Five Best Mini-Series Podcasts Of The Year

 The mini-series, or sometimes called the limited series, is a format that transcends media. TV has famously used the mini-series during the rise of the streaming services. Band Of Brothers, Chernobyl, and The Queen's Gambit, and Mare Of Easttown are examples of the best in that configuration.

However, it's podcasting that perfected this format because it's had years of practice, experience, and recognition for its efforts in this format. 

Yet, a mini-series is a risky financial gamble for podcast networks, smaller networks, and independent podcasters. Irrespective of how successful they are during their initial run, once these shows run out of episodes -- anywhere from four to eight -- they are consigned to the podcast archive dustbin.

That is a desolate place, much worse even than The Land Of Misfit Toys in the 1964 stop-motion film, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Unlike a podcast with seasons or a show that releases weekly or even monthly, the mini-series loses its temporarily loyal fanbase. Yet, many creators with these mini-series shows have branded themselves as auteurs in this field. They become known for excellence in the mini-series.

Since the mini-series can often have a truncated life cycle, I thought we can review five of the best mini-series this year.

This is not a complete list. It would be exceedingly difficult to corral all the noteworthy podcast mini-series, and our research staff (Me and several people working part-time) can be easily distracted by, say, the World Series, the last season of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, and trying to convince family members not to duct tape their mouths shut when they sleep because someone on TikTok told them to. 

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The Nightingale Of Iran

 What if I told you that a Jewish singer was a national celebrity in the nation of Iran? You'd probably scoff and head to a fact-checking service to confirm my inaccuracy. With the socio-political and religious events in the 40 years, you'd be right in answering, "impossible"

However, politics is like the weather in its capriciousness and shifting winds. Back in the 1950s, Tehran under the Shah was a cultural center of the world and called the Paris of the Middle East.

It was a golden age for Jews in Iran. In the 1950s, a religious Jew – Younes Dardashti – became a national celebrity, singing at the Shah’s palace and on the radio. In the 1960s, his son Farid became a teen idol on TV. They were beloved by Iranian Muslims. 

 Younes Dardashti was so famous that he was known as The Nightingale Of Iran. The nightingale is the official national bird of Iran.

In medieval Persian literature, the nightingale's enjoyable song has made it a symbol of the lover who is eloquent, passionate, and doomed to love in vain. In Persian poetry, the object of the nightingale's affections is the rose, which embodies both the perfection of earthly beauty and the arrogance of that perfection.

But at the height of their fame, Younes Dardashti and his Farid left the country. Why? Why would a revered entertainer and his teen idol son leave a nation? Would Taylor Swift bolt from the U.S. for Sweden or France? Not without Travis Kelce!

It has always been a mystery to host Danielle Dardashti and her sister Galeet. Danielle and Galeet are the granddaughters of The Nightingale Of Iran.

Why did their family leave Iran at the height of their fame? Now, in an enthralling documentary podcast series, the sisters reveal painful secrets unspoken for generations.

I've listened to all six episodes plus the bonus episode, and I can promise this. The Nightingale of Iran is a story that will resonate with listeners because every family has secrets that are buried.

The mini-series has won numerous awards, including First place in Listener's Choice: Awarded by the Signal Awards, Best Music Podcast 2024: Awarded by the People's Choice Podcast Awards, Best Society and Culture Podcast of 2024: Awarded by The Quill Podcast Awards, and est Podcast of 2024: Awarded by The Quill Podcast Awards.

As Danielle Dardashti says in the first episode, "It's a story about identity, belonging, and music." Their investigation promises to reveal painful secrets unspoken for generations.

Danielle Dardashti is an Emmy Award winner and Moth StorySLAM champion. She runs dash. - a consultancy that helps companies tell stories. She's a former on-air TV reporter, a documentary producer, and is co-author of the Jewish Family Fun Book series. Danielle was a fellow in the 2023 Digital Storytellers Lab. 

