EAR•WAX Newsletter 003 | August 2026
Tracklist:
- (Some of) test Audio Fiction of 2026 So Far
- Link to alleyoop [Extended Edition] review by Hannah Wright
- Best Albums of 2026 So Far - Honorable Mentions
- Coming Up on the Flipside
- Drama Club - first episode out today!
- August 19th - Any Major Dudes - Episode 1
- August 26th - EAR•WAX Magazine Vol 1 Issue 2
Best Audio Fiction of 2026 So Far
Well, we’re about halfway through the year. Well, okay, so it’s almost September, but give us a break, EAR•WAX just started in July. That being said, the next couple of issues are going to be devoted to our favorites of the year so far.
One of my recent favorites has been alleyoop: the extended edition by A. Yeshaiek, presented by Local Files Club. It is technically from 2021, but the new epilogue really brings the whole experience home. It’s a dark comedy following Oliver, who is a stand-up comedian riddled with self-hatred. A broken man in his 40s, he travels back in time to have conversations with his younger self to try to change his path. Each conversation is powerful and poignant, and the ending is simply beautiful. As someone who has worked hard over the years to accept himself for who I am, this type of show is a must listen, gorgeously produced and lovingly performed too. I highly recommend it.
Here’s an excerpt from Hannah Wright on her review from alleyoop, which you can read in full on our website here:
What I find interesting is the way Yeshaiek holds up a dichotomy that Oliver only half believes in: comfort vs. pain. Oliver wants comfort desperately, and he thinks that’s his problem, that comfort and comfort-seeking is what made him fat and unhappy and disgusting. This isn’t a fair judgement to make on his fourteen-year-old self. Have you met high school freshman? Their lives are so hard. Oliver’s life is even harder than average; the text hints at abuse and neglect, bullying, being a Weird Kid with only one friend. What adult-Oliver is sure of is that child-Oliver didn’t do enough to embrace pain. You have to change, adult-Oliver insists. It has to hurt.
This isn’t the ultimate lesson of alleyoop. In fact, the title should have been a suggestion, but I don’t know enough about basketball to have clocked it, so I looked it up. An alley oop is an offensive basketball play, Merriam-Webster tells me, that involves one player making a shot and another player taking the ball mid-air and dunking it. An alley oop is cooperative by design. In this story, Oliver finds he must cooperate with himself, to comfort himself. Life has enough pain. Have some compassion for your past self.
We’ll have more reviews from our writers in the next podcast episode of EAR•WAX Magazine, but for now here’s just a taste of what we think are some other best audio fiction listens of the year so far.
Hannah Wright:
Witchpunk is a lovingly crafted cyberpunk story about three couriers (or maybe smugglers) who have bit off way more than they can chew. To call it a riotous adventure is true, strictly speaking, but doesn’t do justice to the sheer weight these characters carry as people living in a cyberpunk dystopia. The worldbuilding gives you a past, present, and future through complex characters, news and talk shows (plus a free-trial accuracy meter, subscribe for unlimited truth), and the bleeding edge of AI development ready to change everything again. Highly recommend.
ItMe!:
Fantastic Castle is a new all-ages Dungeons and Dragons Actual Play podcast DM'd by Caldwell (from Not Another D&D Podcast) that features a handful of professional animators: Bri, Kiana, and Raj. With only 30 minutes of run time it's an excellent podcast for people just getting into D&D or Actual Plays who find the 1+ hour run times and large backlogs to be a bit intimidating. The show itself is an absolute delight with lush descriptions that are easy to visualize and a few laugh out loud moments. The cast of characters already have my heart: there's Lucas a shady mouse with a Batman like affectation and precisely zero of the swag, Galina an off-beat and charismatic 7-foot minotaur, and an amnesiac Paladin currently called Name who will do just about anything for rice pudding despite it being literally everywhere and most certainly free.
