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I think the phrase “the show about nothing” has gotten a bad rep. I’m not even just referring to Seinfeld that coined the phrase (or at least, it pops up first if you type it into Google), but the entire genre of laid back, carefree shows that rely on day-by-day situations, slightly less orthodox versions of linear storytelling, and threads of comedic undertones. For a strictly Western audience this perhaps could mean Seinfeld, for my fellow anime fans it’s Lucky Star, and for audio drama fans… well, that answer can vary.
There’s a certain power in catharsis, in familiar routines in different worlds, in the averageness that only a long day in the vegetable farm, working at a pet store, or baking goods can bring. And I think podcasts are the most logical step forward to really tackling that immersive simulation.
Today I'm talking about the breezy romances, friendly atmospheres with future friends, and comedy cushioned by the zany yet human characters working part-time jobs and sharing meals with loved ones. It takes a special skill to see art in the mundane and weave it into something truly whimsical and I’ve compiled a few that embody that coziness to an absolute T (I’m actively fighting the temptation to say “tea” instead).
These shows all come in very different packages, some a little spicier than others, but all make for an easy going pastime that relies solely on good vibes, lighthearted humor, and simple plots that may help those stressed out during the trials of a new year to find a moment of calm.
Greenhouse
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰
From Atypical Artists, the same people who brought you The Bright Sessions, Greenhouse is stuff of any fanfic writers’ flower shop AU dreams. Told almost entirely through exchanged letters between bookworm Abigail Adams and homebody Rose Green, Greenhouse is a sapphic love story for wallflowers everywhere that spend a little too much time browsing the stationary in their local Hallmark.
Together, the two confide in each other the family struggles and the stresses of work with a raw openness that will have you yearning for your own pen pal. It’s cute yet grounded in that special way only the folks of Atypical Artists can master with a featherlight yet razor sharp approach to the human experience. Greenhouse is the perfect, awkward romance told through a brief hour or so that tells us about the importance of human bonds and communication and gives the introverted, shyer folks in the audience hope for their own not-so-long distance romance.
Community Cat News
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰✰✰
As far as silly, slice of life shows go, this is as silly and slice of life as it gets. Told entirely through the perspective of neighborhood cats, Community Cat News gives a voice to the meowing majority, peering into the lives of what our favorite little balls of fluff are up to when we aren’t looking.
Think The Secret Life of Pets but pushed through the filter of a morning talk show, weaving discussions about hairballs and partially opened fridge doors the way we humans would discuss the weather. Community Cat News is a bizarre concept given life through its authenticity and sheer dedication to its gimmick, fully embracing its naïveté and endearing curiosity of felines. If one could compress cute cat videos into podcast form, this is definitely the way to do it.
StarTripper!!
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰✰
Go on a road trip through the cosmos, see what happens. That’s the short version of StarTripper!!, a heartfelt and exceptionally fun and surprisingly emotional space comedy that’s a bit of Wander Over Yonder meshed with Jim Robbie and the Wanderers. The sheer enthusiasm of Ian McQuown as protagonist Feston Pyxis is enough to carry a whole episode, but pair him with some strong world building and exceptional comedy and you get a lighthearted joyride into the stars.
Like going on your own intergalactic road trip, StarTripper!! is abundant with exotic locations, exciting cultures, and the fascinating people that live there. The folks on the StarTripper!! crew have a full swarm of travel bugs, tickle our noses with cabin fever, and seduce us with wanderlust in a way I’ve rarely ever heard in audio drama.
Mars’ Best Brisket
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰✰✰
It’s really the simplicity and quaintness of Mars’ Best Brisket that inspires this fluttery, warm feeling inside me like bread rising in an oven. The ambitions of the protagonists, a loving Earth couple with big dreams in the big depths of space, are just so simple in a setting that would normally be the backdrop to a far more complicated space opera, and yet Mars’ Best Brisket is as mellow as it gets.
Mars’ Best Brisket is a very short listen but it’s certainly as long as its niche idea needs to be. Like a good meal, Ponders Productions created a show that is short, satisfying, and will leave you asking for seconds.
No transcripts available.
Life With LEO(H)
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰
“This is kinda like the plot of Chobits,” is the first statement that came to mind when protagonist Jeanine Bell finds LEO(h), a Loving, Empathetic, Optimistic, and (h)elpful android stashed away in her apartment. Another riveting romance from Atypical Artists, Life With LEO(H) has a compelling main couple on top of weaving a fascinating atmosphere with its scientifically advanced future society. The year is 2421 and the world is brimming with artificial intelligences which, while a great advantage to humans, loads up the plate of the already overworked Jeanine, a robotics intelligence lawyer. And with this sudden sexy suprise left less at her doorstep as in her house, she’s wrapped up in her own legal and emotional conundrum.
