Make-Believe – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Make-Believe

Make-Believe Association

Fiction

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/150d. Total Eps: 17

Every story is a crossroads. A diverse company of Chicago artists produces new audio dramas—recorded live—and stages freewheeling audience conversations about them. Led by Founder and Executive Producer Jeremy McCarter, Make-Believe shares suspenseful, moving, hilarious stories, and tries to discover how they shape our world.

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Apple

Data updated on 04/07/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇫🇷 France - Drama
28/07/2025
#92
🇫🇷 France - Drama
27/07/2025
#72
🇫🇷 France - Drama
26/07/2025
#67
🇫🇷 France - Drama
25/07/2025
#58
🇫🇷 France - Drama
24/07/2025
#55
🇫🇷 France - Drama
23/07/2025
#46
🇫🇷 France - Drama
22/07/2025
#32
🇺🇸 USA - Drama
21/07/2025
#98

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

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https://makebelieve.fm/support-us/
8 shares
https://www.lakesong.fm
3 shares
https://tinyletter.com/williamfleitch
2 shares

https://twitter.com/MonicaBeletsky/status/946479909903282177

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

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RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 53%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

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Introducing: HAMLET

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 • Duration 34:09

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.

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Listening to Lake Song

Wednesday, October 12, 2022 • Duration 02:44

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.

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Trailer 2: Chicago Poets--Past, Present, Future

Thursday, October 6, 2022 • Duration 03:54

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.

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Trailer: Lake Song

Friday, September 30, 2022 • Duration 01:30

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.

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Our Decameron: Shakespeare in Utopia

Season 2

Friday, April 24, 2020 • Duration 35:15

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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Share Make-Believe on social media:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakeBelieveFM

IG: https://www.instagram.com/makebelievefm/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/makebelieveassociation/

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Our Decameron: Lorraine Hansberry at the End of the World

Season 2

Thursday, April 16, 2020 • Duration 39:23

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

Our Decameron: The Tortoise, the Hare, and Will Leitch

Season 2

Wednesday, April 1, 2020 • Duration 39:20

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

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Our Decameron: Chicken Little

Season 2

Tuesday, March 24, 2020 • Duration 39:15

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

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Our Decameron: Zen in Seattle

Season 2

Tuesday, March 17, 2020 • Duration 26:45

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

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City on Fire: Chicago Race Riot 1919

Season 2

Friday, October 4, 2019 • Duration 46:12

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

Make-Believe – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Make-Believe – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other11

X2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other11

X2

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