Galeet is the leader and vocalist of the edgy all-female Mizrahi band Divahn, Dardashti’s “sultry delivery spans international styles and clings to listeners long after the last round of applause,” according to The Jerusalem Report.

Galeet's acoustic/electronic solo project The Naming, supported by a Six Points Fellowship and a Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Fellowship, draws inspiration from the musical and cultural landscapes of the Middle East and some of the provocative yet unsung Biblical women who lived there. The Huffington Post called the album "a heart-stopping effort." The Naming album launched in September 2010.

Galeet also holds a Ph.D. in anthropology, specializing in cultural politics and contemporary Middle Eastern/Arab music in Israel. She is currently Assistant Professor of Jewish Music and Musician-in-Residence at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and she has published widely on her work. She offers residencies, lectures, and workshops on her artistic and academic work.

Danielle is clearly an excellent narrator, and, in the first episode, she tells her family's story with patience, a slowly building crescendo of mystery, family secrets, and political and religious upheaval.

At one point in the first episode, Danielle says to listeners, "I feel as if we are interrogating our parents." As the daughters question their parents about the family's past, their parents become increasingly uncomfortable with the questions and the topic.

Check out The Nightingale Of Iran. It's a superbly crafted podcast documentary that focuses on a family and its long held secrets, while balancing a tale of geopolitical forces that flow like a hidden current through the crevasses of culture and art. 

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 CUTI

 Women have gotten the short end of the proverbial stick in health care for centuries. Is it getting better? Yes, but slowly and with resistance from those manly men who feel society doesn't give them enough respect anymore.

According to a 2022 NPR report, one study shows that middle-aged women with chest pain were twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness than their male counterparts. Another study found that women and people of color who visited emergency rooms with chest pain waited longer to be seen by a doctor.

How about urinary tract infections (UTIs)?  Women get UTIs up to 30 times more often than men do. Also, as many as 4 in 10 women who get a UTI will get at least one more within six months. Women get UTIs more often because a woman's urethra (the tube from the bladder to where the urine comes out of the body) is shorter than a man's.

Does that data mean that UTIs are a "female problem?" No, it's a health care diagnosis and treatment problem.

According to podcast producer Verity De Cala for Roadhouse Transmissions, "Chronic UTIs (CUTI)  are one of the most neglected health issues facing women today."

 In a three-part documentary podcast series that began in March, the mini-series told the story of CUTI through the eyes of the patients, expert researchers and doctors in the field, it's a story that highlights the worst effects of the gender health gap and interrogates how we view women in pain.

Why produce such a podcast?

Producer and host Verity de Cala will guide you through this three-part narrative series with every episode carefully soundscaped to capture the complicated world of living with CUTI, the science, and culture that surrounds the illness.

Guests include experts in the field: Dr Cat Anderson, Dr Raj Khasriya, Professor Jennifer Rhon, campaign group CUTIC, and stories from women living with CUTI.

Here's how the episodes will be released and the specific topic of each episode:

E1 CUTI - Tests, Misogyny, and Misconceptions - If something doesn't have a name, can it exist? We look at how misconceptions, misogyny and a lack of research, have not only shaped science, but also the patients experiences...

E2 CUTI - Treatment, Antibiotics, and Changing Attitudes - Why is it so hard to find the right treatment for CUTI? We look at how CUTI patients find treatment, what it's costing them, the
pressures on doctors prescribing antibiotics, and ask - are there any better alternatives... ?

E3 CUTI - Coping, Community and UTIs in children - How does living with a UTI affect your daily life? We explore the importance of supportive communities, the work of activists, and investigate the growing problem of UTls in children.

Verity details the issues surrounding CUTI. "Imagine battling an illness that doctors tell many women doesn't exist."

Verity notes that half of all women will suffer with a UTI at some point in their lives, and luckily for most, it goes away. But for a growing number of women, that simply isn't the case. For these women the symptoms can persist for months, which turns into years, and it becomes a chronic UTI.

For example, research from Penn Medicine concludes that the cranberry juice cure is one of the most commonly believed myths about treating UTIs.

