Tea in the Sahara Podcast Interview with Dirt Creator Kris Kaiyala

Might as well add armed robbery to my list of offenses. For the very best audio experience, please listen with headphones. Featuring Megan Morales as Antonia, Jarrid Beasley as Tim, and Kristopher Kaiyala as Joseph. For the latest updates, follow @dirtaudiodrama on Instagram, Threads, and/or X. For episode transcripts, press kit, background information, and a chance at a free sticker: https://www.dirtaudiodrama.com. Dirt - An Audio Drama is a proud member of the Fable & Folly Network. Thank you for listening. Please share with friends and family! © STUDIO5705 LLC. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So how does this work? Are you like a double agent? For the very best audio experience, please listen with headphones. Featuring Jessi Brown as Mel, Megan Morales as Antonia, Ken Kaiyala as Aimo, Yvonne Eiseman as Ingrid, Genie Leslie as Kim, and Kristopher Kaiyala as Joseph. For the latest updates, follow @dirtaudiodrama on Instagram, Threads, and/or X. For episode transcripts, press kit, background information, and a chance at a free sticker: https://www.dirtaudiodrama.com. Dirt - An Audio Drama is a proud member of the Fable & Folly Network. Thank you for listening. Please share with friends and family! © STUDIO5705 LLC. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Updated Oct 2024. Dirt is an immersive audio mystery with many plot twists and turns. We don't want to give too much away, but we hope this short teaser gives you a taste of what's to come--and inspires you to binge the whole thing! Three full seasons are currently available, with Season 4 now underway. For the very best audio experience, please listen with headphones. Dirt is a proud member of the Fable & Folly Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello Dirt followers and fans. Kris here, creator of the show with another production update to share, and this one has some really exciting news in it. We're finally ready to launch Dirt's fourth and final season. And the first day you'll be able to hear the newest episode is October 3! So if you're hearing this on the day this update went live, that's a little less than two weeks from now. I know some of you have discovered and binged Dirt from start to finish only recently, while some of you have been waiting for up to a year for the story to continue. If you're in the first category, we are super glad to count you as a new fan. If you're in that second category, I just want to say thank you for your awesome patience. I'd love to say producing an audio drama is easy, but it isn't, especially when it's mostly a nights and weekends project like Dirt is. And this upcoming season has almost twice as many episodes as Season 1 does, so yeah, there's a lot of recording and sound design to do. But we're finally at a place where I feel comfortable starting to get new episodes out there, to continue this story and see it to the end. So, on that note, the episode release plan for Season 4 is something like this: One new episode will be available more or less monthly. And I say more or less because some episodes might come out sooner than a month, and some might take a little longer. But rest assured, the entire final season is fully written, the actors are commissioned, and you will definitely get to hear all 11 final episodes to finally wrap up the series. So once again, look for the newest episode to drop in your podcast feed on Oct. 3, and then look for additional new episodes to drop more or less once per month after that. I know it's easy to forget some of the tiny story details when you haven't listened in a while. And some of those tiny details might be really important. So if you need a plot refresher, you can find written summaries for all three previous seasons on the website. Just go to dirtaudiodrama.com/helpmeremember. The page is password protected, because spoilers, so if you want access to it, just type the word "coins" in the password window, all lowercase.   Finally, I'd like to thank all the actors--those who are returning and those who new--for their continued dedication and enthusiasm for this super fun project. And a huge thank you to my wife Sara for her support and contributions to the show as well. The season 4 storyline will revisit many familiar locations and travel to some new ones. So, buckle up! Get ready for more twists and turns, big reveals, strange dreams, and, oh yes, more shenanigans from that vintage Coinmaster. Thank you so much for being fans of Dirt, and see you back here on Oct. 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kris here, creator of Dirt an Audio Drama. While we’re busily working on new episodes for Season 4, Dirt’s final season, I want to tell you about an all-new sci-fi audio drama called Sanctuary. Sanctuary is set on a future terraformed Mars, where the last woman who is awakened from nearly a thousand years of cryosleep discovers that her husband has become the dictator of Mars. Sanctuary stars Lily Rabe from American Horror Story. The show is produced by Voyage Media, the same company behind the #1 hit fiction podcast Someone Is Killing the Wolfhounds. To listen to full episodes of Sanctuary, simply search for it on your favorite podcast player. And you can hear the trailer for Sanctuary right here right now. Our sincere thanks for Sanctuary for its support.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kris here, with another recommendation for a terrific audio drama that I recently binged from start to finish titled Sorry About the Murder. Sorry About the Murder bills itself as a very Canadian murder mystery fiction podcast, and it doesn’t take very long to find out why. Set in the nice little town of Beavermount, Ontario, the story revolves around a friendly Zamboni driver who’s falsely accused of committing a heinous homicide involving said Zamboni. (And real quick, in case you don’t know what a Zamboni is, you really need to watch more hockey. A Zamboni is the vehicle that’s used to smooth out the ice for a hockey match or for ice skating.) Hockey is a major theme in the podcast, because Canada, but also because the local hockey rink—and its nightly matches between teams of townsfolk—is the epicenter of the nice little town of Beavermount, Ontario. Which is why it’s so important for the Zamboni driver, a very endearing character named Frenchie, to try to clear his name by nightfall, so he can ready the ice in time for that night’s big match. Sorry About the Murder is a drama, yes, expertly narrated over eight very bingeable episodes, but it’s really a small-town comedy full of quirky characters and deadpan humor. Think of it as a cross between Prairie Home Companion, Murder She Wrote, and the TV show Northern Exposure. This is reportedly just the first of several seasons that Frenchie will have to get himself out of a bind, so now’s your chance to get in early and digest all of the goodness that is Sorry About the Murder. Here, for your enjoyment, is episode 1, titled Bonjour Beavermount.  