Season Two Of Windfall: Sci-Fi Audio Drama

  Several podcast networks such as Spotify have crafted expensive 

sci-fi audio dramas with uneven results. No huge hits, but solid download numbers. Therefore, an independently produced sci-fi audio drama seems unlikely, given the financial constraints.

Leave it to an independent podcaster like Rogue Dialogue Productions (it has two podcasts) to innovate a way to produce a high-quality sci-fi audio drama that has the sonic palette of a million-dollar production.

What they've produced is a sci-fi audio opera that crackles with action, conflict, questioning the strength of family bonds, depicting religious oppression, and doing ferocious battle with the status quo.

 

Windfall is a dystopian science-fiction audio drama with rich sound design and a full score that follows a massive cast of characters as they live out their daily lives on the planet Proxima. Season one comprised ten 25–35-minute episodes with a cast of more than 30 voice actors from Florida, Washington State, the UK, New York City, and Syracuse. Season two will be composed of 12 episodes of the same length. The show is free to all subscribers and supported by listeners on Patreon.

 Windfall tells an epic story on a small scale, focusing on the everyday lives of regular people in a fantastic world. Featuring a massive cast of characters with wildly divergent personalities, the show is at times funny, somber, dramatic, and exhilarating.

 

Brothers Adam and Bob Raymonda first talked about creating a serialized science-fiction audio drama in 2015 when they were collaborating on the podcast Breadcrumbs. Bob is a writer and editor and crafted the first draft of Windfall’s ten-episode season between August 2016 and January 2017, which Adam would later sound design and score. Realizing the project would only improve by the addition of another voice, Christie Donato was added to the team. Christie and Bob knew each other from their time in the Creative Writing program at SUNY Purchase College. Christie’s deep knowledge of mythology helped in rewriting and reshaping Windfall into what it has become today.

The first three scripts of Windfall were recognized as Second Rounders in the inaugural Austin Film Festival Fiction Podcast Writing competition in 2017. Here, Christie and Bob attended workshops with professionals working in the field, including Lauren Shippen of The Bright Sessions, Kc Wayland of We’re Alive, and Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers of Limetown and 36 Questions.

Using the knowledge gained from their time at AFF, Christie, Bob, and Adam self-produced Windfall in 2018 at Christie’s home in Syracuse, New York. At the same time, they founded Rogue Dialogue, a production company focused on creating richly sound-designed podcasts in multiple genres.

For season two, the team welcomed Jess Clark (who plays Queen Wanda) into the writer’s room. Jess and Christie had previously worked together on various script projects, which brought her onto the team in the first place, but her unending wit and experience in film production helped the creation of the season immeasurably.

 Season two of Windfall just began with a two-minute royal address by "Queen Wanda" addressing her "loyal" subjects. Episode one was just released and on this 40-minute show residents of Windfall City deal with the aftermath of Contact Day.

 

You can catch up with season one by checking out the archives. There are ten episodes of about 35 minutes each, so listeners can quickly get up to speed in the Windfall universe. 

 Here's the plot of the show: Ever since the tyrannical Wanda’s castle appeared in the clouds above Windfall City, its residents have built upwards to meet her. But not everyone is convinced of Her Majesty’s Grace. Our series follows three brothers living on the surface alongside their family (chosen and otherwise), wary of the Queen’s motives, and showcases what they must do to survive in a world that would rather leave them for dead.

Season Two picks up three months after the disastrous events of Contact Day, where massive warships appeared in the sky and destroyed one of the city’s four primary towers. The Wolfpac continues to round up “volunteers” to clear the rubble leftover from the wanton destruction, while the grounders have been forced into the city’s depths in order to find a fragile sense of peace, as even the city’s elite begin to question what place they have in this new and dangerously unpredictable version of Windfall City.

Windfall is perfect for fans of Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Scavengers Reign, and Silo.

The first episode premiered on Wednesday, December 11. The remaining 11 episodes of the season will be released monthly on every second Wednesday into 2025. 

If you're a sci-fi / fantasy fan, check out Windfall. Let the show transport your ears into a universe that we can all imagine and fear.