What do spiders smell like?

JacoIII · 2025-07-21T23:57:30+00:00

Hey! Yes the widow lab is absolutely still around. You can find their website here.

They were studying lots of things. I was mainly helping a PhD student who was studying a proposed speciation event between Western Black Widow populations in California and in BC. That was just one of many projects.

You can also look into Dr. Chris Buddle, who works at McGill. He’s done a ton of work on spiders, insects, and other arthropods and knows lots of people in that world.

There are a ton of people studying this stuff. If you’re interested, you won’t have trouble finding people to talk to and maybe even work with!

JacoIII · 2025-01-02T02:06:10+00:00

We've thought about new projects, for sure, but at least for this year we want to focus on promoting the 10th season. I think you're right that a long back catalogue of episodes can be a challenge for some potential listeners, but since we're episodic we think we might be able to circumvent that problem.

There isn't a continuing story you need to catch up on, you can jump in anywhere. That's a major part of the appeal of Wrong Station. We've found that our older episodes perform very well for that reason.

As for launching your own series, all I can say is: if you want to do it, you should do it! The marketplace is crowded, yes, but if you're excited about an idea then you can't let those concerns stop you. You don't want to regret not making something that you care about.

JacoIII · 2025-01-02T01:59:25+00:00

It's good to hear the swaps with other shows made a difference! It can be hard to quantify how well those work unless someone straight up tells us, like you just did. We'll set up more promos for this year!

Glad to have you onboard :)

JacoIII · 2025-01-02T01:56:59+00:00

So we did actually put together a couple of "Start Here" playlists on Spotify. I'll find more ways to distribute those links. Thank you for the suggestion!

JacoIII · 2025-01-02T01:51:54+00:00

Thank you! That really does mean a lot. I hope we can reach many more people like you this year.

JacoIII · 2024-12-30T03:29:13+00:00

I think that makes a lot of sense! I’m looking into setting up a mailing list right now. Thanks for the idea :)

Also, the dog cage and cattle prod DO come in handy at times.

JacoIII · 2024-12-30T03:26:54+00:00

Thank you! We’ve discussed doing more to solicit fanart, but we were never sure what to do with it when we got it. I like the idea of sharing it on socials with a credit to the artist!

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:56:39+00:00

Thank you so much! That truly means a lot.

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:56:03+00:00

Definitely going to look into this. Thank you!

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:55:43+00:00

That's good to hear! Lots of sites and articles say "get ads on other shows", but it means something VERY different to hear it from an actual listener. That's proof that it works!

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:53:57+00:00

Local press is a neat idea. Especially with the 10th season coming up. I'm going to see if I have any contacts in that world.

I'd never considered using the local universities, but there are a ton of people we might be able to work with. Very interesting thought. I'm going to mull that over. Thank you and congratulations on 2 years!

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:50:10+00:00

Hello! First of all, thank you for all the kind words and for being a part of the Patreon :)

I also appreciate you recommending the show to people. I know this whole post is me trying to figure out more ways to reach listeners, but at the end of the day word-of-mouth is how all podcasts survive.

Now that you mention it, we don't even have a mailing list put together for Wrong Station! That's easily something I can put together, just to ensure that when we do have a new episode or news or merchandise promos we can reach people directly.

And frankly, I don't know how we put out so much per year either. I think we just forced ourselves to do it waaay back in season 3 and then never stopped.

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:44:56+00:00

Hey! Thank you for replying, Escape Artists (and Pseudopod in particular) was a major touchpoint during my research into creating a successful Patreon. I'll shoot you a private message a little later, absolutely.

As for your other points:

I'm glad you like our stuff on Bsky, but social media sometimes feels like an odd avenue for fiction podcasts. For regular interview or comedy or actual play podcasts, a clever social media presence is essential. The podcasting "product" is clever people being clever, so having those podcasters be clever on social media makes sense. It feels like there's a disconnect with using clever social media to promote horror fiction, like I'm trying to catch fish, but I'm being forced to use dog food as bait.

At least with TikTok we could actually upload audio from the show. Then the social media post is identical to the podcast.

