Portraits of Possible Futures That’ll Make You Glad for Our Present
I had SUCH a wonderful time putting together this list for EarBuds Podcast Collective of audio dramas in which the futures are daaaaaark
🎙️ SMARTR - Every episode of this mockumentary about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will have you howling at the hilarity and groaning at its prescience, but "DR. ROULETTE" is a particularly biting satire of one of our worst systems: healthcare. And as if that wasn't a big enough subject to tackle, this episode is an excellent example of how Smartr balances multiple social criticisms at once; in this case, gig workers.
💤 RED VALLEY - To fully appreciate the winding, decades-sprawling narrative that Red Valley weaves, you need to start with Episode 1, which introduces the central concept of hypersleep. Before you know it, you'll be four seasons deep into this brilliant exploration of wealth, justice, and what it means to spit in the eye of science in order to live forever. Do you want to continue?
📠 WITHIN THE WIRES - The universe of Within the Wires is intricate, spanning across nine distinct seasons and a truly excellent novel. You could start with any season, but I think it’s worth diving in at the start and letting the details of this rich world unfurl slowly - a world that’s off in ways both identifiable and not, and the show does a wonderful job creating a feeling of true dread.
📱 THE TRUTH - There are many episodes of this medium-defining anthology podcast that fit this brief, but - while more abstract than some of the other picks on here - there’s something particularly chilling about the simplicity of “The Choice”. We’ve all had the experience of receiving a strange automated call, some more sinister than others, but this episode takes that premise and ponders the demands our devices make of us and what choices we make in turn, even when we don’t know the consequences.
🌡️ YOU FEELING THIS? - From another excellent anthology, “Highs in the 130s” imagines a not-so-distant future in which LA is rendered inhabitable due to extreme temperatures. As the main characters do what they can to escape the city, tensions reach a boiling point. It’s entirely too plausible and emits a kind of simmering heat you can feel.
👹 WORLD GONE WRONG - You could jump into any episode of this fictional chat podcast and have a rollicking good time, but it's worth starting with the pilot to get situated in the world of two friends who try to find the lightness in a world that's gone, well, entirely wrong. The truly fun twist of this show is that the world has gone wrong in so many ways - every episode is an unexpected delight of problems.
But alright, I won't leave you in complete despair. If you’re looking for a version of the future that still grapples with the thorny ethics of advancing tech, but will leave you warm and fuzzy, look no further than the sci-fi(ish) romantic comedy, 🤖 LIFE WITH LEO(h).
And if you’d rather have a cathartic primal scream set in our exact present (just with bonus demons), you could check out my new show TWO THOUSAND AND LATE 🔥
Make sure to sign up for the EarBuds newsletter to get all kinds of great podcast recs!!!
