasy space western.
Girl in Space – Kai is a cyborg whose brain and spinal cord were put in a robotic body, Captain Chen loses an arm during the series. This is a sci-fi story of a girl who has been living alone in an abandoned space station with only an AI for company, but now others have come to claim it and are very confused by her presence.
Project Daydream – 48 has survivor guilt as like the tip of the iceberg, and 06 is also not ok, however the mental health issues across the main cast are more subtextual/set up for exploring in season 2. In this sci-fi/Urban fantasy story Project Daydream is a clandestine branch of the British Government that investigates the supernatural and other strange unexplainable phenomena.
Someone Dies in This Elevator – This is an anthology series and come entries contain disabled protagonists, such as episode 11 which features a pair of wheelchair users. This is a spoiler driven fiction anthology, the title is the spoiler, whether the story revolves around time-travel, magic, or a lover’s spat, someone will die in the elevator.
Archive 81 – Some depiction of mental illness in season one, and body horror-imposed disability comes into play in season two when a third of Dan’s body is replaced with machinery to record and play tapes. This is a paranormal horror using a found footage format. Dan takes on an archival job restoring the audio recordings of a woman named Melody Pendras and is forced by his contract to record himself doing so.
Midnight Burger – Casper has depression at least if his designation of “most miserable being in existence” is anything to go by, they meet a variety of people with different disabilities during their travels, such as the blind alien named Libuza and in later seasons Philip a wheelchair user joins the diner staff. Sci-fi dramedy about a time-travelling dimension spanning diner staffed by people who struggled to fit elsewhere that seems to show up wherever someone could use a good cup of coffee.
Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic – Dot has dementia, Ruddi has ADHD, Abbie has autism and later PTSD. This is a story of ghosts and conspiracies and unusual families of blood and of choice set in a small town in Ohio.
Unend – The Granddaughter/Dot has anxiety and is near sighted, Everett has spent time care with the mothers in part for her transition but its implied during her time with them that they were also helping with depression/a mood disorder. This is a sequel series to Midst but can be listened to as a standalone, Unend follows a crew on a supernaturally powered ship exploring the farthest reaches of known reality with the same semi-improvised sci-fantasy western aesthetic as Midst.
The Far Meridian – Peri has agoraphobia. A magical realism in which Peri’s lighthouse home disappears and reappears somewhere new each day. She uses this unorthodox means of travel to search her missing brother.
Where the Stars Fell – Ed has Dyslexia and ADHD, Lucille has chronic pain and fatigue, a prosthetic leg and uses a cane mobility aid. Magical Realism that follows the seemingly unkillable cryptozoologist Ed Tucker as she carries out research in Jerusalem Oregon.
Welcome to the Horizon – Doug has anxiety and PTSD, Deidre has anxiety, June shows evidence of alcoholism, and Leif has a prosthetic arm and foot. This is kinda a gimme as it exists as a mini-series that airs concurrently with Midnight Burger and exists within the same setting, after being visited by the diner things start getting weird in the mountain town of Hood’s Pocket, such as the Mountain suddenly travelling to the other end of the universe.
Derelict – Dr Graff deals with depression and possibly PTSD in the wake of her daughter’s death, this is preyed upon by a malevolent entity that causes visual and auditory hallucinations, Sarah Raynor is a recovering addict to a fictional substance and experiences pain when exposed to certain radiowaves, Killian Sager is blind but can sense things through metal. It is a sci-fi horror audio-drama that begins with a mega-corp studying a giant vault door found at the bottom of the ocean, a door that wants to be opened.
Supernatural Sexuality with Dr Seabroooke – Multiple disabled characters appear throughout the series with a variety of disabilities such as characters who use mobility aids, some who experience sensory issues and need help with overload, and others dealing with anxiety and depression. This is an urban fantasy show with supernatural creatures and occasionally their human loved ones call into Dr Seabrooke’s radio show for relationship and life advice.
How I Died – Jon has PTSD. Listeners often compare him to both Gregory House from House MD and Will Graham from Hannibal, so you can imagine the flavour of mental illness involved to be the centre of that Venn diagram. This is a supernatural thriller/murder mystery podcast of a forensic pathologist who speaks to the dead, due to the nature of the crimes he investigates I recommend checking for content warnings if you are averse to descriptions of death, injury, violence, and sexual violence.
The Bright Sessions – many neurodivergent characters as the concept of the show follows supernaturally powered individuals attending therapy with Dr Bright.
Welcome to Night Vale – Carlos a main recurring character has autism and Janice, niece of the main narrator Cecil, is a wheelchair user, I’m sure there are other characters with disabilities however it’s a long show about a whole town and its been a hot minute. WTNV is a surrealist humour cosmic horror fiction podcast in which radio announcer Cecil Palmer reports on both the otherworldly and mundane goings on in the desert town of Night Vale.
The Penumbra Podcast: Tales of the Second Citadel – Sir Marc has a neurological disorder that prevents him from using his legs, and Sir Damien has an anxiety disorder – high fantasy world about a city fortress and the surrounds full of monsters. Warning the setting is highly prejudiced, many challenges the main cast overcome relate to ableism, sexism, and homophobia. However, the story always positions these prejudices as unjust and as part of the source of the settings woes.
