The year’s coming to a close but there’s never a dull news day when it comes to podcasts. Here’s a look at some of the new projects we are excited about, here at Podcast Post.
Marvel gets into podcasts
Marvel is officially getting into the podcast business, as a new scripted series called Wolverine: The Long Night is getting ready to arrive next year. Now, Marvel is expanding to enter the scripted audio storytelling arena with a brand new Wolverine saga. Premiering exclusively on Stitcher Premium in the spring of 2018 before moving on to other podcast networks, Wolverine: The Long Night will be a 10-part series blending a crime story with the world of the mutant. Comic book mainstay Ben Percy (The Wilding, Red Moon) will be writing all 10 episodes, and Brendan Baker (Radiotopia’s Love & Radio) will direct.
Marvel provided this synopsis for the series: “The Wolverine: The Long Night story is a captivating hybrid of mystery and the larger-scale fantasy of the Marvel Universe. It follows agents Sally Pierce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Tad Marshall (Ato Essandoh) as they arrive in the fictional town of Burns, Alaska, to investigate a series of murders and quickly discover the town lives in fear of a serial killer. The agents team up with deputy Bobby Reid (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) to investigate their main suspect, Logan (Richard Armitage). Their search leads them on a fox hunt through the mysterious and corrupt town.”
A new Duolingo podcast
One of the best language-learning apps in business is also dipping its toes into the world of podcasts. The first season of Duolingo Podcast focuses on Spanish-language stories — compelling, non-fiction narratives narrated in easy-to-understand Spanish. The first episode is about a boy who loves football and his local Mexican team getting promoted to Division One. The podcast has an NPR feel to it, which is probably because it’s hosted by Martina Castro, who co-founded the broadcaster’s Radio Ambulante series. The podcast is available on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify, SoundCloud and plenty of other places.
Polygon digs into the ‘History of Fun’
Each week, The History of Fun Podcast will feature a new exploration into the hidden back stories behind the things you love to do. Whatever happened to the thimble in Monopoly? Where do all the terrifying Chuck E. Cheese robots come from? What are the origins of dodgeball and why do some people hate it so much? Join Polygon’s Russ Frushtick, Allegra Frank and Chris Plante on a weekly journey through a variety of time-wasting activities. While the podcast will launch a new episode every Monday, the first week saw the release of its first three episodes in one go.
‘Up and Vanished’ gets a TV deal
Payne Lindsey and Donald Albright’s hit 2016 podcast Up and Vanished, inspired by the runaway success of Serial way back in 2013, is expanding to the TV medium. The US podcast, interested in looking at criminal cases that have gone cold in the town of Georgia, explored a decade-old cold case about the murder of teacher and former beauty queen Tara Grinstead in its first season. Months after it began airing, someone called a tip into the police who have since made an arrest in the once closed case. Now the show has bagged itself a TV deal. A few episodes of season one will focus on the Grinstead case, after which every episode will feature a new crime story. The duo are also working on season two of Up and Vanished podcast, and are tying up with HowStuffWorks for a brand new true-crime podcast, Atlanta Monster, due to drop early in January.