According to Penn, "Don’t for a minute think that a bottle of cranberry juice can replace a visit to your doctor or proper medication. It turns out cranberry juice isn’t nearly as effective as many people think."


In these three podcast episodes, you will hear the personal stories of women suffering from CUTI. These women have dealt with outdated testing, extended waits for a diagnosis, and then being told, "your pain isn't real. It's all in your head."

Remember when doctors claimed fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) were identified initially as "all in your head" conditions? Both conditions affected women at a higher rate than men. Not anymore. With more research came awareness that both conditions resulted from a constellation of factors, and treatment protocols have been developed.

CUTI reflects the very worst of how health care professionals around the world continue to view women's pain in society.

Verity De Cala puts that statement into perspective. "With over 1.7 million women thought to be suffering in the UK, what is it like to fight a CUTI? After all, it's an illness that doctors don't understand, or even worse, don't believe women have."

Although the narrative is based in the U.K., CUTI is a pressing health issue for women in the U.S. and around the world.

Women have filled the knowledge void left by doctors and health care organizations about chronic UTIs with online forums, charities and support groups.

Check out this three-part documentary podcast CUTI to understand how women are suffering for years from a condition that health care professionals didn't fully understand, misdiagnosed, and then provided ineffective treatment options, if they offered any at all other than drinking cranberry juice.

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 Hobo Code

 

 When any genre of art or media is described as "different," there is a logical next question. Good different? Bad different? Weird different? Breathtakingly different?

That last description is the one I'd use for Hobo Code, which is a four-part limited "magical-realist" series about two hobos (an acerbic rambler and a self-ordained monk) and a young girl with a best friend who lives in a coffee can. It's a journey spanning from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression, all the way to the Great Recession of 2008, that examines human cycles - whether it’s generational trauma or economic crises.

If that isn't different enough, the audio drama also features an ancient, blind, half-senile/three-quarters-feral hobo mystic. Even without description of dramatic chaos and entropy, this audio drama is funny, endearing, sharp-witted, and an acerbic commenter on the human condition.

This superb audio drama stars Becky Poole (Strange Planet), Corey Rieger (Out of the Furnace), and Jake Robertson (The Sound of Liberty) and features Bill Pullman (The Sinner, Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping) and Susan Ruttan (LA Law, Sprung). These are esteemed and talented actors, and they display their acting chops with a ferocity that can hypnotize listeners.

The music acts as its own character in this audio drama, with an original score steeped in folk/Americana music made by Maesa Pullman.

The audio drama was written by Paul Pakler and Emmy-nominated screenwriter Shane Portman, who comes primarily from the animated kids world. Hobo Code was independently funded through Portman's production company, Hammer Canyon, in collaboration with executive producing partner David Switzer.

Portman explains: "The idea for Hobo Code sprang from an idea that Paul Pakler and I were carrying around for a while. The concept revolved around these three characters; a displaced young girl with a mystical friend in a coffee can, an acerbic gadabout, and a self-ordained monk. We didn’t have a story for them, but we knew we wanted to place them in the 1930s. So, while building out the character’s backstories, we also started delving into research of the time period. And those two avenues converged into the idea of exploring the cycles of generational trauma and economic crises."

Perhaps Portman's unique childhood had something to do with his distinctive artistic voice. Shane Portman was born at the New London naval submarine base hospital in Connecticut. Just three months later, his father was transferred to Norfolk, VA. He grew up in various homes in Norfolk before moving to Leesburg, VA and, then, finally winding up in Windsor, OH.

 Shane Portman is also the director of development for Bix Pix Entertainment, the award-winning stop-motion animation studio in Sun Valley, California.

He also wrote the book Allister Cromley's Fairweather Belle (Bedtime Stories For Grown Ups to Tell).

