December 18, 2017

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THE LIST

1. This American Life - "Our Town"
"Seek first to understand, then be understood" is the fifth habit in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's also an apt tag-line for this episode about the intersection of immigration and labor in small-town America. This may just be the podcast the country desperately needs right now. Talk less, listen more, try and be kinder to everyone.

2. Reply All - "The Prophet"
With endless cryptic intrigue, the source material for this Reply All episode could have been Season 3 of Serial. Each plot thread unravels and begets a new mystery until the truth is found. Compelling and chilling, this story touches on aspects of celebrity, journalism, cyber bullying and political propaganda in the internet age. And, plot twist, it is set in Mexico! Turns out there are some pretty familiar stories playing out amongst our neighbors to the south.

3. Harry Potter and the Sacred Text - "Commitment: The Boy Who Lived"
A leap in the form. A bridge between escapism and the overly academic. Fun. Edifying. All of these labels could be applied to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Perhaps the most fitting, however, would be "original." There simply aren't other shows seeking to endow a massively popular work of fiction with deep spiritual worth.

HONORABLE MENTION
Planet Money - "The Produce Show"
Criminal - "Unexpected Guests"
Love and Radio - "The Machine"

SOMETHING NEW

Nothing is an easier sell to an audience than a good old fashioned mystery. This can be found in so many forms. Will the boy get the girl? Will the downtrodden rise above? Will the murderer be caught? Will the deeply regretful find solace by facing their past? That sense of suspense is the driving force behind many non-fiction podcasts, with the added benefits of intimacy that come with the form. Sometimes it’s almost like cheering on a friend to succeed. That’s certainly one winning aspect of Heavweight, a semi-new show from Gimlet that recently concluded its second season.

Before we go any further, a conscious-clearing observation: Heavyweight appears to be a pre-fab solution to the hole left by the beloved Mystery Show podcast. (Gimlet dropped producer Starlee Kine in a semi-controversial spat back in the fall of 2016; despite producing incredibly endearing content that amassed a devoted following, Kine’s production timeline was apparently costly and unpredictable). Heavyweight is built on much of the same intrigue that made Mystery Show a success. Both shows have a host with a unique voice, a distinct theme song, evergreen episodes that can stand alone as mini-documentaries, and generally provide a singular listening experience in the podcast landscape. There is something comforting about returning to a familiar podcast that consistently delivers the same thing, but with Heavyweight there is a rote-but-jovial unknown quality. Sort of like hanging out with that friend who always happens into some kind of adventure, with no indication of the specifics. It’s the perfect mix of having an angle while not forcing any kind of tidy conclusion. Each episode traverses a different entry point to the vast expanse of human regret, both acknowledging the pain and attempting to face down the varying degree of towering malaise that people have accepted as insurmountable for years.

Host Jonathan Goldstein’s stated goal for Heavyweight is to be the person that helps other people help themselves by confronting something from the past. Each episode takes listeners on a journey of discovery. Sometimes a conflict is resolved and sometimes the objective falls short, but every single episode paints a portrait of human emotions on par with some of the best classic podcast narrative shows like This American Life and Radiolab. The difference between those shows and Heavyweight is Goldstein’s strong autobiographical imprint on each story – something Ira Glass, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich largely avoid. That is to say, this is not journalism and shouldn’t be construed as such. It’s much closer to a cathartic microcosmic documentary, pursuing closure on a personal level rather than exposing a greater societal ill.

Goldstein's prose is elegantly informal, propping itself upon pillars of self-effacement and humor. The dry and matter-of-fact delivery further underscores the writing, and the result is a successful pairing of form and content. It is a little akin to dialogue from an indie cult-hit TV show, only more sincere. No natural human speech mirrors the witty barbs and budding in-jokes (chief among them the couching of Alex Blumberg as a semi-benevolent hipster God boss) that dot the intros and interludes, but each interjection from the host is alluringly frank. That Goldstein would attempt to actually help someone else is an almost unbelievable conceit, considering how he’s cultivated his own fledgling personal pursuits. Of course, his hapless humanity creates an empathetic rooting interest for audiences regardless of the mission of a given episode. The classic mystery framing mechanism is thus endowed with a human element that makes Heavyweight an eminently addicting listen.

From: Gimlet
Recommended for: Fans of human triumph, cheeky production gambits, and top-notch narration.
Drop Schedule: Seasonal:Weekly
Average episode length: 40 minutes
Rating: Gotta Have It

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