Issue #273 of The Fiction Podcast Weekly is brought to you by Back Fires.

In 1946, a crew of California convicts fights wildfires in exchange for their freedom. Thirty years later, while researching the history of American prison labor, a British journalist uncovers evidence suggesting a wide-ranging cover-up of inmate deaths. Listen to Back Fires - a new full-cast historical fiction podcast.

News, Roundups, and Announcements

• ​Audio Drama Hub Podfest 2024, 2 November. In-person tickets are now available, and the keynote speaker is Nicholas Briggs. More info at the Audio Drama Hub site.
• ​FTC Denounces Social Media And Video Streaming Platforms For ‘Privacy-Invasive’ Data Practices, by Allison Schiff for Ad Exchanger. "On the receiving end were Amazon, Facebook and WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, ByteDance, Reddit and Discord...these companies are incentivized to engage in the mass collection of user data for monetization, because that’s how they make most of their revenue. The problem of 'vast surveillance,' as the report calls it, therefore has less to do with any specific product feature or aspect of a service, the FTC official said. It’s deeper than that."
• ​Everyone's Happy Season Two Launches Kickstarter. The team at GravyTree Media is back with a host of audio drama-themed rewards for listeners who support the dystopian sci-fi podcast.
• Spotify has sucked any good tools and resources from Chartable and is throwing out the rest. Maybe you got an email about it: Podnews has a copy.
• Congratulations to the winners of the Black Podcasting Awards, especially TwentyOne21 and Stone.
• Congratulations to the winners of the British Podcast Awards, especially Badger and The Blitz (FunKids), 1984 (Audible) and The Dial-Up, which appears to be independent.
• Realm.fm has new hires: Carly Migliori as Production Partnerships Lead, Sarah Bentley as Head of Network, and Maddy Weinberg, as Network Coordinator.

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Creator Resources

• Deep Cuts Episode 16: Audio drama basics with Travis Vengroff of Fool & Scholar Productions​
• ​How Creatives Can Secure Funding through Grant Opportunities, with Danielle Desir Corbett is episode 168 of So Here's The Thing with Laylee Emadi.
• ​The Persuadeables- Podcasting's Next 20 Million Consumers, by Tom Webster
• Missouri: The Pringle Midwest Audio Fiction Festival takes place 4-6 of October.
• The National Audio Theater Festival presents Hear Learn: Scriptwriting for Audio Theatre, 28 Sept- 14 December.
• ​How Successful Creators Build Loyal Communities, by Rob Balasabas

Opportunities

• Casting Call: 'Little Drummer Boy' and 'Saint Cecilia', for the Saints Alive podcast.
• The 11th Hour Audio Challenge is on the horizon.
• Need help with your audio drama or fiction podcast? Post your casting call, request for scripts, job description, or other opportunities on a Google Doc, make it public, and send the link to us.

Milestones & Debuts

• ​Englewood After Dark Two college students run a true crime conspiracy podcast to dig up the truth behind the murders on their campus. But, the foundations of Englewood University are built on secrets for a reason. Will they uncover the roots, or be buried like the rest? Englewood After Dark premiers on October 8th.
• ​Caucus: After The Fall It’s 2076. A mixed-race documentary producer travels to each race district that represents the fractured segments of the United Segregated States of America, and to find the two who stopped it all.
• ​Dead West A blend of folk horror and weird western themes in a re-imagined American Gilded age. A time when everything was stolen, blood was let, and society grappled with modernity.

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