Among the Stars and Bones – Johann Mueller experiences delusions and panic attacks and is theorised to have residual brain damage from recreational drug use as a teen/young adult unclear if his usage ever reached the point of addiction. A sci-fi horror mystery about a team of xenoarchaeologists travel to distant worlds searching for traces of a now-vanished alien race and finding more than they bargained for.
Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services – Many of Kalila’s clients aren’t necessarily experiencing magical issues but mundane ones they hope to help with magic such as issues with confidence, anxiety, or depersonalisation wherein Kalila acts more as a mediator or metaphysical first responder helping people ground themselves and address their traumas so that they can begin healing. This is an urban fantasy story that leans heavily into new age witch-y language and fantasy presentation to describe very real emotional issues and traumas at both a communal and interpersonal level.
The Night Post – Clementine experiences chronic migraines, and Val uses a cane after complications from surgery. A horror mystery fiction podcast where mail couriers are respected yet shunned as they operate in the arcane frontier surrounding their growing industrial society.
Moonbase Theta, Out – Wilder has a prosthetic arm and deals with chronic pain and Alexandre has depression. There is an assortment of other disabled characters throughout. Sci-fi with capitalist dystopia bend, about a moonbase program being decommissioned and the fallout faced by those still on the moon.
The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality – One of the main characters, The Clockwork Mother, is mute and uses sign language to communicate. Magical realism with sci-fi elements, a museum full of artifacts that function similar to Warehouse 13 with an SCP bend.
Thirst – Anouk and Murdock both arrive with PTSD but there is an argument to be made that all the other characters develop some form of PTSD/survivors guilt pretty quickly as the show progresses. Thirst is a horror-satire about exploitative entertainment set in a world undergoing some kind of water related apocalypse. Think if love island were a death game and all the adverts were state sponsored propaganda to buckle down and overcome your water addiction.
TOP 10 PODCASTS ON AO3 BASED ON NUMBER OF FANWORKS (2013-2022)
YEAR = November 6 (or closest date to it if unavailable) of that year
To make this bar chart race, all series titles in the Other Media Category on November 6 (or the closest date to it) of every year were copy-pasted from Wayback Machine to Google Sheets, rearranged according to number of fanworks, and manually filtered since not all podcasts were marked as such. Then I inputted all the top 10 data to Flourish to turn into a bar chart race.
Some web series like Critical Role and Dimensions 20 released audio-only versions of their works too, but I left them out since they were listed was a web series on ao3 and more known as one too.
Similarly, radio shows which only had podcasts years after they started are not included. That means Cabin Pressure, which I accidentally added in the 2022 Top 20 ranking last week, is not included here because it was only rereleased as a podcast in 2019, and 90% of the fanworks it has now are from before 2019.
All nonfiction podcasts have also been excluded (Not that there were many), because with RPFs, it’s hard to tell if the fic in question is just based on the podcast or because of the things the person has done outside of it.
The bar race starts on 2013 because there were no podcasts in the Other Media category before that year.
The first podcast fandom to post on Ao3 was We’re Alive on January 1, 2013, followed by The Thrilling Adventure Hour on January 27, 2013, and then Welcome to Night Vale at June 2013.
In 2014-2016, Sparks Nevada Marshal on Mars, a segment from The Thrilling Adventure Hour, was also in the top 10, but I didn’t included it since it’s not its own podcast.
TOTAL = the total fanworks of all the top 10 over the years, not the whole podcast fandom itself
Thanks for understanding and hopefully I didn’t miss anything! Apologies for any mistakes, I’m still a podcast noob.🙏
ETA: Locked fanworks aren't included in the count because Wayback Machine can’t view those, only Ao3 users can.
Happy pride month to Sophie Green, Jane Gonzalez, Josephine Crooks, George Moreau, Agent Cullen and his husband, Elinor Lopez, Carla DeLuca, Arkady Patel, Violet Liu, RJ McCabe, Krejjh, Brian Jeeter, Sina Tripathi, Bell Summers, Gwen Hartley, Georgie Crusoe and her girlfriend, Rudyard Funn, Daniel Jacobi, Bea Casely, Brenda Bentley, Rosalind Ursula, everyone in Breathing Space, Lily Wright, Sammy Stevens, Katie Lynch, Ed Tucker, Lucy Kensington, Gabe and BB, Lee Armstrong, Mika Harris, Sascha Casana, Darcey Eldridge, Saph, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, Artemis, Apollo, Alex Taylor, Reese Williams, Blair Whitfield, Dakota Maxwell, Eden Hart, Marshall McFarland, Andrea Lamb and her wife, the Reporter from WitherBurn After School News and their girlfriend, Sally Grissom, Esther Roberts, Bridget Chambers, Samantha Barnes, Mark Bryant, Chloe Turner, Rose Atkinson and her girlfriend, Caleb Michaels, Adam Hayes, Belzegor, Zaphan, Trent, Asmoraius, Misroch/Nisroch, God and Satan, Atalanta, Medea, Medusa, Andromeda, Orpheus, Eurydice, Clem Bianchi, Ryan Dalias, Akmazian, Dr. Osolong, Mella Sonder, Annie Inkwyrm, Robert Alphelion, Fae, Intern Maureen, Michelle Nguyen, Cecil Palmer, Carlos the Scientist, and everyone else who's queer in a podcast who might've missed--
