Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town's boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house's strange assortment of residents.
Unwell is produced by HartLife NFP, based in Chicago and comprised of diverse team of professional writers, directors, actors, and sound designers. HartLife NFP is the company behind eight seasons of the acclaimed science fiction epic Our Fair City. Our Fair City launched in 2011 and was a pioneer in fiction podcasting. HartLife NFP has won awards and critical acclaim for its dynamic acting, incisive writing, and high level of production.
Release Schedule: Each season runs for 12 episodes. New episodes are released fortnightly (biweekly) on Wednesdays. We will take a mid-season break between episodes 6 and 7.
Length: Each episode is between 20-30 minutes.
Is Unwell for kids? Maybe teens, but probably not kids. Unwell gets pretty spooky at times and includes adult themes like dating, yelling at your mom, and owing taxes. And the people of Mt. Absalom swear quite a bit. We’d recommend parents listen to the first few episode and judge for themselves. Specific content warnings can be found in episode notes.
Press & Praise for Unwell!
Unwell was named the Best Podcast or Online Audio Drama in the 2021 BBC Audio Drama Awards
Unwell was awarded three 2022 Audio Verse awards, for Best cover art, best music direction for an existing production, and Best directing for an existing production, eleven 2021 Audio Verse awards, including Action sound design, environmental sound design, writing, directing, guest actors (Symphony Sanders as Young Lily and Jose Angel Donado as Mayor Lopez), supporting actors (Krista D’Agostino as Hazel and Pat King as Chester), leading actor (Joshua K. Harris as Rudy), cover art, and production, four 2020 Audio Verse awards, including Production, Writing for a production, Director of a production (Jeffrey Nils Gardner), and Supporting actor in a production (Marsha Harman as Dot). The production also received seven 2019 AudioVerse awards including New Production, Sound Design, Vocal Direction, Supporting Role (Kathleen Hoil as Abbie), and Leading Role (Clarisa Cherie Rios as Lily).
Podcasts Worth a Listen- Fiasco, Unwell, In Those Genes - Phoebe Lett, The New York Times
Unwell is a fantastic gothic horror podcast set in midwest America - Andrew Liptak, The Verge
Best Podcasts of 2019 (so Far) - Wil Williams, Polygon
HartLife NFP’s “Unwell” is Both a Quiet Example and Direct Subversion of Midwestern Gothic - essay by Elena Fernandez Collins
Unwell Balances Ghosts and Human Horrors - Vrai Kaiser, The Mary Sue
Five Fiction Podcasts That Go Bump in the Night - Tor.com, Christina Orlando
100 Outstanding Podcasts of 2019 - Bello Collective