I was a bit hesitant to dive into Mount Olympus University at first because my experience with various myth and fairy tale retellings has been, to put it charitably, rocky at best. But for a story with episodes ranging from 10-15 minutes long, I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
After listening through all the available episodes twice now, I think it’s safe to say that I liked the show. A lot.
Mount Olympus University kicks off with Pandora Wordsworth accidentally enrolling at a university alongside the likes of Zeus, Aphrodite, Hades, and a huge cast of characters straight from Greek mythology. But in the universe of this story, none of that mythology exists.
It was always Pandora’s dream to attend college. But once she’s there, a combination of introversion and social anxiety—not to mention being a human in a school full of magical beings—leaves her feeling a bit isolated. One day she stumbles into an old storage room with a magic microphone, and accidentally re-launches Mount Olympus University’s long-defunct radio show. This forms the framework for each episode, though the story has been itching to shrug off that narrative device for a while and recently taken steps to move away from the in-universe justification for the audio.
The first few episodes are a little rough, but the story quickly finds its feet and still manages to deliver a heavy dose of unfiltered emotion right from the start. Mount Olympus University is a slice of life character study of Pandora, a skillful interweaving of multiple modernized mythological retellings, and a feel-good comfort story that never failed to leave me smiling.
I recently finished a re-listen of all the available episodes, and the story captured my imagination just as completely the second time around. (The gorgeous ear-worm of a theme song certainly helped, as well.)
For a show with only one canonically human character, Mount Olympus University does a remarkable job of portraying the human condition. The characters may be completely dysfunctional, but it’s difficult not to fall in love with them. If you like small-scale, character-driven stories where the greatest conflict might be inter-collegiate rivalry or setting up two friends on a blind date, then consider giving this a listen.
Mount Olympus University is a free fantasy audio drama available through Apple Podcasts or wherever you find podcasts. Check out its website for more information or listen to the first episode now:
