The Black Tapes

The Black Tapes is a mystery-horror pseudo-documentary podcast created by Paul Bae and Terry Miles. Published by Pacific Northwest Stories, it is part of their series of podcasts set in the same fictional universe (such as Tanis and Rabbits) which, despite being works of fiction, are presented as legitimate true stories both within the podcast and outside of it; the podcast has no credited writers or performers, as the events and characters are framed as real.

In-universe, The Black Tapes is hosted by Alex Reagan (voiced by Lori Henry) and produced by Nic Silver (voiced by Miles). Reagan narrates a serialized story exploring the life and work of paranormal investigator Dr. Richard (voiced by Christian Sloan), an "evangelical skeptic" on a mission to debunk all claims of the supernatural, and his collection of unsolved cases, the eponymous "Black Tapes".

Production
Episodes vary in length, from thirty-five to fifty minutes. New episodes were originally available weekly, but partway through the first season the schedule was revised to every other week.

The original run of The Black Tapes was from May 21 2015 to September 7 2017. The show ended with a six episode wrap-up and the creators stated that was the end. Then on March 20 2018 it was announced on the official Twitter account for The Black Tapes that the show would return for another season.

On January 13 2020 season 3 of The Black Tapes was re-released with no changes to the audio. However, the episode description of the final episode "Into the Black" was changed to denote that it is the "Season Three Mid-Season finale".

The show uses investigative journalism as a framing device, having Alex Reagan document her investigations into the paranormal and the work of Richard Strand; the template is used by other by other Pacific Northwest Stories podcasts such as Rabbits and Tanis.

Episodes
The first season of The Black Tapes premiered May 21, 2015. The last episode, the mid-season finale, was released November 7, 2017.

Season 3
This season was re-released on 13 January 2020 with changes to the description of episode 6 "Into the Black" to describe it as the "mid-season finale".

Music
'The Kingdom of the Universe', which is played near the start of each episode, was written by Ashley Park. Terry Miles wrote the podcast's theme. The series uses free royalty-free music by Kevin MacLeod.

Reception
The podcast has received generally favorable reviews for its writing, production, and intricacy. Melissa Locker in The Guardian described the podcast as taking place in "a world where math, musical theory, obscure points of history, and science become either clues of a possible demonic invasion – or just random events linked only by an active imagination."