Monster Bureau is a fictional radio news station produced by the Monster News Network (MNN) and hosted by intrepid field reporter Jacob Rice, broadcasting from the MNN bureau in Olympia, Washington.
In the world of Monster Bureau, monsters are real. They attack campers, sink ships, destroy livestock, and occasionally show up in places they have absolutely no business being. And when they do, Monster Bureau is on the story.
Every episode follows Rice as he covers breaking monster news across North America, interviewing eyewitnesses and survivors, patching in experts through classified phone lines, joining local authorities in the field, and filing dispatches from wherever the wire sends him. Back at the bureau desk, anchor Jane Gray holds down the newsroom, receives Rice’s reports, and keeps the broadcast on air when things get complicated. Which they always do.
The show is produced as a radio drama in the tradition of classic broadcast journalism, filtered through a 1950s creature feature soundscape. Think breaking news. Think field reporting. Think monsters.
The Real Story
Monster Bureau is the creation of Jacob Rice — that’s me — a multimedia producer, podcaster, and documentarian based in Olympia, Washington.
The fictional Jacob Rice shares my name and my home base. He does not share my risk tolerance. I prefer to investigate monsters from behind a microphone rather than in front of one.
I created Monster Bureau because I wanted to make something that took monster news seriously as a format, not as a parody. The show has a real newsroom structure, real journalistic conventions, and real sound design built around a consistent sonic identity. It just happens to cover creatures that most news organizations have declined to put on the wire.
Monster Bureau launched in 2022 and is produced at my home studio in Olympia, Washington, which is professionally equipped and significantly less haunted than my previous studio. The show is part of the Monster News Network and distributed on all major podcast platforms.
What To Expect
Each episode of Monster Bureau opens with the MNN theme and the teletype that signals breaking news is on the way. From there the format shifts depending on what the story demands. Some episodes are field dispatches with Rice reporting live from the scene. Others are studio broadcasts with expert interviews, listener letters, and the Monster Blotter, a rapid-fire roundup of monster headlines from across the continent.
Every episode ends the same way. Not as a catchphrase. As a genuine piece of advice from someone who has been paying attention.
And be on the lookout for monsters.
Listen
Monster Bureau is available on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio. New full episodes drop every two weeks. Special field reports may appear between episodes when the story demands it.
Monster Bureau is a work of fiction. All monster incidents, characters, institutions, and government agencies depicted are fictional. Except the ones that aren’t.