Books. Remember those? Those big rectangular things collecting dust on your shelf that you keep promising yourself you’ll read “when things slow down a bit”? Well, things are never slowing down, and we both know it. But fear not, because humanity has graciously evolved to meet your chaotic, attention-span-challenged lifestyle by stuffing entire stories into bite-sized audio nuggets you can consume while doing literally anything else.
That’s right, someone out there wrote an entire fictional world, edited it, recorded it, and packaged it up so that you can absorb great literature while unloading the dishwasher. The Renaissance people are absolutely shaking. So if you’ve been craving stories but can’t quite commit to anything longer than a YouTube video, here are the best short story podcasts that will make you feel cultured, entertained, and maybe even a little bit smarter, all before your coffee gets cold.
The New Yorker: Fiction
A monthly podcast in which New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman reads and discusses works of fiction.
Original Science Fiction – Makeshift Stories
Makeshift Stories is an indie podcast featuring sci-fi, fantasy, and speculative fiction, taking listeners on a monthly journey through imagined futures, strange realities, and the possibilities of tomorrow.
The Drabblecast Audio Fiction Podcast
The Drabblecast is a weekly audio fiction magazine presenting unusual stories for an equally unusual audience.
Untold Tales
Created by Dr. J. A. Robinson and narrated by Melissa Del Toro Schaffner, UNTOLD TALES is a collection of original sci-fi short stories spanning Victorian sci-fi, parallel realities, horror, time travel, and beyond, each episode a self-contained adventure perfect for any spare moment.
Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts brings together some of the finest actors to perform short fiction, drawing on a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theatre, and comedy. New episodes are released every Thursday from Symphony Space.
The Tiny Bookcase
The Tiny Bookcase is a short story writing and interview podcast in which hosts Nico and Ben join a guest to write and read their own stories, each inspired by a shared prompt.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Audio Fiction
A podcast featuring audio recordings of short stories drawn from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine.
The Truth
The Truth produces short, cinematic audio stories, each a self-contained world with new characters, gripping performances, and immersive sound design. Best experienced with headphones.
The Story Must Be Told
A surreal fiction anthology framed as a church service, in which Brother Reid, Pastor Andrew, and Sister Callista present darkly comic, sci-fi, and literary horror tales with a uniquely irreverent twist.
The Memory Palace
The Memory Palace is a narrative history podcast created and hosted by Nate DiMaggio. Each episode is a short, beautifully crafted story drawn from history, told in a poetic and atmospheric style. The episodes tend to focus on overlooked or forgotten moments, people, and details from the past rather than major well-known events.
Twilight Histories
Twilight Histories is an immersive audio drama that places the listener in the role of a time-travelling hero, blending alternate history, sci-fi, fantasy, and role-playing across richly soundscaped worlds, from an Ice Age Egypt to a Carthaginian colony on Mars.
Fantasy Magazine
Edited by Christie Yant and Arley Sorg, FANTASY is a digital magazine spanning every corner of the fantasy genre. Produced by Grammy Award-winning narrator Stefan Rudnicki of Skyboat Media, the podcast delivers original audio fiction twice a month.
Strange Horizons
Award-winning Strange Horizons magazine presents speculative fiction, poetry, literary criticism, and interviews.
Classic Tales Podcast
Each week, award-winning narrator B.J. Harrison brings to life some of the greatest stories ever written, taking listeners on a journey across the world and through history via the works of literature’s most celebrated authors.
The Other Stories
The Other Stories is a weekly short story podcast delivering sci-fi, horror, thriller, and stranger-still tales every Monday, a modern successor to the tradition of classic anthology television.
LeVar Burton Reads
Host LeVar Burton presents the finest short fiction in immersive 3D audio, bringing stories by the likes of Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and more to life with rich soundscapes and his celebrated narration.
Radio Rental
Created by Payne Lindsey, Radio Rental is a horror podcast set within the fictional world of an 80s video rental shop, blending true stories of bizarre crimes and paranormal encounters with documentary storytelling and dark comedy. Discover the best episodes of Radio Rental.
Back of the Bookshelf
A monthly podcast in which author C.J. Carter-Stephenson narrates classic short stories, accompanied by music from Kevin MacLeod and immersive sound effects, bringing the fiction of a bygone era vividly to life.
Snap Judgement
Snap Judgment blends real personal stories with bold musical production to create cinematic, dramatic radio that challenges listeners to see the world through someone else’s eyes.
Sleep With Me
A bedtime podcast designed to ease listeners into sleep, with stories that gradually wind down in pace and interest, gently guiding a restless mind away from its worries and into dreamland.
Lightspeed Magazine
Edited by John Joseph Adams, LIGHTSPEED is a Hugo Award-winning digital magazine spanning science fiction and fantasy in all its forms. Produced by Grammy Award-winning narrator Stefan Rudnicki of Skyboat Media, the podcast delivers original audio fiction six to eight times a month.
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Each new issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine features one piece of short fiction presented in podcast form.
The Moth
The Moth presents true personal stories told live and without notes, released every Tuesday and Friday via its Peabody Award-winning Radio Hour and original podcast episodes. Discover the best episodes of The Moth.
The Lost ScI-Fi Podcast
The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast revives forgotten and underrated vintage science fiction from the Golden Age, delivering professionally narrated stories by the likes of Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke several times a week.
Fictional
From the creators of Myths and Legends, Jason and Carissa Weiser retell the greatest works of classic literature, from Dracula and The Three Musketeers to the works of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and H.P. Lovecraft, in a casual, contemporary style, released every other week.
The Magnus Archives
The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction podcast set within the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation devoted to investigating the strange and paranormal. Jonathan Sims delves into its depths, only to find that something within those depths may be watching back. Discover the best episodes of The Magnus Archives.
RISK!
RISK! is a podcast hosted by Kevin Allison in which people share jaw-dropping true stories they never imagined telling in public, hilarious, heart-wrenching, and entirely uncensored.
LitReading – Classic Short Stories
Litreading delivers weekly narrations of classic short stories, from Poe and Twain to O. Henry and Wharton, in clean, immersive performances that bring each tale fully to life.
Do you know of another short story podcast that you think should be on this list? Let me know
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