Make-Believe

Make-Believe

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.

Episodes

June 25, 2025 34 mins

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...

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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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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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September 30, 2022 1 min

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 re...

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April 24, 2020 35 mins

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:...

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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 Je...

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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-tor...

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March 24, 2020 39 mins

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 convers...

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March 17, 2020 26 mins

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 Mari...

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October 4, 2019 46 mins

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 Studio...

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March 1, 2019 60 mins

Odysseus, the “man of twists and turns”, goes on five new adventures, portrayed by five amazing actors. Sing for our time, too.

To contact Make-Believe, email us at talk@makebelieve.fm

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Lost Books of the Odyssey
By Jeremy McCarter

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February 7, 2019 54 mins

Brer Rabbit, the iconic trickster of African-American folklore, returns in new tales by the poet Nate Marshall: It’s a whole new briar patch now.

To contact Make-Believe, email us at talk@makebelieve.fm

This program is dedicated to the life of George Terrell, a storyteller and enslaved man on the Turnwold Plantation in Eatonton, Georgia. He is one of countless storytellers with names that we will never know or get right.  

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January 15, 2019 61 mins

A brave girl's journey through a land of many monsters, adapted from a Mexican folktale by Nancy García Loza. Performed and recorded live in Chicago, followed by audience conversation.

To contact Make-Believe, email us at talk@makebelieve.fm

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Brava
A folktale con música
Script and corrido by Nancy García Loza
Music direction and additional music by Eréndira Izguerra
Sound team led by Mikhail Fiksel
Directed by Laura ...

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January 10, 2019 25 mins

How can creative artists make each other more creative? As we count down to the release of Make-Believe's first audio drama, we talk with Monica Beletsky, acclaimed writer for TV and film, about artistic collaboration, the highs and lows of the TV writers' room, and the fable of the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

See Monica's thread on storytelling:

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

See @edithdrod's vi...

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January 3, 2019 53 secs

A preview of the first audio drama in our season of Grown Folks Fables, a Mexican folktale con música by Nancy García Loza. A brave girl faces many monsters. #muchowowwow #muchoguaoguao

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December 12, 2018 26 mins

Michael Sandel, philosopher and showman, helps us prep for Season 1 by showing how it's done. Plus: the art of listening, upstaging Matt Damon, and the case of Grasshopper v. Ant.

 

Want to talk with us? We're at info@mbelieve.org.

 

Want to support our work? Please consider a tax-deductible contribution here.

 

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December 6, 2018 1 min

Welcome to Make-Believe Association, a Chicago-based company producing new audio dramas--recorded live--and conversations about how stories shape our world. It's independent. It draws from the breadth of our vibrant city. And it's coming very soon.

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