It's a busy world and people don't always have time to read anymore — or watch movies, apparently, since we're just coming off the worst Thanksgiving weekend in box-office history. But what if you could somehow combine the storytelling sensibilities of Jordan Peele with those of a fiction podcast, perfect for those who like to multitask? The answer is "Quiet Part Loud," a new 12-episode podcast starring Tony Award-winning actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts.

Co-produced by Gimlet Media and Peele's own Monkeypaw Productions, "Quiet Part Loud" dropped its full episode order in bulk on Spotify earlier this month. Peele acts as an executive producer for the series with Win Rosenfeld and Mimi O'Donnell, the latter of whom serves as director. The plot, per the official synopsis, involves a "disgraced radio host" who seeks to reinvent himself "by chronicling the cold-case disappearance of several Muslim teens from Staten Island — a group he himself disparaged — in the wake of 9/11." Yet he "soon discovers this is no ordinary hate crime, as his ill-considered investigations bring him face-to-face with an ancient American evil that's ready to offer him a monstrous bargain."

In a recent interview with Dax Shepard on Armchair Expert, Peele discussed the appeal of the podcast realm for him and Monkeypaw, saying, "It's super cool, super scary, and it really kind of has engaged me with what's possible in the audio space more." He called "Quiet Part Loud" a topical "horror story that feels like it needs to be told through this medium because it's about sound."

An Entity 'That Uses Sound As Part Of Its Methodology'

"Quiet Part Loud" seems like something of an audio continuation of Peele's "Twilight Zone" reboot, in that he's producing it and it has a similar socially conscious horror M.O. He likened the main character to "a Rush Limbaugh sort of right-wing guy, this sort of pre-Trumpian politics example of this hate that has kind of always been festering in this country in a way waiting to be unleashed."

"This character, just brilliantly portrayed by the great Tracy Letts," Peele continued, "of course encounters an entity that is truly terrifying and ultimately uses sound as part of its methodology of possession and whatnot. And so, besides the plot mechanic that's in here, with horror we often say, 'What you don't see can be scarier than what you can see.' And so this idea of letting people's imaginations do a bit more of the work is really appealing."

Peele also likened the podcast medium to the radio dramas and campfire tales of yore, acknowledging that horror thrives by playing on subjective fears, which is part of what makes "Quiet Part Loud" ideally suited to the audio format. He concluded by saying:

"When you start hearing, say, sound effects of some gore happening, whether or not you know exactly what's happening you fill in the blanks, you know, with your scariest thing. Which is better than my scariest thing, you know? So obviously I'm very late to the curve here, but I can see how the old radio plays fascinated, and the magic of even, you know, you think about the first storytelling at the stars, the campfire, that a different kind of magic comes through when the limitations are off."

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The post Jordan Peele Fans Can Experience Even More Horror With His New Podcast Quiet Part Loud appeared first on /Film.