Jeff Van Dreason:
The Cold Plunge is a four-part limited series about mail carriers in a small Alaskan town plagued by …well, moose. So many moose. Also many in the town believe the moose are their reincarnated dead relatives thanks to the titular town custom that has passed down for generations. Think of it as a less horrific Widow’s Bay, with compelling characters behaving in believable ways, even if that means they’re considering ending their life by drowning in ice water so they can live on as a moose. While it feels at times like this project may have been intended as a television pilot, theatre play, or a movie script, especially with the narration that often sounds like stage directions, the limited series grapples with big questions about belief, faith, faith, small-town living, and finding one’s place in the world while never failing to feel like a comforting warm blanket and cup of cocoa. If you want to beat the heat, this cold ass podcast might be just what the doctor ordered, so dunk your head in and listen. Who knows? Maybe you’ll become a moose too.
Rhianna Stephenson:
Dominus’s pilot episode dropped in March, and creator Motzie Dapul (Hi Nay) is playing to her strengths in horror. When three Catholic priests visit a sick parishioner in her crumbling mansion, they are trapped inside until they can exorcise the demon possessing her, which isn’t responding to traditional methods. The characters are fascinating, Lenval Brown (Disco Elysium) plays Father Olujimi Emmanuel, and the plot and sound design will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Favorite Albums of 2026 So Far - Honorable Mentions
-Jeff Van Dreason
This has been a pretty good year so far! So good that I’m not even getting to my favorite albums just yet….only these outstanding honorable mentions. Give them a listen and let us know what you think. These are in alphabetical order.
Gladie - No Need to be Lonely (punk)
Pop-punk perfection with earnest lyrics and a trunkful of hooks.
Grace Ives - Girlfriend (pop)
Grounded, weighty, and somehow still fun, Ives is a synth-pop singer-songwriter at the top of her game and there’s not a note wasted.
Lipphead - The Long Way (electronic / dance)
The type of mashup album that might be made just for me, mixing banjo samples with 90s comedies and sick beats.
Helado Negro & Reyna Tropical - Helado Tropical (latin / electronic)
The album translates to tropical ice cream, and yeah, their collaboration is cooler than dole whip and leaves you just as satisfied. Dripping with icy beats and latin flavor, hit the beach and just chill the hell out, man.
RJD2 & Supastition - According To… (hip hop)
A sublime pairing of excellent production and thoughtful, funny rhymes, this collaboration consistently hits.
Slippers - Slippers 08 (indie rock)
Wholly unique lo-fi dreampop with influences ranging from Guided by Voices and They Might Be Giants. Perfectly crafted songs that will rattle around your skull for days. I dare you to listen to Slippers 08 in full and not get at least a couple stuck up there.
Twisted Teens - Florida Water (punk / country)
Ernest goes to Punk - and somehow it works. Their best release yet, and a live show that’s a hootin’ hollerin’ good time.
Upupayāma - Honesty Flowers (psych rock)
Italian multi-instrumentalist Alessio Ferrari crafts a mystical psych-rock album that may seem like pastiche of a record ripped out of time but is so lovingly crafted and thrilling to listen to that it forms its own identity.
Tierra Whack - WHACK’S MUSEUM (hip hop)
A masterful mixtape that’s light as a breeze, with playful production, witty wordplay, puns a-plenty, and better bars than all of her native Philly during an Eagles game.
Eaves Wilder - Little Miss Sunshine (psych pop)
Apparently, someone called Eaves little miss sunshine once and she hated it, so she quit music for a while, found herself, and made an album full of that fun, unique psych pop that sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard. The sound of a unique artist finding her unique voice.
That’s it for us today. We’ll leave you with a brief clip of our new show Drama Club, which just came out today! Four audio drama creators talking about what it takes to make audio drama. Check out this clip and the show, if you please. Here we’re talking about how to get heard—both in terms of quality of sound and how to get people to find our shows.
- Coming Up on the Flipside
- Drama Club - first episode out today!
- August 19th - Any Major Dudes - Episode 1
- Steely Dan fans talk Steely Dan! You’re gonna LOVE it!
- August 26th - EAR•WAX Magazine Vol 1, Issue 2
- Our second podcast episode takes on Songs of the Summer, more audio fiction of the year, our experience at TAFCON in June, and more.