The titular LEO(h)’s ditzy nature alone is what gives this show its cozy charm–think WALL-E but with a six-pack, think Kronk but running on batteries–and his actor Maximilian Koger is absolutely nailing the lovingly eager to please Golden Retriever energy. Life With LEO(H) may have a sci-fi legal drama in the background, but it's the cute human-android shenanigans and the colorful people they meet along the way that makes it a very funny ride. Atypical Artists is absolutely on a roll with these adorable love stories and this show along with Greenhouse certifies its place as a romcom frontrunner.
What Can I Get Started For You?
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰✰
What’s the point of mentioning a flower shop setting without a coffee shop setting? Anyone who's been caught in the grind of grueling morning shifts, nagging customers, and lunch rushes will find a lot of catharsis in Kelsey Harper’s What Can I Get Started For You?, a slice of life comedy from Lucky Doll Productions about four baristas and their day to day shenanigans in a New York coffee shop.
The leads Miranda, Charlie, Kate, and Andrew are as funny as they are relatable as they battle pesky flies, charm health inspectors, or host talent shows with the grand prize being a day off. What Can I Get Started For You? is the kind of down-to-earth, sarcastic work comedy that will have you feeling weirdly nostalgic about your days behind the counter, or at least the friendships you may have formed there.
No transcripts available.
Fawx & Stallion
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰
Fawx & Stallion is a British mystery comedy that manages to be a homage and yet a middle finger to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson, more specifically from the two detectives that live in the same building as them. The events in and around 224B aren’t always exactly ideal if slightly vulgar, but one can’t ignore the slice of life, small-town energy that the show embodies with a very British charm and less the passive aggression of Dear Bastard than aggressive-aggression. This is a show of petty and trivial problems being solved by petty and trivial leads and Fawx & Stallion’s fast wit is what shapes this into such a fun mystery-comedy. Though to its core it’s a precautionary tale about the trappings of jealousy, you’ll find Fawx’s desire for the spotlight weirdly relatable.
Sometimes it’s solving mysteries, sometimes it’s discussing crimes over brandy and tea, but it’s always hilarious back and forth banter with an outstandingly fun cast of characters. Anyone who has a taste for Wooden Overcoats and Victoriocity with just a pinch of The Amelia Project won’t just find Fawx & Stallion a relaxing time, but a funny one.
THE INFINITE NOW
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰
THE INFINITE NOW is a different flavor of comfort for those who like a little psychedelic, freeform poetry with their downtime. I’ve given a lot of love to Richard Penner’s experimental speculative fiction show before, but even to this day, the twenty-five episodes of this time traversing, psychosexual space march through Saṃsāra neatly packaged in neon colored existentialism still has that same ring to it.
Transmissions from the narrator the Time Scanner give this show a very unique edge that’s uplifting one moment and an introspective lucid dream the next. If your type of relaxation leans less into coffee shops, cat cuddling, and flower shopping and more into lava lamps in pitch black rooms listening to a Pink Floyd vinyl after a grueling shift at Spencer’s, then I’ve got just the thing.
Standard Docking Procedure
Coziness Level: ✰✰✰
If your favorite parts of Wolf 359 and EOS 10 were the characters going about their daily lives, confiding in each other, and getting into petty squabbles, or you just really got invested in Hardspace: Shipbreaker, then Standard Docking Procedure is just that. Creator Gavin Gaddis takes all the things you love about sitcom tropes and questions just how they would work in a sci-fi world.
Standard Docking Procedure isn’t just cozy in its mundane nature but its full exploration of its core gimmick–full time jobs, but make it sci-fi. Pseudopolis Station may be a massive, expensive space station inhabiting what used to be Earth’s citizens, but you’ll be viewing working there as any old customer service job complete with unrealistic deadlines, nagging customers, and, above all, the unlikely friendships you form along the way.
When it comes to picking out a comfort podcast it’s truly in the eye (ear?) of the beholder. Maybe you find the classy atmosphere of The Amelia Project soothing despite its grim subject matter. I used to enjoy the Kafkaesque black comedy The Meat Blockade, a chaotic and thoroughly unpredictable dive into artistic insanity before I went to bed because I feel there’s an undeniable draw to the night life in a big city. Hadron Gospel Hour, is an eccentric sci-fi drama that pays homage to Back to The Future among other eighties classics, but is just too fun and packed with this lovingly nerdy energy for it to not laugh my problems away.
Upon researching and then writing this, my mind travels back to a couple years ago where that virtual barber shop audio went viral on Tumblr. Because fifteen years ago, that kind of binaural sound was this groundbreaking discovery implemented into ASMR we didn’t even know was ASMR. Maybe you were invested because of the technical prowess on display or maybe you found some sort of nostalgia or comfort in getting a free haircut from a friendly barber.
Would I qualify slice of life as its own audio drama genre? Maybe, but I feel as audio drama fans that it's time we acknowledge the appeal of the low narrative stakes, slice of life fiction. This isn’t as much a genre in itself as it is an overlapping comfy quilt that finds its way on top of fictional settings here and there. I’d say your own special brand of calm, collected audio time or maybe add another patch to the quilt yourself.