Old Gods of Appalachia

media release: Old Gods of Appalachia is an award-winning and critically-acclaimed audio drama podcast produced by Asheville, NC based DeepNerd Media. Old Gods of Appalachia was the first professional podcast nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2022, has received numerous Audioverse Awards (and is nominated for 32 more for 2022), and won Best Overall Podcast in the 2021 DiscoverPod Awards. The podcast boasts over 12 million unique downloads since its launch in late 2019. OGoA recently announced a roleplaying game based on the series to be produced by legendary game developer Monte Cook Games that met its funding goal of $50k within 10 minutes and raised over two million dollars on Kickstarter.

Show overview

Old Gods of Appalachia is an eldritch horror fiction podcast set in an Alternate Appalachia, a world where these mountains were never meant to be inhabited. This world feels eerily similar to the hills and hollers we’ve grown up with, but there are some tell-tale differences. Names of towns and counties may be altered. Historical events slide forward or backward in time. And then, of course, there are the monsters. Our live show includes a staged storytelling performance similar to an old time radio play, featuring show creators Steve Shell and Cam Collins, a rotating cast of professional actors, and live musical performances.

Creator bios

Steve Shell

Co-Creator • Writer • Episode Art Designer • Voice of the Narrator and Countless Others

Steve Shell grew up in Wise County, Virginia right by Bear Creek Reservoir on top of Coeburn Mountain. For 29 years Steve lived and wrote in those mountains while completing two BAs at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in mass communications and English literature. He has been fixated on the occult and supernatural happenings since childhood and has been called a devil worshiper enough times to prove it. Steve currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina where he taught high school English for sixteen years and was a host and main stage performer

for The Moth StorySLAM from 2015-2020. Steve was nationally ranked slam poet for a long time and also does really nerdy stuff like playing in the Society for Creative Anachronism where he studies and teaches medieval bardic traditions and produces The Knowne World Bardcast, a podcast focused on the music and oral traditions of medieval reenactors.

Cam Collins

Co-Creator • Writer • Voice of Deeley Hubbard, Miss Lavinia, and Babylon

Cam Collins is a native of Wise, Virginia, where she cut her teeth on the creepy folklore of the region. A lover of all things that go bump in the night and dyed-in-the-wool spooky bitch, Cam also produced and co-hosted Appalachian Arcana, a podcast featuring regional stories of folklore, true crime, cryptids and other general weirdness. She worked as a graphic designer and programmer in her life before OGoA, and holds degrees in English (BA, University of Virginia at Wise) and Speech Communication (MA, University of Georgia). Cam currently resides in Bristol, TN/VA, with her partner and their cats, dog, and snake.