March 5, 2018

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THE LIST

1. Tomorrow's World - "Is This The Real Life?"
Once in a great while a mind-altering idea comes along. Sometimes this happens at the end of a substance induced haze, sometimes this is found at the foot of an altar, and now, I'm happy to proclaim, sometimes this type of wisdom is carried forth by a podcast. Now here's the caveat: the idea will sound fairly insane to anyone in their right mind, possibly to the extent that many listeners won't even entertain a discussion about it. It also might feel like you've heard it before, if you've ever seen The Matrix. But hang in there and suspend your disbelief, because "Is This The Real Life?" has the potential to shift the way you walk through the world. This season-ending installment of the brilliant Tomorrow's World stuck with me in an way that is more augmented-reality than traditional media, and simply must be experienced.

2. Criminal - "The Manual"
Freedom of speech encapsulates the spirit of America better than any other ideal or virtue. The unapologetic liberty clenched within a deathgrip of tradition breeds the wondrous ingenuity and foolhardy lack of compromise that makes the country what it is. Don't get me wrong, I implicitly enjoy writing this blog without feeling like my safety is at risk (and with the sort of incendiary criticism that's given The Pod Piper a reputation among certain people's mother as "your podcast thing", goodness knows the censors would be hot on my heels if I were writing from behind an iron/red/Russian curtain). But there come a time when an absolutist mentality just doesn't make sense in the scope of a utilitarian mindset. All that notwithstanding, this podcast tells the story of the grey area and is intriguing as all get out.

3. On The Media - "Face the Racist Nation"
This might get a little wonkish at times and certainly speaks to my media-watch-dog interests, but the salient message is applicable to everyone: how do we talk about the blatant racism in our country? And can a person be both a Nazi and a snappy dresser?

HONORABLE MENTION
The Allusionist - "Supername!"

SOMETHING NEW

"McDonald's to produce a podcast about a shortage of special dipping sauce." That almost sounds like a headline from The Onion, albeit a little bit dry and niche. But I could see how this might be fertile ground from some sort of farce. The fast food industry does, after all, traffic in capitalistic blood sport on the meaty broadsides of an instant-gratification-seeking populace. So I bite, and find that behind this confusing idea is a three part series clocking in well under an hour. I figure it's not much of trade-off given my intrigue, and decide to give it a listen. As it turns out, The Sauce is actual a bit of branded content, produced for McDonald's by Onion Labs (yes, that The Onion) and Studio@Gizmodo. It's a (semi) serious nonfiction documentary style podcast, centered around the apparently infamously botched Szechuan sauce resurrection the burger joint attempted to pull off last fall.

Host Catherine LeClair guides listeners through the events that brought us to this post-sauce-gate world, as ably as can be expected from a mouth-for-hire. The rioting, the 4-hour border crossing road trip of dismay, Deadmau5...it's all there. The narrative is controlled by McDonald's, and so naturally it tries to put on an air of neutrality while ultimately landing the company in a complimentary light. This was actually kind of comforting in an age where maintaining a command on reality seems to be out of reach (see #1 on THE LIST above and, also, most major news headlines). If nothing else, it is at least pretty easy to see that McDonald's is feeding us some strange something-or-other. What isn't so straightforward is discerning the intent of the show. McDonald's is mounting a much heftier re-launch of the sauce in question around this show, but the actual content is a jumble of professionalism and inanity. Is it supposed to be more serious, more funny, or just more advertising than anything else? The conceit is, at best, amusing, and while the production values are solid you could easily chance upon 100 shows with similar mechanics and a far better story.

It's definitely interesting that such a large corporate entity spent the time and money to make this happen, and maybe The Sauce's success will lead to further investment into this strange corner of the marketing world. As for the actual content, it's probably not even worth the approximately 45 minutes you'd take to listen. I am not drinking the kool aid and will not be sampling the sauce. But I did listen to the dang podcast about the whole thing, so maybe McDonald's won in the end.

The Sauce
From: Onion Labs/Studio@Gizmodo
Recommended for: Betrayed McFans demanding a podcast to soothe their wounds
Drop Schedule: One-time Drop (All episodes available now)
Average episode length: 15 minutes
Rating: Break It

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