Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Podcast meets Phoebe at a summer school science class taught by Gary Grooberson at Summerville Middle School. He is immediately drawn to her, narrating the world around him into a boom microphone and commenting on her as an outcast while maneuvering a mike toward her for a quote. The two quickly bond: Podcast is one of the few people who genuinely finds Phoebe funny.
He runs a paranormal-themed podcast called "Mystical Tales of the Unknown Universe" (MTUU), distributed via a My Little Pony Rainbow Dash flash drive he hands out in lieu of a website. He tells Phoebe the show "found its voice" in episode 46. He introduces Phoebe to Summerville's unsettling history, including the closed Shandor Mining Company property and its legend of miners who leapt to their deaths, which he calls the "Shandorian Curse."
When Phoebe discovers a functioning Ghost Trap in the farmhouse, Podcast is delighted. In class, he tries to pry it open with a ruler until Gary Grooberson intervenes and explains what it is. After school, the three use jumper cables connected to a school bus to open the Trap, releasing what turns out to be Vinz Clortho. That incident confirms for Podcast that Egon Spengler was a real Ghostbuster.
At the Summerville Foundry, Podcast finds the original Ecto Goggles in a red wagon and wears them throughout the investigation. He discovers the goggles can print Polaroid photographs. While at the Foundry, he and Phoebe encounter the ghost Muncher and attempt to trap it; Podcast uses the Aztec Death Whistle to get Muncher's attention before the situation quickly goes sideways. Later, riding in Ecto-1 with Trevor, Podcast discovers a Remote Trap Vehicle in the cargo area and learns to operate it. He and the group eventually manage to capture Muncher.
After the group is arrested and their equipment confiscated, Podcast figures out a way out: releasing Muncher from the jail cell so it eats through the metal bars and frees their gear. He, Phoebe, and Trevor drive to the Shandor mine.
In the climax at the Spengler farmhouse, Podcast operates the Remote Trap Vehicle and captures Zuul. When Mini-Pufts swarm Ecto-1 and disable the gunner seat, Podcast fights them off using the PKE Meter's taser function. After the battle, Ray Stantz checks on Podcast, covered in marshmallow residue, and tells him he just "single-handedly defeated a manifestation of Gozer." Podcast invites Ray on his podcast. Ray accepts, then mentions the show really found its voice in episode 46. Podcast realizes Ray is his one subscriber.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
By 2024, Podcast has moved to New York City for the summer, telling his family he was attending space camp. He rents the basement of Ray's Occult Books via Booking.com and becomes Ray's producer and intern. Together they produce "Repossessed," an online show in which everyday objects are evaluated for signs of paranormal activity; objects deemed not possessed are destroyed by Podcast with what he calls the Hammer of Truth.
When Podcast discovers audio on his phone of the Orb of Garraka, he brings it to Ray and they travel to the New York City Public Library in Ecto-C to consult the librarian Hubert. Hubert identifies the chant connected to Garraka, but the Possessor steals a wax cylinder recording and flees in a possessed trash bag, eventually possessing the Patience lion statue outside the library. After Phoebe destroys the statue, all three are arrested by the police.
Back at the Firehouse, Podcast helps Ray coach Nadeem on developing his pyrokinetic ability. When the Possessor enters Lucky's Particle Thrower and threatens Trevor, Podcast smashes the Proton Pack with the Hammer of Truth to expel it. In the final battle, he attempts to deploy the Drone Trap from Ecto-1 but is again swarmed by Mini-Pufts, which he fights off before opening the Trap. Garraka strikes the Trap out of the air and the Containment Unit is ultimately used instead.
His costume for Frozen Empire was a deliberate evolution by the wardrobe department. While his Afterlife look referenced 1980s style, the color-blocking shirt for Frozen Empire was designed to push his aesthetic into the 1990s. The scarf he wears in the final battle is a recreation of a vintage Liz Claiborne piece found in a thrift shop; the costume department matched the yarn and recreated it. The helmet he wears on the ride to the library is yellow and printed with a Pac-Man graphic.
IDW and Dark Horse Comics
Podcast appears in the Dark Horse Comics series Ghostbusters: Back in Town (issues 1 and 2, set in June 2022) and Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest (issue 1). His appearances are primarily through texts and phone calls with Phoebe. In Back in Town, he checks in on her adjustment to New York City, asks about ghost sightings, and reassures her that new teams take time to gel. In Dead Man's Chest, Podcast records an episode of MTUU with Ray and Phoebe; at the end of the session, Ray raises the possibility that the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was not entirely his fault, and the three speculate on alternate forms Gozer might have chosen. An editorial note in Dead Man's Chest issue 1 confirms that Phoebe does not know Podcast's real birth name.
