Karen, Richard, and Matt are professional relations: business partners who are also family members. This issue, Karen edits her husband Richard’s interview with their son Matt about Foggy Outline’s first audio drama, I Need A Miracle – crowdfunding for season 2 now.

“the God is implied to be a character in the conversation, but is sort of played by you, the listener”

Richard: We've lived with I Need a Miracle since the company became Foggy Outline, nearly three years ago, but I know there are people out there who won't be as familiar with it as we are. So, can you just give us a bit of a potted history on what it is?

Matt: The potted pitch is: “I Need a Miracle is a micro fiction audio drama podcast where every episode is a prayer, some prayers are answered, and a miracle can upend the world”.

It started from a question of – if you lived in a world where there definitely was a God who listened to prayers and sometimes did divine intervention – how would that change the world and how would it change people's relationship with the Divine? The idea of an audio drama podcast, where you just have the single voice of the person praying to the God and the God is implied to be a character in the conversation, but is sort of played by you, the listener, was when I went “maybe I should write some episodes of this”.

Richard: According to your own metrics was the first season successful?

Matt: Absolutely. I wanted some evidence out there that I could write scripts, so it's a success on that metric. I got to work with a fantastic producer, director, crew and cast at Wireless Theatre. And it's been doing all right at festivals. On the 2025 web festival circuit it was an official selection at a bunch of different festivals and was an award finalist at all of those. And the big news is it's just been made an official selection at the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York in November, so it's still doing all right on the festival judging circuit.

Richard: Based on that success, then, we now want to produce a second season. And I know you want to bring in some other writers. Should interested people still get in contact with you?

Matt: Interested people should definitely still get in contact, and there's a form on the website, but we have a writer's room assembled for season two, with Ella Watts, the writer of Camlann, as a story consultant; Fiona K.T. Howat, an improviser, character creator and storyteller; Rhys Lawton, who wrote Paddleboat; Bel Lazarus, who's written for Radio San Lazaro… We've got a writer's room of six people as a starting point, and then a couple of others that will only get to write episodes if we raise enough money!

Richard: Is part of the reason for raising the money that you want to pay the writers the current the going rate for their work?

Matt: This is a professional production being produced by a limited company, so I don't think people should be working for free.

“we want lots of people giving a little, so we’re not going out to anybody and saying ‘please can you give us £5,000?’”

Richard: Producing professional quality audio drama comes with a fairly hefty price tag, and as the sole writer on season one, you didn't get paid. So, with fees for the writers, the costs are going to be higher than before. How are you planning to fund season two?

Matt: I can point back to a previous issue of the newsletter here. We're going to do a project-based crowdfunding campaign. So, until October 1st this year, we're asking people to pledge money to pay the writers, the script consultant and a casting director. The nice thing about crowdfunding is we want lots of people giving a little, so we're not going out to anybody and saying ‘please can you give us £5,000’? Whatever you're able to give, and even if – times are tough! – during the period that we will be funding, if you can just spread the word, that's helpful as well.

Richard: Are you planning to use the same production company to make season two?

Matt: Yes, hoping to. Sarah Golding at Wireless is very keen to do more of this. From the point of view of consistency this means that season two will sound the same as season one, in terms of audio quality, music and sound design. The world has a sound. It's a world of tumultuous upheavals but if it's going to suddenly sound different then we might need an in-fiction reason why that's happened!

Richard: If any readers are interested in season two, what should they be looking out for?

Matt: Please pledge your funds to make it happen at crowdfunder.co.uk/p/miracle. You're already a newsletter subscriber, so stay subscribed for updates. Follow on social media and boost posts and things. A small percentage of people who see it are going to take action and give money, so we want the number that that small percentage is a percentage of to be as big as possible!

There’s more to this interview. Buy us a cuppa on Ko-fi to support our work, and you can read the unabridged versions of this and every Professional Relations interview.

• Now–19:00 BST, 1 October: please pledge funds to make I Need A Miracle season 2 a reality! The smallest amount still helps, and you won’t be charged until 1 October.

• 21:00 BST, 31 August, 7/14/20 September, Youtube: I Need A Miracle listening party livestreams. I’m giving season 2 crowdfunding updates while screening and chatting about each episode in I Need A Miracle season 1. Get reminded when I’m going live.

• “This book reminds us that if we’re to achieve a positive future, we need to be able to imagine it”: Richard reviewed From What Is To What If by Rob Hopkins. Any recommendations for him to review next?

I Need A Miracle

Season 2 crowdfunding is happening now. The campaign ends on 1 October, so you’ll get one more newsletter while it’s still live. But time will be running out by then! You won’t be charged until the campaign is over, so there’s no reason to leave it late.

We need £2,400 minimum to make the project possible. That pays for:

• 6 writers to write an episode each

• story consultant Ella Watts to suggest an overarching story that ties all the episodes together

• a casting director to cast voice actors to perform each script.

As a thank you for your pledge, you can get rewards like an ebook of all the scripts, copies of the writers’ notes, and being listed as the patron of one of the writers wherever they’re credited.

If you’ve got £500 to throw our way, you can tell me your idea for an episode and I’ll write it, even if it’s very difficult or very silly.

If 100 people all back the project at the ebook tier, we’ll fund successfully. Just saying. Get your pledge in now, and then please send one other person the link!

Matt highlights Rebecca Solnit:

A Field Guide to Getting Lost was my introduction to philosopher and essayist Rebecca Solnit, but her recent writing on the state of the world, including Hope in the Dark and her weekly newsletter Meditations in an Emergency, are essential reading for anyone trying to survive the world we live in without succumbing to doomerism.