Founded in 2005 by Steve Eley and published by Ben Phillips, Escape Pod is 'the science fiction podcast magazine' that has published short stories in audio format since May 2005. All podcasts are free to download, with the 'magazine' being supported through listener donations and sponsorship.
Escape Pod publishes several different types of podcast, including a weekly story (between 2000 and 6000 words); occasional flash fiction pieces (2000 words maximum); and irregular reviews of mainstream science fiction and fantasy media. It also publishes an audio recording of each year's Hugo Award nominees in the short story category. Other types of content have included metacasts (episodes discussing the achievements and future plans of the show itself), interviews and book and movie reviews.
The site also hosts the periodical The Soundproof Escape Pod available for download in PDF and epub formats.
Although Escape Pod does not publish horror and fantasy stories, leaving these to its sister podcasts Pseudopod (horror) and PodCastle (fantasy), there are no set rules on content, especially given that these genres often crossover.
