As the podcast industry continues to boom and Hollywood comes calling, it’s looking more and more like the summer binge listen will join the blockbuster or beach read as a highly anticipated seasonal escape. With the season two premiere of Motherhacker, starring Carrie Coon (The Nest, Fargo), and the brand-new series Red Frontier, starring Betty Gilpin (The Hunt, GLOW), podcast giants Spotify and Gimlet are hoping that a combination of high-intensity plotlines and dazzling vocal talent will have have listeners glued to their earbuds as they ease into the hot, hazy days of summer.
Gimlet, which Spotify acquired in 2019, has been leaning hard on dramatic audio storytelling in recent years. Scripted shows have included Sandra, an eerie A.I. romp starring Ethan Hawke, Alia Shawkat, and Kristen Wiig, and Homecoming, another star-studded fiction podcast that was eventually adapted into an Amazon Prime Original television series starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe.
Motherhacker follows the same formula, with the Emmy-nominated Coon starring as Bridget Landry, a frazzled mother turned hacker whose dabbling on the dark web forces her to confront the shadowy forces at play in her own life. Written by Sandi Farkas and executive produced and directed by Amanda Lipitz, the first season of Motherhacker was a zippy, fast-paced escapade buoyed by the performances of a stellar cast (and can be binged in its entirety, exclusively on Spotify). Coon’s performance as Bridget is a freewheeling delight; she careens between accents and occupations as her character methodically scams victims out of thousands of dollars, in a desperate effort to pay off her own debts.
Season two will find Bridget trying to outrun a crisis, caught between her hacker life, the FBI, and her own family. She also happens to be navigating these multiple identities—and motherhood—while attempting to survive a fictional pandemic. The new season will also feature a cast of stage and screen talent that includes Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird, Boy Erased), Tavi Gevinson (Gossip Girl), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Manchester by the Sea), and Tony Award winners Celia Keenan-Bolger (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit).
Listen to an exclusive trailer of Motherhacker’s second season below, ahead of its premiere on June 7.
In the new Spotify Original series Red Frontier, Gilpin (also an Emmy nominee) plays Commander Taylor Fullerton, an astronaut who is tasked with finishing a one-way mission to colonize Mars alone, after her crew is killed in a mysterious tragedy. Gilpin rose to fame as soap actor turned professional wrestler Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan on Netflix’s GLOW, which she called “the best job [she’ll] ever have” in a moving eulogy for Vanity Fair after the show was canceled last year. She’s also proven herself to be an exceedingly winning presence on non-scripted podcasts—her episode of Las Culturistas, hosted by Matt Rogers and SNL’s Bowen Yang, is a standout thanks to Gilpin’s honesty and humor, and the palpable admiration of the hosts. Gilpin will be joined on Red Frontier by Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story), Ashley Park (Girls5Eva), Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll), Maria Dizzia (Orange Is the New Black) and off-Broadway star Kara Young to round out this nail-biting, interplanetary thriller.
Red Frontier was written, directed, and executive produced by Sarah Nolen, who has written for the Emmy Award-winning series The Americans, as well as the upcoming Apple TV+ series Foundation. “Red Frontier was born years ago as I explored my personal independence acquired after the loss of my mother,” says Nolen. “As both a writer and director, it’s been a fulfilling experience to embrace the audio-only format, which offers an unparalleled experience for the listener that is immersive and intimate. I hope Red Frontier will touch anyone feeling the burden of loneliness and bring them some comfort while providing a compelling and subversive female-driven science fiction story.” Red Frontier, which also features a haunting score by the French-Candadian singer-songwriter Ghostly Kisses, will premiere on June 14.
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