Portman explains their strategy with the actors this way: "Due to the large cast (and indie/SAG-scale budget), we knew we needed two types of actors – those who had chameleon-like voices that could play multiple parts or those with incredibly singular voices. We and our producing partner Ruth Gamble, who is also my wife, are fortunate to have made a web of lovely performer friends throughout our collective experiences in theater, improv/sketch comedy, film/TV, and the Hollywood Orchard, a volunteer organization and community. We put together a list of who could play what, showed each person the script, crossed our fingers, and were so appreciative that everyone was up for it."

When I asked Shane about the comfort level of the actors with
audio-only acting, he answered, "Our fabulous sound engineers -- Kevin Cleland in LA and Erik Nyquist in NYC -- were able to create setups so that our actors could record scenes together in real time. On top of that, a majority of the actors already had voiceover experience. So, the record sessions were intimate and connected."

The sound production of Hobo Code is inspired and technically brilliant with One Thousand Birds (OTB), an award-winning Los Angeles production studio, creating the sound design.

Shane adds: "We wanted Hobo Code to be as immersive and lived-in as possible, and OTB took that note and really elevated the series in equally vast and subtle ways."

I asked Shane about the use of the word "Hobo" which is not well known today and reflected a world long gone.

"How did you overcome that generational distinction?" I asked.

Shane replied: "That’s a great question. Honestly, the mystique and folklore around hobos, the Dust Bowl, and the 1930s in America are topics that really fascinate us. This quintessentially American idea of escaping to ride the rails is filled with such a sense of adventure and independence. We also love Woody Guthrie! Maybe Paul and I just have weird historical obsessions…"

Shane continues: "The writer William Faulkner said, 'The past is never dead. It’s not even past.' Our goal was to create vividly interesting characters and steep them in this rich setting, while simultaneously punching holes in that mythology to expose the deeper historical and emotional truths being glossed over. And while people might not have an awareness of this specific subculture or name, the emotions, themes, and experiences will be (hopefully) universal."

Podcasting is no different from any other medium. Copycatting is often the most frictionless way to success, exerting the least amount of creative effort. Podcasters want to be the next Joe Rogan (aim higher), Alex Cooper (aim much higher) or the three Smartless celebs (appropriate mentors).

 In July of this year, Hobo Code won the Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards (The Earlobes) for Best Audio Fiction.

Hobo Code is an audio drama that breaks all the rules, mixes and matches genres and generations, and transforms familiar themes into proto-magical mythologies that define us. Since when is a coffee can an imaginary friend?

It is a trailer and four episodes of pure creative effort. Listen. Be different in a good way.

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The True Story of the Fake Zombies

The British Invasion --musically not militarily -- in 1964 and for the rest of the decade brought with it more than The Beatles. Of course, The Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark Five, and The Animals were just part of that musical influx. 

One of the unique sounds of that invasion emanated from The Zombies.

The Zombies were an English rock band formed in St Albans in 1961. Led by keyboardist/vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone, the group had their first British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two further singles—"Tell Her No" in 1965 and "Time of the Season" in 1968—were also successful.

Their 1968 album Odyssey and Oracle was ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone's 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and number 243 on Rolling Stone's 2020 list. The Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019.

In a time when there is a 24-hour global stream of information at our fingertips, some stories are impossible to imagine. On July 11, Talkhouse will launch its latest podcast, The True Story of the Fake Zombies, in which host Daniel Ralston regales listeners with an expertly researched and unbelievable music industry scam that went untold for decades.

Throughout the historiographic eight-episode mini-series, Ralston dives deep into the tale of how, in 1969, a music promotion company in a tiny Michigan town sent out not one but two bands onto the road to pretend to be The Zombies, the recently disbanded British Invasion band who had just had a huge hit with their song “Time of the Season.” Fake band members included Frank Beard and Dusty Hill, who would go on to become legendary figures in their next band, ZZ Top!

Ralston, who discovered this stranger-than-fiction con a decade ago, dives deep into every aspect of this 55-year-old rock n’ roll mystery, uncovering the secret history of the shady managers who concocted the scheme, the hapless young musicians who were recruited for the scam, the unlikely town where the whole thing was cooked up, the impact of the scheme on the real Zombies (whose iconic music features throughout the show), and much more.

