Make-Believe

Latest Episodes:

Introducing: HAMLET Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

Make-Believe is proud to present its latest audio-drama project, a revelatory new take on the most famous play ever written.

Our "Hamlet" takes you inside the prince's head, letting you hear the story entirely through his ears.

Featuring an astonishing cast led by Daniel Kyri and binaural sound design by Mikhail Fiksel, "Hamlet" had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in June 2025.

All six episodes are available at hamlet.fm and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Listening to Lake Song Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

LAKE SONG makes its debut today on the Tribeca Audio Premieres podcast! Listen here.

Starting on October 13, listen to LAKE SONG on its own podcast feed.

Available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and on the web at lakesong.fm.

Follow or subscribe to LAKE SONG to hear new episodes as they appear each week.

Trailer 2: Chicago Poets--Past, Present, Future Oct 06, 2022

Show notes

Lake Song co-creator Nate Marshall talks about what Chicago poets have always done. . . and what they're *going* to do.

Lake Song, the epic new audio-drama series from Make-Believe Association, will debut October 12 as an official selection of Tribeca Audio.

For more, visit lakesong.fm.

Trailer: Lake Song Sep 30, 2022

Show notes

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Tribeca Festival Audio Premieres. It's 2098 and the Republic of Chicago has what the world needs: fresh water. But with new opportunities come new threats, especially for a pair of siblings on the South Side. Can the people come together to save their city--and each other?

LAKE SONG is the joint creation of seven multidisciplinary Chicagoans. Combining sci-fi and music, politics and poetry, it's a collective response to our times, and a shared dream of our future.

Go to the new LAKE SONG feed to subscribe. Coming in mid-October.

Our Decameron: Shakespeare in Utopia Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Following the cancellation of Shakespeare in the Park, Oskar Eustis talks about a utopian story in one of Shakespeare's plays. A practical guide to what a vision of the future can do--and what it can't.

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Hosted by Jeremy McCarter

Music, mixing, and mastering by Mikhail Fiksel

Graphics and social media by Carly Pearlman

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Our Decameron: Lorraine Hansberry at the End of the World Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Can a new society arise from a cataclysm? Does humanity deserve a second chance? Chicago author and journalist Natalie Moore joins a virtual audience to explore utopia, dystopia, and the radical imagination while discussing the great Chicago dramatist's "What Use Are Flowers?".

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Listen to Lorraine Hansberry's What Use Are Flowers?: https://makebelieve.fm/flowers

Listen to Natalie Moore and Jeremy McCarter's City on Fire: Chicago Race Riot 1919: https://makebelieve.fm/city-on-fire

Credits for this episode:

Hosted by Jeremy McCarter

Music, mixing, and mastering by Mikhail Fiksel

Graphics and social media by Carly Pearlman

Credits for What Use Are Flowers?:

Directed by Daniel Kyri

Music by Mikhail Fiksel

Sound by Erisa Apantaku and Mikhail Fiksel

Production manager - Madeleine Borg

Stage manager - JC Widman

Cast:

Hermit – Billy Branch

Charlie – Daniel Kyri

Lily – Khloe Janel

William – Tevion Lanier

Narration read by Kiayla Ryann

Thank you to the Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust for allowing us to produce the audio drama; and to the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation and the Poetry Foundation for making season one possible

Our Decameron: The Tortoise, the Hare, and Will Leitch Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

To tide us over until baseball returns, sportswriter Will Leitch breaks down the most famous athletic contest of all time, and a lively virtual audience debates its moral today.

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Subscribe to Will Leitch's newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/williamfleitch

Consider an actual tortoise vs. an actual hare: https://metro.co.uk/2016/10/15/someone-staged-an-actual-race-between-a-rabbit-and-a-tortoise-6194091/

Hosted by Jeremy McCarter

Music, mixing, and mastering by Mikhail Fiksel

Graphics and social media by Carly Pearlman

Our Decameron: Chicken Little Mar 24, 2020

Show notes

The sky might or might not be falling, but the story that gave rise to that phrase is everywhere. In episode two of our series inspired by Boccaccio, Stephanie Ybarra and a group of fascinating people from all over the country reconsider the tale of the moment.

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Hosted by Jeremy McCarter

Music, mixing, and mastering by Mikhail Fiksel

Graphics and social media by Carly Pearlman

Join the conversation - @MakeBelieveFM

Our Decameron: Zen in Seattle Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

Inspired by Boccaccio, a new series of conversations in which we share a story and invite a fascinating person to talk about what it means. In episode one, Martin Edlund of Malaria No More interprets the Zen fable about the tiger and the strawberry.

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Hosted by Jeremy McCarter

Music, mixing, and mastering by Mikhail Fiksel

Graphics and social media by Carly Pearlman

Special thanks to Maria Tatar

Join the conversation - @MakeBelieveFM

City on Fire: Chicago Race Riot 1919 Oct 04, 2019

Show notes

A docudrama about the summer that ravaged a city--and remade it. Co-produced with WBEZ.

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CITY ON FIRE: CHICAGO RACE RIOT 1919

A co-production of WBEZ Chicago and Make-Believe Association

Written by Natalie Moore and Jeremy McCarter Original music and sound design by Mikhail Fiksel

Executive produced by Cate Cahan for WBEZ and Jeremy McCarter for Make-Believe

Recorded at WBEZ Studios and The Revival, Chicago

CAST Ayanna Bria Bakari - Mrs. Ellis, Witness Brenda Barrie - Wife Terry Bell - Ensemble Eduardo Curley-Carrillo - Ensemble Charles Andrew Gardner - Oscar Dozier, Eugene's Friend Lawrence Grimm - Officer, Alderman, Minister Francis Guinan - Motorman, The Chief Sam Hubbard - George Stauber, Alderman C. Anthony Jackson - The Reverend Timothy Edward Kane - Eugene Temple, Dispatcher Ryan Kitley - Homeowner, Husband, Minister Tevion Lanier - Eugene Williams, Civic Leader Al'Jaleel McGhee - Migrant, Son Marcus D. Moore - Ensemble A.C. Smith - Migrant, Father Andre Teamer - Witness, Husband Anji White - Migrant, Mother Jacqueline Williams - Ida B. Wells

PRODUCTION STAFF Casting director - Laura Alcalá Baker Production manager - Madeleine Borg Production coordinator - Erisa Apantaku Stage manager - Heather Sparling

SOUND TEAM Recording engineers - Adam Yoffe, DeShun Smith, Shelly Steffens, and J. Kyle White-Sullivan Editing by Mikhail Fiksel Mastering by Adam Yoffe and Shelly Steffens

Credits voiced by Melba Lara

Equipment provided by TechMagic Designs

Graphic design by Carly Pearlman

"St. Louis Blues" composed by W. C. Handy

SPECIAL THANKS Adam Green; Liesl Olson; Cindy Abbott, Betsy Berger, Steve Edwards, Janet Gould, Alden Loury, Tracy Brown, Jennifer Bell and the staff of WBEZ; the Make-Believe Writers' Room (Sydney Charles, Nancy García Loza, Nate Marshall, and Kristina Valada-Viars); Carolyn Casselman and Rima Pancholi of Paul Weiss; Catherine Allen of The Den Theatre; John Stoops of The Revival; Giselle Castro; and Robert Hornbostel

To support Make-Believe with a tax-deductible contribution, please visit:

https://makebelieve.fm/support-us/

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