Best Storytelling and Fiction Podcasts (2026)
Fiction podcasts have quietly become one of the best storytelling mediums going. Full casts, sound design, original scores — the best ones rival anything on TV. These 10 shows prove that audio drama is having a proper golden age.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
1. Welcome to Night Vale
Community radio updates from a desert town where every conspiracy theory is true. Cecil Palmer reports on the mundane and the terrifying with the same calm tone. It's weird, funny, creepy and oddly comforting — and it basically launched the fiction podcast genre.
2. The Magnus Archives
Jonathan Sims reads statements of supernatural encounters from the archives of the Magnus Institute. Starts as monster-of-the-week horror, then slowly reveals a vast interconnected mythology. 200 episodes, now complete, and genuinely one of the best horror stories told in any medium.
3. The Black Tapes
A journalist investigates a paranormal research institute and its enigmatic founder, Dr Richard Strand. Presented as a serialised docuseries, it blurs the line between fiction and reality brilliantly. The mystery deepens with every episode and the atmosphere is genuinely unsettling.
4. Limetown
A journalist investigates the disappearance of over 300 people from a neuroscience research facility in Tennessee. Presented as an investigative report, it feels unnervingly real. Season one is tight, gripping and over far too quickly.
5. The Bright Sessions
Therapy sessions with people who have supernatural abilities — a time traveller with anxiety, an empath who can't cope with crowds. It's a clever concept that uses superpowers as metaphors for real mental health struggles. Warm, thoughtful and surprisingly emotional.
6. The Penumbra Podcast
A genre-hopping anthology featuring Juno Steel, a private eye on Mars, alongside tales of myth, romance and adventure. The voice acting is superb, the writing is sharp, and the show features brilliantly diverse characters. Equal parts noir, sci-fi and fairy tale.
7. Old Gods of Appalachia
Dark folklore horror set in the mountains of Appalachia, where ancient things sleep beneath the hills. Steve Shell narrates with a campfire storyteller's cadence that gets under your skin. The sound design and original music are phenomenal.
8. The White Vault
A repair team is sent to a remote Arctic research station and discovers something ancient beneath the ice. Told through found audio recordings in multiple languages, it builds dread slowly and deliberately. Cosmic horror fans, this one's for you.
9. The Adventure Zone
The McElroy brothers and their dad play tabletop RPGs and somehow create one of the most emotionally affecting fiction podcasts ever made. The Balance arc is legendary — funny, inventive and genuinely moving. It proves that improv storytelling can rival any scripted drama.
10. Archive 81
An archivist restores damaged audio tapes and gets pulled into a story involving a strange apartment building, ritual magic and cosmic horror. The found-footage format works perfectly in audio. Netflix adapted it, but the podcast goes to much weirder places.
Wake up inside a story
Set a fiction podcast as your morning alarm and start the day in another world. Download Podcast Alarm and wake up to your next favourite show.
Waking up with a podcast on iOS
Podcast Alarm is a fully featured podcast player and alarm. You can set up queues of your favourite episodes and listen to them whenever you like. Why not subscribe to your favourite podcast and have the latest episode wake you up every weekday morning. There are lots of screenshots and videos in our "How to set a podcast as an alarm on iphone?" blog post.
