If you're just here for the podcast list in OPML format (which you can import into most any Podcast player), you can download it here.

I have been listening to audio drama podcasts since 2015. Back then, a person could conceivably listen to every narrative fiction podcast that had ever been produced and also keep up with the new shows coming out. However, sometime in 2018 the growth in new audio drama shows went exponential, and I don't make any attempt to keep up. I follow The Cambridge Geek and browse the Apple Fiction Podcast List regularly and try out anything that looks like it might fit my interests, but nowadays I'm much more selective. All this is to explain that my list is a mix of things I've listened to over a long period of time during which the average quality of audio drama podcasts has increased, and my time and patience have gotten shorter.

My list is also (obviously) biased to my specific interests. I tend to listen to podcasts that are:

• Written and produced for the medium (serialized audio), rather than just an amateur writer narrating their latest self-published novel.
• Made with a full cast, or at least a very good single narrator who can give individual voices to the characters.
• Episodic, as opposed to anthologies of stand-alone stories.
• SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror.

You'll find exceptions to all of these tendencies in the list, but they are the minority.

Below is a human-readable list of the shows, roughly grouped into categories. Due to time constraints I'll probably only be able to update this list a couple times per year. And maybe someday I'll even get around to writing reviews for some of these.

If you are a podcast producer and you feel like your podcast should be on this list but isn't, feel free to open an issue.

Also includes things like historical fantasy.

Also includes noir and docu-drama. Many of these have sci-fi or horror elements.

Shows from different generes that are weird and don't really fit well in other categories.

Shows from different generes that are more funny than serious.

Includes shows where all the stories are set in a common universe. Generally, there is minimal or no over-arching plot.

These are BBC4 shows that are available as podcasts in the US.

These are in a separate category because they're all produced by "script mills" like QCODE - i.e. a big-budget production company that uses real actors and only ever puts out single seasons, in attempts to sell their scripts to TV studios. The quality of these shows is generally excellent, and the seasons always come to some kind of conclusion, but they usually leave you wanting more and you're never going to get it.