What's the Frequency? 📚

"i hope you all are having a lot of fun working on your favorite projects"

Hi, welcome to Podcast Promise, the newsletter dedicated to only podcasts that truly inspire me to write something about them for real. They might be new releases, they might not. In this case, it’s a show that came out some time ago, but has always been — and still is — ahead of its time: psychedelic noir audio drama What’s the Frequency?

First, I’m going to get this moment of mourning out of the way so I can focus on the podcast: yesterday, we lost the singularly visionary and influential David Lynch. I’m not one to feel impacted by celebrity death, let alone celebrities who are later in their years. But this news gutted me. I am writing this newsletter today as a way of channeling that grief into one of my most beloved Lynch-inspired works, and I hope that you can find something beautiful in what his work helped inform too. If you are looking for a podcast to accompany you in keeping Lynch’s influence in your heart, this is it.

What’s the Frequency? is a sound design heavy full-cast serialized audio drama — I don’t need to explain what an audio drama/fiction podcast is anymore, right? Here’s the show’s description:

What’s The Frequency is a psychedelic noir audio drama podcast set in 1940s Los Angeles. Recently radio broadcasts in the city have been reduced to static, leaving a popular radio serial as the only remaining show on the air. Even then the show finds itself continuously interrupted by a mysterious broadcast. A lone distorted voice reaching out for help. Follow Walter “Troubles” Mix and his partner Whitney as they search for a missing writer and navigate through a city quickly falling into madness. Could the mysterious voice be the culprit? Will anyone be able to stop the madness from spreading? And… What’s The Frequency?

🎙️Books?

When you first jump into What’s the Frequency?, there’s a nonzero chance you’ll quickly say, “Hi, sorry, what the fuck?”

This is a good thing.

I love fiction podcasts. They have long been my main focus of covering the podcasting landscape, only just having changed during the pandemic when my brain stopped processing serialized stories for a while. But one of my frustrations with audio drama has always been the directness of most of my listens. The linear plots, the clear characters, the addition of dialogue or narration to make the scene clearer for the audience. None of those things are bad, and in fact, I think most well-done audio dramas have mastered the tightrope walk between over and under explaining in an audio-only medium.

But sometimes, I really need a work of fiction that just happens to me, and whether I sink or swim is based only on how willing I am to engage with that work on its terms instead of mine. I need what House of Leaves or Piranesi does to me in literature, and, yeah, what Twin Peaks does to me in TV. And on this front, I have not found a single audio drama that commits harder to its vision and its storytelling language that What’s the Frequency?

This is not a podcast you can listen to while driving or doing your chores. It’s a podcast that asks for your full attention — and consistently proves itself worthy of that time and focus.

While it might not make itself immediately clear to you, What’s the Frequency? has a way of pulling you in regardless. There’s two main facets of the show that keep you grounded and entranced as the writing slowly becomes more familiar: the sound design and the characters.

📻Books books books?

The sound design in What’s the Frequency? by Alexander Danner (Greater Boston) is tactile and agile, moving between lived-in diner scenes and psychological disorienting spirals in a way that makes them feel equally real. It’s one of the best uses of audio as a medium I can think of: without dreamlike visuals, the audio itself has a way of grounding you in the real and the surreal equally just through its sound design.

If you’re giving the show your dedication, you’ll be rewarded with a stunning push and pull into different layers of reality. It is, summarily, trippy — but in a way that feels earned instead of gimmicky. That trippiness, the psychedelia, are not just aesthetic choices; they are part of the story being told. (We’ll get to that story soon, I promise.)

🕵🏻Books books!

The characters, meanwhile, are immediately so real and so loveable. What’s the Frequency? can be categorized as a horror, but it’s often more comedy, more drama, more a story about people and their connection to each other and how they navigate the changing world around them.

Protagonist Walter “Troubles” Mix is played by Karim Kronfli, a voice actor whose very prolific work always leaves me saying, “Jesus Christ, Karim. Is there anything you can’t do?” Newer audio drama fans will likely recognize him from at least one other project, and that project might be as Literally Dracula in the wildly successful Re: Dracula. But Troubles couldn’t be further off from his terrifying performance there; here, Kronfli imbues Troubles with such a sense of tenderness, earnestness, wit, and humor, he became a favorite of mine immediately.

Whitney, played by the incredible Tanja Milojevic, is just as memorable and loveable. She’s plucky and astute, adorable but formidable, keeping perfectly in rhythm with Troubles in their investigation. She would steal the scene if she weren’t so perfectly a part of the world crafted around her.

The ensemble cast is made up of similarly heavy hitters: one of my favorite Kristen Dimercurio as one of the characters in the only radio show surviving on air and Richard Penner as Doug “The Devil” Kowalski are performances that stick out in my mind to this day.

There’s something really special about hearing these characters who are so loveable and easy to root for making their way through an increasinly horrific situation. The duality of it, rooting for them while knowing they have low chances of leaving unscathed, heightens both the light and dark dappling the story like sunlight through leaves. The shadows and the glow of the sun are made something bigger than the sum of their parts when put together.

🗞️Books books books books books books books

I have avoided going into depth about the plot of What’s the Frequency? because like most other works of surrealism, a description can never really do this podcast justice. But for those of you plot heads out there, here we go:

The radio stations in an alternate 1940s Los Angeles have all started becoming static. Only one station remains with strange messages breaking through, as well as the occasional advertisement for a brand new product guaranteed to simply make your domestic life a dream! ✨

And, slowly, the residents of Los Angeles start losing their words and their minds, reduced to asking only, “What’s the frequency?”

Meanwhile, Troubles and Whit are looking for an author who’s gone missing. His disappearence is surrounded by strange mysteries: how did he disappear without a trace and why? Was he using a ghost writer? Is he connected to what’s happening on the radio?

As the mysteries fill LA, Troubles and Whit are faced by betrayal, violence, and a home that is slowly becoming less and less real.

I implore you to try to listen to a full episode before you decide this show isn’t for you. If you are still struggling to latch onto the plot by the end of the first episode, I highly recommend the show’s phenomenal transcripts to read along with as you listen.

🎙️Go subscribe!

What’s the Frequency? is a show I love so much, I have been talking about it literally everytime the opportunity arises since 2017. It’s been almost 10 years, Jesus Christ, not thinking about that right now. This podcast is something I always think back to when feeling like the project I’m working on right now (it’s called Vessel, and that’s all you get to know yet) is too weird, too dark, too unsettling. Not only is this podcast phenomenal, it is also exactly the inspiration audio dramatists could use when remembering that they don’t have to create for an imaged broad audience.

Go subscribe and listen RIGHT NOW — and then please please please please please talk to me about it when you’ve listened!

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