Ralston shares, “55 years ago, four guys from Texas toured North America pretending to be the British Psychedelic rock band The Zombies.Two of those incredibly talented young men ended up in ZZ Top. Eight years ago, I wrote a story that uncovered the names and faces behind the Texas Zombies. I am incredibly excited to take the story further. The True Story of The Fake Zombies traces the origins of the Texas band back to Bay City, Michigan, where two audacious managers put the whole thing together. This podcast was made possible by the local historians, legendary music writers and musical heroes who agreed to help tell the story of this truly wild rock and roll con. We are incredibly honored to have The Zombies voices and music included in the podcast.”

The True Story of the Fake Zombies is a wild story with an engrossing narrative and ingratiating host.

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Even If It Kills Me

The music industry is like a glacier. On top, above the water, we see the big music stars like Adele, Carrie Underwood, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd. Below the surface, are hundreds of thousands of musicians, from singers to bands, who try to make a living from their dream. As of March 2024, there are about 10 million artists / audio creators on Spotify with at least one track. Eight million of them have uploaded less than 10 tracks ever. Five million of them have less than 100 total lifetime streams. 

In effect, playing music as a sustaining career is a tough gig. You don't just need talent. You need commitment, perseverance, good fortune, good people surrounding you, and timing. Consider that Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee went to No. 1, 65 years after it was released. Or Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill was released in 1985 and became a top ten hit in 2022 due to Netflix's Stranger Things.

So a six-part podcast about a band that "almost was" is a chronicle that happens daily in the music business.

Even If It Kills Me chronicles four high school friends — a gang, bonded together by dead-end small town upbringings and dreams of something bigger. When the band signed to a record deal in the early ‘00s, Jon, Mac, Ryan, and Pete were thrust headlong into the rock star whirlwind they had only barely imagined possible. At least, that’s how it seemed.

Over six episodes, writer/narrator Aaron Joy documents his time spent on the road with his friends as they flirted with stardom through the ‘00s. Even If It Kills Me is a FANG workshop production

This is the story of the band that almost was. You won’t hear what this band sounds like. You won’t even learn their name. But you know this band, even if you don’t.

Even If It Kills Me is a narrative documentary podcast, chronicling the lives of Jon, Ryan, Mac and Pete as they set out across the country and try to make it as rock stars in the bygone era of the ‘00s. Each episode uses contemporary interviews and archival recordings to pull back the curtain on the nitty-gritty inner workings of tour life, all unfolding during the music industry’s own fall of Rome, as massive technological shifts upended business models that had existed for decades. 

I've listened to all six episodes and here are my impressions. Aaron Joy is an excellent scriptwriter and an engrossing narrator. Joy takes his time with his narrative. He doesn't forsake complexity for moral simplicity, and he doesn't mind bathing in contradiction.  

Joy reminds us that the line between success in the music business and failure is not a straight one, but an ellipsis that can transform strengths into weaknesses in a blink of an eye.

If being a rock star is a dream come true, then nearly becoming one has its nightmarish qualities. Aaron Joy snapshots that "a star is almost born" sense of slipping and falling before summitting Everest.

Check out, Even If It Kills Me. It's a fascinating tale of what happens when our dreams crash into reality.

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Check out these five superb mini-series podcasts. Their commonalities include 20/10 creative vision, excellent scriptwriting, superior sound production, and terrific on-air talent.

As you can read, a mini-series can be derived from topics that are medical and gender-based such as CUTI, musical such as Even If It Kills Me and The True Story of the Fake Zombies, familial like Hobo Code, and an intersection of the musical, political, familial, and sociological such as The Nightingale Of Iran.

Feel free to recommend more such mini-series podcasts that I am sure I missed. I blame it on the research staff. Once I bought ranch Doritos for the breakroom, productivity plummeted. It's back to day-old Dunkin' Munchkins for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hobo Code

Nightinggale of iran