Winter is cold and dreary where I am, an now that the New Year is over and the festivities are slowly coming to a halt, I'm beginning to feel the need of some feel-good distractions. Which, for me, means podcasts, among other things. :) Here are a couple I'm listening to now that never fail to pick me up.
1)
Love and Luck Podcast. They also have a
Youtube channel where you can listen to all the episodes with subtitles, which really should be the golden accessibility standard if you ask me. This is a queer love story/slice of life with a bit of magic, and it features what might be the healthiest, most loving, romantic and understanding relationship I've ever seen in fiction. The production quality is top-notch, the writing is clever and the characters are absolutely amazing. At this point, this might be my favorite podcast of all time, even though for the most part, there are no super exciting plot developments. There are just two guys talking and being awesome to each other and please trust me, it's amazing.
2)
Heart Beats: A Heartwarming Fantasy. This is an actual play podcast that uses Ryuutama with a couple of house rules. It focuses on the fiction far more than it does on the mechanics, though, and it's practically the opposite of the more usual actual plays. There are no heroes goes on epic journeys and quests, and no evil that threatens the world. There's only a small quaint town with its many colorful people living there, and two newcomers (the PCs) who help them with stuff like "finding a very friendly pet monster that ran off to the forest." It's the Miyazaki movie of podcasts, basically. If you need a pick-me-up or simply want a nice, low-stakes story that will leave you smiling, I highly encourage you to check this out. :)