About PseudoPod

The second Escape Artists podcast, PseudoPod is dedicated to bringing its listeners the best short horror fiction on the planet.

Edited by Shawn Garrett and Alex Hofelich, PseudoPod is a show that continually engages with two issues; the belief that horror as a genre is commonly out of touch and the desire to entertain but not traumatize an audience. With that in mind, the show constantly ‘tunes’ its approach to content warnings and listens closely to its community of listeners to continue to perfect the process.

That engagement with audience is coupled with the show’s infectious love for its genre. Shawn and Alex are both uniquely well read and well connected in the field, and a PseudoPod episode is as likely to feature a lost gem from a long dead author as it is a new nightmare from an upcoming star. Horror, all of it, is PseudoPod’s remit and host Alasdair Stuart is always ready with another story. One, as always, he promises you is true. Assistant Editors Scott Campbell and Kat Day round out the team.

PseudoPod’s new listener page is a fantastic place to start delving into its archives.

Published weekly by Escape Artists Inc., PseudoPod is produced and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.

Trailer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00 — 1.8MB)

Transcript

PseudoPod. The free Horror Fiction podcast, brought to you by Escape Artists.

“It makes my bones chatter against each other and you sit up in bed. I scream as I remain a statue and then—the fury in me becomes a raging hot thing in my chest…”

Each week, one story, told well.

“There, writing in lurid agony upon the floor, was a short creature perhaps two feet tall. It was covered with red wire-like hair on every inch of its exposed flesh…”

From the most chilling and unsettling storytellers of the genre.

“The wind’s up now, and the sackcloth is blowing in black tatters around it, making it writhe like the worms, only that ain’t all sackcloth…”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on the web at PseudoPod dot org, and on Patreon under EAPodcasts.

Logo and Images

• • The correct spelling of PseudoPod is either with two capital Ps, or in all caps as PSEUDOPOD. A pseudopod is the arm-like projection of an eukaryotic cell.
  • PseudoPod uses the Tablet Gothic family of fonts, and Calluna for serif
  • Links/primary: #71a97a
  • Menus: #a6efb1
  • Navigation: #051b12

Awards

• PseudoPod was nominated for the Ignyte Award in 2022 in the Best Fiction Podcast category.
• “FFUNS” by Johnny Compton was one of the selections for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for the The 2020 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot.
• “Birds of Passage” by Gordon B. White was one of the selections for Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for the The 2019 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot. This story was originally published in Twice-Told: A Collection of Doubles and reprinted in PseudoPod during its eligibility period
• “Breaking the Waters” by Donyae Coles, published in partnership with Nightlight, was a finalist for the 2020 Splatterpunk Awards
• The Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards added a short fiction category for 2019 and recognized two episodes of PseudoPod
  • 655 – “Black Matter” by Vivian Shaw
  • 672 – our 2019 Halloween Episode including “In Regards to Your Concerns About Your ScareBnB Experience” by Effie Seiberg plus “The Hallowe’en Parade” by Alasdair Stuart
• “A Song for Wounded Mouths” by Kristi Demeester was selected for reprinting in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve edited by Ellen Datlow
• “The Coven of Dead Girls” by L’Erin Ogle was selected for reprinting in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Vol. 1 edited by Paula Guran
• Two stories received Honorable Mentions in the 2019 Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards — “A Song for Wounded Mouths” by Kristi Demeester and “What Throat” by Annie Neugebauer
• PseudoPod’s Host, Alasdair Stuart, is a 2019, 2020, and 2021 finalist for the Best Fan Writer category of the Hugo Awards, and his weekly pop culture newsletter, The Full Lid, was a 2019, 2020, and 2021 finalist for the British Fantasy Award for Best Nonfiction and a 2021 finalist for the Best Fanzine category of the Hugo Awards.
• “Harvest Song, Gathering Song” by A.C. Wise, originally published in For Mortal Things Unsung was reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten edited by Ellen Datlow
• PseudoPod was a 2018 finalist for the inaugural Best Audio category of the British Fantasy Award and made finalist again in 2019 in 2020, in 2021, and in 2022.
• PseudoPod won the THIS IS HORROR Award for Best Fiction Podcast twice, in 2016 and 2017
• PseudoPod won the Parsec Award twice, and was a finalist six times:
  • Finalist 2015: Best Speculative Fiction Story: Large Cast (Short Form) for “The Screwfly Solution” by James Tiptree, Jr., narrated by Tina Connolly, Eric Luke, Matt Franklin, Anna Schwind, Mat Weller, Rish Outfield and George Hrab
  • Finalist 2015: Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast
  • Winner 2014: Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form) for “Growth Spurt” by Paul Lorello, narrated by Steve Anderson
  • Finalist 2014: Best Speculative Fiction Story: Large Cast (Short Form) for “Four Views of the Big Cigar in Winter” by Charlie Bookout, narrated by Laura Hobbs, Emily Smith and Matt Franklin
  • Finalist 2014: Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast
  • Finalist 2013: Best Speculative Fiction Story: Small Cast (Short Form) for “Final Girl Theory” by A.C. Wise, narrated by John Meagher
  • Winner 2009: Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast
  • Finalist 2007: Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form) for “My Caroline” by Matt Wallace, narrated by J.C. Hutchins

Updated December 2022