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Happy 3/14! Unrelated to pie, I totally overhauled what was the companion podcast. You know, the one you weren't listening to? Yeah. 😔 But maybe you will the new one? It's called Binge-Listen: Finished Fiction Podcast Trailers and is a stand-alone show that publishes on Sunday. What's in it is exactly what it says: all the trailers for fiction podcasts that finished in the last week. Follow it on all the places and see if you dig it.

Today, I want to spotlight another Collection: A.I. Is Going Great! It contains 17—for now—stories where some form of artificial intelligence goes—predictably—off the rails. Yeah, LLMs are coming for us all, but these cautionary tales are a counter to the hype-machines trying to convince it that it'll all be fine.

Finally, I once again ask for your support. It's less than $25 per year, which is hella cheap. On purpose. I made it that low to encourage people of all sorts of means to be able to support The End. So if you can, please do.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

I'm again making changes. Surprise! Some impact this newsletter format, as I attempt to reduce the overall size so that it stops truncating for about 70% of you. Yikes! I'm doing this in stages, as I very much want your feedback if I negatively impact your experience.

Any reduced functionality you might see from the version in your inbox will be more than made up for when you click through to the website. (And this archival version you're viewing now has none of those limitations.) Speaking of this website, I've made the entirety of it much more useful, which I hope encourages you to visit the site other than Thursday afternoon. It's cleaner, more helpful, and is becoming an excellent resource for anytime you need your next audio fiction fix. Again, that's my intent. Please let me know what you think of my efforts thus far. Which will, obviously, continue. Check out the newly updated Featured Recommendations, Fully Complete Series, and Recent Additions pages.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

I've a new Collection for you this week—Super-short Series. It contains—currently, as I add new shows to collections as they come in—129 finished audio fiction shows that will take you less than 2 hours to binge. Because sometimes you just need a quick listen. Or maybe you don't want to invest hours upon hours. Browse this collection and find your next fix.

There's a lot going on in the world, so I'm electing to keep this preamble short. That, and I have some serious thinking to do regarding this newsletter, the site, and the companion podcast. My quandary isn't existential (yet) but some things need to change. You can assuage some of my angst by supporting The End and becoming an Individual Supporter today. That'd be nice.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

Our directory of finished audio fiction shows continues to grow! We're closing in on 900 listings, which is pretty impressive. It's also becoming more and more work to keep it maintained, so I'm once again asking for your support! One small yearly contribution does a lot to offset the costs, so if you enjoy this free service, please consider becoming an Individual Supporter or Supporting Creative Shop. It's cheap and 100% of the proceeds are used to keep The End doing what we do best.

I've added a new Collection called Super-long Listens. Instead of grouping by theme, style, or genre, this Collection of 75 shows does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you need entertainment to make it through a boring job, long intercontinental flight, cross country car ride, or just don't like your stories to end too quickly, this list of shows with run-times of 18 hours or more will keep your ears filled with good stuff.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

It was a banner week here at The End, thanks largely to Meet Cute, a production company and publisher focused on the romantic side of audio fiction. Seven of the updates below are from them as they work on getting their full catalog listed with us. Welcome! Most of those shows were added to our Love Is In (on?) The Air collection of shows, which is up to 43 shows, with more coming. If you didn't get enough romance in your life yesterday, binge away!

Astute readers will notice our new Title Sponsor—Dupont Investigations. This horror/mystery series, which was co-created by LGBTQ individuals who were each honored as FY '24 DC Arts and Humanities Fellows, recently posted the finale of their first season. It's one of 44 shows added to our Loud and Proud! collection, and we are grateful for their support.

And yes, you too can be a Title Sponsor of The End. Or a Supporting Creative Shop. Or an Individual Supporter. Or, heck, you can buy me a beer if you like!

Seriously. These new collections are quite cool and, I think, a better way to discover additional shows you might like. I'll have new collections to add next week, hopefully.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

Valentine's Day is next week, and diving into romantic fiction podcasts is a great way to celebrate. Check out the 32 shows we've collected in Love Is In (on?) The Air. From kissing frogs to unrequited love, relationship-based stories of romance are hugely popular. This collection of 32 love-forward audio fiction shows will make your heart melt. If you're into that.

A big thanks to Jaz Garewal for becoming our latest Individual Supporter. He and I also got to meet in person last month, as we live only a couple of hours from one another. Thanks for your support, Jaz. It's a small contribution, but when more and more readers take the option (hint, hint), it starts to add up. It's greatly appreciated.  