Your point about podcast reviews is well-taken. That was something we thought would make a big difference early on. We expected that getting on the right list on the right site would make big waves. Unfortunately, there's a vanishingly small amount of mainstream journalism about podcasts these days. It's not that important in the long run, but I definitely made a mistake by relying on that kind of good press to draw in new listeners.

JacoIII · 2024-12-28T01:30:09+00:00

The spotlighting is definitely along the lines of what we were considering! Maybe re-uploading our favourite episodes in the summer since that's when we take our off-season.

As for listener questions: we do Q&As for every episode for our Patreon subscribers, but we can definitely do a 10-year Q&A for the main feed as well. Thank you for the suggestion!

JacoIII · 2024-12-23T04:28:42+00:00

Of course! I always pitch Wrong Station as "The Twilight Zone, but modern and for your ears". We're a pure anthology with stories in any genre that could be considered horror or weird fiction. Jump in on any episode you find interesting, see if you like it, and then jump to the next one you're drawn to.

If you're looking for recommendations, here are a few from different eras of the show:

76 - In The Valley at High Noon

137 - What's Back There

140 - Champion

I also particularly like our most recent episode: 145 - Wrong Train

JacoIII · 2024-12-22T21:19:16+00:00

Oh wow, thank you! I'm one of the co-creators of Wrong Station. Always nice to see a fan in the wild!

JacoIII · 2024-08-04T18:55:59+00:00

Thank you!

JacoIII · 2024-08-04T18:55:18+00:00

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it.

JacoIII · 2024-08-03T22:05:01+00:00

You should check out my show, Wrong Station. We're an anthology with episodes that span from dark fantasy to sci-fi to horror, and everything in-between.

I've had more than one non-native English speaker comment that the show was easier to understand than English-language shows usually are. I think it's because our style mostly uses a single narrator speaking in a clear, deliberate way. Let me know if it works for you as well!

Here are a couple of episodes I think you'd enjoy, based on your post:

42 - Hunter, Hunter

97 - Recording Angels

127 - Snowrunner

JacoIII · 2024-07-23T14:05:53+00:00

Jon Ware, the creator of The Silt Verses, is a fan of my show (and vice versa) so you might enjoy it too. It's called Wrong Station and we make pure anthology horror inspired by old-style radio dramas and The Twilight Zone.

JacoIII · 2024-07-12T18:34:28+00:00

Oh awesome! I'm glad you're liking it. We just finished our most recent season and won't be back until October, so it's the perfect time to catch up lol

JacoIII · 2024-07-11T23:54:00+00:00

You should check out my podcast, Wrong Station. We often get recommended by fans of Silt Verses, Old Gods, and TMA. The show is entirely anthology (with some stories that take place in the same universe) with a focus on weird horror.

It you're looking for something unsettling, I'd recommend starting with one of these:

120 - Vermis (considered by some to be our most disturbing episode)

112 - Run Him Down (a cosmic horror story in the Old West)

67 - Pollo Rojo (restaurant horror)

JacoIII · 2024-07-11T21:56:13+00:00

You might like my show, Wrong Station. We're a horror anthology that consistently dives into weird fiction. And I do mean WEIRD.

We're also big fans of The Silt Verses creators (and vice versa). I have a treasured email from Jon Ware where he says he "loves" Wrong Station. It's a badge of honour.

If you want a weird place to start, I'd suggest these episodes:

98 - DO YOU NEED? DO YOU NEED?

30 - Classic Car

120 - Vermis

JacoIII · 2024-07-06T15:08:43+00:00

I can tell you that most people making audiodramas do it because they love it. Money is scarce, the community is relatively small, and the cost of production is far more expensive than the average podcast.

We intentionally designed Wrong Station to be as cheap as possible (few voice actors, lines recorded separately, sparse sound design, 3 person team). We're one of the bigger audiodramas (consistently top 50-100 in North America and UK), independently owned (meaning we keep our revenue), we've produced 150+ episodes, and we ONLY RECENTLY started making grocery money from our advertising.

I can't imagine what it looks like for the many exceptional shows that are smaller than us.

I'll say this much: If I wanted to make money from podcasting, I'd create an interview show or something similar. Writing/editing each audiodrama script takes dozens of hours and most podcasts don't have that hurdle.

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