Earlier this 
year I made a film with my friend Ryan in Cambridge, on the long drive down we listened to my first ever podcast – Serial. We played through the whole of Series 2 on the journey. It was all about Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan and held for 5 years, he is charged with desertion by the US army. The documentary is presented by Sarah Koenig, an American journalist, along with Mark Boal the screenwriter of The Hurt Locker who has already conducted a series
of interviews with Bergdahl, which are sometimes astounding, sometimes unbelievable and also sometimes so believable, how can he possibly be lying?.
Listening to a podcast instead of music was a first for me and I totally enjoyed learning something new whilst we embarked on our very long journey. I listened to the first series of Serial about the murder of Have Min Lee when I got back to Glasgow, which I found equally gripping. I have started today on my first ever “on demand” podcast “Missing Richard Simmons”, yes I have to wait until next week for the next episode!!! Here is the write up of the podcast from the Finding Richard Simmons website ”
On February 15, 2014, fitness guru Richard Simmons disappeared. He stopped teaching his regular exercise class at Slimmons, cut off his closest friends, and removed himself from the public eye after decades as one of the most accessible celebrities in the world. Nobody has heard from him – and no one knows why he left. Filmmaker Dan Taberski was a Slimmons regular and a friend of Richard’s. Missing Richard Simmons is Dan’s search for Richard – and the deeper he digs, the stranger it gets.”
I have listened to the first 2 episodes and it is so far brilliant, the crafting of both of these documentary podcast series is superb, the descriptions, your personal connections with the people and generally the sifting through all the info and carefully constructing a real life mystery with twists and turns and shocks along the way is so impressive. I can’t wait for part 3 next week. This is a man whose catch phrase was “sweat is just fat crying”, how can I not want to know what happened to him?
You can listen to Serial Series 1 and 2 here >> and find Missing Richard Simmons here>>