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

This issue is entirely too long. 25 shows highlighted. Wow.

The big news I teased last week? I've taken the next step in curation and have created 20 "collections" of completed audio fiction, each based around a central theme, like love stories, murder mysteries, and post-apocalyptic stories. But I don't do many things normal, so of course I called those collections Love Is In (On) The Air, Murder On The Audio Express, and We Had A Good Run, People. I gotta be me.

Next week, I'll figure out how to better share these. Today, I'm highlighting two collections:

• BIPOC Creators/Talent Showcase - 27 audio fiction shows made by creators who happen to be BIPOC—Black, Indigenous, and people of color—and are representative of the global majority, yet are under-represented in audio fiction.
• For Kids Of All Ages - 24 children's tales, YA stories, and other shows designed for kids, tweens, teenagers, or those of us who just can't—or refuse to—grow up.

As is true for all the listings in our directory, every show in a collection has reached either a season finale or a series conclusion so you can listen with confidence. I'm slowly going through the 750+ listings I've curated over the last year a half, adding to the existing 20 Collections and creating more as necessary. I'm going to work out a way to let you "subscribe" to one or more Collections so you get notified when new shows are added. I haven't sussed out how just yet, so I appreciate your patience.

Two more quick things: I have my 2nd round of surgery tomorrow to either remove the stone or the organ. I'm very, very done with these damned things. Also—special shout out to Jeff Gutierrez for becoming the latest Individual Supporter. Much thanks, Jeff, and I'm glad you're enjoying The End. Perhaps you'll inspire others to sign up with their support so I wake to excellent news from my anesthesia-induced slumber tomorrow.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

As you may have guessed from the title, last Friday's procedure to remove a 5mm stone from my left kidney didn't go so well. My ureter—the duct that connects the kidney to my bladder—didn't like the laser gun (no foolin'), so the doc shoved a stent in place for a couple of weeks to widen the road. I'm not scheduled to get that uncomfortable hunk of m̶e̶t̶a̶l̶ carbon fiber mesh pulled out so the laser gun (no foolin') can do it's job and blast the offending stone to oblivion until a week from tomorrow. So no, I'm not better. I've been mostly laying down (lying down?) since then trying to ignore the pain.

You could make me feel better by sending cookies. Or, better yet, by becoming a supporter of The End. Yeah, I ask that every week. And yes, I am exceedingly grateful to those of you who have. Like Jon from Mortis Maledictum did just this week! Much love, Jon. Thanks for becoming a Supporting Creative Shop and helping keep the lights on around here.

I have some very cool stuff I really want to talk about, but I'm saving that until I'm feeling better and can write about it properly. That, and most of the work I've done on it has been during the stupor of pain, so I'm sure its riddled with errors. But hey, you have something to look forward to in next week's issue.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

I'm having surgery tomorrow to remove yet another f$%&ing kidney stone. Ugh. Luckily, I'll be asleep for it. And as a bonus, the $7,200 I've paid maxes out both my deductible and out-of-pocket expenses for the year, so any other medical charges for the rest of 2024 should be covered. (To my international friends—US health care is every bit as f$%&ing broken as you've heard.)

Related, I need to give a big shout of thanks to Marc Langston for signing up his production company, Nocturn Hall, as a Supporting Creative Shop. You'll hear more about them and their show, Dupont Investigations, in the coming weeks. Another huge shout out is due to Jon Rolfe, because he also signed up his production company, Cryptic Radio, as a Supporting Creative Shop. More is coming from them quite soon as well.

Seriously, Mark and Jon, thank you for your support. It means the world to me. Apropos of my opening paragraph. Yikes!

You, too, can help offset some of those costs and the other very real costs it takes to run The End, either by signing up as a Supporting Creative Shop, an Individual Supporter, or becoming a Sponsor of The End. All the details are at https://theend.fyi/support, and I appreciate your support.

Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo

I've been in a funk the last couple of days. Rather than burden you with that (I'll get over it), I'll just tell you briefly about a report I released at the end of last week. It gets into some of 2023’s interesting audio fiction data, at least as we have it in our ever-growing fiction podcast—and more—directory. It's long, but with lots of pie charts to illustrate the data.

If you're not a data nerd, scroll down to the end of the report to where I list out 37 of the shows completed last year that I think are fabulous.

I'm going to take another SSRI now. Let's get into it, shall we?

- Evo