Fictitious Podcast with Lauren Shippen, writer/creator of The Bright Sessions Audio Drama
In this episode, I talk with Lauren Shippen, the writer and creator of The Bright Sessions.
The Bright Sessions is a science fiction audio drama about people with supernatural abilities – in therapy. It’s a serialized podcast where each episode is a therapy session between a patient and the enigmatic Dr. Joan Bright.
The Bright Sessions premiered in 2015, and has been featured by iTunes, Vox, Wired, The Observer, and Popular Science. In 2016 it was the recipient of 7 Audio Verse Awards. And it was nominated for a 2017 Webby Award.
As an actor in Los Angeles, Lauren Shippen created the series as a writing experiment and creative outlet for her and her friends. It’s her first serious writing project, and its success has made writing a dominant part of her career now.
In this conversation, we explore the genesis of the show, developing from a single character idea to an elaborate audio drama. We discuss the benefits of writing episodically and the freedom of her story format, and how characters evolve off the page when they are embodied by passionate actors. And we talk about how her story became an outlet for her dealings with anxiety and mental health issues, and how that opened a dialogue with her fans.
Official Bio – Lauren Shippen is the writer and creator of the science fiction podcast, The Bright Sessions. Since its first episode in November of 2015, the podcast has been downloaded millions of times, has been featured on iTunes, Vox, Wired, and Popular Science Magazine, and won numerous awards, including an Audio Verse Award for Best Writing. When Lauren isn’t writing, she is an actor in Los Angeles. Her work includes voicing numerous podcast characters and acting as one of the leads in the D&D web series, “Natural 20”.