He also appears in Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, dispatched alongside Lars Pinfield and Lucky to San Francisco to help the San Francisco Ghostbusters investigate Gustav Hookfaber's research on trapping ghosts in objects.
Personality
Podcast is the archetype of the true believer: enthusiastic, credulous, and completely undaunted by the supernatural. He carries his boom mike everywhere and narrates events in real time, treating every ghost encounter as content. He is deeply invested in conspiracy theories about the Illuminati, Lizard people, and the paranormal significance of historical disasters, though his beliefs are played for warmth rather than ridicule.
What distinguishes Podcast from a comic-relief role is his genuine connection to Phoebe. He accepts her without hesitation, laughs at her jokes, and repeatedly demonstrates his loyalty. He is impulsive (blowing the Aztec Death Whistle at a metal-eating ghost, releasing Muncher to break out of jail), but his instincts tend to work out. By Frozen Empire, he has grown into a competent producer and collaborator while retaining the same wide-eyed enthusiasm that defined him in Afterlife. In the Ghostbusters: The Official Cookbook, Podcast contributes commentary about MTUU episodes 68-73, which he says deal with collective consciousness.
Casting and design
Early casting reports from January 17, 2019 described one of the new Afterlife leads as a 13-year-old boy "passionate about fantasy and conspiracy theories" who would approach every situation with "unbridled excitement for the unknown" and "narrate life in real time." Logan Kim was announced as the actor on July 8, 2019. Kim had taken one acting class, appeared in a FedEx commercial, and auditioned via self-tape.
The character's name was officially revealed on June 8, 2021, Ghostbusters Day, when Afterlife's marketing campaign called him "the heart of the movie and the truest believer." A GIF of Podcast trying to pry open the Ghost Trap in class accompanied the announcement.
Several production details are of note. The flash drive Podcast gives Phoebe is a My Little Pony "Rainbow Dash" drive; the script originally called for Hello Kitty branding, but the licensing agreement fell through. The nickname "Rust City," which Podcast uses for the Summerville Foundry, was the working production title for Afterlife. Podcast's line about Phoebe meeting her grandfather is played against a reference to Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol, and Phoebe telling Podcast to "switch me on" mirrors Ray's line to Egon Spengler in the Sedgewick Hotel elevator in the original film.
During production, Logan Kim and Mckenna Grace added new moves to an improvised handshake every day on set until it became a full performance. They also sang Smash Mouth's "All Star" each morning. Kim had difficulty seeing through the Ecto Goggles during filming and accidentally hit Grace in the face with the goggles on at least one occasion; the goggles fell off his head over ten times during production. In the Foundry scene, Kim slipped and fell hard enough that the Ecto Goggles slid across the floor; Grace was the only person on set who started laughing, and Kim followed shortly after. The bit where Phoebe glances at Podcast and he gives a slow headshake was scripted.
The climactic Mini-Puft sequence in Ecto-1 required about 45 minutes of filming during which crew members threw marshmallow goop at Kim from the rear of the vehicle. Some landed in his eye. He lost his voice after the scene. Applying the marshmallow residue to Kim for the post-battle Ecto-1 exit shot took approximately an hour and involved cornstarch-based goop that hardened over time; a second, pre-glopped Ecto Goggles prop was made specifically for that shot.
For Frozen Empire, the production added a hat with ear flaps to Podcast's final battle costume, but it was cut because it made him look too bundled up relative to the rest of the cast. A scripted moment in which Podcast slaps his knee and says "slay" after mentioning the library lions was removed because Kim felt he could not deliver it with a straight face.
Podcast is among the more popular Afterlife-era characters with GBFans.com members interested in costuming and prop-building. His jumpsuit, Ecto Goggles, and Remote Trap Vehicle controller are all active discussion topics in the forums. The Remote Trap Vehicle is of particular interest as a build project, given its prominent role across both Afterlife and Frozen Empire and its relatively unconventional design compared to classic Ghostbusters gear. The Ecto Goggles seen in Podcast's possession are from the original GB1 prop lineage, tying his character directly into one of GBFans.com's most extensively documented areas of prop research.
References
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), Sony Pictures
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), Sony Pictures
- Ghostbusters: Back in Town issues 1-2 (2023-2024), Dark Horse Comics
- Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest issue 1 (2024), Dark Horse Comics
- Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2023), Illfonic
- Ghostbusters: The Official Cookbook (2021)