Sorry About the Murder and Dirt - An Audio Drama are both part of the Fable & Folly Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, Kris here with another recommendation for a wonderful show that is also part of the Fable & Folly network, called Desert Skies. Desert Skies takes place at cosmic pit stop between this world and the next, where people who have recently left the physical plane show up to gather fuel and supplies to prepare for their journey through the celestial spheres. The station is staffed by three workers—an attendant named Tendy, a mechanic named Mac, and a sentient cash register named CASH, whose jobs are ostensibly to supply those who stop in with what they need for the road ahead. But what their job really seems to be about is getting to the root of issues that are keeping their visitors from venturing onward, whether it’s unresolved anguish from the lives they just left, regrets, or being separated from a loved one. Desert Skies hits that sweet spot between weighty emotions and comic relief, and its simple, funky, homespun feel is totally endearing. Yet what starts out as a slice of life story following new arrivals to the station quickly grows into an epic tale, where the stakes get higher and higher. I’m personally a fan of the show—and of the array of frozen burritos that the station keeps on hand for its hungry guests. The sitcom-ish presentation and banter, the genuine goodness of the characters, and even the music, including a hilarious rock montage by sung Mac in episode 3—all add up to a show you’ll want to binge. Fortunately for you, there’s an entire first season to do just that, and second season is currently underway. You can find to Desert Skies on your favorite podcast player or by clicking here. And best of all, you can hear the very first episode right here, right now, titled The Flavor of Life, Here it comes, and our sincerest thanks to Desert Skies for its support.  Desert Skies and Dirt are both part of the Fable & Folly Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kris here, creator of Dirt an Audio Drama. If you’re eagerly awaiting Season 4 of Dirt, which will be Dirt’s final season, here’s a great conversation that UK podcast critic Kevin Wann recently had with me, on his new podcast Tea in the Sahara. The interview is a brisk 19 minutes long and we get into different things ranging from when Season 4 of Dirt might release to more general topics like casting, favorite recent audio dramas, what might come after Dirt, and more. You can find Tea in the Sahara on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or of course wherever you listen to your shows. And you should subscribe or follow Kevin's show while you’re at it. You can also listen to our conversation right here after this brief intro, as Kevin has kindly allowed us to run the interview in our feed also. Lastly, be sure to check out Kevin’s written work at teainthesahara.com. There you’ll find plenty of fiction podcast reviews, as well as insightful interviews with creators. It’s a great website with lots of personality and worth the visit. So, without further ado, here is the latest episode of the podcast Tea in the Sahara. Take it away Kev. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello Dirt listeners, Kris here with another recommendation for an audio drama that I have been a huge fan of since it launched in 2020. Visionaries is a magnificent fantasy set in the year 2185, yet in many ways it feels like a Shakespeare play or Roman epic. Future humanity has definitely not lost its appetite for political drama, rebellion, steamy romance, family conflict, backstabbing, and more—all of which make Visionaries a juicy listen, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that. In this futuristic world, humanity is distinguished by two races: The Visionaries and the Dead-Eyes. The Visionaries are the next step in human evolution, gifted with unique eyes that give them superhuman powers like the ability to see into the future. The Dead-Eyes have no such abilities, and their ordinary eyes lead them to suffer at the hands of the Visionaries, who enslave them to keep them powerless. But there is a revolution afoot, and at the heart of the conflict are two brothers whose rivalry could take down the entire system. New York-based series showrunner Richard Seneque has created not only a thrilling, multilayered world, but an alluring soundscape. His background effects are beautifully subtle, and the acting is as good as it gets. There are now two full seasons of Visionaries, so you can binge to your heart’s content. And you can learn more about the plot and the cast and crew, and see some wonderful show art, at visionariesaudiodrama.com. But for now, sit back, relax, and put those headphones on for a wonderfully immersive experience, which I've personally binged from start to finish. Here now is the first episode of Visionaries, titled Eye for an Eye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's another recommendation for a great audio drama that is also in the Fable & Folly network called Strange Air. Strange Air begins with a live broadcast of a Los Angeles radio show about the paranormal, hosted by a man named Malcom Smith. But the narrative soon transitions to Malcom’s daughter, Chase Smith, a USC film student who, it turns out, is working on a documentary about her dad that tries to piece together why and how Malcom mysteriously vanished without a trace one night, in the middle of his show. Chase spends her days and nights tracking down every possible lead as she searches for the truth about her dad’s disappearance, meeting plenty of intriguing characters along the way. Understandably, her quest becomes highly personal to the point of taking over her life, and even pushing her closest relationships to the limit. Strange Air is a terrific sci-fi mystery that weaves elements of the hyper-real, the supernatural, religion, technology, family issues, and artificial intelligence. But at its heart, it’s a father-daughter story about grief and longing. And if the voice of Malcom Smith sounds familiar, it’s because the character is played by Patrick Fabian, who played lawyer Harry Hamlin on the awesome TV show "Better Call Saul." You can binge all 20 episodes of Strange Air from start to finish wherever you get your podcasts, of course, or at strangeairpodcast.com. Here, now, is the first episode for your listening enjoyment, titled "The Impossible." Dirt - An Audio Drama and Strange Air are part of the Fable & Folly Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices