When adults think of podcasts, we often think of the purely audio equivalent of a noisy talk show—a non-stop sharing of opinions, often strong ones, on popular or controversial topics. I’ve never been a big podcast fan myself, except for a few I really seek out and enjoy, with people I admire.
So when I was invited to listen to (gasp) a fantasy podcast created by some young creatives, about a world beyond our own, I wasn’t sure I would be up to the task—until I found myself accompanying a young college girl named Joan Kendrick as she negotiates a literal out-of-this world destination, the Realms of Lahr—all while I was driving in Metro Manila traffic! (Yes, you can finish at least a couple of episodes crossing Edsa from where I live.)
The significant news is, the first season of the podcast was an official selection at over 20 festivals in 2024, including the Los Angeles Motion Picture Festival, the Sydney Web Fest, and the Swedish International Film Festival, while winning an Honorable Mention at the Digifest Temecula in California, and being declared Best Podcast at the Urban Mediamakers Festival. The latter, based in Georgia in the United States, promotes and supports independent content creators and multimedia productions.
Podcast creator, writer, and producer Stephen Tantoco
No small feat for a project that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our bigger challenge was working around the recording conditions,” says director and producer Tara Jamora Oppen, now working in the UK as a freelance actor and director. “When we first recorded, we worked on the entire thing through Zoom, as it was the pandemic.” Creator, writer, and producer Stephen Tantoco would send performer and producer Marga Crisostomo a microphone set-up, and Marga would record the lines under a thick blanket. “Stephen and I would watch her through a webcam on Zoom while she worked, and I gave notes.”
Creative team members: sound mixer and composer Benjo Kasala, producer and director Tara Jamora-Oppen, and actor Marga Crisostomo
Once the pandemic lifted, the first season was re-recorded in the home studio of sound mixer and composer Benjo Kasala. “The space is sound treated, but not sound proof,” recalls Oppen with a laugh, “and so often, we were at the mercy of birds, cars, dogs, or crickets. Sometimes, we’d have to re-record whole takes. And that’s working on independent, homegrown, shoestring budget productions for you!”
Crisostomo performed all the roles in the podcast, and other crew members include sound editor Carlos Hombrebueno, graphic designer Jeanine Rojo, and marketing head Kirby Vicente.
Joan Kendrick and the Realms of Lahr is just what it sounds like, an adventure with wizards and swordfights, along the lines of Game of Thrones, but with a contemporary character thrown in.
A near-fatal car accident leaves Joan flatlining for five minutes, then coming back with a slew of strange experiences. You feel for the poor girl when she gets piercing headaches, can’t get a decent night’s sleep despite having tests the next morning, and stresses about keeping her grades decent. (Oh, and fair warning, kids: She was hit by a car when she crossed the street with her eyes on her cellphone instead.)
A warrior princess’ weapons: Visual from the podcast’s Instagram account
The headaches lead to blackouts that eventually reveal how Joan’s consciousness has somehow become tied up with that of Aember, a warrior princess from another dimension who has to fight to regain her kingdom in the Realms of Lahr from an evil tyrant. The alter-egos end up communicating through each other’s dreams. With Joan as an unlikely new virtual member of the team, which includes wizard Adaum and healer Merissa, she watches as Aember, Merissa, and Adaum embark on a risky quest to restore peace.
Tantoco recalls how he came up with the story during the pandemic because of “an existential crisis about my mortality. With all the death that surrounded us during the pandemic, I found myself wondering what the afterlife would be like. This is how I got the idea. In the podcast, she has a near death experience and finds herself briefly in the afterlife, and it’s there that her whole life changes. I guess writing this show was a way for me to process my thoughts.”
Tantoco recalls how he came up with the story during the pandemic because of ‘an existential crisis about my mortality. With all the death that surrounded us during the pandemic, I found myself wondering what the afterlife would be like’
Tantoco connected with Oppen, and although they met only online, Oppen was excited “about the prospect of a one-person ‘campfire storytelling’-style podcast. I thought the concept was fresh and exciting! A story told entirely by one person was a unique and also challenging premise.” Oppen admits she’s also a fan of fantasy and “adjacent nerd worlds,” such as in The Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons.
As it turns out, Marga Crisostomo was up to the task, jumping easily from one character to another in the podcast. Strangely, the fact that you know it’s the same person, changing tone and nuance for every character, somehow keeps the experience more seamless. “She is a brilliant presence to have in the room,” says Oppen. “She brings so much to every role she plays—and she played a lot of different roles!” Crisostomo was even nominated for Best Ensemble (all by herself!) for Joan Kendrick at the Miami Web Fest.
“Fantasy is one of the best genres you can use to tell an underdog story, and it has dramatic elements embedded in the genre that just made it an easy choice for the world I wanted to create,” says Tantoco. “I was also raised with movies like Harry Potter and Star Wars, where the world-building was so interesting and unique, and I wanted to be able to create a world like that, with its own mythology and richness. I wanted this show to be a reflection and interpretation of what’s happening in the world, and how people can come together and fight injustice.”
Tantoco has been interested in storytelling since high school, when he was writing scripts. While in the Business Management Honors program at the Ateneo de Manila (where Oppen also graduated), he started a pop culture YouTube channel called InReelLife, “because I wanted a creative outlet to complement my more analytical work in school. At its peak, it garnered 43,000 subscribers and more than 2 million views.” Tantoco went on to earn his Masters in Writing and Producing for Television at Loyola Marymount University. He moved back to the Philippines last year, and is now writing a play, as well as working on season 2 of Joan Kendrick and another audio drama podcast pilot.
Oppen considers herself “a multi-faceted art maker,” and has worked in theatre, film, podcasts, and various other types of media. In her free time, she creates long-form videos which she posts on YouTube, centered on helping artists grow and develop, as well as shorter comedy and lifestyle versions for Instagram and Tik Tok. (Catch her reviews of snacks and junk food in the UK, a totally fun watch.)
Oppen also founded Jungle Gym Play Laboratory, a collective of artists and cultural workers based in the Philippines who are “under-represented.” That includes “providing an avenue for those whose ideas are often overlooked, and to allow people to gain insight from perspectives they may have never previously encountered.”
Podcasts seem to be growing in popularity these days, Oppen notes, but most of them are talk-show style. “I honestly can’t say it’s popular, but once you’ve got a cult following that’s hooked, they do stay loyal. There are a handful of podcasts Stephen and I looked into, but fantasy-style series don’t have a big following yet in the Philippines, so we wanted to be one of the first.” Still, there’s something about the form “that brings in people and keeps them hooked, and it’s the quality of those followers that I think makes the following for podcasts particularly unique.”
“I think podcasts are a good platform for stories,” says Tantoco. “Audio dramas have been around since the advent of radio, and since they are relatively inexpensive to make, I think they’re an underrated way for fiction storytellers to tell stories. There are literally thousands of audio drama shows on podcast platforms, most of them independently produced, that honestly rival the quality of films and television shows.
“Aside from good writing and good characters, I think a good audio drama podcast is one that immerses you in a world. Given that traditional podcasts don’t have visuals, it’s up to the writing, directing, acting, music, and sound design to really drop you in the middle of a fully realized world…Since each person is different, every listener has a different visual interpretation of the world in their head. It’s up to you to make that world as interesting and unique as possible, so that the audience gets the best version of your world in their head.”
‘Joan Kendrick and the Realms of Lahr’ is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Castbox, iHeartRadio, and PocketCasts.
