Good news, everyone! My podcast’s test season earlier this year was received with such enthusiasm, we immediately got to work on building the machinery that would power a full series. It took all summer, as I and my team applied what we learned we could do differently or better going forward. I only wanted to do all that work once, because I want to do this podcast for years to come. I think we nailed it, and I think I get to hand off everything but the narration to the rest of the team.
So I can so happily shout from the top of a mountain that It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton Returns October 29th with a spooky story for the spooky season! And that will kick off at least FORTY new episodes.
FORTY!
I am so excited, I made a video about it.
I’ve been reading submissions from Michael, our content editor, and reaching out to authors for permission to narrate their stories. Can I tell you how warm it makes me feel when they tell me they enjoy my work? How happy and grateful I feel when an author tells me they already listen to my audiobooks?1 Every single story I have read has been incredible for a different reason. I can’t hardly wait, as the Replacements said, to narrate them. I’m so grateful that I am getting to do what I love for my job. If you’re already subscribed to the podcast, please accept my warmest thanks; I wouldn’t get to do this without you.
One of the unexpected delights has been the Patreon. I did a couple of live AMA things there that were surprisingly fun, so we’re going to do that again, and more often. I’m hopeful that I can even do some author chats, where we can get to know the people who created these stories I’m reading to you. Last time I looked, there were 485 paid subscribers, and like 300 others who are checking us out. That blows me away and I’m so grateful for the support, I’m going to do a special, live, narration of a spooky story, chosen by Patreon, next week. If you’re interested in seeing that, there’s plenty of time to sign up.
A statistically significant number of people asked me if I would ever be on YouTube, but I never wanted this to be a video thing. For me as a performer, I can’t serve the words on the page and play to the audience on the other side of the camera. Imagine going to see someone do a reading in a theater, and they never once look up from the page. It’s weird, right?
But so many people wanted us to be on YouTube, we figured out a way that I think will solve that problem. I’ll introduce the episode on camera, and then the story will be an audiogram. Done and done. There’s no content at the channel right now, but as soon as there is, I’ll share the link.
Okay, one last thing: Yesterday, I remembered that I had done a narration of Ur Fascism for Radio Free Burrito about five years ago. I felt like it was a good time to resurface it, so I did. And if you want to listen to my favorite episode I have done of RFB so far, with a full production and music and the whole thing that I did entirely by myself, I’m so proud of The Cecil Hotel.
I’m supposed to say that you can subscribe to It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton wherever you get your podcasts, even if that particular link goes to Apple for stupid SEO reasons.
That’s all for now. Thanks for listening. Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other.
- And my EMDR therapy is really working, because I can finally find space to fully feel all the joy without being afraid that it isn’t real, or that I’m stupid for letting myself get my hopes up ↩︎
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Hi Wil!
Just wanted to reach out real quick. First time commenter, long time fan. I recently came across “Still Just A Geek” and have been reading it almost religiously. Last night when I was reading the “Introduction to Still Just a Geek,” I absolutely loved the “everybody is the hero of their own story, including me” part and what followed. It speaks to something I’m currently going through in my life right now.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the book! 🙂
Hey! Contact David Gerrold! He has bunchs of short stories I’d bet he’d love to be involved!
I AM SO EXCITED!!! Forty episodes??? This is just the best news, and I can’t wait!!! 😀
Holy Gabbo, Batman, I’m so happy!!!! This podcast was like everything I’d ever dreamed about. The stories were so exciting and fresh, and I discovered new authors I’d never known about before. And the narration was chef’s kiss. This is the best news I’ve read in a long time!!!! Congrats on the new season!
So happy for you!!!
Yay!!!! That is such good news, thank you Wil!
Congrats! This is awesome!
I can’t tell you how glad and hopeful it makes me, in these dark horrifying days, to have good news, good things happening to/for/by people I care about, and something to look forward to.
Yippee! So excited!
Super cool, I am so looking forward to this. And I want to get my SPOOK on!
I listened to a podcast, partial, at Instagram this morning, The Rosebud Podcast, and the whole thing at Apple. The guest was Charles Earl Spencer who has done EMDR as part of his journey to heal the reverberations of his abuse as a little boy at Prep School. I don’t think I knew that before but recognized the term from coming here: A Very Private School: A Memoir. He is an excellent writer as are you and that book is devastating. The podcast isn’t all about that but touches on it.
One last thing, I finally realized what “Perhaps today. If not today, perhaps tomorrow” meant when you posted it at Bluesky. I am using that at Facebook and Threads.
Please, Universe – let it be today.
This is the best news I’ve heard all week! I credit It’s Storytime with getting me on board with listening to audiobooks. I’d always had trouble focusing enough to listen to them, but the short format plus your narration helped train my brain to focus on the story at hand. I love to listen to the stories while I take a walk outside. I look forward to hearing the new ones.
I love this! Thank you for listening.
Such good news! There’s not enough of that lately and this podcast is so perfectly up my alley that I’ve really been missing it. I used to absolutely love tearing into books and that has been harder to do over the past decade for reasons. Audiobooks have really helped and this podcast is such a perfect mechanism to introduce me to awesome authors from someone I really trust. Thank you so much for this.